I am happy with the performance. Well done Eddie playing 4D chess suggesting Isak isn't fully fit, making everyone believe Wilson starts... I'm glad we're finally starting to play our best attackers to win a game before defending a result rather than playing a defensive team hoping to scrape a 1-0 win, and bringing our attackers on later to try and scrape a win if we cannot scrape it with our defensive unit out. A few nervy moments, but we pulled through. Ratings - Pope - 7.5 - A couple of scrappy moments, but I think his saves more than make up for it. Trippier - 7.5 - I think the goal we conceded was unlucky, it seemed more like a slip than a miss kick. Good performance, good delivery again for the goal. He's had a few errors in him recently, but still an important player, deserving of a 7.5 because of how creative he is, a good free kick on target, and mostly good defending. Schar - 8 - Absolute unit. Great defending, superb ball playing. He's the best all round CB I've seen since prime Coloccini, probably better. Since starting buying tickets back in 2009, I've not seen better all round CB than Schar personally. His technical play is superb. When was the last time you saw a CB playing for us that could play a ball from the back like that? Botman - 7 - A few sloppy moments, but mostly good defending. Burn - 7 Longstaff - 7 - Good shift Bruno - 7.5 - Great short passes, good foul winning. Doesn't look fully fit though. Willock - 7.5 - Didn't think he started well, but made a lot of good runs down the wing, and a fantastic assist for Miggy. His energy in the middle of the park is important. ASM - 6 - Some good runs and skills but barely any final product unfortunately. Also his lack of closing down lead to one of their best chances with the freekick Bruno had to give away right outside the box. He really is a liability defensively. Isak - 8 - Good goal, good performance first half, you could tell he took his frustration out in this game. Good pressing, good skills, could have had a couple of assists. Much better than Wilson. Murphy - 7 - Good shift. Almiron - 8.5 - MOTM - I know he only played 20 mins, but he changed the game. Great goal, set up the botman sitter. Great work rate. He looked again like he took his frustration of being dropped out on the game. Our best player this season.
I think his slip for the goal makes him look worse than he was. He was mostly good with a few bad moments.
No. His deliveries into the box were deadly today. Lots of good chances including the goal came from his play, and like I said, he was unfortunate with the goal, it was more like a slip than a misskick. 7.5 is fair.
Thought Murphy put in a shift today Closing down the Wolves defence and Keeper forcing them into errors
No it’s not. We played well for 40 minutes of the game. Trippier’s positioning was all over the place. Looked weak. Cost us a goal. In fact maybe he’s more a 5
Poor positiong? He got the ball and was there to clear it, he just slipped. Maybe a 7 would be more fair, but the reality is his deliveries were our biggest threat today. He was literally our best attacking threat, a goal came from his delivery, he put in a lot of great balls into the box from set pieces and from the wing. He deserves a 7 simply for his attacking threat.
Does that mean a bit tea total at Christmas and special occasions and that you are pissed for the rest of the time ???
Isak MotM for me. At times he was sublime. The way he floats/cruises/sweeps past opposition players is beautiful to watch. Think he put to bed any suggestion of whether he should have started or not. Think all players played at least decently and all put a shift in. Was pleased for Murphy. I may grumble about him but he never gives less than 100% effort and he should get credit for that. It should be the least a professional footballer gives but as we all know that’s not the case but for Murphy it is. Schar was back to form and Max for me was a 6.5/7.
Actually, second thoughts for MotM. For me it was The ball boy on the half way line. His first touch was excellent.
I don't think the Pope challenge was a red, the Wolves player was looking for the foul and ran into him, and was going away from goal. A yellow at most if it was a foul, but I don't think it was a foul.
I think Joelinton being out and Willock being on freed us up more to attack and allowed us to score the goals. Joelinton is a decent defensive mid, but when he plays we have to CDMs in him and Bruno and that just means we have no one feeding balls into the box apart from the wings. Our wingers can't cross to save their lives. Today, our goals came from a rare decent free kick from Trippier and a wonderful header from Isak and then a through ball from Willock and a good strike from Almiron. We have a selection headache because Joelinton and Bruno playing together costs us attacking threat.
