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A fantastic performance all the dirty work and some neat passing and capped with a goal. He has to be pencilled in to our starting line ups against the better teams.

Very happy for the lad! I have a feeling that Mancini sees him as a second string midfielder,though. I doubt we will see him in the Champions League games.

Kolarov was better.

ONCE JAMES MILNER, THERE'S ONLY ONE JAMES MILNER!

Bloody lie. There must be thousands of them. There're probably a few hundred just in the Greater Manchester region.

Mase wrote:Kolarov was better.

He might have been better than usual but James Milner was magnificent and MotM for me.

Douglas Higginbottom wrote:

Mase wrote:Kolarov was better.

He might have been better than usual but James Milner was magnificent and MotM for me.

Close mate but the ROV was motm and rightly so...excellent performance from him.

Both were fantastic, can't really choose between them. Hope that means Milner will feature more as Rodwell settles.

We've needed Jimmy in midfield, solid, energetic, and thinks about going forward.

Good performance, but not the best he is capable of.. so there is more.

I rekon that Milner suits more speedy broken games rather than slow dominated ones.. just an observation.

Also I'm now pretty much convinced that he loses out in selection because he just doesn't do flash.. he doesn't even try to look flashy.. er like perhaps some others, maybe i mean he lacks poise or something, he just does what it says on the tin good ol yorkshire style. For that he seems kind of ordinary as opposed to Nasri. I just wonder if at the end of the day that effects people's perception of him as a player?

( Same may go for Lescott, he actually gives the ball away a lot less than Vinnie, but looks a lot more uncomfortable than Vinnie ).

Superjaw was toooops. Hopefully in the next game he'll get more balls past the first defender and he'll be even more effective.

Same old James for me. Excellent covering and running in the middle of the field but always lets you down with the final ball. He just needs a friendly arm round him and a few words of wisdom and he could grow into the player we need, but he wont without encouragement from the manager and more game time.Another one who the manager sees as lacking technique without seeing his positive attributes, Lescott being the other.

Excellent

I think he's overlooked due to his height. He was outstanding today, almost as good as he was at the swamp last year.

Definate MOM for me. he covered everywhere and most important he covered in for the full backs when they were forward and we lost the ball, exactly what we had been lacking the last few weeks. (even got a high 5 of Zabba when he filled in for him and broke up their attack)

I appreciated the more "workmanlike" approach today, we've been lacking some grit and tenacity and I think JM provided that today.

Well played Jimmy!

mr_nool wrote:Very happy for the lad! I have a feeling that Mancini sees him as a second string midfielder,though. I doubt we will see him in the Champions League games.

In all fairness Martin O'Neil and even myself saw him as holders well before Bob, but for all his stubborness Mancini is able to learn from mistakes: not MotM today, but certainly the key for a very confident perfomonce by the whole pack!

Great performance. Earned a place in the staring line-up for West Brom match for me (along with the other midfielders today)
Pleased for him that he got the goal too. it was well deserved!

With Barry out there were a lot of people calling for James to get a start. He proved today that he has what it takes and with him and Barry covering the wings we seemed to have some cohension at last. However, what will Mancini do with him next, where will his responsiblities lie?

I like him where he played today, In the middle, moving to the wing but giving cover where needed. Milner's a jack of all trades, master of none, he's got to be allowed time in a set position to show his potential. If not, let the lad go.

Milner was superb today. I was delighted when I saw his name on the team sheet.

I firmly believe he should be starting for us every week. He can both defend and attack, and works non-stop for the team. When him and Barry played together last season up until about Jan/Feb we were superb. I'm hoping Mancini keeps the pair of them playing together.

Milner only lost his place (for no reason in my opinion) when Mancini started to play Nasri regularly. Well, I sincerely hope that doesn't happen again. Nasri has 1 good game in 5, and that is not good enough for a team with our ambition.

Barry, Milner and Yaya should be our midfield 3. We both play our best football with those 3, and are more solid defensively too.

Milner was my choice for man of the match today. He and Barry were superb - cant recall a misplaced pass from Barry.

Formation and team selection was pretty spot on - on form Vinnie' replacing Micah and Sergio in for balotelli and clichy for aleks and that's could be our best line up.