edge275 wrote:Dunne's Half-Time Pint wrote:MOTD are eulogising De Jong aong with Hughes' tactics.
Most important player on the park according to Hansen - their mini-video showed him breaking it up more times than Slim claimed in the whole match.
And?
And Alan Hansen is one of the most well respected analysts in football. He was an exceptional defender and has an incredibly sharp eye when it comes to defensive players and tactics- I'd be inclined to go with his word.
His comments aside though, I'm surprised at the criticism being leveled at de Jong. His passing is not of Fabregas' or Alonso's standard but he plays an important role in rushing his opponent when on the ball and winning it. He has a very good awareness of space and rarely leaves room for his man to maneuver. If there was any constructive criticism for his performances in a City shirt so far, I'd say they'd be that he has too often tried a difficult pass where a simpler option is available. If he can concentrate on doing what he does exceptionally well in recovering the ball, and then make the simple 5 yard pass every single time he'll become undroppable.
Ultimately you can break everything down into statistics- statistically Arsenal had the lion's share of possession, created more chances and had four times as many corners- but the end result was 4-2 to City. We played spectacularly on the counter-attack and Nigel's interventions played a big part in that.
Given 8- Dealt superbly with everything in the air, sensible in possession and a few good snap-shots. Helpless for their goals.
Richards 8- Exceptional. He's started the season well and played solidly but he needed a top class performance like this one for people to really sit up and take notice. He looked so strong and denied Arsenal time after time, bombed forward at great pace and had the awareness to find Bellamy for the goal that turned the game on its head. A shame for him that the first goal was ruled as an OG, after scoring a legitimate goal against Portsmouth he must be wondering what he has to do to get his name on the score sheet. The only complaint I can have is that he left his area exposed a couple of times yesterday, luckily they weren't exploited but he needs to work on his positional sense a little more and if he does, could be the world class defender we hoped he'd be when he broke through.
Touré 8 One of the most composed defenders I can remember playing for the blues. He relishes having the ball at his feet and always makes good use of it. Not afraid to bomb forward either safe in the knowledge that he has men covering him. A joy to watch and flawless yesterday.
Lescott 7- Very impressive with the exception of Van Persie's goal but in fairness his footwork was brilliant. He's a machine in the air, wins it every time and so strong in the tackle. The partnership looks promising and like Touré he's confident and cool in possession.
Bridge 7- Excellent going forward, he seems to be a lot quicker (probably due to upping his fitness since January). He's another who's good in possession and looks solid positionally. He still seems shy to put a tackle in though which could be a problem in certain games.
de Jong 8- A superb effort overshadowed only by a couple of poor passes. His work in pressurising and basically irritating his man is important and he does the less noticeable, less appreciated jobs well.
Barry 8- Fantastic. Cool in possession again, he seemed at times to be able to wriggle around their midfield and spend as much time as he wanted picking the ideal pass. He tracked excellently, covered Touré and Bridge well at different stages in the game and delivered some quality balls into the box, one of which led to the first goal.
Ireland 5- He's had a poor start and that continued yesterday. The deeper role takes some getting used to but he needs to start improving because the quality we have enables Hughes to replace him quite easily. He looked lost in the game and when he won possession, couldn't make the influential pass. He should have scored on the counter when it was 1-0 but luckily that wasn't decisive. I hope he picks things up, for his sake.
SWP 7- A quiet and frustrating first half but typically of Shaun he didn't give up and was determined to win the battle with Clichy, which he did in the end. The ball to Ade was exquisite for the third, his own finish was great and defensively over 90 minutes he gave everything. He can be ever better which is what excites me.
Adebayor 9- Outstanding effort defensively, offensively, everything. In the first half he didn't have much support so had to work hard to win the ball and hold onto it, which he did 99% of the time, in the second with added support he tore them to shreds. The run was world class to feed Shaun and his goal was exactly what we missed last season. Off the line clearances too and plenty of running. I can't believe we were told he was lazy! It's a shame what happened with the celebration and Van Persie because the topic of conversation should be this amazing player of ours.
Bellamy 10- Ade would have been MOTM any other week but Bellamy was a man possessed yesterday. I've never seen anything like his level of fitness, to be able to run the length and breadth of the pitch for 90 minutes and do so as effectively as he did is astonishing. His goal was a peach, defensively he was Beckenbauer class and his vision was an aspect we haven't seen much of so far. Some excellent passes and combinations. I hope he keeps this level of performance up.
Petrov 6- Didn't actually do an awful lot but it was the change of shape and Bellamy being pushed into a central position that changed the game. A couple of decent exchanges with Ade and Barry but he still doesn't look 100%.