Match Ratings Ratings vs Burnley

[Pistols At Dawn]

Your MOTM is, without doubt, Harry Kane.

He assisted our only goal and, I cannot stress this enough, *cleared an otherwise guaranteed Burnley goal off the line* by having impeccable game awareness and positioning.

Also? Sissoko was immense (but not alone). This was an ugly game *by design*. It's how Burnley plays. But they seldom threatened our goal, and our stout midfield was a huge reason for that. Take a bow, Moussa.

 

[Jules77]

Toss up between Sissoko and Davies for me.

Why?

Because fuck you

But also because i games like these, when the opposition does so well at nullifying your strengths, you need your squad to keep on going and going and going. Second half Davies and Sissoko cleaned up so many messes created by our "skill" players. It just doesn't get noticed.

Well Mourinho notices it.

Davies for me. Get going up and down all day and while he doesn't have Reggie's amazing offence he was crucial in stopping us conceding.

I thought Sissoko was very good tonight. Can’t believe the 5 ratings. People gotta realize he isn’t meant to be an attacking threat. He was a beast.

 

[whitesocks]

Gave motm to Son.
This was not his type of match at all - very physical and they defended in numbers.
They stuck 2 reducer tackles on him, both yellow cards, issued by the incompetent Oliver who was generally turning a blind eye to their behaviour. And indeed Son was pretty subdued and arguably should have been subbed much earlier.

But out of this unpromising story, he scores the winner - a spontaneous header from a set-piece - something burnley are clearly drilled on long into the evening, day after day, to give us an undeserved 3 points, 5th place and also become the prem current top scorer. He really is looking world class.

There are some high scores being dished out in the thread, but generally our attack was inert, and midfield totally outcompeted. Sissoko was particularly disappointing.

The defence got a clean sheet, but with the unforced errors and continual corners given away, burnley's expected goals were surely at least 1. They'll be disappointed.

Alderweireld is a worthy motm candidate and perhsps morally paid for the points in his own blood. His bandaged head will get on the back pages. But Son's head got us the goal.

 

[mdharris]

NDombele is clearly a very talented player and, for me, a must in the starting 11. But I was disappointed today that so many of his passes were poorly weighted. He did create that opportunity for Son but there were 4 or 5 other opportunities to play a chance-creating pass and he fluffed it. I hope that side to his game improves.

 

[yankspurs]

Doherty is a RWB. Asking him to solely play in a back 4 is not really fair to him. He was a great purchase for the price and you really cant beat it but we really should have just signed an actual RB. Just feels like we’re shoehorning Doherty so its not surprising he hasnt impressed since joining. Hopefully he’ll get better once he settles but we cant expect him to be as good here as he was at Wolves.

Davies was poor as well. Dier was a mixed bag. Some good, some absolute boneheadedness. Toby, Lloris, Kane & Lamela were great. It’s time Lucas becomes the odd man out at RW. If we have an opportunity to strike on a quality CB in January, i’d be seeing if we can ship him out to raise funds. Son was good. Sissoko was decent. Hojbjerg is crucial in our midfield.

MOM - Toby.

 

[Shanks]

I swear I must have watched a different game to most here.
Kane man of the match must be some kind of joker surely?

granted he didn’t have a bad game, but he had 2 single moments, clearing a header off the line for a corner and setting up a goal.

I agree that changed the outcome of the match, but outside of that, he struggled putting a pass together, was closed down most times etc.

not a bad thing either, that’s just Burnley’s 4-4-2 block tactics.

hojberg, dier and Toby - absolutely outstanding against some seriously tough opposition.

mid probably go Dier, given that Tony hardly won an Ariel duel all night (unlike him too).

hojbjerg played a slightly different role tonight, way more defensive than usual, slotting into the CB position to make a back 3 when Davies and Doherty went forward.

 

[hughy]

I thought Sissoko was very good tonight. Can’t believe the 5 ratings. People gotta realize he isn’t meant to be an attacking threat. He was a beast.

Second half he was a different player and really upped his game. First half he was clumsy, hid from the ball, and just generally made our play worse. I'm 100% sure Jose must have had a word with him about what he expects at half time.

It also helps that he has an engine on him which gives him and extra 50% more stamina than the mere mortals he plays alongside/against.

 

[G Ron]

Toss up between Sissoko and Davies for me.

Why?

Because fuck you

But also because i games like these, when the opposition does so well at nullifying your strengths, you need your squad to keep on going and going and going. Second half Davies and Sissoko cleaned up so many messes created by our "skill" players. It just doesn't get noticed.

Well Mourinho notices it.

Davies for me. Get going up and down all day and while he doesn't have Reggie's amazing offence he was crucial in stopping us conceding.

I have no words. Davies was our worst player on the night for me

How does Son get an 8? He literally had one moment in the entire game. An important moment sure but an "8"?

This is the point I'm trying to make (and getting loads of disagrees ) - Davies and Sissoko were our two most involved in "moments" across the 90 minutes. They were - for better or worse - "in the game" far more than any other players on the pitch.

And when the chips were down Mourinho chose to keep them on the pitch.

I don't always agree with Mou but I can see why he made that choice tonight.

Nb: it doesn't mean I think we can't improve on both those players. That's not the point.

Jose said in his interview that he wanted to bring on Reguilon (probably because he saw Davies piss away possession every time he had the ball in dangerous areas throughout the first half). But was worried about Burnley exploiting us in the air. That’s the only reason Davies stayed on.

I thought he was our worst performer on the night. Certainly had me cursing him more than anyone else.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

Deserved I'm afraid my friend. Dier was solid bar one almost calamitous mistake.

I'm more headscratching over the total reverse on Tanguy opinion. Now he can literally do no wrong. He was almost completely taken out of the game after 20 minutes. If his name was Eriksen or dele this forum would be howling for blood. But it wasnt' for lack of work rate - it was just Burnley doing a great job of covering his threat.

Which is why Sissoko and Davies were so important.

totally agree about Tanguy. If Winks or Davies put in a similar performance in their respective positions, they get below 5 rating and an irrational slagging off.

 

[Shadydan]

totally agree about Tanguy. If Winks or Davies put in a similar performance in their respective positions and they get below 5 rating and an irrational slagging off.

This forum is notorious for that, certain players are untouchable whilst certain players are guaranteed scapegoats.

 

[Blake Griffin]

Totally agree.

Find the vote for Kane absolutely baffling. This was one of his most ineffectual games of the year. The movement and creativity across the front 4 was lacking badly all game.

Yes he got back defended well at times but he's World fucking class.

Think he'd be rofling at the people giving him MOTM for this game. He lowered his colours due to a very good defensive display by Burnley. A defensive display we matched. Because of defensive players. Who deserve some recognition.

he saved a certain goal and set one up at the other end in a 1-0 win, that's enough for motm in a game of no exceptional performances.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

mid probably go Dier, given that Tony hardly won an Ariel duel all night (unlike him too).

I'm assuming by Tony you meant Toby? If so, I thought he gobbled up almost everything in the air last night. For me he was easily man of the match. Dier had a very good game too. I can't believe Kane is winning the vote, but there you go, it's all subjective

 

[Mr Pink]

Tony was my MOTM

 

[Shadydan]

he saved a certain goal and set one up at the other end in a 1-0 win, that's enough for motm when there were no other exceptional performances.

Hojbjerg, Alderweireld and Dier were all consistently better IMO.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

totally agree about Tanguy. If Winks or Davies put in a similar performance in their respective positions, they get below 5 rating and an irrational slagging off.

Couldn’t agree more, he wasn’t “shit” but he certainly wasn’t “good”, just a real middle of the road performance that that the usual virtue signallers couldn’t wait to be the first to ratings gather in his player thread.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

I think realistically you could make a case for either centre half, possibly Lloris, Hoy-be-air and if you were really pushing it Sissoko. It was a proper Jose performance, as I said in the match thread I think we’ve got enough talent to be able to out-football most teams, especially the shit ones and don’t need to purely play to stifle the opposition but you’d snap up the 3 points and worry about the next performance gladly.

 

[Shanks]

I'm assuming by Tony you meant Toby? If so, I thought he gobbled up almost everything in the air last night. For me he was easily man of the match. Dier had a very good game too. I can't believe Kane is winning the vote, but there you go, it's all subjective

Yeah I don’t really recall either Toby or dier winning much in the air, but both were superb along with Peter in defence against a horrible Burnley.

genuinly thought we looked out of ideas going forward until Pamela came on

 

[Shanks]

Jesus Christ my names typing on the phone is poor ?

 

[Thenewcat]

The spine (Hugo, Toby, Dier, PEH, Kane) were all excellent. MOTM toss up between Kane and Toby, and props to Jose for picking the right CB pairing and a really high line - exactly the right tactic against a team with no pace in behind. Ndombele was nearly good, and Son didn’t look as sharp as he has done... but scored the winner anyway. Thought the weakness of the team tonight was the fullbacks - they were the ones with the space against that narrow back 4 and the delivery wasn’t close to being good enough.

Also odd that people are jumping all over Dier for his error, but not mentioning Davies playing a blind pass to no one that could have cost us dearly - he did it against Everton too. By the way, I like Davies and can’t think of a better back up LB in the league (and a decent CB option too), just the lack of consistency that gets me. Dier is flaky so every slight error is magnified, Davies is solid so his are overlooked

 

[Nebby]

Davies for me. That block in the second half ?.