Fulham v City: Player ratings

November 05, 2005

James - 6: Had better games for City but useful save from John in the first half

Mills - 6: Did little wrong in an unremarkable performance.

Dunne - 6: Didn't seem completely at his best after his injury and was caught out for the build-up to Malbranque's opener

Distin - 6: Not quite the international class performance his manager had claimed during the week, but still reliably solid

Ireland - 7: Reasonable performance from the youngster, provided the set-up for Croft's goal

Jordan - 7: Worked hard to create something in midfield

Croft - 8: Full of energy and drive, took his goal well but a needless booking

Musampa - 6: Ran his heart out and tried to find a telling cross until his injury

Barton - 6: Displayed his usual tenacity in midfield

Cole - 6: Caught out too often by the Fulham offside trap

Vassell - 6: Far less effective than against Villa but displayed bags of energy

Subs:

Sibierski (for Musampa 43) - 6: Worked hard to replicate Musampa's crossing

Jihai (for Mills 68) - 5: Did little of note after replacing Mills.

Wright-Phillips (for Jordan 80) - 5: Little time to make an impact

Not used: Thatcher, De Vlieger,

Do you agree? Have your say.

| Submit Comments | Comments (23) |

Showing comments 1 to 23 and replies | View All

Chris Gee, Vancouver (05/11/2005 at 19:45)

Glad to see Croft got "8". Thought he was given a little bit of a rough ride last week by the contributors of these pages.

Realist Blue, The Real World (05/11/2005 at 20:15)

Where are all the muppets who just a few short days ago were saying that we were sorted in midfield and that Steed would not be good enough to play for City. Today was a lesson in not running before we can walk. SP knows what he is doing so why don't we leave up to the people paid to run city to decide who is good enough to play for us.

boldus the blue, Newport S W (06/11/2005 at 00:22)

Richard Dunne 6 are you havin a laugh, The guy was pants today, he cost us the game and will do so again

Darren Lutton, Brisbane Australia (06/11/2005 at 03:25)

Those ratings, again, were far too generous. One assist by Ireland does not a game make. Joey a 6. You must be joking. 4 or 5 for Joey, Stephen, Chris, and Sibi. For all those who said Jordan was too slow I know what you mean. Croft was a shining light. I'd love to see the Vass take on a player with his pace rather than rely on passes.

Steve, Droylsden. (06/11/2005 at 09:08)

Well said Chris (about Croft). I can't understand why so many people are on a 'downer' about him at such an early stage in his career. A 'come and get me' performance from Malbranque yesterday. Need to 'pull out all the stops' to get him in January.

Blue Tiger, Virginia (06/11/2005 at 09:08)

It appears that more than one CITY player was off form.
Now the team has a break which might have come at the right time.
Great to see Croft get a goal and play well.

Tommy Bates, Langly Manchester (06/11/2005 at 11:39)

I have seen a lot of
Croft in the reserves and never rated him, but from the "football First"
highlights yesterday
he did very well and showed he could make the grade in the Premiership
and make me eat my words.

allen, frodsham (06/11/2005 at 12:02)

i see abel xavier is charged with using performance enhancing drugs. he will get off of course. there is no evidence he has ever made an enhanced performance!!!

daz, denton (06/11/2005 at 12:44)

Dunne was 3 yards off the pace of the game throughout and Jordan struggles whenever he is up against someone who runs at him. Both Fulham's goals came from individual errors. Dunne's poor clearance for the first and Barton aguing with the referee and turning his back on Boa Morte (who put Malbranque through) for the second - disappointing Joey. Plus points were Ireland and Croft. They are both improving with every game. I would like to see us strenghten in midfield as long as it does not stop the progress of the young lads, remember we also have Micah Richards coming through. Keegan would be going to the board now demanding world class transfers and wages and these lads would be stuck back in the reserves or let go. Hopefully, Pearce is building a team around the youngsters ala United in the 90's. It takes time and has fans we should be patient and not demand immediate success.

Gary CTID, Worsley (06/11/2005 at 14:09)

I agree with everything Daz said, but as soon as Sibierski came on as sub,everyone in the away end knew it was going to be very difficult to get back into the game. I accept that Psycho must know more about football than we do, but I'd like to hear him tell us what he sees in French Tony, because every City fan I know does not think he is good enough to play Premiership football.Simple as that.

dave, rochdale (06/11/2005 at 14:27)

dunne had possibly his worst game in a city shirt,but after his performances in the last couple of seasons surely he is allowed to have one poor game after being rushed back.as for sibierski he has a poor game every time he plays!the guy is possibly on a par with the horrendous signings of the late 70's/early 80's(steve daley etc),get him in the reserves for a couple of months and take that excuse of a premiership player with him (sun jihai).the youngsters will give more in 15mins than these two will in a full season.

Dave, M21 (06/11/2005 at 14:42)

6 for Dunne is a joke. He was at fault for their first goal and looked slow, both physically and mentally all game. He's error prone, example, his shin from 12 yards almost into the top corner of his own goal. His handball against Bolton in the 93 min was another example that lost us a point. You need brains as well as braun to be a top centre half in the Prem. Dunne's not got enough of the former and will continue to let us down at crucial moments.

Sindbad, Holmfirth (06/11/2005 at 16:16)

This match proved how important it is to play experienced players in the Premiership. We had 5 Academy graduates on show : Croft, Jordan, Ireland, BWP, Barton. Plenty of effort from these, and a decent goal from Lee, but we lost. We are desparete to get the following fully fit and leading the line: Dunne, Reyna, Sinclair, Fowler, Musampa (played but clearly not fit). The truth is we had too many second string players starting the game. January we need to bring more experienced players in.

J, Manchester (06/11/2005 at 17:18)

Get Of Dunnie's back, you would think he had been playin shockin for months. He's only made a mistake surely he is aloud one bad match. Up the Dunninhio.

Eric Jonker, Zoetermeer, NL (06/11/2005 at 21:43)

DJ had a indifferent performance and should not come foreward for a last minute winner of equalizer. RD not matchfit and his mistake that led to the 1st goal might have made the defence a bit shaky. SI played well, as was LC (MOTM). Rest of midfield outmuscled. BWP had a good few minutes and was very lively. As for Sibs, he did not look god, but I wonder what player would have to come on when the team were not playing good football at all and taking over on the left. We had little options I guess.
Overall agree with SP: dissappointed 1st half, pretty even after the equalizer, probably not deserving something out of the game (although I wouldn't mind if they had ofcourse). Still, future looks bright and blue.

Mel Fine, Hale Cheshire (07/11/2005 at 00:35)

Never fancied us against Fulham, who are a much better side than thier league position indicates.Dunne,
Musampa
Cole and Barton
were not fully fit and it showed,
this plus Reyna Sinclair and Thatcher out of the team made us too vunerable.Our good start to season is down to top class management which gives us a good chance of staying out of the bottom six and well on the way to the magic 42 points.Our good start has also enabled us to blood
some of our best young prospects they need
Premiership to develope and could save us millions in transfer fee's. Croft for the first time showed that he deserves a starting run in the first team. Malbranque had a very good game against us but we made it easy for him,no doubt he is a a quality player at the right age but he will not sign for us and not just beacause his family wants to stay in the south or move back to France and don't expect "A" list players joining us in January even if we could afford them
nothing will change from the last transfer window and
SP will not be doing a Birmingham Villa or Everton by spending on high risk junk players.

P.S What is Sibo doing in the squad
looks like SP has a blind spot on this one.

Adi, Prestwich (07/11/2005 at 07:51)

Wow! I know Blues can be cynical, but these comments about Richard Dunne are breathtaking in their lack of depth. Think back three seasons when that was his general level of performance. Now think back to last season, when he was without doubt one of the most accomplished centre-halves in the Premiership. Yes, he makes mistakes, but he's human, not a machine.
He'll get us out of far more scrapes than he'll drag us into, that's for sure.

Mike, at his desk (07/11/2005 at 09:46)

What is going on? For all those slating Dunne, especially calling him a liability and saying he's done it before and he'll do it again, I can't understand that mentality. Or do you suffer from that disease that effects your long term memory? Its like the croft comments last week, knee jerk, off the mark and not worth putting down on message boards. Pearce would not have played him had Sommeil, Onuoha or Bischoff been fit, but they're not. Dunne was rushed back and it was unfair on him, but we had no option. He's got two weeks to get right and i have every confidence he will.

Feed the goat, Southend (07/11/2005 at 09:50)

Nothing of any not by Sun? Clearing a certain goal is hardly insignifigant

Mike, Stockport (07/11/2005 at 10:31)

Is Sinbad in Holmfirth for real? Quality Academy graduates - and we have more than most - are the way forward, not the sort of over-priced over-paid foreign rubbish which Keegan left us with. We're all entitled to an opinion, but you couldn't be more wrong - you're probably the sort of person who thinks you can't win anything with kids!

dafulang, nottingham (07/11/2005 at 10:40)

Quite right. Sack Dunne and bring back the glory days of Michael Vonk!

London Blue, Docklands (07/11/2005 at 14:03)

I agree that croft got a bit of rough ride for his performance against Villa, think he certainly has the natural ability to make an impact in the PL. Its a good job that we have these chaps comming through or we would be in trouble after KK buying rubbish like bambi on ice - Sibierski!

bez, middleton (07/11/2005 at 15:18)

u all missed the real men of the match the ref and his assistant.did no one see the goalies hand ball etc as usual we got nothing.u need half the decisions to be in the game.they may as well book barton in the warm up and have done with it/at least we have the new liam brady in steve irland.

()

Report

Manchester City