Premier League Preview: Tottenham Hotspur vs. Manchester City- 1st half 0-0 (Part 2)
The newly acquired Serbian defensive midfielder, Aleksandar Koralov was a man who came up to the expectations of Manchester City but he happened to be a rare example in the match.
He alone was operating the defensive department and was even working hard in the midfield along with managing to assist the forwards.
His presence was one thing that was giving a boost to the other players as well. He is reckoned to be among the starting line up for Manchester City and is expected to a star in the season far more often.
Luka Modirc was another man that impressed with his usual flashy but tidy game from the Tottenham ranks. The Croatian playing for Whites has been admired by many in the past seasons and with time his game play seems to be only getting better.
The attacking midfielder came to Tottenham in 2008 and since then has had 59 appearances and scored 6 times. He has played 42 matches for Croatia, in which he has scored 7 goals.
The signature of Modric, is his finesse passing and his lustrous dribbles on the wings and in the midfield. With his fast feet, he has confounded many.
Tom Huddlestone was also impressive. In defence, he covered up the ball always and seldom made any mistakes. On many occasions, he cleared the ball till the midfield and put his team out off danger.
The English international Jermaine Defoe was extremely disappointing. While he has 21 goals in 42 caps, he did not manager to score in the first half of the game.
Not only did the 27 year old striker miss two many chances but he often loss the ball while passing. There were at least two chances when he had a strong chance of scoring a goal but the fast reflexes of Joe Hart and some mistakes by the forward ended the match in a goal less draw.
Joe Hart got no help from his defenders apart from Koralov. He was the lone that was keeping the Tottenham aggression at bay. In addition, there were some poor displays of defending by Manchester City.
The Dutch player Nidel de Jong got himself a yellow card for a poor judgement on tackling and that wasn’t the case with just him. Other defenders were getting warning after another.
The end of the half was near and the right wing of Tottenham softened somewhat. One reason for that was a dampening in deliverance of ball in the penalty area by winger Aaron Lennon.
The half about to end and statistics showed that most of the possession was with Hotspurs. They also had a better strike and passing ratio. They even had more strikes on target.
Hotspurs took advantage of Silva roaming around in the midfield far too often and from there they entered the left wing. It proved to be a major hotspot and Manchester City had to do a lot of defending there.
Also as Bale was positioned there and being in mood to fire up things, defenders were left scampering after the ball and players in the latter past of the game. On average Bale won the bout from them on a higher percentile.
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