Hate to say I told you so, but I've been singing Milner's praises for a long time. England's best wide player, our third best player last season and a player who has developed extremely well over the last two years. So many people have been saying "Navas is the savour, he'll provide width", but Milner gave us width last season and did a very good job, Navas will change nothing and believe me when I say this, Milner is a better player than Navas.
Shape with the ball exactly the same as Mancini's side, build up exactly the same, very pedestrian and lacking in urgency. The only two players who ever attacked with any urgency were Milner and Fernandinho, but a Fernandinho surge forward was rare, given the shape of the opponents.
Our lack of creation from deep was very apparent, Yaya's absence clearly damaged us in that respect, being deployed high up the pitch is not a good idea at all no matter how many of you clamour for it. Yaya in the #10 role should only ever be used from the start when we're going to have our backs against the wall, e.g. a game vs Barca, even then I'd very sceptical of the use of him there.
Fernandinho and Barry can't be allowed to start together regularly, both players were passing on responsibility far too often. Fernandinho was too slow to shift the ball and break the lines, didn't create any angles himself, lacked the desire to carry the ball which didn't help the side's urgency at all. On the plus side, he was very mobile, he did very well when we countered and helped provide quicker transitions as I've stated that he would previously. Barry's passing very sloppy on the whole, but certainly provides better cover for the back four than any other player in the squad.
Nothing to say about the defensive side of our game, can't take anything from a game like that, fully in control from start to finish.
