MAN CITY 3 – 0 Watford – PLAYER RATINGS
6 Jan
Pantilimon - Made one vital save just after City had opened scoring, coming off his line quickly and getting down well to prevent the equaliser. His handling all afternoon was excellent - 7
Zabaleta – A willing runner down the right, linking up superbly with Milner and Silva. Couldn’t always find the end product to match his runs but he gave us width. Troubled occasionally by the tricky Vydra - 7
Kompany - Seemed determined to nip in ahead of the striker the whole time and that led to him making a couple of rash challenges, but he wasn’t tested a great deal defensively. Brought the ball forward well, showing intent in possession - 6
Lescott – Assured at the back, oozing control and authority. Read the game well, was powerful in the air and did exactly what was needed - 7
Clichy – Bundles of energy on the flank, defending well and offering an outlet in the final third. Delivery into the box wasn’t perfect but he helped to stretch the Watford backline, creating more space in the middle for others - 7
Garcia – A quite woeful opening 25 minutes, characterised by shirked challenges, missed tackles and stray passing. Gradually grew into the game but was withdrawn in the second half - 5
Barry – The key cog in midfield once again, keeping play ticking over, protecting the back four and advancing well on occasions. Scored a very good header to double our advantage - 7.5
Milner - A really bright spark throughout, putting in a stream of dangerous crosses from both flanks, although he could at times take fewer touches out wide and have more confidence in himself to deliver the ball first time. Provided a genuine threat out wide, as he did against Stoke - 8
Silva – Our creative heartbeat, always looking to get involved in play. Teased Watford’s defenders on occasions with his footwork, balance and dribbling ability, and was constantly trying to find a defence-splitting pass - 8
Tévez - Seemed to be lacking in sharpness, however hard he tried. Buzzed around but his touch wasn’t at its best and he couldn’t bring others into play as he often does. Terrific freeficks but with Aguero out for a while, he’ll need to improve on this performance - 6
Džeko - Produced some good touches but let himself down at times with needless flicks and lazy passes. Has all the traits of a powerful target man but needs to impose himself on games more - 6
Subs
Balotelli – Brought an added purpose to our play. Helped by the game being stretched by the time he was introduced but he showed pace, desire and willingness to shoot from distance. Tested the goalkeeper on three occasions with long-range efforts - 7
Sinclair – Tried to run at his opposing fullback but seems to lack the confidence at the moment to beat him. One nice jink and cross towards the end but needs to make more of an impression if he is to be given more than just ten minutes - 6
Rony Lopes – Want to know more about our goalscoring debutant? Here are five things you may not have known about Rony Lopes. Great to see another youngster come on and make his debut and he capped it with a neatly taken finish with his unfavoured foot. Showed promise but it’s important not to raise expectations too much - 7
I could be here a good hour criticising a few points here..
1.) Garcia had a poor 10 minutes and misplaced ONE pass. He grew into the game massively after that and won everything in the air, and dominated the middle of the park with Barry. Never shirked a tackle (hence his booking) 5 is extremely harsh and I think that is PERSONAL BIAS more than anything, similar to the Yaya views.
2.) Mario 7, Tevez 6? Ridiculous. Tevez ran rings round their defense and worked tirelessly, putting balls in the box, scoring a goal to settle us down from a marvellous free kick. Had plenty of shots too, but Mario had 3 therefore gets higher?! Just because Mario didn’t get sent off doesn’t mean he should get a 7. All he did was try and pass it to Sinclair every time to make friends with him again, and half of the time they were intercepted! MEN even gave Tevez an 8 and got something right for once – “all our good work revolved around him”
3.) Sinclair 6 but Garcia 5? Sinclair ran at his ran…..literally ran at them. never anticipated crosses from Milner at the back post. had he done, he could have had a couple of goals himself.
4.) LOPES 7 but Tevez and Dzeko 6? Seriously wont be following this much longer at this rate? He touched it twice???????
5.) Zaba troubled by Vydra?! OH GIVE OVER, HE HAD NO PROBLEM AT ALL!
Did you only have one contact lense in?!
Agree in some parts massively in others, it shows that we all see a different game and have our personal likes and dislikes in terms of players.
Definitely agree Garcia doesnt deswerve the above criticism, probably one of his better games on the ball and he won a few challenges on the floor and in the air for me.
I have to say like VFAB, that I didnt think Tevez was that special yesterday either. He scored a great goal and made a couple of quality passes, although he misplaced just as many and tried to find gaps that wernt there on a number of occasions.Before I saw MEN like yourself, I gave him 7
I too, thought Balotelli tried and if we are gonna be specific maybe I would say 6.5. Furthermore, Lopez-a 17 year old scored on his debut, its a mandatory 7 for me.
Although I agree with you Matt, 6 for Sinclair and 5 for Garcia doesnt seem to correlate between the 2 performances in anyway
Come on now.
Tevez getting only a 6 does seem an odd one. I thought he started quietly but was a constant thorn in their defence’s side.
Particularly strange to only award a 6 to Tevez and yet a 7 for Balotelli and Lopes. Thinking your personal love of each may have influenced those.
Disagree with Matt about Garcia. Consistently poor, it’s his lacklustre passing and poor tackling that make Mancini signing him in the first place strange. His first bad signing?
Silva excellent, seemed out to prove a point. Milner and Barry once again proving they are the two most underrated midfielders in the league.
First bad signing?
So you think Garcia is a worse signing than Rodwell, Maicon, Sinclair and Wright?!
Baffled me!
I assume you all attended the game as no darn TV channel ,that I am aware of, broadcasted the game either live or repeat in North America.
With all said, Watford can not be used as a bench mark for any City player so we all should not read into it too much.
The true test is next week against Arsenal, let’s hope they can step it up there and get the results there.
Love the site, great work but I do feel there is clearly a bias towards balotelli and an agenda against yaya and garcia. Garcia had a tidy game and was worth a 6. Also can’t believe tevez and dzeko got the same mark; one covered every blade of grass, the other was pretty ordinary unfortunately.
Agree Danny
VFAB has a tendency to put a little too muh personal bias into proceedings.
We know he loves Mario but here he did not deserve more than Carlos, and whilst I agree with him that Yaya is not the player people think he is, he massively underrated Garica
Didn’t watch the game but its hard to imagine Balotelli having a better game than Tevez, as I don’t think I’ve ever seen that before.
But it’s good to know that Balotelli showed desire..maybe some other club will want to take him now
I have been reading your ratings from long time but i think you need to be fair to players and not let your love for certain players affect it, yaya is the best player in the league and no player can ever win away ball from yaya but still you always give him less ratings.
Mario is an amazing player but he needs to grow up and when he steps on the pitch he should forget about his personals trials and tribulations and play for the team.
I hope you take a note of our criticism and not take it personaly all we are trying to say is be Fair.
Toure isnt the best player in the league, certainly not at the moment. Personally think VFAB should stick to his guns, i think he scores players on face value its just he sees the impact of different players differently to other people. Just like you thinking Toure is the best in EPL, whereas I wouldnt put him in the top 5 at the moment
Yaya is the most pathetic excuse for a midfielder – you clearly don’t go to the games because if you did you would realise how very little he actually does. Would prefer Milner and Barry in the middle any day of the week
I think its going a bit far to call him a pathetic excuse of a midfielder, he has a lot of ability and has done some great things. I have a season ticket so im not being defensive, but if you go to games it doesnt mean you know far more than someone who doesnt
You see a lot more than someone who doesn’t.
You cannot honestly say that he has played well this season! People think because he makes one good run or plays one good ball over the top that he is a magician? That’s all they show on match of the day too. Hansen, Shearer and co all marvel at him because that’s all they see.
What they don’t see EVERY week is his sheet petulance. Throwing the ball down after he has clearly fouled someone. Further still he never tracks his man, extremely rodent at Norwich away where lots of people around us were beginning to notice it too. His man leaves him for dead. He spends a good 1/10th of the game on his arse too.
Another thing is that it is never his fault. He constantly bemoans his own teams mates for his shocking passing. Would prefer someone like Garcia who is honest as puts his hand up and apologises but no, if Yaya plays a bad ball, it is ALWAYS someone else’s fault for not being there?
One or two good runs in a game is simply not good enough for a player of his UDOUBTED ability. Would much prefer a workaholic like Milner in the middle of te park. Barry has outshone Yaya over the past 18 months Jbar Newcastle away.
This is te point, because he is Yaya Touré and he is a big name and scored 4 big goals no one ever dares criticise him and he has been having a free ride this season and has nt offered nearly enough. Makes me laugh when people think he should be in FIFA team f the year! These people clearly do not watch him every week!
You’re right about all that, he annoys me a lot too, especially how he is a willing runner seemingly only when he has the ball.However, he is just about the only CM we have that can beat a man off the dribble,so is important to us despite how lazy he often looks.
Im not gonna respond to every point, but on the whole you make some fair points which I have thought myself at times. At the same time he has done more than score 4 big goals and to suggest Barry has outshone him bar 1 game, is completely over the top and and you probably know that too. At the end of last season he was immense and at the beginning of this many city fans who go to games regularly considered one of the most influential players in the league. In an MEN pole he just missed out as being voted our most important player (i voted silva), you dont have to think hes amazing but to get accolades like that you must do more than you suggest. In the last 3 months he has been below standard and so if he is not producing going forward then its at times like this when his defensive frailties will stand out. Furthermore I think its when he should work at it harder, to justify his place. Still to call him a pathetic excuse for a midfielder as in your previous comment is what i strongly disagree with.
Fine maybe pathetic excuse was too much but Barry has definitely been the better of the two! Barry plays much like Clichy, with his heart on his sleeve and I do not get thy impression with Yaya at all? Just think his attitude stinks!
My point is that he can be so influential but had not even for months on end? He doesn’t seem interested. Another frustration is he gets the armband hen Vinnie is out? Why not give it someone like Zaba or Barry or Hart – people ho play for the club for the right reasons? He doesn’t deserve to don the armband?
So far this season he has been one of the worst performers by a long way and it is just so frustrating!
He has picked up 4 yellow cards for petulance too!
On the barry or toure comment, I would say Barry by a long way this season but over 18 months I would have to say Toure