Manchester City 5-1 Hull City

Last updated : 27 December 2008 By Rick Skelton

There can be no excuses; this was an abysmal Hull City performance, the worst of our Premier League journey so far. No blame on the referee, no complaints about injuries or suspensions and no amount of misfortune. The blame lies solely with the staff. The team selection was crazy and the players (on the whole) were pathetic. Complete with the dog and pony show at half time, this could be a defining day in our season.

We started with the 4-3-1-2 that has served us well on the road this season. No complaints there. Marney made a welcome return to the midfield, which at least gave us a bit of pace and energy in a key area. With Sam Ricketts suspended, McShane returned and took the left back role. That meant Mendy remained at right-back, a frightening prospect away from home, and it left McShane up against Shaun Wright-Phillips. Can you spell "mismatch"? Nick Barmby was rewarded for being our best performer of the month by being dropped. In came Dean Windass. Just an insane decision. We're slow enough as it is. It should've been Cousin, no doubt about it.

In the first minute, a harmless long ball forward from Man City, Boaz in total control, along comes Mendy, chests the ball past Boaz and then, instead of swiping it left footed as far as it would go, dribbles past their striker with the goal open. An incredible start; It should've been an omen. We actually played quite well for the next ten minutes. We kept the ball well, caused them some problems and created a very good chance. Marney slid a nice ball forward, Deano stepped over it and King race through on goal. He composed himself and shot hard and low, forcing a terrific save from Joe Hart. I thought King should've taken the ball on a few more yards but either way, he should've scored. From there, things just disintegrated on our part. We were awful, we didn't move the ball well, we presented it to them time and again and we left ourselves exposed to counter attack after counter attack. We went in 4-0 down, it should have been seven. For goal number one, we had good possession in their half. A pass into Deano fell short and Deano easily lost out to Richard Dunne in the race. Dunne then strode on and on into our half, unchallenged. This is a tubby centre-back outpacing our entire team. He passed to Robinho, every one of ours was drawn towards him and he chipped the ball across the area to Ireland, free as a bird. His perfect square ball was tapped in by Caicedo. It only took one run to undo us. McShane tracked a runner into the box, leaving Ireland in acres and acres of space. Ireland played the game inside a bubble. City players were not allowed to get within 5 feet of him. At least, that's how it looked. The guy destroyed us with his running from midfield 6 weeks ago and on this day, he's allowed to run freely where and when he wants. The second goal isn't long in coming, the ball is cleared up in the air on our left where Ashbee leaps above everyone and heads the perfect ball in behind McShane to set Ireland free. Another terrific ball between goalkeeper and central defenders and Caicedo scores again. Almost immediately, Boateng is robbed of possession by Ireland, he slides in Robinho; he turns Turner and finishes easily. Things cannot get any worse. They do though, a ball over the top finds Wright-Phillips, looking suspiciously offside, and he runs down our left and slides ANOTHER ball across the box for Robinho to tap in. Four wretched goals conceded. It could've been worse too, Myhill made two terrific saves and Wright-Phillips somehow shot wide when clean through. Man City didn't even have to work that hard for it. We gave them the ball, pointed at the massive spaces in behind and let them free the players who had blistering pace. Caicedo scored twice and only had about 3 touches of the ball. At the other end, we were none existent. On 40 minutes, King chased a ball in behind, did superbly to fend off two defenders and get to the bye line. When he looked up, there were no black and amber shirts within 30 yards of him. It typified our performance. Phil Brown had made a change a little after half an hour, withdrawing Boateng for Doyle. At 2-0 down, it was far too late at that point.

At half-time, Brown dragged the players over towards the City fans, made them sit in a circle like school boys and gave them an absolute rollicking. I can't for the life of me imagine what he thought it would achieve. The players deserved a pasting but humiliating them on the pitch in that fashion cannot possibly help. It was all a bit too "them and me" for my liking. Brown was somehow exonerating himself from the blame. He made mistakes too, plenty of them. As a spectacle, it was pretty unique but in the cold light of day, it was a pretty poor thing to do. This was one poor half in a season of terrific away performances. The reaction was way over the top. If we are relegated, which I don't think we will be, this will stand out as the moment that Phil brown alienated the players.

The second half was better from our point of view. We were more solid and looked more of an attacking force. The introduction of Fagan at half time helped, he was energetic and busy and gave King some help. Man City had lost interest in cutting through us, which helped and we were able to survive pretty comfortably, though Doyle made a superb tackle on Wright-Phillips to stop a certain goal. With twenty remaining, Geovanni was withdrawn, sensibly saved for Tuesday night, and he left to a tremendous ovation. His replacement, Cousin, gave a much better performance than last week and his run in behind and wicked cross provided our goal, tapped in by Fagan. The last 10 minutes was insane really, everyone was compacted into the middle third and every ball over the top found someone running free. For us, it was often Mendy, who had 4 or 5 goes but failed to deliver a decent ball. Within 2 minutes of us scoring, Man City hit a fifth, a run through the middle and a simple ball wide, Ashbee stopped running and allowed Ireland to trot into the box and hammer the ball into the net from close range. Awful defending but a deserved goal for the best player on the pitch. Back to the drawing board for us.

Myhill (7): It was a tough afternoon for Bo. He didn't have a chance with any of the goals and made two terrific saves. His distribution was pretty appalling though. He barely found a City player throughout. I swear he's still aiming the ball towards Stuart Elliott every time. Someone tell him he's not there!

Mendy (5): A pretty horrible effort, literally from the first minute. He's not a right back. I don't care how many times Phil Brown calls it his "International position", he's not good enough to play there. The first half an hour here is the ultimate evidence. He's far too casual in possession and not alert enough without the ball. He has no sense of danger. When he switched to midfield, he looked a better player. His pace and running in behind causes problems and he's good on the ball. He must deliver though; he gets into great positions and doesn't provide a ball that someone might score from, which makes all that build up pointless.

McShane (5): His lack of pace was exposed big time today. It's hard to point the finger at him though, our defensive line seemed a little too high and it allowed them to run off us time and again. He left the space for Ireland to exploit for the first goal but he obviously felt that he should track the right winger inside and someone else should follow Ireland. I personally feel that it's his job to cover that area of the pitch and we should have enough bodies in the middle to cover runners, Boateng and Ashbee tend to drop into the box along with Turner and Zayatte. His passing was highly frustrating, particularly late on when he blew an entire attack by playing a 3 yard pass too short, that's inexcusable.

Turner (6) & Zayatte (6): I didn't think Turner and Zayatte were that bad. They did Ok with challenges outside the box and made some good interceptions. For the goals, they were by-passed pretty well as Man City steamed us out wide and played good balls in behind. With Zayatte's pace, you wonder if he could've gotten into the positions Caicedo did to put in a challenge. It was a tough afternoon for them though, so I'm giving them the benefit of the doubt. Protection out wide and in front of them was non-existent, they were sitting ducks.

Ashbee (4): A really wretched effort from our skipper. He barely made a tackle, he was awful in possession, he setup the second goal, he didn't track runners and he didn't motivate or organise those around him. I thought he hid when the going got tough, which is not what you expect from him at all.

Boateng (4): A similar performance to Ash. In addition, Boateng had bags of experience at this level and he didn't use it at all. When we were struggling last week, he put himself about and lifted the players and fans but this week, he wasn't interested. I'm not being smart in hindsight, I did say on the journey down that the lack of pace between Ash and Boateng worried me and that was highly evident today. We couldn't live with them in key areas and to counter that, we had to be immaculate in possession and quick to close them down in their half to stop the service. We were neither and it allowed Man City plenty of the ball and plenty of time to do with it whatever they wanted.

Marney (5): Pretty anonymous after a decent opening quarter hour. He looked likely to be the one to open them up; he passed well and exploited the space on the right early on. Following the first goal, he was hardly seen.

Geovanni (6): He had a decent first half. Despite the chaos around him, he did pretty well in possession, ran well with the ball and rarely gave it away. He lacked any end result from his work though. Forced a good save from Hart with a free-kick before half time.

Windass (5): Enjoyed a decent opening, when a few balls went into his feet. As soon as the game was stretched, he was a bystander. Not athletic enough to play at this level, unless he comes on late when we're bombarding an opposition, like the Bolton game.

King (8): Our best performer by far. Put in a terrific shift, made run after run in behind, got himself on the ball and was let down by those around him. He's not a box striker, a lot of his work comes around the box and in wide areas so he desperately needs someone else alongside him who'll make runs off him. With Geo playing deeper and no Barmby to make runs, he was isolated.

Subs:

Doyle (7): A decent performance, particularly in the second half when he shored up the left hand side. Played some nice long passes and supported well down the left. His short passing isn't good enough and like Mendy, he needs to be more alert to danger.

Fagan (8): It was like he'd never been away. His touch was a tad rusty, his work rate, desire and ability to hassle opponents with and without the ball was spot on. He got booked, obviously!

Cousin (7): Showed more desire than last week and got into the game quickly. Made good runs out onto the left and gave us a bit of cutting edge. He should've started; I don't know what Phil Brown was thinking.

So we hit the half way point of the season in a very respectable league position and with a very good point haul. The problem is that most of the points game in the first 9 games and our last 10 haven't been good enough. We face a very tough challenge next in Aston Villa, who are just as quick and inventive as Man City but far more organised and a massive threat from set pieces. We need to put out a team that can match them for pace wherever possible. Sam Ricketts will surely come in at right back to mark Ashley Young. We've got to be far better in midfield with and without the ball and we need two big strong strikers who'll cause Laursen, Davies and Knight a problem.

Longer term, the transfer window is open at the end of this week. The players have picked a fine time to put in a couple of rubbish performances because it will make Phil Brown look harder in January. The centre of midfield has to be a priority. Boateng isn't up to it consistently. We are lacking some pace and energy that other teams have in abundance. It's hard to find it in the middle of the pitch, but we must find it from somewhere. It was always going to be tough to last the entire season. The players have played well above themselves so far and that cannot continue consistently. Now, we've got to be clever in team selection, prudent in the transfer window and we've got to find the desire to make up for a lack of ability with sheer bloody-mindedness.