Thursday 2 December 2010

RBS player ratings

Given Almost nothing to do on one of his occasional European run-outs. Will be interesting to see if he plays in the knock-out rounds. 6

Boateng
Solid defensively, not that he had too much to do, but attacked well down the right too. Games like this should help his adjustment to English football, which still has some way to come. 7

Kolo Touré Carried the ball out of defence well, helping to drive some of our attacks forwards at times. 6

Lescott Caused problems in the opposition box. Not sure when he'll next get a game though. 6

Zabaleta
Regular Zabaleta watchers will know one of the new strengths to his game is crossing with his left foot, and it was his ball from wide that Balotelli volleyed in for our first goal. Worked very hard, useful going forwards and effective at the back. 7

Vieira A fairly easy game, sat in front of the back four, passed the ball well - one through ball to Balotelli in the first half was excellent. Broke forward to set up Balotelli's second goal. 7

Milner
His best game yet for City, in an energetic central midfield role. He was everywhere, making tackles and starting attacks. An interesting central altenative to Barry and Yaya in future. 8

SWP Classic Shaun: always keen to take people on, chase lost causes and lead attacks. Not everything came off but he was always entertaining and often a threat. 7

One embarrassing bit of play-acting aside, this wasn't too bad a performance. Didn't look like scoring but linked well with others and unlucky not to get passed to occasionally. 6

Balotelli
Another incident-crammed performance. There were two goals, the first of exceptional technical quality, no celebrations, at least one dive and a handful of other chances. The more you see of him the more you realise that it is entirely within his power to be one of the great strikers of the 2010s; there's nothing he doesn't have. 8

Johnson
A good performance that will remind Mancini of Johnson's talents. Not only did he take his goal excellently, but his all round game was very good: he won the ball for Balotelli's second goal and played one or two excellent passes. Deserves another go in the Premier League. 8

Subs:

Richards Too late to mark n/a

Adebayor Selfish n/a

1 comment:

StanMCFC said...

Why no rating for Alan?