Performances last night

Refs and other talking points aside, my view on performances from players we're essentially stuck with for the next 3 games or so!

Decent performances - Hart, made key saves early on. Milner, ran his socks off again. Micah, ran his socks off too, we need him at RB though or we'd miss the attacking threat. Aguero put in 110% again. Thought
Lescott and Clichy did ok too. Nasri looked better when he came on too, stick him in the middle where we can give him more of the ball, did well for Arsenal there last season when Fabregas was out.

Savic wasn't great, should have got his body in the way for the pen instead of raising his boot, but if we stick with him and show him the support we did Dzeko I think he will come good - not that we really have
a choice not too stick with him at the mo!

De Jong looks rusty, and like he's lost a yard.

Johnson was pretty ineffective.

Balotelli was disinterested, shame, thought he was past this.

Worst player for me though was Kolarov. Came on in an advanced role, minimal defensive responsibilities if any, yet he was still complete andutter bollocks... And I was the one who said I thought the combination
of him and Dzeko could be key in unlocking opposition defences who put 10 men behind the ball. Absolute waste of time.

As a whole I thought our passing and retention of the ball was uncharacteristically woeful, especially considering we were at home. Really need to stuff Wigan to instill a bit of confidence back in the lads.

This is my interpretation of last nights game.

Hart, did what's expected. Solid and reliable.

Clichy and Lescott, did ok but nothing more.

Richards, put in another good shift, probably Citys MOM.

Savic, quite obviously needs game time, silly 10yr olds tackle cost the game.

Milner and Barry, put in good shifts but i just expected a bit of extra quality from them.

Nasri, 10 times better than his last game, but surely there's got to be more to come.

NDJ and Johnson, poor throughout.

Dzeko, Kolarov and Balotelli, twice as bad as the above 2, nuff said.

Aguero, 100% effort again, i'm beginning to warm to him once more.

I think i've missed someone, they obviously didn't make that much of an impression then.

Overall, Citys worst performance at home has made this an uphill task but i predict a much improved performance 2nd time round......here's hoping anyway.

Hart - Played exceptonally well again. Proved it was a mistake to leave him out against the rags.

Clichy and Lescott did enough, but didn't shine.

Richards deservedly MOTM, had a fantastic game despite running his socks off the other day.

Savic was reasonably solid, his one mistake being the penalty. Granted, that cost us the game in the end, but there were 80 minutes to make amends for it.

De Jong wasn't great, but Barry was shocking in the first half! It wasn't until the second half I saw him actually complete a pass! Played much, much better in the second half, to be fair.

Johnson was completely anonymous.

Milner had a great game, but my question is, how come he was being so underused? He was making great runs through the defence and had to stop because nobody noticed. He would be in acres of space and nobody would pass to him. And yet, on the odd occasion someone did bother to pick him out, he was by far our biggest goal threat. Weird.

Aguero ran his socks off again, as usual. Can't fault his effort. However, he needs to work on those shooting boots. Came closest to scoring, but where was the power in the shot?

Balotelli looked like he wasn't bothered after the first 10 minutes. Maybe a knock, or the injury flaring up. Hopefully not his bad attitude creeping in. Interesting that Bobby subbed him in the first half.

Dzeko was awful again. No pace, little effort, no control. Maybe we should play him like we did against Spurs, have him hanging around the 18 yard box and feed him, rather than expect him to do any actual work.

Nasri had one of his better games, but his tippy tappy stuff is still extremely annoying and he ALWAYS runs inside. Why? Everything was coming through him in the second half, which would no doubt boost his confidence, but he needs to be more inventive.

Kolarov couldn't even get his one trick pony to perform. I'd rather have seen Pantilimon come on as a winger.

The general concensus is that it was a bad day at the office. I'd take that, were it not for the fact that we have once again come up against a team set up to play 10 men behind the ball and we've failed to unlock it. We need to find a way to do this or we're going to get nothing this season.

We looked like a team that has played too many games recently, 2nd half we woke up a bit, but it was an uphill battle by then to get past the bus. Missing some vital players down the spine of the team didn't help.

We miss Yaya so much, i know many couldn't wait for him to go to Acon, and most of us have had a word about his lack of stamina. I hope IC go out out first round.

Bobby was right, we have not got another Yaya.

A least we are not playing till Monday this weekend so hopefully Silva is back playing. We looked devoid of ideas without him.

I honestly hope Bobby gives up on Kolarov soon because he is a one trick pony who's goals do not balance out how shit he is in open play.

we do look like we have played too many games, but after Wigan its almost a full week till the Spuds game. That is the main one during Vinnie's ban, we need to go all out for the 3 points there. No way they will catch us if we do the double over them.

Liverpool 2nd leg I'm not really that fussed about but if we can go into that on the back of a good win against Spurs I think we can still do the business.

Why does he keep giving Johnson a starting place,he's been awful the vast majority of games he's started.With yaya away I thought it would be an ideal opportunity to play Nasri centrally behind the striker and pack the midfield behind him.
Liverpool have shown us exactly what they are all about,plenty of passion and work rate so the need to match them initially is always going to be important ,therefore starting with Mario and Johnson was like 9 against 11.
I'm sure this would've been better
---------------Hart------------------

Richards---Onuoha--Lescott--Clichy


-------Hargreaves----Barry---------

------Milner-----------Zabaleta-----
--------------Nasri ------------------
--------------Aguero-------------------

Playing Lescott and Savic together is just a disaster,the two most uncomfortable players with the ball at their feet,at times it was embarrassing
Kolorov simply has to go,wretched performance

Inky mentioned earlier, and I completely agree that I think we're in danger of Aguero burning out if we keep playing him up top on his own. He hasn't had great service recently, but still puts in 110% and scraps about for the ball all game long, but he will tire playing almost every game as a lone striker. Looking at his season as a whole he has performed better when partnered with Balotelli or Dzeko, and I think we need to revert to two at the top, or at least Balotelli in an advanced/wide midfield role as soon as possible.

Only problem is, a few papers reporting Mario will be out again for the next game or two after picking up another knock against Liverpool. Then with Edin, he isn't sharp enough and hasn't got the form to warrant a place in the starting eleven - we're certainly in a rough patch at the moment and need our reliable players (or whats left of them!); Hart, Richards, Barry, Milner, Aguero, and to a lesser extent Lescott and Clichy, to pull us through. I'm not convinced a Dzeko with low confidence is the man for the job, that said, if he manages to net a couple against Wigan it could work wonders for him.

If that's the case grated, then imo another forward's needed in January as Balo and Dzeko aren't proving reliable enough at the mo.

I agree with the comments about Aguero burning out. I've seen Silva going the same way lately, because we're too reliant on him. If we lose Aguero as well, we're basically stuffed because, without their industry, we're just average and certainly not good enough to beat Spurs.

We need to play Dzeko against Wigan. Their defence isn't as sharp and may well give him a window of opportunity to at least get some shots in and, hopefully, bag a goal or two and boost his confidence. If we can get that back into him, maybe he could turn it on again against Spurs.