The fall guy.
Yaya Toue did not have his finest 90 minutes as a Manchester City player, on Sunday. He put in a listless performance in the City midfield as they were beaten 4-2 by cross-city rivals Manchester United, at Old Trafford.
On Sky Sports, Gary Neville opined, ‘Before the game, I asked, ‘Is Yaya Toure able to match Fellaini in that pocket?’ He didn’t. He paid no attention to him at all. It was a complete dereliction of duty.’
Neville added that the Ivory Coast midfielder is one of City’s ‘weeds in the garden’ that need to be removed over the summer.
Strong stuff. Next to lump in was United goal-scorer Ashley Young.
Young told MUTV, ‘Felli has been brilliant. Everyone will say the same. Since he’s come into the team, he’s been fantastic.
‘I’ve said before that very few people can handle him. On his day, he’s unplayable. I don’t think Yaya Toure wanted to be tracking back, he wanted to be at the other end of the pitch but he had that job to do on Felli.
‘When Felli is in the box and you can find him, you’ve definitely got a chance of scoring.’
Match of the Day 2 highlighted Toure appealing forlornly for offside as Chris Smalling’s header made it 4-1.
Over on the BBC, Phil Neville had sympathy for Toure, saying he had been abandoned by his midfield partners to take on Fellaini, Michael Carrick and Ander Herrera on his own. He wrote, ‘Nobody was questioning Toure when City were on top in the first few minutes. It was their team that fell apart, not an individual.’
The City fans, or lads wearing City jerseys, were quick to have a pop:
Young also made reference to an old Alex Ferguson remark about City, after the league win.
‘The fans were magnificent,’ he said, ‘even from the time we came out for the warm-up. I think that’s the loudest I’ve heard them. We wanted to keep our noisy neighbours quiet and we quietened them down straight away [after their goal].’
