Player Ratings - CL: Villareal vs Arsenal | 25/04/06

[eddie_wills]

Jens 9 - did everything right, what a save.

Eboue 6 - boundless energy, but positioning poor in first half. Lacks discipline at times as well, needs to stay back every once in a while.

Clichy 7 - Great comeback. Defended excellently, got forward well. Doesn't take blame for goal.

Sol 6.5 - Didn't let us down, could have done with being a bit more dominant aerially.

Kolo 6.5 - Franco turned him too easily too many times and beat him in air. But great block towards end and kept us in it with recovery tackles early on.

Reyes 3.5 - Worked hard, offered nothing going forward. Very poor.

Gilberto 9 - Brilliant. Tackled well, intercepted, filled in gaps, passed it well.

Fabregas 6 - Used ball efficiently, flittered in and out. Could have supported Henry more.

Ljungberg 5.5 - Worked hard, helped with retention of ball. Should have supported Henry more. Played best left wing.

Hleb 5 - Good start, but lost us the ball in our own half in the second period. Didn't keep width, could have worked harder.

Henry 3 - Worst I've seen him play. No service, I suppose, but the ball just didn't stick upfront and some of his flicks were atrocious.

 

[Ricky_AFC]

Jens- 9 for saving us.
Gilberto- 8
Clichy-7

The rest we're either a 6 or below IMO. Overall it was very poor. Can't stop smiling anyway though.

 

[Williamnismist]

Lehmann and Franco are MOTM

 

[kel varnsen]

lehmann - 9,5 MOM
brilliant and pretty much won the game singlehandedly for us.

eboue - 4
very poor first half and got caught out of position time and time again. slightly better in the 2nd half.

toure - 4,5
got skinned one time by franco, but all in all a semi decent performance. struggled with franco in the air as well at times, though.

sol - 4
a bit rusty and very poor distribution and let franco sneak in behind him once.

clichy - 4
very enthuastic, but struggled a bit defensively. caught out of position a lot.

hleb - 4
poor. gave the ball away too much and had a quiet night.

ljungberg - 4
decent effort, but absolutely no end product. poor.

gilberto - 7,5
a very good game. worked very hard, got stuck in and his passing was ok. helped out the back four a lot!

cesc - 4,5
disappointing. held on to the ball way too long. now, some of this can be explained by a lack of movement off the ball around him, but it looked like cesc had no intention of going forward tonight.

reyes - 4
poor.

henry - 3
no support and lousy service from the rest of the team, but even so, he was abysmal tonight.

 

[Jimbo14]

jens- a million lol
eboue- 7
campbell - 6
toure- 7
clichy-8
lungberg- 6
hleb-5
gilberto-6
fabregcas-5
reyes- 5
henry-5


Defensivly no complaints, but no outlet from attacking players!!! best performance ever lol

 

[Lord Dula]

Jens 10
Eboue 7
Toure 7
Sol 8
Clichmeister 7
Hleb 5
Gibls 9.5
Cesc 6
Reyes 4
Freddie 6.5
Henry 4.5

Pires 6

 

[maximopark]

player ratings

Jens10- came out for all the crosses, totally reliable and of course he saved the pen. what a season he is having, i trusted him with the peno, i knew he could save it

Eboue7- as stated, bad positioning, came inside too far too often, some surging runs late on with his boundless energy, but wasnt very composed in them

Campbell8- dodgy on one or two crosses, but didnt see much of him and thats a good thing

Toure8- turned very easily, not his best performance, thank goodness he didnt get that Yellow

Clichy8- had forgotten what we were missing. I thought Flamini was great during his run, but Clichy...what can I say...wonderful amazing dribbling runs, great defending and THAT WASNT PENO, he never looked at the man!!

Hleb5- poor game, very slow and his immaculate touch was poor. He usually feeds off runs and there wasnt many of them today

Fabregas6- nerves or injury got to him, gave other midfielders too much space and showed little energy, came into it as Villareal tired

Gilberto9- GREAT game, tackles, interceptions, finally getting the plaudits!! kick out was really stupid, he could have been banned and for what??

Ljungberg6- was amazing in this position in Madrid but not so today, would have preffered to see the more composed Pires start there. Ljungberg was much better when switche dto the left, he just doesnt have the luck he used to have

Reyes3- what does he bring to the Arsenal game?? shows great pace, but then runs down blind alleys, shows none of feet skill of henry!!

Henry4- Didnt look interested, chased back a few times, but could have been a lot more involved if he wanted to

 

[kamikaze80]

lehmann- 9 MOTM
eboue- 6
toure- 7
campbell- 6
clichy -7
hleb- 6
fabregas- 6
gilberto- 8
ljungberg- 5
reyes- 4
henry- 4

kel, how in the world did we keep a clean sheet in the champs lge semi-final with a team full of 4's? surely you can bump some of our defenders up to 5 or 6? they did soak up a lot of pressure.

its hard to say whether we were so reticent in attack due to tactics or something else. wengers post-match comments seemed to suggest that he was surprised by it as well, as he wasnt sure whether it was for "physical" or "psychological" reasons.

 

[jester]

jens 10 - couldnt have done anything better.
gilberto 9 - great match, was our best player up till 88th minute
clichy/sol -7
rest low scores

 

[TheEconomist]

I think Pires had an instant impact, as soon as we came on we were keeping the ball a lot more. I think without him we would have been under a lot more pressure

jens -9
Eboue-6
Toure-6
Campbell6.5
clichy-7.5
Hleb-5
Reyes-4
Freddie-6
Cesc-5.5
Gilberto-9
henry-4 - not his fault, no support or service. Had that one good chance though, should have done better, on another day he would have sidefooted it into the far corner.
Flamini- didnt think he was on long enough to tell
Pires-6.5

P.S I saw Diaby warming up to come on, around the time the penalty was given. Did he ever come on? or did he just stay on the bench because it would have already been deep into injury time?

 

[KingReyes]

lehmann- 9
eboue- 6
toure- 8
campbell- 7
clichy -7
hleb- 6
fabregas- 6
gilberto- 7
ljungberg- 5
reyes- 5
henry- 6

 

[Anonymous]

Jens 10000

 

[Gort]

Jens - 9 MotM
Eboue - 6
Toure - 7
Sol - 6
Clichy - 6
Hleb - 7
Gilberto - 8
Cesc - 5
Reyes - 3
Freddie - 6
Henry - 5

Pires - 7

Flamini didn't play enough to judge

 

[nazo]

10 for Lehmann
8 for Gilberto and Toure
The rest 7's and 6's.

 

[adjie]

Mad Jens : 8
What a penalty save ...

Eboue : 6
Just a descent performance

Flamini : n/a
I've told you, he needs a rest

Kolo : 8
As usual ...

Sol : 6.5
He can do better

Gilberto : 7.5
As usual also, not so flashy but steady, needs a rest as well

Hleb : 5.5
Physically fit, but little bit lost of touch ?

Reyes : 5
One of his worst game, why he didn't perform on his homeland ?

Freddie : 5.5
His most contribution was trying to upset the Villareal players

Cesc : 6.5
The only one I see want to create a goal

Henry : 6
Can be better if he accomplish the only one Shot On Goal,
but I appreciate his effort few times to chase ball back to MF

Sub Clichy : 6.5
Try to emulate Eboue, but still need more games to play

Sub Pires : 6
No impact

Overall : 5.5
It was not such performance the Gooners were famous for

 

[clockwork orange]

Jens - 9 MOTM
Eboue - 6
Toure - 8 for not getting a yellow card
Sol - 6
Clichy - 5
Hleb - 7
Gilberto - 8
Cesc - 5
Reyes - 4
Freddie - 6
Henry - 5

Pires - 6

 

[IBL]

Lehman 9.5: Not a foot wrong and a heroic penalty save

Eboue 6: ok but caught out too many times and poor distribution
Toure 6: Also caught out several times
Sol 6.5: Ok considering first game back
Flamini n/a
Clichy 7: Also considering its his first game in a while did really well, some great surging runs, unlucky with the pen

Freddie 6.5: Worked hard and tried going forward
Cesc 6: Tired leggy performancebut some neat touches and skills
Hleb 5: Dissapointing. No energy, poor passing, no thrust
Gilberto 7.5: Defended really well and was one of our better players
Reyes 5: is this guy getting worse with every game?

Henry 5.5: A few tackles but looked knackered


OVERALL: We won,thats the main thinf. Lets just blame it on tiredness and lack of experience at this level

 

[dublingunner]

Lehmann - 10 MOTM by a mile. Couldn't have been better. I'll repeat that save in my head many times in the next few weeks.

Eboue - 4 Caught out of position alot. Sleepwalking, especially in the 1st half.

Toure - 7 Solid.

Campbell - 6 Solid except for 1 bit of poor defending nearly cost us a goal.

Clichy - 5.5 Looked sharper and less nervous than many of the others, amazingly, but got caught out of position a good few times.

Hleb - 6 Had the best game of the attacking midfielders I thought, but still gave the ball away too much.

Fabregas - 5 Disappointing. Hasn't looked himself since he got injured. Maybe burnt out.

Gilberto - 6.5 Did reasonably well, but too many times Villareal found themselves with lots of space in the final 3rd.

Reyes - 4 Headless chicken on speed.

Ljungberg - 5.5 Looked sharp at times but couldn't keep the ball, like the whole team.

Henry - 3.5 No contribution to speak of, bad touches all night, should have scored immediately after the penalty save.


Pires - 5 Did well enough but suffered the team-wide affliction of inability to keep the ball.

Flamini - 6 Looked good until he went off. Hopefully not a serious injury.

 

[nidza7]

10 for Lehmann
8 for Gilberto and Toure
The rest 7's and 6's.

2nd that

 

[Maximus]

Leman - 9
Toure - 6
Campbell - 5 ...looked rusty on his return back
Eboue - 7
Clichy - 7...not as good defensively as flamini but boy can this kid attack...really showed what we have been missing in an attacking sense from the left side of the pitch
Gilberto - 8...didnt need to kick out @ franco...lucky he didnt get sent off
Cesc - 6...held on to the ball too long atimes but henry didnt provide him with the runs or any other options
Hleb - 6...lost the ball too often
Reyes- 5...give us joaquin wenger
Freddie - 6...provides so much in terms of workrate but please dont give the ball to him infront of goal or during an attack
Henry - 0...waste...if it wasnt for the chances at the end i would ahve given him a negative rating. Take the captains armband off him!!!

Lehman for captain!!!