Player Ratings - FA: Arsenal vs Bolton Wanderers | 28/01/07

[cloista]

Almunia - 7 - Solid enough, good stop from Nolan to prevent 2-0, no chance with the goal.

Clichy - 8 - Best player on the pitch, got forward well and defended well, was out of position for the goal as he had to cover. Final ball not there yet though.
Senderos - 7 - Solid
Toure - 8 - Solid and drove us forward from the back, good goal.
Hoyte - 6 - Looks like an Arsenal player these days.

Rosicky - 7 - Lively
Fabregas - 7 - Creative for the most part, but I wish he'd shoot more.
Flamini - 5 - Ran about a lot, was a nuisance.
Walcott - 5 - Inconsistent, created 2 very good shooting chances for himself, but his crossing was woeful.

Adebayor - 4 - Our worst player, nothing worked for him today.
Henry - 6 - Lazy, but the backheel deserved a 6 on it's own.

-------------------
Baptista - 7 - Gave us fresh purpose and got stuck in.
Aliadiere - 6 - Good hit on his one chance, but not enough time to make a real impact, silly dive.

 

[tactica442]

Nice to see a bit of constructive criticism at least. You made the effort and you make a good point but i think the simple fact is, today, Anelka skiined him, he would have done the same to anyone

Flamini should have intercepted Nolan's back-pass to Anelka before Anelka skinned him. Footballers attack space and find passing options. Aginst ManU, Flamini gave away space where he should stay put. Against Bolton Flamini allowed the ball went past him and just when he chased up the ball was passed back and slipped past him again. How many times we've been seeing this happen when Flamini was defending like this despite he working very hard? In modern football the build up passing is often in 'W' shape. But Flamini sometimes seems lost in chasing the ball in the W-shape build up. The qustion is, if there is only one interception attamp is allowed, where and when should Flamini make the attemp in these build up? And how Gilberto would have decided if he was in Flamini shoe?

 

[Grampus_Eight]

Nice to see a bit of constructive criticism at least. You made the effort and you make a good point but i think the simple fact is, today, Anelka skiined him, he would have done the same to anyone

Flamini should have intercepted Nolan's back-pass to Anelka before Anelka skinned him. Footballers attack space and find passing options. Aginst ManU, Flamini gave away space where he should stay put. Against Bolton Flamini allowed the ball went past him and just when he chased up the ball was passed back and slipped past him again. How many times we've been seeing this happen when Flamini was defending like this despite he working very hard? In modern football the build up passing is often in 'W' shape. But Flamini sometimes seems lost in chasing the ball in the W-shape build up. The qustion is, if there is only one interception attamp is allowed, where and when should Flamini make the attemp in these build up? And how Gilberto would have decided if he was in Flamini shoe?

tactica - nice presentation and well put. Personally, I mantain that Flamini can play four positions well enough to make a big impact and DM isn't one of them. Flamini is an excellent and versatile squad player. He wouldn't hesitate to run through a wall for the shirt, so I don't like criticizing him, but he just doesn't have the tactical/positioning nous to ever challenge for primary role as a DM. A backup? He shown that he is adequate and has stepped up when called upon, but long term I think we all know he isn't the answer there. But when you have a young backline which includes Senderos and Hoyte who aren't first choice, then Mathieu becomes more of a gamble.

As an aside, I don't think Diaby is a fit at DM either and having never seen Denilson play there I can't make any assumptions. The Boss and his performances in the carling cup coupled with his frame make me think Denilson's more of a creative than destructive player as well.

I think Flamini can be an outstanding option out wide in the midfield and as a box-to-box central midfielder and he's repeatedly demonstrated his ability as a fullback, but a DM he isn't. If he has Gilberto to partner him, then he can play box-to-box and we have Rosicky and Hleb ideally as distributors - this worked a charm against Liverpool.

But our young backline, which positionally is often naive coupled with Flamini does leave us open to the sort of errors which result in goals...

 

[sabret00the]

some of the ratings here

Clichy = MOTM
Henry = Anonymous
Adebayor = Terrible game
Rosicky = Nightmare despite playing his usual game
Fabregas = Poor passing
Flamini = As bad as Henry if not worse
Walcott = Still low on confidence and thus useless, it's a sad case of catch-22

The defence were wondrous, the highlight of our game.

 

[Lukazan]

Get Clichy tattooed on your forehead. Do it. DO IT NOW.

 

[Clrnc]

Nice to see a bit of constructive criticism at least. You made the effort and you make a good point but i think the simple fact is, today, Anelka skiined him, he would have done the same to anyone

Flamini should have intercepted Nolan's back-pass to Anelka before Anelka skinned him. Footballers attack space and find passing options. Aginst ManU, Flamini gave away space where he should stay put. Against Bolton Flamini allowed the ball went past him and just when he chased up the ball was passed back and slipped past him again. How many times we've been seeing this happen when Flamini was defending like this despite he working very hard? In modern football the build up passing is often in 'W' shape. But Flamini sometimes seems lost in chasing the ball in the W-shape build up. The qustion is, if there is only one interception attamp is allowed, where and when should Flamini make the attemp in these build up? And how Gilberto would have decided if he was in Flamini shoe?

tactica - nice presentation and well put. Personally, I mantain that Flamini can play four positions well enough to make a big impact and DM isn't one of them. Flamini is an excellent and versatile squad player. He wouldn't hesitate to run through a wall for the shirt, so I don't like criticizing him, but he just doesn't have the tactical/positioning nous to ever challenge for primary role as a DM. A backup? He shown that he is adequate and has stepped up when called upon, but long term I think we all know he isn't the answer there. But when you have a young backline which includes Senderos and Hoyte who aren't first choice, then Mathieu becomes more of a gamble.

As an aside, I don't think Diaby is a fit at DM either and having never seen Denilson play there I can't make any assumptions. The Boss and his performances in the carling cup coupled with his frame make me think Denilson's more of a creative than destructive player as well.

I think Flamini can be an outstanding option out wide in the midfield and as a box-to-box central midfielder and he's repeatedly demonstrated his ability as a fullback, but a DM he isn't. If he has Gilberto to partner him, then he can play box-to-box and we have Rosicky and Hleb ideally as distributors - this worked a charm against Liverpool.

But our young backline, which positionally is often naive coupled with Flamini does leave us open to the sort of errors which result in goals...

i have read before the threat about flamini and one thing i disagree is about the fact he deserves his place and stay here. many said that he can be our utility player etc. but to me, he is useless. if we can maintain this squad plus a new winger and maybe some young talents again, we are pretty covered over the pitch. he is absolutely useless in certain cases though he scored a few important goals.

look at his technique, his passes are 50% wayward, his shots are 90% sure to fly 50% above the goal post. he has no real power in his shots. his only ability in his foot is sidefoot. he shows commitment but wins 10% of the headers. he tackles but misses the ball, or with no effect. he has shown a lack of defensive abilities. you say he runs all over the pitch, but as some has said, i don't see he has improved over the headless chicken. he has good games, yes but is the gonna make him a good player?

sometimes in makes me wonder do he has a intelligent brain. he only pressures the attack player but more often than not, they pass by him. he is just a liability we do do without. of course i would not reccomend selling him due to our injuries, but i reckon wenger will put him up for sale within 2 years.

 

[albakos]

Almunia 7

Hoyte 6
Toure 7
Senderos 7
Clichy 7

Rosicky 5.5
Fabregas 7
Flamini 5
Walcott 5

Adebayor 5
Henry 6

Dude you must've missed a lot of action from Rosicky,

imo, he was as good as Toure and Cesc.. if not better than Cesc..

 

[asajoseph]

The player who disappointed me most in this game was Adebayor to be honest - after his great form a month or two ago, I was really hoping he'd pull something special out against Bolton. After all, on paper, a lot of people reckon he was bought for games like this...

 

[Lukazan]

I agree.

His first touch was like the Adebayor's of last season, and he didn't work nearly as hard as usual. His off the ball movement wasn't particular good either and he also dwelt on, and lost the ball on more than one ocassion.

 

[YuenBiaoFan]

He's STILL not branched out from Henry's wings yet, it's why I was so concerned starting him instead of RVP against Man U.

He needs to snap out of it.

 

[sesquioxide]

The player who disappointed me most in this game was Adebayor to be honest - after his great form a month or two ago, I was really hoping he'd pull something special out against Bolton. After all, on paper, a lot of people reckon he was bought for games like this...

Isn't this his second game straight from the injury? I think he should be given a game or two more before we take out our knives on him.

 

[Alfonso]

So he had a poor game. Now what. Is he now going to go from being **** to good to being '****' again? Vintage Arsenal-Mania.

 

[Viper]

Get Clichy tattooed on your forehead. Do it. DO IT NOW.

He's probably got Ashley Cole tattooed on his forehead, so I highly doubt something like that will happen!

 

[FrankArsenal]

I'd like to give Theo a 6 and nothing less. Yes I watched the same game and I can't stand people slagging him off. I don't think that he was that poor. Who I hate most? Myles Palmer on ANR: "I was wondering if I'd ever go to a football match again" [...] I'm not interested in the replay and " Gardner was toying with him(theo)" Com'on I'd expect better from him. How on earth can someone be so negative? He isn't even bothered with the play. Sorry but this really annoys me. And saying than Gardner toyed with theo is also out of line. I guess he didn't see our only chance in the first half when Theo cut inside to run past Gardner (expect for the henry-backheel-chance) and also didn't watch from the 60th till the 85th minute. Anyway I just had to get this of my chest I hope I can sleep now (it's 2.28 here in Holland).

 

[Dougan17]

just to be lazy, sixes all around. 6.5 to Rosicky for some good movement and good possession but he and cesc were passing into Bolton most of the day instead of trying to be creative and find a solution on the flanks. Nobody was particularly awful and nobody was that good.

Clichy did well but he made crucial mistakes at certain times, others didn't make big mistakes but did nothing that was all that good.

 

[FrankArsenal]

just to be lazy, sixes all around. 6.5 to Rosicky for some good movement and good possession but he and cesc were passing into Bolton most of the day instead of trying to be creative and find a solution on the flanks. Nobody was particularly awful and nobody was that good.

Clichy did well but he made crucial mistakes at certain times, others didn't make big mistakes but did nothing that was all that good.

I agree with you. We should play extra attention to the fact that Senderos didn't make his usual big shr*w up, once every match.

 

[athreya74]

The player who disappointed me most in this game was Adebayor to be honest - after his great form a month or two ago, I was really hoping he'd pull something special out against Bolton. After all, on paper, a lot of people reckon he was bought for games like this...

Second it. I guess that he is still lacking sharpness after having sat out so many games. I was surprised that he didn't get a chance in the mid-week Carling Cup game to get more gametime. Maybe Arsène was concerned at the rate we are picking up injuries.

Was also surprised Arsène didn't make his changes earlier. Theo was not having a good game and I would have taken him off at half-time or immediately after Bolton scored. Baptista deserved more time and we could have played Flamini on the right and Cesc-Bap in the middle.

Enough dissection on Flamini's (in)ability as a DM has taken place so nothing to add on. But I am disappointed with Toure-Senderos who should have worked out that without Bert they had greater responibility to be alert to the odd move that could open up our defence. Toure, despite his goal, did his best headless chicken impersonation a couple of times. Composure is not his forte. Senderos, with so many games under his belt should look to impose himself on opponents. Somehow I feel Djourou has more of a personality that helps him deal with threats without fuss.

Credit to Bolton for sticking it out. But once we started attacking in the second half we could see how vulnerable they were. Lazy to do the ratings but on the whole I would put Almunia at 7.5, defence at 7 (clichy above average), midfield at 6 (flamini below average) and Henry-Ade 5. Was disappointing that in the second half Clichy and Toure were more of attacking threats than the strikers.

 

[asajoseph]

The player who disappointed me most in this game was Adebayor to be honest - after his great form a month or two ago, I was really hoping he'd pull something special out against Bolton. After all, on paper, a lot of people reckon he was bought for games like this...

Isn't this his second game straight from the injury? I think he should be given a game or two more before we take out our knives on him.

The knives aren't out. Fact is though, he had a poor game, and we'd all been hoping that these were the sort of games he'd help us flourish in. I'm entirely positive that before too long he'll regain the form he showed before his injury, I was just hoping for a bit more from him on sunday.

 

[asajoseph]

So he had a poor game. Now what. Is he now going to go from being s**t to good to being 's**t' again? Vintage Arsenal-Mania.

There's nothing more vintage 'Mania than swiftly jumping to the wrong conclusion

Just pulling your leg...