I'm not sure what people expect from Toure. Dominating possession against a three man midfield was mostly down to him, he was the deep orchestrator of everything. He's not playing a box to box role this year, it looks to me that Pellegrini has asked him to sit deeper and so he isn't doing those lung busting runs he did last year. It doesn't get the best out of him, but it gets the best out of the system and if Agueros touch hadn't deserted him in the first half, we could have been three nil up and Toures individual performance would not have been critiqued at all. He's become a bit of a scapegoat where there are other bigger culprits for me.
In terms of his mentality and state of mind, people only need to look at his performances at the World Cup to see that the dip in form he has gone through is not a city only thing. As I'm sure anyone who has gone through grief knows, it can quite easily have an impact on your work and I trust Pellegrini completely in his judgment and allowing Toure to play his way back in to form - that goal today, which was excellent, will hopefully do him the world of good.
Is he (and his agent) an idiot? Absolutely. He's a professional footballer, most of them are. He is still one of our best assets though and has been an integral to our success over the past few years. For me, that coupled with the off the pitch issues he has suffered recently, I think he deserves a bit more slack than some people seem willing to give.
If we retain the title this year, part of it will be down to Toure. When he is on song, he changes us from being a very good team to a great team.
