1St Game Of Season - Ratings

[SecretSam]

A few quick thoughts now that I'm home:

Lads looked understandably short on confidence, and the tactics - 4-5-1 - were not clever as first 20 mins spent hoofing the ball up to Maynard, which was frankly a shocking waste. Once we got the ball down things improved and we played OK, but lack of confidence shown by lack of risk taking by all players.

Anyway - ratings:

James - kicking very shaky but made a couple of good saves - I'm not a fan and the sooner we can get him off the wage bill, the better - 6

Skuse - apart from the odd errant ball and a slight lack of pace at full back had a good game, some good reading of the game; probably City's best player - 8

Stewart - looked slow and caught out a couple of times - 6

Nyatana - did little wrong and distribution useful; penalty looked a poor decision - 7

McGivern - surprisingly poor for a Premier League youngster, lacked pace and too often outfoxed - positioning poor - 4

Cisse - won the ball well and used it intelligently - did little exceptional but few mistakes - 7

Elliott - didn't show the leadership and example required of a captain, not enough quality on the ball - a spent force? - 5

Kilkenny - showed good touches, couple of timely interceptions, got deeper as the game went on but generally lively - 7

JCR - a little anonymous on the left in the first half but very good in second, should have taken a dive for a pen late on - 7

Adomah - a couple of lively runs but service poor - 6

Maynard - frustrated by shocking service, didn't see much of the ball and no real attempts on goal; petulant booking as well - 6

Subs:

Pitman - looked lively, had a good chance with a header and should have done better - 6

Taylor - looks a real find, nice movement, showed well and good touch - if he'd been on earlier with Maynard we might have caused palarse more problems - 7

All in all, a disappointing result and much work to do, but there is promise. I think we need to let James and Maynard go and use the money saved to bolster other areas - predominatly central defence and left back/left mid. But all is not lost!