Wednesday -v- Man City - man of the match

[Andrew6666]

Iorfa, too good for us. 

 

Wildsmith should keep his position for the weekend. 

 

Edited March 4, 2020 by Andrew6666

[roaminowl]

30 minutes ago, Ray Von shabba said:

Who the fizz has voted for Pellypussy

 

People ask this every week...usually about Nuhiu. Can you really not see who's voted?

 

Lord Snooty, by the way.

[Drewswfc]

Iorfa was excellent thought fox had marez in his pocket most of match though

[pachyderm]

Wildsmith!?!? Jesus f.uc.k.i.ng c.h./ri.st he finally gets a agame and it's against City...?

 

 

THIS IS THE STUPIDEST ORGANIZATION IN ENGLAND.  

[myHero]

49 minutes ago, Onge said:

Iorfa. If Wildsmith had just got a stronger hand to the goal, it would have been him.

 

We didn't disgrace ourselves, but we showed zero ambition.

We forget Aguero is striking the ball. 99% of the time, against other strikers,  it's a save 

 

Wildsmith and Iorfa kept the score line respectable.

 

As they were involved in everything else it was no surprise they were involved when we were undone by two world class strikers. 

 

Wildsmith, Iorfa, Bannan, Lee and Murphy showed just a bit more class than everyone else. Can't fault the effort levels of the rest of them. 

 

Without Iorfa though, it would have been the embarrassing result we expected. 

 

Iorfa MOM

 

[nevthelodgemoorowl]

Wildsmith - 9 Some great  saves half a hand on Aguero goal cost him MOM.

 

Palmer - 9 Completely solid throughout.

 

Iorfa - 9.5 A Wonderful performance. His only mistake breaking forward beyond line in last 5 mins.

 

Börner - 7 Steady in alien super star  surrounding .

 

Fox - 8  Comfortable. 
 

Murphy - 8 started brightly but then dropped ever deeper. 

 

Lee - 7 Legs not carrying him as they once did.

 

Pelupessy - 3 The invisible man.

 

Bannan - 8 The target he hits regularly from 40 yards just were not there for him, a little frustrated as the game wore on.

 

Da Cruz - 4 Asking too much too soon, blame Monk.

 

FF - 8 Why on earth would he be subbed off, still had gas in the tank.

 

Monk -Minus two -2.  Those who praise his game plan need to recognise he has given himself nowhere else to go his first 2 subs had already killed us. 

[sheriwozgod]

Wildsmith   -    7.5    Chucked in at the deep end by Monk but made some smart saves, the goal was a pity as he should/could have done better.

 

Palmer    -    7    Aimless passing but defensively much better than of late.

Iorfa    -    9    His performance tonight just highlighted Monks nonsensical decision to drop him and will also have some bottom half of the premier league managers taking note...well done big man.

Borner    -    6    Some very strange decision making....gets an extra point for at least TRYING to keep possession.

Fox    -    5    Neg away lads but I thought he was poor,  his distribution in particular was awful.

 

Murphy   -    7    A few brief moments of quality, one of the few to show any kind of attacking intent

Pelupessy    -    3    I don't care who the opposition are, but for any player to affect a game as little as he did is almost an artform, staggering how he keeps getting games.....even more staggering that some on here rate him.

Lee    -    6    Ran and harried but had very little impact.

Bannan    -    5      I am a Bannan fan but after a bright first 20 mins his performance went downwards quicker than a knackered lift.

 

Da Cruz    -    4    If Monk really has "been aware" of him then he should be nowhere near our summer rebuild......amazing that he stayed on

Forestieri    -    7     Nothing vintage but the only one keeping their defenders honest, ridiculous decision to bring him off

 

Fletcher    -    5    Didn't make much difference

Lees   -    6    Did OK

Hunt    -    6.5    Did more in his first ten minutes as a young un who must have been terrified than Pelupessy has done in his last 3 appearances

 

OVERALL

Cant fault the effort, and we were dogged in defence , but lets be honest they barely got out of first gear and our football was pretty poor.

 

Watching us try and string passes together was actually a bit embarrassing and we should at least have given it a go for the last 20 mins...……….and most annoying of all.............................on tonight of all nights our set pieces were gonna be key and they were laughable, our execution was carp.

 

I know I will probably take stick for some of this but the only reason we kept it respectable was City were having a breather between a cup final and a Mancs derby.

[Errol Flashman]

Iorfa for me. 

Solid thoguhtout. 

 

Forestieri worked his tail off and Murphy had a good game.

 

I won't be picking holes in the team effort tonight though. They all put a shift in against a city eleven that cost £427m and who put most teams to bed without much bother. 

[shandypants]

I really found it hard to separate Wildsmith, Palmer, Iorfa and Fox but I plumped for Palmer because he performed well all game even though he had a (harshly awarded) yellow card hanging over him. 

[pat blondeau]

2 hours ago, McRightSide said:

Wildsmith - 7 wonderful saves in the second half, but ultimately a mistake that cost the game. Nice to see a keeper actually save some shots though

 

Palmer - 9 never felt like his side was a major issue for us. Looked relatively comfortable for the most part

 

Iorfa - 10 given the opposition that was a wonderful performance. Shame Monk has a rash towards playing him with Börner for 90 mins

 

Börner - 7 a little bit harem scarem but we gave away zero shots on target and he (sometimes unadvisablely) tried to play a bit of football. Shouldn’t have wasted a sub

 

Fox - 8 was in for a tough night against a real footballing elite and did pretty well. 
 

Murphy - 8 started brightly but then spent most of his time mucking out with Palmer in the RB slot...which he did very well at 

 

Lee - 7 tracked, harried, hustled...passing wasn’t quite as sharp as usual.

 

Pelupessy - 5 meh. Waste of a shirt

 

Bannan - 8 one of a few who looked like the actually had the ability to retain the ball. Worked damn hard defensively. Completely ran out of beans on 75 mins

 

Da Cruz - 4 abject

 

FF - 8 like Bannan, looked our best option to cause problems by actually having some mastery over the ball.

 

Monk - hmm game plan was fine, glad we had a couple of players willing to get forward. Didn’t mind we tried to keep it tight and go for an equaliser in the last 10...problem was his terrible first 2 subs had already killed us. 

 

Are some of those marks a wind up? We had one shot in 90 minutes and none on target.

 

Agree Iorfa was class tonight, Wildsmith did well and most of the rest put a shift in but player ratings of 8s, 9s and 10s?

[Guest]

3 hours ago, Morepork said:

The commentator said weak hand from Wildsmith but it wasn't. Watch it again, his hand is just slightly too low, that results in the lift and top spin on the ball, Same end result mind. I felt he deserved a bit more luck, did a solid job IMO.

 

I think he will be a bit disappointed with the goal but overall he did well. Made some very good saves, looked more assured than Dawson has done recently which was good to see considering the level of opposition and the length of time since he played for the first team. His handling was very good when dealing with a few tricky crosses that bounced in front of him.

 

Iorfa played well but will also be disappointed with how much room he gave Aguero for the goal. Difficult to give anyone much credit in an attacking sense but at least we kept our shape, worked to the plan and stayed in the game against a top quality side.  

[Morepork]

3 minutes ago, hirstyboywonder said:

 

I think he will be a bit disappointed with the goal but overall he did well. Made some very good saves, looked more assured than Dawson has done recently which was good to see considering the level of opposition and the length of time since he played for the first team. His handling was very good when dealing with a few tricky crosses that bounced in front of him.

 

Iorfa played well but will also be disappointed with how much room he gave Aguero for the goal. Difficult to give anyone much credit in an attacking sense but at least we kept our shape, worked to the plan and stayed in the game against a top quality side.  

Absolutely, I think Wildsmith would be happy overall and a little disappointed if he’s not starting next game.

 

Iorfa made a couple of errors where he was able to recover due to his athleticism but the one lapse in concentration that let Aguero in is the difference at this level.

 

You don’t ever want to be happy with a defeat but being realistic I felt we did well all things considered. We faired no worse than many teams in the Prem have when up against that City team.

 

Just be good if for once we can build on the positives and not revert to type.

[The Night-Owl]

Voted Wildsmith, first start in ages, made some decent saves and looked better than Dawson has for quite a while. Stand out performances for me were Wildsmith; Iorfa, Fox, Palmer, Forestieri, Murphy and Hunt.

[SupremeOwl]

Iorfa for me, class as always and could easily make the step up. 

 

Thought Wildsmith had a good game, unlucky for the goal but should definitely be given a chance in the league on that performance and I think it should give Dawson something to think about going forward which is no bad thing for anyone. 

 

Also impressed with Hunt. Seemed to really get stuck in from the minute he stepped onto the pitch and whipped in a decent ball towards the end for fletch. Definitely one to watch going forward and it'd be great to see more like him coming through in future. 

[Guest Kagoshimaowl]

Wildsmith 7 excellent saves but at fault for the goal

Palmer 7

Iorfa 8 immense. Even outpaced Sterling at the end

Borner 5 he really isn’t that good

Murphy 6 battled hard in wing back role 

Fox 7

Pelupessy 5 he’s pants

Bannan 5 struggled 

Lee 5 struggled 

Forestieri 6 worried them a bit before fading

Da Cruz 3 rubbish 

 

Fletcher 5

Lees 4 he’s so bad now it’s unreal 

Hunt 6.5 was pleased. Looked so much better than in previous performances

 

Proud that the players worked hard but we were dire going forward. Observations 

1) On that showing, Wildsmith is miles better than Dawson. Whether he can play like that in every game, I don’t know

2) Lees and Borner are struggling massively. Really wish Hutch could play alongside Iorfa

3) Da Cruz is awful.  Got technique but not good enough

 

On to the weekend now for what is a huge  game. Want to see Windass in and Fletcher starting.

Edited March 5, 2020 by Kagoshimaowl

[A E Neuman NYowl]

I think if we has played an open game Man City would have ripped us apart tonite, by sacrificing midfield and packing the defence it helped cut out the space for them to operate in.

At some point though we had to try to score a goal and we just hadn't got a clue on how to get the ball forward. If we hadn't used all of our subs Nuhiu would have been useful for the last 20 mins.

 

Tonite also showed how lazy some of our players are, Man City's players were far more mobile than a lot of ours.

 

Wildsmith.   9 MOM  The best goalkeeping performance by any of our keepers this season, several excellent saves and good kicking. More agile than Dawson.

 

Fox.            7.  Did his defensive work well but passing was poor and couldn't get forward.

Borner.       5.  I don't know what has happened to him. Thought he was all over the place and very slow but at least we didn't concede while he was on the pitch.

Iorfa.          9  His incredible  pace was esssential against the Man City forward line.  First touch is a ibit dodgy at times.

Palmer.      7. Same as a Fox.

 

Pelupessy. 5. An extra body blocking space in front of our defence.

Lee.           6  An extra body blocking space in front of our defence but a bit better at it than Joey.

Bannan.     5. Closed down space but was just brushed aside by more physical Man City players. Did his usual pass and stand still rather than pass and move which we really needed tonite.

 

Murphy.     7. The best of our forwards but was crowded out hen he tried to break.

Da Cruz.    4  Really offered nothing

FF.             6.  Tried hard but like Murphy he was simply crowded out.

 

Subs

 

Lees.         6. In the first half we were all over the place in the air and I think he helped curb that in the second half, but he is just so poor on the deck.

Fletcher.    6. Nothing to work with but at least he shows for the ball.

Hunt.         7. Not on for long and we shouldn't get carried away, but showed a lot of energy and endeavour and also put in our best ball of the night.

 

Monk.      I can see what he was trying to do tonite sacrifice midfield and cut out space in our defensive third, but using the subs like he did left us with no options when we had to give it a go at the end.

 

[torres]

Not watched it back but was Wildsmith unlucky or at fault for the goal

Seemed he was a bit weak at the time to me

[OxonOwl]

11 hours ago, Morepork said:

The commentator said weak hand from Wildsmith but it wasn't. Watch it again, his hand is just slightly too low, that results in the lift and top spin on the ball, Same end result mind. I felt he deserved a bit more luck, did a solid job IMO.

 

This!

 

I think he was a bit unlucky.

 

Of course he will think he should have got his hand right behind it but it could have spun anywhere.

[The only way is S6]

Voted Wildsmith. Chucked in at the deep end & didn't look overwhelmed. Would have been 3 or 4 if it wasn't for him. Better kicking & handling than Dawson too.

 

One small gripe; with 2 minutes to go he had it in his hands from a City cross, & amazingly, we had 2 players on halfway, but he chose to throw it towards Foxy bingo & straight out of play! 

 

[Guest LittleG]

One clear winner, Iorfa