Player Ratings - LC: Tottenham vs Arsenal | 24/01/07

[sabret00the]

Baptista is a good player but he doesn't have the attributes required to fit our style. I've slated van Persie for similar performances though sadly none as bad in order to prove my impartiality but to be honest,

So did you slate RvP because of his poor game or to prove you are not partial? Either way i pretty much guarantee your attempt to prove ur impartially failed. Don't ever ever remember u slating your king.

King? he's had s**t games and i've stated so. my point was i've done so and if need be go back and check rating threads. i will never rate a striker based on goal tally, rating threads about performances and to say that Baptista's today was anything other than atrocious is a joke. but then this is arsneal-mania where players get 9's and 10's for running and not doing much else for 90 minutes. Baptista worked hard today but nothing came off for him other than the three goals. It's sad but it's true. Would i have taken a wonderful performance over his goals? NO. but i won't step in a thread and lie because a few wanna be aficionado's and sycophants get carried away with scoreline's, i'm sorry.

The thing is I agree with you demanding more than just goals from our strikers. But what i miss is RvP main asset is goals. He really hasnt done too much outside scoring goals..this season there was a marked improvement but still..his main asset still remains the ability to score goals. But you die by his name. Baptista worked hard today..put more effort than what you usually get from Henry and RvP. And he got the goals. So how do you call that atrocious? It wasnt that good but certainly not atrocious.

Rontic makes a fantastic point but i get where you're coming from. however i disagree. Robin tends to drop deep and link up play as gilberto tends to drop deep, he's not great at imposing himself on the game in the respect that you can't not take your eye off him, but he tends to have games where he's an unsung hero. he doesn't make devastating passes when he drops deep just simple passes which often go unnoticed, often facilitating Cesc's runs or Hleb's runs. He tends to provide the movement of the extra man in midfield and tracks back well. I still think he can do better and become more of a goal threat but he's improving from game to game. If you look at van Persie's game, the biggest criticism he gets is sloppy passing, that isn't because he's on the peripheral of the game but because he see's so much of the ball in the middle third. He's still not the player i want him to be though, which is a constant goal threat over 90 minutes which would require him to stop linking up play so much, which is impossible with Gilberto dropping so deep constantly so i guess i'll have to get used to it.

Unfortunately Yes you do have to get used to it cos it looks like his current coach, does want him to have that ability to drop and get involved and not just be a goal threat for 90 minutes which will restrict his movement even more.

But in him dropping deep to get involved, doing the simple pass facilitating the movement up the pitch, you're *****ing about him fading in and out of games because he became a cog in the clock as opposed to one of the hands on the face.

 

[Gurgen]

Almunia 6 - At fault for the goal but otherwise solid.

Hoyte 8 - Very good game from him both defensively and offensively.

Toure 6 - All over the place at first but improved a lot in the second half.

Senderos 7 - Our best defender, for what it's worth.

Traore 6 - Skinned by Lennon a few times but comfortable on the ball and some good runs forward.

Walcott 3 - Terrible. Lost the ball every time he got it.

Cesc 8 - Dominated the great Huddlestone and the other muppet Sp**s had in midfield.

Denilson 8 - The complete package this guy. I have carefully avoided calling him a kid because he doesn't play like one.

Diaby 6 - Out of position and just back from injury, not much more you can expect from him.

Aliadiere 7 - One of our better players before he had to come off I thought, he held on to the ball well and his movement was equally good.

Baptista 7 - Walcott-like terrible in the first half but improved a lot in the second, even before his two goals.


Subs:

Hleb 8 - Direct with purpose and changed the game in our favour.

Eboue 8 - See Hleb.

Flamini 6 - Didn't do much.

 

[Mr. Hotshot]

Ali: 4.5 - His back to his usual self again. btw, what's a dead leg?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/s ... 131683.stm

a f*cking irritating pain in your leg and you might think your football career is over but as soon as you wake up the next morning, the pain's gone or reduced by a great amount. weird eh?

i've got it once when i played 5-aside footie and hell i thought i was destined to be crippled for life. the next morning everything was fresh and good. ice packs and kool aid are good friends no sh*t

Is it something like a sprain? Because if it's as painful as that or even worse, then Ali is one tough SOB to stay on for 15 minutes with all that pain in his leg.

 

[Jameel46]

Almunia - 6

Traore - 6
Senderos - 7
Toure - 6.5
Hoyte - 7.5

Diaby - 6.5
Fabregas - 8
Denilson - 7.5
Walcott - 5.5

Aliadiere - 6.5
Baptista - 7
---------------------
Hleb - 7.5
Ebpue - 7.5
Flamini - n/a

 

[IBL]

Almunia 6 - good save from Defoe, not sure what happened with the mix up so wont place the blame on him yet

Hoyte 7.5 - Very good performance, strong offesnsively and defensivley, brilliant play for the equaliser
Toure 7 - Solid as usual, question marks also about the SPuds first goal
Senderos 6.5 - shaky start but composed himself
Troare 5.5 - given a torrid time by Lennon, needs to improve his reading of the game and one-on-one situations

Walcott 5 - dissappointing game, lacks confidence
Cesc 8 - controlled the midfield
Denilson 8 - very impressive
Diaby 6.5 - showed some neat touches, still short of games

Baptista 7.5 - got two goals and never gave up
Ali 6.5 - worked hard but nothing happened for him

SUBS
Hleb 7 - injected much need pace and directness
Eboue 7.5 - the catalyst for the comeback, great RW play
Flamini 6 - ok

 

[sparky44]

Almunia - 6 Played ok. Great save to deny defoe towards the end. terrible mix-up which lead to the first goal though, had it not been for that it would have easily been a 7

Traore - 6 Didn't shine tonight but held his position quite well. Against one the premierships best wingers is always going to be a challenge

Senderos - 5 I still do not trust this guy! He looks like a disaster waiting to happen and it seems to me everything good that he happens to produce is a fluke. Djourou and Gallas need to come back asap

Toure - 6.5 Got forward quite often and inspired the team on a number of occasions. Cant forgive him for the goal though. Really disappointed with him on that occasion. After that he was his normal fantastic self and then some!

Hoyte - 7 Ever since he has switched to the right I have been calling for this guy to be our first choice right back. IMO he is better defensively than eboue and it is just nice to watch a right-back for doesn't prance around like a fairy. Put eboue in midfield dammit!

Diaby - 4.5 Started positively but than slowly declined the longer the game on. Is to be expected though considering the nature of the injury and the duration he was out for. They should really arrest that sunderland defender who did that tackle. Imagine where he would be at this stage had it not been for the ankle break? Makes my blood boil now thinking about it....

Fabregas - 9 MOTM - If he scored he would of had the perfect 10. Simply outstanding considering he had to enforce the midfield also. He really is the whole ****ing show. Its amazing how he doesn't show off in interviews etc. If I was that good I wouldn't ever shut up! Inspirational. Indestructible. Incredible.

Denilson - 7.5 Really impressed me tonight and a encouraging note is he got better as the game went on - so the only way is up! I love you wenger.... He has only gone and done it again!

Walcott - 4.5 Man I expected so much more from him tonight. And If I am totally honest he just looked lightweight. Wenger needs to talk to the guy and tell him to get it right. You can blatantly see the ability is there, its just the decisions he makes are just awful - championship esque. Poor movement, poor touches and just overall physically weak. Just goes to show the difference in the development of players abroad and players right here. Could his football mind still be at championship level? Hope not. Come on theo!!

Aliadiere - 6 Not much to say really. Nice touches here and there but nothing really to note. I believe the hype now though most definitely. And I don't want us to let him go. He can be a useful player for us.

Baptista - 7 Speaking of useful we have finally found the goal-poacher we have been looking 5 years for! Feed the beast and he will score - simple as that! **** the haters, this guy is a goal machine waiting to be unleashed on the premiership.... Hell yea!!!

---------------------------------------------------

Eboue 7 - Was super and got forward at every opportunity. With him on hoyte on the pitch our right side just looked awesome. Could this be the makings of a special partnership? Only time will tell....

Hleb 7 - See eboue. Shame he got injured though

Flamini 5 - Did nothing of note.

 

[Mbaki Mutahaba]

But in him dropping deep to get involved, doing the simple pass facilitating the movement up the pitch, you're *****ing about him fading in and out of games because he became a cog in the clock as opposed to one of the hands on the face.

Why would he fade if he drops deep and gets constantly involved in the movement up the pitch? Our team plays the game where anybody midfield going up can be a goal scorer..therefore..the rest are always moving/facilitating. Herny for example is also these days doing less of that movement.and we all see if he stays upfront the whole time.he might get that goal..but his overally contribution to the team suffers. While a player like Ade's overall contribution is top notch..and he gets the vision of Henry(passing) and finishing finness of RvP he will be top notch. Thats the involvement am referring to, our strikers will always have to interchange with midfielders who are pushing up.

 

[athreya74]

I saw only the highlights so can't rate the plahyers. but I had a couple of observations.

Everyone is slating Theo and from match reports I gather he was largely invisible till switched to middle. But one has to pity the boy. First, playing in the flanks is not his natural game. Arsène has put him there to improve his game and he is trying his best. But how can Theo get better when he gets to play at the rate of 1 game every two weeks? As far as I can see he is not even playing with the reserves, so I guess he just trains with the team and turns up for Carling cup games. Not the right kind of exposure for a talent like him. He is losing his touch and his instinct for making runs. He needs more gametime. With RvP and Hleb out I hope he can get it.

Diaby is another getting the treatment. I am not defending him because of the injury. He is not cut out to play in the flanks. And he knows it is a temporary position for him. It is a difficult situation for him. He can't get into midfield even with Gilberto out and he has to play in a new position.

I am all for our youth system and giving the kids a run but I think it's a damning indictment of the academy if we don't have one decent left sided player coming up the ranks since Ryan Smith left. In the last two CC games we had Denilson and Diaby playing there. Wenger has played Baptista there. I think the squad as a whole is unbalanced when it comes to the left side.

 

[YuenBiaoFan]

'damning indictment' - don't go overboard matey

 

[mccroix]

to be honest i don't get it how cesc gets suchs good ratings...he wasn't as good as usual...of course he's a brilliant player but he made an awful lot of mistakes, his passing wasn't good at all (except one or two)...
from me he gets a solid 7,5

 

[athreya74]

'damning indictment' - don't go overboard matey

Point taken. How about "it is not the best advertisement for our academy" sound? I mean we have a shortage in the flanks and it annoys me that we don't have anyone stepping up from the reserves.

For the Spuds game we had Mark Randall on the bench and he plays in the middle, right? From the academy I can only see Fran Merida coming uo to play in the flanks. Whatever happened to van den Berg?

 

[sabret00the]

But in him dropping deep to get involved, doing the simple pass facilitating the movement up the pitch, you're *****ing about him fading in and out of games because he became a cog in the clock as opposed to one of the hands on the face.

Why would he fade if he drops deep and gets constantly involved in the movement up the pitch? Our team plays the game where anybody midfield going up can be a goal scorer..therefore..the rest are always moving/facilitating. Herny for example is also these days doing less of that movement.and we all see if he stays upfront the whole time.he might get that goal..but his overally contribution to the team suffers. While a player like Ade's overall contribution is top notch..and he gets the vision of Henry(passing) and finishing finness of RvP he will be top notch. Thats the involvement am referring to, our strikers will always have to interchange with midfielders who are pushing up.

Your points are flawed.

van Persie drops deep in order to faciliate simple passes up the pitch.

Henry used to always be on the peripheral of the game because so much went through him.

Bergkamp used to play what is now the role being assumed by Cesc, if he doesn't make the assist, he assisted the assist.

Adebayor runs at defenders all day long.

You can't expect a player like van Persie to be involved in our general team player and shine for it. sometimes someone's gotta do the simple things and he was starting to do those well.

 

[sabret00the]

I saw only the highlights so can't rate the plahyers. but I had a couple of observations.

Everyone is slating Theo and from match reports I gather he was largely invisible till switched to middle. But one has to pity the boy. First, playing in the flanks is not his natural game. Arsène has put him there to improve his game and he is trying his best. But how can Theo get better when he gets to play at the rate of 1 game every two weeks? As far as I can see he is not even playing with the reserves, so I guess he just trains with the team and turns up for Carling cup games. Not the right kind of exposure for a talent like him. He is losing his touch and his instinct for making runs. He needs more gametime. With RvP and Hleb out I hope he can get it.

Diaby is another getting the treatment. I am not defending him because of the injury. He is not cut out to play in the flanks. And he knows it is a temporary position for him. It is a difficult situation for him. He can't get into midfield even with Gilberto out and he has to play in a new position.

I am all for our youth system and giving the kids a run but I think it's a damning indictment of the academy if we don't have one decent left sided player coming up the ranks since Ryan Smith left. In the last two CC games we had Denilson and Diaby playing there. Wenger has played Baptista there. I think the squad as a whole is unbalanced when it comes to the left side.

left sided players are a rarity across the whole planet right now. it's the reason why Bale will cost £10m as opposed to £5m

 

[stiiphunn]

I saw only the highlights so can't rate the plahyers. but I had a couple of observations.

Everyone is slating Theo and from match reports I gather he was largely invisible till switched to middle. But one has to pity the boy. First, playing in the flanks is not his natural game. Arsène has put him there to improve his game and he is trying his best. But how can Theo get better when he gets to play at the rate of 1 game every two weeks? As far as I can see he is not even playing with the reserves, so I guess he just trains with the team and turns up for Carling cup games. Not the right kind of exposure for a talent like him. He is losing his touch and his instinct for making runs. He needs more gametime. With RvP and Hleb out I hope he can get it.

I'd like to see more of him, because he doesn't get many games as you said. It may not be easy for him on the wings, but IMO it's absolutely vital that he learns how to play on the wings, because it'll help him so much for the rest of his career.
However, he really needs to put more effort in. How many times did he chase the ball after losing it? We can't say that there was a lack of opportunities there.