Ratings/Player Discussion vs Seattle

[MattPhilpott]

Really thought Ceballos and Falque changed the approach towards the attack, showing a lot of intelligent runs and working their socks off (wheather that was just trying to show off to the coaches or not) but I was really impressed as a whole.

Maybe give Ceballos another year, let him develop a little more, give him some League Cup games etc, and then I can really see him contesting in the future! As for Falque, really would love to see him succeed as I think he has a lot of talent, I think Poch will give him a shot

 

[Twizzle]

Rose has some ability but has not been so good at LB.

He played almost his entire career at LW, till we put him at LB when Benny went out on loan.

Wonder if its worthwhile giving him a run at LW where he is used to playing

just a thought

 

[DogsOfWar]

Highlights - Ceballos, Holtby, Falque, Kaboul, Soldado, and quick passing and good movement in general.
Lowlights - Lennon, and our young defenders (not including Rose who was our best fullback).

The rest were OK.

Overall I was impressed at what I perceived as a new style of play against a decent team who were up for it.
We lacked a bit of strength with only Capoue, and then Kaboul, really providing it and our 'pacy' players were not at the races.
Lennon was anonymous and Townsends touch let him down when he got into good positions.

I would have liked to see a bit more from Lamela, Carroll, and Kane in terms of imposing themselves on the game, and whilst Capoue did his distribution was a bit wayward at times.

But we did actually play some good football and considering we had 7 or 8 of our best players out it was a good showing from the team and Pochettino.

 

[Spursh]

Friedel 6

Naughton 5/Fredericks 4
Dawson 3/Kaboul 6
Fryers 5
Rose 6/Veljkovic 6 (CB)

Capoue 5/Mason 5
Carroll 5

Holtby 8/Falque 6
Townsend 4/Lamela 5
Lennon 3/Ceballos 5

Kane 6/Soldado 7

 

[ItsBoris]

Not going to mention names but there are some seriously weird ratings going on here.

Guess we need the preseason as well, to get our ratings back to 100% accuracy?

 

[guiltyparty]

AstroTurf 10 - dominated the game

 

[gp13tot]

friedel - good saves in the first half but weak distribution 7

naughton - didn't think he was bad on the ball but out of position once or twice 6

rose - good clearance and showed energy but also flashes of what he really is with shocking control and passing 6

fryers - marginally better at left back but not a good game 4

Dawson - had an absolute Weston super. Can have a bonus point for the block he made 2

capoue - won the ball back well a number of times but was sloppy and rusty 5

Carroll - love the quick passing but would like more of them to go forward 6

holtby - love the blokes desire and showed good intent 8

Lennon - anonymous 4

Townsend - running in treacle 5

Kane - some nice touches and a great assist but largely ineffective 6

younes - shored it up a bit 6

milos - composed 6

Fredericks - pacey and some good crosses, not sure defensively tho 6

mason - meh 5

falque - megs 6

ceballos - bright spark 7

lamela - sharp 7

soldado - great touch to win pen, but didn't do much 6

 

[mpickard2087]

What I posted last night...

It was ok to start off with. Shameful pitch which has to be taken into account. It was encouraging to see us trying to play at a quicker tempo, short sharp passes and also work harder to try and win it back. We flitted in and out of the game though from an attacking gameplan point of view (unsurprisingly) and defensively were all over the place for most of it.

Friedel - Is what he is.
Naughton - Dragged all over the place.
Dawson - Gooooooooooooooooone.
Fryers - Ok.
Rose - Good game.
Capoue - Started ok breaking up play, faded badly.
Carroll - Some neat stuff, some sloppy stuff. Needs to be more confident. Not much of a defensive shield either...
Holtby - Decent header. Worked hard. Moved the ball pretty well.
Townsend - Needs to regain his pace and power before anything else.
Lennon - Lennon.
Kane - Bright start. Super pass for the goal. Suffered as we faded from 20th-45th mins.

Fredericks - Decent. Got forward well.
Kaboul - Still not convinced. Still charging around and not reading the game well.
Veljkovic - Ok.
Soldado - Some decent link play.
Lamela - Bright start then faded slightly. Always moving and linking play, needs to take care when dribbling with ball.
Ceballos - Pleasing. Busy, got involved on the ball a lot and worked hard.
Falque - Decent when he came on.
Mason - Couple of good passes through the lines.

Don't think I left anyone out...

 

[Bus-Conductor]

My post from the match thread:

As friendlies go, and first game under new regimes go, that wasn't terrible. Especially given the nature of the opposition, the place the crowd. I pretty decent run out, particularly for some of the young players. Ceballos looked quick, technically very good, reasonably intelligent and determined and tenacious - a very good combination. I was really impressed with Veljkovic at CB, looked calm, composed and like he reads the game pretty well. I thought Carroll showed some nice touches too and shows good desire to get on the ball and didn't look quite so easy to bully out of the game.

Holtby and Capoue had pretty decent knocks as well but the player who was very good in the first half was Rose. He put in a very decent shift defensively.

Even in a friendly watching Lennon & Townsend is so frustrating.

I didn't really see a whole shitload of new tactical identity, and the weaknesses from last year were still very prevalent, we created very little and looked vulnerable defensively. It's always hard in friendlies where lots of changes are made to find rhythm and coherence but there were some decent passages of pay, and Capoue, Carroll, Ceballos, Lamella, Holtby, Falque all looked lively, positive and tried to play positively - albeit with mixed and largely unsuccessful results.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

What I posted last night...


Townsend - Needs to regain his pace and power before anything else.

I actually think his biggest problem is still his decision making and miss-controll of the ball at crucial times. I mentioned this throughout last year but for a kid who often shows some ability at dribbling he has a bad habit of miss-controlling the ball at crucial times, taking a heavy touch etc. It's fatal for someone whose game is all about running with the ball.

 

[mpickard2087]

I actually think his biggest problem is still his decision making and miss-controll of the ball at crucial times. I mentioned this throughout last year but for a kid who often shows some ability at dribbling he has a bad habit of miss-controlling the ball at crucial times, taking a heavy touch etc. It's fatal for someone whose game is all about running with the ball.

I agree with that, but since that injury at the start of the year he doesn't even seem to be able to dribble past/take anyone on and get away from them. Personally I think he needs to regain what he has 'lost' first in terms of sharpness before improving other areas of his game (and there are a lot of things that he could).

 

[JonnySpurs]

Anyone know why Eriksen & Walker didn't get a run out?

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

Anyone know why Eriksen & Walker didn't get a run out?

I heard that Walker wasn't happy after training on the artificial pitch, so after his injury they didnt want to risk him...

 

[Shea]

I will never put too much stock in the outcome or even the performances during preseason

I will never forget the year we had Bent and Bentley in preseason and won every game scoring bagfuls of goal with Bent scoring almost at will as well as destroying Roma at the Lane only to start the season with our worst run of form in history, be rooted to the bottom and have our manager sacked after 8 games

The year we came fourth and made it to the CL for the first and only time we had a pretty indifferent and disappointing preseason

Preseason matches are basically high profile training sessions - the teams are disjointed and trying out new systems and players, the focus in on tactics and more importantly match fitness

The results are largely irrelevant - even the performances are pretty much inconsequential, it only matters how they prepare us for the start of the new season and how well we do when the serious stuff starts and as we all should no by now performances and results in preseason are not actually good indicators for how well prepared we are for the start of the new season or how well we will do when the matches start to mean something

 

[Blake Griffin]

who cares how they actually played, i'll just give you what you all want to hear

capoue was amazing
lamela was stupendous
rose was shocking
dawson was disasterous
holtby was the shit
lennon was anonymous
soldado slapped them around
whilst naughton was calamitous

 

[0-Tibsy-0]

who cares how they actually played, i'll just give you what you all want to hear

capoue was amazing
lamela was stupendous
rose was shocking
dawson was disasterous
holtby was the shit
lennon was anonymous
soldado slapped them around
whilst naughton was calamitous

You could tone that down, but if you watched the game then general gist of your post is correct without the sensationalist rubbish. Lamela, Holtby, Soldado and Capoue did out perform Lennon, Dawson and Naughton last night. For once though Rose wasn't awful, hardly a world beater either.

 

[michaelden]

Okay, I only saw highlights but your scores seem off based on your comments

Not bothering with a MOTM poll, too many players and most only played a half. Thread is more for ratings and player discussion based on the Seattle friendly.

Friedel - 6.5 - Not at fault on the goals Yip he was slow of feet on the long shot and made some important saves in the first half. Poor distribution though.
Naughton - 5 - Not one of his better games.
Dawson - 4 - Mixed thoughts, he actually defended 1v1 very well against Martins, but he gave the ball away cheaply, gave away a pen, and in general the defense was very easily breached with him and Fryers.
Fryers - 4.5 CB, 5.5 LB - Didn't do well with Dawson Was this because he was with Dawson or based on his own CB performance? Did he do well in 1v1s or reading the next movement? in defense but improved a bit at LB.
Rose - 6.5 - Maybe our best player today, saved us on more than one occasion and was going up/down the line with regularity. Well all I expect from a WB is run up the line a bit
Carroll - 4.5 - Asked for the ball a lot and showed himself a lot, but didn't really do anything with the ball and the midfield seemed a bit disorganized.
Capoue - 5.5 - Seemed very involved in breaking up play and distributing but touch was all over the place and also gave the ball away a couple times. Roamed a bit too much considering he's supposed to be the deepest midfielder.
Holtby - 5.5 - Ran a lot, pressure, had a nice goal, but like the other 2 CMs, didn't really do much with the ball. Aside from scoring... yet Rose gets 6.5 for running abit , which you said Holtby did and Holtby pressured well...
Lennon - 4 - Just didn't do anything. Tracked Yedlin well when he had to I suppose. Did nothing but defend when needed
Townsend - 4.5 - Nothing was happening for him, but at least he tried a couple things. Did nothing, tried but was wasteful, no mention of defence, gets higher mark than Lennon
Kane - 5 - Did well when he got the ball, but was not very involved in the play. Great ball to Holtby. That assist would've got Ozil a 7.5 in the WC... Kane deserves more even if he showed as little as Ozil did in the WC

Fredericks - 4.5 - Not a particularly good showing, didn't get forward much, wasn't that good in defense.
Kaboul - 6 - Defense seemed much more solid when he came in, however either he or Veljkovic were at fault on the third goal, probably Kaboul for stepping up like that.
Veljkovic - 5.5 - Not bad but didn't seem to be that involved. Like I said though, the defense was much more settled with Kaboul/Milos than Dawson/Fryers.
Lamela - 5.5 - Got on the ball a lot more than the other wingers and the passing was fine but still lacking a bit of flair and cutting edge in my book. Also seemed to be a bit scared when going into challenges (which is maybe fair as its just preseason).
Ceballos - 6.5 - Changed the game a bit, very good on the ball, smart runs, intelligent passing. Good showing, he seems to understand the system Poch wants (which is maybe no surprise considering he came up at Barca and the Poch - Bielsa - Guardiola connection).
Soldado - 6 - Won a pen, scored a pen, good holdup play and nice touches. Want to see him involved a bit more though.
Mason - 4.5 - Not a great showing either, didn't get/do much with the ball and seemed to foul a lot.
Falque - 6 - Pretty good cameo, played a lot like Ceballos - good movement and passing, seems to understand the system. Scored/won a pen as well. Only 6 when Friedal got 6.5, and this guy won a penalty & converted it

 

[michaelden]

I actually think his biggest problem is still his decision making and miss-controll of the ball at crucial times. I mentioned this throughout last year but for a kid who often shows some ability at dribbling he has a bad habit of miss-controlling the ball at crucial times, taking a heavy touch etc. It's fatal for someone whose game is all about running with the ball.

This was a serious issue last season. Shoot on sight with poor accuracy? He needs more composure or beta-blockers

 

[Strikeb4ck]

Okay, I only saw highlights but your scores seem off based on your comments

Obviously I can't describe everything a player did. Rose saved certain goals 3 times on his own. Fryers for instance, gave away a chance just because he was walking back on a throw in. Townsend was on the ball way more than Lennon, was at least trying a couple things. My comment about Lennon tracking back was a bit sarcastic because Yedlin only attacked like 3 times. Kane played good but was rarely ever involved, whether that's down to lack of movement or because he had 2 alongside him that didn't do much (and the likes of Holtby(!) and Carroll (less so) not creating anything, who knows). But Kane had one extremely nice assist and that was about it. Not sure where the Ozil comment is coming from, I thought he was shocking all WC. Falque played good, Friedel made excellent saves about 4 times in the first half. We easily could have been down by 2 or 3 in the first half were it not for Friedel and Rose. I don't think any goalkeeper would have saved Alonso's strike.

 

[jezz]

Obviously I can't describe everything a player did. Rose saved certain goals 3 times on his own. Fryers for instance, gave away a chance just because he was walking back on a throw in. Townsend was on the ball way more than Lennon, was at least trying a couple things. My comment about Lennon tracking back was a bit sarcastic because Yedlin only attacked like 3 times. Kane played good but was rarely ever involved, whether that's down to lack of movement or because he had 2 alongside him that didn't do much (and the likes of Holtby(!) and Carroll (less so) not creating anything, who knows). But Kane had one extremely nice assist and that was about it. Not sure where the Ozil comment is coming from, I thought he was shocking all WC. Falque played good, Friedel made excellent saves about 4 times in the first half. We easily could have been down by 2 or 3 in the first half were it not for Friedel and Rose. I don't think any goalkeeper would have saved Alonso's strike.

Me and you are watching different games.
I thought we moved the ball and created a lot of space well in spells, especially in the first 15 mins of the second half.
I thought the play after Holtby and Capoue left was a bit disorganised.
Not saying we were great, but being a first preseason against the inform side in the mls on a dodgey pitch, we did well.