Player Ratings - CL: Porto vs Arsenal | 10/12/08

[asajoseph]

Almunia - 5 - One good save in the first half, and a couple of smart, if hardly challenging stops. Otherwise not too busy, but his distribution was absolutely hopeless.

Eboue - 4 - Complete non-factor in attack, and it seemed very easy for Rodriguez to get past him in defence.

Gallas - 4 - Slipped badly a couple of times, and clearly lost interest towards the end. Obviously relieved not to be captain any more.

Djourou - 6 MOTM - Without being excellent he was steady, and made a couple of very smart challenges. Distribution was ok.

Silvestre - 5 - Decent game, but caught out too many times. Totally clueless for the second goal.

Ramsey - 6 - Created our only two 'chances' on his own, so no idea why Wenger took him off so early. Obviously he was tired, but it's not as if he'll play at the weekend, so maybe should have given him longer.

Denilson - 5 - Completely outplayed by the Porto midfield, had a few battling moments but the game well and truly passed him by.

Song - 5 - Lots of passes going astray in the first half, but a few nice tackles that kinda (didn't) make up for it. Like Song, completely outplayed in the middle.

Diaby - 4 - A couple of excellent moments in the first half hour gave way to some complete cluelessness as the game wore on. Didn't seem to know what the hell was going on by the time he was substituted.

Vela - 4 - Absolutely no impact on the game, whatsoever. A very disappointing display.

Bendtner - 0 - If I could think of a single thing he did well, I'd give him a point, but I can't. Useless in posession, and absolutely no movement up front. How many times did we see our midfielders look up and then gesture at him to move? Terrible.

Subs:

Gibbs - 4 - Looked totally out of his depth at this level. He's not going to make it at Arsenal as a midfielder, so I don't see what the point was of bringing him on, if only to replace the hapless Diaby

Wilshere - 6 - Tidy in posession, though also unable to make any kind of headway.

Randall - 4 - Poor in posession, wasteful on the ball. One or two decent moments, but overall another player who looked well below the standard.

 

[Lord Dula]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Not gonna waste my time rating them - the squads not good enough.

 

[AnthonyG]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Al, Djourou, Ramsey, Wilshere, and Gibbs did well-ish to OK.

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Almunia - 6 - did nothing wrong.

Eboue - 4 - poor, constantly beaten down the flanks, offered little going forward.
Djourou - 6 - did everything asked of him.
Gallas - 5 - one mistake, but not alot else wrong.
Silvestre - 2 - poor defensively, shocking going forward.

Song - 5 - constantly gave the ball away, made one or two decent interceptions but that isnt enough.
Denilson - 4 - playing in the 'Cesc' creative role, what did we create?
Ramsey - 6 - some lively moments, had one of our few attempts on goal, unlucky to be taken off.
Diaby - 2 - is there a point to this guy?

Vela - 5 - worked hard defensively, tried to make things happen, it just wasnt happening, no one was making any runs.
Bendtner - 1 - did nothing right all game, i think he's the one that needs to go on loan.


Wilshere - 7 - should have started, he looked more 'ready' than any of those ****ers that started, gave us something different and an actual threat from the wing, but we were to far gone when he came on.
Gibbs - 5 - added some pace & penetration.
Randall - 2 - meh.

 

[arsmile]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Al-6- fine, no fault
Eboue-5- fine, tried hard, shaky at the start
Galas-3- started alright but made a lot of mistakes
Djourou-7- did the work of both Cbs and the left back
Silvestre-2- awful for the 2nd goal- positioning is bad and is too slow to recover these days
Ramsey-4- didn’t get into the game
Denilson-6- did the work of the entire midfield, worked hard and was good defensively
Song-2- bad, too slow- and I’m getting convinced that that will be too much of a hurdle for him to overcome if he’s gonna make it here- this game was too quick for him and he couldn’t defend because the play was already past him. We suffered here, him and denilson don’t have enough pace between them to cope in midfield alone.
Diaby-1- at fault for the 1st- is not strong enough to be considered a ‘physical presence’, but lacks the mentality to use his technique. To call it ‘poor decision making’ is too nice because it implies he made a decision; he didn’t, he just ran round in circles until he was tackled, which he inevitably was. Don’t know what position he was playing also.
Vela-4- didn’t do anything
Bendtner-0.5- far worse than the performance eboue put in at the weekend, if eboue deserved what he got then nik, diaby, Silvestre, and song deserve their balls cut off cant play up top alone, everybody knows this- everybody except for wenger of course. Dreadful touch, no invention.
Wilshere-7- drive and creativity- what we lacked all game
Gibbs-6- should have started a Lb, is a much better fullback than Silvestre. Pace and drive on the flank.
Randall-5- came on and sprung some clever inventive passes.


Problem here is just wenger putting in incompatible players in strange positions in a vague formation. Silvestre is too slow to be a LB in a high line. Bentnder cant play up top alone. Diaby and vela didn’t have a position between them. Song and denilson lacked to pace to compete. Our midfield had no creativity at all- nor did the attack. Put that with a couple of poor individual performances and you’ve got yourself an embarrassment.

I will say though, if diaby and Silvestre had even just made an pathetic attempt at doing their jobs, we’d have come away with a safe 0-0 and group leadership.

 

[ricky1985]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

I'd go with Asa's ratings. Except I think you are being harsh on Vela, he showed some clever touches and some imagination. He just didn't have any help. Also Djourou was very, very good tonight.

 

[qs]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Almunia - 6 Did alright, can't really blame him for the 2 goals.

Eboue - 5 wasn't bad, wasn't good, wasn't 100% fit.

Gallas - 5 bit of a nothing performance.

Djourou - 7 our best player, won alot of balls.

Silvestre - 2 truly awful. Nothing in attack, destroyed in defence. Rubbish player.

Ramsey - 7 really bright, creative, confident, brave, hard working. Should play more often.

Denilson - 5 - like alot of others, really ordinary game. Nothing great, nothing terrible.

Song - 6 - decent defensive performance. He should never go more than 15 yards past the half way line though.

Diaby - 2 rubbish. For all his skill on the ball it seems to hinder him rather than benefit him. He always does too much, usually making life harder. Add to that standing and watching his man for the goal that came from the corner. Rubbish.

Vela - 3 Did nothing at all.

Bendtner - 0 worst performance of any Arsenal player this season. Thats quite an achievement too. We'd have been better off with 10 players.

 

[asajoseph]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

I can only ask how bad Simpson must be in training if Wenger's not even interested in bringing him on for a player who's doing as badly as Bendtner at the moment.

Right now, there needs to be a real watershed amongst our reserve players. THere are youngsters (like Ramsey, Wilshere, maybe Simpson, maybe Gibbs at LB, maybe Vela) who are knocking very hard on the door, and players in front of them who really aren't doing the business yet always seem to be getting the bulk of the chances.

 

[dutchMasta]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Almunia - 6 (Decent)
Eboue - 4 (Sloppy and not involved)
Gallas - 4 (Sloppy)
Djourou - 6.5 (Solid)
Silvestre - 5 (Gave the ball away loads)
Ramsey - 6 (Decent)
Denilson - 5 (Ok, bit weak)
Song - 5 (Poor passing, but some good tackling)
Diaby - 4 (Lost out there)
Vela - 4 (Invisible mostly)
Bendtner - 2 (Awful touch)

Gibbs - 5 (Couldn't offer much)
Wilshere - 6 (Some good dribbling)
Randall - 4 (Poor)

Can't believe I stay awake for this crap, feel even worse for the people who went to Portugal to watch this.

 

[Shadow Moses]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

No need for my customary 2s and 3s. Only positive from the starting 11 was Djourou and some bits of Gallas.

Wilshere and Gibbs come on and were better than every single attacking player that started.

Wenger is still tactically inept. 4-5-1 with Vela at LW. It's like going back in time. Vela need not worry though, Edu will be back to take his place at LW.

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

I don't care how old Wilshere is, what matters is he is better than Eboue, Diaby, Denilson and any other ****tard other than Nasri, Wenger tries to play on the wing.

 

[dbig]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Almunia - 5

Eboue - 5 - Offered nothing going forward after some early forays. Defensively, was average.

Gallas - 3 - I thought he had a terrible game with a lot of mistakes. Lucky not to have Porto capitalise on any of them.

Djourou - 6 - MOTM Best defender for the night and consistent throughout the game.

Silvestre - 5 - Average. Offers nothing going forward and not the best LB but I thought he did ok.

Ramsey - 5 - Created some chances but didn't contribute much otherwise.

Denilson - 6 - Was our best starting midfielder of the night without being above average.

Song - 4 - Stray passes, slow movement, some good tackles.

Diaby - 3 - A flop after starting well. Didn't contribute to the attack nor defense. Not sure what he was doing.

Vela - 4 - Bad game but I put it down partially to having Diaby and Silvestre on the left. Was left isolated.

Bendtner - 1 - Cause the rating's from 1-10. Poor passes, no movement, didn't work hard, total dosh.

Subs:

Gibbs - 6 - I thought he looked good when he came on. Left side suddenly looked much better. Has pace and trickery.

Wilshere - 6 - Good as well. I don't remember Porto having many chances after he and Gibbs came on because they gave us better possession, movement, speed, trickery.

Randall - 4 - Never been impressed much by him and nothing he did tonight changed my opinion. Was hoping Bendtner would go off for Simpson instead.

 

[lagos]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Wenger 0

that's all that matters

 

[gstew]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Almunia - 6 Did fine.

Eboue - 3 Was terrible. Glad game was not at Emirates.

Gallas - 4.5 Mostly poor.

Djourou - 7.5 Excellent again.

Silvestre - 4 Poor.

Ramsey - 7 Was good.

Denilson - 2.5 Still not good enough to get playing time for Arsenal.

Song - 7 Played well, but was stuck with a horrendous partner.

Diaby - 3.5 Besides his mistakes, he slows play down way too much.

Vela - 5.5 Did a few nice things (layoff to Gibbs, e.g.), but had almost no service.

Bendtner - 2.5 He is not good enough yet to get playing time for Arsenal.

Subs:

Gibbs - 5 Was OK considering the situation. One of the few players to give us natural width.

Wilshere - 7 Was good.

Randall - 4

 

[qs]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

I can only ask how bad Simpson must be in training if Wenger's not even interested in bringing him on for a player who's doing as badly as Bendtner at the moment.

To me he looks more useful. Direct, quick, strong, gets into the channels. Probably lacks the technicality for Wengers liking. Strikers shouldn't need it IMO.

 

[gstew]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

BTW, Silvestre and Eboue shared blame for that second goal. Silvestre was 2 yards ahead of the CB line and Eboue was two yards behind. Silvestre was therefore 4 yards behind Lisandro with no chance to catch him.

 

[FrankArsenal]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Gstew, I don't think Song was that much better than Denilson. I actually think Denilson was better.

As for the second goal: Silvestre was really poor but Eboue played their attacker onside.
* While I was typing that, Gstew hadn't posted that they were both to blame. I can only say: I fully agree!

 

[SimplyFabregas]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Eboue showed tonight, why we signed Sagna.

 

[arsmile]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

Denilson - 2.5 Still not good enough to get playing time for Arsenal.

Song - 7 Played well, but was stuck with a horrendous partner.

i think it was the other way round, but whatever, doesnt matter tonight.

 

[ricky1985]

Re: Porto 2 Arsenal 0 - Match Ratings

I can only ask how bad Simpson must be in training if Wenger's not even interested in bringing him on for a player who's doing as badly as Bendtner at the moment.

Right now, there needs to be a real watershed amongst our reserve players. THere are youngsters (like Ramsey, Wilshere, maybe Simpson, maybe Gibbs at LB, maybe Vela) who are knocking very hard on the door, and players in front of them who really aren't doing the business yet always seem to be getting the bulk of the chances.

It's the way Wenger has always done it though. Once you gain his trust you get picked ahead of those who haven't. Irrespective of ability.

Bendtner is a disgrace to the shirt at the moment, not only because of his lack of ability. But the unbelievable fact that he doesn't give a **** that it's all going wrong, it's INCREDIBLE. I cant do justice to the feeling I get when I watching him strutting around.

Shock, horror, rage, and dissapointment. Best sums it up.