MAN CITY 0 – 1 Stoke – PLAYER RATINGS
30 Aug
Hart - Barely called into action for the most part, but then lacking when we needed him most. Allowed Diouf’s weak effort to slip through his legs - 5
Sagna - A relatively underwhelming debut. Given some trouble by Moses’s direct approach and struggled to offer a cutting edge when pushing forward. Tried to provide an option in the final third, but often stood around rather than break beyond the play and expect the pass - 6
Kompany - A flat team performance, but he was as sharp as ever. Competed well with Crouch and was the final barrier at times in the first half, intercepting a couple of attacks on the edge of the box - 7
Demichelis - Usually dominant in the air, he found life very tough against the sheer awkward nature of Crouch. Couldn’t work out whether to challenge in the air or stand off and try to nick the bouncing ball. Ended up looking slightly lost - 5
Kolarov - A quiet game for someone who loves to fly down the wing and deliver powerfully into the box. He was well shackled before the break by Walters and then when we needed to break through in the final stages, he seemed very leggy and bogged down - 6
Fernando - Had started promisingly enough, stepping into spaces in midfield and prompting attacks, but then suffered a groin injury and was taken off. Hopefully it’s nothing serious as we’ll need his presence and awareness against Arsenal, Bayern Munich and Chelsea - 6
Y. Touré - Another game and another fairly average display. Has started the season slowly and he frustrated on Saturday with his lack of urgency on the ball. We were crying out for him to inject some intensity to our play, but he was content to keep matters slow and simple - 6
Nasri - As was the story with many of his teammates, he was pretty in possession without having an end product. Far too often, he’d receive the ball and play a comfortable pass sideways. Someone of his ability ought to be looking to deliver that decisive throughball, rather than shirk creative responsibility - 6
Silva - By his majestically high standards, this felt like a let down. Tried as hard to anyone to add purpose to our spells of possession, but couldn’t turn on the magic as he has done so often in the past - 6
Jovetic - Played at a frenetic pace and needs to realise he has more time than he thinks. Often looks to play a flick around the corner when the better option would be to take a touch, turn and then press on. Dropped deeper and deeper as the game wore on - 6
Aguero - Given a start for the first time this season and showed the occasional glimpse of his knack of drifting past defenders on the run, but struggled to find the space to get any shots away - 6
Subs
Fernandinho - Off the pace. Booked for a cynical foul and failed to really get to grips with the game, culminating in his woeful attempt to prevent Stoke’s winner - 5
Džeko - Made no impact on proceedings - 6
Navas - Stoke’s deep defending nullified his pacey threat - 6
Sagna was terrible, Kolarov was terrible and Yaya Toure was by a mile the worst player on the pitch again!
Think it would be unjust to blame Fernandinho for their goal, granted he could have done better but it was preventable long before it got anywhere near him.
Agreed, once again a performance that doesn’t so much say Champions, as Championship! I get seriously teed off with our slow, cumbersome play, when we all know that City are best for their frightening, pacy attacks.
Where was the urgency today? Where was the passion – and in front of the Home crowd too? This is not what we have come to expect from our beloved City, although unfortunately it is becoming all too familiar from the likes of Toure.
Its looking a real shame we didn’t ship yaya out and sign cesc fabregas now.
cesc is making killer passes and running the show for Chelsea whilst yaya is lazily walking around not even trying to defend whilst we don’t have the ball and looks disinterested when we do have it.
He needs to liven up when we need him (like today) and the cold hard truth is that other than the pass to dzeko at Newcastle the guy has looked a championship player at best.
Im not particularly bothered if we go 433 in our next game but if we don’t, I think the 2 ferns have to play and leave yaya out so he doesn’t think he is untouchable.
I put this down to an off day, Stoke got their tactics right (we needed an early goal to open them up). However, I am worried about Silva (my player of last season) I didn’t see him misplace as many passes all season as he did today and Toure – he simply hasn’t shown up so far this year.
I am not panicking (although Chelsea looked awesome at Everton!!)
Yaya, for all his lacklustre appeareance, looked more likely than anyone to get a goal. I was disappointed in Silva and Nasri yesterday. Merlin’s passing radar was well off key and Nasri has had a very ineffective start to the season for me.
Sagna did ok for me. Home debut with the whole team struggling he defended well enough. Hart looked shakey all game and should have easily saved the shot the lead to the winner.
I’m often one to defend us but we were slow and predictable in attack yesterday, sometimes certain players have to take it upon themselves to beat a defender or make a telling pass but no one took responsibility.
Agree Sagna didn’t look to run in behind and made me appreciate more what a job Zab does at both ends of the pitch.
Yaya just never wants to carry the ball or inject any pace into the game until at least half way through the second half and its very frustrating considering his ability. Not worried about Silva though, any player can have an off day
I could not believe Hart let that ball in. He is often made look good due to being shielded by defense. He is on the decline and City truly needs to look for a decent keeper. May we can sign Peter Cech. You look at saves pulled by Howard or Chelsea keeper, then you start thinking what on earth Hart is doing in City goal!