Sevilla came at us which allowed us to pick them off. Villa sat in and restricted space.
Maybe that's the problem. He (Yaya) is supposed to play as one of the three attacking midfielders behind the striker, but stays deep much too often, leaving Sterling and Debruyne isolated, which was clearly the case against United.In the last 2 matches Yaya hasn't really been playing an advanced role, not like how he used to. I would imagine if someone had the average position charts, Fernandinho would have been more advanced than Yaya on average. That's how I saw it. Fernando deeper than the two of them, with Fernandinho slightly higher than Yaya.
Sevilla came at us which allowed us to pick them off. Villa sat in and restricted space.
Not a patch on Jamie Pollock mate.....De Bruyne's all round performances have remained pretty consistent since he got here, and he carried that on against Villa.
He was constantly looking to get us on the front foot as quickly as possible and always looking for the early, incisive forward pass.
He played an absolutely incredible pass from wide on Sunday that should have lead to a goal. I don't think there's another player in Europe who would have played that pass as well as him.
He should have scored as well. Perfectly timed run, got in to a great position, he tried to flick it when he possibly could have made a simple finish for a great goal. I think he was a bit unlucky, he got the timing of his run perfect.
So on another day he could have had a goal, an assist, a 2-0 win and everybody would have been happy and pulled up his stats and said he'd had an incredible start to his City career.
Some would even suggest he was better than Silva, and a future Balon D'Or winner.
His all round game on Sunday wasn't great. He gave away possession cheaply, he often looked lethargic when we didn't have the ball and he often made defensive errors positionally.
Much the same as his all round performances since he came to the club.
It's rough with the smooth with De Bruyne. But fortunately his smooth can be so good that it's worth putting up with the rough. He's an incredible talent, capable of things no one else is. But his all round game lacks polish, and it has done since he arrived.
Because of his fantastic early record with goals and assists, people expect too much from him, they want him to win us the game every week. It's not going to happen, we have to be patient while he settles in.
Sometimes he's going to win us the game out of nowhere like Seville at home. And sometimes the balance and cohesion of the team will be better without him in it, like Seville away.
Let's just take a breath, and be a bit more realistic about him. Huge potential with the possibility of getting much better.
I hope those claiming he was our best ever player after 5 or 6 games have come down off their cloud now and have a bit more of a realistic appraisal of the lad.
Not a patch on Jamie Pollock mate.....
De Bruyne's all round performances have remained pretty consistent since he got here, and he carried that on against Villa.
He was constantly looking to get us on the front foot as quickly as possible and always looking for the early, incisive forward pass.
He played an absolutely incredible pass from wide on Sunday that should have lead to a goal. I don't think there's another player in Europe who would have played that pass as well as him.
He should have scored as well. Perfectly timed run, got in to a great position, he tried to flick it when he possibly could have made a simple finish for a great goal. I think he was a bit unlucky, he got the timing of his run perfect.
So on another day he could have had a goal, an assist, a 2-0 win and everybody would have been happy and pulled up his stats and said he'd had an incredible start to his City career.
Some would even suggest he was better than Silva, and a future Balon D'Or winner.
His all round game on Sunday wasn't great. He gave away possession cheaply, he often looked lethargic when we didn't have the ball and he often made defensive errors positionally.
Much the same as his all round performances since he came to the club.
It's rough with the smooth with De Bruyne. But fortunately his smooth can be so good that it's worth putting up with the rough. He's an incredible talent, capable of things no one else is. But his all round game lacks polish, and it has done since he arrived.
Because of his fantastic early record with goals and assists, people expect too much from him, they want him to win us the game every week. It's not going to happen, we have to be patient while he settles in.
Sometimes he's going to win us the game out of nowhere like Seville at home. And sometimes the balance and cohesion of the team will be better without him in it, like Seville away.
Let's just take a breath, and be a bit more realistic about him. Huge potential with the possibility of getting much better.
I hope those claiming he was our best ever player after 5 or 6 games have come down off their cloud now and have a bit more of a realistic appraisal of the lad.
He does give the ball away cheaply too often for my liking (none more costly than that equalizing "goal" at White Hart Lane). I hope the coaches have critiqued him accordingly and asked him to focus on that. He is an instinctive player and you dont want to coach him out of that, but you do need to strike a balance.
Maybe that's the problem. He (Yaya) is supposed to play as one of the three attacking midfielders behind the striker, but stays deep much too often, leaving Sterling and Debruyne isolated, which was clearly the case against United.