Player Ratings vs Standard Liege

[Fletch]

Ive not spoken to anyone since the final whistle last night and haven't slept, Im embarassed, upset and bitterley dissappointed. Anyhow, after a night to think about perfromances here goes.


Tim Howard 6/10 Bit nervy on set pieces and sadly you know he aint gonna save a pen
Leighton Baines 5/10 Out of his depth, tried sometimes but was outclassed by the pacy winger
Tony Hibbert 4/10 Embarassing, the world will be laughing at us.
Joleon Lescott 4/10 Reminded me of Jordans kid, ungainly, nervous and without a clue
Phil Neville 5/10 Tried to lead but just not good enough, no movement, ideas or passing skills, at all.
Mikel Arteta 5/10 Players like this should change the game, he didnt.
Leon Osman 3/10 Screaming for him to be replaced by Castillo or Pienaar, lost the ball continuosly and didnt do anything, shocking
Tim Cahill 4/10 Cant play in that position
Phil Jagielka 7/10 Defended, tried, 1 man doesnt make a team
Louis Saha 5/10 Slightly more effort than Yak
Ayegbeni Yakubu 4/10 Another should be match winner but didnt deliver.

 

[Fletch]

Did Moyes watch a different game ? Im worried by this comment.

"The players played very well tonight, we did very well up to 25 yards out and then it was hard to get through them and that would be the only bit I could fault them for."

 

[Sim]

Did Moyes watch a different game ? Im worried by this comment.

"The players played very well tonight, we did very well up to 25 yards out and then it was hard to get through them and that would be the only bit I could fault them for."

To be fair in the first half they didnt see much of the ball and we played a patient passing game, the only thing missing was a bit of creativity, but we did control the game completely. I thought the commentators on TV complimented Liege greatly by saying that we were playing into their tactics.

By the time they scored though, the holes appeared and we began to falter. Heads dropped and its obvious they're low on confidence because they didnt really look like a team that thought they could get 2 goals to win it.

NEGATIVES
Arteta failed to deliver, I was shocked given our possesion first half and it was mostly played on the floor.
Baines had a bit of a mare and got progressively worse througout the game. To be fair he doesnt hide from the ball, but last night maybe he should have.
Howard Ok i think its time he practised penalties a bit more. In the slow motion replay you can see he's not really even watching the ball coming in from the pen, but in fact jumps out of the way of the path of the ball. - Has he ever saved a penalty for us?
Saha I thought he'd be the man last night, but looked lost and his one good opportunity he squandered, youd expect more from him with a chance like that. Unfortunately neither him not Yak are grafters and seem to play a similar role of ball watching mostly.

POSITIVES
Jags it was a class performance in an unclassy team. You always need somone to keep their form when heads dropped and he does that for us time and time again.
Pienaar he must be unfit for a full 90 min, but his intelligent running and passes helped us begin to open up Liege towards the end. Hopefully he can provide an outlet for Arteta to help him raise his game again.
Anichebe again proved effective as the 'super sub', was a target man and showed courage for a young player that his seniors certainly didnt have.