Pre-season: Player Ratings v Sporting Kansas City


By Waffes
July 23 2011

Forum regular "Waffles" went to the pre-season game against Sporting Kansas earlier this week and has given Tyne-Talk full player ratings from the match. Tim Krul, Ben Arfa and Sylvain Marveaux all performed well with high scores from the 0-0 draw, whilst Alan Smith contributed very little to the side. Read on to see how the rest of the team faired....

Player Ratings
 
Tim Krul: 7. Krul had little to do most of the game, as there were but 3 combined shots on goal, 2 of which from Kansas City. Regardless, he made two fantastic diving saves towards his upper 90 within minutes of each other at the end of the match. He also did well to protect the box from through balls, and his distribution is slowly improving.

Ryan Taylor: 5. He was decent enough at Right Back in the first 60 minutes, and then a complete non-factor at Right Back. Taylor took one free kick, which he put well over the bar.

Steven Taylor: 5. Taylor had a good partnership with Colo and they didn’t allow much space. As the game progressed he and colo both became restless and started dribbling forward.
Fabricio Coloccini (c): 6. Same as Taylor, and he also had a couple nice leaps on corners that should have created more. He probably had more time of possession than any other player on our team.

Jonas Gutierrez: 4. Jonas started at left back and looked atrocious. He was skinned repeatedly by Kamara. In the second half, he moved to his more favored left flank, and other than one good cross didn’t do much.

Dan Gosling: 4. Gosling looked horrible in possession and going forward from both the holding midfield position in the first half, and the first 15 minutes of the second half on the right flank. That said, he put in a workman like defensive performance, and would be a decent option for Tiote’s impending suspensions.

Chiek Tiote: 4. Tiote struggled more than usual. 30 seconds into the game, he was called for a handball, which from my angle was in the box, but the referee deemed a free kick. He was nutmegged easily by one of KC’s midfielders and spent most the last 15 minutes of the first half chasing the game. His passing wasn’t as aggressive as normal, but unlike Gosling they were at least completed passes. Oh, and he was booked.

Peter Lovenkrands: 3 - Lovenkrands started the first half on the right wing and did okay the few times he actually saw the ball, but he didn’t provide the outlet that Ryan Taylor or Dan Gosling needed on the right flank.
 
Hatem Ben Arfa: 7. Ben Arfa was fantastic until his injury. He controlled the tempo in the middle of the field, played balls into space for Marveaux, Jonas, and Ba, and even managed to part the defense with some calm dribbling. He rounded the keeper once, but the angle was cut too tight and he only managed to bang it off the outside of the post.

Sylvain Marveaux: 7. Marveaux looked great in the first half. His passing was cool and collected, his corners were on point, and he managed to get a good shot that just went across the face of goal. My one complaint was that he didn’t attack the full back head on as often as I’d like.

Demba Ba: 5. Ba looked like a faster version of Ameobi. He held defenders back well enough, but didn’t create a lot of space either. He managed to chase down a few balls towards the corner flags though.
Substitutes
Shola Ameobi (sub): 4. I don’t know why Pardew brought on Ameobi for Ben Arfa after the injury. He and Ba were redundant, and it left a massive gap in midfield between Tiote/Gosling and Ba/Ameobi. Once that gap was formed, we held almost no possession for the rest of the match.

Mehdi Abeid (sub): 5. Looks a decent player in the Tiote mold, but he got caught in possession a few too many times. Was shockingly not booked for a nasty sliding tackle from behind. Definitely one for the future.

Alan Smith (sub): 1. Within minutes of coming onto the pitch Smith put in 3 rash, late tackles, all of which
I would have booked him for. He was useless on the ball and useless off it. The sooner he’s off to Leeds, the better.

James Tavernier (sub): 5. Tavernier did a decent job at left back in the second half, far better than Jonas at least. He got caught in possession at the 18 yard box once, but that was due to a strong back pass from Jonas from 5 yards away. The lad needs to bulk up significantly though, as he looks like Wayne Routledge.

Danny Simpson (sub): 5. Simpson came in late in the second half as Ryan Taylor moved to the wing and Gosling came off. He put in a decent shift defensively, with no real impact, but he did put in a couple nice crosses.

Leon Best (sub): 4. Came on late in the second half for Ba and had one attempt which went well wide. Again, Pardew’s poor choice of sub for Ben Arfa really hurt us.
 
Manager
 
Alan Pardew: 4. The starting formation was spot on, and we looked fluid in attack, until Ben Arfa was hurt. His lack of a plan B really showed though as there was a 40 yard gap between the center mids and center forwards for the rest of the game. Why Vuckic, Marveaux or Jonas didn’t fill that spot instead makes no sense. Either way, without Ben Arfa, Barton, or even Guthrie, we look stagnant in attack.

Match Of The Match: Sylvain Marveaux

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Pre-season: Player Ratings v Sporting Kansas City
Discussion started by TyneTalk (IP Logged), 23/07/2011 17:37
TyneTalk
TyneTalk
23/07/2011 17:37
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tunyc
24/07/2011 14:23
Thanks for the shout!

I've only seen a couple videos of highlights. From those, I see what you mean about most of our players in midfield/up top looking rusty. Aside from HBA, that is ( (Sm18) ).

To be honest, I expect that. What bothered me was our center halves often defending too deep and being beaten to crosses. Even the weakest PL teams will put you to the sword if you defend like that.

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waffles
waffles
24/07/2011 15:50
Quote:
tunyc
Thanks for the shout!
I've only seen a couple videos of highlights. From those, I see what you mean about most of our players in midfield/up top looking rusty. Aside from HBA, that is ( (Sm18) ).

To be honest, I expect that. What bothered me was our center halves often defending too deep and being beaten to crosses. Even the weakest PL teams will put you to the sword if you defend like that.

It was weariness as much as rustiness. Pardew trained them HARD in the 100 degree heat 4 times in the previous 2 days and even considered having a training the morning before the match (but he canceled it). They were exhausted, and by the 80th minute you could see Steven Taylor sucking wind.

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