MAN CITY 4 – 2 Cardiff – PLAYER RATINGS
19 Jan
Hart - Criticism could be sent in his direction for both of the away side’s goals as he left too much space at the near post for Noone’s opener and was then rooted to the spot as Campbell bundled in late on. Made a couple of decent stops in the second half from distance - 6
Zabaleta - Supported Navas well, offering an overlapping outlet at times and was a useful threat down the right in combination with the Spaniard. One outstanding clearing header under pressure and was solid at the back - 7
Kompany - With Cardiff playing only one man up front and with the Blues controlling most of the possession, he wasn’t called into action a great deal. Culpable for Noone’s goal, though, as he was too square on and thus turned very easily in the area - 6
Demichelis - Dived in rashly on one occasion when he was dragged out of position and he was caught flat-footed for Cardiff’s late consolation, but was mostly fine and he was his usual positive self on the ball, constantly looking to move City forward with purpose - 6
Kolarov - Going forward, he was a threat with his powerful crossing and improving decision-making: knowing when to pass and when to try something more ambitious. Defensively, however, Noone tormented him with his trickery and ability to coast infield or drive down the outside - 6
Garcia - Still ponderous on the ball and needs to make himself available more often when our centre-backs have possession but he was sharp to the tackle and made a number of successful challenges - 7
Y. Touré - His goal, a thumping finish after a surging run, was the highlight of a good display in which he kept play ticking over and was a prominent figure - 7
Navas - In games like this, when the opposition sit back and defend narrowly, his variety is essential. Stayed close to the touchline and gave us pace and width. Took his goal in a composed manner - 7
Silva - The most creative player on show, always searching for that intricate throughball to unlock Cardiff’s defence. His work ethic is rarely mentioned but it’s always exceptional - 7.5
Džeko - Some lovely touches, some hopeless ones. A few delicate moments of control, a few wayward passes. He is consistently inconsistent. Opened the scoring with a scuffed shot which rolled off his standing leg and that seemed to typify his performance. Worked hard to get himself into promising positions but his finishing was remotely average - 6
Negredo - Outside the box, with his link up play, intelligence and presence, he was impressive. Inside the box, however, when it came to shooting, he had a rare off day - 6
Subs
Aguero - Two substitute appearances and two goals since his return. Took his strike yesterday superbly, twisting and turning before lashing home - 7
Milner - A few neat stepovers - No time to mark
Clichy - A brief cameo - No time to mark
it seems were all in on the garcia hype now that if he conducts the basics of football hes having a great game. Im not one of them, one or two tackles here and there are not good enogh at this level, ive never seen a footballer walk about as much as this lad and ive never ever seen him run with the ball, a shot on weds was a miracle as were 2 tackles in a game on saturday, other than that just not good enough
I partially agree with you in that if Garcia does something ok we think its better than it probably is, however his job is to win tackles, protect the back 4 and keep it simple. He did his job pretty well yesterday and had one of his best performances in a city shirt
Agree completely!
With toe that is
Garcia played well yesterday, it is 100% correct to say he wasn’t available to the centre backs, partly because we are so used to Fernandinho doing just that which is his style and partly because he was busy playing in the middle of the pitch on his own, Toure covered up another lazy display with three pieces of quality but a lot of the time when it comes to his midfield responsibilities he is redundant, I was glad to finally see a professional have the bottle to speak up about this last week.
Harsh to question Hart on the goals the first one especially, give the attacker his credit for starters and then look to the centre halves, Demichelis is bog standard I think you have been very very kind by giving him the write up that you have, he is great at the basics of defending as in get rid of the ball but anything after that he is very average, why you would let Kolo leave and pay out for him is beyond me.
Yaya did have what’s known as a great match of the day performance; but you cant argue with his end product yesterday and that’s what wins you matches.
Noone was a true pest to our defense yesterday (Kompany and Clichy) so I do not hold this against Kolarov. Garcia had a fine game. However, the combination of Garcia/Yaya certainly left too much space/time for Cardiff players close to our 18 yard box. Normally Fernandinho is very fast to close down spaces but the slow speed of Garcia and Yaya’s slow tracking left a bit more time and space in that area.
Overall great team effort and all that matter was the 3 points that we bagged
I was praising the defenders last week, 3 out of 4 were average or below, can’t afford to do that against the big guns, then again I do think there minds will be more focused against the big boys, the number 5 is never poor is he??, solid as a rock, navas again was very impressive, talk about him cutting inside to much, if he didn’t he wouldn’t have scored eh??, his balls into the box are fantastic, 11 assists I think he has, as Roberto would say a so so performance, 3 points all that matters big games coming hard & fast, we might have to tweek the midfield for the Chelsea game, no panic, we have javi
Negredo gets the same rating as Dzeko. Wow!
This guy can’t judge Dzeko’s performance objectively. He eclipsed every player on the pitch apart from maybe Toure and he only gets a 6? What a joke. If that kind of performance is a 6 then Negredo should have gotten a 3.
Was Dzeko wearing green when you were watching on tv because I think you may have been watching classic bundesliga if you seen Dzeko eclipsing anyone, he wasn’t as good as Garcia yesterday or Navas or Silva so I have no clue where you are coming from, ok he wasn’t as bad as has been said here but all the author has done is not jumped on the Dzeko bandwagon because he has had a couple of DECENT performances.
Surely you are a perfect example of the ‘armchair fans’ you reference in your own moniker…!!
Yes, yet another example of this writer’s inability to put aside his personal biases regarding some of our players when assessing their performances.
Dzeko blew several early scoring opportunities, but so did Negredo. The rest of Edin’s performance was excellent, including his oft-criticized work rate. He held the ball up well, played unselfishly, showed good vision, made some key passes (Aguero’s goal), pressed the keeper and defenders (not always his strong suit!) and defended well
on opposition corners.
If Edin score hat-trick in some of the coming games than I am almost sure “armchair fan” will mark him with 7.
IMO We need to increase the quality of our defensive Squad. With a World class attack and a excellent Midfield we will need to up grade our average defence.
I confident we will in this and the next transfer market.
Another strong offensive performance from the blues with Dzeko being the pick of the two big lads upfront. He has clearly upped his game and is now showing a level of consistency previously lacking. Silva and Navas had strong showings also. In the middle of the park Garcia showed a commitment and tenacity I’ve never seen from him before, so maybe he has a future with us after all. Surprised that Yaya picked up MOTM in the stadium, although he did take matters into his own hand supremely when we needed it most, so no argument from me. Worries at the back re AK’s tracking back and I’m still not convinced Demichelis should be ahead of Lescott in the CB pecking order. The combination of Lescott and Kompany is proven and delivers more clean sheets than any other combo. Fact. I’m sure Lescott would have snuffed out the threat on the left from Noone for the first goal whilst VK didn’t manage to get close enough, caught too square on. Bigger tests for sure in the coming weeks.
Here is more objective players rating (whoscored.com)
Yaya Touré (MC) 8.5
Craig Noone (MR) 8.4
Edin Dzeko (FW) 8.2
David Silva (ML) 7.9
Aleksandar Kolarov (DL) 7.8
Total Shots
Aleksandar Kolarov (DL) 5
Edin Dzeko (FW) 4
Álvaro Negredo (FW) 3
Sergio Agüero (Sub) 3
Craig Noone (MR) 3
Tackles
Aleksandar Kolarov (DL) 4
Vincent Kompany (DC) 3
Aron Gunnarsson (MC) 3
Javi García (MC) 2
Yaya Touré (MC) 2
Dribbles
Craig Noone (MR) 8
Yaya Touré (MC) 4
Aleksandar Kolarov (DL) 2
David Silva (ML) 2
Edin Dzeko (FW) 2