Match Ratings v Chelsea

[The Moonlit Knight]

But attacking players make mistakes as well, VdV not being able to place a volley past the goalie from 7 yards for example. I think you're being very harsh, for example on Ekotto, Walker and Kaboul.

I see players for other top teams making similar mistakes to this quite regularly as well. Only last week Jose Enrique, who has been mentioned as one of those "clearly better" than Ekotto in the past on this board made a series of errors, and again today I watched a bit of their game and he made a mistake. In the end Chelsea only had 9 shots in the entire game, that's at Stamford Bridge. Yet you're rating 2 of our defenders and one of our defensive midfielders at a 5 or below using words such as "absolute liability". If they were that poor why weren't Chelsea able to take advantage of that and create more chances?

I agree that attacking players make mistakes. If that had been on VDV's favoured foot I'd have been fuming. And Ade's miss WAS very bad. Easily as bad as Kaboul gifting them a potential pen.

Never rated Enrique personally. I guess it's what we aspire to be. I want the title. To do that we need defenders who make less mistakes, or an outfield that dominates possession so much that the defence rarely comes under pressure.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

And to your point about Chelsea not creating chances, I do agree. It irks me when players make mistakes that aren't punished and they get high ratings, but it also irks me when a player makes a mistake that gets punished and they get marked down on it because it was punished. Whether they were punished or not is irrelevant, the mistakes are just as bad from an isolated view point.

But back to your point. One man. Scotty Parker, take a bow!

 

[Spur of the moment]

I loved Ade's play today, but how many times this season have you thought to yourself, wow, if only he struck that a little better that would be an easy goal? even goals he scored earlier in the year were effete efforts that just happened to go in. It's like he has no confidence with his shot whatsoever.

Agree. His forward play today was as outstanding as his threat on goal was dire. Despite the latter I still made him our MOTM - and by a distance at that.


Friedel 7 - stranded when Mata struck the woodwork, some dodgy distribution but his calming influence on our defence was critical.

Walker 7 - still not so threatening going forward as earlier in the season but decent defensively

Gallas 7 - understandably rusty early on - in one alarming moment dangerously conceding possession one-on-one with Drogba - and his overall lack of speed and height is a concern, but his leadership qualities today were awesome

BAE 7 - heavily involved with much good work both ends so can be forgiven the odd hairy moment

Bale 7 - frankly I'm prepared to forgive him taking pot-shots even when a pass looks the better option

Modrich 7 - lost possession a tad too easily early on but got better and better as the game wore on

Parker 7 - see Modrich

Sandro 5 - another who looked understandably rusty, was no surprise to see him substituted

VdV 7 - worked tirelessly, so unlucky not to score just before HT

Adebayor 8 - MotM see comments above. Best performance from him since the 5-0 against Saudi Sportswashing Machine

Subs

Saha 6 - frustrating at times but carried a threat in front of goal. I struggle to understand the animosity towards him on GG

Livermore 6 - looked lively enough

 

[braineclipse]

I agree that attacking players make mistakes. If that had been on VDV's favoured foot I'd have been fuming. And Ade's miss WAS very bad. Easily as bad as Kaboul gifting them a potential pen.

Never rated Enrique personally. I guess it's what we aspire to be. I want the title. To do that we need defenders who make less mistakes, or an outfield that dominates possession so much that the defence rarely comes under pressure.

You don't think I want the title? You don't think all Spurs fans want the title?

Ok, so you don't rate Enrique either, seems that there are very few defenders you actually rate. And, that in most matches you watch the defenders would generally score noticably lower than midfielders and attackers on average. Seems to me that you're using a different scale for defenders and that someone averaging a 5 from you would actually be someone good enough to play for a top 6/4 team. And that there might be a handful of players in the entire league that might get 7+ ratings regularly.

And to your point about Chelsea not creating chances, I do agree. It irks me when players make mistakes that aren't punished and they get high ratings, but it also irks me when a player makes a mistake that gets punished and they get marked down on it because it was punished. Whether they were punished or not is irrelevant, the mistakes are just as bad from an isolated view point.

But back to your point. One man. Scotty Parker, take a bow!

I agree that players should be rated on their performances. And I generally try to.

I find it very hard to believe that one defensive midfielder can make up for so many players being as poor as you say to such an extent.

 

[chancer]

I think people are underestimating how scared and shaky we looked for a lot of the first half.

 

[GrimsbyYid]

I think, and always have, that Kaboul isn;t good enough to be a starter. If we want to move up a level we need someone better. He's had his best season, but defensively he's not good enough.

Ekotto too, again, amazing season, very good, but an area we can improve on; well in theory, who that is I don't know.

Bale didn't have an amazing game, but he has so much ability at any point he can turn it on.

Adebayor lacks some ability but overall he is absolutely vital to the way we play.

How Saha is ahead of Defoe blows my fudging mind.

Walker has so much potential, when people slag him off it makes me want to bite my screen.

Rafa is incredible and should play every time.

Parker is immense.

 

[Jurgen the German]

I think, and always have, that Kaboul isn;t good enough to be a starter. If we want to move up a level we need someone better. He's had his best season, but defensively he's not good enough.

Ekotto too, again, amazing season, very good, but an area we can improve on; well in theory, who that is I don't know.

Bale didn't have an amazing game, but he has so much ability at any point he can turn it on.

Adebayor lacks some ability but overall he is absolutely vital to the way we play.

How Saha is ahead of Defoe blows my fudging mind.

Walker has so much potential, when people slag him off it makes me want to bite my screen.

Rafa is incredible and should play every time.

Parker is immense.

Agree with pretty much all of that. However, if we sign Adebayor, then I believe we will need to sign another striker as well. Adebayor just has too many days where he doesn't look up for it, although he looked up for it today. I'm not sure Adebayor is the answer and I won't be happy if he's our main man next season.

 

[Jimmy-g]

Friedel - 7, didn't do anything wrong
Walker - 6, not sure how he got man of the match, especially considering his almost disasterous lack of judgement on their post hitting free kick!
Gallas - 7, our best defender on the day comfortably but very lucky not to have conceded a pen.
Kaboul - 4, absolute liability. Three really bad mistakes, one that should've accumulated in a penalty and another where Parker really saved his bacon.
Ekotto - 5, maybe thinking about his birthday. Would explain why he switched off so much. Gifted Chelsea a great chance, but Parker bailed him out and is definitely owed some cake!
VDV - 7, thought he played really well today and was very disciplined
Sandro - 5, struggled to be involved and gave it away cheaply too often
Parker - 9, MOM. His first half performance alone warranted it but in the second half he was also defensively excellent. Like VDV a much more discplined performance too.
Modric 7, thought he was very poor in the first half, but absolutely outstanding in the second half
Bale 6, thought he was a threat and kept trying things. Not much came off for him today though.
Ade 6, struggled on his own up top but came into the game a lot more when Saha came on. Overall though he did waste some good possession and really should've buried the one on one.

Saha 7, made a positive impact
Livermore 6, didn't really get involved

Redknapp 8, did exactly what I said he was doing in the OMT. Play tight for 75 mins, play for the draw and then the last 10/15 mins go for it and see if you can sneak a win. Almost worked too.

This is about right for me, I thought Parker was immense, well done lads.

 

[harr1984]

Wow, so many people get wound up if they disagree with the rating given of a player(s).

It's perfectly fine to disagree, but don't make out like you are right and somebody else is wrong. Stop! Hammer time, that's the name of the game....

 

[DHSF]

I didnt really see Ade have that great a game. I mean he really should have scored the one on one. Maybe I missed his other contributions

I thought we played very well as a team. First half was ok but I think harry had kept them tight on the leash and then unleashed them in second half.

7/10

 

[harr1984]

I think, and always have, that Kaboul isn;t good enough to be a starter. If we want to move up a level we need someone better. He's had his best season, but defensively he's not good enough.

Ekotto too, again, amazing season, very good, but an area we can improve on; well in theory, who that is I don't know.

Bale didn't have an amazing game, but he has so much ability at any point he can turn it on.

Adebayor lacks some ability but overall he is absolutely vital to the way we play.

How Saha is ahead of Defoe blows my fudging mind.

Walker has so much potential, when people slag him off it makes me want to bite my screen.

Rafa is incredible and should play every time.

Parker is immense.

Kaboul has consistently been our best defender this season, would look even better if he wasn't swapping CB partners every other game because of injuries.....

 

[Yiddo]

To much love for the average Benny.

 

[Bale]

All the players deserve a high rating, They all tried there hardest and never gave up.

Special mentions to Walker,Gallas and Parker.

 

[Modrical]

I thought the spine of our team were excellent, Gallas, Kaboul, Modric and Parker. Not letting Drogba out bully us was key, and of course he won a few headers etc but i thought he was quiet for the majority of the game. Redknapp has been getting a fair bit of stick (unfairly IMO), but he set us up very well yesterday. If we play with that desire, we have a very good chance of getting Champs league. Shame we were so lack lustre against Stoke.

Spurs fans were excellent, i was in their posh seats and could hear all the chants. Personal favourite was 'he eat what he wants' at Fat Frank. Will try and upload a video if i can be bothered. I'll give an iota of credit to the Chelsea fans too as they were quite loud at times, dare i say better than we are when at home.

Also managed to get a photo with Ginola which made my day. Smelt of cigarettes if anyone cares, but was very approachable.

Was a great day for me, free ticket and booze, hammered by 6pm, tucked up in bed by midnight

 

[braineclipse]

Wow, so many people get wound up if they disagree with the rating given of a player(s).

It's perfectly fine to disagree, but don't make out like you are right and somebody else is wrong. Stop! Hammer time, that's the name of the game....

You don't like discussions?

To much love for the average Benny.

Quick stat moment (stats from the 4-4-2 app).

Passes received:

Walker: 36
Kaboul: 30
Gallas: 36
Ekotto: 53

VdV: 51
Sandro: 29
Parker: 30
Modric: 53
Bale: 52

Ade: 46

Now, one stat on it's own means very little. But to me it illustrates quite well how important Ekotto is in our buildup play. Without him we would play a lot more long balls and not keep possession as well.

 

[diego_maradona]

Freidel 7
Walker 7.5
Kaboul 6.5
Gallas 7.5
Ekotto 6.5
Sandro 7
Parker 8
Modric 8
VdV 7
Bale 7
Ade 8

Saha 7
Livermore 6.5

 

[ArcspacE]

Brad - 6 - little do

Walker - 7 - offered good width going forward, covered back well
Kaboul - 6 - ok
Gallas - 7 - one massive error which could have cost us dearly but recovered well and had a solid game
BAE - 5 - disappointing, lack of concentration yet again - weakest link. Shockorama of a player increasingly more often lately. Needs to recover asap since Rose is hardly the quality cover we have

Sandro - 6.5 - ran hard in the middle
Parker - 8 - MotM
VdV - 6.5 - should have burried it 10/10 times, eventually faded
Modric - 7- much better performance

Bale - 6 - tried to do it all on his own
Ade - 7 - worked hard

Saha - 6.5 - linked up well upfront
Livermore - no time

 

[Gazza Dazzla]

Love Gallas' leadership, you could see him talking to Parker, VDV and Bale (2 senior players and a World superstar (he really is!)) and demanding an action from them and they clearly respected what he said and were nodding in agreement, great to see. For that alone he should get a high marking (influence on players around him), but I thought he made a few mistakes in his own game on Saturday, he seemed to be bullied a bit by Drogba (no disgrace). Maybe I need to watch again though as noone's mentioned this and his ratings are all above 7.

Thought we were average in the first half and looked dodgy against the long balls being pumped up to Drogba. 2nd half I thought we were pretty good, it seemed to me like the confidence started coming back. We really should have won that game, all the clear cut chances fell for us, Chelsea's hit the post from a free kick that should never have been, I wish the ref would have the balls to blow the whistle for unsportsmen like conduct.