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Ratings v Norwich

Friedel 5 couldn't do anything about the goals

Ekotto 5
King 3 Got raped time and time again by Grant Holt! Hate saying this but he looked painfully slow today and we can't afford to carry him for much longer.
Kaboul 4 awful defending for the first goal
Walker 4 Gave the ball away repeatedly, brick crossing, just brick!

Modric 5 looks like he wants out. I'd take ?ú40m and laugh at whoever gives us the fee
Livermore 5 Good assist, but they bossed the midfield.
Bale 5 stick to the left please
Lennon 6 Looked dangerous on occasion

Saha 3 Still don't know why we signed him.
Defoe 6 Good goal, but offered little else

Adebayor 5 couldn't get in the game, when he did manage to, was either offside or handballed it.
Nelsen 7 Easily our best player today, which isn't saying much.
VDV N/A

They won just about every header and 2nd ball today, and they had nothing to play for unlike us except pride!
 
I agree harsh but in a game where we struggled to keep meaningful possesion he just gave it to them every single time. He could have at least got one of the full backs to come deep which even Swansea could manage. Norwich put us under pressure, fair enough, but we need to be composed or all teams will have to do is press us high and watch us give them back the ball.

They were in league 1 only two seasons ago, quality wise they dont have many star players and high work rate shouldnt be good enough to win away against a team aiming to be 3rd.
 
Joesh said:
I agree harsh but in a game where we struggled to keep meaningful possesion he just gave it to them every single time. He could have at least got one of the full backs to come deep which even Swansea could manage. Norwich put us under pressure, fair enough, but we need to be composed or all teams will have to do is press us high and watch us give them back the ball.

They were in league 1 only two seasons ago, quality wise they dont have many star players and high work rate shouldnt be good enough to win away against a team aiming to be 3rd.
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I don't think he could. If management wanted us to build from the back under that kind of pressure they would instruct our players to do so. No reason to think that Friedel wasn't just doing what he is asked to do as that's what's been happening all season and previously under Gomes as well.

"Even Swansea"? Are you kidding me? Swansea are one of the absolute best teams in the league at playing out from the back.

They are in 9th in the Premier League either way. If they're doing that with championship quality players that's impressive. If they're doing that with league one quality players that's just surreal and I don't buy it.
 
Joesh said:
Damn your reasonable arguments :lol: . I need to get the knee jerking out of my system.
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I'm sorry. I'll take my reasonable arguments to the positives thread...

Damn **** bastards, Norwich is a brickhole and all their fans look like slightly uglier versions of Luke Chadwick.
 
i actually thought Ekotto was pretty decent along with Lennon who looked like the only player wanting to try and do something even if it rarely came off

also thought Saha was better in the first half than Adebayor in the second - Adebayor was fudging dreadful and nowhere to be seen for most the half. Saha was only worth a 5 mind. Defoe done nothing once he scored, Modric was wasteful, Walker was a joke - King, well i try to stick up for the guy even if he plays poorly but he was all over the place at the back today - Nelsen was actually doing not so bad of a job of holding it together. i don't want to be too harsh on Livermore because i think it was a joke decision to play him as the only defensive option in the middle in this type of fixture -

which brings me to Harry, what a total fudge up over the Easter weekend from him. in both fixtures he played the wrong line ups and rested the wrong players at the wrong times. ive stuck up for him against my personal feelings over this personal blip but today really makes me question if i was right - i said at the time he had to either rule himself out of the England job or leave there and then as it would effect the players and our form - im not quite all doom and gloom - 4th is still very much on but i am not as confident as i was before the easter weekend
 
Modric THFC said:
Friedel - 6 didnt do much wrong

Walker - 6 average performance, usual passing going astray and unable to deliver crosses
Kaboul - 6 no idea why he wasn't marking holt
King - 3 he's gone, was a liability today
BAE - 7 did well going forward often with no else on that wing helping him out, covered for for king and kaboul on a few occasions

Lennon - 6 decent enough game not up to full fitness
Modric - 7 spread the play well, got the ball out to bale and lennon when he could
Livermore - 6 recycled possession well, great ball to defoe for the goal
Bale - 7 - our main threat in the game. at least he played like he gave a brick. yes he probably should have stayed out the left more but none of 8 crosses linked with anyone

Saha - 4 had a shot in the first half but completely anonymous
Defoe - 5. Good goal but not a threat otherwise

Subs:
Nelsen - 6 though he did well when he came on unfortunely because of he and king lack of pace we couldnt push up at the end
Adebayor - 5. good one two with BAE but that was it. not a threat.
VdV - 6. played out of position again. he was on a hiding to nothing. midfield was a wasteland after came on.
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I would say in possession this is probably what we're worth rating. However we didn't have enough bodies in midfield to stem the flow.
 
yea i agree with bae and lennon being about the only 2 who can hold their heads up. Nelsen done ok as well.

Hopefully this will stop the unrealistic expectations on livermore as well now, he's very average and talking him up to be better or ahead of Thudd in the pecking order does him no favours. If he's happy to stay around and play the odd CC game and start about 5-10 prem games then great, but expectations of him being a 1st team player are way off.
 
Friedel 6 Couple of good saves and was quick to run all the way out of his box whenever someone threatened to race King.


Walker 5 Not great defending, at least he didn't get sent off. Hopefully he can work on his crossing a little bit. He gave away a couple of dangerous free kicks.

Kaboul 5.5 Covered for King, did ok until he had to go off. It wasn't his best performance but wasn't a complete disaster.

King 3.5 My picture was extremely blurry, so I couldn't see when he was grabbing shirts and had to rely on what was one of the most annoying commentries I've ever heard. He made more mistakes today than he did in all of last year though. The ball bouncing off his foot for their first goal was painful to watch.

BAE 6 It's such a shame that chip didn't go in. Did extremely well covering for King, putting in crosses, driving us forward and did well almost playing LCM at the end.


Lennon 6.5 Good defensive work, looked dangerous, probably could have beaten his man on the right and put in a few more crosses though. Was selfless in switching with Bale a lot of the time.

Livermore 6 Highlighted his passing ability yet again, he's not Hudd (as he showed when he tried to spray a ball to the left flank but hit a Norwich defender head on). Great assist, that was a very good forward defence splitting pass. Unfortunately, he's not quite on par with Parker defensively. He played CB for us earlier in the season (and full back), so I expected him to close people down and snap at heels, but it seems he's more a Romeu type DM.


Modric 6 Got forward quite a bit, passed ok, a couple of dodgy corners but not that bad. His defensive game suffered a bit though.

Bale 6 A bit greedy at times, missed another free header (just like at the Sunderland game), put in crosses, had a couple of wayward shots, roamed a touch more than I'd have liked (although at Norwich roaming like that worked for the only time), made Lennon play left wing a lot more than he should have. Unlucky to hit the bar.


Saha 4.5 Every goal he has was assisted by Ade, or so I heard... He takes a few too many touches and tries to beat a man in order to move away from goal more times than I'd like.


Defoe 6 Nice finish for his goal, good work rate as usual.



Nelson 5 Not a great shot from the corner, wasn't terrible defensively, although he wasn't amazing either. He was good to have in that situation.

Ade 6 Set BAE up for his chip, was handy to have to help defend. Was a tiny bit naive to touch someone in our box when trying to head the ball, football isn't a contact sport in the penalty area.


VDV 5.5 Decent CM performance, unfortunate clash of heads, good corner taking.


Harry 4 Nowhere near as bad as Sunderland but when one defender goes off injured at 44 minutes and one striker is exchanged at halftime, that doesn't leave much room to make changes in the second half. At least people can understand his way of thinking, plus as Norwich are a wing/cross/heading based team it wasn't terrible lack of awareness that caused this, it was bad decision making.

All my blame for sacrificing control of the game, midfield dominance and so on has to go to Harry. It's not Defoe's fault that we gave up so much in order for him to be able to play, Defoe scored 1 goal, we just needed 3 to win. I am disappointed with our defending as a unit, I wasn't particularly inspired by the team sheet and as hard as it is to play on Saturday and Monday, Harry's team selection meant that Livermore and Saha were the non injury enforced subs, not the players that had worked hard at Sunderland, those were players that had to come on to try and save us. If we'd have gone 2-0 up and taken Ade and VDV off for Livermore and Saha and then lost 3-2, it'd be far more understandable than the way everything played out.

We're level on points with Saudi Sportswashing Machine, so it's not like Champion's League qualification requires breaking into the Sky 4 in their prime. Finishing 3rd gives double the TV money from the Champion's League that 4th gives, it gives 775kish extra prize money from the Premier League placings and means we wouldn't have a potentially tricky extra round before the Champion's League. From the position we were in, we should have been able to take 3rd, before today's match, we were still favourites for 3rd. This match was important, it was one of the easier fixtures we had left. This is our third home loss of the season and it was to a team that started today in the second half of the table.
 
For all of BAE's cons, you get the feeling at times he is the one that is desperate to win or at least try something different. He wants to shoot from distance, he covers an absent left wing partner at times. He's not perfect but at least it feels like we have an honest player.
 
GrimsbyYid said:
For the past few windows we all knew we needed centre back cover of quality, still hasn't happened. We all knew we needed wing cover, didn't happen, we all knew we needed a quality striker, didn't happen. Our transfer windows have been an absolute joke. This (along with Harrys brain) has cost us, we don't have good enough cover. fudge knows why - the stadium, harry simply not knowing what to do when he can actually get good players in, Levy not wanting to spend knowing Harry won't be with us?!

Either way. Not spending a few million could mean we don't get in an extra 30 and the ability to sign extra players!
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Agree with every word!
 
Papercut said:
For all of BAE's cons, you get the feeling at times he is the one that is desperate to win or at least try something different. He wants to shoot from distance, he covers an absent left wing partner at times. He's not perfect but at least it feels like we have an honest player.
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What I really like about Benny in a game like today is that while we're obviously crap at playing long balls he's the only defender with the skill to keep possession under pressure, he then even tries to make telling passes across the half way line picking out players, not just hoof it or roll it around. If only we had a couple more players doing that I think we could have played through the pressure Norwich put us under a lot easier.

------------------

Oh, and this will probably spark a discussion, but in my opinion Modric was our best attacking player today. Him that released Bale for the shot that hit the bar, released Bale several times in the first half down the left with some excellent passes. A couple of poor corners and set pieces the only negatives in my book, but why he was asked to take them in the first place I don't know.
 
Friedel 6
Walker 5
Kaboul 5
King 4
Assou-Ekotto 6
Lennon 5
Livermore 5
Modrić 5
Bale 6
Defoe 5
Saha 3

Nelsen 6
Adebayor 5
v. der Vaart 5

Collective 4

Far worse even than the rather paltry sum of our parts.
 
What did we learn today?

Livermore is not really ready to play first team in tough matches, when the team are not on song. He needs more time. Its one thing bringing a new player into a team that's purring and has a set system. Another throwing them into a game like today.

-Modric is quality and was isolated.
-Bale was tired.
-Saha very low on confidence and didn;t show for the ball after failed early touches.
-Defoe is the only player who can finish with clinical precision.

But mostly - games are won and lost in midfield - and we have a manager that doesn't react. He's always been brick with subs, bringing them too late.
 
SpurMeUp said:
What did we learn today?

Livermore is not really ready to play first team in tough matches, when the team are not on song. He needs more time. Its one thing bringing a new player into a team that's purring and has a set system. Another throwing them into a game like today.

-Modric is quality and was isolated.
-Bale was tired.
-Saha very low on confidence and didn;t show for the ball after failed early touches.
-Defoe is the only player who can finish with clinical precision.

But mostly - games are won and lost in midfield - and we have a manager that doesn't react. He's always been brick with subs, bringing them too late.
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Bit uncalled for today? We had to make a change in the first half when Kaboul went off, another change at half time bringing on Ade, seemed like a good idea. Then wait to bring on VdV until a bit later in case of injuries.

Agree with the rest of your post though.
 
braineclipse said:
Bit uncalled for today? We had to make a change in the first half when Kaboul went off, another change at half time bringing on Ade, seemed like a good idea. Then wait to bring on VdV until a bit later in case of injuries.

Agree with the rest of your post though.
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Harry has never been brave with subs. He is simply afraid to be bold with subs. I don't know why. Where Morinho would make a drastic change urgently Harry never does. Games are short and change quickly. A manager can only really influence a game with subs, HT talk, and jumping around like a monkey on the touchline. I appreciate the injury and Ade may have dropped deep to help in midfield. But the fact is, Harry saw we were rocking in midfield. We know this as he talked about it in the interview. He certainly knew it in hindsight. But he failed to be bold and correct it during the match. That is what tinkles me off. If you know something, and can change it, fudging act.
 
SpurMeUp said:
Harry has never been brave with subs. He is simply afraid to be bold with subs. I don't know why. Where Morinho would make a drastic change urgently Harry never does. Games are short and change quickly. A manager can only really influence a game with subs, HT talk, and jumping around like a monkey on the touchline. I appreciate the injury and Ade may have dropped deep to help in midfield. But the fact is, Harry saw we were rocking in midfield. We know this as he talked about it in the interview. He certainly knew it in hindsight. But he failed to be bold and correct it during the match. That is what tinkles me off. If you know something, and can change it, fudging act.
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But he did make a change, he put on Adebayor...
 
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