MAN CITY 4 – 0 Aston Villa – PLAYER RATINGS

8 May

Hart - Misjudged one cross, which sailed over his head and almost resulted in a consolation for the visitors but even he might have been surprised by how infrequently he was otherwise involved - 6

Zabaleta - In a game during which we notched a century of Premier League goals for the season and witnessed flashes of attacking brilliance, it says plenty of Zabaleta’s all-action performance that he was still the standout star. Bearing in mind he has rarely benefited from a rest this season, his fitness levels must be immense to bomb forward with such regularity and then he consistently displays composure with his final ball to create opportunities. Supplied the first two and a just recipient of the man of the match award - 9

Kompany - Dealt comfortably with Aston Villa’s rare forays forward and almost opened the scoring himself with an audacious overhead kick - 6

Demichelis – Spent much of the game in a midfield role, offering himself at all times as an option to receive the ball and moving it along efficiently. Defensively, he coped as required - 7

Kolarov - One of the main threats in the first half with his constant surges down the left and his delivery was dangerous, crashing the ball across with pace and swerve. With Pellegrini’s rotation at left-back seemingly operating on a game-by-game basis, it will be interesting to see who gets the nod at the weekend - 8

Garcia - As expected, with the onus on City to break the visitors down, Garcia was superfluous in the middle. It’s not that he did anything wrong, it’s just that he was a complete bystander as we didn’t need such a one-dimensional player to sit in front of the defence - 6

Y. Touré - He struggled in the first hour to create the breakthrough, repeatedly chipping balls over the top that didn’t quite work, but once we scored the opener he overwhelmed Villa’s backline with his power. As for his goal, the biggest compliment that can be paid to him is that as soon as he picked the ball up in our half and turned, you knew what the final result would be - 8

Milner - Whereas many of City’s creative stars preferred the ball to feet as they hovered around the final third, Milner was a bundle of intelligent movement, always looking to create space for himself and others. He offers a crucial variety to our endeavours and was perhaps a touch unfortunate to be taken off early in the second half - 7

Nasri - Prodded and probed early on, but without much space in behind Villa he found it tough to display his guile and invention. Positive in possession, though, and didn’t shirk responsibility - 6

Silva - Bright in patches but didn’t seem quite at his best, maybe a result of rushing him back a touch early from injury. Always hints at unlocking the defensive door, however, and it was his majestic pass which released Zabaleta to create the opener - 6

Džeko - In his own mercurial way, he has been key over the past couple of months. As Sergio Aguero has struggled with injury and Alvaro Negredo has struggled for form, Dzeko has plodded on with his goalscoring, not always pretty but often effective. It was a similar story last night. His overall work was iffy but then he scored the two goals which sent us towards the points - 7

Subs

Jovetic - Every glimpse of him seems to be an uplifting, teasing one. Took his goal with clinical composure and there were positive signs of his trickery around the box. If he can remain injury-free, it’ll be exciting to watch him next season - 7

Fernandinho - A surprise to see him on the bench once again, especially at home when his energy and creativity from deeper areas could have been useful. Relished the freedom in the last few minutes to drift forward - 6

Negredo – Couldn’t quite race on to one through ball in the closing stages - No time to mark

18 Responses to “MAN CITY 4 – 0 Aston Villa – PLAYER RATINGS”

  1. @btb42 on Twitter 08/05/2014 at 5:32 pm #

    Now you rate Dzeko very low. He scored 2 goals and practically won us the game. He doesn’t deserve an 8 at least? And Zabaleta’s 9 is too high. I would rate him with an 8. Silva 7 Kolarov 7

  2. Valentino Azzurro 08/05/2014 at 5:54 pm #

    Your continued antipathy to ‘Jerry’ Garcia I find staggering. Maybe because he’s not showy, just gets on unobtrusively with robbing people and laying the ball off.
    Edin, I think you have right, for his tendency to drift in and out of a game; frequent failure to compete in a one-to-one ; generally poor movement off the ball, all have me shouting and swearing at the TV. Then, blow me, he’s scored!

    • Ryan 08/05/2014 at 6:39 pm #

      Agree with you on Garcia, I really don’t see much difference between Garcia and what Barry used to do, yet Barry was praised every single match..

      Oh well, 1 point more is all that matters!

      • Alphie-Izzett 09/05/2014 at 2:18 pm #

        When Garcia has a poor game you slate him VfaB, when he plays a really tight and important game for us you damn with these comments, which I have read so often I think you just cut and paste it! He was not superfluous, he was everything that he was supposed to be and simply doesn’t deserve the criticism.

        As for Edin Dzeko, the best you can say is that he plodded on! There have been a few games when I have felt deeply disappointed in his contribution, but usually what I find is that I hold my head in anguish at the occasional trapped ball that travels further than I could have kicked it, the skied shot that comes down somewhere along Princess Street with icicles on it, or the soft topple to the deck followed by anguished waggling of his arms, but this is transitory. I simply know that he gets into great positions and I know that he always will. I know that he will fail to take a decent opportunity and then bag a great goal and what I know more than anything else is that he will be where he needs to be to tap it in. He knows where he wants the ball and we have the players; Yaya, Merlin, Zaba, Jesus, Jimmy, Aleks, who can put it there.

        In the list of ‘minutes of play per goals’ scored in PL history he is in 6th place with a goal every 135 minutes. Kun heads that list, Teary Enry is second; Edin has scored 46 goals in 107 games for City, 9 in the last 10 PL games. In any other club in this land of ours he would be legendary, he is twice the player that the Goat was and does it at the highest level, something Shaun Goater never managed; all his great seasons were played in the second level getting us promoted but whenever he comes back to City he is lauded and rightly so.

        As the youth of today might put it in their succinct ether-babble:

        FFS what does Edin have to do to gain a bit of respect?

        Alph

  3. ad 08/05/2014 at 7:06 pm #

    Oh man, Toure really doesn’t deserve an 8. He didn’t do much until he scored the goal (magnificent goal though). Dzeko should have an 8.

  4. Blue Bullet 08/05/2014 at 7:59 pm #

    In relation to Garcia v Barry comment above I would argue Barry was a touch more incisive with his passing and was a player who seemed more involved during the course of a game in terms of interceptions, tackles and making himself available.

    It is hard to imagine how Dzeko has been so vital recently and has scored the goals that might win us the league yet he has never scored above 7 on here. You could argue football is about scoring goals but at the same time his general play has still been pretty poor; I wouldn’t want anyone else up front this Sunday though. Dzeko is the enigma, wrapped in a puzzle, wrapped in a mystery, or something like that :)

    • Alphie-Izzett 09/05/2014 at 2:27 pm #

      Agreed that Barry, at his best, was a more acomplished player than Garcia.

      Aslo agree with your Winston Churchill (almost) quote.

      “I cannot forecast to you the action of Russia. It is a riddle wrapped in a mystery inside an enigma; but perhaps there is a key.”

      Substitute ‘Dzeko’ for ‘Russia’ and that probably sums up our Edin nicely. Perhaps the ‘key ‘ is that you have to have something a bit special about you to be there in just the right place, time after time, to score nearly one goal per two games, at the very highest level of football, and yet still be percieved by many to be a clumsy, lazy missfit!

      • Blue Bullet 09/05/2014 at 3:28 pm #

        Haha, I knew you’d know it word for word Alph :)

  5. Mathew Ridyard 08/05/2014 at 8:54 pm #

    I think it is time for me and my fellow “Dzeko Doubters,” VFAB included to admit that without Dzeko we would not have beaten QPR to clinch the title two seasons ago. Arguably his goal was as crucial as Aguero’s.

    Now, he has scored two critical goals against Everton and two against Villa.

    Anybody bet against him scoring against West Ham?

    Time to face it, his control is wonky and he misses a lot of chances. However, HE IS A BIG GAME PLAYER!!!!

  6. Glenn Kavanagh 08/05/2014 at 9:45 pm #

    I’m fretting like an expectant mother here, dzeko lethal from four yards eh??, he has the nose that’s all that matters now… I think its fair to say that he’s earned everybody’s respect’ really all this talk of 6,7,8 is irrelevant’ he played very well along with the rest of the team, zaba was really awesome – I’d like him to be a bit more greedy at times in front of goal, any news about Sergio folks???, let’s do this-no mercy!!!!!!!

  7. Siamack 08/05/2014 at 10:13 pm #

    Football is all about being clinical not how good you play and excite others. It is true Dzeko is daft with his foot-work, low workrate or anything else folks can think about; however, he is a clinical striker. As long as he manages to score and win us game, I got no issue with all his other short-comings.

    As for Barry, I personally think he is way better than Garcia and I take him anytime over Garcia hands-down. But this does not take anything away from Garcia’s good performances in the past few games. He has been covering for the back 4 well while keeping things simple.

  8. Dj Cena 09/05/2014 at 12:34 am #

    Like it or not dzeko has proved himself that he’s a world class striker.
    According to me when you play as a striker you need to scores goal that all.
    Rating dzeko with 7 it is being disrespectfully not just to him but to man city as well.
    Jovetic only got 1 goal and you wanna rate him with a 7 as dzeko?
    It’s pointless to come here and read what you are writing?
    I don’t thing you watch city’s game. You probably listen to it on the radio
    Thank you @btb42,, @blue bullet,, @Mathew, @matt

    • jac 09/05/2014 at 1:04 pm #

      If you think Edin is World class you must be deluded.

      • Blue Bullet 09/05/2014 at 1:45 pm #

        Its hard to say he is world class, I would suggest with his style of play he would need to score 30 plus goals a season in the league alone to be considered that good. Suggesting being deluded for thinking that is a little over the top though, he is a very decent goal scorer

        • Jimski 09/05/2014 at 2:14 pm #

          Guys,
          you must all be very young….its only a few seasons since a god-like figure dressed in Bermudan style was knocking them in from 1,2,3,6,8 yards off his knee, arse, chest, stomach and occasionally boot. He was a goatly deity and I think Edin comes from the same mould. My advice, stop listening to the Sky critics and reading the papers and use the money to invest in a season ticket.
          Make no mistake – in part at least, we owe this title to Mr Dzeko and I for one will drop to my knees praying the chant of “we are not worthy” if I cross him in the street.
          (I attended 3 divisions and have a memory)
          J

    • @btb42 on Twitter 09/05/2014 at 2:14 pm #

      Jovetic rating was good but you are right Dzeko HAD to be rated higher. He scored two goals and with the game still fluid at 0-0 and 1-0, not with the scoreline being 2-0 at 85′. Actually I believe that when someone plays with so deep defence, strikers like Dzeko (tall, heavy strikers) tend to play a rather frustrating role, trying to win space for others and attracting defenders to open room for someone else to run or shoot. And that’s why their tend to be underestimated.

  9. Blue Bullet 09/05/2014 at 3:33 pm #

    I hope you’re not aiming that at me in anyway Jimski, as your comment is wildly inaccurate if you are.

  10. Eduardo Kanjkov 09/05/2014 at 3:39 pm #

    No disrespect to last 2 goals in the game but win was in a bag with Edin’s two goals scored earlier. Luckily Pelle has good understanding to what he may lose if Edin goes somewhere else.
    And that is why he will try to convince him to stay.

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