Racing Santander 3 City 1: Player ratings

December 18, 2008

SCHMEICHEL: deserved better protection than he received, handling generally trustworthy 5

ZABALETA: caught out of position for opening goal and not able to get forward 5

BEN HAIM: gave away free kick that led to Racing’s first and had torrid first half 4

RICHARDS: another change of face alongside him didn’t help but Blues looked vulnerable 5

GARRIDO: not a happy homecoming for the Spanish full back who wasn’t worst player 5

VASSELL: did his usual stint of hard work but not a threat going forward at any stage 5

FERNANDES: back with an energetic display but the Blues lost the midfield battle 5

HAMANN: captain for the night and tried to calm things down. Some neat passing 5

ELANO: wish he’d put as much effort into his game as his feud with Luccin 4

4 ROBINHO: swapped his shirt on way off at interval and then rested for the trip to WBA 4

EVANS: robust effort but when there is no ball with which to operate it’s hard for anyone 5

SUBSTITUTES:

IRELAND (for Robinho 46) – made a difference to the energy levels - 6

KOMPANY (for Elano 60) – looked like he at least had the appetite - 6

CAICEDO (for Evans 76) – scored his first goal for club - 6

NOT USED: Hart, Ball, Onuoha, and Logan

BATTLE OF THE BOSSES: Hughes decided to give some of his star names the night off in the hope they would shine at WBA on Sunday; Juan Ramon Lopez Muniz only had to send out eleven who would show passion.

REFEREE: Serge Gumienny (Belgium) – lost a bit of control on occasions

ATTENDANCE: approx 20,000

RACING: Coltorti, Garay, Cesar Navas, Tchite, Colsa (Lacen 77), Munitis, Serrano, Luccin, Valera, Pereira (Juanjo 86), and Marcano. Not used: Mario, Pinillos, Goncalves, Christian, and Edu Bedia.

| Submit Comments | Comments (84) |

Showing comments 1 to 25 and replies | View All

BLUEBOY! MANCHESTER NOT LONDON!, MANCHESTER (18/12/2008 at 21:51)

UTTER DISGRACE !!
NO PASSION - NO FIGHT -

3 SLOPPY GOALS TO GIVE AWAY!

DREADING SUNDAY!!!!
HUGHES OUT!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

Pablo 1, SW14 (18/12/2008 at 21:51)

Very dirty side Santander. Nice that city tried to stay calm and knocked them out with the last kick of the game.

Michael Frontzek's slippers, Stockport (18/12/2008 at 21:51)

TBH should be minus he is truly awful!!

As are the rest of the back 3!

Rob is not trying what is going on?

BritBoyInFlorida (18/12/2008 at 21:52)

I hope that display shows how bad our 2nd 11 are ! but at least there were TWO good things to come ..... 1) CAICEDO scored and 2) We KNOW who stole all the pies !

Saddleworth is Blue (18/12/2008 at 21:53)

bobbins enuff said
MH get it sorted or you are history

samjoe, manchester (18/12/2008 at 21:54)

hope this and everton games were one off performances just watched this and it was dog no team spirt deffo lacking somthing it may be a long hard season on this showing would only be intersted in keeping 4 of this lot and they were not great ealano and robhino dog

Edski Vega, Nottingham (18/12/2008 at 21:54)

Schmichael 3 - Woeful - wreckless penalty and then physically assaulted Racing player leaving net wide open! Fourth Division keeper

Zabeletta 6 - The only one that tried, but was still not good enough!

Ben Haim 2 - Utter turgid showing! Horrific player - Hopefully Allardyce takes him to Blackburn in Jan for free!

Garrido 2 - What did he do? He can't pass, can't defend. Absolutely poor!

Richards - 2 - Should hold his head in shame! Thinks he's a world beater..... in two years he will be plying his trade in the Championship!

Hammannn - 1 - Terrible! Shodcking - much more expected from someone with his experience - should be ashamed to collect a wage!

Elano - 3 - Dreadful (has been for much of this season). His set pieces are an utter waste of time!

Fernandez - 2 - Owed us for his pathetic sending off which cost us a certian 3 points vs Spurs and just as woeful as ever! Rubbish

Vassell 1 - Laughable! should learn the off side rule and then learn how to shoot and pass.... he is the most absymal and frustrating player in the current squad and needs to be released!

Robinho 2 - Yet agin he did nothing but then again he is a star player so he was man marked out of the game! What excuse do the other players have? Major improvement neede from Robinho!

Evans 2 - Shocker - useless Third Division player. Wales really are in trouble if this is a future Wales star? Free transfer to Rochdale in Jan hopefully!

Kompany - 2 - Horrific tackle which he should have been sent off for - Otherwise poor as the rest!

Ireland - 3 - A few moments but overall couldn't be bothered! The game was already lost and his team mates had given up!

Caicedo - 2 - Kicked the ball into the net at the end - finally WE HAVE A GOAL!!! Otherwise no future at the club....

Hughes - 1 - Officially the Worst manager in the Premiership! He has been told he will keep his job no matter what - just like Franny Lee told Alan Ball! He has to sort this mess out.... yes this game was not a priority but the performance (or lack of) was utterly disturbing! YET AGAIN!

The Blue Meanie, London (18/12/2008 at 21:54)

Hughes out. Please go now. I predict the Baggies will beat us. They are more motivated and what they lack in skills they will muster in sheer self belief. We cannot have Hughes as manager in the second half of the season. The worst start to a season since we last went down.

Dunneymonster (18/12/2008 at 21:54)

Felipe Salvador Caicedo Corozo - a star is born!

Esso Blue., Planet Blueto (18/12/2008 at 21:54)

The weather is nice this time of year petunia.

mcfc2308, Fareham (18/12/2008 at 21:55)

Phew! Thank God for Caicedo. Joking aside....that was garbage!

Harry H, Just say NO ( to the CON charge) and the Living Ham. (18/12/2008 at 21:55)

We were awful, anything but 3 points on Sunday I`d be expecting Hughesy to be seriously worried about his future at this club.
On a side note I`m glad Racing are out, the game anywhere in the world doesn`t need sportsmanship like that.

numptyed, Oldham (18/12/2008 at 21:55)

That was as bad as when SP was in charge, not one player that started deserves more than 4.

Mabalsa Ricci, Manchester (18/12/2008 at 21:55)

Well done Mr Bailey, your almost there with the correct assessment of the game.... Totally & utterly abysmal.

I don't think there's a strong enough word in the english language to describe how pathetic, spineless, clueless & shambolic that performance was.

The Blue Goon, Manchester (18/12/2008 at 21:55)

Appalling, nothing more to say really. Vassell, Ben Haim, Richards, Fernandes, Hammann, Evans, Dunne, Elano, Robinho are not good enough. GET HUGHES OUT! We will be in the bottom 3 come Sunday tea time.Robinho is here for the profile and the money, nothing more.

Billy Banjo Adams, Burnage (18/12/2008 at 21:56)

Dire, What is going on. Garry Cook owes the fans an explanation. Ben Haim and Richards are very poor. Schmeichel well I will let you decide. Fernandes, Robinho and Elano what the hell is going on????

karen tyler (18/12/2008 at 21:56)

Awful,
Hamann in midfield with no Kompany or Ireland and Onuhu on the bench!
Tonight the perfect opportunity to blood our young players such as Weiss who were not taken but Logan was out there wish he would explain why he bothers taking them, they cannot be injured and on the bench can they!!
Think Hughes has until the end of January, we appear not to have a good enough Coach at this club, since when have Wales been so good at football!
Please prove me wrong Mr Hughes

bludarnsarf (18/12/2008 at 21:56)

I am normally portrayed on here as a happy clapper (or is that the wife being a happy slapper?).

Either way, having been to the Everton game and watched tonight’s over the internet, I have to say we are getting worse, and tonight was dire! Absolutely b l o o d y dire!!

The game was unimportant, we were already through. For the life of me I cannot see therefore why, if we are resting players for Sunday, we then bring Ireland and Kompany on in the second half and risk injury????

I sincerely hope we are not “asked” to vote on players of the game. They were all rubbish, apart from Caicedo who was only on for fifteen minutes, and despite being slated in recent weeks looked the only one with any skill!

Starting to fear for Sunday now. I never thought I would say that after the first 45 minutes against Liverpool, games against Pompey, Sunderland, West Ham and again 45 mins against Chelsea.

Whilst I always have been, and probably will be in the morning, ready to still back MH, on this evidence time is rapidly running out!

Finally, feel sorry for the “loyals” who made it out there tonight. Spending lots of hard earned cash and taking time off work. I hope they get some apology from Hughes and we get some form of super performance on Sunday! On this evidence, hardly likely!

wollongong blue. Aus (18/12/2008 at 21:56)

Laughable. Ben Haim is a terrible footballer. Nothing positive to say about that match at all. We need some serious composure between our central defensive partnership and I'm getting sick to death of seeing the ball in our possession just passed back to the central defence and them having no ambition, composure or class to bring the ball back up the field. Its just laid back again to the keeper and hoofed up field to a lone striker. Poor Ched, how many more young lads confidence are we going to shatter with this tactic. SPLASH THE CASH!!

roslers boot, Bolton (18/12/2008 at 21:56)

GET HUGHES OUT
GET HUGHES OUT
GET HUGHES OUT

Bring back Bradbury (18/12/2008 at 21:56)

Rubbish, complete and utter tripe, no effort no passion no pride no interest, thats got to be up there with the worst performance's of this club.
Ive been behind hughes so far but we seem to get worse every game, if we dont win on sunday then im joining the hughes out bandwagon!

Edski Vega, Nottingham (18/12/2008 at 21:57)

Vassell Hard work? Oh ok I have it figured out when I go back into work tomorrow ..... I will spend all day offside of my manager and then completely miss pass my reports for the whole day - that's what I call hard work!

The lad should get a real job..... he is a complete disgrace! (He is even putting Dire Dickov's record to shame!)

Kippax Lover, Manchester (18/12/2008 at 21:58)

Bottom line is we're through and won the group.

But can't help but be fearful when we get absolutely and utterly HAMMERED by a Racing Santander - team who previously hadn't won in the group and haven't won in 5 games before this and haven't even qualified from this poor group.

I am very very pessimistic now about the 3 must-win games over Christmas. We clearly now have a confidence crisis on our hands and are not even scoring (apart from big Fil tonight).

Any chance Big Sam will take Ben Haim in a part ex for Roque Santa Cruz?

ROGERMELLIE, DENTON (18/12/2008 at 21:59)

Fell asleep listening to the Radio, hope that they just skipped the game to avoid injuries for the WBA match. Thought they should have performed better for all the away fans who paid good money to see them.
Do you think that we give Caciado a chance against WBA now that he has scored, it may have boosted his confidence?

CTID

Peter Beagrie`s beagle (18/12/2008 at 21:59)

Watched the game on the internet and I have to say it must be one of the worst performances from a City side I have ever seen in my life of watching the blues!

There wasnt one player with any passion on the field, God knows where Robhino`s and Elano`s heads are at the moment, the rest were dismal and I NEVER, EVER want to see that clumsy, talentless oaf Ben Haim pull on a City shirt again!!

The only bright point was Ireland and Kompany showed a bit of fight and Caicedo (big boy now, has he been working out?) broke Santanders heart with the last minute goal to prevent them going through after they had spanked us good and proper! CTID

()

Report

Manchester City