PLAYER RATINGS: Collins 8: did nothing wrong; his distribution was generally sound/good and he was aiming mostly for either Woodrow, or Cole. Neither is a Daryl Dike, but both battled gamely to create second phase. I would have loved him to have scored at the end, but it gives me palpitations to see a keeper in the opposition area like that. Andersen 8: great to see him back with his strong physical presence and no-nonsense style. There was no fault in my book for any of the three central defenders today. Helik 8: like Andersen, but he was pitched up against Martin, who has given us a shed load of problems in the past, whether at Norwich, Derby, or City, but who Helik held pretty well all game. Kitching 8: strong in the air and in the tackle – he won his fair share with authority and commitment. He reminds me of a young Norman Hunter. Generally managed the ball well on the ground as well. Brittain 7: good, lively performance, but you might argue that he didn’t make the best use of the times he found himself in space with the crosses he put in. This isn’t all his fault, though – see my comments below about the three strikers. Gomes 5: lively like the others, but possibly not imposing himself on the game as was needed, even though we were on top for much of the half. It looks to me that Gomes was playing as play-maker, forward of the midfield and Moon was playing the more defensive midfielder. We needed just a tad more from Claudio in that role and we could have been further ahead before City scored. Moon 6: did his bit, especially in a defensive role in which he threw himself at everything. A little lacking in mobility for the midfield role, but certainly put a shift in. Excellent last ditch tackle to stop a certain City goal in the first half. Jordan Williams 7: terrific work-rate and behind a lot of the good attacking moves we made throughout the game. Generally defended okay, but both wing backs were caught on the wrong side of the ball for City’s two goals at a time when it might have been better to manage out the game to half time. Like Brittain, his final cross needs to be worked on, as he had many opportunities to put the ball into the box and one of the reasons we didn’t get that crucial second goal was the understanding between the players regarding balls to the strikers into the box. Cole 7: put himself about to good effect and looked lively. He was certainly not lacking in work rate throughout the game, which is a criticism I have had of him at times in the past, but not today. Nearly scored right at the death and ended in a heap in the back of the net. Woodrow 7: heavily and thoughtfully involved in most of our good build-up play. Never really looked much like scoring today, but I thought that playing him as a play-maker/striker is his strongest suit, as he brings the other two strikers into play so well, as well as midfielders. Leya Iseka 7: tempted to make it 8 for the goal. He has great pace and no little skill and we are starting to see the player of such promise not that long ago. Took his goal well. Perhaps just needs a few more games to up the sharpness of his performance, especially on finishing and on that final trick to get into shooting positions. Took his goal well and was instinctively in the right place to bang it in. Note about the strikers re crosses from wing-backs: I said that the quality of crossing from wing back could have been improved, but that was only part of the problem. The other is that the wing backs need to know what the options and systems are with the three strikers. You would expect to see diagonal runs from the strikers, as well as one going near post, one far post, one in the middle, as well as circular runs away from the goal line to throw a defender off their backs. The wing-back need to know the permutations so that they can put in the right choice of cross. That final link with the crosses was probably what meant we didn’t score the goals we deserved today. SUBS: Benson 7: it was good to see him back again because he has a shed load of skill and, even more significant, a very good footballing brain. There was one moment near the end where he got the ball towards the left side of the City area and just gave himself a moment by putting his foot on the ball, looking up to see what his options were and then delivering a good pass in. Would that all our midfielders looked before they passed. Adeboyejo 7: we have worked on him and he has become a much more technically gifted player, along with the muscle he has always had. He did his bit in work rate terms and showed some very pleasing touches in try to create opportunities in and around the box. I hate to do this, but: Schopp 3: so he doesn’t come out with the coaching staff before the game, when his role is first team coach, not manager. He doesn’t come over to the fans, who had been great in their support, at the end of the game. It is okay for him to say that we were naïve in the last five minutes of the first half, but it is he who needs to set the plan for those last five minutes and it should have been to defend the lead and get to half time at 0-1. Okay, maybe we might not have and then he would have been accused of trying to sit on the lead, but I thought we were far to gung-ho for the last fifteen minutes, let alone last five and we were caught out on the counter attack. Schopp needs to communicate to the players how he wants the different phases of a game to be played and I saw no evidence of that. He must accept his part of the responsibility. The players gave him and the fans their everything today. He needs to take responsibility as well. His post match comments read like those of a spectator, not those of a first team coach, whose strategies either win, or lose a game.
