Bradley subbed off - he is not yet match fit, and understandably not used to the Premier League pace. He looked exhausted 10 minutes before he was subbed off....
Good call. Interesting debut from Bradley. Very solid first half, not quite as good in the second, but still ok. Looking forward to seeing whether he starts again at the weekend.
I haven't kept up with Villa this year but I hope this isn't their first-choice lineup, especially on defense. I know they have Bent but no way in hell does he make a difference today. What the hell happened to this team? I don't think Bradley played a terrible game but he wasn't necessarily good either, kind of like the rest of the Villa squad.
No surprise Bradley is off he was bringing nothing to the game. All he did was make square passes and really wasnt influencing the attack. At least with bannan he is trying to make those passes. Hopefully we can get a goal so it's not such an embarrassment.
I'd give him a 6. He never really was able to impose himself on the match. Some of that isn't his fault, some of that is his fault. His passing was generally pretty good though, and he made some nice runs, even if they were ignored. But Villa didn't put out an attacking midfielder who seemed capable of delivering good passes forward either.
Well, I doubt Houllier told Petrov to play as a DM. Neither Makoun nor Reo-Coker are playing, so MB is the logical deeper guy given who is on the field. But as others have written, he may be more conservative/cautious in his debut start.
Keane was a Y-mid, not a destroyer. Nicky Butt was the one who gave Roy his cover when he went forward.
Agree. Some good moments and some bad. Seemed like he was instructed to stay at home. Got forward a few times, but not as much as we're used to seeing.
That was a nice finish by Silva, he is a class player. The defender clearing that ball basically passed it right to him. Seems like Bradley had kind of a meh match some good, some bad. Being his first start I'm sure there were some nerves, nice to see him out playing though. In the end I just think with the squad City put out there compared to the one Villa did it didn't leave Villa much room for error.
Other question in general though, why didn't any of the villa mids or defenders try to get stuck in with their tackles? They never made a conscience effort to win balls. They just tried to do it positionally. Is this just how Houllier deploys his players?
6 seems a little high. He was ignored a number of times which was frustrating, but that's going to happen to new players. Some good, some bad. Some his fault, some not.
Villa look pretty poor overall. I thought Bradley was OK. Nothing overly bad but nothing overly great either. Not a performance that screams put me in the 11 for the next game but still very early in his EPL career.
If a 4 is horrible, 5 is bad, 6 is average, 7 is good, and 8 is out standing...I think 6 is what he was. Average.
Well, Held, Dunn and Bannan certainly got stuck in. Bradley, going off the second half, mostly jogged around. One second, he is on Silva. The next Silva makes a run and Bradley is marking no one. The third second, the ball is in the net. The fourth, Bradley is jogging off the field.
So the BS consensus seems to be that Bradley was "OK". This, of course, means that he sucked donkey balls.
Anybody still watching the game? A bit of a laugher at this point with Man City dominant. Vieira got four touches without even breaking into a jog. Bannan with another giveaway.
Well in that case 6. I wouldn't blame that goal solely on Bradley. Positionally he was covering a gap in the defense when the cross was released. In retrospect he should have either been either man marking Silva the entire time or been more aware and active when Silva drifting away from him. Regardless, why 2 Villa defenders followed a cross all the way into their own 18 and then managed to meakly head it directly to Silva baffles me.
Agreed he looked gassed before he came off. Not saying he did well on the play by any means - but every player has to make a decision on when to leave his man and push back upfield. A normal clearance from the defender and this isn't a discussion topic. If that defender had been a Yank Abroad, we'd be eviscerating him for that poor clearance.
It was a horrible clearance but City was playing with 3 pure attackers - how difficult is it to find one to mark?