Norwich 0 – 0 MAN CITY – PLAYER RATINGS
9 Feb
Hart - Norwich posed the occasional threat when they broke forward but Hart wasn’t forced into too many saves. His stop to prevent Bassong’s header in the first half was a highlight and his command of the box and quick distribution were good to see - 6
Zabaleta - Given the odd slip by both Redmond and Pilkington but with City controlling much of the game he was allowed the freedom to surge down the right and support Navas in attacking areas - 6
Kompany - Solid, as usual, and quick to anticipate any looming danger. A couple of powerful clearing headers from crosses into our box and stuck tight to Hooper when Norwich played the ball forward, denying the striker time and space to bring others into play - 6
Demichelis - Once again, did his job without being flashy. Comfortable on the ball and did well in covering out wide for Clichy when needed. Slightly fortunate to get away with a theatrical dive late on when he mis-judged the bounce of the ball but he was otherwise a decent enough barrier in front of Hart - 6
Clichy – As with Zabaleta, Norwich’s wide men get the better of him on the odd occasion with their twisting trickery but he was mostly fine and managed to put over a couple of dangerous crosses, from which our strikers threatened without success - 6
Milner - Operated in his favoured central midfield role but didn’t do enough to send a forceful message to Pellegrini that he should feature there more often. He produced glimpses of what can offer, driving forward through the middle with his bustling qualities, but he couldn’t conjure up that moment of magic - 6
Y. Touré - Seemed to have instructions to hold his position more than usual and thus couldn’t influence matters around the box. Picking the ball up off the defenders and moving it around without injecting any tempo, he was largely ineffective - 6
Navas - He’ll always be a threat because of his pace, propensity to stay wide and try to get the byline but his end product was dire. Cross after cross, and corner after corner, were cleared with ease and instead of picking someone out, he seemed to aimlessly fire the ball towards the near post. Needed to be cuter with his delivery - 6
Silva - A second quiet game in succession for our most important creative outlet. Tried to drift infield, deeper, out wide and further forward – anywhere, basically, in search of the ball – but he couldn’t weave his spells as we looked to make the breakthrough - 6
Jovetic - Our brightest option yesterday. He’s inventive, slippy and has that vision in the final third that will create opportunities for himself and others. Went close in the first half and was always wriggling his way into threatening positions. Taken off as he’s still lacking match fitness but this was another promising showing - 7
Negredo - Another one who isn’t fully fit but he put himself about with energy and vigour, even if it didn’t quite fall for him as he would have liked. Overhit a couple of attempted throughballs and couldn’t fashion himself a clear-cut chance - 6
Subs
Dzeko - Missed training on the Friday before the game with a slight knock and had minimal impact when he was introduced - 6
Kolarov - Replaced Negredo which was perhaps understandable if he were to provide width on the left and deliver his quality into the box but he ended up centrally and contributed nothing except a couple of overly-ambitious wasted shots - 6
I know football ratings are subjective opinion but please…..kompany, the leader of this team was very poor… How many times is he going to dive in, get too close then get skinned. Zaba let’s has shown his true self in the last 2 games… Positionally inept, dives in and very poor passing. Navas is a rat in a maze trying to find the cheese, a truly inept player with no end product when needed ( anyone can exploit space when 3-0 up ). Negrado….awful, no touch, no threat, no work rate…his only chance was a sitter that didn’t hit the target. The myth that is yaya….if he contributed half the work rate of Milner when we don’t have the ball he wouldn’t be a liability. Jovetic, silva and Milner all tried, which is more than can be said of the others.
No lower than a 6…. I suggest you stop watching highlights on match of the day….we were poor, not good enough for top 6.
Can’t really disagree with anything said Rob except for 2 things.
I find it difficult to mark Kompany lower than a 6 no matter how he plays. He puts his life on the line for us every time he plays and we are pretty useless without him! (Could say the same about Zabba)
Secondly Yaya…..I am surprised you are being so nice. He may score the odd free kick, he may go on a scorching run once every 3 games, but to me – now – he is just a lazy git who tries to hog the ball, quite unsuccessfully at times. 2 years ago he was a great player but I think he may now be past his sell buy date! Sorry!
You are blind son.
Yaya has a great touch and controls games from the centre of the park.
We are always diminished when he is out of the side. Yaya and Fenandinho have become a superb midfield pairing. Yaya provides the guile and Fernie the engine and they routinely cope with three opponents to provide us with the extra man in attack that leads to our goal tally.
We are somewhat understrength at present. Show me another side who could cope without the likes of Nasri (payer of the season before his injury), Kun and Fernie. Another 3 weeks and we should be back to full strength for the run in.
Alph
Couldnt agree more Alph
Rob – ‘Zabba shown his true self’ so youre saying the last 2 and a half seasons of 60+ games he’s played we’ve all been deceived? Just a ridiculous comment
There is a big question to be asked about yaya in the summer, his attitude is deplorable- I like players who have a bit of a dog in them, do Clichy, Richards’ Rodwell, nastasic, yaya, dezko have that?? Dezko lack of touch & composure on the ball is nothing sort of a disgrace for a top ( so called) international’ where is this top class squad?? if we had pulis|palace attitude the league would be over.
Richards is one of the bravest players ive seen and Clichy has an amazing engine. Whats coming next; Aguero cant finish and Silva needs to learn how to pass? I really do read some dross sometimes after a bad result or 2
And exactly what do you expect by picking on 1/3 of squad? To go and spend another 200m+ to replace all those. Yes we have been really bad in the last two games but do keep in mind we won almost all games in December and January and there are plenty of games left.
Blue bullet,
zabaleta is a defensive liability…..positionally poor, his starting position is too narrow, he then goes charging out, dives in and either gets skinned or gives away a stupid free kick in a dangerous area.
I can count on 1 hand the number of games zaba has played well…Bayern away for example.
The British football fan thinks that if a player runs around and looks committed then he must be a good player.
technically he is poor, his distribution is woeful……but it’s ok…he wears his heart on his sleeve and would die for the cause.
Richards is twice the player zaba is, it’s a shame his injury record is poor…he has the ability to dominate for England.
My issue with yaya is when we don’t have the ball, he is lazy. Our defensive record shows certain players are not doing enough of the dirty work when we don’t have possession.
>> zabaleta is a defensive liability.
When I read that I thought today is April 1st only to look outside and see piles of snow out there. Personally that is the most outrageous comment I have ever read though it is your right to think so
>>yaya is when we don’t have the ball, he is lazy.
Each player has his own weaknesses and strengths. Yaya’s slack tracking is known to all much like his strength when pushed forward. It is up to the manager to use a player’s strength to his advantage. Yaya should not be played as a deep lying DM and I am sure majority of fans would agree with. You can talk about slow tracking and that does not change the fact, just play him where he can play best.
Zaba is one of the most street smart defenders in Europe, I like Richards/Clichy, but talking about been brain dead positionally,Richards right back- doesn’t look over his rt shoulder I.e 4-3 utd Owen goal-clichy likewise I.e Munich home. Basic stuff’ Irish fan.
It was disappointing but we could have breezed through this game.
I am worried that we seem to start a lot slower away from home
Suderland has all of a sudden become a massive game
Our next 3 games will make or break our season
It’s unfortunate that for two seasons running we’ve let our best defensive midfielder walk out of the door for next to nothing. Yaya is wasted in that position and he should be given license to go forward at will. I thought we had the makings of an awesome squad two years ago but have gone sideways at best since then, whilst Chelski have regrouped and regenerated. The three main underachievers of the Mancini era (Dzeko, Garcia and Kolarov) would surely have gone had he stayed. I worry about MP’s love affair with Demichleis (who I thought was bought as cover) and have nothing but sympathy for Lescott and Rodwell who can’t get a kick.
As for yesterday Milner and Jovetic prob worthy of a 7, Siva, Clichy, and Hart a 6, and 5′s all round for the rest. Most alarming was our failure to generate any real pressure in the last 10 minutes, having seemingly run out of ideas. Substitutions were ineffective too and didn’t allow Yaya to bomb on which felt like our only chance of winning the game late on. CTID.
I agree with many of your points, costarica, but think we have gone backwards from 2 years ago and only the best striker in the world (Agueto) is keeping us afloat. I recently read the Pellers wanted to sell Barry to Toffies in jan.so he could loan them Rodwell as well. Unbelievable! There is no cover in DM when Fern. is injured. Does he intend to play his darling, useless Demach. there or the hapless Garcia?I have no faith in this manager at all!! He has no idea of tactics and appears to want to get ridof all the English speaking players. When we had Barry and De Yong in midfield yaya could play attacking midfield where he was sensational. But Pelle doesnt see it like that. And if anyone thinks Demach.is a good positional player, replay the Chelsea goal and look where he is standing, on the right touchline!!!
One additional point. Mancini often used to push Yaya forward and bring in additional DM like De Yong when we were struggling for goals, often with great effect. Mr Pellers – does nothing! Absolutely nothing! In terms of tactics he is useless.
Never been a pelli fan since he arrived, all the hype about him being a great manager! ok we have scored more goals this season but its points in the bag that count and we have 3 less than last year….and we only finished 2nd with an injured Aguero for most of the season.
Pelli has no plan B….!!!
Mancini any day for me….he had passion for the club…!
We never looked like a team with Mancini. He was defensive minded with a great squad, and he relied on individual brilliance to win. With Pellegrini, we play much better football . We’re missing our best player, well go back to how we were.
Oh and with Pellegrini, our club is not the media circus that it was. There’s no debate IMO.
Just need to amend that slightly, Ryan. The squad is now better (supposedly) and sure we play better attacking football – but defensive wise we are pathetic most of the time. How does that make Pelli a better manager if you cant defend?
Tough comments on Navas.. Difficult to pick out a man with nobody in the box.
We miss Kuns ability to take on a man. It’s aguero a ability that gives Silva options, Navas more space , and Negredo his chances. Can’t wait to see him back
That was game over to our title race. I am going to bet 50 euros Chelsea winning the league. We are simply not good enough. Was the hell is going on with everybody in this team??? Silva please learn to score when you are a metre away from the goal please
I wonder what Manuel was thinking with playing Clichy instead of Kolarov really. Second game in a row he acts like he is high
well, that obscure posting ends this thread on a strange note.