Sunderland 1 - 0 Man City - Not good enough!

Our manager and team should be ashamed of themselves, poor team selection and poor performance saw us defeated away from home, again!

Now I don't want to rain on Sunderland's parade because they did thoroughly deserve to win today, they wanted it more than we did, they worked harder than we did and they defended better than we did, but they are not a side that should come close to beating us, we allowed it to happen.

Our problems started with the team selection today, the pretender that is Kolarov was preferred to Clichy, although lacking game time Richards was picked before Zabaleta and Garcia was played before a number of better players most notably Navas, but why?

There was absolutely no reason why Clichy and Zabaleta in particular shouldn't have played today. Kolarov was awful, at one point I heard someone say that he should be taken down the tunnel and shot, that was how bad he was.
Richards was to say the least rusty, he wasn't his usual self going forward and didn't look ready to start a football match.
Then there was Garcia, he isn't quick enough for premier league football and instead of playing Milner out wide he should of started Navas and put Milner in the middle from the get go.
Most annoyingly about Pellegrini's selection today was the fact that when Zabaleta and Navas came on today they made a difference, we had some energy and width all of a sudden and began to pile the pressure on Sunderland, unfortunately they didn't get enough time to make a difference to the result.

We were poor in the first half today, we were arrogant and looked like a team that had won before the game had started, Sunderland were not doing anything special but they were doing the basics very well, they were working hard and defending well, for me they deserved their lead at the break regardless if it was partly down to our lack of competing.

In the second half we were much better following the introduction of Navas and then Zabaleta, we took control and put Sunderland under immense pressure, they didn't buckle though and when they had to they threw everyone behind the ball and stopped us from making a breakthrough.
Some would say we did deserve something from the game based on our second half performance, not me though, I think Sunderland were worth the win in the end.
If Pellegrini hadn't put a weak team out thinking they were good enough to win and had the team not approached the start of the game to cockily then maybe I would feel differently, but considering Sunderland's persistent hard work and determination, I think we got what we deserved for our poor approach.

I don't normally do a team assessment but after today's game it is the best way to give a run down on the players and I think it is needed because there were players that did try today and others that did not.

Pantilimon - Didn't have anything to do apart from when they scored, some are saying he should of done better and some are blaming the defence, I would say both could have done better.

Richards - Was clearly not ready to start a game, without that reason/excuse backing him up though, he was poor and didn't have any kind of effect on the game.

Demichelis - Not 100% convinced by him yet, he did work hard today though and his experience did show through when keeping calm at the back.

Lescott - Can't fault his commitment and never have, I can only remember thinking 'oh Joleon' once today and he recovered from that mistake straight away, another player clearly affected by a lack of game time.

Kolarov - Terrible defending, terrible going forward, lazy and an all round waste of space, he had looked decent at times earlier in the season but seems to have reverted to form, he never plays badly for his country which suggests to me his heart isn't in it at City, needs to go.

Milner - I'm a big fan of Jimmy's but in the first half today he let me down as he was very poor, he did redeem himself in the second half and was pulling the strings when moved in field.

Garcia - Feel a bit sorry for Garcia, he isn't a bad player, I just think the tempo of the prem is too quick for him and maybe the way we play football is to, perhaps a player to save for European football.

Toure - Yet another poor performance by Toure today, he was poor earlier in the season but when Fernandinho started to get better Toure seemed to do the same, I have pointed out in the past how much work Ferna puts in to help Toure and without him there to hold his hand today he didn't perform.

Nasri - Nasri has been in good form lately and he played well today, he was trying his best to get the play flowing but he was constantly having to go and help Kolarov defend, which he did well, good hard working performance overall.

Negredo - Not his best performance today but he didn't have a lot to work with either, there wasn't a great deal of supply to the forwards.

Aguero - His usual self buzzing around up front trying his best to create or score a goal, just didn't come off for him today.

Subs.
Navas - Got 45 minutes and made a real difference, he was direct and was only interested in getting the ball into the box, he made a few good deliveries that someone should have been on the end of.

Zabaleta - Only brought on in the 71st minute but made a noticeable contribution, he was going forward well and supporting Navas, having an attacking full back gave Sunderland something to think about, something that Richards didn't pull of before being replaced.

Dzeko - Dzeko was also brought on with just 19 minutes to go, had a decent shot at goal and that was about it, wasn't given enough time to make a decent impact to give him a bit of leeway.

To sum up, I am just glad there is a break before our next game, Pellegrini needs to sort out a range of things, some of them are big things like players that earn so much money not pulling their weight for him and some are little things like maybe practising in swinging corners instead of ineffective out swinging ones, whatever the problems may be they all need ironing out and quickly.