Match ratings - Manchester United

[Spur of the moment]

Just finished watching BT's extended highlights (90 mins including ads) having missed the live transmission.

Lloris 8 - truly spectacular full-stretch save from Young's long range shot that was heading for the far top corner, also spread himself brilliantly to rob Van Persie when he was free on goal, but was a bit stranded in the goalmouth melee that followed Mason's deflected header onto the bar from Mata's fk

Chirches 7 - superb clearance off the line, also block several crosses

Fazio 7 - put himself about but struggled to contain Van Persie's runs. Then again who wouldn't?

Vertonghen 7 - a few sliced clearances, otherwise solid

Davies 7 - looks a classy defender but sometimes allowed United too much space down the left

Mason 7 - got that critical if somewhat fortuitous header to deflect Mata's free kick onto the bar and generally competed well against a strong midfield. However his passing at times is in need of refinement

Stambouli 7 - just about held his own in the middle of the park but towards the end showed glimpses of ability getting forward into the box

Townsend 8 - good to see him coming back to his best form. Looked dangerous with two decent shots on target plus a series of excellent runs and balls into the box, all of which says he should retain his place ahead of Lamela against Chelsea

Chadli 6 - cannot understand why he does not impose himself as much as he needs to, he has the ability

Eriksen 7 - one of his less effective games but still produced some delightful touches

Kane 8 - ran Lloris close for Spurs MotM with excellent hold-up play, tackling back and quality lay-offs



Subs

Dembele 7 - competed fiercely and created chances down the left flank

Lamela 5 - none too visible in his 15 mins






Fazio 7 -

 

[mudshark]

A few seem to be marking Chiricheș up for one standout moment in particular, but his performance was a real mixed bag. Good clearance off the line and one or two important blocks, but gave the ball away appallingly often and put teammates in trouble with misdirected passes. Too often plays the ball blind and has a patent lack of awareness of potential danger. Only averaged a 6 at best IMO.

 

[harr1984]

A few seem to be marking Chiricheș up for one standout moment in particular, but his performance was a real mixed bag. Good clearance off the line and one or two important blocks, but gave the ball away appallingly often and put teammates in trouble with misdirected passes. Too often plays the ball blind and has a patent lack of awareness of potential danger. Only averaged a 6 at best IMO.

I think it was one of his better defensive displays, attacking wise he wasnt as good as he has been. But am happy with him at RB....

 

[billyiddo]

Just watched the full game (from DVR) knowing the score

Interesting, first half wasn't as awful as people made out, yes we were under pressure form Manure ( a side with RVP/Mata/Rooney/Carrick/Falcao) but didn't seem we were ever overly open or ragged (as we have been against much lesser opposition this season)

Lloris as mentioned, but also credit to Townsend who had a decent game as well as Stambouli.
Mason was interesting, definitely made some more forward runs, really should have put that shot at least on target.

passing/shape/tempo all much better than earlier in season, improvement there.

Ill have to watch it again but from memory i thought the first half was fairly even, although United had a couple of good opportunities, mainly from set pieces iirc, but overall it wasn't like it was one way traffic or anything.

 

[Spur of the moment]

A few seem to be marking Chiricheș up for one standout moment in particular, but his performance was a real mixed bag. Good clearance off the line and one or two important blocks, but gave the ball away appallingly often and put teammates in trouble with misdirected passes. Too often plays the ball blind and has a patent lack of awareness of potential danger. Only averaged a 6 at best IMO.

That critical stand out moment alone helped save us a valuable point. And if his passing had been a bit better his rating would easily have gone up one to an 8 from me.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Lloris 7

Chiriches 7
Fazio 6
Vertonghen 7
Davies 7

Stambouli 5
Mason 6

Eriksen 7
Chadli 5
Townsend 5

Kane 7

 

[mudshark]

That critical stand out moment alone helped save us a valuable point. And if his passing had been a bit better his rating would easily have gone up one to an 8 from me.

Serendipity. If I bother with player ratings, I try and do it on the balance of their performance over 90 mins, and he generated more groans than he did applause over the course of the game. I'll bet he wouldn't be scoring 7s if a fraction of the loose balls of his that were seized on had been converted and we'd ended up losing 4-0.

 

[Spur of the moment]

Serendipity. If I bother with player ratings, I try and do it on the balance of their performance over 90 mins, and he generated more groans than he did applause over the course of the game. I'll bet he wouldn't be scoring 7s if a fraction of the loose balls of his that were seized on had been converted and we'd ended up losing 4-0.

On that basis Lloris' stand-out saves didn't count for much either.

For me ratings have to reflect contributions that made a significant difference to the outcome. Jimmy Greaves had a reputation for doing not very much except scoring the winner. Wonder what sort of ratings you'd have given him?

I fully take on board your point about Chiriches' poor passing but at the end of the day it did not cost us and overall I thought his performance in containing Ashley Young coupled with that goal-line clearance more than compensated.

 

[Papercut]

Why not? Lloris is a proactive keeper, he sees danger, he goes to it and stops it at the source. A reactive keeper waits for the danger to come to them. Sorry if you can't see that. He was super conservative today, take the van Persie chance for example, usually Lloris would've dealt with that before it even became a chance but for some reason he decided to play it like Brad Friedel which imo has a much lower % chance of succeeding. Lloris usually comes for just about every cross as well, whether it's to punch or catch it he always makes a decision, today he was hesitant and at least twice we had some mad scramble virtually on our goal line, that's not proactive goalkeeping. I'm sure there's even an interview with Lloris himself where he says all of this so maybe you should tell him you can't take him seriously either.

I think this will be down to semantics and our views of the terms.

For me the keeper has to always be reactive - that's his job. Proactive would be to get the ball at his feet and attack the opposition. A keeper has great reactions (admittedly I've never heard the term 'proactions' ).

 

[Rossi22]

I think this will be down to semantics and our views of the terms.

For me the keeper has to always be reactive - that's his job. Proactive would be to get the ball at his feet and attack the opposition. A keeper has great reactions (admittedly I've never heard the term 'proactions' ).

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/football/article-2300740/Hugo-Lloris-Tottenham-need-Champions-League.html

Lloris and Friedel offer Tottenham very different options. Lloris, 15 years Friedel’s junior at 26, played as a striker for two years until he joined Nice aged 10. He is still very quick over a few yards, playing almost as a sweeper. He took up tennis almost ‘as soon as I could walk’ and still plays, because preparing to hit the ball mirrors the ‘sensation’ he experiences in goal.

It can be a high-risk strategy, but it lets Spurs take advantage of the pace of players such as Gareth Bale and Aaron Lennon on the counter attack. ‘I like to play high and have space in front of me,’ says Lloris. ‘I like to be proactive, rather than reactive. I have always played like this, so it was easy to adapt. It’s a good thing to play high and to put pressure on the opposition.’

Reactive would be seeing a situation occuring and saving a shot, proactive would be snuffing out the danger before a shot was even possible. Lloris does this, or did, Neuer does this but not many others.

 

[braineclipse]

Serendipity. If I bother with player ratings, I try and do it on the balance of their performance over 90 mins, and he generated more groans than he did applause over the course of the game. I'll bet he wouldn't be scoring 7s if a fraction of the loose balls of his that were seized on had been converted and we'd ended up losing 4-0.

Really harsh I think.

Other players made mistakes too. His pass success rate was poor, but comparable to the rest of our defenders and actually our deep midfielders too.

 

[harr1984]

Really harsh I think.

Other players made mistakes too. His pass success rate was poor, but comparable to the rest of our defenders and actually our deep midfielders too.

Its sad that his passing is usually quick and forward thinking which has helped us with some of our quick attacks yet noone really praises him for this. Yet when his distribution wasn't as good as it has been everyone is ready to put him down....