Player ratings vs. Yeovil (away)

Yea TDM, 1-4 at half time and new man came into the dressing room, made a couple of changes ( that Clough would not have done) and instant response from the players.

Early days but bodes well.

You are going about your business nicely without the fanfare and expectation, best way to get out of this league.

I guess 6 may be a bit harsh considering that he scored, and the fact that he was involved a lot. I'd happily go up to 7 on reflection. However, his final product in the first half - including crosses, shooting and controlling a Kasper Schmeichel punt with his hand - were approaching embarrassing.
Still, we know what he brings by now and his pace bothered them. Encouragingly, he and Knockaert have been working together quite well, understanding each other's strengths, and that's been very effective recently.

Good old Dung.

Well done dunge.

Pity you got wet!!

''Were the dry side were the dry side were the dry side over here''.

Only took me an hour to get home surprising how many foxes live down here.

Nice one Dung. And a big high five for making an horrendous round trip on a wet Tuesday night.

It's interesting to see that De Laet has had (in my opinion) the best two games of his season since Wotsitlewski has come in and threatened his position at RB.

Just goes to show that two players in every position certainly is no bad thing - as long as the manager can keep everyone happy.

Well done Dunge,

I was also at the game yesterday - but Yeovil is only an hour and a half down the road from me. Much easier. The City support was quite subdued last night ....except for 'Dry side - Wet side' stuff.

As far as your player ratings go, I'm in broad agreement except for MOTM.

Schmeichel: 6 - Failed to account for the conditions and too often kicked the ball straight out of play.
De Laet: 8 - Agreed, good solid game.
Morgan: 8 - Some good blocks.
Moore: 6 - Indecisive at times and seemed content just to head it 'anywhere away from the box'.
Konchesky: 7.5 - Good in attack, always available and prepared to do the bread-and-butter defensive stuff.
Knockeart: 8 - Good game. In attack as you'd expect but also, surprisingly, in working back to defend. My MOTM.
Drinkwater: 6 - Seemed to be second to everything for the first half. Improved in the second.
King: 7 - A reasonably good game. Good touches but not always that effective.
Dyer: 6 - Shocking finishing as usual (could've had at least three). Ineffectual in the first half and too often turned back. Much improved in the second half but still seemed to lose his way a lot.
Vardy: 7.5 - He looked much more like a championship player. Good outlet for most players and a willing chaser. Mostly good decisions although lacked maturity towards the end of the game (shooting from an improbable angle rather than taking a corner and running down the clock).
Nugent: 7.5 - As you've mentioned.

James: 6 - Limited impact
Schlupp: 4 - Shocker. Careless control late in the game and needlessly gave the ball away. Seemed completely unaware of football basics i.e. retaining possession would stop Yeovil attacking.
Hammond: N/a Came on to use up time.

Pearson: 6 - Yeovil were the better footballing side in the first half. After the break Nigel seemed to have geed up the City players and they were much better. We retained possession well and seemed to pose a lot more of a threat up front. Irritatingly though, after going 2-0 up, Nigel's subs resulted in a change in formation. From then on Yeovil took the initiative. The change just seemed to lead to nervousness and panic amongst the players.

As far as Yeovil are concerned, I thought they were quite a nice compact passing team. They just didn't have any bite. A loan striker or two could just about be enough to keep them up.

Slightly less than you Dunge at 370 mile round trip but did not get back until 02.30 after the bus driver decided to take us on a tour through Somerset and north Bristol.

Where were you by the way - I was on the right side of the goal?

Agreed we were a bit subdued, the dampness did not help.

I don't see anything I'd violently disagree with in the ratings, Dyer was a 7 for me. He's definitely upped his game this year. Finishing and crossing remain poor, but if he had those in his game he'd be playing for a Prem side.

nuneaton, I was also on the right hand side of the goal, with glorialestafan and one of his kids. You may be one of the many people I pushed past at half time in pursuit of a hot dog.

One thing I'll say on formation: I'm pretty sure that we didn't change formation drastically last night: Only from a 4-4-2 to a 4-4-1-1 after the goal went in. When James came on - and later Schlupp (Shloop ), we kept the same formation and Drinkwater played right midfield. At no point did we go 4-3-3/4-5-1, like I was hoping we would to swamp the midfield.

It wasn't

Fair enough Dunge, maybe there wasn't a drastic change in formation. Would you say the change in 'feel' of the game was solely down to the swapping of Knockaert with James? Or was it via instructions that came with James (from NP)? Yeovil's approach didn't seem to be that differerent until the pen gave them renewed belief.

I think that, just like in the Barnsley match, we started to cruise while our opposition simply hadn't given up. With some teams you see their heads drop, but Yeovil looked determined to put the ball in the net regardless, to break their duck if nothing else. Once they'd achieved that, they'd got momentum and fancied getting something out of the game, although I actually think we looked more solid defensively after they'd scored, like our players did get their heads back on it.

I don't blame James as such, the problem was more that we decided the game was won straight after the second goal and allowed them too much easy attacking possession. Fair play to them though, they never gave up and they'll need to keep that spirit if they're going to have a hope of avoiding relegation because they looked short of quality in key areas to me.