Player ratings: Manchester City v Everton
Hart – After conceding the two early goals Joe was a virtual spectator, not having to deal with even a corner. 6
Zabaleta – In the wars throughout, and still didn’t shirk a challenge. Needed to offer a little more invention when going forward once we were chasing the game. 6
Kolarov – Getting closer with his shooting, and put over some decent balls from open play and corners. Still not convincing defensively, where he could have closed down Coleman better for the first goal. 6
Kompany – Appeared to go AWOL for the first goal, just when we needed him to be commanding. Never seemed to recover his composure even if he was rarely tested. 6
K Toure – The sending off summed up the collective nightmare. Very un-Kolo like. Took a buffeting from Anichebe in the first half in a manner that reminded us Lescott may be a better bet for Andy Carroll and co on Boxing Day. 6
Barry – Amidst all the frustration this was one of Barry’s best displays in a City shirt. Displayed an excellent range of passing, covered well and burst forward at appropriate times. 8
Y Toure – Not able to fully impose himself but still had a decent game. Made up for a couple of wayward efforts with a deflected goal that gave us hope. 7
Milner (A Johnson 46) – Hauled off at half-time but it would be harsh to single James out as the reason for our woes. Still too many errant passes for comfort. 6
Silva – Failed to get a shot on target with good chances to equalise at 1-0 and 2-1. David needs to be more clinical. Some of his passing was a far cry from his recent high standards as well. 6
Tevez – Cheered us up before kick-off, then endured one of his more frustrating matches as Everton crowded him out. Too eager to write his own headlines and should have passed to better placed colleagues on several occasions. 6
Balotelli (Jo 83) – Occasional moments of quality, but on the whole far too peripheral. Played in twice, Mario failed to take either chance and few tears were shed when he was replaced by Jo. Appeared to have injured his knee, which is a concern. 5
Subs:
A Johnson – Like Tevez, far too selfish with the ball. Adam’s shooting was horribly awry and he lost possession with unforced errors too often. 6
Jo – Wasn’t able to make an impact as Everton closed the game out.
Man of the match: Gareth Barry.
H
21 December 2010 - 10:01 am
How can you possibly score YaYa higher Than Zabba? More to the point how does he only score the same as Kolo who had an absolute stinker. Re-evaluate please 🙂
Blue Days
21 December 2010 - 10:21 am
I guess I am being a bit harsh on Zabaleta. He did defend well, winning a lot of aerial balls against bigger opponents. I just think we needed a bit more going forward.
Blue Phoenix
21 December 2010 - 10:24 am
Fairly decent assessment although I would give Zab a 7 for his efforts, none tried harder than him.
Balotelli, I’m still bemused by him and if he ever got a spurt on it would be interesting. He thinks he’s far too fast for the premier league when actually at the moment it’s the other way round. His late effort was decent and he showed some class there but for me he was my biggest disappointment and goes to show that we need some gutsy reinforcements in the transfer window. We have far too many forward line peripheral players and all I can say is thank god Tevez decided to say.
But the secret is out, if you stop Tevez you stop City as the team is looking to channel through him. We need another diversion I need to say and whilst we have the players to do it they still don’t seem to be playing as a team.
Why was almost every challenge going down the right? Hardly any chances went down the left which again was bemusing and didn’t challenge their defence and widely as we could. We were too narrow at times and they saw us coming and parked their 11 man bus…
Maybe next time!