Tranmere Player Ratings

[Stuliasz]

To rate the City players in the 2-0 defeat at the hands of Tranmere, please go to www.player-ratings.com/rate to register your vote if you went to the game..

Discuss below.

[Joe.]

Stockdale 6 - No chance with either goal, and made a fine save to stop it being 3.

Gilbert 6 - Possibly our best outfield player on the night, he didn't do a great deal wrong.

Hobbs 5.5 - Defensively sound, but his distribution was beyond poor. Not once did he find a Leicester shirt.

Morrison 5 - A little shaky tonight I thought, highlighted by one particular missed interception near the end of the first half.

Powell 6 - Can't argue really, you know what you're going to get from him. Doesn't help that he can no longer help on the attacking front.

Oakley 4 - Terrible performance from the captain. Looked a little disinterested from what I saw, and never got a grasp on anything.

King 5 - Pedestrian. Doesn't find it easy to get into games when the team aren't playing well.

Cleverley 5 - Jury's out on this one. Linked up nicely for about 10 minutes, but ultimately isn't quite good enough for me.

Mattock 3 - Served no purpose in the match at all, why he started I'm still not sure.

Howard 4.5 - Probably still trying to fight his way out of Ian Goodison's pocket.

Fryatt 5 - Worked hard, but ultimately lacked on the firepower tonight.

[JoeyB]

Stockdale 6 - No chance with either goal, and made a fine save to stop it being 3.

Gilbert 6 - Possibly our best outfield player on the night, he didn't do a great deal wrong.

Hobbs 5.5 - Defensively sound, but his distribution was beyond poor. Not once did he find a Leicester shirt.

Morrison 5 - A little shaky tonight I thought, highlighted by one particular missed interception near the end of the first half.

Powell 6 - Can't argue really, you know what you're going to get from him. Doesn't help that he can no longer help on the attacking front.

Oakley 4 - Terrible performance from the captain. Looked a little disinterested from what I saw, and never got a grasp on anything.

King 5 - Pedestrian. Doesn't find it easy to get into games when the team aren't playing well.

Cleverley 5 - Jury's out on this one. Linked up nicely for about 10 minutes, but ultimately isn't quite good enough for me.

Mattock 3 - Served no purpose in the match at all, why he started I'm still not sure.

Howard 4.5 - Probably still trying to fight his way out of Ian Goodison's pocket.

Fryatt 5 - Worked hard, but ultimately lacked on the firepower tonight.

Pretty much agree with that, what i said on the way back from the car, was just waiting for you to type it up.

[clazkel]

Stockdale - 6 Made some great saves, but his kicking was poor, but an extra point for trying to hit the Tranmere chavs with the ball before the game

Gilbert - 6 Tried but didnt get forward as much as he did sat

Hobbs - 5 Not his best game

Morrison - 6 Pretty solid,afew wayward passes

Powell - 5.5 Done ok, but Mattock or Berner shouldve been in that position, why change a winning team

Cleverly - 6.5 Tried to make things happen, but they were never gonna happen

King - 6 Tried to create, but again nothing was going to happen

Oakley - 6 Ok, nothing that stood out

Mattock - 5 Didnt do anything of recognition

Howard - 5 Couldnt get the beating of their defender

Fryatt - 6.5 Tried but that was it

Gradel - 6 Lost the ball for the penalty

Hayles - 6 Showed some urgency, but nothing else

[Bert]

Stockdale 6 - Made a few decent saves, no chance with either goal, although his kickin was poor tonight.

Gilbert 6 - Solid as ever.

Powell 5 - Got tore a new one first fifteen, was solid after that.

Hobbs 6 - In a night where he knew it was going to be tricky, he tried to stand up and make himself be counted, unlike his centre back partner.

Morrison 4 - Liability all night. Kisnorbo should be playing in-front of him. I lost count of how many mistakes he made last night.

Cleverley 5 - Good surging runs, but that's about it.

Mattock 4 - Stick to left back Joe.

King 5 - Game passed him by.

Oakley 5 - Our best player during our best spell of the match, but no-where else before or after this period.

Fryatt 6 - Worked his socks off, and if you're going to use firepower, then you're going to need a bit of service, chased down a lost cause every time, although could've made some better choices at times.

Howard 4 - Joker. Couldn't win much last night so he thought he's moan at the ref and everyone else. We need the Steve that we know back.

Gradel 6 - Injected a bit of pace and energy.

Hayles 5 - Just for the excitement from when he came on, did nothing else.

Why was the team changed? This was probably the most bizarre selection, especially after Saturday.

The pitch was shit, which certainly didn't help, but it was the same for both teams.

[Floating Fox]

JMEs ratings:

Stockdale - 6 (did ok, made a quality save at 2-0 down to prevent further embarrassment)

Dwayne - 5. Meh.

Hooof - 4. Laughable.

Jaaaaaaack - 6. Tormented by Bas, but made some quality blocks and won a few in the sky.

Chrissy P - 5. Despite being a hero, he was miles off the pace.

Cleverley - 6. Had energy and looked to get at defenders, but largely unproductive (no movement around him) and went backwars too often.

Mowgli - 5. Ok, but haven't seen him play well at a midweek away. Ever.

KING! - 5. Attempted to be creative but again largely unnoticeable. Doesn't seem to play well if Mowgli is bad.

Mattock - 1. Just why? Multi-million pound player? More chance of me eating my own cock. He's a joke. It's a testament to Mattock when somebody who knows what he looks like and was at the entire game didn't even know he was playing.

Big Steve - 3. Won maybe 2 headers all night. Moaned, sulked and stood still for the rest of it.

God-boy - 5. Bottled a 50-50 with Coyne. Ran all night but took too long to shoot and generally looked scared of goal.

Gradel - 5. Energy and enthusiasm, but no end product again. Tried to out-muscle Bas numerous times. Epic fail.

Hayles - 4. Didn't understand the huge furore when he came on. Ran, but did nothing. At all.

[davieG]

I'll put the same effort into this that they put into the game

All = 5

[Stuliasz]

Don't forget you still have time to rate the City players from last night's 2-0 defeat away at Tranmere. If you went and haven't yet voted, please go to www.player-ratings.com/rate.

[Thracian]

Stockdale - 6 Made some great saves, but his kicking was poor, but an extra point for trying to hit the Tranmere chavs with the ball before the game

Gilbert - 6 Tried but didnt get forward as much as he did sat

Hobbs - 5 Not his best game

Morrison - 6 Pretty solid,afew wayward passes

Powell - 5.5 Done ok, but Mattock or Berner shouldve been in that position, why change a winning team

Cleverly - 6.5 Tried to make things happen, but they were never gonna happen

King - 6 Tried to create, but again nothing was going to happen

Oakley - 6 Ok, nothing that stood out

Mattock - 5 Didnt do anything of recognition

Howard - 5 Couldnt get the beating of their defender

Fryatt - 6.5 Tried but that was it

Gradel - 6 Lost the ball for the penalty

Hayles - 6 Showed some urgency, but nothing else

Gradel did lose the ball for the penalty - and you wonder, once again, what the hell he was doing there. It reminded me of the times Newton cocked up pretending to be a defender close to his own penalty area.

If Pearson wants a bloke winger to retain possession in deep positions he'd be far better off with Porter.

In fact he'd have been better with Porter instead of Mattock too because, if he wants a covering player who can keep the ball, pass the ball and support an attack then Porter is different class in that role.

Mattock is simply a left-back who's still learning his trade. I've said it for years and it's still the case today.

I really couldn't understand our team selection and tactics last night and felt quite sorry for Gradel cos he had no close support just as King had no-one making space to pass to for much of the evening.

It was as if we didn't want to be there and that was actually a comment made by one of the players at the training ground this week, so I was told. I won't say which one or why they didn't fancy it because I couldn't proe the accuracy of the information anyway but the guy did did make the team.

DavieG is about right with his ratings because they were all equally bad apart from the manager who was the worst of all and needs to ask himself why we took such a negative approach instead of just setting out to retain the sort of movement and energy we had on Satuday and try to win the game.

Tranmere were a solid, well organised and well motivated side but of all things we needed to compete first and then to pass the ball around patiently. Very spasmodically we showed we could do that but there weren't really enough passers in the team nor was there enough athleticism.

As someone said, at least Gradel provided some liveliness and the odd hint of a chance. But he was well marked and needed passing options around him.

[chesterfox]

Gradel did lose the ball for the penalty - and you wonder, one again, what the hell he was doing there. It eminded me ofthe times Newton cocked up pretending to be a defender close to his own penalty area.

If Pearson wants a bloke winger to retrain possession in deep positions he'd be far better off with Porter.

In fact he'd have been better with Porter instead of Mattock too because, if he wants a covering player who can keep the ball, pass the ball and support an attack then Porter is different class in that role.

Mattock is simply a left-back who's still learning his trade. I've said it for years and it's still the case today.

I really couldn't understand our team selection and tactics last night and felt quite sorry for Gradel cos he had no close support just as King had no-one making space to pass to for much of the evening.

It was as if we didn't want to be there and that was actually a comment made by one of the players at the training ground this week, so I was told. I won't say which one or why they didn't fancy it because I couldn't proe the accuracy of the information anyway but the guy did did make the team.

DavieG is about right with his ratings because they were all equally bad apart from the manager who was the worst of all and needs to ask himself why we took such a negative approach instead of just setting out to retain the sort of movement and energy we had on Satuday and try to win the game.

Tranmere were a solid, well organised and well motivated side but of all things we needed to compete first and then to pass the ball around patiently. Very spasmodically we showed we could do that but there weren't really enough passers in the team nor was there enough athleticism.

As someone said, at least Gradel provided some liveliness and the odd hint of a chance. But he was well marked and needed passing options around him.

Agreed - if we go back to the boring old let's hold on to what we've got mentality we will suffer. Let's go about finishing the job we started with some style and panache instead of crawling over the line. First Pearson made my night posing with my my two kids but then let s down with his tactics and team choice.#

Support was awesome though... when they scored the noise was deafening from our supporters who just carried on singing - the only high point of the night...