- Jun 7, 2004
- 18,106
- 45,030
Lloris - 6 - Good in goal, but truly dreadful distribution: not just the inaccurate kicks into touch, but also his decisions to sail the ball forward in the closing stages when we needed to retain possession.
Walker - 7 - Having Walker back is making Lamela's life a hell of a lot easier, because Walker's pace means that the opposition have to mark him in case he goes on the overlap, which means that Erik isn't constantly having to dribble through three opponents - good positional sense and calm play from Kyle today.
Davies - 6 - A decent game, without much exciting to talk about - sound in defence.
Fazio - 6.5 - beaten for pace several times, but strong as usual in winning headers and free of brain-farts.
Vertonghen - 6 - Competent and reliable.
Mason - 6.5 - he wasn't especially noticeable before he went off, but the longer the second half wore on, the more obvious it became how isolated Kane was getting without Mason to link things up - others tend to play better when Mason plays.
Bentaleb - 5.5 - Not his best performance - he was OK most of the time, but guilty of giving the ball away too often and his normally pinpoint passing rangefinder was off.
Lamela - 7.5 - Scintillating throughout the first half, with creativity and a sensational finish in the Bale style - faded after an hour. MotM.
Eriksen - 7 - Industrous as well as creative - solid, with flashes of inspiration, and constantly involved.
Chadli - 6.5 - Good, robust contribution and an assist - not the flashiest player, but gets it done.
Kane - 7 - Took awhile to get started today and was a bit inconspicuous until his goal - then played very well for the central part of the game, but sometimes got isolated after Mason went off - could have scored 2 or 3 today.
Stambouli - 6 - played OK, but in the absence of Mason and with Bentaleb being a bit sloppy, there was no one controlling the tempo.
Soldado - 6 - didn't do anything especially wrong or right.
I expected Burnley to play a negative, defensive game, but they didn't. They look a pretty decent team, with good defenders and solid organisation, but they lack real quality, so they lost - much like three of the last four sides who tried to outplay us. Our defence sometimes looked under strain, but actually Burnley got very little in the way of shots and chances from their pressure - we had 20+ shots and they had about 9.
We really should have scored more than 2 goals today, but bad shooting wasn't to blame, bad decisions and bad final balls were at fault. A lot of players passed when they should have shot or vice versa.
For my eyes, the main theme at the moment is that we have, in the last 4 or 5 matches, started to shake off the hesitancy and inhibition when approaching goal - we are moving the ball more quickly and decisively and, crucially, there is a change of pace that is resulting in players getting through the back line, instead of passing interminably in front of it. Only against the massed ranks of Palace did we fail to do this. When we can start to deliver this against defensive opposition, then we wll start producing more consistent results.
Walker - 7 - Having Walker back is making Lamela's life a hell of a lot easier, because Walker's pace means that the opposition have to mark him in case he goes on the overlap, which means that Erik isn't constantly having to dribble through three opponents - good positional sense and calm play from Kyle today.
Davies - 6 - A decent game, without much exciting to talk about - sound in defence.
Fazio - 6.5 - beaten for pace several times, but strong as usual in winning headers and free of brain-farts.
Vertonghen - 6 - Competent and reliable.
Mason - 6.5 - he wasn't especially noticeable before he went off, but the longer the second half wore on, the more obvious it became how isolated Kane was getting without Mason to link things up - others tend to play better when Mason plays.
Bentaleb - 5.5 - Not his best performance - he was OK most of the time, but guilty of giving the ball away too often and his normally pinpoint passing rangefinder was off.
Lamela - 7.5 - Scintillating throughout the first half, with creativity and a sensational finish in the Bale style - faded after an hour. MotM.
Eriksen - 7 - Industrous as well as creative - solid, with flashes of inspiration, and constantly involved.
Chadli - 6.5 - Good, robust contribution and an assist - not the flashiest player, but gets it done.
Kane - 7 - Took awhile to get started today and was a bit inconspicuous until his goal - then played very well for the central part of the game, but sometimes got isolated after Mason went off - could have scored 2 or 3 today.
Stambouli - 6 - played OK, but in the absence of Mason and with Bentaleb being a bit sloppy, there was no one controlling the tempo.
Soldado - 6 - didn't do anything especially wrong or right.
I expected Burnley to play a negative, defensive game, but they didn't. They look a pretty decent team, with good defenders and solid organisation, but they lack real quality, so they lost - much like three of the last four sides who tried to outplay us. Our defence sometimes looked under strain, but actually Burnley got very little in the way of shots and chances from their pressure - we had 20+ shots and they had about 9.
We really should have scored more than 2 goals today, but bad shooting wasn't to blame, bad decisions and bad final balls were at fault. A lot of players passed when they should have shot or vice versa.
For my eyes, the main theme at the moment is that we have, in the last 4 or 5 matches, started to shake off the hesitancy and inhibition when approaching goal - we are moving the ball more quickly and decisively and, crucially, there is a change of pace that is resulting in players getting through the back line, instead of passing interminably in front of it. Only against the massed ranks of Palace did we fail to do this. When we can start to deliver this against defensive opposition, then we wll start producing more consistent results.
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