City v Chelsea

Morning all.

Right, my review of the game on Sunday.

Joe Hart: Solid, assured, not really tested, but was alert enough when needed. 8/10

Zabaleta: Excellent game, went forward well, some positive attacking running, nice one twos, good positional sense. 8/10

Nastasic: Played very well, looked very assured, apart from that lack of concentration creeping in at the end where he skewed that easy clearance, apart from that, looked pacey, strong and worked well with Vinny. 8/10

Kompany: Superb game, considering he was on crutches 48 hours earlier, looked nearly backed to his best, kept the crying and falling Torres quiet, and nulified any pressure that started to erupt, great game. My MOM. 9/10

Kolorov: Hmmm, you all know I dont like him, but he had an OK game I suppose, wasn't really tested on the defensive side, and going forward was one dimensional and lacked that killer ball he can produce. Until Clichy comes back, its all we have. 7/10

Silva: Played well, but was quiet due to the stifling effect of Ramirez and Mikel on his case all game. Had little chance to influence the game, tried hard as usual and wehn he had the odd bit of space, tried to force the issue. 7/10

Toure: Well, this is 3 games now, where he seems off the pace again. A couple of dangerous wayward passes, where Vinny dug him out of the shit. He seems off pace, too defensive, lacks energy and seems to be happy with sitting super deep. Needs to up his game. 7/10

Barry: Good game, made a few well timed interceptions, and also a couple of pro fouls to stop the dangerous breaks from Chelsea. Always wants to move forward, which I like and stayed in the background. I feel he did enough to allow Yaya to move forward, yet Yaya had other ideas. 8/10

Milner: Lots of energy and hard graft as you expect. Played well I thought, we needed his workrate and his wing play was neat and tidy too. I thought he should have put his laces through the ball on the chance he had, seems scared to shoot to me? 8/10

Dzeko: I'm sorry, I know a few of you like him, but come on. ANOTHER chance to show his worth, but was invisible. His touch is donkey and has no effect. We seemed blunt upfront and that was the reason. 6/10

Augero: Played OK, but apart from workrate, had little effect. His touch seems off of late, he seems to want too many touched before he gets going?? Playes better with Tevez on the pitch. It does not help Augero when Dzeko is stood there like a simpleton scarecrow. 7/10

SUBS

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Tevez: OK, not really enough time for him to get in flow, seems to not like being a sub. Again, pulled out wide at times, when we needed him in or around the box. Busy as usual. 7/10

Balotelli: Fuck me, what is the point. Yea he had little time, but really? That run into Sideshow Bob, I would have booked him. I could see that coming a mile off, so no wonder the Ref did too. It was obvious he was playing for it. I would rather he tried to fucking score than get a shady free kick. Annoys me so much. He lacks ability, I don't care what everyone says. Waste of time. 4/10

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A point at Chelsea was a good result. I feel we lacked upfront and mainly due to the immobility of Dzeko. Onwards and upwards, looking forward to Wigan, as watched them at weekend and they are playing tasty at the moment!

Regards Vince.

Not seen any PL goals this weekend, but i'll add:

Dzeko is an impact sub.....end of. I can only presume Tevez was on the bench to give him a bit of a rest, i guarentee he'll start at Wigan though.

Agree with the Balotelli comment.......what is the point!

Great point imo, Chelsea are a tough team to beat at SB....still unbeaten too, bonus!

Hiya Den.

Yea, impact sub at best, adds very little else.

Like I said, decent result, and onto Wigan who will prove a harder proposition in my opinion.

Mornin Vince,

Don't know about that mate, despite Wigans tenacity we should have enough quality to beat um. Tbh, i'd have settled for a point at Chelsea, not at Wigan.......i'm expecting 3.

What we 'expect' and what we get with City at the moment is anyones guess!

I thought,not for the first time,we missed a trick tactically.
Chelsea were there for the taking yesterday and we didnt make the necessary changes to force the win.Starting Dzeko was clearly an error of judgement,tevez wouldve been far more influential but i thought we couldve easily gone to 3 at the back,taken the incredibly average kolorov off and put Nasri on that side to thread the balls behind Luis and Ivanovic instead of lumping it across to no effect.
Benitez was quite happy setting up two banks of 4 behind the ball and allowing us possession but we failed to trouble cech and tactically i thought we were poor albeit quite happy with a point at the Bridge.

Hi Paul.

Some good points mate, I agree about the tatics.

Defo needed creativity.

we are shockingly slow most of the time when we attack. We keep turning around, passing backwards and sideways which lets teams get their banks of 4 in place and we have to break that down.

Yep Dawg.

Thats mainly due to Yaya being given the ball and then plodding slowly forward and releasing it too late.

We are slow to flow forward.

if bobby wants to protect the defence, stick 2 DMs there.

play 4-2-3-1 or 3-5-2. just get yaya's lazy fat arse up the pitch because he can't be bothered to get his big fat lazy arse back after we attack.

Vince, I agree mostly with your appraisal of the game, but I have to take issue with your evaluation of Balotelli. I think four is an insult. Just below average? Do me a favour, he never even reached the dizzy heights of below average. He struggled to hit the form required for almost useless - which is a 2 at best.

As soon as I saw the "challenge" on him from Sideshow Bob, I tutted and thought, what a plank, there's no ref on earth would give that. We needed a last ditch goal and he does that? Bloody good job he didn't try the same stunt on May 13th last year, or those ribbons on the cup would be red and we'd be overrun with gloating rags with t-shirts with the number 20 on them.

I think it was a case of honours even at Chelsea, each side nullified each other, although we bossed the game possession wise, we were too cautious IMO, spent too long passing it back and forward, losing the impetus and any opening gained.
Good solid defensive performance though, I expect a different approach at Wigan, a more open game and def some goals....

I've just watched the highlights again - and we definitely bossed the game and had 3 or 4 decent chances....problem being, our forwards/attacking players look inept in front of goal at the moment.

Thought Zaba had a brilliant game........shame Aguero seems out of form - let's hope he can rekindle last seasons form - but still, 1 point off the top and looking in 2nd gear in attack and defence (as you said Beware - the defence looked solid and Vinny returned back to something like his best).

We seriously missed a chance to kill them off effectively, but are still in a good position considering.

Bang on Blueboy