Player ratings v. Southampton

[Jimbo_Jet_Set 0]

I''m sure someone will post exactly the same thing while i''m writing this but my ratings for tonight are

Marshall- 6 - Little chance with either goal and his catching and kicking were solid

Semmy- 5- I continue to be disappointed by this guy. Takes far to long to react to a situation

Doherty- 6- Solid if unspectacular

Grounds- 6- Obviously has class, but prone to errors

Bertrand- 7- Best i''ve seen from him for a while. Calm in defence and a threat going forward

Fozzy- 6- Took his goal nicely but still doesn''t do enough for me

Clingan- 8- Best city player on show. Does a lot of the leg work and tidying up

Hoolahan -7 - If only for the wonder goal. He frustrates at times but at least he is prepared to try something different

Croft- 6- Not his best game. Didn''t take full advantage of numerous crossing opportunities

Russell- 5- He tries but he is not the answer at centre forward

Cureton- 6- Plenty of effort but little impact or threat

Subs- No chance to shine as they only got about 8 minutes although Pattison''s dawdling on the ball at the end was criminal

Overall- Decent display, but against a poor side I expected a bit more

[Scot-e-dog 34]

Was is just me or was Marshall indecisive for the first goal.I''m pretty sure if he''d carried on coming he could have got a good punch in.

[Huddy 0]

Marshall      6      Nothing to do. Safe with Crosses

Otsemobor   5   Disapointing, no attacking threat, poor clearances. Caussed danger (to us)!

Bertrand   6   Poor first 35 minutes; but perhaps the only playuer to get better as the game went on.

Doherty   5   Always worries me, had little to do but when called upon he seemed to clear the ball into dangerous areas.

Grounds  5   Ditto. Poor touch at times, looked nervous. Inconvincing.

Croft    6   A generous 6 at that, made some good runs, got in good positions but the end product was abysmal.

Hoolahan   8   Great Goal, capped a superb 1st half. he may give the ball away at times, but only because he''s looking to pass it and create things. Brilliant link up play right through the pitch, a class act.

Clingan   7   Not  at his best, but still a good, steady performance

Fotheringham   6   Didnt hardly notice him apart from a well taken goal, and a costly error in clearing. Average

Russel   5      Not his fault, buit this guy aint a striker. His touch was poor, his runs werent good, kept getting caught offside, worked hard but generally contributed little; and that awful stepover lead indirectly to the equaliser.

Cureton   6   looked lively enough, but didnt quite come off with him. Unlucky not to score when Davis denied hi at 2-0, turning point.

 

as for Gunny   6   Got the team playing again in the first half, good tactical consistency. However, showed a naivity, a lack of experience in the 2nd half at 2-1 when a change was badly needed. Russel and Croft in my eyes should have been replaced  by Bell and Maybe Cort, to give Southampton  something different to look it. We got a bit one dimensional.

 

 

[ZLF 274]

Sucha  game of 2 halfs.  Soton are a woeful football team and I have rarely seen such a one sided first half where the team with the upper hand looking so disjointed! Soton could not be as bad again,  changed their shape,  we did not adapt seeming to think the job was done and paid a very heavy price for a must win game that was won but we contrived to lose 2 of the three points with collective bad defending.  Marshall 7 - had nothing to do all day but left so exposed.  Looked to use ball well and came for crosses with confidence

Ots 4 - Seemed disinterested and off teh pace - Ots at his worse and he knew it.  He heavily contributed to both goals conceeded with lazy defending- simply stood of his man, allowing him to run for 20 yards into our area before standing up and conceeding a corner when he should have done the same earlier at teh cost of just a throw.  For the second goal compounded rusty cheap loss of possession by choosing to free header across the middle of the pitch instead of wide - 3 secs later it was 2-2 as the ball was spread wide and we never regained shape.  A school boy error and another poor poor decision. Offered even less going forward 

Doc 7  Made to work hard;  unlucky to be booked v early on even though it was a rough challenge.  Did well otherwise.

Grounds. 5 Looked shaky again today - frequently stood too deep of the other defenders risky an onside decision against us...  Lost his man for the second goal.

Bertrand 7.  A condidate for MOTM - solid comitted in teh tackle and took the ball forward with real menace.

Croft 5 Tried as vainly as ever - but they effectively nullified his ''threat'' 

Clingan 5  Put a tackle in man!  Covers and tracks but not enough ball winning from our ball winner;  to slow releasing the ball.  For tehir first goal where was he?  No one followed the ball out to close it down, allowing a free shot from the edge of the box for the opening goal.

Fozzy 5   Nice burst forward and a well taken goal.  Butlike clingan needs far to many touches safely sideways by which time the defence is set for our play. Too slow.  Crucial error for their goal when found their attacker with his weak corner from their woeful corner.

Hoolahan 7 Another MOTM for me.  Yes he lost possession a lot but he was lively and did something that only Curo offered which was movement.  Was direct regularly and caused them problems.  Do you take off your sole creative player?  Fans wer blaming him for the defeat - the conceeded goals were not his problem and his one scored was a peach..

Curo 6 - Fantastic movement in the first half - faded a lot in the second;   a couple of good chances and at least made the keeper work hard.  Beautiful assist for the first. 

 Rusty 5 - woudl have been a 4 but for the fantastic firts half burst to release jamie for the shot in the first half.  That burst was the reason he is so frustrating;  the rest of the time he ambled around like Ots,  disinteretsed and reacting late.  Should have been subbed well before the end.  Completely ineffective for90 of teh 93 minutes.  Not good enough.

SUbs - All too late to make a difference..

Gunn - it was clear by the 70th min that their half time move to a 4-4-2 from 4-5-1 was causing us problems and we did need a tactical change to counter it.  Key players were not performing and croft as an outlet was nullified.  ONly when it was 2-2 did changes come and it was too late.  You need to review the game and learn from it fo rnext tiem Bry - asthis was a case of 2 valuable points lost when they were nearly sealed and delivered.  

[drunkunmunkey 0]

Marshall - 6

Not much chance with the goals. Distribution seemed to be quicker than usual. Obvious someone had told him to throw it out more often to keep the tempo up.

Semmy - 5

Clueless when going forward, average when defending. Not good enough for this league im afraid, unless someone can get the best out of him

Bertrand - 7

Got forward more often than of late, hopefully a return to form after a string of poor games.

Doc - 7

Solid. Won some key headers, unlucky to get booked for his first offence, where saints'' players got away with multiple fouls.

Grounds - 3

Awful. Looked nervous, out-muscled on a number of occaisons. Saganowski bossed him, at fault with second goal, allowed Saganowski to lose him to easily. What''s happened to the grounds we had before? Worst ''defensive'' display i''ve seen from a City player at home for a number of seasons. DREADFUL!!

Hoolahan - 8

MOTM. Best game so far. Looked lively, always wanted the ball. Some neat touches, and smart passes. Unlucky with some that were cut out, and always a threat to Soton. Oh and he did alright with his tap-in.

Clingan - 7

Solid. Once again. Most consistant midfeilder weve had since Holt. Always available for a pass and tough in the tackle.

Fozzy - 6

Quiet and ineffectual. Not good for a captain. Fair play to him to get forward for his goal. Cant remember anything else he did though.

Croft - 5

Argh! Frustrating. Started off well, taking on and getting past the full back at will....but then he has to cross. Looked tired second half. Sheffeild Utd. can have him for £500,000, as much as i love him.

Russell - 6

Put himself about and won a good header on to Curo for first goal. But quite simply isnt a striker.

Cureton - 6

Should have scored when Russell set him though at the end of first half. Full of drive, but tired towards the end.

[FilletTheFishWife . 0]

marshall   6 not much to do

Otsemebor   4 lazy and can''t defend

Doherty   7

Grounds 6

Bertrand 6

Croft   6 seemend unable/unwilling to create space and crosses were poor

Fotheringham 6 - apart from the goal.....was he playing?

Clingan   7

Hoolahan   6 Great goal but should have had the confidence to pull the trigger in the 2nd half. Too easily disposessed in 2nd half

Cureton 6

Russell 6 faded badly

 

 

 

 

[Big Slob 0]

Deciding moment of match came when Cureton missed the 1 on 1 just before half time, when the score was 2-0. 3-0 and the game was over.

[drunkunmunkey 0]

I think Gunn brought Cort on too early in my opinion. He seemed to tire towards the end! [:D]

[Huh?! 0]

[quote user="Scot-e-dog"]Was is just me or was Marshall indecisive for the first goal.I''m pretty sure if he''d carried on coming he could have got a good punch in.[/quote]You cannot blaim marshall for the first goal.  He would have had to run through a croud of players to get to the ball, this could be worse.  The goal was a lucky one.  When you are a player in that area, all you can do is shoot.  Anyone can get a flick on it, and his luck was in and it happened.  The first goal was no1''s fault, just pure luck.  It happened with Scholes for Utd the other day.  With regards to the 2nd goal, very very very sloppy defending!

[Huh?! 0]

[quote user="Big Bob"]

Deciding moment of match came when Cureton missed the 1 on 1 just before half time, when the score was 2-0. 3-0 and the game was over.

[/quote]agreed.  he really should have put that one away.  should have kept it on floor.  nevermind

[GJP 79]

[quote user="Big Bob"]

Deciding moment of match came when Cureton missed the 1 on 1 just before half time, when the score was 2-0. 3-0 and the game was over.

[/quote]

Aye but to be fair to Jamie he has said he''s "done all I can"

Of course from that position he should have buried it and not given the keeper a chance but he didn''t put it in the corner and it was a nice height for the ''keeper.

 

[Largey 0]

I thought Grounds looked the quality we require. He has received some strange scores (in my opinion) here so far.

Marshall 6

Otsemobor 5

Doc 6

Grounds 7

Bertrand 7

Clingan 8

Fozzy 7

Croft 6

Hoolahan 7

Russell 4

Cureton 6.

[Xavi- Poor Mans Ian Crook 0]

Grounds looks good at getting himself out of the trouble he gets himself in. Didn''t fill me with confidence due to the number of mistakes he made. At fault for the second goal, ball watching let Saganowski peel off.

Desperately need a new right back and play Lupoli ahead of useless Cureton.

[GJP 79]

[quote user="Fabregas- Poor Mans Ian Crook"]

Grounds looks good at getting himself out of the trouble he gets himself in. Didn''t fill me with confidence due to the number of mistakes he made. At fault for the second goal, ball watching let Saganowski peel off.

Desperately need a new right back and play Lupoli ahead of useless Cureton.

[/quote]

Indeed, Grounds definitely doesn''t look a particularly convincing centreback.

Thought he looked better last night than he did against Barnsley but he''s not the answer.

Also agree with the Lupoli comment.

[Largey 0]

I thought he looked more convincing than the other CBs we have had play alongside the Doc.