Largely agree, except about Obertan. Obertan put several very nice balls into the box. No one got on the end of them but he put them into the danger area, which is all he can be asked to do. He had a good game, for the first time that I can remember
Krul - 5 - Not his best night Simpson - 7.5 - Actually got over the halfway line for a change to support the RW Colo - 8 - Looked solid as ever Williamson - 7 - Quite solid Perch - 7 - Quiet game which means he did what he had to do.. Obertan - 7.5 - He had a good game by his standards however his inability to cross was annoying. plus if he had been playing against any half decent LB he wouldnt have even seen the light of day. Bigi - 5 - Was there to link up the DF and ST but his first touches were awful and even his passing and vision seemed below par. Would be the equivalent of a Tiote in the Championship though. Gosling - 5.5 - Same as Bigi really.. His main job is to link up the play however the only outlets we seemed to have were Obertan and Marveaux (very disappointing IMO). Marveaux - 8 - MOTM - Very useful with the ball however he did fail to look up and see what was around him at times (e.g when he could of played Ba through). He is one of few players who has the potential ability to break into our starting 11... Ba - 6 - Not his usual self... Looked slow and lacklustre (Much like cisse in the first leg). Vukic - 7.5 - OK but nothing special.. should have had a hatrick in that game. Looked kinda Championship mid table team standard unfortunately.. Pardew - 5 - I think he got it all wrong yesterday... starting 4-4-1-1 was ridiculous given the opposition we were facing.. should have started 4-3-3 got more goals early and then he could revert back to a 4-4-1-1. The ratings above might look quite harsh but we have to remember we were playing a greek side who finished 4th last year and had league 1 standard players at best.
I think it was actually a 4-2-3-1 wasn't it? Starting line up - ---------Ba----------- Marv---Gosling-----Obertan ----Perch---Bigi------- Raylor--Colo--Willo--Simmo -------Krul--------------- It looked more like this to me.
SSN and ITV before the game showed the line up as: -----------------Krul----------------- Taylor---Williamson--Colo-----Simpson Marv----Perch-------Bigi------Obertan -------------Gosling----------------- ---------------Ba------------------- When Raylor got injured Perch just went back there, gosling went to CM with Bigi and Vukic went into Goslings place
