I'd have taken a draw before the game, but 3-3 is as good as 1-1 I guess, but I like the fact that we matched city and had them worrying a lot. Ratings - Pope - 8 - Some cracking saves and blocks Trippier - 8 - Got caught out a few times but mostly solid and great goal Botman - 4 - Some sloppy errors and seemed to be at fault for the goal as he stepped out and let bernardo slip in. Almost gave away a goal in the first half trying to be too clever. Early days though. Schar - 6 - Some good blocks. Decent enough game against a tough city side, cannot be too critical. Burn - 8 - Solid throughout the game at lb. Joelinton - 8 - Tank. Bruno - 8 - He's settling in well into that deep lying CM spot. Willock - 7 - I'll give him a 7. Thought he did well with his runs and got us up the pitch, just lacking the final ball quality. ASM - 10 - MOTM - Technically 3 assists. 2 goal set ups and won the free kick. When you get a hatrick of assists you need a 10/10 rating as a midfielder. Wilson - 8 - Good hold up play, great goal. Was dangerous. Almiron - 8.5 - Fantastic game. Really caused city problems, could have easily had more than 1 goal.
Essentially agree except Botman’s score. Would give him a 6 as well and same comment as you gave Schar.
Loads of tweets on twitter from Brazillians literally fuming that Tite isn't going to watch Big Joe. Sounds like there is starting to be a swell of opinion between the Brazil fans that he needs to be in the side.
Disagree with Burn. Thought he was a bit of a weakness. He struggles with people running at him. I'd give him a 5
Disagree. Thought he won a lot in the air, and sympathise with the fact that he was playing at LB as well. He wasn't really much at fault for anything yesterday. I thought he read the game well. I didn't see him doing much wrong besides once making a poor run.
Wooooooooooooowweeeeeeeeee WHAT A GAME! Agree with the ratings bar Botman, he was clearly designated to man mark Haarland so while he could have been more aware of Bernardo slipping through for the equalizer think he had his hands full with Haarland but was a 6 for me. Pope unlucky not to be MOTM (I'd have given him a 10 as well) but Maxi had probably his best game for us. He really is starting to get the end product to go with the skill. As everyone and their dog said at the weekend he needs to produce that week in week out now. Really impressed with Eddie though - the tactics were spot on and exploited the inverted full backs for City and on another day we could have scored more against a world class team. Defensively it was individual and team errors - first we had Joe, Maxi and BDB all over the place for Bernardo's assist - no one knew which man to go to, the second from a set piece, not winning the second ball and Haarland escaped his marker and the third Botman pushed out with Haarland but Willock should have closed the KDB pass and not let it through his legs. Hopefully we'll see a decent cup game Tuesday with the first team given a rest and those vying for places putting in a good performance and then on to a big game against Wolves - if we can get three points there we will have more points on the board by the end of August than we did at the beginning of December last year. Man U, West Ham, Leicester and Wolves all finished above us last year in the hunt for European places - currently have a combined 2 points, (-)15 GD and no win between them, early day's I know but if we can keep up our form in the second half of the season we are looking good. Form since January - DWWWDWWWLLLWWWWLLWWWDD P22 W13 D4 L5
Haarland is going to be very difficult to mark for any defender and is going to draw players in to leave space for City's other forwards to move into, I doubt many teams are going to handle him at all.
The way he breezed through Schar and Botman and left Botman sprawling on the floor in his wake was scary. He could have 5 if it weren't for Pope, Foden not squaring and just missing with the second chance from a corner. The save on to the post was world class and the way Pope came out and spread himself big was immense. Feel sorry for Dubz as he did nothing to lose his place, he was a big part of the upturn in form when coming back last 2 seasons but you can't deny Pope deserves the Jersey atm.
