My Thoughts

I thought first half we were excellent, passed it about quite nicely and some long balls which worked fantasically and Ba/Best were quality at holding it up and linked up brilliantly.

Second half we were shocking tbh - Everton absolutely dominated it and everytime we got it we kept on giving it straight back to them, but we got stuck in fantasically. The likes of Coloccini, Jonas, Simpson and the 2 Taylor's were brilliant and in the end I think we just about deserved it if you look at both halfs.

Player ratings:

Tim Krul - 6 - As much as Everton pressured us, he never had too many saves to make. Kicking was a bit gash again

Danny Simpson - 8 - Two brilliant performances in a row and some fantastic tackles

Steven Taylor - 8 - Solid as a ****ing rock!

Fabricio Coloccini - 9 - Man of the match for me. Such a good player, love how consistent he is and how comfortable he is in every situation

Ryan Taylor - 8 - Brilliant goal, quality defending and some quality crosses with his left foot. Surprise player of the season bar none

Sylvain Marveaux - 6 - Never did too much tbh. Can safely say he is not a right winger

Danny Guthrie - 8 - Another excellent performance from this lad. I am beginning to really like him!

Yohan Cabaye - 6 - Went off quite early so can't rate him too highly

Jonas Gutierrez - 8 - Got stuck in brilliantly as usual despite him being clearly exhausted

Leon Best - 8 - Works so hard, doesn't threaten the goal too much, but really impressed with his link up play

Demba Ba - 7 - Linked up well with Best in first half, second half didn't do as much - probably because Heitinga wasn't centre back

SUBS

Dan Gosling - 5 - Was it just me who thought he was shocking? Was like Guthrie was playing centre midfield by himself. Should have given penalty away with a daft handnball

Sammy Ameobi - 6 - Got a lot of the ball and I like his effort, but some of his passes/shots were a bit naff. Great cross aswell like

Hatem Ben Arfa - 6 - Hatem, pass the ball! lol. Hope he starts to get a run in the team because he has clear class, but needs to learn to pass it more often

 

Krul really needs to work on his kicking, I get nervous every time he touches the ball and as for Jonas, he was **** attacking but as Stoke, was great in the Defensive side of the game!!


Howay the lads!!

 

Yeah, I fancy Jonas to score against Man City for some reason. Usually rapes the **** out of the top teams

 

Literally word for word what i said about him as well haha

 

He is dreadful. Think if he plays, he should be attacking midfield as contributes nothing in a 2 man midfield

 

Yea just so he's as far away from our goal as possible, that save he made would of made Krul jealous.

Seriously though i just dont trust him at the minute, needs a loan.

 

Hope Cabaye and/or Tiote are OK for the next game - we missed Cabaye when he went off

 

Sammy was a 7 for me, he looked comfortable at this level and had a great clearance pass to Ba as well as a few good crosses. He has some good footballing intelligence

 

Yeah I liked the way he tried, but still looks a bit raw atm. Definetly gunna be a star in the future

 

This.

Sammy - Had a poor 10 mins . He also doesn't offer us the same protective cover as Jonas.
Jonas - Was surprising poor going forward
Ba - Is a good finisher but a few times I felt that his touch let him down, when he could have been free on goal.
Best - Wasn't seeing much of the ball and was giving away a lot of fouls.
Marveaux - Holds up the ball well but hasn't got pace like Obertan. IMO he'd be better in the middle instead of Gosling.
Gosling - Was really transparent. Couldn't pass the ball like Guthrie or win us tackles in midfield. He also nearly gave away a penalty. Needs to work harder if he wants to be in the team.

 

Thought Ba was a bit quieter in the second half because he had Distin marking him who is a very good centre back imo. First half, he had Heitinga who is tiny for a centre back lol.

On Gosling, he was just terrible lol

 

Krul- 7
Simmo- 8
Colo- 8
Saylor- 8
Raylor- 8
Marv- 6
Cabaye- 6.5
Guthrie- 7.5
Jonas- 7
Best- 6
Ba- 6.5

Gosling- 5.5
Sammy- 6
Ben Arfa- 6.5

I would agree with you that the motm was Colo

I really am getting slightly tired of Best. He strays offside, looks slow, and hasn't looked as sharp as the first 5 games of the season. Maybe we should remind him he has to work for his place by dropping him for a game, he works best when he has a point to prove after all! I thought we just looked knackered today, so I'm not too worried by the second half performance, we have a 2 week break to sort things out

3 points, second in the league!!!!

HTL!!!!

 

I am sick of Best being offside like, but I think he works so hard and holds it up class. Links up well with Ba too

 

Krul - 7

Simmo - 8
Saylor - 8
Colo - 8
Raylor - 8

Marv -6
Guthrie - 9
Cabaye - 6
Jonas - 7

Best -6
Ba - 6

Gosling - 6
Sammy - 6
Ben Arfa - 7

 

I think this is very harsh on Gosling. He had a decent game and tried very hard. People need to remember that he is young and is obviously not going to be up to the standards of Cabaye and Tiote, but he is very good for a fourth choice centre mid.

 

Not sure what he did that was decent lol. Imo I thought he was gash, respect that you thought he was decent though

 

But surely you don't rate someone on the basis of them being young and 4th choice? You rate them based on that performance and let them off because their young and 4th choice but still point out he needs to improve.

 

I think he had a decent second half. My point is that he isn't as good as the other three centre mids and that maybe people have too higher expectations of him. He was poor in the first half, but did his bit in the second half.

 

I see what you mean, but it wasn't just that he didn't distribute or win the ball like Cabaye or Tiote, he was also completely anonymous, and almost cost us a penalty, so you can't really say he had anything other than a below average game!

 

I disagree that he was anonymous, but I respect everyone else's opinion.