Wolves Fans' Verdict v Manchester City: Red card woes

Rob Cartwright

What's your verdict on the match?

I headed North full of anticipation of a great game. It would be difficult, but maybe a battling draw or even to pinch a win with a breakaway goal towards the end.

These thoughts didn’t last for long, after kick off. Man City dominated the early stages, as expected. We had kept good shape, but on 10 minutes Doherty switched off to let Sane ghost past him with the ball. He crossed to Jesus who broke free from our back three to score.

Things got a lot worse before 20 minutes were up. The red card for Boly was maybe harsh but expected. If it had been the other way around, it would have been yellow. These decisions favour the top sides, without a doubt.

This was now about staying in the game and perhaps damage limitation. We did this well to a certain extent. Just as we were looking forward to holding it to one goal at half time, we once again caused our own downfall. Bennett should not have let Sterling skip past him in the box. Though there was minimal contact, it was late and possibly needless, as Coady was covering.

Just as the red card had been engineered by City, the penalty was played for too.

I was pleased to see Traore come on at half time, as we were not getting forward at all and so creating no scoring opportunities.

It was a little better, from this point, but though Traore broke forward with the ball on occasions, no one broke with him so there was no outlet for him, as the Man City back line forced him out wide. Man City made good use of their extra man, but in the main we restricted them to long range shots with little danger.

Saiss was a surprise second sub. I wanted us to do more up the field, rather than at the back at this point. Neves and Moutinho just couldn’t get hold of the ball and we spent the majority of the game chasing shadows.

The big positives for me was that the defence kept their shape and remained solid. Dendoncker who started well in midfield also did well in defence. He has looked very useful since his recent introduction to the team. He may be rewarded with Boly’s place during his suspension.

The third goal was a fluke and in the end I think the score flattered Man City. From a short corner, De Bruyne crossed into the box. Possibly Saiss and definitely Coady got a deflection before it went into the net.

With 10 minutes still to go, I was pleased we didn’t concede again.

Who played well – and who didn't impress?

Patricio had a good game, despite conceding three. It’s fair to say he had a little more to do than his opposite number!

Boly should have known better. A needless challenge in the middle zone of the pitch.

The reality is that our downfall was due to a number of players not quite being on their game. Coady, Bennett, Doherty, Neves & Moutinho were all slightly below par. Jimenez looked tired to me. Not surprising given his performances of late. Would it have been different with 11 v 11? Who knows? I thought both Jota and Johnny were decent.

Dendoncker had another assured display. Just a shame this could not have been from midfield, as planned. Traore did well with very limited supply in the second half. Saiss was okay, but Gibbs-White had no impact in his 20 minute cameo.

Man City have now scored 99 goals this season, but this was their first Premier League clean sheet for 9 games.

We were not expected to win this, so it’s not a concern, but definitely things for us to learn too as we go into a run of games where we will be expecting to take points.

Clive Smith

What's your verdict on the match?

What a huge disappointment. The red card meant we could not see how competitive we could be. Already a goal down and lacking possession it would have been a good insight.

The pace of City, in so many players, overwhelmed us right from the start. Usually, a line of five at the back would have been sufficient to manage a front two or three, but City had four players running at pace and they found gaps easily.

Doherty didn't know whether to stick or twist with Sane, in the end he did neither. The gap between him and Bennett was huge. A through ball, a perfect cross and a tap in.

Ten minutes later we lost Boly to a red card and the game was as good as done. 2-0 at the break and the second half was ten against ten in our half.

We got numerous tackles and blocks while Patricio had his busiest game in ages. 3-0 did not flatter them, or us.

Had we kept eleven men, had Jota and Otto had a yard more pace, then who knows.

If the theory is right that you learn more from your defeats then, two obvious lessons stood out. Our goal kicks to Doherty are not seeing us retain possession and short corners, when done correctly, are a threat. (Our's recently have been poor and wasted).

City have pace and strength in abundance, we need to improve those areas in our team.

Our few moments of possession came to nothing as we just lacked that extra yard of pace or second to make it count.

Thankfully there will be better days ahead. However, this was a thoroughly miserable experience.

Who played well – and who didn't impress?

Patricio was forced to have a good game and was kept busy.

Otto and Doherty always had too much on their hands. Doherty had a dreadful opening twenty minutes as he was in no man's land.

Otto did at least see some of the ball across the halfway line.

Bennett and Coady held their shape well alongside Dendoncker who had to fill the gap left by Boly. The movement around them provided a huge challenge throughout.

Dendoncker was probably our man of the match.

Boly seeing red left us with too great a challenge.

Neves and Moutinho worked non-stop but it was hard prompting any attacks starting so deep in our half and surrounded by blue shirts.

Jimenez tried hard to link up with Jota and they did provide some hope in the first half. Both ended up being taken off, saving them for next week hopefully.

From the bench Traore played the second half. He provided a couple of good runs but at other times was too static or late coming back from an offside position.

Saiss didn't really look up for the challenge while Gibbs-White could not get the ball to stick to him at all.

Adam Virgo

What's your verdict on the match?

No one went to Man City expecting anything but we all believed we could do something special and get a result. Once they scored and Boly got sent off it was game over.

The first goal was just a typical City goal, quality play and when they have those types of players, more often than not you will get punished at some point.

The red card is opinion divided. 10 years ago it wouldn’t have been a foul, at the time of watching it I thought the red card was a joke and then even watching a video it’s tough.

I can see why the ref has given a red card, he’s seen the studs are up slightly and he’s caught Bernardo Silva’s ankle afterwards. The ref only gets one view but I also think a yellow card would have been fair and justified. Kompany’s challenge against Liverpool and Van Dijk’s against Napoli were arguably worse but definitely similar to Boly’s and they onIy received yellow so it shows the inconsistency with it and that’s the opinion divide.

If we appeal it and get the ban reduced then that’ll be a positive. Losing Boly for three games is the biggest negative of all from that game because losing away to Manchester City is nothing to be annoyed about in itself.

I haven’t seen the foul for the penalty back properly on a good angle but at the time it looked soft. If Bennett has tripped him or caught him then at that speed maybe it’s enough to take Sterling over. Either way, Man City away is hard enough as it is but going down to 10 men and then conceding a penalty you know that everything is going to go against you.

To say we only had 10 men, we did well in the second half to just concede once against one of the best teams in the world right now. Even throughout the game, we had the odd counter attacks and at 1-0 we had two big chances, Doherty especially with it still being 11v11 too, the ball across the box needed to be so much better.

Who played well – and who didn't impress?

Dendoncker was the standout player for us and I also thought Jonny did well too.

Boly will look back on the challenge and maybe be annoyed which I wouldn’t blame him. It’s frustrating how football has changed in the tackling and contact sense, before we know it slide tackles will probably end up being banned.

Doherty was poor, he got done on his side a lot but then again not many full/wing backs can stop Leroy Sane. He should have done much better with the crossing the first half at 1-0, could have easily equalised with a better cross.

Adama did well when he came on. I’ve seen him get slated but being up there on his own it was always going to be tough and I think anyone in that position maybe bar Messi or Ronaldo would have found it extremely difficult. He’s got so much potential and we need to keep supporting him and hopefully he will keep improving.

Chris Hughes

What's your verdict on the match?

No sob stories or excuses for this one. Comfortably beaten by one of the best sides around.

From the off it was clear to see that we were going to attempt to sit in to contain them and attempt to break quickly.

They’re just that good that one small lapse in concentration where a player is slightly out of position leaves you in serious trouble.

For the opener Doherty had gotten a little too close to Sane and Bennett was 3 or 4 yards too far ahead of his defensive partners.

The vacant space left to the right of our box was spotted and picked out beautifully by Laporte, and Doc was never going to keep pace with Sane from a level start. You could argue that Patricio could’ve done better in claiming the ball across the box, or that Coady could’ve been on his toes a bit more to begin with so that Jesus wasn’t able to get on the end of it, but, in all honesty, it was just a very good piece of football.

We then got to watch ten minutes of attack against defence before our task was made harder when we were reduced to 10 men. Was Boly’s challenge worthy of a sending off?

In the laws of the game, yes. In my opinion, no. He went in firmly, with one foot playing the ball and the other beneath him, and caught an opponent as he followed through.

Football had never been a completely non-contact sport and there have always been collisions. It seems these days that the lawmakers want to stop those collisions from occurring at all. 10-15 years ago it would have gone down as an excellent challenge and Silva would’ve been castigated by his manager for not showing commitment in a 50/50 challenge.

While I’m all for protecting talented, technical footballers it can’t be allowed that tackling is almost removed completely from the game.

If that happens all we can expect is games where teams like City end up with 80-90% of possession because they rarely misplace a pass and their movement is so good that it’s hard to time an interception.

The most disappointing aspect of the sending off is that four City players were in Pawson’s face demanding action before any of ours had gone over.

We definitely have to get wiser to this. It’s all well and good trying to respect the laws of the game about crowding the referee but it’s not helping us if other teams aren’t abiding by it and are constantly in the referees’ faces.

We defended well for the most part when it went 11v10 but were undone again by quick movement as Sterling got in behind Bennett.

Barely anything in the challenge and Sterling went down easily but, like Boly’s sending-off, Bennett gave the referee a decision to make. As we all know, in games against the top clubs, those decisions will always go against us. Penalty converted, 2-0 City, game over.

From then on it was pretty much damage limitation. Traore came on at the break and caused a few problems with his pace without ever getting any support when he did get into advanced areas.

City had a few long-range efforts, Patricio got out well to deny Sterling and saved well from De Bruyne. That reprieve was short lived though as, similarly to the goal we conceded at Arsenal, City played the resulting corner short and a ball in from their left wasn’t dealt with well and sneaked into the far corner.

Where Mkhitaryan’s went straight in, De Bruyne’s took a couple of touches with Coady’s being the final one to divert it past Patricio.

The last ten minutes were played out to a rapidly emptying stadium. With plenty of empty seats to begin with the Etihad was barely half full by the final whistle and the City players got very little in the way of appreciation of their performance. A mercenary supporter group for a group of mercenary players maybe?

The complete opposite to the non-stop support from the fans in the away end who backed the team from start to finish without reward, then had to endure the journey home down the worst motorway in the country for evening driving!

Russ Evers (Hatherton Wolves)

What's your verdict on the match?

It was never going to be easy but eleven a side may have evened it up somewhat, as it was the twelve men or thirteen if you include the Soho Road loving linesman.

Seventy-five minutes or so without our defensive linchpin made it almost impossible, especially when the first goal looked suspiciously offside and then Sterling dived to gain a penalty having earlier run fifty yards to remonstrate with the ref and demand Boly's red card.

Throw in a fluke third and the final nail was in. City in my eyes are the best team in the league, but in the likes of Sterling possess not one iota of class.

Wolves huffed and puffed but we are as expected a long way behind the hosts and can see how much we need to do if we want to challenge. Luckily we don't have to play them again unless we meet them on the cup trail.