The subs wouldn't have bothered me much had we changed the formation to better utilize them. By the time Heskey (and definitely when NRC) came on, City was on the up and we couldn't keep possession for any real period of time. We needed someone in the middle to try to prevent the ball from getting to Ireland and coming right back at us, and in a traditional 4-4-2, that wasn't happening. When Heskey came on (who, by the way, wasn't too bad, though it seems the rest of our team still doesn't understand his playing style, and until they do, our "threat" with him on the pitch will be nominal), I figured one of our attackers would move into a withdrawn central role to put pressure on Barry, thereby taking some pressure off Petrov and Sidwell, freeing them up to work wherever needed; I thought, then, failing the former, when NRC came on, we'd see Gabby go wide on the left (he drifts out there all the time anyway) and deploy three in the middle, but for some reason NRC was played wide, and was completely useless.
Friedel - 7
Cuellar - 6
Collins - 8
Dunne - 9
Warnock - 7
Petrov - 6
Sidwell - 5
Milner - 6
Young - 6 (NRC - 4)
Carew - 6 (Heskey - 6)
Agbonlahor - 8
Summary - Decent all-around performance, with generally great displays by our defenders. This style of play, though, is nerve-shattering stuff at times, and we are still in desperate need of a midfielder who is willing to pass the ball forward. We're far too hesitant to take the game to our opponents far too often.