The only player we have who is capable of dictating the play from deep, unfortunately it's fucking hard to do it well when you have 5 opposition players and no teammates infront of you.
In the first half:
Kolarov isolated on the left, not good enough to come inside into a crowded midfield anyway.
Nasri to far out on the right, anonymous and easily tracked when he did come in.
Tevez to far up the pitch with Aguero, neither in the game.
Sure we could have pushed Yaya further forwards and had Barry as the sole deeper midfielder, but i don't trust Barry when he's put under serious pressure, we would have been so vulnerable then.
In the 2nd half Yaya was a lot more influencial when he actually had Tevez to pass to.