For what it's worth, my thoughts on the match and in general:
Quite obviously, Pepe was not great last night and has made the odd blunder this season. Certainly no reason for anyone to doubt him long term. I just long for the day an oppo keeper has a stinker against us!!
I think we have the best left side of defence in the league. Enrique is solid as fuck defensively and uses the ball so well moving forward, as does Agger. I thought that again, both of them were great last night despite the team conceding three.
Skrtel was probably due a bad one - if that can be said - he's been fantastic this season but was a little sloppy on occasions last night. Onwards and upwards.
Downing - infuriating, the amount of times he sprints to take a defender on yet almost every single time he stops, props and plays a short pass backwards. As a general rule we just don't put opponents to the sword enough. Bellamy did when he came on and just about every attack City launched involved their attackers....and the ball, moving forwards - surging, if you will. Back onto Downing, specifically, one has to wonder what may have occur afterwards, had he knocked his early chance in. Which he should have.
Kuyt - well he's been my favourite Red for 5-6 years now and he'll always be one of my favourite Reds but I think I've finally fallen into the 'putting Dirk out to pasture' barrel. I still think there are games that he has plenty to offer, but he's not looking like a cog that fits the machine at the moment. The thing that actually led me to believe this is that he was always getting himself into positions to score from rebounds, loose balls in the box and at the goal mouth - probably our best at it - but he's starting to lag behind even in this area at the moment. And as the saying goes, he won't get any younger from here.
Henderson - really, really like this kid and what he seems capable of becoming. Some of his passing has been outstanding the last few weeks, with Stevie's goal and the ball to Downing last night being obvious examples. Has a massive future with us and his determination to harass and chase ANY ball is a delight to watch.
The same goes for Jay in that regard. He's like a Jack Russell (not your old wicketkeeper!) the way he fights to win the ball. I don't know that he's got a big enough frame to really do a lot of damage for us, when you consider his size as opposed to midfielders like Yaya Toure. Just the difference between the way Yaya ran his own race last night, and the way he was stifled last time we played them shows this IMO. I don't remember us dispossessing him at any stage last night. Maybe unfair to compare Jay to Lucas in that sense though, seeing as Lucas is the best tackler in the league.
Bellamy - must start whenever he feels 100%. Gets the ball and runs at the opposition. He's forever asking questions of the opposition defence and we need 3-4, even 5 players in the 11 to be doing this when we attack and putting these defenders under pressure.
Big Andy - I think he is definitely worth persisting with but geez, he really needs to get himself into some better positions to score. His positional sense just seems all out of whack at the moment. When he does manage to get his head on the ball near goal of late, it's usually with him moving away from the goal, thus taking a lot of power off his shots. It's probably a mix of his positioning and the types of crosses coming in but whatever you put it down to, it ain't working at the moment. Bit of a baby giraffe with his footwork at the moment too!! Still, if one finds the net, it may just be the spark he needs. The one that hit the bar last week being the obvious example of what might have been.
Gutted we've let Luis' suspension stand. To be honest I don't know if it's the right or wrong thing to do but it's just depressing to think of the next 7 games without him terrifying opposition backlines.
And for all the shite results - this loss, the Spurs, Stoke, Fulham losses - plus the horrible draws to Norwich, Wigan, Blackburn, Swansea etc.......... we are 3 points of the CL places!! So much to play for and to be optimistic about looking forward.
Anyway, sorry if I've dribbled on - just my thoughts on the current state of affairs.
EDIT: missed one of my points...... regarding the surging forward and attacking the opposition defence. It was for that reason alone that Barry was dismissed.....Agger made a surging and obviously dangerous run with the ball, at which point Barry had to make a decision. Under pressure he made the wrong decision and off he went.
