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Villarreal v Arsenal : Player Ratings

the dawn raids

Established Member
True Gooner said:
1 - Song was with the man on the ball.

exactly, so hows he supposed to be culpable for trying to cover every attacking threat around the edge of the area when hes already tracking the ball? im not trying to absolve blame for anyone, nor are you i dont think TG, but i do know Song shouldnt take much if any of the blame.
 

IBL

Established Member
General said:

Ref- 10
- One of the greatest referees I've ever seen in the CL. If I ever met him I'd buy him a pint for his honesty and common sense in applying the rules.
You're being sarcastic, right? It's late and the brains tired
 

Timleaf

Established Member
In a game that was so heavily influenced by Villarreal's tactical set-up at the start of the match and us adapting to it in the second half, it seems a little foolish to dish out player ratings in my opinion. Y'know, a lot of our players were playing completely different roles and finding themselves in completely different areas of the pitch from one half to another, not to mention the fact that by tweaking our system we found loads of room in the second half that wasn't there in the first.

All I'm saying is that you cant just say...Denilson/Song/Nasri/Fabregas etc was sh*t in the first half but then seemed to pull it together in the second. The whole team adapted to what Villarreal were doing.

Oh, and i also thought the ref was top. Didn't fall for Villrreal nonsense at all. And all our bookings were deserved, with the possible exception of Adebayor's.
 

outlaw_member

Established Member
kel varnsen said:
Sagna - 6
Touré - 7
Gallas - 6
Clichy - 6

Walcott - 5
Fabregas - 6
Song - 5
Denilson - 6
Nasri - 5

Ade - 6(2 extra points for the goal)

Fabianski - 6
Djourou - 6

Co-signed, except a 6 for Song, and a 7 for Adebayor.
 

General

Established Member
Iceberglegend, that was hyperbole on my part but I thought the ref was good. He could've easily sent Cesc off and ruined our night. You don’t get this much honesty in the CL, especially in the face of such a vociferous crowd. He got all the major decisions correct and allowed the game to flow.

Timleaf said:
Oh, and i also thought the ref was top. Didn't fall for Villrreal nonsense at all. And all our bookings were deserved, with the possible exception of Adebayor's.

I thought the ref was more than fair. He set out his modus operandi from the outset and stuck to it. He clearly didn't stand for this bullshit non-contact sport Villareal were playing at. That was disgraceful from them in the second half by the way.
 

Biggus

Established Member
No it was a soft goal, Song & Denilson were to blame. Even the two of them together don't make a decent DCM.
And I agree with General, the ref was alright- though I didn't think Cesc deserved a yellow for the quick free kick but refs from different countries have different interpretations.
 

gstew

Well-Known Member
Biggus....you and I must be watching different matches in reference to Song. He has been our best player over the past month. He has been strong, consistent, positionally and tactically sound. In most of those games he has shut down the opposition attacks throughout while still having the energy to contribute to attack. He has played as well as Flamini at his best last season. It is true that he had some poor performances earlier in the season, but he has upped his game dramatically. Denilson on the other hand is positionally and tactically poor and he isn't strong enough. At his current (and season-long) level of play he is a squad player at best.

Regarding the first half against Villareal, Denilson was absent and Song was constantly chasing two men and the ball. I thought Villareal were excellent in that half and it was down to their quality, not our lack of it (except for Denilson).

Almunia - incomplete ... could do nothing about a beautifully struck goal.

Sagna - 7.5 Played a good game
Gallas - 6 Ducked under the corner kick to almost gift them a goal
Toure - 8.5 Was excellent
Clichy - 7 Inconsistent, but generally good

Nasri - 4.5 Quite poor....maybe he was not really over the flu
Denilson - 5 Improved a bit in the second half, but he goes missing way too much
Song - 8.5 Did his best while we chased shadows in half 1 and dominated the midfield in half 2
Walcott - 6.5

Cesc - 7 He was not up to the speed of the game, but still made some passes that were quite dangerous

Ade - 7.5 Awesome goal plus some good and some bad. happy to see him closing down defenders again

Djourou - 7 Did well
Eboue - 7.5 Brought energy and made some nice plays
Fabianski - 7 Did well

Villareal in 1st half - 10
Arsenal in 1st half - 7

Villareal in 2nd half - 6
Arsenal in 2nd half - 8.5
 

Biggus

Established Member
gstew said:
Biggus....you and I must be watching different matches in reference to Song.

Well it's all about opinions and how we believe the game should be played isn't it.

gstew said:
He has been our best player over the past month.

Well in a month that we've only just seen Ade, Cesc, and Theo come back, and witnessed the goal machine that is Emmanuel Eboue- praise indeed. :lol:
Songs done ok but really- come on.....We're Arsenal- we can do better.
 

gstew

Well-Known Member
Biggus said:
gstew said:
Biggus....you and I must be watching different matches in reference to Song.

Well it's all about opinions and how we believe the game should be played isn't it.

gstew said:
He has been our best player over the past month.

Well in a month that we've only just seen Ade, Cesc, and Theo come back, and witnessed the goal machine that is Emmanuel Eboue- praise indeed. :lol:
Songs done ok but really- come on.....We're Arsenal- we can do better.

So you think that over the last month Song has not played to the level of Flamini 07/08? Because I think that he has. And for most of that time he didn't have Cesc with him to occupy the defenses (which flamini always had). Song is stronger, a better tackler and better in the air than Flamini. His work rate, though, was not up to Flamster's level. Now it is. He is developing faster than Flamini did, so I don't understand your argument that he is not Arsenal quality. At 19 he was the boss of the Charlton midfield and at 20 he was boss of the Cameroon midfield. He is now 21 and still improving. I am very happy where he is at in his overall development.
 

xcdude24

Established Member
Denilson and to a greater extent song were deployed today to control the midfield. Neither of them really did that. Song did a lot better second half, but Denilson was still his anonymous self.
 

Biggus

Established Member
gstew said:
So you think that over the last month Song has not played to the level of Flamini 07/08? Because I think that he has. And for most of that time he didn't have Cesc with him to occupy the defenses (which flamini always had). Song is stronger, a better tackler and better in the air than Flamini. His work rate, though, was not up to Flamster's level. Now it is. He is developing faster than Flamini did, so I don't understand your argument that he is not Arsenal quality. At 19 he was the boss of the Charlton midfield and at 20 he was boss of the Cameroon midfield. He is now 21 and still improving. I am very happy where he is at in his overall development.

I hope you're right but he still has a lot to prove, but as you say he's still only 21. He seems a little chubby and slow now, he'll only get chubbier and slower- unless it's just puppy fat.
 

gstew

Well-Known Member
Biggus said:
gstew said:
So you think that over the last month Song has not played to the level of Flamini 07/08? Because I think that he has. And for most of that time he didn't have Cesc with him to occupy the defenses (which flamini always had). Song is stronger, a better tackler and better in the air than Flamini. His work rate, though, was not up to Flamster's level. Now it is. He is developing faster than Flamini did, so I don't understand your argument that he is not Arsenal quality. At 19 he was the boss of the Charlton midfield and at 20 he was boss of the Cameroon midfield. He is now 21 and still improving. I am very happy where he is at in his overall development.

I hope you're right but he still has a lot to prove, but as you say he's still only 21. He seems a little chubby and slow now, he'll only get chubbier and slower- unless it's just puppy fat.

The funny thing is that even though he appears slow, he almost never gets beaten for pace. He actually runs people down from behind. He is certainly faster than Gallas and RVP and is probably the same speed as Sagna and Toure (the current version). But I can definitely understand why people think of him as slow. His style of running and his body type makes everyone assume that he can't be fast/quick.

The two players that appear slow (but aren't) within the squad are Song and Bendtner. But once you get past the appearance and just watch the race, the results are excellent. With RVP we get the exact opposite. He looks like he should be fast, but is certainly not. Bendtner is quite a bit faster.
 

Arsenal in Aus

Active Member
Song is not slow, he just has a seemingly languid style of play. In the 76th minute, he was super-quick to race back and stop Villareal's counter - he caught one player, then followed the pass and caught the next (happened too quick for me to note who they were), but he travelled about two-thirds of the length of the pitch, and stopped the attack.
 

Unforgiven

Established Member
Almunia : 7

Sagna : 7
Touré : 7.5
Gallas : 6
Clichy : 7.5

Walcott : 6
Denilson : 6
Song : 8
Cesc : 8
Nasri : 6.5

Adebayor : 8
----------
Fabianski : 7.5
Djourou : 7.5
 

longrufus

Established Member
Invincible said:
kel varnsen said:
i do wonder how much the goal influences ade's ratings in this thread. he was absolutely abysmal for most of the match...
He wasn't.
He most certainly was.

However as Kami says, given the importance of the goal you can understand why he has got decent ratings.
 

HollandGooner

Established Member

Country: Netherlands

Player:Ødegaard
Fabianski 7
Sagna 7
Toure 8
Gallas 6 / Djourou 6
Clichy 6,5
Walcott 6
Denilson 6
Song 6
Fabregas 7
Nasri 5,5
Adebayor 8
 

longrufus

Established Member
Merida+Denilson said:
Dennis10 said:
I did not see the first half, but considering the ratings here Denilson must have been atrocious. Personally I thought he was absolutely top notch in the second. Won the ball, and looked as comfortable on the ball as I've ever seen him.
Yes he was pretty bad in the first half - a passenger really, hence the low marks despite an excellent 2nd half.
After an average first half Denilson was excellent in the 2nd, he started playing well, and Arsenal started playing well, I really do think people underestimate his influence to our game. People's perceptions are hard to change, Song was decent defensivly but couldn't pass water yet has good ratings.
 

Unforgiven

Established Member
Denilson was passing really well in the second half.

Senna yesterday was brilliant. Every time he had the ball I was worried what he would do. In the next game we need to make sure he doesn't get a lot of space.
 

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