Today i think we saw the first real sign of what Laudrups swans are all about, we played some sublime stuff at times and embarassed the richest team in the world, if somebody came down from another planet they would think the swans were the playboy millionaire 200k a week footballers! of course city had one or two chances and tevez goal was straight out of the "world class strike" book, but for me the performance was probably more important than the result!! being dissapointed we didnt get a draw or win says it all for me and i thought tactically we were streets ahead of city for long periods. It was quite incredible to witness us outplaying them for long periods and our posession stats showed we dominated them over the 90mins. so, what did we learn today ?? i thought we saw our team come of age today, laudrups class of 2012 has alot more in its locker than ever before and to see city getting bossed around and their defenders getting cramp proved it,we could never have worried man city like this on their turf with brenden,we just wouldnt have the quality to take it to them, that looks like changing with laudrup as he can sign talent that wants to play for him and no one else. Im not going overboard,we got beat but even the most one eyed of city fans would agree they got out of jail, here s my take on the players today Vorm- 7 didnt have alot to do, made some good saves, tevez goal was why big clubs will never sign him, 8 inches taller and he would have got his fingers to it!! all said and done you have to also admit it was an awesome strike tight into the corner. Williams- 7 Best game this season, looked up for it and done the basics well, sticking his head into mario told me he was well up for it too,lately he has been a bit lazy IMO, ash is at his best when the pressure is on and he seems to try harder against the "stars" Chico - 8 Awesome today for me, getting better with each game and getting better as a unit with ash. made some lung bursting runs and his passing was superb, great to see us have a physical guy at the back who takes no **** !! Rangel - 7 seems to be so steady these days, great going forward and decent at the back, looks comfortable against premier league players . Davies - 7 Absolutly woeful passing from him yet again but stuck to his task and didnt let his head drop,his positional play was better but sometimes looked a bit clueless when knowing what to do with the ball, must have learnt alot from today and didnt disgrace himself at all, got skinned by balotelli but hit him with a cruching tackle minutes later which said"**** you" i aint being beaten, i was thinking he would be terribly exposed in this game,as it was it wasnt the onslaught we were expecting,this helped our defence but take nothing away from Ben, he must have balls like water melons after todays game and he will feel like he can manage this level, i can see the reason why Laudrup stayed with him,a gamble that looks like paying off. well done Ben,great battling Pablo - 4 Sorry to say but he has had a chance and has ballsed it up !! he is a class player but his confidence looks totally shot for some reason, ive seen him playing in La Liga and the guy is exceptional,his touch is spot on, here he cant even trap a bag of cement !! does some nice things and i think he is trying too hard to impress,needs to be dropped down to the bench now, looks like he will need more time to adapt to the prem league which is fair enough i guess. Routledge - 7 Solid, tracked back gave the city full backs plenty to think about and looked like a £20m pound wide player,has the skills to pay the bills and now has the arrogance to show them off,worked hard for the team. Britton - 6 His worst game for us this season but still did pretty well overall, some early wayward passing and his game was a bit loose today, he is up against some of the best in the world though!! JDG - 8 His best game for us,had a steady influence on the game and used the ball far better than he has done of late, it shows that he needed game time to get up to speed and it helps that he is playing in his favoured position, but ,cream rises to the top and thats what we saw today, he has set himself a bench mark now he needs to maintain it Ki - 7 steady game but good with his passing and kept his shape well, didnt give away the ball much which helped us massively, a calming influence on our midfieldand would have taken a big chunk of confidence in going up aagainst the best and coming out even at least. Michu - 8 Not many players give Kompany a hard day at the office but michu did! worked his bollocks off and was an arial threat which is something that we havent had for donky's years !! at one point in the game he was back defending a corner then moved out and closed down midfield,then pushed onto the defence then chased down the keeper!! simply immense..with and without the ball Laudrup is adding options to our gameplan, kicking the ball longer and actually winning the knock downs means we start passing in the right area and that takes pressure of the defence, we wil then pass it out from the back and move the opposition around, all the time its making the us difficult to work out, its still a work in progress but i see the logic in mixing things up a bit. Its no suprise Laudrup has made a point of increasing the height in the team, look at the spine nowadays Chico Ki Michu Ithink its also the reason Ben davies has progressed into the team,his height is an advantage and i dont think its by luck that these boys are tall! of course thay are all fantastic fottballers as well but its giving us something we havent had the last few years. Overall im really impressed by the players and manager today, players looked relaxed and up fot it and manager was tactically spot on. One thing for me is that Nathen needs to start next game,pablo had a shocker today and we cant have proven talent on the bench waiting to get on for a guy that aint cutting it, the season is very young for pablo so i can understand that he aint at the peak of his powers, with 3 awesome wide players in our squad they cant afford to be carried and thats what is happening when pablo plays right now. He needs more time to adapt, he WILL be some player for us im sure but right now it aint working,Dyer to start next match for me Thoughts on the great performance today ??
NJ agree to some extent we were good very good and to be honest I feel I'm nitpicking to a certain extent, Chico has a rush of blood to the head and when attacking should play the percentage ball other than shooting...Ash for me still not as good as last year is so willing to shout the odds at others and gives me palpatations when he puts the ball back to Vorm. Totally agree about Rangel, he was great today and really worried the citeh with his presence and passing. Davies for me is growing into the role but still lacks the finnese and final ball that Niel has. For me Michu is fast becoming a legend, he got up, bloodied but unbowed and carried on regardless. Laudrup has the vision to take us on to the next level, I feel he has the expertise and his astute buys will see us comfortable at the end of the season and then, with the extra income, next year who knows , but I've started a Euro pot for away matches .........
Love the optimism FFS europot eh? sounds like something you buy in amsterdam! i take your point about chico, but as long as he is getting cover from a midfielder dropping in then it should be no problem, it may well be something that laudrup is also working on, having a centre half ghosting in from nowhere will certainly suprise a few people!! i havent seen the replay but im sure Ki just sat deep when chico was off runnning with the ball. Ash for me is battling back, nothing like being up against the best to focus the mind and i think he needs that from time to time. Ben ,well his passing was terrible the passes he did make were almost always 50/50 balls, he will get better and should take great heart from today, lucky for us they didnt target him .
Very true but it was better than our last time there that's for sure. I'm not knocking Ben, to be fair he's done well even though he seems Ashs' allways shouting at him. KI, as you rightly said, did hold back when Chico went forward and held the midfield superbly well alongside Leon. I just feel a more clinical ball would finish our movements better, when you watch the replay you'll notice Chico pushing forward and the Citeh box was loaded , you'll see him shoot when in my opinion a wide ball to Rangel was the better option. Still though i's a loss today I see so many positives it's great to be a SWAN. The ESPN commentators comment, '' The premiere team in Wales taking on the premier team in England '' had a nice ring to it as well !
Good assessment. Got to agree on Hernandez. He looks a bit lightweight, tries to play passes that aren't possible and didn't attack the oppo. Dyer always attacks the , puts them on the back foot and needs to start next game. Ben Davies is progressing well and defence can't be blamed for the goal. Plenty of positives from the game, shame about Vorm but I'm sure we'll be fine.
Its so typical for us this season,that as soon as we make a step forward we get a crucial injury to a key player !! hopefully vorm isnt out for too long as i personally dont rate tremmal at all
Think the assesment of Ben is a little harsh. He has struggled to adapt, who wouldn't. He's been thrown right in at the deepend. Yesterday though, I thought he did very well. There were a few stray passes, but overall I thought he didn't look to fazed by the fact he had the likes of Tevez, Nasri and Aguero running at him. Big improvement from him and fills me with confidence. Chico is improving every game. Made a fantastic slide tackle in the box, and didn't let much through. Pablo, agree. Needs to be dropped and Dyer deserves his place back in the team. Routledge.....Who? Is this the same journeyman who was told he would never make it as a PL player? WTF has ML been giving the guy. Absolutely awesome, AGAIN. Scott who?
Of our three wingers Pablo is by far the better crosser and gets into far more dangerous positions in the box. The cross for Michu when he had his bell rung was just perfect. I don't think he played that badly yesterday. He did ok against Clichy defensively and looked more dangerous than Dyer. I like him starting.
