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Ratings v Saudi Sportswashing Machine

A decent performance - exceeded my gut feeling before kick off. With a changed team and new system it kinda worked quite well.

Sad about the result as we genuinely deserved something.

Our full backs can and will play better.

There two goals. One was beautiful finish and the other was a very clumsy pen but lets be honest it was two attacking players facing him up and ben arfa is a tricky f*cker.

Well done JD it didn't feel like you were isolated, back him up with attacking midfielders to support or lay him on chances and natrually JD WILL get goals. We do need 1 or 2 strikers but i don't really want JD to leave.

Lets get behind the team and AVB at the lane next week. Our patience and support can go a long way at the moment as the press probably can't wait to start circling.
 
Richie said:
Crossing wasn't dire. Defoe scored and Bale hit the crossbar off Lennon crosses.
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one and a half decent crosses in a game of 90 minutes doesnt make a good crossing quotient. Walker and BAE were the main culprits.
 
Sigurdsson put a delicious ball in the box from a wide area in the first half, but we didn't have anyone attacking in the box, as usual.
 
Brad - 6 - couldn't do much about the goals

Walker - 6 - shaky
Kaboul 7 - solid
Gallas - 6.5 ok
BAE - 6 - some good passing but stop those fudging turns, please

Lennon - 7 - lively
Sugurdsson - 4 - was he playing? VdV ANYTIME for me
Sandro - 7 - beast
Livermore - 6 - struggled against Ben Arfa at times
Bale - 6.5 - tried

Defoe - 7 - grabbed a goal, hit the post

VdV - 6.5 - marginalised
 
Pirate55 said:
one and a half decent crosses in a game of 90 minutes doesnt make a good crossing quotient. Walker and BAE were the main culprits.
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One and half crosses from such a narrow formation isn't that bad. We need to get used to the way AVB wants us to play. Crosses aren't going to be a big part of our game plan any more. Expansive freeflowing football is not what we're about anymore. Impressed how well Lennon adapted to a new role.
Very disappointing conceding two goals when we play six defensive players, got to sort that. When teams really park the bus we have to be watertight.
Gallas did well, he managed the defensive line really well. The experience showed.
 
ArcspacE said:
Jonas - 8 - is for artistic merit on his dives, right
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Jonas was fantastic, his work rate and ethic was top class, he was everywhere. That is what he brings and it makes a big difference, you need players like that in your side when you have the likes of Hatem Ben Arfa. A very good performance for the team.
 
Mumorn said:
Sigurdsson put a delicious ball in the box from a wide area in the first half, but we didn't have anyone attacking in the box, as usual.
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Also played the one touch pass to Defoe that ended with him hitting the post, far from invisible, but the problem for him, Bale and to some extent Lennon was that we didn't have anyone setting them up in decent positions apart from Ekotto whenever Saudi Sportswashing Machine were organized.

Pretty good performance from us overall I thought. If any team deserved the win it was us and we should have gotten at least a point from that. It worries me a bit that we conceded soft goals after individual mistakes, that was in my opinion a big part of what undid AVB at Chelsea and I would hate to see him get a similar start here.
 
We played well and the better team lost, we stayed in Saudi Sportswashing Machine for the night and had a drink with some Saudi Sportswashing Machine fans who admitted we deserved to win. The organization was good and the pressing game worked well, we lost the game because of two mistakes ( Walker with a really poor header and VDV foolishly sticking his leg out for the pen).

Seeing as a lot of our fans thought we were going to get hammered we really did well. MOM for me was Defoe closely followed by Lennon.
 
Rossi22 said:
What do you expect when we only have Defoe to aim for?
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The way to open up tight defences is to get to the by line and pull the ball back. Lennon did it once (and Bale hit the crossbar). We have the players to get to the byline - Bale, Lennon, Walker and to a lesser extent BAE. Why they dont try it more often (especially when Simpson was booked early on) is why we dont score enough goals. The other reason is that we dont have enough players in the box. Watch Emirates Marketing Project and how they flood the area with bodies - thats why they score so many goals.
 
parklane1 said:
We played well and the better team lost, we stayed in Saudi Sportswashing Machine for the night and had a drink with some Saudi Sportswashing Machine fans who admitted we deserved to win. The organization was good and the pressing game worked well, we lost the game because of two mistakes ( Walker with a really poor header and VDV foolishly sticking his leg out for the pen).

Seeing as a lot of our fans thought we were going to get hammered we really did well. MOM for me was Defoe closely followed by Lennon.
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I actually thought Gallas was equally at fault for the goal, as the ball looped up in the air he had plenty of time to get across to Ba and really should have been right tight on him as he took his first touch. Walkers header should have been better in the first place though.
 
Hully said:
One and half crosses from such a narrow formation isn't that bad. We need to get used to the way AVB wants us to play. Crosses aren't going to be a big part of our game plan any more. Expansive freeflowing football is not what we're about anymore. Impressed how well Lennon adapted to a new role.
Very disappointing conceding two goals when we play six defensive players, got to sort that. When teams really park the bus we have to be watertight.
Gallas did well, he managed the defensive line really well. The experience showed.
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I'm not sure I agree with your first point. With Gareth Bale on one wing and Aaron Lennon on the other we would be mad to make crosses a lesser part of our game, I'm not sure that is what AVB is trying to do (I hope not anyways!).
 
6 votes

Game Rating: 6.23
MOTM: Kaboul

7.08 Kaboul
7.00 Lennon
6.92 Defoe
6.58 Sandro
6.33 Livermore
6.25 Bale
6.17 Gallas
5.80 Friedel (5 votes)
5.75 Assou-Ekotto
5.67 van der Vaart (3 votes)
5.50 Sigurdsson
5.33 Walker
 
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