Given How he must despair of scenes like those. Why exactly did he leave Newcastle? Blameless for all three of the goals. Clearly frustrated at bad marking both from open and set plays. 7
Zabaleta A peculiarly inconsistent performance. Looked as poor as most in the first half but improved after half time. For all I say about his crossing he had ten or so good opportunities to deliver and made nothing of them. 6
Touré No individual errors but as captain and centre-half he has to wear some of the blame for the collective mistakes. Carried the ball from the back as calmly ever and took his goal well. 7
Lescott Strange decision to raise hands conceded an early penalty, and he never fully recovered his poise. Let David Nugent through in stoppage time - I would not have enjoyed a 4-3 defeat. 4
Bridge Very poor. A series of mistakes, leaving the rest of the defence under pressure. And a terrible mistake which led to MacDonald's late equaliser. Sylvinho can't be far from a start. 4
SWP His best game in some time: got past Stephen Jordan repeatedly and his delivery was much better than at St Andrew's last Sunday. Set up Craig Bellamy and with better performance from the strikers would have set up more. Helped out with a big deflection for his goal. 7
Ireland Terrible in the first half but grew into the game later on. But did not provide the control we would have had with Nigel de Jong starting and did not exactly make up for it with his invention. It would be a surprise if he were to start at Anfield. 7
Barry Out of sorts for a few matches and he was poor today. Failed to impose himself on Graham Alexander and André Bikey. We could have done with both his control and invention at different points. 5
Bellamy Tireless running down the left, repeatedly getting past the full-back and cutting inside. Took his goal well, and continued to bother the defence when moved central for the last twenty minutes. 7
Tévez The same as recent games: endless running, dogged strength and hold-up play - but poor finishing when it mattered. Had two chances at 3-2 - one from a cut back from the right, one half volley from two yards out - which a £47m striker really ought to score. At this rate he's not going to get ten in the Premier League. 6
Adebayor Came back from injury to replace Santa Cruz but did not look fully fit himself: drifted out of the game and did not trouble the defence as much as he ought. We could do with his sitting out of Togo's crunch international against Gabon on Saturday. 5
Subs
Petrov Tried out both flanks, almost set up Adebayor and had a good shot on goal himself. 6
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5 comments:
Agree with most of the ratings.
Zab is a problem -never convinving, butis Richards better?? Bridge I think has played better this season than last, and putting a Brazilian at left back could be a recipe for disaster. As for Barry, I can't see what all the fuss is about, he's not eve that neat and tidy recently, doesn't protect the back four like a de Jong and doesn't attack like Ireland, so for me at the moment he's a bit of a nothing player. I'd go with De Jong and Ireland in the middle, Petrov on the left and Bellamy up front with Adebayor or Santa Cruz (neither look effective but probably Ade over Santa - at least he can stand up). Tevez is a player you want to like because of his effort, but Bellamy has more effort and far more quality at the moment, so he wins the nod. Would like to see Weiss given a go, but Hughes isn't going to put him on until we are certain to win a game, which hasn't happened recently. I think he would have liked to give him more of a run out.
Think you need to include ratings for Hughes Jack. He had a shocker yesterday. To bring on Petrov when we need to defend a lead was the most retarded decision I've seen this year. De Jong, Kompany or Johnson, to leave all thgose attacking players on the field when Lescott and Bridge were playing so junk! I'm a fan of Hughes but yesterday he was a stupid twat. You may not believe this but I've calmed down a lot.
Again I think I'm in the minority but I have no problem with Hughes bringing on Petrov with a 3-2 lead. We clearly had Burnley on the back foot and I think Hughes rightly wanted us to go for the jugular and score a fourth goal. If we had been struggling to retan possession then DeJong, Kompany or MJ would be a better option but I often thinks it sometimes more dangerous to take your foot off the gas.
I didn't think Ireland had that bad a first half. He is the best passer in our team and puts some awesome through balls through, something we lack when he doesn't play.
I was also perplexed with bringing on Petrov , more so when he went out on the right with SWP on the left. A number of opportunities were lost at 3-2 because of Petrov's one-footedness. Barry does seem undroppable at the moment and I can't see why - Ireland and De Jong would be a much better pairing in terms of balance and Barry often doesn't seem to be sure of his role. The blame for this lies with Hughes.
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