Jack Rodwell

[Mark - TheBlue]

Good tackling looked composed on the ball. Made a mistake but apart from that I thought he did okay. Only his first game I would play De Jong at Anfield and Rodwell for the home games help him get used to playing with the team.

 

[alera]

Well some points from the game and bench. K toure cant see him playing for us again, not even on the bench. AJ is definately going as well it seems he wasnt on the bench either.

I dont buy the "They were on international duty". I mean he could have given De Jong and Milner a half each, they both know our system.

It was a very strange decision to play him from the start, for the whole game in fact.

 

[Damocles]

It's just how Mancini manages his players. They all get a guaranteed start when they first come. It teaches the staff and the other players about them in a high pressure game situation and also introduces the fans to them. After that, as Gary Neville would say, the work starts now.

People tend to read long term thing into this; I wouldn't. He's a player who can cope in the PL but is not quite there in terms of CL quality. That's okay though, he's young and will come on leaps and bounds watching Gareth Barry, legitimately one of the smartest football players I've ever watched, and Yaya Toure, a man who has a perfect rhythm for attack and defence. Lots more to come from him, and he fit into our system well enough.

His early tackle to save the runner was nice, his passing was generally good and he covered his ground well. Excited for the future of him; we'll see his real worth come the ACON where he should slot into the Yaya role.

 

[kinkysleftfoot]

We need a better defensive partner for Kompany that is all.I can't see lescott doing well against rooney and rvp.

It was kompany who was off the pace not lescott

 

[taconinja]

We need a better defensive partner for Kompany that is all.I can't see lescott doing well against rooney and rvp.

It was kompany who was off the pace not lescott

Wasn't Lescott's poor clearance responsible for their first goal?

 

[Deleted member 14625]

We need a better defensive partner for Kompany that is all.I can't see lescott doing well against rooney and rvp.

It was kompany who was off the pace not lescott

Wasn't Lescott's poor clearance responsible for their first goal?

Solely Joleon wasn't responsoible, no. It was giving the ball away further up the pitch, Kompany legging it out to stupidly dive in on nobody leaving others marking more than one man and, yes, some part of it was the ball hitting Joleon's legs and going straight to their player.

Overall Joleon had a better game than Vincent, who was all over the place, yesterday.

 

[taconinja]

It was kompany who was off the pace not lescott

Wasn't Lescott's poor clearance responsible for their first goal?

Solely Joleon wasn't responsoible, no. It was giving the ball away further up the pitch, Kompany legging it out to stupidly dive in on nobody leaving others marking more than one man and, yes, some part of it was the ball hitting Joleon's legs and going straight to their player.

Overall Joleon had a better game than Vincent, who was all over the place, yesterday.

Kompany was a bit all over certainly.

 

[alexnash13]

If i was to ignore his mistake which lead to the goal, he'd be my MoM.

He made a really good few sliding tackles, i think his first touch was a sliding tackle, from behind, inside the box. The lad has got some balls to do that on his debut. Honestly didn't know what the hype was about him, now i do. And to be fair he made a mistake which lead to the goal, but he seemed to pick himself right back up and not let it bother him. Solid performance.

 

[Blue Elmo]

That one bad pass shouldn't bring his entire performance down. I thought first half he was one of our best players, very calm on the ball, and I think for that bad pass, he was maybe too calm. But as a midfielder he is promising, he is big, strong, technically sound and looks like a real box to box player. I was impressed with him, but by the end I think his inexperience showed a bit, he was out of position at times and made us look a bit more open. But he looks so far like a top player, and he'll only get better with age.

 

[taconinja]

If i was to ignore his mistake which lead to the goal, he'd be my MoM.

He made a really good few sliding tackles, i think his first touch was a sliding tackle, from behind, inside the box. The lad has got some balls to do that on his debut. Honestly didn't know what the hype was about him, now i do. And to be fair he made a mistake which lead to the goal, but he seemed to pick himself right back up and not let it bother him. Solid performance.

I think he dropped off way too far once he made that mistake and not just on the resulting counter. It helped them maintain possession too close to our box during the final parts of the match.

That said, he looked very up for it until that mistake. Hopefully with both him and Savic, it's just youth and inexperience that shakes their confidence so easily.

And honestly I think he was second to Nasri even without that mistake.