VillanousOne Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Utter Tedium Given: 5 - Couldn't do much about the goal but looked a liability at times and distribution poor. Defence as a whole were piss poor with only Warnock coming away with some credibility. Young: 5 Dunne: 5 Clark: 5 Warnock: 6 Petrov: 4 Dire as ever - sideways or back passes and sod all inspiration Makoun: 6 - Tidy but did little wrong i guess but he and Petrov are the dullest midfield combo ever. Heskey: 5 - Not sure where he was supposed to be playing, worked hard and defended well at times but fluffed the chances he did have unsurprisingly. Gabby: 4 - One good cross and nothing else Bent: 6 Starved of service but still looked a threat Nzogbia: 6 - Scored and looked good when he got some of the ball Subs - all had too little of the ball or time really Ireland: 5 - passed well and got into some ok positions.... Bannan: 5 - did ok, did more than Petrov did the entire game Albrighton: 5 - did ok but not great can't wait for the new season to start! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
theboyangel Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Not a bad run out at all, probably a better workout for our defence than attack. Concidering we had our three main strikers on the pitch we didn't look that attacking. Midfield was a little hit and miss, unbalanced in the set up and contrasting performances from Petrov and Makoun, one being poor and the latter decent. Defence was pretty solid, even with Dunne trying to foil the good work with ridiculous challenges and needless fouls. My ratings: Given: 7. couldn't do much with their goal and otherwise decent Young: 7. got forward well and could've scored a rare header! Dunne: 6. too many silly mistakes - coud've been costly Clark: 8. didn't put a foot wrong (take note Dunne!) Warnock: 7. pretty much like Young, bombed forward well. Petrov: 6. Negative play and lost possession too much Makoun: 8. simple but effective, hardly misplaced a pass N'Zogbia: 8. given a free role and looked dangerous Heskey: 7. put a tireless shift in but no end product. not a winger Agbonlahor: 6. looks out of sorts on the wing, better upfront. Bent: 7. came close to beating the offside trap but little service. Subs: Ireland: 7. great cameo from SI, harried the play and some neat passes Albrighton: 7. best we've seen from in this pre-season Bannan: 6. tried hard and gradually got into the match with Ireland. Overall: 6.5/10 - not bad, more passes than hoofs but still lacked natural width and a cutting edge to our attack. Need a destroyer in midfield too. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Really pleased with that. Some good interchanges in the midfield, nice fluidity that we started to build under Houllier is still there, defence looking more solid, Ireland looking good, lots more. Don't think Gabby and Heskey as the wide players in a front 3 works and I think AM wanted to give it one last go. I'd prefer to have: Given Young Collins Dunne Warnock Makoun Petrov Albrighton N'Zogbia Ireland Bent And then with Bannan and Delph able to cover midfield we're looking pretty good. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becks1876 Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 OK performance! Nice to see Clark get a run and did very well, there were some pros and cons again, we tend to sit back in the last third of the game when we should be going for a win (friendly or not). Braga played average and can play a lot better than what i saw. Let's just hope we can sort things out by next Saturday, we should be top four by Christmas in my reckoning, let's just say "if were not i would be dissappointed". Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 i'd be happy with a 1-1 next saturday Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becks1876 Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Utter Tedium Given: 5 - Couldn't do much about the goal but looked a liability at times and distribution poor. Defence as a whole were piss poor with only Warnock coming away with some credibility. Young: 5 Dunne: 5 Clark: 5 Warnock: 6 Petrov: 4 Dire as ever - sideways or back passes and sod all inspiration Makoun: 6 - Tidy but did little wrong i guess but he and Petrov are the dullest midfield combo ever. Heskey: 5 - Not sure where he was supposed to be playing, worked hard and defended well at times but fluffed the chances he did have unsurprisingly. Gabby: 4 - One good cross and nothing else Bent: 6 Starved of service but still looked a threat Nzogbia: 6 - Scored and looked good when he got some of the ball Subs - all had too little of the ball or time really Ireland: 5 - passed well and got into some ok positions.... Bannan: 5 - did ok, did more than Petrov did the entire game Albrighton: 5 - did ok but not great can't wait for the new season to start! HARSH! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CI Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 we should be top four by Christmas in my reckoning keep taking the pills Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
VillaRoy Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 My concern is Richard Dunne. Everyone else were decent. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HackneyVillain Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Pros: Warnock, Makoun, N'Zogbia and Ireland worked hard when he came on. Generally tried to pass the ball not punt it. Cons: The front 3 didn't work and I'd bench Gabby and Emile fpr Ireland and Albrighton for Fulham away. Petrov was ineffective. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
walesavfc Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 I for 1 am a little more optimistic after seeing that, At end of last season we lost young and downing, It looked like we had Albrighton to come in to replace 1 (on his day he can but looks lazy at times to me), and we allso brought nzogbia to replace other. We allso lost Rio Coker and didnt get a replacment......................... but Ireland in the cameo i watched just was 10x the player Reo was. hope this forrm continues tbh Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
becks1876 Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 we should be top four by Christmas in my reckoning keep taking the pills Can i Quote you on that if we are? I'm sure i will, By they way i hate Pills only drink BECK'S mate. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Anyone who says Petrov was crap because of sideways or backwards passing proves they know nothing about Football. There's this new phenomenon called 'possession' which is unlikely to catch on because, let's face it, no-one's won anything by doing it. He kept possession well, didn't waste passes (unlike some of Makoun's) and kept us out of trouble. He was one of our better players today. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 He was one of our better players today. are you serious? Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KSV Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Anyone who says Petrov was crap because of sideways or backwards passing proves they know nothing about Football. There's this new phenomenon called 'possession' which is unlikely to catch on because, let's face it, no-one's won anything by doing it. He kept possession well, didn't waste passes (unlike some of Makoun's) and kept us out of trouble. He was one of our better players today. Your kidding right? Makoun was by far our best player. I dont mind the possession game.. but Petrov takes far too long to decide what to do and lost possession quite a few times. Makoun misplaced one or two but they were positive passes and some players are not on his wave length. Petrov is similar to Makoun just the older, slower model. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
AValon Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Highlights were N'Zogbia, Makoun and Ireland. Never read too much into pre-season games, but for me those three stood out a country mile. I liked Heskeys industry, but no way on this Gods earth is he ever going to last till ckristmas at that pace. Warnock was very average and will cost us and Young was below par, but Petrov is surely on borrowed time. He's too slow, tires easily and gets beaten to the ball once too often now. The rest were pretty so-so, even DB, although tbf he did'nt get a fat lot put his way. And, I'm sorry, but Albrighton does'nt seem as if he's going to rock any boats this season. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
darrenm Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 He was one of our better players today. are you serious? Yep. I know it's trendy to hate on certain players, and it's Petrov's turn and all the rest of it but I'm just calling it as I see it. Oddly enough, being the Captain of the Bulgaria national side, having 101 caps, picked week in, week out for multiple Premier League managers including the new one assessing all the players for himself means absolutely nothing because of group of miscreants on a forum have decided he's crap. Petrov did nothing wrong in the match. Watch it again, read about Football tactics, and then tell me what he did wrong. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dudevillaisnice Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 He gave away too many unnecessary fouls.. those caps were over the years, I am talking now, the present.. he is far too slow now and just is too average.. same goes for Dunne actually. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
foreveryoung Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 He was one of our better players today. are you serious? Yep. I know it's trendy to hate on certain players, and it's Petrov's turn and all the rest of it but I'm just calling it as I see it. Oddly enough, being the Captain of the Bulgaria national side, having 101 caps, picked week in, week out for multiple Premier League managers including the new one assessing all the players for himself means absolutely nothing because of group of miscreants on a forum have decided he's crap. Petrov did nothing wrong in the match. Watch it again, read about Football tactics, and then tell me what he did wrong. As I said on the match thread. I watched the game and Petrov in particular. The good possesion he has is him thinking what to do with it. He slows the game down. He passes the ball back when we are in attack mode. He did nothing second half. Believe me I like the guy, (lives not to far from my parents actually) just not in our squad anymore. He is slowly becoming obselete in our team which is based on, good passing and speed! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CBGB Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 What was interesting to me was seeing Ireland and Bannan playing together. Both have an eye for a pass, and there were a couple of moments where they linked up nicely. Against a team that's going to leave some space in midfield and isn't all that physical (like Braga), this partnership could work. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
steaknchips Posted August 6, 2011 Share Posted August 6, 2011 Makoun, N'Zogbia, Clark, Bent, Given = all on another level and players we need to build around.. Petrov, Warnock, Young, Dunne, Heskey = are slow, lathargic, lacking in ideas, creativity etc and we should be selling them; Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Recommended Posts