Former Liverpool defender Jamie Carragher has slammed Yaya Toure’s sluggish display against Arsenal FC, as Manchester City lost ground in the title race with a 2-1 defeat at the Emirates stadium on Monday. Although Toure scored a spectacular goal in the second half, Carragher was particularly unimpressed with the Ivorian in his role as holding midfield player.
Arsenal FC made a telling statement against rivals Manchester City by pulling off a tidy performance in a crucial game. Theo Walcott and Olivier Giroud were on the mark for Wenger’s side in the first half, and Yaya Toure’s deft lob into the top corner was only a consolation for the visitors.
Toure could not contain Ozil
Toure scored a brilliant goal in the 81st minute, but the 2013-14 Premier league champions were unable to salvage anything at the death. According to Carragher, Toure didn’t do the job on Mesut Ozil, giving the German too much space to work with.
“It wound me up the fact that he got the goal at the end,” Carragher said, as reported by the Mirror.
“You’re talking about one of your major players, your leaders in the dressing room, that’s unbelievably selfish the way he has played tonight.
“He is good on the ball and can find passes but if you want to get [David] Silva as aNo.10 and Yaya as a central midfielder, it’s going to get to the stage where he can’t play him in central midfield.”
Pellegrini’s tactical blunder
Manuel Pellegrini started with a formation that surprised all the pundits, as the Chilean fielded Yaya Toure in a holding midfield role, with Delph on the left. Tracking back has never been Toure’s strength, and he’s most dangerous and effective with those bulldozing runs towards the heart of the opposition’s defence.
Predictably, Mesut Ozil had space aplenty to work with and he hurt the Gunners with another couple of assists to his name.
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