Player ratings versus the Barnstormers

[Thracian]

Weale 6.5 (One or two vital reflex saves and a decent half-punch to send a corner to safety but his distribution was totally thoughtless and inaccurate. He no longer seems to throw the ball out to start an attack but simply punts the ball waywardly to nowhere in particular).

Morrison 6 (Never more than average).

Hobbs 5 (Wherehas the once dominant and assured defender gone. He looked like a stiff-limbed marionette at times - jabbing out a leg here and there in the most unbalanced fashion and never looked anything close to cultured or inspiring).

Brown 5 (One last gasp tackle was outstanding and some of his defensive work was typically solid and no-nonsense but if anything his already suspect distribution is getting worse. One incident was typical tonight. He won possession on the edge of our box and found himself staring at a ring of four blue-shirted colleagues - all of them unmarked. He seemed to dwell for an age looking first at one then another before inexplicably electing to hoof the ball aimlessly upfield to a Barnsley shirt. Even a simple pass back towards the goalkeeper missed it's target by a distance and almost ended in the net).

Powell 5 (Gamely committed but left for dead too easily both by pace and movement. Our left-back position is becoming amajor embarrassment).

Gallagher 5 (Woeful set pieces, too pedestrian in his approach and was only rarely any sort of threat).

Oakley 5 (Tried hard to put some energy into the team by being constantly involved but hardly delivered an accurate pass all night. And even when he did he delayed the pass too long leaving the receiver cramped for space).

Wellens 5 (Hardly noticed in a constructive sense).

N'Guessan 6.5 (Scored what would have been a tidy goal had it not been disallowed for offside, had another goalbound effort blocked and saw a third effort - a bullet header whiozz wide of a post when he should certainly have hit the target. Our most dangerous attacker by far and inexplicably substituted in the second half).

Kergormant 5.5 (Worked hard enough and did some solid work but posed few problems where it mattered, in their box, and I cannot recall him having a shot which is not much good for a striker).

Waghorn 4 (Had some chances to break through the hardly whippet-like Barnsley backline but failed to take them. No shots, no goals and no great use really. He seems to be a head down, bull-at-a-gate player to me except he doesn't seem to create the havoc you'd expect).

Subs:

Fryatt was busy, Howard almost touched in a Fryatt cross at the near post but sadly saw the effort pass wide of a post and I cannot remember King doing anything of consequence in what were short appearances for all three and not worth rating.

Pearson 0 (Uninspiring substitutions and the overseer of a totally substandard performance. Our passing was attrocious, our inability to support attacks in any numbers pathetic, our set-pieces infantile, there was no guile, no imagination, no team cohesion. Bar the setting you'd never have guessed the City players were even professionals. They barely strung three passes together the entire match and certainly not with any great attacking purpose.).

[Mikey]

Weale - 6

Morrison - 7

Hobbs - 6

Brown - 6

Powell - 7

Gallagher - 4

Oakley - 5

N'Guessan - 5.5

Waghorn - 6

Kermorgant - 5

[lildave3]

Weale - S

Morrison - Q

Hobbs - F

Brown - M

Powell - 12

Gallagher - ZZ

Oakley - P

N'Guessan - V

Yann - U

Waggy - %

[JoeyB]

Weale - S

Morrison - Q

Hobbs - F

Brown - M

Powell - 12

Gallagher - ZZ

Oakley - P

N'Guessan - V

Yann - U

Waggy - %

you forgot to put the key !

and im guessing you forgot to put wellens in? but he didn't really turn up so your ok

[lildave3]

you forgot to put the key !

and im guessing you forgot to put wellens in? but he didn't really turn up so your ok

He played??

[lcfc_jme]

Weale - 6 (sold short by Brown with worrying frequency)

Morrison - 6 (passing improving, positionally sound)

Hobbs - 5 (not one to remember)

Brown - 5 (see Hobbs)

Grandpa Powell - 7.5 (our best player. Easily. Legend)

Gally - stay off the pitch you useless bag of shit.

Oakley - 5 (didn't happen for him AGAIN. Legs have gone)

Wellens - wasn't playing to the best of my knowledge

N'Guessan - 5 (offered an outlet but is absolutely clueless on the ball and has no technical ability)

Waghorn - 4 (becoming Hume mk II; Full of running, little end product and not enough goals)

Yann - Should not start ahead of Steve.

Subs:

King - didn't touch the ball once, I swear to it.

Fryatt and Steve linked well and were more effective than Yann + Waggy, not that that's saying much.

Pearson - 1. All wrong today aside from playing Powell.

Lou - 10. Lift home and great chat. Big fan, cheers!

[SamL]

Weale 6

Morrison 7

Brown 6

Hobbs 6

Powell 7

Gallagher 5

Oakley 6

Wellens 5

N'Guessan 6

Kermogant 5

Waghorn 6

[syston_fox]

Weale - S

Morrison - Q

Hobbs - F

Brown - M

Powell - 12

Gallagher - ZZ

Oakley - P

N'Guessan - V

Yann - U

Waggy - %

was there any logic to it in the end or did you just opt for the random letter / number / symbol combo?

[Leicester Rule!]

Can we do negative ratings?

What a bunch of clowns, couldnt pass it, so decided to play the long ball despite big Darren Moore in defence.

Chris Powell at least showed some heart, and did well, despite his lack of pace.

Why not start Howard and Fryatt?? It is the most effective strike force we have got! When Waghorn was suspended we were on a run of 3 wins from 3 was it???

[lildave3]

was there any logic to it in the end or did you just opt for the random letter / number / symbol combo?

The latter.

[Fox92]

Weale 6 - DISTRIBUTION WAS POOR. COULDN'T DEAL WITH THE SUPERB CORNERS.

Morrison 6

Hobbs 6

Brown 6

Powell 6

Gallager 5 - NOT A WINGER FFS

Oakley 4 - SHOCKING

Wellens 6

N'Guessan 4.5 - NOT IN THE GAME AT ALL

Waghorn 6

Kermogrant 5.5 - WILL HE EVER SCORE?

[Cobbo]

Weale - 7 - some fine saves.

Morrison - 5

Hobbs - 4

Brown - 6 (for that tackle saving Oakley's ass in the first half)

Powell - 7 - best of a bad bunch, not a game since Preston in the cup but fitness looked fine & reading of the game excellent as ever.

Gallagher - 4

Oakley - 4

Wellens - 4

N'Guessan - 5

Kermogant - 5

Waghorn - 5

Subs:

Fryatt - 5

Howard - 5

King - 5

[BedsFox]

At the game, haven't read the thread deliberately

Weale 6. Solid but a few of his kicks put us under unneccary pressure

Morrison 6. Not the problem, but woeful distribution let him down

Hobbs 6 Solid enough

Brown 6 Bad distribution, but gave it his all unlike a few others

Powell 6 OK, prefer him there to McGivern, more solid

Gallagher 4. Horrendous performance. Woeful delivery from free kicks last twenty minutes

Oakley 5. Have his legs gone? Poor

Wellens 5 Completely anonymous. One paced

N'Guessan 7 Probably our best player,. Was stunned he was taken off not Gallagher

Kermorgant 4 Completely not at the races.

Waghorn 5. Tried to play on the alst defender's shoulder but the delivery from midfield was shocking

I am not sure Pearson knows his best team anymore, and the loss of confidence is tangible. For now I would go back to our most secure option

This would involve Howard/Fryatt up front, Dyer on one wing, King in front of the back four and Kermorgant, Gallagher and one of Oakley/Wellens off for a rest.

[Thracian]

Can we do negative ratings?

What a bunch of clowns, couldnt pass it, so decided to play the long ball despite big Darren Moore in defence.

Chris Powell at least showed some heart, and did well, despite his lack of pace.

Why not start Howard and Fryatt?? It is the most effective strike force we have got! When Waghorn was suspended we were on a run of 3 wins from 3 was it???

Several of us couldn't understand why we seemed to make no attempt to expose Moore 1 v 1 or 1 v 2 against Waghorn/N'Guessan or even both with Dyer threatening wide on the left to make it even harder. It simply never happened. Our tactics were so negative, unadventurous, uncommitted and ill thought-out.

Once Moore came on we should have stetched the Barnsley defence to breaking point and fed balls inside the big, veteran, defender so that our faster men could take advantage.

If there was even one such pass then that would have been it. We asked very few questions and our task was not made easier by the back four offering such poor support going forward.

Both Morrison and Powell were loathe to venture over the half-way line - it was so clear that their principal role was to defend our clean sheet while Brown just hoofed.

I laughed today when I saw the Mercury refering to what might have been had we taken our chances. The impression given was that there were lots of them. It simply wasn't true. And the article conveniently forgot the couple of times we somehow cleared Barnsley chances off the line during goalmouth melees when it seemed impossible that the ball wouldn't go in.

As for the player performance summaries it was back to being Andersonesque with some being given credit they simply didn't earn or deserve.

[lou]

Lou - 10. Lift home and great chat. Big fan, cheers!

Ahh thanks! It was a pleasure

Apologies for my shite driving (was very tired and stressed) and my hyperactive gutter-mouth of a Daughter!

[Kilworthfox]

Weale - 7 did nothing wrong

Morrison - 7 was left in the shit by his defensive counterparts

Hobbs - 5 poor

Brown - 1 good tackle on Hume, otherwise horror show

Powell - 5 showed his age, but a billion times better than McGivern

Gallagher - 6 nice touches, poor set piece deliveries, not a winger!

Oakley - 3 out of form drop now

N'Guessan - 5 where was Dyer?

Wellens - 6 Poor but still class above everyone we have

Waghorn - 6 poor, but tried

Kermorgant - 3 Howard needs to replace this clown

[C.J]

Weale - 6 Could do nothing about the goal, made some good saves. Dont know why he was aiming his kicks at Waggy

Morrison - 5

Hobbs - 5

Brown - 7 For that Bloody awsome tackle on Hume, gave me a heart attack when he sold Weale short

Powell - 6 (if he was younger the rating would of been higher) Watch and learn Mcgivern

Gallagher - 4

Oakley - 3 took too much time on the ball when he got it, didnt seem bothered

N'Guessan - 6 put in some effort, good finish for the dissalowed goal

Wellens - He played? What happened to the hard tackling, killer passing player of the start of the season

Waghorn - 6.5 Put in a good shift, didn't get the right service (i.e. not to feet) but still lept and tried to get them

Kermorgant - 3.5 Sorry Kermo, im still hoping you'll score us one of your 'youtube goals' soon. Tried hard.

Howard- 6 Had a good chance, seemed to play better when he came on.

Fryatt- 4 Gone off the boil

King- Didn't notice him.

[Lillehamring]

jesus christ we must be screwed if people are desperate for howard to come back... we are so incapable of playing football that people want a return to league one style football just so we don't lose games.

i even forget that we were playing, so underwhelmed and boring has our footy become.

[Donut]

BARNSLEY EEEBAAAAGUUMMMMM

Ball Boys & Girls 0- Couldnt be arsed to contribute to a free flowing multiball bonanza

Concourse Staff 7.9525- Shame about the Man U lasting legacy of wire meshes..... pastie wasnt bad except i prefer pukka to famous and this happened to be a famous pastie. Food was a bit pricey for a mediocre grim northern club. Fit staff though

Barnsley Mascot 0- WHAT A WAAAAANNNKKKKEERRRRR

Stewards- 6.456- Performed their phase 5 or whatever formation the tannoy bloke with the innaudible voice asked them to do with great aplomb, but why they hell have unreserved seating and 1 concourse open? we werent sharing with their fans so why did they have the feckin baracade up inside?

Half time entertainment- 0 Was dull and crap, although our fan looked quite useful

Tannoy bloke 0- Sounded like he wanted to top himself, especially when he realised it was his car blocking the road. he has now had to sell one of his kids as a slave to recover it from the pound.

Barnsley Fans 0- Made no noise, have no assets, are poor, and are all back in the pits probably as we speak, or eating yorkshire puddings, or maybe even breeding whippets

WEALE- 6.9545352515 Made some absolutely crucial saves just to keep us in the game, and made a good save to the first shot from the corner that the goal came from. Kicking wasn't great but could place much blame on him on the night

POWELL- 6.125 Bags of experienced showed in his positional sense, but unfortunately he doesnt have the pace to play at championship level anymore, something underlined by his economical movement and not supporting attacks

BROWN- 6.88 Whilst his passing was as characteristically poor as we come to expect, he defended with real stubbornness and the tackle on Hume in the first half was timed to perfection.

HOBBS- 6 Defended solidly but not as commanding as he was when the team was playing better

MORRISON- 6 Solid defending against a tricky winger in Adam Hammil, but disappointed as with Powell he made no real effort to support our attacks as an extra wide player

N'GUESSAN 6.7575- Had a goal chalked off for offside which looked offside too in all honesty, but was by far leicesters best midfielder. energetic, the only player looking capable of creating something (probably anything). His directness was a threat and really should have done better with the header

WELLENS - 4.25 A woeful game for wellens who never got to grips or speed on the night and was never involved in any positive passage of play. Gave the ball away cheaply on numerous occasions and never looked remotely like doing anything positive.

OAKLEY -2 Ditto Wellens but worse. Couldnt run, pass, head and certainly didnt want to put a foot in. Passing was woeful at best and imstarting to wonder whether his legs have gone.

GALLAGHER 3.1000005 I was quoted in another thread as saying Gallagher may be the best player in terms of technical ability in the squad. I take that all back on last nights evidence. Cross after cross was wasted, pass after pass misplaced, he had an utterly woeful game and should have been hauled off. His game was summed up by the passage of play with 5 mins to go:- free kick in the attacking third with all the big men up and 1-0 down, Gallagher proceeds to sail the ball over everyones head way over the crossbar. Wasteful isnt the word

KERMOGANT- 4 A largely annonymous performance from the frenchman other than his neatly weighted through ball for Waggy. Was starved of service on the night but he didnt cause any problems

WAGHORN 5.321- Ran and ran, typical Waghorn, but was pretty poor. A bit more composure needed on the one on one. Never an easy task to get the better of a defender so big as Darren Moore though, especially given our preference for high ball.

SUBS

HOWARD- 5.1 Won some aerial tussles, but was innefective in the time he was on the pitch. Perhaps should have started the game but hindsight is 20/20

FRYATT- 5 Wasnt in the game, was well marshalled unfortunately for us. Without his goals, no one else contributes. big worry

KING 0- Chronic negative substitution in the first place and when he was on i barely think he touched the ball, so all in all a huge let down

PEARSON- 1- I HATE criticising Pearson, but last night just about everything was wrong. His decision to play N'Guessan wide left and Gallagher out of position when he could have played Dany on the right and played Dyer was poor. Not giving Dyer any time on the pitch and keeping Gallagher on all game was also extremely poor, as was bringing on Andy King as we were chasing the game. The front two he picked were the most mobile he had available to him and yet he proceeded to play a style of play that never got them involved even when the lack of pace in Barnsleys back four was obvious.

I am also getting a little tired of the glib nature of his post match interviews. He said, on the back of that performance something along the lines of 'we lost the game, but there you go, we move on'

I would like to see the manager accept the failings of his system a little more on the night, not to name names but i dont think there is anything wrong with slating the performance in a constructive way. I dont think Pearson should show contempt in the way he is starting to do frequently in his interviews by refusing to fully acknowledge the nature of the performance and being more frank on what he saw.

Im sure many will disagree, but i feel that way about the situation at times

[midfield]

i have nt seen as many games this season due to work and other footy commitments but pearson seems to change it for the sake of it

i know we have a problem left back he is shit but actually thinks he is class:the midfield in my opinion should be ngessen rirght side dyer left and king and wellens in the middleup top should be fryatt (top scorer) and howard

in defence weale in goal right back morrison centre brown and hobbs and on the left i would prob put powell because we have no one else

i know this is prob in the wrong thread and will get slated by the click but who gives a fook

felt i had to write something after reading about the team last night

gallegher and the french man are not good enough

and what has happened to clemmence is he still alive and are we still paying him

any comments

[lou]

Weale - 6.5

Powell 7 MOTM

NGuessen 6

Everyone else gets a 4 apart from Oakley who gets 2 and Wellens a 3

NP - I still believe in you but for Gods sake man why wont you ever sub Oakley?

[Thracian]

Weale - 6.5

Powell 7 MOTM

NGuessen 6

Everyone else gets a 4 apart from Oakley who gets 2 and Wellens a 3

NP - I still believe in you but for Gods sake man why wont you ever sub Oakley?

He's shown no signs of dropping Oakley. Whether that's because he's the captain, because Pearson thinks he's brilliant or for some other reason, I don't know. Almost every opinion I read agrees he's had a prolonged run of indifferent games and the notion of believing he's a sounder ball retainer or more useful central midfield than King is ridiculous to me.

Oakley has always been more of an attacking central midfielder than anything but that seems largely to have disappeared. And one look at our goalscorers over the last two years pays testimony to his not being as effective in that department as King in any case.

But, having first manufactured a position for Oakley on the right wing (at specialist player's expense) and despite him not being in any way a winger that Ican see, Pearson is now apparently indicating that if Oakley's not suited to a wide position he'll accommodate him inside again.

I could write a thesis as to why that doesn't add up but I won't. The stats speak for themselves either in terms of goals, headed interceptions, passes completed...whatever you care to name.

I don't even know why King signed his new contract even though I'm pleased from City's point of view.

Why? Because King is not being developed as I would expect. He's by far our most accomplished central midfielder but needs to play in a much more expansive and talented team to utilise the full range of his skills which are considerable.

Watching Scholes and Manchester United tonight only emphasised how simple football is and how vital it is to retain possession. United gave a masterclass second half with Van Der Saar leading the way with his instant throw outs and utterly confident passes to his fellow defenders even in relatively pressured situations.

There was no aimless hoof ball apart from in exceptional circumstances. Defenders, midfielders and attackers passed simply, quickly and then moved to the point that there were always six or seven players attacking the box in any attack.

King needs a team full of players to do the same with him. He doesn't need to be the only competent passer in the side. He needs to be able to defend or attack according to circumstances and to be sure that others are aware enough to fill any gaps he might leave when moving forward.

I no longer care what Pearson does. It's clear he'll do his own thing anyway and that he'll contrive a team to bore me silly whatever.

I've made up my mind that this will be my last season ticket season and I'll watch in future only if there's a manager and a team to do the word "football" justice because I think even our players can perform better than is currently the case.

Pearson can stick his "clean sheet" policy for me and his use of Oakley as extra defensive insurance in the same way as Rob Kelly used Stephen Hughes (and we all know how good that was for our goals scored column and our results).

Don't mistake me. Oakley still has a job to do. But if he cannot adjust to being a full-back who can move into midfield when we have the ball then it's as a second half utilitarian replacement on the evidence of recent showings.

[lou]

He's shown no signs of dropping Oakley. Whether that's because he's the captain, because Pearson thinks he's brilliant or because it's perhaps written into Oakley's contract that he plays, I don't know. Almost every opinion I read agrees he's had a prolonged run of indifferent games and the notion of believing he's a sounder ball retainer or more useful central midfield than King is ridiculous to me.

Oakley has always been more of an attacking central midfielder than anything but that seems largely to have disappeared. And one look at our goalscorers over the last two years pays testimony to his not being as effective in that department as King in any case.

But, having first manufactured a position for Oakley on the right wing (at specialist player's expense) and despite him not being in any way a winger that Ican see, Pearson is now apparently indicating that if Oakley's not suited to a wide position he'll accommodate him inside again.

I could write a thesis as to why that doesn't add up but I won't. The stats speak for themselves either in terms of goals, headed interceptions, passes completed...whatever you care to name.

I don't even know why King signed his new contract even though I'm pleased from City's point of view.

Why? Because King is not being developed as I would expect. He's by far our most accomplished central midfielder but needs to play in a much more expansive and talented team to utilise the full range of his skills which are considerable.

Watching Scholes and Manchester United tonight only emphasised how simple football is and how vital it is to retain possession. United gave a masterclass second half with Van Der Saar leading the way with his instant throw outs and utterly confident passes to his fellow defenders even in relatively pressured situations.

There was no aimless hoof ball apart from in exceptional circumstances. Defenders, midfielders and attackers passed simply, quickly and then moved to the point that there were always six or seven players attacking the box in any attack.

King needs a team full of players to do the same with him. He doesn't need to be the only competent passer in the side. He needs to be able to defend or attack according to circumstances and to be sure that others are aware enough to fill any gaps he might leave when moving forward.

I no longer care what Pearson does. It's clear he'll do his own thing anyway and that he'll contrive a team to bore me silly whatever.

I've made up my mind that this will be my last season ticket season and I'll watch in future only if there's a manager and a team to do the word "football" justice because I think even our players can perform better than is currently the case.

Pearson can stick his "clean sheet" policy for me and his use of Oakley as extra defensive insurance in the same way as Rob Kelly used Stephen Hughes (and we all know how good that was for our goals scored column and our results).

Don't mistake me. Oakley still has a job to do. But if he cannot adjust to being a full-back who can move into midfield when we have the ball then it's as a second half utilitarian replacement.

I cant understand why he didnt just replace Oakley with King? Dany was (slightly) better than most last night yet he got taken off! Just didnt make any sense to me.

Cardiff proved last week that when we play the ball along the ground we can play some decent football, they just seem to forget about it most of the time!

The passing last night was I think the worst Ive seen all season?

[Lillehamring]

BARNSLEY EEEBAAAAGUUMMMMM

good post, i no longer regret forgetting that we were playing, as i feel like i went