by Ian Royal »
14 Dec 2010 21:00
Just watched the first half:
Pleased to see Leigterwood much improved in terms of match fitness and being up to the pace of the game, shame he was still pretty mediocre. Karacan & McAnuff playing very well, with McAnuff involved in virtually every attack we had. Long missing a hatful of a good scoring opportunities and ruining a bunch of other attacks with a first touch and control I'd be ashamed of. Kebe quiet. Mills his usual self, Griffin good. Clearly playing a 4-4-2 IMO but with Hunt & Long too eager to roam all over the place.
If a neutral was watching the game they'd think Long was a top top player who was just not having a good day. Shame that most of us have seen him play too many games this season to make that mistake, it's about as good as he gets unfortunately.
Second half:
Lost our rhythm second half and the game became very scrappy. Leigterwood improved, but still wasn't especially good, much more involved though. Karacan went off and we lost our way, might as well as not had a midfield at that point. Criticism of Church is hard, we barely got the ball out of our half while he was on the pitch and he got virtually no service. HRK put in a very good cross, no idea how Long missed from it. Other than that not a lot. Tabb was ok, the game was already over when he came on though.
Federici - 7 - good couple of saves not much wrong
Griffin - 7 - too many lofted balls up the line, but he's pretty reliable
Harte - 6 - not a lot wrong, tidy passes, also too many lofted balls forward
Mills - 6 - usual couple of stupid mistakes and niggly play but nothing cost us and some good.work
Pearce - 7 - much smarter player than Mills, if only he wasn't so cumbersome.
Karacan - 8 couple of wayward passes towards the end, needs to keep it on the deck not dink it miles into the air.
Leigterwoord - 6 - getting progressively better but not really sure why we brought him in on his first two displays. not as good as Tabb or Karacan. Slower, but bigger, whoopee.
McAnuff - 8 MOTM - at the heart of most our best play. Keeps it on the deck, clever player, some great crosses.
Kebe - 6 - wouldn't come off for him, some poor control and touches, a couple of moments of magic, very quiet.
Long - 5 - missed half a dozen chances, ruined another 4 or 5 attacks with control like he has a club foot.
Hunt - 5 - not really in the game at all.
Church - 6 - game died once he came on, but I genuinely don't think with the service he got he could have done a great deal better, hence the 6
Robson-Kanu - 6 - one great cross that should have won us the game, otherwise nice feet but no end product.
Tabb - 6 - not enough time, energetic and replaced what we'd been missing with Karacan, but the damage had been done.
How we didn't win that I have no idea. By far the better team, especially first half where we tore them apart. Utterly toothless in the box.