Ratings vs Villa

[Spur of the moment]

I get that ratings are increasingly a bore for many but here goes anyway,

Lloris 6 - one decent save and blameless for their deflected goal but a tad nervy at times and lucky not to concede when coming off his line

Walker 7 - had his hands full with the lively Sinclair but coped well overall
Alderweireld 7 - one brainfart pass across the back might have cost us but solid otherwise
Vertonhen 6 - again, solid overall, but a feeble deflection for Ayew's goal
Rose 7 - two assists and his usual robust defending but also one or two dodgy moments in the mix. Hope his injury is not serious, we'll need him for L'Arse on Sunday

Dier 7 - another impressive performance overall; but for a couple of brainfarts it would have been an 8
Alli 8 - tired towards the end and rightly subbed after imposing himself all over the park with deft touches, intelligent interventions and a sweetly taken goal

Lamela 7 - lame first half but much better after the break, capped off by an excellent assist for Kane's goal.
Dembele 8 and MotM - this was the Mousse at his very best, tigerish in winning possession and using it, as illustrated by his outstanding early goal
Eriksen 6 - not at his best, his deadball deadliness has deserted him for the moment, but quick to get the ball forward as always, it was his pass that sent Lamela on his way for Kane's goal

Kane 7 - found it tough most of the game but still put himself about and what a strike to make it five in his last five PL outings

Subs

Mason 5 - inevitably rusty following return from injury and culpable for needlessly conceding possession for Villa's goal. Clearly needs game time to get back to his early season level but with Dembele, Dier and Alli in such form he may have to wait a while
Davies 5 - came on when we were under the cosh and found it tough
Onomah n/a - looked cool and composed in his 5-minute cameo and even managed a shot on target, albeit rather tame

 

[inkpenspur]

Lloris 6 - I had him down for two decent saves... I think he tipped that long range shot onto the post just before they scored. I could hear him organising the defence as well for once.

Walker 6 - I thought he played pretty well, as Spur of the moment said above 'he coped well overall'.
Alderweireld 6 - Took a while to click last night... his distribution wasn't as good as normal, his first four long passes were all misplaced, but then his radar clicked in.
Vertonhen 6 - OK... didn't look completely comfortable against Gestede in the second half as he was a lot more physical than Agbonlahor (sp?) who he replaced.
Rose 6 - Normal busy performance from Rose, got into space well a couple of times to whip in a cross, one of which lead to the second goal

Dier 7 - I like him. When a tackle had to be made, he was the one delivering. He's allowed a couple of misplaced passes, but turning into a fine, fine player. Impressive.
Alli 8 - Good finish, neat and always involved.
Lamela 5 first half 7 second - Saved our bacon in the last ten minutes when we wobbled. Ensured we camped up their end with intelligent time wasting! Good pass for Kane when I feared he may have shot again.
Dembele 8 and MotM - He is a bulldozer, great goal demonstrating power and strength... the Villa defender couldn't stop him even with two handfuls of shirt! Really hard to knock off the ball, and we didn't look as solid after he went off. More of the same please against L'Arse!
Eriksen 6 - Quietly went about his game, quite neat, but free kicks a bit tame. Can spot a pass though...
Kane 7 - Worked hard, and a lovely finish. Good to see him acknowledging the crowd when he was being seranaded!

Subs

Mason 5 - We hit the panic button a bit when he came on, although he was back defending when he had to be.
Davies 6 - I thought he did OK when he came on, and was instrumental in starting the move for the third goal taking the ball from Lloris and playing a really neat one/two with Rose (?) that set our attack away.
Onomah n/a - good to have some game time!

Ref 6... and that was for the exagerated celebration of Moose's goal.. otherwise tried to let the game run.

Fans 6: I love a bit of gallows humour... Harry Kane, he's an Arsenal fan... you're/we're going down with the Chelsea, You're not that good, we lose every week and so on. You're just a brick Brad Friedel....

 

[Yoof]

Davies 6 - I thought he did OK when he came on, and was instrumental in starting the move for the third goal taking the ball from Lloris and playing a really neat one/two with Rose (?) that set our attack away.

Onomah. It couldn't have been Rose as he's the player Davies replaced

 

[Finney Is Back]

My view from the East Upper (without the benefit of replays, commentary, etc). I thought four players stood out for us - Rose, Vertonghen, Dembele and Alli.

Lloris 5 – a shakier game than usual for Hugo. He had little to do overall but nearly cost us 2 points with his rush of blood coming out to try to punch that cross when we were leading 2-1. I didn’t see a replay of it, but it looked to me like a similar rush of blood in the first half could’ve cost us a goal (although perhaps he was right to come off of his line on that occasion?) Also made some risky passes out to Alderweireld/Vertonghen/Dier with us 2-0/2-1 up that put us under pressure, when Dier is on the edge of the box with three players all in close proximity it really isn't the time to be playing it to him.

Walker 7 – Did really well. Lamela left him 2 on 1 time and time again but Walker coped really well with that and also got forward to provide us width on the right. Despite being left 2 on 1 so often, not once did Villa fashion a chance from down that wing.

Alderweireld 7 – Solid. Enough said.

Vertonhen 8 – Pretty much immaculate I thought. Looks so much better now he finally has a decent partner alongside him. We need to tie him down on a new contract ASAP as I think he would be in the starting line-up for each of the 5 clubs in the PL who are richer than us.

Rose 8 – MoTM. Defensivelyexcellent and a real threat going forward. He also got himself into great positions on numerous occasions only for the team not to spot him or to pass via Dyer/Alli/Vertonghen instead of missing them out and going direct to Rose. I think he is the best all round left back in England.

Dier 5 – Broke play as well as he always does but his use of the ball was terrible last night. Some of his passes were executed extremely poorly, others were horribly telegraphed. His worst game of the season I thought.

Alli 8 – such a talent. He is still a bit of a mixed bag in terms of his decision making due to his age and having stepped up 2 levels immediately. However it is clear that he has something special. So calm when taking his goal, always wants the ball, works hard. Has absolutely every attribute required to be a great player. He will be an England regular within 2 years.

Lamela 4 – unfortunately I thought he was back to his worst last night. Shocking control, poor dribbling, bad decision making, weak passing and to cap it off his work rate looked well down on his usual output. He left Walker exposed 2 on 1 on far too many occasions. I couldn’t believe it when Pochettino switched him with Eriksen in an attempt to give Walker more defensive cover. Surely the better option would simply have been to remove Lamela? Saved himself from a rating of 2 with his assist for Kane in injury time.

Dembele 8 – another excellent performance from Dembele. He is starting to ensure that he is an automatic first choice pick. I thought we lost control of the game when he went off. I assume Pochettino was saving his legs for Anderlecht and Arsenal?

Eriksen 6 – not at his best last night although he was still tidy in his play. For me he didn’t get involved enough and try to impose himself on the game. His dead ball delivery was unusually poor I thought.

Kane 7 – Starting to look like the Harry Kane of 10 months ago. Held the ball up really well, got himself into goal scoring positions and perfectly finished the one out and out chance that he had

Mason 5 - was considerably poorer than Dembele, nice nutmeg on Dier for their goal.

Davies 6 - did pretty well I thought was we were under pressure from Villa at that stage.

Onomah - wasn’t really on for long enough to award a mark to, but looked confident and composed on the ball.

Referee - 9. I don't think he made a bad decision all night really. Although it looked a very easy game to referee.

Overall I thought it was a strange performance. Looked like we played most of the game in second gear and we went from absolutely cruising at 2-0 up to suddenly hanging on for the 3 points. I think had that been a Man Utd team under Fergusson they would've used the opportunity last night to put 6 past Villa, improve their goal average and then get a few key players off. Pochettino needs to instil that mentality into our team as I think there was a suggestion last night that we turned up expecting to win that game rather than working hard to ensure that we won it.

 

[Rorschach]

Overall I thought it was a strange performance. Looked like we played most of the game in second gear and we went from absolutely cruising at 2-0 up to suddenly hanging on for the 3 points. I think had that been a Man Utd team under Fergusson they would've used the opportunity last night to put 6 past Villa, improve their goal average and then get a few key players off. Pochettino needs to instil that mentality into our team as I think there was a suggestion last night that we turned up expecting to win that game rather than working hard to ensure that we won it.

I agree with these sentiments though some in the match thread didn't. That third goal (earlier) would have ended the contest and allowed us to coast for the remainder of the match. Instead we got 10-15mins of panic and actually were lucky to hang on in the end.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Overall I thought it was a strange performance. Looked like we played most of the game in second gear and we went from absolutely cruising at 2-0 up to suddenly hanging on for the 3 points. I think had that been a Man Utd team under Fergusson they would've used the opportunity last night to put 6 past Villa, improve their goal average and then get a few key players off. Pochettino needs to instil that mentality into our team as I think there was a suggestion last night that we turned up expecting to win that game rather than working hard to ensure that we won it.

Although i agree with the sentiment...............probably best not to compare us with the best manager and team in premier league history

 

[billyiddo]

Probably worth remembering we have games two and three of a 6 day period coming up and a fair few players will be involved in all three matches - kind of explains the 2nd gear nature of the performance last night IMV,

 

[braineclipse]

Overall I thought it was a strange performance. Looked like we played most of the game in second gear and we went from absolutely cruising at 2-0 up to suddenly hanging on for the 3 points. I think had that been a Man Utd team under Fergusson they would've used the opportunity last night to put 6 past Villa, improve their goal average and then get a few key players off. Pochettino needs to instil that mentality into our team as I think there was a suggestion last night that we turned up expecting to win that game rather than working hard to ensure that we won it.

Things are good when you can compare us not only to Ferguson, but some imagined version of Ferguson where he got everything he wanted.

We put 5 past Bournemouth last time around. This time we scored 3. Sometimes it's not that easy to score 4+ goals, that was the same for Manu.

If anything we could be praised for getting the 2nd, so that when Villa did get one back we were still winning. Or we could be praised for only allowing Villa 1 shot in the last 10 minutes of play (including extra time, so 84t-94th). I think that ability to kill the game off would have been much shought after by Ferguson...

United under Ferguson had plenty of tense moments. Their players, usufally much more experienced than ours, usually responded really well in those circumstances. I think the same is becoming true about our players.

 

[GrimsbyYid]

Absolutely gobsmacked at the Rose ratings, thought he has a pretty bad game overall. Really bad actually. Bizarre.

Lloris - 7
Walker - 7.5
Toby - 7.5
Jan - 7.5
Rose - 5.5
Dier - 7
Alli - 7
Lamela - 8
Eriksen - 7
Dembele - 8
Kane - 7.5

 

[glasgowspur]

Individually I didn't think anyone was better than a 7 or worse than a 6. But as a team we were at least an 8 and pushing a 9.

 

[parklane1]

Lloris - 6
Walker - 7
Toby - 8
Jan - 7
Rose - 6
Dier - 6
Alli - 7
Lamela - 6
Eriksen - 7
Dembele - 7
Kane - 7

 

[Pirate55]

Absolutely gobsmacked at the Rose ratings, thought he has a pretty bad game overall. Really bad actually. Bizarre.

Lloris - 7
Walker - 7.5
Toby - 7.5
Jan - 7.5
Rose - 5.5
Dier - 7
Alli - 7
Lamela - 8
Eriksen - 7
Dembele - 8
Kane - 7.5

I agree with your assessment of Rose in this game. Rose got himself into some great positions but almost every time his cross was dire. No way can he be credited with two assists! I don't know what has happened to his crossing ability because when he was on loan at Sunderland that was one of his strengths iirc.

 

[Pirate55]

My view from the East Upper (without the benefit of replays, commentary, etc). I thought four players stood out for us - Rose, Vertonghen, Dembele and Alli.

Lloris 5 – a shakier game than usual for Hugo. He had little to do overall but nearly cost us 2 points with his rush of blood coming out to try to punch that cross when we were leading 2-1. I didn’t see a replay of it, but it looked to me like a similar rush of blood in the first half could’ve cost us a goal (although perhaps he was right to come off of his line on that occasion?) Also made some risky passes out to Alderweireld/Vertonghen/Dier with us 2-0/2-1 up that put us under pressure, when Dier is on the edge of the box with three players all in close proximity it really isn't the time to be playing it to him.

Walker 7 – Did really well. Lamela left him 2 on 1 time and time again but Walker coped really well with that and also got forward to provide us width on the right. Despite being left 2 on 1 so often, not once did Villa fashion a chance from down that wing.

Alderweireld 7 – Solid. Enough said.

Vertonhen 8 – Pretty much immaculate I thought. Looks so much better now he finally has a decent partner alongside him. We need to tie him down on a new contract ASAP as I think he would be in the starting line-up for each of the 5 clubs in the PL who are richer than us.

Rose 8 – MoTM. Defensivelyexcellent and a real threat going forward. He also got himself into great positions on numerous occasions only for the team not to spot him or to pass via Dyer/Alli/Vertonghen instead of missing them out and going direct to Rose. I think he is the best all round left back in England.

Dier 5 – Broke play as well as he always does but his use of the ball was terrible last night. Some of his passes were executed extremely poorly, others were horribly telegraphed. His worst game of the season I thought.

Alli 8 – such a talent. He is still a bit of a mixed bag in terms of his decision making due to his age and having stepped up 2 levels immediately. However it is clear that he has something special. So calm when taking his goal, always wants the ball, works hard. Has absolutely every attribute required to be a great player. He will be an England regular within 2 years.

Lamela 4 – unfortunately I thought he was back to his worst last night. Shocking control, poor dribbling, bad decision making, weak passing and to cap it off his work rate looked well down on his usual output. He left Walker exposed 2 on 1 on far too many occasions. I couldn’t believe it when Pochettino switched him with Eriksen in an attempt to give Walker more defensive cover. Surely the better option would simply have been to remove Lamela? Saved himself from a rating of 2 with his assist for Kane in injury time.

Dembele 8 – another excellent performance from Dembele. He is starting to ensure that he is an automatic first choice pick. I thought we lost control of the game when he went off. I assume Pochettino was saving his legs for Anderlecht and Ar5ena1?

Eriksen 6 – not at his best last night although he was still tidy in his play. For me he didn’t get involved enough and try to impose himself on the game. His dead ball delivery was unusually poor I thought.

Kane 7 – Starting to look like the Harry Kane of 10 months ago. Held the ball up really well, got himself into goal scoring positions and perfectly finished the one out and out chance that he had

Mason 5 - was considerably poorer than Dembele, nice nutmeg on Dier for their goal.

Davies 6 - did pretty well I thought was we were under pressure from Villa at that stage.

Onomah - wasn’t really on for long enough to award a mark to, but looked confident and composed on the ball.

Referee - 9. I don't think he made a bad decision all night really. Although it looked a very easy game to referee.

Overall I thought it was a strange performance. Looked like we played most of the game in second gear and we went from absolutely cruising at 2-0 up to suddenly hanging on for the 3 points. I think had that been a Man Utd team under Fergusson they would've used the opportunity last night to put 6 past Villa, improve their goal average and then get a few key players off. Pochettino needs to instil that mentality into our team as I think there was a suggestion last night that we turned up expecting to win that game rather than working hard to ensure that we won it.

It's funny how people can have diametrically opposed views about one player in the same match. Steff was waxing lyrical about this being the game Erik came of age as a senior pro. I rather tend towards your assessment. For 75 minutes he was extremely poor only somewhat redeeming himself in the last 15 minutes.

 

[King of Norway]

Lloris 5
Walker 7
Alserweireld 7
Vertonghen 7
Rose 7
Dier 7
Alli 6
Lamela 6
Dembele 7
Eriksen 7
Kane 6

Mason 5

 

[Pandy]

Things are good when you can compare us not only to Ferguson, but some imagined version of Ferguson where he got everything he wanted.

We put 5 past Bournemouth last time around. This time we scored 3. Sometimes it's not that easy to score 4+ goals, that was the same for Manu.

If anything we could be praised for getting the 2nd, so that when Villa did get one back we were still winning. Or we could be praised for only allowing Villa 1 shot in the last 10 minutes of play (including extra time, so 84t-94th). I think that ability to kill the game off would have been much shought after by Ferguson...

United under Ferguson had plenty of tense moments. Their players, usufally much more experienced than ours, usually responded really well in those circumstances. I think the same is becoming true about our players.

Good point. Last season we scored so many 'Fergie time' winners and we are continuing to improve this year.

 

[Aldo]

Absolutely gobsmacked at the Rose ratings, thought he has a pretty bad game overall. Really bad actually. Bizarre.

Lloris - 7
Walker - 7.5
Toby - 7.5
Jan - 7.5
Rose - 5.5
Dier - 7
Alli - 7
Lamela - 8
Eriksen - 7
Dembele - 8
Kane - 7.5

Behave