MAN CITY 2 – 2 Sunderland – PLAYER RATINGS
17 Apr
Hart - Made one excellent stop in the second half from Colback but beaten far too easily at his near post for Sunderland’s second goal - 6
Zabaleta - Borini stuck close to him and that meant he struggled to get forward as much as usual. A couple of naïve defensive challenges but battled manfully down the right - 6
Kompany - It’s not often he gets bullied by strikers but Wickham did just that, using his strength to shrug off both our central defenders, hold the ball up and then bring others into play. Kompany, still hampered by injury, didn’t have an answer - 6
Demichelis – More signs of his eye-catching composure on the ball, repeatedly bringing it out of defence and showing an intent in possession that his teammates failed to replicate - 6
Kolarov - He’s at his best when we don’t use him in general play, but gradually bide our time and then release him out wide in the final third when he has space. Instead, with Sunderland defending deep he was easily contained yesterday and couldn’t provide any decent deliveries into the box - 6
Garcia – As suspected before the game, he was superfluous. It’s not that he did much wrong, it’s that he wasn’t needed to do much. Due to his one-dimensional nature, he couldn’t offer anything going forward and his tendency to take too many touches on the ball withdrew any tempo. In certain games he’s useful, but it was clear last night was not a game for him - 6
Fernandinho - Perhaps the brightest spark in a dour team display. Granted the freedom to drift forward more regularly than normal, he scored the first, should have notched a second moments later and was one of the few to actually show initiative - 6.5
Milner - After such an instrumental showing against Liverpool, this was a disappointing performance. At Anfield, his direct runs and variety offered Silva the perfect outlet for his wizardry. Yesterday, with Silva and Yaya missing, and with Nasri very subdued, he was forced to adopt the creative responsibility but that’s not his game and it showed - 5
Nasri - He needed to step up in the absence of others but had one of his quietest displays of the season. He’s so dangerous when running at defenders and committing them around the edge of the box, but he was painfully laboured last night and didn’t have any meaningful influence - 5
Aguero - Its clear we’ve rushed him back. Perhaps he’s got half an eye on the World Cup, but as he goes into a tackle there’s a certain hesitance, and that lack of full commitment can only be damaging to us. He produced the odd flitter of talent last night but not enough - 6
Negredo - He started off superbly, bullying Sunderland’s backline and it was his aggression, workrate and then intelligent dummy that created the opening goal. As the match wore on, however, he became quieter and his search for a confidence-boosting goal continues - 6
Subs
Jovetic - Did his best to inject passion and intent to a lethargic team showing. Didn’t quite have the guile to break through but there were some positive signs - 6.5
Džeko - Off the pace - 5
Rodwell – He should have started - No time to mark
Demichaelis was head and shoulders above Kompany.
So how come 6 each.
Milner should have been minus 5
I couldn’t argue with any of that. We were plodders. Without Merlin and Yaya we simply don’t have players who can make time and space and find that pass in the opponents half. Those two bring the best out of those around them, without them it’s all really rather pedestrian and unimaginative.
A deeply disappointing performance and result.
Typical City thats all i have to say this takes me back……….. losing i’m ok with but when there’s no urgency no hunger to win, it kinda worries me tbh
Spot on Sahil, my thoughts exactly.
We need to show some heart & guts here, demich,zab & milner dug deep & tried there best but its not enough… The whole team needs to do some hard looking in the mirror at themselves, the management need to make sure the players are told in simple plain language what’s required of them, its not over’ palace will either beat us or pool… We need to stop feeling sorry for our self, its still on.
Unfortunately there have been too many games this season where there’s no urgency to win. I know we came back against Liverpool but they had so much more fight than us. I do believe Pellegrini is an upgrade on Mancini but I can pretty much guarantee that the likes of Barca or Real will never come knocking on their doors. Pellegrini has sunk too much energy into the CL this year. There have been so many Prem and FA Cup games where he has rested key players and we’ve paid the price for that complacency. Also, Dzeko is a major problem. I think he’s probably the striker who has played the most minutes and for the vast majority of the time he has been hopeless. He holds up play and passes back. He just cn’t link up and pass like the rest of the team. All moves break up when he gets anywhere near. As ever he’s missed so so many chances. There are many strikers who don’t get talked about much who would score many more goals with the chances he’s had. If we are really serious about being a force in Europe or even the best club in this country we certinly aren’t going to cut it when we are depending on Dzeko for goals.
you keep saying about Kompany and his injury (?). If he isn’t ready he shouldn’t play. As MP said, Kompany said against Liverpool that he is okay to play. So the fault is on him either way.
Wouldn’t give any of them higher than a 5 except Dimichelis whilst Milner just had one of those games to forget. Aguero and Negredo will do well to bag a goal each before the end of the season on last night’s evidence.
Zaba frustrates me sometimes.. No questioning his attitude but he seems to dive in too much unnecessarily and is too slow if you ask me. Well either too slow, or doesn’t recognize when he has a man on..
If it were me in charge this summer I’d get some more pace in the team and some players that can really run at a defender like Aguero does
et’s be careful about over analyzing
There is some wonderful analysis going on here but I think the element we are all forgetting is that this season alone has proven is that there are no dead rubber games. Yes we’ve lost games to teams we should beat, but so have Chelsea, Liverpool, Arsenal, and Everton. It is important to have a tactical game plan but as the saying goes, nothing ever goes to plan and more often than not teams often cancel each other out tactically, and ebb and flow takes over and as we all saw on Sunday,(& Wednesday) luck and nerve can play a bigger part than tactics.
I will be very surprised if the title is decided by the LFC vs Chelsea match as I completely expect teams like Norwich, Palace, and Sunderland to continue to throw a wrench in the works. Which why is City fans and players need to regroup, enjoy the wild ride and wait until after the 11th of May for recriminations and re-assessments…
Disagree with that Rodwell should have started.
Rodwell has done absolutely nothing all year. Or last, really, other than in the glorified friendly against Norwich at the very end.
With Garcia you know what you have. Limitations and all, I would take that over Rodwell. And I suspect if there was anything truly useful to be had from him we’d have seen it by now.
As to Milner – shouldn’t have started here. I would have started Navas if healthy or even Jovetic on that side. Milner needs space to operate effectively going forward. Also helps more defensively. He’d be my choice away against tough sides. I’d go with a technically more adept guy against the bus-parking clubs. Which you’d have figured Sunderland to be going in.
Anyway, as PJ says above, all is not lost yet. Before this disaster we needed the red dippers to drop one point relative to however many we drop. Now we need them to drop three. That’s one loss. I suspect they’d have gotten that even with Sturridge and Henderson available.
We just need to nut it up and do our business. Hard to see it happening after that abysmal performance, but we have all seen stranger and more unlikely things happen. And very recently.