A few are selling Walker a little short. Some of his tackles in the box were world class and seems to have developed upper body strength to hold off oppo strikers. 9/10 for me. As others have said, Kaboul was phenomenal when he came on, everything was suddenly a little easier - was like Ledley came on and I cannot praise him any higher. Gomes had a good game - apart from one or two ambulance passes. His throw to Defoe at the end was almost brilliant. Don't share the enthusiasm for Carroll's performance. He definitely has potential, but worried me every time he had the ball yesterday. His passing was a little slack at times, as was his control. On the plus side, settled in more as the game went on and had some great moments of skill later in the game. Pav deserves praise for his goal, it is his main role in the team and what a hit! That brings him up to a 7, the disappointment being his lack of vision and desire to shoot regardless of other options. Livermore and Bassong were steady and Rose/Lennon had some good moments - both in defence. Not sure why Lennon refuses to take on his defender in the way Bale would, can only assume he is worried about an injury. It takes time to regain confidence in sprinting.
why was Lennon always looking to come inside last night,his strength is going past them down the line
Lennon to me looked low on confidence- similar to when he had his bad injury a few years ago. Took him nearly half the season to be hos old self.
I think we all know it could have easily gone wrong, and we could have lost spectacularly. I think Lennon has been told to score more goals. He was told last season; he said so in an interview. He’s not likely to plant his head on a Bale cross, so how else can he score? He has to come inside. Was there any point last night in running the wing and crossing to the far post? Apart from Pav, who doesn’t like headers, who else would benefit from said cross? Or not. I dunno. Perhaps I’m just sticking up for him for no reason.
i'm not having a go at him i was just wondering,i love seeing him fly down the wing,then cut inside,thats how he's got his goals in the past
Good points Inda - fans love to see wingers flying down the outside, but without an end product it's a bit pointless I think there's been a few lennon goals where he's been running inside not outside - eg the crucial winner v pool last season, the goal at Hearts - and IIRC the crucial equaliser v Toon as well, not so sure on that one.
I think that Lennon is just lacking sharpness and he often seemed to have a lot of numbers in front of him, with few options to take. Swapping sides didn't help either, as Rubin were quick to get back and defended well as a unit, for the most part. I'd say that's actually a compliment to Crouch PL, as he was saved for the league on the weekend.
Notably good: Sandro, Carroll, Walker, Kaboul (starting to wonder who's a better CB, at this point), A-E, Gomes (but the problem always has been not that he isn't good sometimes, but that he's erratic) Disappointing: dos Santos (anonymous--and after the game where he really showed what he could do), Modric (gave the ball away too often--but maybe it's just that he's not used to his team mates) Decent: Livermore (playing out of position), Pav (great goal, but the problem is that he's either lazy and selfish--as he's been before this game--or just selfish), Lennon (one great burst), Dafoe. Have to agree that while R-K outplayed Spurs, and were much crisper in possession they had a combination of poor final ball and poor finishing that made them not too threatening. Gomes played well, but I can't think of any really difficult saves he had to make. R-K's had a couple, I think. This is the kind of win that happens on a good roll. This team had all sorts of trouble keeping possession, due considerably to R-K's very energetic closing down, but got the win.
I think the save Gomes made from the header early on was top drawer, not the first time his reach, strength and athleticism made an excellent save look easier than it was - I think that header would have gone in directly or led to a goal against a lot of keepers.
