Good thing Sherwood liked that team as well, and that Rose was healthy. Good thing he didn't think it was worth changing Eiriksen as well. Lloris: 8. A sweeper keeper will win and lose you some points over a season, but this may have been two points won today, maybe three. Every decision looked wise in retrospect, though he was playing with fire constantly. Walker: 8. Continues his good year and excellent work with Lennon. Started the flowing move that led to the first goal. Chiriches: 6. Better as the game went on, but lost the ball repeatedly early on. Dawson: 8. Best game of the year for the captain, full of necessary clearances. Rose: 6. Outplayed by Valencia early on, better later. Lennnon: 8. Brilliant again, if only he could shoot better. Capoue: 7. Solid game. Dembele: 7. Continues to be our key player against top teams. Helped control Rooney, and added strength in the center of the park. Now that we've got him to shoot once a game, is twice or three times a possibility? Every time he shoots, the chances of it going in seem decent. The injury to Paulinho which let him play farther forward, though unfortunate in itself, was fortuitous in giving him a better role to play. Not a playmaker, but a ball carrier, a dangerous shooter and a strong defensive presence that makes our 4-1-3-2 less vulnerable than it would be otherwise. Eiriksen: 8. Thriving in a playmaker on the left role. Good cross for the first goal, after combining brilliantly with Soldado. Scored a Dempsey-esque garbage goal, throwing himself towards the net to get to a loose ball first and knock it in. More of those from him and others, please! Not much help to Rose with Valencia, but you knew that was his downside. Soldado: 8. Brilliant passing, awful finishing. Ade: 8. MOM. His header for the first goal was brilliant, from the way he shook himself free to the way he directed the ball perfectly into the corner while falling away from the goal. The only player able to keep the ball in the opening stages. Defended very well, in addition to everything else. Sherwood: 8. Sticking to the same team was not an enormous surprise, but the way his very surprising subs worked out completed an excellent day for him. I couldn't fathom Bentaleb (7) for Capoue, but he added some needed possession with his passing. Chadli (7), as he usually does, got things going our way down the left flank. Kane (7), a big striker with fresh legs, provided a helpful outlet after he came on, and made very good decisions, right down to his boot down the field which ended the game.
Generous on Lloris - very lucky not to give away a penalty (maybe Young's reputation went before him or Webb realised he owed us) and way too low for Chiriches, who was excellent all game. Rose wasn't great - ran ragged by Valencia and then by Januzaj)
A 6 for Chiriches is a bit harsh RWAEB, he was excellent today, though he was at fault for their goal.
I yield to your opinions about Chiriches, partly because I'm nearsighted and have trouble making out who is doing what, especially defensively, at times. I'm sure he was awful for the first few minutes, though. He must have lost the ball three or four times (though his teammates were losing it right and left as well.) While it's true Lloris could have been penalized for the challenge on Young, and for that matter might very well have deserved a handball for a punch early on, his adventures all ended well, and I felt a less active keeper could easily have given up 2 or 3 goals. I don't think we disagree on Rose, but I was feeling generous, and Valencia and Januzaj are hard to handle.
I remember I kept saying we wouldn't see players like Eriksen start to perform until Avb went but not for a second did I ever consider Sherwood as the man to give Eriksen the freedom and going back to basics has worked for us. Redknapp taught Sherwood well in that keeping the system simple and telling creative players to just go out there and play, means players have less instructions to hold them back. Obviously this type of approach is more risky and at times naive but if we use a basic system, attacking players and focus on playing attractive football then as we saw against Utd it can get us a result and now we go into the Derby with our attacking players playing with confidence and belief, and for that Sherwood deserves credit.
I'm sorry to pick out one player but I don't think Rose had a very good game at all... and Man U knew he was the weak link as they continually moved the ball to whoever was playing down that side who normally had the beating of him. In fact it was a performance that would have brought a chorus of "told you so" from many posters here had it been BAE in the team giving exactly that performance.
Rose isn't particularly great but with Ekotto he seems to be rated higher when he isn't here. Fans have a tendency to over rate players when they aren't here, same with Kaboul, who is good but the way some talk you would think he's as good as ledley. Ekotto could well be recalled, all depends on Sherwood and how highly he rates Fryers.
You mean "I was hoping eriksen wouldn't perform, just to wind up Roo and SOS" Great all round team performance yesterday. Once again Lloris nearly gave me a heart attack, but at the same time, he made some outstanding saves. Ade was bloody fantastic too. The injury is a real shame and I don't see how we can get to February without signing another decent striker. We're still in the hunt and levy now needs to decide whether he's going to stick or twist. Another striker with 10+ goals in him before the end of season could make a huge different to this campaign. 6 points out of 24 in round 1 from the 8 "top teams", but 3 out of 3 so far from round 2. We desperately need round 2 to significantly improve in order to claw back the volume of points we have already lost/dropped. - good start so far COYS
Firstly, a very Happy New Year to you all. Hope you had a great Christmas getting fat and drunk. And what a start to the New Year! Winning at OT is like waiting for a bus, waited ages and then two consecutive victories come along. Thought Ade and Eriksen were really good as were the CB's and Lloris (with his moment of madness aside). Soldado, despite not scoring actually played well and if I remember rightly got the passes before the assists for each goal. Rose looked really knackered though, didn't look fit to me and a good number of times that Janusaj guy got past him pretty easily. Overall though chuffed to bits, massive morale booster for our trip to the Library. Just hoping (and didn't think I'd be saying this anytime soon) that Adebayor recovers quickly.
My heart is always in my mouth,just lately with Lloris,but i will have to get used to it,and Ade is suprising me just lately,may have to revise my view on him,i will admit Rose had a bad game,but is still our best L/B
I was already fat and drunk but hey ho! And talking about busses I usually wait for ages and then see three coming along together, who's up next?
Nice to see Sherwood showing a lot of faith in Kane yesterday. When Ade went off i didn't expect him to withdraw Soldado and replace with Kane up top on his own, especially protecting a lead at OT
An 8 for Dawson is very generous, I would give him a 5. You can see that for a team that like to play the ball out from the back that Daws is out of his comfort zone.
please log in to view this image Lennon is such a fantastic team player, I know everyone said he should have scored yet with that shot, he tried to put the ball between De Geas legs which is a fairly normal way to attempt to score from that angle. Then he put in a fantastic cross for Soldado who failed to connect properly. Eriksen (who I have backed all along, Roo & SOS will confirm this) is now becoming a regular with goals/assists and all we need now is for Chadli to start producing !
To be fair I thought Rose suffered a bit from the Eriksen paying wide. Eriksen did his best but he's not that good a defender so Rose was often left a bit exposed. The Soldado/Ade/Eriksen combo works surprisingly well. Ade likes pulling wide and Soldado drops deeper so its very flexible. Soldado played some lovely through balls - pity he messed up finishing Lennon's cross and Lennon messed up finishing his pass. 1-4 would have flattered us a bit though....
Tom Carrol another example. He might well turn out to be as good as Modric but he should stay at QPR because he isn't ready yet and needs game time.
Yeah agree with that. Eriksen, for as delightful on the eye as he is, isn't good defensively so Rose was probably left very much exposed. Still got beat too easily but it's definitely helpful to have your winger helping you out. Lennon and Walker being a prime example, Lennon's work rate tends to go unnoticed at times. Very valuable player for us. Throughout Azza's career, there's always been times where I thought he'll lose his place to a new player yet he's always beat any competition, from Bentley to Gio to Pienaar/ Krancjar to Lamela/ Chadli/ Townsend and credit to him for that, many would've buckled and ended up sulking on the bench and eventually sodding off.
Well I'm glad Carroll is at QPR and agree he needs game time but that's a different example as Ekotto and Kaboul both featured for the 1st team regularly but appear to have got better once out of the team. The only reason for Carroll to return is Sherwood rates him highly but unlikely as we're not short of midfield options.
To be fair to Rose, Januzaj has all the hallmarks of turning into an exceptional talent. Many full backs would struggle one on one against him. What more worries me about Rose is his positional sense, and some of his decision making tends to border on recklessness.
