Well hopefully people have calmed down a bit now, I haven't read this rant thread so its possible that I'll repeat a few things, but hey ho.
Firstly a poor team performance, it goes without saying, but there was no sign of this new style of play we are supposed to have. The only notable change from last seasons away games was the defending of set peices, it was worse, defending a very high line for the ones from distance, man marking instead of zonal (though at times it wasn't obvious we were doing either) for the shorter ones/corners.
Midfield too slow, but passing was poorer, and resulted in us giving the ball away far too often, this was also evident against Newcastle, but largely ignored because of the result.
Upfront neither starter played well, and were aided by a poor performance from Silva, who needs to play the simple ball more often.
Worst thing for me was the similarity of the type of team we struggle against. Despite the punditry which I have mostly not listened too, Cardiff weren't any of hte following, superb, brilliant, magnificent, they didn't need to be, average was all they needed to be, because we helped them with 3 awful goals, and while I've no doubt Garcia and Lescott are getting it in the neck, Clichy and Zaba were the culprits, Clichy hasn't looked good for a while now, I'll give Zaba the benefit as it was rare poor game for him.
Sadly the similarity to games last season was all to obvious, a team playing tight at the back, and pressing hard to win the ball back, and we just wilted, then there were the subs, all poor in my opinion.
So what have we learned ? What has MP learned ? Hopefully that spouting off about the best squad etc, comes back to bite you on the arse, and that names on a team sheet mean f**k all when it gets to being on the grass. No disrespect to any Cardiff fans reading this, but how on earth did our 14 players not beat their 14 players yesterday ? There's not a single player in their squad that should get anywhere near our squad, and yet, once again we've lost to team that were better prepared and more up for it than we were.
My ratings on ours
Hart - 5, needs a rocket up his arse
Zaba - 5, a poor game by his standards but he' s due the odd one.
Clichy - 4, not in any kind of form, worst player against Newcastle, no better here
Garcia - 5, had little to do, but looked out of his depth again
Lescott - 6, the best of the 5 at the back but its not saying much
Yaya - 5, on cruise control again, didn't do any of the things he's good at, but plenty of those that make him look an average player
Fernandihno - 5, needs to get a grip quickly, whilst he wins the ball a lot, gives the ball away far too often, you can't do that in this league
Silva - 5, tried hard, but was ineffective, too many attempted glory passes ending up with a loss of possession, thought he was MoM against Newcastle,
Navas - 6, our biggest threat, why was he taken off, didn't have a great game by any means but once off we created nothing
Dzeko - 6, I'm not his biggest fan, and this game is the reason why, great goal, but his contribution otherwise was next to nothing, often not where we need him, in the box, but we didn't play to his strengths either
Aguero - 6, worked hard, but again ineffective, and we don't play to his strengths often enough
Subs
Nasri - 4, woeful contribution, sideways, sideways, backwards
Milner - 5, too little too late
Negredo - not on long enough to give a mark, good goal
MP - 5, lots to learn about the PL, lets hope he does it quickly, or any title chase will be over before it starts
Overall a very bad day at the office, maybe this was the wake up call we needed, and having it this early might be a good thing, but we need to improve hugely away from home.
