City vs Liverpool - Player Ratings

[ant london]

We've not had one of these for a while and I really am interested in seeing how others saw last night. I thought that few emerged with much if any credit but this is how I saw it


Hart - 8 - We would have been 2 or three down if it weren't for Joe. Excellent shot stopping but he was also clearly trying to give us some impetus and momentum from the back every time the ball came back to him and he was almost a lone voice in that

Richards - 8 - Thought Micah was excellent last night. Most of the few good things we managed to create last night had him involved. It was a real force of nature type of performance from the stand in captain. Thought he was fantastic

Savic - 3 - Just fucking appalling. The lad may come good in the end but that was a total shitshow of a performance. Nervy as fuck when defending and utterly hopeless and timid with the ball at his feet. The amount of times him and Lescott just passed back and forward between them was embarrassing. The fear those idiots showed gave the Scousers all the courage and encouragement they will ever need. Mishit or underhit or bobbled pass after fucking pass. He was terrible, utterly devoid of redeeming features as a performance.

Lescott - 5 - And only just a five. Zero leadership to help out Savic or take the pressure off him. It was like he was thinking "thank fuck that's not me" rather than being the senior partner and helping to steady Savic. Shit distribution too....Why on earth he is utterly incapable of any type of forward pass to a teammate is beyond me. When he (under ZERO pressure) passed the ball along the line and straight into touch near the end summed his performance up. Crap

Clichy - 6 - Not great by any means but a lot better than the centerhalves as at least he offered something going forward and did his defensive job relatively well. However, another one who is embarrassingly one-footed and on more than one occasion cut infield...to precisely what fucking end. Infuriating.

De Jong - 5 - Not good by his standards. Imposed zero authority in midfield and with the awful distribution behind him looked even worse than he would've if Silva in front and Kompany behind.

Barry - 5.5 - Again appalling distribution in the main. First half really really bad, second he was better, especially when he got forward and involved in the attacks we mustered. His form looks to have gone off a cliff over Xmas though. Is it the old tired/unfit Barry issue raising its head again

Johnson - 2 - Fucking piss shitting poor. He played a couple of decent balls second half when he came infield but my god he was shit. He needs to buck his ideas up massively or, for me, he can go.

Milner 5.5 - Not at the races at all. Couple of terrible shots for some of our "best" chances to score but just added so little in possession or when we didn't have the ball. We were second to absolutely everything first half and he was as culpable as anyone.

Balotelli - 3.5 - Awful, really awful. Bullshit feigning injury and stropping when he was as bad as anyone. It seemed like he was furious at the team/Savic for us having conceded and being on the backfoot but rather than channelling that he just self-combusted. Good decision to hook him and I hope he got a firework in his arse from Roberto afterwards. Crap.

Aguero - 6 - Nothing went for Sergio last night but at least he tried. Not at the races but zero creativity coming from behind him until Nasri came on and thereafter not a great deal more so I am reluctant to get on his back too much. He should've done better with a couple of his half-chances though

Kolarov - 3 - Appalling - see Savic as he wasn't much better

Nasri - 5.5 - At least put some effort in and looked like he wanted to make something happen but not enough quality. Again, I'm not going to put the blame at his door when there are so many other worthy candidates

Dzeko - 4 - Anonymous. I can think of one positive contribution to one of our second half attacks and him falling over for no reason. Poor


As a final postscript....what the FUCK is it with all the team fucking falling over all the time. Get some decent studs in your boots you silly cunts. Balotelli, Aguero, Dzeko.....and a load of others falling on their arses at critical moments for the umpteenth time this season. A shambles

[Goaters 103]

Aside from Hart and Richards they were all below par last night. A collective wet fart performance.

Id give Richards an 8, Hart an 8 and the rest between 4s and 5s, apart from Johnson who would get a 3. I thought Kolarov did really well when he came on, not.

[Yffi_88]

Pretty much agree with you on all fronts here. I thought Balotelli looked hungry until his head went very early in. (Someone said he was injured from the start which wouldnt have helped)

As for the slipping over thing - absolutely unreal. WHY are we unable to get a grip on the best pitch in the world with all the footwear technology there is? They're out for at least half an hour doing warm ups before it. Really winds me up seeing creativity wasted and possesion lost because of a slip.

Dont think NDJ played a forward pass all game. We were playing the simple ball - which is great when we knock it about well - but every pass seemed to be two yards behind the target which just destroyed any momentum we managed to build.

If we had a team of Micah Richards'....

[lets all have a disco]

The Horror of January continues.
3 losses and a win :-|

Hart 7 Richards 9 Savic 3 Lescott 5 Clichy 6 De Jong 5 Kolarov 3 Barry 6 A Johnson 4 Dzeko5 Aguero7 Milner 7 Balotelli 5 Nasri 6

[Douglas Higginbottom]

At least that made me smile a bit Ant and I needed that.

Joe and Micah I agree. I saw Micah trying to gee the players up and his leading by example was quality.

I actually felt sorry for Savic but yes he was garbage and actually looked like a schoolboy out of his depth early on.
Not sure I entirely agree re Lescott.I wasnt there so it's not that easy to tell whether he was talking to/helping Savic but as a defender I thought he was reliable as usual and dealt with Carroll when he could.I never judge him as a passer/playmaker as that's 100% not his job but it foes get badly shown up when Silva and Yaya are not there.

Barry I thought was trying really hard and again was lost without Yaya and Silva.They just create spaces to play in which were not there last night albeit partly down to the scousers negative organisation.I would have said 6 for Gaz Baz.Similar for Milner who worked hard but I agree his final everything was just not good last night.Nigel ok defensively but as ever offered nowt going forward when we really needed something from someone.

Clichy average,Kolarov beyond bad.AJ was just a waste in the 1st half but you are right was at his "best" in the 2nd when allowed to wander.I might have given him longer especially considering Kolarov's efforts.Mario was as you said. The game thread on here was living in hope that he would pull something out of the bag but we need more than hope that a bit of genius will arrive.Baffling to me are those who think he was our best player before going off.

Aguero.Not quite happening for him at the mo is it.Still most likely to score and had chances. Worked hard 2nd half but the supply wasnt good.Dzeko.Not sure what the plan was when he went on.Got one ball to his feet in the box(which he did well with) but apart from that no service and seemingly no energy.

Nasri I actually thought did well. Not great obviously but he was the one most likley to create and he was moving around and linking well even though it was with the Pool backing off.His cross that Barry nearly truned in,his cross that Aguero headed over,his corner for Micah's header,his shot that woke us up at the end of the first half.Should have started instead of Balo and give us some chance of control from the start.

Maybe our best asset on the night was Dalglish by telling them not to attack after they scored!

[Ted Hughes]

Imo. I'd give Joe 8. Micah 9. The rest all 5's apart from Savic 3 & Kolarov 3. Johnson would get 3 for 1st half & 7 for 2nd hence 5. I don't blame him for the 1st half, there was nothing he could have done; he just shouldn't have been playing there end of but it was shit whatever. 2nd half when he came inside he was our best player imo and shouldn't have been taken off. Politics imo. Don't like it.

Bob had a stinker but at least got it right for half an hour 2nd half before fucking it up again. 4.

[guv111]

Can't pick fault with those ratings at all, and I only hope Mancini understands things as clearly and acts. Let's face it, we paid well over the odds for a lot of the calamitous players out there last night, but now we're stuck with most of them and the manager will have to make do. He may be able to shuffle Savic off somewhere, but who would pay us good money for the others? With FFP, the only way to bring in proven quality is to sell - or forget about the Champions League for a few years and ignore FFP.

More kudos to Mancini if he can get something useful to the City cause out of Savic, Kolarov, de Jong and Johnson because on the evidence of this season they are fit only to come on as subs in games we already have healthy leads in. Late on. We could have done without the poor atitude of Balotelli when struggling last night, too.

Liverpool, if they had had the nerve (or ability) to press on at 1-0 could have really embarrassed us. Before the penalty they could have been 2-0 up but Hart came to our rescue, not for the first time. At 1-0, they went into their shell (suits) and we were able to slowly drag ourselves back into the game and put some kind of attacking game together. But then we fluffed around as we have so often lately, and wouldn't have scored if the game had gone on into the early hours of this morning. We have so few real goalscoring options when our midfield is as lethargic and timid as that, and bringing Dzeko on isn't going to galvanise us.

Dross like that will not win us the league, even if we played the likes of Wigan every week.

[dick dastardley]

Hart 8 Richards 9 Savic 4 Lescott 5 Clichy 6 De Jong 5 Kolarov 3 Barry 6 A Johnson 4 Dzeko 5 Aguero 6 Milner 7 Balotelli4 (not fit) Nasri 6

savic and johnson were the worst closely followed by the backward/side passing lescott, de jong a shadow of his former self.

on savic i think the guy needs a few games to bring him up to speed. so i am not gonna chastise the guy over one poor display. last night i think he should have played where micah was and vice versa. i remember savic having a good game when he played right back a while back.

[ant london]

Balotelli4 (not fit)

deary me....no need for excuses mate. I love Mario but "not fit"....well, it does rhyme with what he actually was I guess