Player Ratings - PL: Tottenham vs Arsenal | 29/10/05

[Gurgen]

We do not do zonal marking with set pieces (and if we did yesterday someone needs to have a word), and it is a well-known fact that Sol always marks the best header of the ball of the other team.

The fact that Mido is all over Sol at the time of the goal does not mean Sol was marking Mido. When the free kick came in Sol was marking King but was blocked/let him run away.

 

[RammiXP]

My team Ratings:

Lehmann- 8*- Was assured and confident throughout. Made some great saves that kept us in the game

Lauren- 5 - Largely ineffective but did his job.

Campbell- 4 - His worst game of the season really let the occasion get to him, can't understand why?? he has been there before! his fault for first goal arguably.

Toure- 6 - Showed passion and a desire in the 1st half that only him and Clichy showed. Other than that he was solid and did his job with nothing of great importance to speak about.

Clichy- 7.5 - was the only player on the pitch in the first half that looked positive on the ball, gave it his all and was a real danger at times on the left.

Cesc- 6 - Had a very poor first half out of position but in the second half when put in the right one he was superb, controlled the midfield and freed lots of space for other players with quick passes.

Flamini- 4 - I have been one to praise Flamini over the last few week and fight his corner, but today he was not there, he started brightly getting stuck in but as soon as he got booked he lost a lot of his sprit and energy.

Gilberto- 3* - Worst player on the pitch in my opinion. Even when the team gained confidence he still continued to give the ball away and make awful passes. The last 2 game from Gilberto have not been good and he needs to step up his performances.

Ljungberg- 5 - had a few occasions where he got forward but it did not lead to anything, very ineffective and a little bit disappointing.

Bergkamp- 3.5 - Only just missed out on my worst player award, at times I forgot he was on the pitch, the only thing positive to say was that his passing and link up with Van Persie was ok towards the end of the game.

Reyes- 5 - Disappointing, not his usual self today, it was obvious in my opinion his rips are still bothering him a little, we could have used his energy and desire that he has shown in previous games today but unfortunately let us down a little.

Subs

Pires- 7.5 - Changed the shape of the midfield which meant more stability and more confidence. Scored the important goal and made some superb passes to get us in to goal threatening positions. His best performance by far this season (ironically it came after he was dropped)

Van Persie- 7.5 - Why this guy is not starting I do not know. The only player to offer any goal threat, in the absence of Henry. He is a real diamond and can be the STRIKER I feel arsenal FC really need. Looked confident, assured and dangerous on the ball something no one else in the team seemed to have (other than Clichy and Pires).

* represents worst and best player in my eyes!

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Seeing the goal last night, if Sol was supposed to be marking King, nobody seems to have told him. Otherwise why was he all over Mido?

 

[jay-d]

I think everyone has forgotten Campbell has just come back from injury again, and Wenger probably pushed him to come back due to the magnitude of the game.

My Ratings:

Lehmann 8
Lauren 6.5
Clichy 7
Campbell 5
Toure 7.5
Cesc 1st half ( Out of position ) 4, 2nd half (in position ) 7
Flamini 3
Gilberto 4
Ljunberg 6
Reyes 5.5
Bergkamp 3

Subs

Pires 8
RVP 8
Cygan WHY??

Manager

Wenger
1st half 2/10 , The team selection and tactics were wrong and if I can see that why can't Arsène?

2nd half 7/10, Would have been an 8 if it were not for Cygans intro, but see what earlier substitutions can do.
Bergkamp and Flamini in my opinion were the worst players on the pitch, yes Bert distribution was awful but at least he done his share of covering and got a few tackles in, but Flamini didn't know where he was supposed to be and Dennis is so slow and just can't hack the pace of the premiership any more, how mant times did he get robbed yesterday? And I've never seen him pass the ball so badly. Ljunberg, injured again, whats wrong with him? Over the last 3 years we had to have so many makeshift Right Mids due to his injuries. I've given Pires loads this season but yesterday he stepped up when we needed him as soon as he came on and done his trademark stop and go i thought, he aint done that all season maybe today he's back? And he was. And RVP, I feel for the boy, class, he came on and had more shots than the whole of the team did the entire match, and his touch movement and passing gave us a threat we didn't posses prior to that, RVP is now better than Bergkamp , standard, not Bergy in his prime but Bergkamp 2005 and if this continues then signing Dennis for 1 more year will prove to be a huge , huge mistake. RVP and the likes of Lupoli need to be pushed through now as at least they give us an option to score.

 

[jay-d]

We do not do zonal marking with set pieces (and if we did yesterday someone needs to have a word), and it is a well-known fact that Sol always marks the best header of the ball of the other team.

The fact that Mido is all over Sol at the time of the goal does not mean Sol was marking Mido. When the free kick came in Sol was marking King but was blocked/let him run away.

I distinctly remember Arsène stating we were using Zonal marking sometime last season, when we were getting stick for that period of set piece instability.

 

[BannedKwame]

I think people really need to get off Flamini’s back. He’s not a great player, a flashy player, or a visible player. When Gilberto performs at the level of Flamini, which he does quite often, we hear or read some bullshit about the “invisible” work of Gilberto. If it’s invisible, it’s because it’s mostly nonexistent or tidy cleanup work. Makelele does what Gilberto does, and never once is he not noticeable on the pitch.

Flamini did nothing against the Sp**s he wasn’t asked to. He was asked to help condense the middle and close space on Carrick and co. The problem was his partner- Gilberto was awful, as was Cesc, the supposed distributor. In the first half, all 3 were equally bad, and I reckon he was taken off because he offers less offensively than the other two, and also because he’s number 3 on the pecking order.


Ratings:

1. Lehmann– (7) Great save on the Defoe shot, but saved by bad finishing by the Sp**s
2. Lauren– (6) Left for dead by Defoe 2/3 times, but generally OK
3. Sol– (5) Not yet fully fit and it showed.
4. Toure– (7) Good game
5. Clichy– (7) Good performance. 2/3 nice interceptions but out of position a lot
6. Cesc Fabregas– (6) Tidy, unadventurous, and weak
7. Gilberto– (5) Average
8. Flamini– (5) Average
9. Ljunberg– (6) Worked hard, danced a bit and a nice shot on goal. Not fully fit
10. Pires(Sub) – (7.5) Surprising effort. Nowhere close to the form that made him the best player on earth for 1 year, but nice distribution and a well taken goal
11. Reyes–(5) He’s not a striker Wenger, and you know it, so why keep playing him as one? Did better on the wing in the 2nd half. But not yet fit
12. Bergkamp– (5) Some nice touches (the pass to Ljunberg), but generally well off the pace
13. Robin Van Persie(Sub) – (7) His first contribution --- shoving King—was a welcome sight, since before that no Arsenal player had bothered with him. Nice movement, but should be a bit more clinical.

 

[gun4glory]

defending setpieces is like making love to a beautiful woman.

Keep your eye on the c**t :?:

LOL!

 

[jay-d]

My crtiticism of Flamini is not based on this game alone, he's generally a very average player who excels at nothing except running around a lot and making rash challenges. Dear I say it but Jenas would have been a much better acquisition.

 

[BannedKwame]

Jay-d,

We don't have Jenas, so saying he would have been a better acquisition is moot.

And how can you critisize a player on more than his game? He is an average player(technical skill set) who runs around closing spaces, making tackles and once in a while getting forward for a goal. He's probably better than 70% of the midfielders in the EPL. This does not neccasarily make him Arsenal material-- especially as starter, but quite frankly, he's right now not doing that much worse than our other CMs.

Keep your eye on the c**t Question

Clearly if by the **** you mean the *****, then I hereby declare Biggus is a virgin!

 

[kel varnsen]

The first game I've watched live this year and we were sh*t first half. Flamini was standing next to king at the corner then completely let him run by himself for the goal.

oh, FFS. sol was marking king; not flamini. go away...

I think you should watch the replay of the goal. Before the free kick was taken it was not Sol that was with King, I couldn't recognize who it was but it was either Flamini or Reyes. Sol was marking that c**t Mido and stayed with Mido the whole time.

no, that's what happened after the ball was crossed in. the reason campbell lost his man, as i stated in the earlier post :roll: , is that he ran away from the cross while king ran towards it. sol was marking king, that is a fact. before the free kick, he was standing closest to king. he was the one standing between the goal and king. problem was, he lost his marking...

 

[jay-d]

Jay-d,

We don't have Jenas, so saying he would have been a better acquisition is moot.

And how can you critisize a player on more than his game? He is an average player(technical skill set) who runs around closing spaces, making tackles and once in a while getting forward for a goal. He's probably better than 70% of the midfielders in the EPL. This does not neccasarily make him Arsenal material-- especially as starter, but quite frankly, he's right now not doing that much worse than our other CMs.

Keep your eye on the c**t Question

Clearly if by the c**t you mean the *****, then I hereby declare Biggus is a virgin!

What I mean is we had a chance to get jenas at a very reasonable price but Wenger decided what we had was better, and in Flamini's case I believe this was a wrong choice and he went out and loaned Song with an option of a permanent deal, Jenas would have offered the first team a lot more right now. And your point regarding Biggus, I second that. LOL

 

[jay-d]

The first game I've watched live this year and we were sh*t first half. Flamini was standing next to king at the corner then completely let him run by himself for the goal.

oh, FFS. sol was marking king; not flamini. go away...

I think you should watch the replay of the goal. Before the free kick was taken it was not Sol that was with King, I couldn't recognize who it was but it was either Flamini or Reyes. Sol was marking that c**t Mido and stayed with Mido the whole time.

no, that's what happened after the ball was crossed in. the reason campbell lost his man, as i stated in the earlier post :roll: , is that he ran away from the cross while king ran towards it. sol was marking king, that is a fact. before the free kick, he was standing closest to king. he was the one standing between the goal and king. problem was, he lost his marking...

Kel you are a 100% wrong. I have the game on my hard drive and I've just freeze framed it before typing this, as the players line up before the cross CAMPBELL IS ALWAYS WITH MIDO. KING RUNS AWAY FROM FLAMINI WHO STANDS THERE AND WATCHES.

Edit: In fact there are 3 players closer to King than Sol. Flamini the closest then Toure and Clichy. Like I said I have the scene in front of me freeze framed on my PC, so no arguing or insulting is gonna make this one Sol's fault.

 

[jay-d]

The first game I've watched live this year and we were sh*t first half. Flamini was standing next to king at the corner then completely let him run by himself for the goal.

oh, FFS. sol was marking king; not flamini. go away...

I've never met anyone so up his own opinion even when they are 110% wrong. You go away.....

 

[dafish]

Re: Sp**s - Arsenal, Player ratings

lehmann ( 7.5 ) i'd give a 8 but he did let one goal in. other than that he pulled a number of great saves that i think would make a few keepers piss their pants.

lauren ( 7 ) played well got caught out of position once a while but that is natural for going so far up to attack. and none of the time he got caught were we punished by a shot so nothing big

toure ( 8 ) great game kept anyone near him scurrying away

campbell (9) even better than toure. i think i counted 3-4 last ditch tackles that saved us from being even more goals down. dominant in the air. mido never had a chance. too bad he was not marking king during the first half freekick

clichy ( 7 ) did very well. last few games i heard he was a bit shaky looking. didn't seem that way today. pretty much same with lauren. kept lennon on his feet though. lennon would never admit it, but i think its the first time he couldn't out run a full back and take advantage of clichy out of position. every time u see clichy catch up 10 or so meters in a matter of seconds before he's near the area.

ljungberg ( 6 ) didn't do too much. had a shot blocked but his running was limited due to injury. did mediocre until leaving the match

gilberto ( 8 ) i think gilberto was huge for us today. made a number of bruising tackles

flamini ( 5 ) hardly did anything. not too many touches. done well enough defensively is suppose in plugging holes but didn't do much other than run around the pitch without getting any touches back or forward.

cesc ( 7.5 ) was quite involved overall. u could see this young teen help out defense and offense and i would guess that he had a touch of the ball in about 70% of our attacks. u could see him trying to pull something magical but just never quite getting there. just a little short of 8

bergkamp ( 7 ) i thought bergy did well. not sure what everyone was complaining about. the defenders often had hard time marking him. unfortunately like cesc. didn't do anything special to make it to a 8

reyes (6.5) i think reyes got hammer a bit tonight and wasted too much energy in the first half when trying to drag the team into contention unsuccessfully. by the 2nd half he seemed exhausted and didn't have the energy to keep up with the team that finally seem to keep pace with his first half efforts.

subs:

pires ( 8 ) did a amazing pass to RVP and scored later on. no obvious mistakes during the game. this is why wenger has kept faith in pires. his ability to pull something out of the hat when the oppurtunity arises.

van persie (7.5) didn't manage to score, but we can all see what can happen when he plays furthest up front. personally i think it is not RVP that needs to adapt or mature or improve his weak foot (both his shots came from the right and could've beaten a lot of keepers in the PL i think) but rather when and if henry plays, he needs to learn to adapt to not being the furthest up front all the time

i think it was correct that the likes of pires and paddy have sunken into a comfort zone. can u really blame paddy though since edu a brazilian internation can't displace him. pires penalty screw up i think did one thing good for us if nothing. shake him out of his comfortzone. he knows he had better perform and look at how well he played today.

like i always said pires hasn't made any huge mistakes in play (minus the penalty). i think people were provoked by the media propaganda a bit much on his case. but pires played a sublime pass today almost into RVP's feet. he also did quite a few good link up plays which unfortunately were miscontroled when it really counted or we'd be up even more. and then what more scored a first time volley into the net making it look easy. its a first time shot practically placed and rolled down the middle of 4 defenders.

i think our playmakers are taking a lot of the trash talking because our strikers aren't scoring. both bergie and pires need a top class striker to make runs and get into the holes in opponent defenses for them to make the laser guided passes. unfortunately not until today, did RVP play so far upfront and fighting for space in the box, and dragging defenders out of position rather than emulate bergie in shadowstirking. so we could see a remarkable improvement in pire's ability to pick someone out in the middle of the box as well as find a opening to score.

hopefully pires keeps his motivation not to dissappoint. he's been taking a long time to get there. 10 or so games into the season

 

[dafish]

oh about the topic on jenas or flamini. i find that some of you people are really hypocritical. you all say lets give youth a chance. mistakes are tolerated to develope for our future!

but u all go and slam flam for not making great positional sense. flamini isn't doing good. thats given. but he is only what? 22? he's still got time to mature. 2 or 3 more years of playing a starting role can make a huge huge difference and anyone's game. jenas i believe did not start out very well.

also i still remember a number of you all said jenas is total crap and arsenal don't need him. now you guys turn around and cry its wenger's fault for not buying a talent like that? quite honestly i have to ask WHAT TEH **** (no text allowed right?) is wrong with you people

 

[Loylz]

oh about the topic on jenas or flamini. i find that some of u people are really hypocritical. u all say lets give youth a chance. mistakes are tolerated to develope for our future!

but u all go and slam flam for not making great positional sense. flamini isn't doing good. thats given. but he is only what? 22? he's still got time to mature. 2 or 3 more years of playing a starting role can make a huge huge difference and anyone's game. jenas i believe did not start out very well.

also i still remember a number of u all said jenas is total crap and arsenal don't need him. now u guys turn around and cry its wenger's fault for not buying a talent like that? quite honestly i have to ask WHAT TEH f**k (no text allowed right?) is wrong with u people

I think all the u's in your post let you down. By the way wtf is allowed on the forum isn't it. I've seen enough people use it.

 

[dafish]

ehh... i start using u's when i get emotional. but i think that's beside the point... i'll go edit now

 

[Loylz]

Thanks mate.

 

[Anonymous]

Open season on flamini, I see..

Prepare the fried eggs.

 

[Canuck]

*sigh*
Yes Flamini was ineffective. Yes he should have come off because he didn't play well and he had the card which really had him hung for the match. Yes he gets too much stick.
Yes he looks good sometimes, bad sometimes.
(Rocky- Yes he can pass.)






Yes I was dissapointed with the match (yes I watched it) Yes I was happy to see Bobby playing the role he should be playing. Coming off the bench to change matches for us.