Barry: players 'at each other's throats'

An interesting insight from Gareth Barry:

"Nobody likes to lose 3-0," he added. "There was a lot of hurt in there. The lads were really at each other's throats because we want to put things right.

"There was nothing malicious in there, but we're desperate to put things right, and we hope that will come.

"It's important we move on from a frustrating period. We hope we can have a better spell now with the three games close together over Christmas.

Rather this sort of tension and discord than the infamous laughing that followed the 8-1 at the Riverside eighteen months ago. Apparently a similar atmosphere followed the 1-1 draw with Hull City, and led to the seasons-best performances against Arsenal and Chelsea. The frustrating thing is that any momentum gained from those wins has been frittered away after one of the worst team displays in recent years. We're suddenly suffering from momentum deficit disorder all over again. Is this a cycle we have to go through all season? Pathetic surrender, angry reaction from players, two good performances, and then pathetic surrender all over again? Even by the standards of Manchester City FC this would be a frustrating and self-defeating way to conduct ourselves. At least it would be predictable though.

There is an interesting question over which players were at whose throats - presumably there were accused and accusers in the dressing room rather than an equal, mutual arrangement. If I had to guess I would say that Shay Given, Nigel de Jong and maybe Gareth Barry were accusers, with Emmanuel Adebayor and Robinho on the receiving end. But this is essentially based on which players I do and don't like. But in an ideal situation wouldn't you want the club captain to be unapologetic in his condemning of the main underachiever - Adebayor. But we know that they are as close as brothers. Whether this stands in the way of Touré successfully doing his job as captain I just don't know. But it might. Just think what Bryan Robson/John Terry/Roy Keane/Tony Adams would have said to Adebayor after Wednesday night. And then try to imagine Touré dishing out the same treatment. I can't.