Arsenal (H) 1-1 : Player Ratings & Man of the Match

[Corky]

Schmeichel- 6 (Not a huge amount to do, kicking was mixed)

 

De Laet- 7 (Struggled for the goal but other than that fantastic)

Moore- 8 (Reputation continues to grow)

Morgan- 8 (Skipper has started superbly)

Konchesky- 8 (Lots of question marks about him but he's responded very well)

 

Mahrez- 7 (Tried to be a bit flash around our box but one or two jinking runs)

King- 7 (Seems a new player, stronger, sliding into tackles and again moving the ball around well)

Hammond- 6 (Struggled against their pace and fouled too often. Much better second half)

Schlupp- 6.5 (One awful cross, one sublime cross, helped out defensively, can improve)

 

Nugent- 7 (Worked so hard for the team, closed down at all opportunities, didn't have a chance but set up others)

Ulloa- 8 (Should've had two, bullet header and frustrating miss, but touch, control and movement was excellent)

 

Drinkwater- 7

Vardy- 7

Albrighton- 5

[Captain...]

I thought Hammond (8) was excellent again today along with King (7), did a huge amount of work and was harshly penalised at times, and rightfully at others, but I don't think there is anything wrong with a good old foul every now and again, and it is a cynical side that we don't always have.

 

I've forgotten the ratings I put this morning, but there was nobody under a 7 except Albrighton, he got a 6, a real shame him and Ulloa (9) didn't spend more time on the pitch together as he whipped in some dangerous balls but with Nuge (8) and Vardy (7) against Mertesacker it wasn't really going to result in anything, but I thought he slotted in when he came on and did little wrong.

 

DD (7) looked sharp coming on especially in an unfamiliar Right Wing role, Vardy also looked good, shame his poor pass to Nugent slowed that move down, although Nuge played him in brilliantly. Heard people behind me criticising Nuge for slowing it down when he did everything right and ran his bollocks off all match.

 

It was a real shame Schlupp (9) and Mahrez (7) faded towards the end they both put a huge shift in and were constantly talking with their full backs Konch (7) and RDL (7) doubling up defensively every time Arsenal had the ball and working well going forwards, the fitness of this team is immense, but they both looked knackered when they came off.

 

Ulloa was a revelation, anyone who was worried about the effort he would put in I hope is eating their words, he was tracking back and even filling in at full back for a while, and like Nuge gave the Arsenal back four a torrid time all time and forced mistakes. This is the difference between us and Arsenal, there were very few times they gave the ball away, we had to fight to win back every ball, pressuring them into mistakes and harrying them all game. We need to be the same we need to make them work to get the ball back and not give it away cheaply like we did a few times yesterday and Kasper(7) needs to be careful with his kicking a few times yesterday he let himself get into trouble by taking to long to clear and we lost the ball, other times he played some brilliant raking passes and occasionally he just spooned it. If we are going to play with that intensity off the ball we need to spend more time on it and calm down in possession otherwise we are going to run out of steam.

 

Finally Moore (8) and Morgan (7) were beasts at the back, I love to see Moore holding his own against world cup winners and the greats of the premiership, some great distribution too. Did they give any coverage to Sczesny's kick out at him on Sky I've not watched it back yet?

 

The tactics: A couple of times now we have conceded where the defence have got back on the line rather than closing down the ball, McGeady's goal and yesterday, it is obviously a plan, but I'm not sure it is the best one. Defensively yesterday we clearly had a plan too, which was to get 8 back on the edge of the box and let them play it in front of us, with Nugent chasing them down. Not going to criticise it as they only got through a couple of times, but it made me very nervous to watch, but then I was nervous all game...

 

"Oh shit, Ramsey has it, phew he has passed it...Oh shit he has passed it to Ozil... phew he has passed it ... Oh shit Cazorla, Sanchez, Flamini..." I was a nervous wreck by half time thank god they didn't have Giroud fit, I think I was only relaxed when Sanogo had it.

 

A word on Arsenal. No bottle, this will be a problem for them this season, they were not up for the fight, I don't know if anyone saw Ozil go down and signal to be subbed only to realise there were no subs left get a bit of spray and come back on and run around without any problems. He just didn't fancy another Hammond special. We didn't aim to rough them up, but they knew they were in a battle and they didn't like it and would rather pass it around play pretty football and take pot shots than go at us.

 

Yesterday we faced a team of international players including 3 current World Cup winners, 1 current European Championship winner, some of the best young British talent not to mention countless domestic honours and we more than held our own. Great performance the test now will be to play with that level of intensity against Stoke great performances won't keep us up at the end of the season only points will and despite everything we still only have 2 of them (one more than I thought we would at this stage).

 

And finally a mention for Ulloa's comedy slip into Mertesacker, made me laugh.

[Fox Ulike]

A bit too many 9s in people's ratings for my liking. It wasn't an outstanding performance from everybody. Granted, we played very well and kept a composed shape, yet such high ratings usually warrant a performance of a lifetime. If at all, I'd give every single player a "solid+".

 

My MOTM goes to Leonardo Ulloa. Not just because of the goal - he did a great job helping out further in the back, winning one-on-ones and just for being a general nuisance.

The only "low" ratings go to Schmeichel (didn't really have a lot to do), Hammond (some tactical fouls are great, too many fouls a sign of a player not being able to cope) and Albrighton (didn't have the desired impact as a sub), all of which got a 6 from me.

 

Hammond committed 5 fouls all game. That's not really a sign of anything other than your miserliness in giving out good ratings.

 

How can Hammond and Albrighton get the same score? Bizarre.

 

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2014/matches/755326/player-stats/11848/1_PASS_01#tabs-wrapper-anchor

[Stuliasz]

Just a reminder that results will be posted tomorrow night so get your votes in before then if you want them to be included in the results. My ratings below now I've had chance to sleep on it.

 

Schmeichel 7

 

De Laet 8

Morgan 8

Moore 7

Konchesky 8

 

Mahrez 7

Hammond 7

King 7

Schlupp 8

 

Nugent 7

Ulloa 9

[ADK]

I wonder if people consciously or sub consciously are marking Hammond down because they would like Cambiasso to replace him.

[Guest ttfn]

Hammond committed 5 fouls all game. That's not really a sign of anything other than your miserliness in giving out good ratings.

 

How can Hammond and Albrighton get the same score? Bizarre.

 

http://www.fourfourtwo.com/statszone/8-2014/matches/755326/player-stats/11848/1_PASS_01#tabs-wrapper-anchor

5 (FIVE) fouls is a lot of fouls for an individual player to give away. To put that in context, King made 1 foul all season.

 

Hammond has made more fouls than any player in the division other than Chamakh.

 

It was almost certainly part of our gameplan yesterday for him to make a lot of fouls where necessary, but in a context where King made 0 fouls, you get the impression that it was caused by him being off the pace as much as a concerted tactic.

 

 

I wonder if people consciously or sub consciously are marking Hammond down because they would like Cambiasso to replace him.

I didn't think he played well. There was a point in the first half when he looked like he could barely control his legs, the poor bastard, he was being given a proper chasing but was working his nuts off.

 

 

I thought Hammond (8) was excellent again today along with King (7), did a huge amount of work and was harshly penalised at times, and rightfully at others, but I don't think there is anything wrong with a good old foul every now and again, and it is a cynical side that we don't always have.

 

I've forgotten the ratings I put this morning, but there was nobody under a 7 except Albrighton, he got a 6, a real shame him and Ulloa (9) didn't spend more time on the pitch together as he whipped in some dangerous balls but with Nuge (8) and Vardy (7) against Mertesacker it wasn't really going to result in anything, but I thought he slotted in when he came on and did little wrong.

 

DD (7) looked sharp coming on especially in an unfamiliar Right Wing role, Vardy also looked good, shame his poor pass to Nugent slowed that move down, although Nuge played him in brilliantly. Heard people behind me criticising Nuge for slowing it down when he did everything right and ran his bollocks off all match.

 

It was a real shame Schlupp (9) and Mahrez (7) faded towards the end they both put a huge shift in and were constantly talking with their full backs Konch (7) and RDL (7) doubling up defensively every time Arsenal had the ball and working well going forwards, the fitness of this team is immense, but they both looked knackered when they came off.

 

Ulloa was a revelation, anyone who was worried about the effort he would put in I hope is eating their words, he was tracking back and even filling in at full back for a while, and like Nuge gave the Arsenal back four a torrid time all time and forced mistakes. This is the difference between us and Arsenal, there were very few times they gave the ball away, we had to fight to win back every ball, pressuring them into mistakes and harrying them all game. We need to be the same we need to make them work to get the ball back and not give it away cheaply like we did a few times yesterday and Kasper(7) needs to be careful with his kicking a few times yesterday he let himself get into trouble by taking to long to clear and we lost the ball, other times he played some brilliant raking passes and occasionally he just spooned it. If we are going to play with that intensity off the ball we need to spend more time on it and calm down in possession otherwise we are going to run out of steam.

 

Finally Moore (8) and Morgan (7) were beasts at the back, I love to see Moore holding his own against world cup winners and the greats of the premiership, some great distribution too. Did they give any coverage to Sczesny's kick out at him on Sky I've not watched it back yet?

 

The tactics: A couple of times now we have conceded where the defence have got back on the line rather than closing down the ball, McGeady's goal and yesterday, it is obviously a plan, but I'm not sure it is the best one. Defensively yesterday we clearly had a plan too, which was to get 8 back on the edge of the box and let them play it in front of us, with Nugent chasing them down. Not going to criticise it as they only got through a couple of times, but it made me very nervous to watch, but then I was nervous all game...

 

"Oh shit, Ramsey has it, phew he has passed it...Oh shit he has passed it to Ozil... phew he has passed it ... Oh shit Cazorla, Sanchez, Flamini..." I was a nervous wreck by half time thank god they didn't have Giroud fit, I think I was only relaxed when Sanogo had it.

 

A word on Arsenal. No bottle, this will be a problem for them this season, they were not up for the fight, I don't know if anyone saw Ozil go down and signal to be subbed only to realise there were no subs left get a bit of spray and come back on and run around without any problems. He just didn't fancy another Hammond special. We didn't aim to rough them up, but they knew they were in a battle and they didn't like it and would rather pass it around play pretty football and take pot shots than go at us.

 

Yesterday we faced a team of international players including 3 current World Cup winners, 1 current European Championship winner, some of the best young British talent not to mention countless domestic honours and we more than held our own. Great performance the test now will be to play with that level of intensity against Stoke great performances won't keep us up at the end of the season only points will and despite everything we still only have 2 of them (one more than I thought we would at this stage).

 

And finally a mention for Ulloa's comedy slip into Mertesacker, made me laugh.

 

As much as I disagree with your ratings of Hammond and Schlupp I really enjoyed this format for writing it up.

[Captain...]

5 (FIVE) fouls is a lot of fouls for an individual player to give away. To put that in context, King made 1 foul all season.

Hammond has made more fouls than any player in the division other than Chamakh.

It was almost certainly part of our gameplan yesterday for him to make a lot of fouls where necessary, but in a context where King made 0 fouls, you get the impression that it was caused by him being off the pace as much as a concerted tactic.

I didn't think he played well. There was a point in the first half when he looked like he could barely control his legs, the poor bastard, he was being given a proper chasing but was working his nuts off.

As much as I disagree with your ratings of Hammond and Schlupp I really enjoyed this format for writing it up.

Cheers, I do tend to glaze over when just looking at names and numbers so I thought I would do it differently.

As for my ratings, for the 60 odd minutes he was on the pitch Schlupp was my motm, he worked tirelessly up and down that flank, defensively he bossed it with Konch, but what really impressed me was his understanding and communication with Konch and the players round him. We only looked out of shape a couple of times when caught in possession. Then that cross for Leo was really the game changer.

[Rushden fox]

Ulloa was MoTM, though all played well today.

As well as his goal, he bossed their world cup winning defender, and defended against arsenal corners brilliantly.

A great buy, great work rate and attitude.

But that goes for all of them!

Let's go back to the Ulloa three...£8m for an unproven striker....ummm...now what'd dyu think he's worth

[Fox Ulike]

5 (FIVE) fouls is a lot of fouls for an individual player to give away. To put that in context, King made 1 foul all season.

 

Hammond has made more fouls than any player in the division other than Chamakh.

 

It was almost certainly part of our gameplan yesterday for him to make a lot of fouls where necessary, but in a context where King made 0 fouls, you get the impression that it was caused by him being off the pace as much as a concerted tactic.

 

 

I didn't think he played well. There was a point in the first half when he looked like he could barely control his legs, the poor bastard, he was being given a proper chasing but was working his nuts off.

 

All you’ve done is taken a statistic and chosen to interpret it in a way that reinforces your pre-existing opinion of Hammond. Bad science.

 

Hammond is the top fouling midfielder in the Premiership with 3.3 fouls per game. But second on the list is Yaya Toure with 3.0.

 

So, would you also say that Yaya Toure is ‘off the pace'?

 

Hammond played well. Again. 7/10. He's not spectacular but he'll break up the opposition play (sometimes by committing fouls), and reads the game incredibly well.

The media have been bigging up Aaron Ramsey lately but he barely had a sniff up against Hammond.

 

So the fact that he committed five fouls is pretty meaningless.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[benpicko]

There's no doubting that Hammond's played well so far, surely? And this is coming from somebody who used him as a scapegoat last year whenever he played and something went slightly wrong

[Guest ttfn]

All you’ve done is taken a statistic and chosen to interpret it in a way that reinforces your pre-existing opinion of Hammond. Bad science.

Hammond is the top fouling midfielder in the Premiership with 3.3 fouls per game. But second on the list is Yaya Toure with 3.0.

So, would you also say that Yaya Toure is ‘off the pace'?

Hammond played well. Again. 7/10. He's not spectacular but he'll break up the opposition play (sometimes by committing fouls), and reads the game incredibly well.

The media have been bigging up Aaron Ramsey lately but he barely had a sniff up against Hammond.

So the fact that he committed five fouls is pretty meaningless.

I don't have a pre-existing opinion on Hammond at all. I thought he had a poor game on Sunday having had 2 really good ones in the previous weeks. These things happen.

Toure might have looked off the pace, I haven't watched them this season (and it's worth noting that, from what I have seen, one of his was for a "dive" which was a clear penalty). I watched Hammond and he looked like he was struggling to cope and the fact that he committed a lot of fouls would seem to support that.

Committing five fouls in a game is not normal. As I said above, King, playing in virtually identical circumstances to Hammond, committed 0 fouls.

Ramsey completed over 100 passes on Saturday - Hammond didn't get near him for the most part.

[theessexfox]

I think it was almost certainly in the plan to allow Ramsey to sit back until little pressure and pass in front of our two banks of four. 

[foxfanazer]

Morgan or Moore for me. Maybe Wes just edging it

[Fox Ulike]

I don't have a pre-existing opinion on Hammond at all. I thought he had a poor game on Sunday having had 2 really good ones in the previous weeks. These things happen.

Toure might have looked off the pace, I haven't watched them this season (and it's worth noting that, from what I have seen, one of his was for a "dive" which was a clear penalty). I watched Hammond and he looked like he was struggling to cope and the fact that he committed a lot of fouls would seem to support that.

Committing five fouls in a game is not normal. As I said above, King, playing in virtually identical circumstances to Hammond, committed 0 fouls.

Ramsey completed over 100 passes on Saturday - Hammond didn't get near him for the most part.

 

Your pre-existing opinion is that Hammond had a poor game, and you've cherry-picked a single stat about fouls to try and support it.

 

Ramsey completed 87% of his passes. Hammond completed 84%. But you only mention Ramsey's passing, but not Hammond's because it doesn't support your opinion. That's the bad science!

 

Hammond is in there to annoy players like Ramsey and Ozil and to kick them. King isn't.  It's a bit bizarre therefore to criticise Hammond because his foul tally is above average.

 

Flamini also averages 3 fouls per game, same as Hammond. You’ve seen Flamini. Is he off the pace?

 

Ulloa, van Persie also on 3 fouls per game. Balotelli is on a whopping four (although I accept he is probably a special case).

 

The stats generally just don’t support your opinion.

 

I thought Hammond played well, and the stats don't really prove this one way or the other...

[Guest ttfn]

Your pre-existing opinion is that Hammond had a poor game, and you've cherry-picked a single stat about fouls to try and support it.

Ramsey completed 87% of his passes. Hammond completed 84%. But you only mention Ramsey's passing, but not Hammond's because it doesn't support your opinion. That's the bad science!

Hammond is in there to annoy players like Ramsey and Ozil and to kick them. King isn't. It's a bit bizarre therefore to criticise Hammond because his foul tally is above average.

Flamini also averages 3 fouls per game, same as Hammond. You’ve seen Flamini. Is he off the pace?

Ulloa, van Persie also on 3 fouls per game. Balotelli is on a whopping four (although I accept he is probably a special case).

The stats generally just don’t support your opinion.

I thought Hammond played well, and the stats don't really prove this one way or the other...

87% of over 100 is not remotely comparable to 84% of 37. And I don't see how a percentage statistic has anything to do the absolute statement I made that Ramsey completed over 100 passes, largely because Hammond either couldn't or wasn't asked to get near him (the latter of which makes my point about Ramsey redundant if it was the case, which it may well have been).

You're making the assumption that I decided he was playing poorly and then saw how many fouls he'd made and jumped on it. Just watching the game it seemed apparent to me that he was chasing shadows for a large part of the first half. I shouldn't have raised the seasonal stat because at no point have I suggested that Hammond has looked off the pace before Sunday, but he committed so many fouls on Sunday that ON SUNDAY he looked off the pace in that one particular game. 5 fouls in one game definitely suggests that is the case. I don't think any midfielder has made that many fouls in a premier league game this season and there's plenty of spoiler- type players around.

You've mentioned that he and King had different roles to play. Again, I don't think that either my watching of the game or reading of their statistics suggest that was the case.

Hammond "broke up play" 9 times against Arsenal - 3 interceptions, 1 tackle, 0 blocks and 5 fouls.

King "broke up play" 8 times - 2 interceptions, 5 tackles, 1 block and 0 fouls.

King was clearly in a position to make a challenge almost as often as Hammond (7 tackles attempted plus no fouls vs 3 tackles attempted and 5 fouls) and yet made 5 fewer fouls. King was getting to the ball in making challenges and Hammond wasn't, which funnily enough is exactly what I thought I saw.

And if our tactic was to break up play by fouling if necessary, why was it just Hammond fouling in central midfield? Was it just him who was told to foul rather than successfully win the ball? Would seem odd given that repeated fouling by one player is punished by a yellow card when the risk could be spread between him and King.

Anyway, we're arguing here over 1.5 rating points. Hammond's performance was far from a disaster on Sunday and if he plays as he has done so far this season.

Edit:FoxUlike I'm happy to take this up by PM if you want because whilst we might find this interesting the fact that we've been pretty much the only people who've posted in the last 24 hours suggests we might be boring the tits off everyone else.

[davieG]

voting closed continue any discussions here - http://www.foxestalk.co.uk/forums/topic/96960-match-ratings-201415-arsenal-h-results-motm/

[AKCJ]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0UfdPf322HA

 

Didn't know where to put this but lol