Player Ratings - CL: Real Madrid vs Arsenal | 21/02/06

[Gazza Martinez]

I've backed Reyes to the hilt all the time he's been here, along with Casbah, Legend#1, and Kel amongst others. People are slightly overrating his performance imo. I feel his dribbling technique when out on the wing is pretty basic and very easy for a defender to read. Now, running at speed through the centre of the pitch, the guy is almost unstoppable, but his dribbling on the left seems tailor made just to draw alot of fouls, which he did alot of against Real. That said, his passing has improved alot, and it is this factor that has convinced me he will make it at Arsenal.

He was good yesterday, and gave everything, and thats all I wanted from him. Then again, Cicinho is one of the worst fullbacks in terms of defense I've ever seen, so I don't know how much can be read into Jose giving him a torrid time.

 

[celestis]

celestis, his link play has improved drastically. especially this season. infact, its the link play have seen him produce that gives dispelled my worries he will never fit into our system. i think its his main strength now, the one touch two touch stuff and dribbling isnt which is why i suggested the team needs a dribbler.

You are right Pat his link play has improved dramatically , I suspect his major strength will be his abliity create openings for others either with his pace or passing range for other. I suspect that his style is still developing, and is starting express himself which means that he feels part of the team . By the way did anyone see him give it back to Henry when Henry started on him?

As for other dribblers Hleb and Walcott even adbayor and Van Persie come to mind.

 

[kel varnsen]

celestis, his link play has improved drastically. especially this season. infact, its the link play have seen him produce that gives dispelled my worries he will never fit into our system. i think its his main strength now, the one touch two touch stuff and dribbling isnt which is why i suggested the team needs a dribbler.

Yeah, but you aren't allowed to criticise an area of Reyes' play because he's the most perfect player ever and it's automatically a 'Bashing'. :roll:

Not at all.. I just thought the criticism of Reyes was harsh, it's like a certain group of people decided to criticise 1 player, and it happened to be Reyes.

I thought he was brilliant, so I foudn it a bit strange.. Each to their own.

there are some who bash reyes no matter what and there are some who bash hleb no matter what. they have just decided to hate them for the rest of their career here.

both hleb and reyes played very well last night, but people still criticise them. ignoring whatever they offered to the team, highlighting their mistakes. for example, hleb gave the ball away a few times, but he also sent henry and ljungberg clear through.

 

[Captain]

Not at all.. I just thought the criticism of Reyes was harsh, it's like a certain group of people decided to criticise 1 player, and it happened to be Reyes.

I thought he was brilliant, so I foudn it a bit strange.. Each to their own.

Fair enough, but I don't just criticise players randomly; I was replying to two points above mine in my initial post about Reyes and how I saw him in the game.

If any player should have done better it was Henry; but obviously talking about that will start a slide of posts about him being the best in the world, you're an idiot etc.

:roll:

 

[Legend#1]

celestis, his link play has improved drastically. especially this season. infact, its the link play have seen him produce that gives dispelled my worries he will never fit into our system. i think its his main strength now, the one touch two touch stuff and dribbling isnt which is why i suggested the team needs a dribbler.

Yeah, but you aren't allowed to criticise an area of Reyes' play because he's the most perfect player ever and it's automatically a 'Bashing'. :roll:

Not at all.. I just thought the criticism of Reyes was harsh, it's like a certain group of people decided to criticise 1 player, and it happened to be Reyes.

I thought he was brilliant, so I foudn it a bit strange.. Each to their own.

there are some who bash reyes no matter what and there are some who bash hleb no matter what. they have just decided to hate them for the rest of their career here.

both hleb and reyes played very well last night, but people still criticise them. ignoring whatever they offered to the team, highlighting their mistakes. for example, hleb gave the ball away a few times, but he also sent henry and ljungberg clear through.

It's the same over ar Arse-Blog with Hleb.. We have a select few , including me, that try and rationalise things, but some have got their hearts set on not giving him a chance.

 

[hujja]

celestis, his link play has improved drastically. especially this season. infact, its the link play have seen him produce that gives dispelled my worries he will never fit into our system. i think its his main strength now, the one touch two touch stuff and dribbling isnt which is why i suggested the team needs a dribbler.

Yeah, but you aren't allowed to criticise an area of Reyes' play because he's the most perfect player ever and it's automatically a 'Bashing'. :roll:

Not at all.. I just thought the criticism of Reyes was harsh, it's like a certain group of people decided to criticise 1 player, and it happened to be Reyes.

I thought he was brilliant, so I foudn it a bit strange.. Each to their own.

there are some who bash reyes no matter what and there are some who bash hleb no matter what. they have just decided to hate them for the rest of their career here.

both hleb and reyes played very well last night, but people still criticise them. ignoring whatever they offered to the team, highlighting their mistakes. for example, hleb gave the ball away a few times, but he also sent henry and ljungberg clear through.

I agree with kel. Pretty much said what I wanted to say.

 

[Legend#1]

I've backed Reyes to the hilt all the time he's been here, along with Casbah, Legend#1, and Kel amongst others. People are slightly overrating his performance imo. I feel his dribbling technique when out on the wing is pretty basic and very easy for a defender to read. Now, running at speed through the centre of the pitch, the guy is almost unstoppable, but his dribbling on the left seems tailor made just to draw alot of fouls, which he did alot of against Real. That said, his passing has improved alot, and it is this factor that has convinced me he will make it at Arsenal.

He was good yesterday, and gave everything, and thats all I wanted from him. Then again, Cicinho is one of the worst fullbacks in terms of defense I've ever seen, so I don't know how much can be read into Jose giving him a torrid time.

He was a constant thorn in their backsides last night, that's what we need, they were scared of him.

He had 1 bursting run from defence near to there penalty area in the 2nd half, where they just couldn't tackle him, until he was hacked down by Cicinho.

I understand what you mean by Reyes' dribbling on the wing, but he isn't naturally a winger, but he's slowly and surely becoming 1 of our "big" players.. Still only 22.

 

[kel varnsen]

celestis, his link play has improved drastically. especially this season. infact, its the link play have seen him produce that gives dispelled my worries he will never fit into our system. i think its his main strength now, the one touch two touch stuff and dribbling isnt which is why i suggested the team needs a dribbler.

Yeah, but you aren't allowed to criticise an area of Reyes' play because he's the most perfect player ever and it's automatically a 'Bashing'. :roll:

Not at all.. I just thought the criticism of Reyes was harsh, it's like a certain group of people decided to criticise 1 player, and it happened to be Reyes.

I thought he was brilliant, so I foudn it a bit strange.. Each to their own.

there are some who bash reyes no matter what and there are some who bash hleb no matter what. they have just decided to hate them for the rest of their career here.

both hleb and reyes played very well last night, but people still criticise them. ignoring whatever they offered to the team, highlighting their mistakes. for example, hleb gave the ball away a few times, but he also sent henry and ljungberg clear through.

It's the same over ar Arse-Blog with Hleb.. We have a select few , including me, that try and rationalise things, but some have got their hearts set on not giving him a chance.

maybe it's just me, but because the talent is so obvious, i'm willing to give him years to prove his worth. just like reyes. when they 'finally settle in' they'll be world class for us on a regular basis. not just here and there.

besides, i think both reyes and hleb have played fairly well this year. at least when you compare their performances to that of the more senior players like pires, freddie, gilberto, sol etc.

 

[Legend#1]

I still think Reyes has been 1 of our most productive and dangerous players this season..

He needs to score more, he's already sorted his passing out, people were saying it was poor, but 15+ assists tells me otherwise.

He's by far the best long range passer we have at the club.

 

[Gurgen]

The great thing about Reyes this season is that he's starting to put in consistent performances, even on the left wing. In the past he was worth an 8 one match, and a 3 the next. Now he always gets his 7 so to speak, and is brilliant once in a while.

 

[Lehmann1]

Lehmann- 9 Superb display. Commands his area superbly

Eboue - 9 A great display. No one looked like beating him

Senderos - 8 Covered Flamini's poor positioning very well

Toure - 9 Unbeatable

Flamini - 7 Great challenges although positioning could of been better. But still great

Freddie - 9 Outstanding. His movement was back and didn't stop working

Gilberto - 8 Zidane who? Kept him quiet

Fabregas - 10 Awesome. He was my man of the match. Fantastic

Hleb - 9 I felt he worked tirelessly. His tight ball control and helped out Eboue very well

Reyes - 10 Great display. Terrorised cicinho.

Henry - 10 Henry at his best

 

[brady]

a 10 for Henry eh? too happy to quibble with you. isn't it great when we are arguing over who should be MOTM instead of who deserves to be traded, sacked, sent to purgatory?

 

[mrsvanpersie]

Lehmann- 9 Superb display. Commands his area superbly

Eboue - 9 A great display. No one looked like beating him

Senderos - 8 Covered Flamini's poor positioning very well

Toure - 9 Unbeatable

Flamini - 7 Great challenges although positioning could of been better. But still great

Freddie - 9 Outstanding. His movement was back and didn't stop working

Gilberto - 8 Zidane who? Kept him quiet

Fabregas - 10 Awesome. He was my man of the match. Fantastic

Hleb - 9 I felt he worked tirelessly. His tight ball control and helped out Eboue very well

Reyes - 10 Great display. Terrorised cicinho.

Henry - 10 Henry at his best

Everything our goalkeeper said...

 

[kamikaze80]

It's the same over ar Arse-Blog with Hleb.. We have a select few , including me, that try and rationalise things, but some have got their hearts set on not giving him a chance.

maybe its true for other people, but i actually LIKE hleb. i just dont think hes a good enough passer right now to offset his complete lack of finishing ability in the final 1/3. sure, he does a lot of good things with the ball, and thats why i'll give him a 6.5 against real madrid.

but he frustrates by making obviously poor passes that go straight to a defender thereby killing a promising conterattack. he hangs on to the ball for too long cos he has to be the guy making the killer pass, as he will not make the runs to get on the end of such passes cos he has no confidence in his shooting. his dribbling ability is a little wasted by his inability or unwillingness to get in advanced positions.

defensively, he seems prone to lapses, as he cost us the match against liverpool (i wasnt sure about this until someone here pointed it out and looking at the video, its true) and he also left our right side vulnerable at least once by losing the ball and unnecessarily chasing the player in-field, allowing roberto carlos to get behind eboue, who had made a run forward.

against a good team, one simple but glaring mistake like that can lead to a goal and in that respect, we were lucky madrid were so dire (not saying we didnt play well). bayern punished us for mistakes like that; how would you have rated senderos or hleb if those had turned out to be toure moments?

it doesnt mean i have it out for the guy, i recognise it was one of his best matches for us, but looking at it objectively, i still think theres a lot of room for improvement WITHIN his game. thats better than saying 'hes not good enough,' altho admittedly ive felt that to be true at times.

 

[kel varnsen]

but he frustrates by making obviously poor passes that go straight to a defender thereby killing a promising conterattack.

do you feel the same way about for example henry, pires, reyes etc who all could have been more active off the ball on the counter attack, thereby killing several good counterattacks?

 

[kamikaze80]

but he frustrates by making obviously poor passes that go straight to a defender thereby killing a promising conterattack.

do you feel the same way about for example henry, pires, reyes etc who all could have been more active off the ball on the counter attack, thereby killing several good counterattacks?

i have noticed henry not making runs and stretching the defence, yes. i think it has more to do with his achilles than laziness, however. its a world cup year and hes picking his spots. i think its just something we have to accept this year.

and i know all our flair players give the ball away, its the nature of making passes in the final third. what i take issue with is the decision-making, not the execution. you cant blame hleb (or whoever) if he tries a difficult flick to send someone thru but it doesnt come off. but you can blame hleb if he tries to send a pass 30m across the floor in front of 3 defenders, which inevitably gets intercepted. im sure his decisions will improve with more playing time but we'd still be left with a really quick guy who cant shoot.

look, i think hes very talented, i just dont get why im not allowed to like him as a player while pointing out the very obvious flaws in his game.

 

[RockyRocastle]

I thought Reyes had a brilliant game, but I wouldnt say that he 'raped' Cicinho.

People on here said he 'raped' Garry Neville at Highbury, but never actually beat him once.

But he did his job and now more of the same is needed.

Hleb has probably his best game for us aswell, looked real quality.

The test for both now is to play at this level consistently.

I would probably rate Senderos and Flamini 7, Cesc as 9 and the rest 8.

But everyone was bloody brilliant!

 

[KingReyes]

and i think the ronaldinho (robben and messi) comparisons are very valid here. completing a dribble involves staying on your feet. yesterday, i dont even feel cicinho had to be cynical. reyes made it easy for him, looking to be fouled. i especially picked ronaldinho because with him, defenders come into the game with their mind set on cynically bringing him down. not just individuallly but in gangs. same with kaka, same with even wright-phillips. but these guys stay on their feet. the falling over thing has been a constant the whole time he has been here.

Patrick is right, Reyes had a good game last night but this constant falling over everytime he goes past a player is too much sometimes. Its so ****ing frustrating to see him on his arse having a whinge every 5 minutes. It kills our fluency and doesn't help at all.

There were times where he could have gone past Cicinho last night but went for the foul instead/ Its the difference between a socring chance and a foul which we do **** all with anyways.

anyways Reyes is a much more effective player when he releases the ball early and moves on. His one touch passing has improved, he's keeping it simple and is becoming more effective. Hopefully it will continue,

 

[Lukazan]

If Cicinho hadn't cynically fouled Reyes every time he'd 'done him' Reyes would have honestly gone past him about 7-8 times last night.

For such a high profile player as Cicinho, that is rape.

 

[>YounGunner<]

Hleb needs to improve his passing and needs to think more before he makes the pass.

He gives the ball away far too much.