European football: The Zeroes from this weekend's action

They say a moment of brilliance can decide close games, but so can some horrific blunders, moments of madness that tend to change the game for the worse.

Along with its collection of heroes, the game throws up its fair share of villains and ‘zeroes’, those who conspired to help their team lose a game or at the worst throw away a winning game.

Here are this week’s candidates:

Joe Hart

Joe Hart didn’t cover himself in glory after he was responsible for Chelsea’s late winner

The papers have been lapping it up after Joe Hart’s latest catastrophic error with headlines that read “Hart failure for City” and there seems to be no end in sight to the current patch of misery that the England keeper finds himself in.

The Chelsea fans were constantly on his back throughout the game singing “He’s better than you. He’s better than you. Ross Turnbull, he’s better than you… Ross Turnbull’s won the European Cup”.

Manchester City’s and England’s no.1’s career over the last year has been littered with a string of errors that range from the horrendous to the truly horrendous. He was already in the firing line after his performance against Aston Villa last month and yesterday, his howler meant City came away from Stamford Bridge with zero points.

For a time in the second half, after Sergio Aguero’s equalizer, City looked like they would go on to win the game. In the end though, a draw seemed a fair result and the game was progressing towards precisely that before Hart decided to play hero or should I say ‘zero’?

Chelsea vs Manchester City 2:1 Torres by footballdaily1

Many have attributed the error to Matija Nastasic not looking at what his keeper was doing, but the blame on this one has to go entirely to Hart. If Hart had just stood his ground at his spot, he would have had to collect a comfortable back pass from his centre-back.

Instead, his rush of blood resulted in a sequence of events which nobody – not Manuel Pellegrini, not Nastasic, not even Jose Mourinho would have anticipated.

Nani

Nani was subjected to resounding boos when he got taken off

Manchester United trailed 1-2 to Stoke City at half-time at home at Old Trafford and as they walked off into the tunnel they were greeted by resounding boos from across the stadium as the crowd let their displeasure known.

But the Old Trafford faithful reserved their harshest indictment for Portuguese winger Nani. After a performance that drew moans and frustration at its best, the winger faced the music when he came off.

Nani’s performance can best be described as inept and follows a string of poor showings even when afforded the opportunity by manager David Moyes.

It’s a pressing problem for Moyes who seems to be having some serious trouble addressing his problems at the winger position. Neither of Ashley Young, Antonio Valencia or Nani have inspired any confidence and as a result United have had to fall back on young Adnan Januzaj.

Nani is beyond borrowed time at Old Trafford.

Carlo Ancelotti

Carlo Ancelotti was left to rue his tactical error

King Carlo marked his first El Clasico with a tactical gaffe that handed the initiative to Barcelona. Ancelotti started with Cristiano Ronaldo, Angel Di Maria and Gareth Bale up front to put all of his attacking talent on the pitch.

But he made a mistake when he opted to play Pepe in central defence and Sergio Ramos as a defensive midfielder along with Sami Khedira and Luka Modric in central midfield.

The move resulted in Madrid’s front three being isolated and deprived of service as Barca’s trio of Sergio Busquets, Xavi and Andres Iniesta took a stranglehold.

Things got better for Madrid in the second half when Ancelotti hauled off Ramos and replaced him with Asier Illaramendi, who offered Modric able support as they wrestled back some of the advantage from Barca. But the damage had already been done and Madrid were left to chase the game.

The absence of one Mesut O?zil loomed large on the evening.

Manchester United’s defence

Phil Jones and Jonny Evans were run ragged by Stoke

The United back-four on Saturday were like gracious hosts at a wedding party inviting their guests for unlimited rounds of food and then some more later.

United were repeatedly found wanting, just like in previous games against West Brom and Southampton and the change in central defensive pairing did nothing to try and stem the rot. Stoke managed to find their way through almost at will and looked a threat during every foray that they undertook.

In the case of aerial balls, of course, it was a no contest as Peter Crouch’s use as a lightning rod paid dividends for Stoke. Not only were they bad with their defending, they were poor with their distribution as well as demonstrated by the high number of stray passes that they played while attempting to play out from the back.

It comes as a surprise that Moyes, who was known for his tactical organization and solidity at Everton, is now seemingly struggling with a leaky defence at United.

Things need to improve fast or United are going nowhere and seem set for a long stay in mid-table.

Gareth Bale

Gareth Bale had an El Clasico debut to forget

A start for the world’s most expensive player in one of the biggest games in club football sadly didn’t have the desired effect that Real manager Carlo Ancelotti had hoped for.

Not only was Bale woefully out of form, but he was also, as mentioned earlier, deprived of the ball at his feet to work with. The Welshman was making a comeback from injury and looked well off the pace and was nullified with ease by Barcelona’s defenders.

He started off playing through the middle as Ancelotti decided to leave out Karim Benzema. His stay there was brief as he was quickly switched to the right flank with Di Maria swapping places. That had no effect either.

Ancelotti soon realized that he was better off having a traditional striker lead the line, considering that his midfield was so deprived of creativity and took off Bale to bring on Benzema.

In stark contrast, Barcelona’s summer signing Neymar, announced himself in the best way possible by grabbing the opener.

The Brazilian’s star has been on the rise as he has improved with every week and he has firmly established himself as the real deal and an added threat even when Lionel Messi is not firing on all cylinders.

Gareth Bale – still a long way to go to justifying that quite ludicrous sum that Florentino Perez and Madrid shelled out for him.