Newcastle Utd PL (A) | Man of the Match

[Bill Walker]

Sorry to all the other players but KDB won the game and 3 points.......so KDB for me.

 

[cityblue123]

Great kdb but Rodri today. He was fantastic for the 90 mins

 

[oldius]

Rodri, unquestionably.

 

[Eccles Blue]

Sometimes I feel like these threads would be more interesting if we took KDB and Rodri out of the running for every game “MOTM excluding Rodri and KDB.”

*whispers* but ALWAYS includes John Stones whether he plays or not!!! Just don’t tell @jimharri ;-)

 

[Blue Theatre]

KDB. He sees & completes passes every game, that for anyone else would be a once-in-a-lifetime moment of genius.

 

[laserblue]

KDB. Swung the game City's way and looked as sharp as ever. So good he's back.

 

[Lovebitesandeveryfing]

Rodri. Consistently man of the match. Others will weigh in with an improved second half or a vital 30 minutes, but week in week out Rodri is arguably the only player that is consistently producing the goods over 90 minutes.

Fair point. But then it becomes a matter of giving him the accolade virtually every time he plays. Because there is literally nobody else who matches up to that — not Bernie, not Phil, not Kev himself.
For his influence on his fellow players, whether they're to the right of him, to the left of him, behind him, in front, I don't really see who is playing at Rodri's level in world football at present.
He needs to rein in his temper a bit. I can understand all too well why he was so very annoyed yesterday, getting carded where the Newcastle player (was it Guimarães, who was already on a yellow?) stood on his foot and didn't even get a free kick against him, let alone a card, a few minutes earlier. But the plain fact is Rod went on and on at the ref, and if he'd got a second yellow it truly would have been the height of stupidity. Sometimes you've just got to swallow it, especially when you're the key player in the team, and a senior footballer.

 

[jimharri]

Rodri. Consistently man of the match. Others will weigh in with an improved second half or a vital 30 minutes, but week in week out Rodri is arguably the only player that is consistently producing the goods over 90 minutes.

I get where you are coming from. A match is 90 minutes, not 20-odd. But for me, the Man of the Match is the player who made the most significant contribution to the game. And I don't think there's any argument about KDB swinging that game in our favour once he came on. Of course, posters have to decide for themselves who to give their vote to,and what criteria they use to come to their decision.

 

[Gabriel]

Fair point. But then it becomes a matter of giving him the accolade virtually every time he plays. Because there is literally nobody else who matches up to that — not Bernie, not Phil, not Kev himself.
For his influence on his fellow players, whether they're to the right of him, to the left of him, behind him, in front, I don't really see who is playing at Rodri's level in world football at present.
He needs to rein in his temper a bit. I can understand all too well why he was so very annoyed yesterday, getting carded where the Newcastle player (was it Guimarães, who was already on a yellow?) stood on his foot and didn't even get a free kick against him, let alone a card, a few minutes earlier. But the plain fact is Rod went on and on at the ref, and if he'd got a second yellow it truly would have been the height of stupidity. Sometimes you've just got to swallow it, especially when you're the key player in the team, and a senior footballer.

Then we ought to acknowledge the recognition his play deserves, no matter how boring it gets. If all goes to plan, he should win the highest personal accolades in the sport- domestically and internationally, yet most likely he won’t, and then the people on here who overlook his performances on a weekly basis will be the same ones decrying the adjudicating authorities for overlooking him. Alternatively, we could have separate polls for first/second half, moment, and match.

There appears to be a fair bit of bad blood between the two sets of players. Guardiola almost always makes a point of mentioning their physicality, and I sense that the Newcastle players get quickly frustrated at our style of play. They took umbrage when we kept the ball in the corner at the Etihad and that sense of us taking the proverbial seems to have gotten right under their skin; it was one of the reasons they celebrated with such gusto when they tipped us out the League Cup. Yesterday wasn’t helped by having the same referee as that League Cup tie, one who was prepared to let things go out of his control. Rodri lost his cool because the foul on him, the deliberate stamp on his upper foot, was exactly the same incident that he endured against Nottingham Forest, which again went unpunished and which led to him seeing red, both figuratively and then literally. It could be that he’s carrying an injury in that area of the foot.

 

[Gabriel]

I get where you are coming from. A match is 90 minutes, not 20-odd. But for me, the Man of the Match is the player who made the most significant contribution to the game. And I don't think there's any argument about KDB swinging that game in our favour once he came on. Of course, posters have to decide for themselves who to give their vote to,and what criteria they use to come to their decision.

As you say, people have different interpretations about what constitutes man of the match. De Bruyne was undoubtedly the man who ultimately won the match, but, for me, Rodri was our best player over the 100 odd minutes. Each to their own.