Ratings vs Leicester (FA Cup replay)

[yusrisafri]

Carroll - 7 Another accomplished performance. Some lovely balls around the corner

Now thats special isnt it? My balls are always around the center

 

[JimmyG2]

Obviously Leicester are rubbish, just happen to be top of the league.
So I conclude from a very poor stream and this thread:
Eriksen and Carroll can play together.
Vorm is a decent back-up for Lloris.
Wimmer is a decent back-up at centre half.
Son and Chadli can score goals and we won't be getting another striker signing.
Bentaleb is back all rifts with Poch apparently. healed.
Substitutions are mechanical not responsive to the game.

If we sign Chillwell we are probably on course to win the World Cup
the first league team to ever do so.
Son MOM/ Carroll deputy MOM.
'You all did very well' (Mr.Grace).

 

[JonnySpurs]

I gotta say, I think I enjoyed this win as much, if not more, than any other this season. It's not exactly their fault but i'm beyond sick of listening to people gush over plucky little Leicester and their wonderful season and the absolute worst culprits for this garbage have been the BBC and particularly Jonathan Pearce who is hands down, the WORST commentator on tv.

I moaned about the coverage after the first game and needless to say it didn't get any better in the replay. There were actually times when you could hear the desperation in Pearce's voice for Leicester to score. I don't want to rant on about it too much but I'm genuinely thinking of complaining to the BBC about it - not that it would achieve anything - I just want to have a go at the twats.

Anyway, I thought it was an excellent performance from us and finally we got the reward, at the 4th time of asking, that our dominance deserved. I thought we completely dominated in every area of the pitch and I rarely felt threatened by their attack on the rare occasion that they grew some balls and ventured out of their own half.

Special mention for me goes to Kyle Walker. I believe he was captain on the night and I thought he was excellent. Great defending, kept Gray largely quiet in the game bar that shot he had in 2nd half but generally out-muscled him and matched him for pace. Really mature performance.

Ratings:

Vorm - 8 - Credit to Vorm, solid & confident which he didn't look in the previous game. No mistakes, happy for him.
Walker - 8.5 - As per special mention above.
Dier - 8 - Excellent.
Wimmer - 8.5 - Excellent. Really like what I see of Wimmer, almost a Vertonghen mark 2. Potential to be even better imo.
Davies - 7.5 - Couple of nice crosses, has better delivery than Rose but lacks the pace. Still, tidy game overall.
Bentaleb - 8 - Grew into the game as it went on and by the end was showing lovely touches and 1st time passes. Nice to have him back
Carroll - 8 - Metronomic at times. Nice pass into Son for the first goal and just generally played a clean, tidy game.
Lamela - 6 - Not good. Looking a little off form for me. The moment in 2nd half summed up his play of late. Won the ball with good persistence and then made a terrible decision with his pass.
Eriksen - 8 - Much more like it. Really tidy passing, closed down well and was generally all over the pitch. Him, Son and Kane link up nicely already with potential for that to get better each week.
Son - 9 - Glorious stuff from Son. One of the sweetest struck goals you'll see and a sublime pass for Chadli's goal. Lovely touches, great energy. Needs to start in place of Lamela in the next game. Only ever want to see him behind the striker, not up top.
Chadli - 7.5 - Hallelujah, so happy to see him start up top instead of Son. Chadli can genuinely be a striker imo and I have said this for a while. He has all the tools to do it. Great feet, calm, natural finisher and timed his run superbly for Son's pass.

Kane - 7 - Not a huge amount to do but got into good areas, hit a couple of nice efforts on target. Classy as always.
Onomah - 7 - Nice little cameo. Energetic and shows real confidence in his first touches. Like him more and more that I see him.
Alli - Net - no need to bring him on, not enough time for him to make an impact.

Poch - 9 - Tactics were far better this time around. Quicker in our build up play and team looked focused to get the win. Some are questioning the subs but Kane came on for Lamela at 1-0 when the latter was not playing well. It was clearly a move to try and get that 2nd goal and it nearly happened with Kane's 2nd touch.

BBC - 0 - worst coverage ever. More lingering shots of the bench instead of actual football being played. I think we were sat looking at Vardy's pikey face for about 2 minutes solid at one stage, whilst the game was going on in the background. Massively biased towards Leicester AGAIN. Ian Wright, who used to be quite impartial, has seemingly decided lately that he's gotta be seen to be squirming in his seat when correctly praising Spurs, just cos he's ex-Arsenal. Weird and unnecessary. Overall we had Jenas there as the Spurs related pundit but other than that we had Leicester supporting Lineker, ex- Leicester manager O'Neill and Gooner Ian Wright. Thanks BBC, don't bother next time.

 

[thinktank]

Just got back from the game, it really was a cracking atmosphere from the spurs fans for most of the game (went a bit quiet in the first bit of the second). Poch deserves credit for coming to applaud the fans afterwards as well as he didn't need to do that.

I will give some ratings.

7 - Vorm - look solid enough in goal.
7 - Walker - good game and got down the wing well, crossing could be improved but no complaints really.
7 - Wimmer - did well but I would be worried about him coming up against a really physical centre forward.
7 - Dier - did fine but I prefer him in centre midfield.
6 - Davies - Wasn't as good but he wasn't terrible. Didn't seem confident about really pressing forward and going to the byline.
7 - Bentaleb - Did fine but noticed he pulled out of a challenge or two which i didn't like.
8 - Carroll - Played really well. Has a good football brain and a passing range to match. A bit lightweight and lost the ball a couple of times due to this but he isn't going to crunch into players. Looks a good player for the future.
5 - Lamela - I don't want to to knock him but I thought he was poor today and rightly got subbed. Worked hard but going forward didn't offer too much and spurned a really good chance when making a poor decision. He tries to tackle players from behind a lot and therefore will give away a lot of fouls.
8 - Eriksen - thought he played really well and was instrumental with carroll in making us dangerous going forward. I hope this is a return to form for him.
7 - Chadli - got a goal with a nice finish and worked relatively hard for the team. Countered well at times as well.
9 - Son - My MOTM. Scored a belter of a goal and set chadli up as well. Worked hard and made really good runs whilst being very tidy on the ball and played some intricate stuff with the other attackers. Superb performance.

6 - Kane - Come on and did ok. Worked hard and worked the keeper a couple of times.
6 - Onomah - I like his work rate and doesn't seem out of his depth. Hopefully he gets more game time.
6 - Alli - Come on and didn't do much. As BC said, probably should have brought on Winks.

8 - Poch - a very good performance from us today with a fair few fringe players in the side so well done. You could nitpick at the subs but they weren't baffling. An extra point for coming over to applaud the spurs fans. Real touch of class.

All in all a good performance from us. COYS!

Huh?? The guy's built like a brick shithouse.

 

[thinktank]

I gotta say, I think I enjoyed this win as much, if not more, than any other this season. It's not exactly their fault but i'm beyond sick of listening to people gush over plucky little Leicester and their wonderful season and the absolute worst culprits for this garbage have been the BBC and particularly Jonathan Pearce who is hands down, the WORST commentator on tv.

I moaned about the coverage after the first game and needless to say it didn't get any better in the replay. There were actually times when you could hear the desperation in Pearce's voice for Leicester to score. I don't want to rant on about it too much but I'm genuinely thinking of complaining to the BBC about it - not that it would achieve anything - I just want to have a go at the twats.

Anyway, I thought it was an excellent performance from us and finally we got the reward, at the 4th time of asking, that our dominance deserved. I thought we completely dominated in every area of the pitch and I rarely felt threatened by their attack on the rare occasion that they grew some balls and ventured out of their own half.

Special mention for me goes to Kyle Walker. I believe he was captain on the night and I thought he was excellent. Great defending, kept Gray largely quiet in the game bar that shot he had in 2nd half but generally out-muscled him and matched him for pace. Really mature performance.

Ratings:

Vorm - 8 - Credit to Vorm, solid & confident which he didn't look in the previous game. No mistakes, happy for him.
Walker - 8.5 - As per special mention above.
Dier - 8 - Excellent.
Wimmer - 8.5 - Excellent. Really like what I see of Wimmer, almost a Vertonghen mark 2. Potential to be even better imo.
Davies - 7.5 - Couple of nice crosses, has better delivery than Rose but lacks the pace. Still, tidy game overall.
Bentaleb - 8 - Grew into the game as it went on and by the end was showing lovely touches and 1st time passes. Nice to have him back
Carroll - 8 - Metronomic at times. Nice pass into Son for the first goal and just generally played a clean, tidy game.
Lamela - 6 - Not good. Looking a little off form for me. The moment in 2nd half summed up his play of late. Won the ball with good persistence and then made a terrible decision with his pass.
Eriksen - 8 - Much more like it. Really tidy passing, closed down well and was generally all over the pitch. Him, Son and Kane link up nicely already with potential for that to get better each week.
Son - 9 - Glorious stuff from Son. One of the sweetest struck goals you'll see and a sublime pass for Chadli's goal. Lovely touches, great energy. Needs to start in place of Lamela in the next game. Only ever want to see him behind the striker, not up top.
Chadli - 7.5 - Hallelujah, so happy to see him start up top instead of Son. Chadli can genuinely be a striker imo and I have said this for a while. He has all the tools to do it. Great feet, calm, natural finisher and timed his run superbly for Son's pass.

Kane - 7 - Not a huge amount to do but got into good areas, hit a couple of nice efforts on target. Classy as always.
Onomah - 7 - Nice little cameo. Energetic and shows real confidence in his first touches. Like him more and more that I see him.
Alli - Net - no need to bring him on, not enough time for him to make an impact.

Poch - 9 - Tactics were far better this time around. Quicker in our build up play and team looked focused to get the win. Some are questioning the subs but Kane came on for Lamela at 1-0 when the latter was not playing well. It was clearly a move to try and get that 2nd goal and it nearly happened with Kane's 2nd touch.

BBC - 0 - worst coverage ever. More lingering shots of the bench instead of actual football being played. I think we were sat looking at Vardy's pikey face for about 2 minutes solid at one stage, whilst the game was going on in the background. Massively biased towards Leicester AGAIN. Ian Wright, who used to be quite impartial, has seemingly decided lately that he's gotta be seen to be squirming in his seat when correctly praising Spurs, just cos he's ex-Arsenal. Weird and unnecessary. Overall we had Jenas there as the Spurs related pundit but other than that we had Leicester supporting Lineker, ex- Leicester manager O'Neill and Gooner Ian Wright. Thanks BBC, don't bother next time.

He's probably been getting gip from their fans as he's been very complimentary to us of late.

 

[alfie103]

Interested on your take on Wimmer - You thought he looked lightweight? He looked good on the TV but you had a better view than me

Well he looked good and physically he seems fine (sorry I didn't make that clear) but him and Dier didn't look particularly comfortable when challenging for headers against Ulloa. Luckily they just didn't use it too often.

 

[alfie103]

Huh?? The guy's built like a brick shithouse.

I didn't mean it in terms of physicality, sorry for not being clear. I meant that he doesn't seem very comfortable in the air, him and dier nearly lost every header.

 

[ecce_tottenham]

Son by far, but was happy with Carroll's first 60 minutes and liked Chadli's hold up play and dribbling

 

[Time for Heroes]

Am i the only one who think the Chilwell praise was deserved?

He was excellent in both games i thought.

 

[JonnySpurs]

He's probably been getting gip from their fans as he's been very complimentary to us of late.

I wondered why I got a disagree on that and thought surely you dont think Jonathan Pearce is a good commentator, cos thats who i assumed u were talking about.

Apologies, I now realise you meant Ian Wright, lol. Would've helped if i'd actually expanded the view to see the bit you had bolded. Sorry.

So yeah, he's not a rubbish pundit and normally he's not annoying, in fact I've always enjoyed watching Wright as a pundit but yeah I think you're right about the stick he's been getting from gooners.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

Son MOTM, but it was, in my opinion, an extremely competent team performance. 7.5's all round, and an 8.5 for Son.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

Vorm 6.5 - not sure i agree with the really high ratings elsewhere, one very good save, the rest were routine, and his lack of communication always worries me

Walker 7

Davies 5 - thought he was really poor tonight bar one cross in the first half

Duer 6

Wimmer 8

Bentaleb 7

Carroll 7.5 - great first half but faded in second

Eriksen 8 - my m.o.t.m

Lamela 6

Chadli 7

Son 7.5. - great goal but too greedy at times, wasted several other potential chances

Subs

Kane 7
Onomah 6
Alli NET

Eh??? From what I saw (when the BBC weren't focusing on the crowd) he literally never stopped communicating. He was organising his back line, he was instructing the midfielders to pull wide, he was calling for the ball when crosses were coming in.

I've always been far from confident when he's been selected, but last night, bar a couple of dodgy kicks, he did a good job. Your comment about lack of communication would've been perfectly reasonable on previous occasions, but not on this one, in my opinion.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

Vorm - 7 - Very reliable and one really fine save; communicated and distributed well.

Walker - 7.5 - One of our best 4 players, along with Carroll, Wimmer & Son; strong, sensible and constructive.

Dier - 6.5 - Didn't look out of practice in central defence.

Wimmer - 7.5 - Commanding on the ground, showing excellent positioning; less dominant in the air, but who isn't against Ulloa?

Davies - 6 - A good solid game from a good solid player.

Bentaleb - 7 - One alarming pass aside, he looked like the calm, controlling player from last season. We looked no more porous than we do when Dier plays.

Carroll - 7.5 - Meshed well with Bentaleb and passed with good judgment and skill. Our control of midfield spoke for itself, really.

Lamela - 5.5 - Not his best game; played his part, but was off target when he needed to be on target and just looked slightly out of sorts.

Eriksen - 6.5 - A good, involved and positive game from Eriksen.

Chadli - 7 - Gets an extra point for the goal; otherwise, uninspired but competent. But he does score goals.

Son - 8 - MotM, not only for the goals but because he was playing well right from the start, whereas others took awhile to get going.


Kane - 7 - Did his thing with his usual all-round ability.

Onomah - 7 - Calm, hard-working and mature. He needs to let himself go a bit more and play with more freedom, because he plainly has skill. If he can do that, he could become quite a player in the next couple of years.

Alli - 6 - Filled his role capably.

 

[countryboy]

I didn't mean it in terms of physicality, sorry for not being unclear. I meant it that he doesn't seem very comfortable in the air, him and dier nearly lost every header.

On the telly he seemed comfortable in the air and won every challange. yet if i was at the game you do get a much better take on what really goes on. again on the telly he looked to have made some good last ditch tackle's and clearances ??

 

[ravo]

Well thank fuck I didn't have to listen to the BBC commentary. The commentators we had were reasonably OK, apart from the constant Kane vs Vardy comparisons, esp. being that neither was on the fucking pitch at the time!

Anyhow,

Vorm 7 - OK. Couple of good saves (one in particular was outstanding), but a lack of communication/understanding with the back four on a couple of occasions. Guess that comes with not playing regularly.

Walker 7 - OK again. Solid, couple of nice crosses and reasonably comfortable in defence. Couple of dreadful clearances though.

Dier 7 - Comfortable.

Wimmer 7.5 - Thought he looked really good. Shit hair.

Davies 7.5 - Couple of cracking crosses. Stupid yellow card.

Bentaleb 7 - Good comeback game for him. Relatively comfortable.

Carroll 8 - Controlled the midfield. Chuffed to see him coming on so well. Great first time ball to Son for the goal. Has a great eye for a pass.

Lamela 6.5 - Probably not at his best, but committed as always. Should have had an assist on the break when he had Son and Eriksen either side and played a dreadful pass to their keeper.

Eriksen 7 - As above. Should have played a simple ball to Kane for a golden shooting opportunity.

Son 9 - MOM. Goal and an assist. Lovely ball to Chadli. Looked dangerous running at their defence. Needed the match fitness.

Chadli 7 - Can really finish, but does go missing a bit. Not sure where his best spot in the team is... out left, behind the striker, or even back-up striker.

Subs:

Kane - held the ball up well and was involved in the second goal. Could/should have scored as well.

Others - NET

 

[gp13tot]

Eh??? From what I saw (when the BBC weren't focusing on the crowd) he literally never stopped communicating. He was organising his back line, he was instructing the midfielders to pull wide, he was calling for the ball when crosses were coming in.

I've always been far from confident when he's been selected, but last night, bar a couple of dodgy kicks, he did a good job. Your comment about lack of communication would've been perfectly reasonable on previous occasions, but not on this one, in my opinion.

Sorry, sticking to my guns here. There were 3 seperate occasions when he just stood there even though it was there for him to collect, leading to more than necessary panic in the defending. Walker twice was having a go at him. Im not on about organisational communication im on about taking charge of a situation.

Hes a plenty serviceable back up but ive noticed this issue in games before and there it was again. I guess well have to agree to disagree here.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

Sorry, sticking to my guns here. There were 3 seperate occasions when he just stood there even though it was there for him to collect, leading to more than necessary panic in the defending. Walker twice was having a go at him. Im not on about organisational communication im on about taking charge of a situation.

Hes a plenty serviceable back up but ive noticed this issue in games before and there it was again. I guess well have to agree to disagree here.

No need to be sorry mate, you're just voicing your opinion. That's what we're here for, right?

As always, I am simply stating what I saw & heard. I can't recall the 3 incidents you mention, but maybe he had a call from one of the defenders?

The irony here is we actually both feel the same. My first post on this thread stated that I'm never confident when Vorm plays, and my response to you was just me saying he did better last night. Trust me, if it was my decision, Lloris would never be out of the team

 

[Kilkenny Cat]

Dear little children of Leicester, entire BBC football punditry employee roster , All neutral footballing fans in the world, please accept my succinct apologies for having the evil spirited temerity to piss all over your dreams and give your plucky beloved champions of underdogging a footballing lesson.

Love BC

Fuck me that was nauseating to listen to for about 70 minutes until Chadli finally pissed all over their happy shopper home brand corn flakes.

Lets start with the selections. I know I've been championing the notion that we need a bit more football in the CM2 but I was a little concerned before kick off that Carroll and Bentaleb were a little bit too lefty samey and might not be the balance of skills I've been talking about, and I'm still not convinced on a tougher day those two would be the right balance, but tonight they did well. Carroll, ably assisted by Eriksen, Son and Bentaleb absolutely ran the gaff, especially first half.

I've been discussing the merits of people like Mason, Bentaleb & Carroll for a few weeks now, people who can move the ball quickly and forwards, speed up the transition and I thought we did this well tonight, but were just let down several times by that final ball needed to round off the zippy approach, we constantly had Leicester on their heels because we were moving the ball quicker and more vertically. And it was a typical example of this for the goal. The zippy, vertical, first time pass hit by Carroll, almost without looking because he had the picture in his head and the brain to play it, sums up the benefit of having a player (or two) like this in the CM2.

Just as good was the way we pressed the ball higher up the pitch for much of the game as well, we weren't just much better than them with the ball, we were much better than them without the ball, and this was the big difference from the last two games. With people like Dier and Alli there is this temptation to retreat into the shell, stop trying to play and form a more rearguard reactive response, and I think is part of the reason we've conceded so many winning points this season, players like Carroll and Bentaleb keep wanting to have the ball, this can (I appreciate it doesn't always work) starve the opposition of the chance to build momentum.

I also think this game proved once and for all something else a few of us have been saying, that we don't need to waste any more money on second rate strikers to sit on our bench. Son and Chadli both scored (and played) typical Kane type goals and both showed clear evidence that they can bring very similar - if slightly different - qualities if and when needed to our SYSTEM.

Both showed decent work ethic, lively movement, very Kane-esque finishes and Son also played a sweet ball through for Chadli's goal.

There isn't much more to say about the overall performance, I thought everyone played well, we thoroughly dominated the game with and without the ball, there was some really nice approach play, just a shame that final balls didn't always reward it with an end product.

As ever, I really don't understand the logic of the subs. We really didn't need to risk Kane. Don't understand why peripheral players who hadn't had much football like Chadli and Son were taken off whilst a pivotal player like Eriksen who has had too much football already was left to play another 93 minutes. At 2-0 would love to have seen Winks brought on for Eriksen, don't really see the logic of bringing Alli on to play ALM.

Individual

Overall I'd give MOTM to Carroll, he was running the gaff for the first 45, slowed down a bit second 45 but was pivotal in that important phase of the game where we just out footballed them to death.

Son of course deserves a special mention, industrious, hard to handle, excellent movement, superb goal and equally superb through ball for Chadli.

Eriksen, like Carroll, was metronomic and very good in all he did but his final pass. Two or three times he wasted really good chances (Son in either half) to play killer final balls.

Chadli worked hard and took his chance coolly. I just don't understand the panic around this place about us needing a so called "Kane back up". We have them here already.

Everyone else was good, including Bentaleb playing a more disciplined role tonight. Leicester didn't get a sniff.

Terrific post but disagree with one thing. We really DID need Kane at the stage Pochettino brought him on.

Leicester had - predictably - owned the first 15 minutes of the second half. Bringing on Kane changed the dynamic completely and gave us an outlet up front where there hadn't been one.

To me this is the reason why we need to sign a card-carrying striker. Chadli and Son complement Kane but if we're going to be playing a godawful number of matches between now and the end of the season we need someone who can play as a proper number 9, thereby giving Kane a break every now and then.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Terrific post but disagree with one thing. We really DID need Kane at the stage Pochettino brought him on.

Leicester had - predictably - owned the first 15 minutes of the second half. Bringing on Kane changed the dynamic completely and gave us an outlet up front where there hadn't been one.

To me this is the reason why we need to sign a card-carrying striker. Chadli and Son complement Kane but if we're going to be playing a godawful number of matches between now and the end of the season we need someone who can play as a proper number 9, thereby giving Kane a break every now and then.

We've surrendered phases of many games this season with Kane on the pitch. I personally don't think Kane made a blind bit of difference last night.

 

[alfie103]

On the telly he seemed comfortable in the air and won every challange. yet if i was at the game you do get a much better take on what really goes on. again on the telly he looked to have made some good last ditch tackle's and clearances ??

I remember a few times where he didn't win it and I remember mentioning it to my mate. However, I might have missed others as I was enjoying the atmosphere a lot!