Player ratings: Manchester City v Blackburn Rovers

Hart – After all the plaudits with England it’s hard to recall Joe making a bigger mistake than that for the opening goal. Nor did he fully command his area against the high balls. A vital one-on-one save in the second half was the only redeeming feature. 5

Richards – Won numerous important defensive headers as Rovers launched balls into our penalty area. Not able to add a great deal to the attack but his solidity at the back was welcome. 6

K Toure – The lesser blame for the opening goal is attached to Kolo. The high balls from Rovers don’t suit Kolo’s style but he did ok. A couple of forward surges were a welcome attempt to disrupt and break through the Blackburn lines. 6

Kompany – As Blackburn’s threat grew, so Vincent’s defensive strength became more important. The Belgian dealt well both with the aerial threat and that of Kalinic on the ground. 6

Lescott – His height and muscularity are welcome assets when playing Rovers, though there were a couple of misjudgements that nearly let the opposition in. Joleon looked more at ease going forward than against Sunderland and sent over a couple of decent crosses. 6

Vieira (Barry 65 mins) – Started and finished the move for our equalizer. Blackburn can be forgiven for not marking him as no-one in the stadium would have expected Patrick to get that far forward. Tried to get us going with someone trademark sharp forward passes, but was to easily bypassed in the defensive midfield areas. 6

Y Toure – For a player of his quality this was a shocker. Yaya played in a deeper midfield position, alongside Vieira, which is thought to be his best. Instead he looked ponderous as we missed the dynamism of de Jong. His previously impressive range of passing was lost in a host of mistakes. 5

Milner – Started brightly, playing in Johnson with a first time pass, and ended the game relatively strongly. In between times James’ passing was wayward much to his frustration and ours. 6

A Johnson (Silva 84 mins) – Started in brilliant fashion, tearing down the right flank and going close on two occasions. Failed to exert the same influence on the game in the second half but remains our most dangerous midfielder. 8

Wright-Phillips (Jo 55 mins) – Managed to get a couple of shots away when cutting in from the left, as the manager would have wanted. Otherwise it was a frustrating performance where possession was to readily surrendered. 5

Tevez – Talk of Carlos missing this match due to injury proved exaggerated. He clearly wasn’t 100% as shown by the number of times he was flagged offside when walking back up the pitch. Our main striker still managed to cause the majority of problems and commendably kept going till the end where he nearly scored and then set up Jo. 7

Subs:

Jo – His lack of genuine pace showed when he was played clean through and defenders got back. He still managed to get his shot away and showed some nice touches. Unfortunately the Brazilian missed the chance to win over his critics in injury time as Samba made a last gasp block. 6

Barry – A surprise to see Gareth on the bench and it says something for the lumbering Yaya and Vieira that we missed his dynamism! Some sharp passing and movement gave us a lift when he came on. 7

Silva – Showed some good touches and had the confidence to go for a spectacular volley which was deflected wide. There was enough to warrant a greater role in the upcoming games. 7

Man of the match: Adam Johnson.

Preview: Manchester City v Blackburn Rovers
Verdict: Manchester City 1 Blackburn Rovers 1

Comments

  1. glad to see richards get the credit deserved yesterday, he wasnt an attacking threat (except at set pieces where he seems to be winning everything this season) but he was probably our best defender when they were punting the ball up into our box and handled samba’s attacking threat better than any other defender has in the league this year. we all know his concentration is a problem but when he is on his game like yesterday, he is a very good defender.

    • Cheers Ant, I thought it was a good response from Micah after the criticism he took for the penalty at Sunderland.

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