Arsenal - Barcelona. Player ratings thread.

[sabret00the]

Shiiiiiiit! if you thought we gave bad ratings: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.barcelonafootballblog.com/2725/arsenal-2-barca-2-aka-whine-whine-whine-screwed-pooch/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.barcelonafootballblog.com/27 ... wed-pooch/</a>

 

[Armor for Sleep]

Oh right, after the goal - thought you were talking about his whole time on the pitch.

Anyway as I'm here:

Almunia 8 - Kept us in it.
Song 4 - At fault for both goals. Not good enough at CB v top players.
Denilson 7 - Fair play to the lad. Showed guts.
Diaby 3 - Horrible performance.
Walcott 7 - Crucial goal and gave Barca something to worry about.

 

[otfgoon]

Shiiiiiiit! if you thought we gave bad ratings: <a class="postlink" href="http://www.barcelonafootballblog.com/2725/arsenal-2-barca-2-aka-whine-whine-whine-screwed-pooch/" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;">http://www.barcelonafootballblog.com/27 ... wed-pooch/</a>" onclick="window.open(this.href);return false;

Haha that's an awesome read. I love the hate towards Cesc's potentially leg breaking "dive", hopefully this means they'll leave him alone.

 

[arsmile]

Al-7- kept us in the tie for the first 20 mins with some superb shot stopping, obviously takes soem blame for at least the first goal- though not as much as valdes does for our first! Was let down by the defence hugely also

Sag-5-ok

Galas-5

Verm-3- thought he was appalling to be honest for both goals- really screwed it up, one important tackle early on but, no...awful

Clichy-7

Song-6-ok

Cesc-7-hero!...(a bit)

Diaby-4

Arshavin-3- think we were lucky he got injured- was really poor before he went off

Nasri-6- thought he was dangerous

Bendtner-6- did well I thought

Eboue-7-good
Denislon-7-good
Theo-9- saved the day!

 

[qs]

Al is/was always a good shot stopper and Barca's game suited him, but people need to understand that shot stopping is a minor (especially in the English game) part of the job and might only happen once or twice a game.
Much more important is the decision making the sweeping up the commanding of the area and in these skills Al has always looked dodgy.

How many times a season will we play a side like Barca with negligible aerial threat?
Thats why we need a new goalie.

All true but for me Als biggest problem is his complete lack of communication with the defence. How many times have we seen Sol, Gallas and Sagna all give him a bollocking for not helping them out? I think thats been the main problem with our defence for a while now, a lack of communication and I think Als the biggest culprit there.

 

[kofigunner]

Song 4 - At fault for both goals. Not good enough at CB v top players.

That's very harsh on Song. TV left a huge gap. Both goals came from the left side which TV was covering. Song had to come all the way left to try and cover. The first goal was TV leaving that gap and Almunia unnecessarily coming out to cover something Song had under control. Second goal again a gap on the left side. If anything you can blame communication between the 2 CBs but not just Song.

 

[fabo]

Almunia.....7....would be 9 but for that blunder.

Sagna....6
Gallas....N/A
Vermaelen.....6...saved us a few times. Some errors aswell.
Clichy.....7.....great energy.

Song.....5....average
Diaby....3....terrible. Guy's brain works 5 seconds slower than Cesc's.
Cesc.....5....extra +1 for showing bottle at the end.

Arshavin.....N/A
Bendtner....6....for the assists. He was terrible otherwise. Missed a sitter aswell.
Nasri....6...meh.

Theo......7....good cameo
Denilson.....8....superb. Steadied the ship brilliantly.

Wenger....1.....Gallas should never have played. And he seems unable to set us up competitively for big games anymore.

All in all, we showed good character at the end but it was one of the most one-sided matches I've seen at this level. Outplayed all over the pitch. The game is in Barca's hands now....they should dominate the midfield again and unless they have a terrible day they should go through.

 

[Klaus Daimler]

Vermaelen was not at fault at either goal. Look at it again if you like, but it's indeed Song that makes the vital mistake of not paying attention to Zlatan at both occasions. It was Song who played on the left hand side of the central defence in the second half. It's what you'd expect from a holding midfielder playing centreback for the record so it's not something to come down hard on him for, but it's completely Song's fault. Barca exploited our high defensive line twice and it happened because we played a guy who's not a natural defender in the heart of the defence. Song was clueless out there last night. One have to ask why we didn't put Campbell on instead. For all this talk about a lack of pace he understands defensive positioning and is comfortable in the role. Song is not.

 

[fabo]

Song was clearly at fault. He either needs to step up with the defence or get tight to Zlatan...he did neither.

 

[MAK 14]

Yep, I don't for one second blame Vermaelen for either goal. On both occasions he did what was needed of him. Song failed to get tight to Ibrahimovic which proved costly.

 

[patrick42uk]

The defence didnt step up though. Only Vermaelen did, and not to play offisde either. He was looking to get close to Messi who was a way infield. Look at the goals again. Song, Clichy and Clichy were in line. Vermalen broke the line because he was sucked in, left the space and Ibra ran into it.

Klaus, Vermaelen was the left sided defender.

Even ITV's touch line reporter said he saw Wenger having a go at Vermaelen after the second goal.

I wonder as well whose idea it is that we play a high line without applying pressure on the ball. Thats asking for trouble.

 

[Captain]

Vermaelen was poor last night but Song, as the defender who can see the play should make better decisions. Gallas has spent half a season covering that sort of thing for Vermaelen with little fuss.

 

[otfgoon]

Klaus, Vermaelen was playing on the left. If he wasn't the wtf was he going there?

Frankly they were both at fault, Vermaelen took a gamble on both occasions and left his man. Song should have stepped in and gone in to cover.

 

[kel varnsen]

The defence didnt step up though. Only Vermaelen did, and not to play offisde either. He was looking to get close to Messi who was a way infield. Look at the goals again. Song, Clichy and Clichy were in line. Vermalen broke the line because he was sucked in, left the space and Ibra ran into it.

Klaus, Vermaelen was the left sided defender.

Even ITV's touch line reporter said he saw Wenger having a go at Vermaelen after the second goal.

I wonder as well whose idea it is that we play a high line without applying pressure on the ball. Thats asking for trouble.

the second goal was ridiculous. barca were taking the piss out of us. alves, messi and zlatan dilly dallied with the ball for a few seconds and then xavi just chipped the ball over vermalen who was in no man's land. absolutely pathetic defending.

 

[outlaw_member]

The thing that was special about Denilson's performance was the authority and belief he played with. He played as someone who felt he deserved to be there, not only personally but as a team. It was almost hilarious that he came in, added pace, was pressing and was doing pretty much everything people generally criticize him for.

Couldn't agree more.

Have to admit, my reaction when he came on was 'things are about to get a whole lot worse'. Delighted he's made me look like an idiot.

I was delighted to see him come on. Our team was desperately crying out for his five yard passes so that we could atleast keep hold of the ball.

 

[outlaw_member]

You're misreading me. I rate the goal, hence why I originally said "after the goal" (well it said "after the game", but I meant after the goal and corrected it). However, what Irate and maybe I'm just being harsh on Walcott due to lashing out at the tactics of our team, but I feel that when you think of someone effective, it's someone that gets to influence the game by their own design, with Walcott, he was literally, catching up to the ball and sticking a foot on it thus conceding possession. If there doesn't come the day that Walcott can get the ball, change the pace of the game, pick his cross in his own time or alternatively drive into the box. I'll feel he hasn't really done f**k all with his career. What he does can work, but there's such a high level of hope in there that I can't feel comfortable with heralding it.

Yeah, there is very little control to Walcott's play. Alot of it is very hit and hope.

 

[AnthonyG]

Don't really agree with some of the analyses of the second goal. Vermaelen did leave the line, but he did so with a purpose. Not sure what use Song thought he was by 'man marking' an acre of space and not moving in with his man. You can keep a solid line across all you want, but it can't be that static and unresponsive. As it was, it took a great finish by Ibra anyway.

 

[ricky1985]

Gallas covered for Vermaelen twice in the first half, in exactly the way that Song didn't. Vermaelen stepped forward to pressure Messi, and Gallas came over to cover the long ball aimed towards Ibrahimovic - once the Swede was caught offside, and the other time Gallas cleared the ball. Song and Vermaelen were both at fault for the goals, but the real cause of the problem was a complete lack of understanding between the two of them, which is completely understandable since they've never played together at centreback.

On second viewing of the game, I realised Song was actually much better than I first gave him credit for. Even at centreback he did a lot of very good things, and when we were under the kosh the most, he was the one, in midfield, getting his foot, and trying his best to maintain some sort of calm on the ball.

 

[MAK 14]

You could see that as soon as Vermaelen stepped up to get tight to Messi, he indicated to Song that he is going to need to track the run of Ibrahimovic. Not sure why Song didn't listen to him.

 

[Shadow Moses]

I know I'm one of Denilson's worst critics on here but he was immense yesterday. Never seen him play with such guts and determination. Marked Messi out and totally controlled his area. I demand more of the same week in week out.