Sunday, April 22, 2007

Tottenham vs Arsenal: The Player Ratings


Robinson ~ They hit the wood work three times. He has to put men on the line for free kicks in future. 6.5

Rocha ~ Only alright in the first half. A passenger in the second. Didn't close anyone down and conceeded a free kick with a really stupid foul towards the death of his performance. 'Buy cheap, buy twice' they say... We clearly have to go shopping again. 3.5


Dawson ~ Mature performance, really instills confidence seeing his name on the list. 7.5


King ~ Played very deep, might like to see him causing more trouble as he gets into the swing of things again. 7.5

Chimbonda ~ Looked tired after about 20 minutes. Not himself at all. Toure skinned him. 6.0

Lennon ~ Didn't spark. When Jol played 'the diamond' against Chelsea he shone. Here he barely joined in. Should 've been subbed much sooner. 5.5

Tainio ~ Gave his all as usual. A pity he didn't stay longer. 7.0


Zakora ~ Our only attacking midfielder and Jol took him off. Really want to see him hold his nerve and go for goal. Stay on your feet! I also believe there is a crackerjack goal or two in this guy if he can hit the target! 7.5

Berbatov ~ Like parts of the Northern Line yesterday he was largely without service. There has to be link play to him. Robbo hoofing it into the sky in his general direction is NOT service. He was depressed for most of the second half and who could blame him. 7.0


Keane ~ Was a dynamo for the first half and again, should have come off ion the second. He was knackered. Forceful and a credit. 8.0


Huddlestone ~ Sent on too late. Roleless. What instruction did Jol give him? All he got to do was play short passes. Not his fault, but a 'nothingy' contribution. 5.0

Jenas
~ How he survived BMJ not subbing him is beyond belief. Then the goal. Justification? Difficult to say yes. He was abysmal otherwise. 6.0 (Because he saved us - otherwise about 4.5)

Malbranque ~ Ran around a lot but to little effect. I hope that he can return to the form of his opening games for us soon. In those matches he was strong on the ball and kept possesion! 5.5

Defoe ~ Wasted talent? We'll never know. Jol brought him on in the 112th minute and stood him next to another guy who'd been waiting over an hour for a decent pass. 5.0

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

and... Jenas???

Anonymous said...

You left before the end didn't you, Harry.

It didn't end 2-1 btw...

Harry Hotspur said...

The last time I did a player ratings I left 3 out so this is a magnificent improvement.




10.13

1)I didn't.

2) Who said it did.


HH

Anonymous said...

Jenas has just had one of his usual great moments in the middle of all his other very ordinary moments.

Anonymous said...

a Gunner's fan here. Thought Lennon was one of your best players and was relieved when he was subbed. You had little after that. Berbatov too, but where you got Keane's rating from....?

The Jenas goal was sloppy, but Steven Gerrard has gained himself iconic status with similar hit-n-hopes.

I'm sure you know tho', Arsenal have been their worst opponents all season, but as always, White Hart Lane is one of the games of the season.

Cheers.

Harry Hotspur said...

10.34

Ordinary?

JJ had a shocker of a game.

Anonymous said...

As usual Harry, your comments are Shite.

Anonymous said...

Keane was SHIT AGAIN.

Anonymous said...

How do you make Keane out to be the enemy?? Did you watch the game??

Harry Hotspur said...

11.17

Do you have anything specific to say or do you just have a stick up your arse?

Anonymous said...

I posted this coming out WHL yesterday...

"Jenas was utter shite today. Half hearted? In my dreams he was that good. He was slow, clueless and made a bollocks of every ball he touched bar the goal.


Yet again MJ has proved himself to be tacticakky light years behind all the quality managers.

Jose blew him over with his subtutions at The Bridge and Wenger left him for dead this afternoon with his.

It reallly is about time MJ, who is one of our better managers grasped the nettle so as to speak with substitutions.

They are not just for injuries and you don't have to wait for the other manager to make one before you do!!!!!

Harry - Did you not write an article months back called TicTacs For tactics???

I ain't saying Jol OUt, just banging my head against this cyberwall!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!"

Any thoughts?

Anonymous said...

I would have to agree with your ratings apart from Rocha and Keane. I thought Rocha did ok, considering he was thrown in at left back. Its not his fault because we got no choice and having two left footed players in the whole squad, one injured and one on loan.

Keane did nothing apart from his goal, had better games.

Robbo can always do better in my view, hes just not dominating his box and I dont know why.

I cant see it myself not this summer anyway, but if Berba leaves hes a total wanker but can you blame him? Playing with average players around him, Jenas, Steed, Ghaly, Mido...

Anonymous said...

oh yeh, we cant hold the ball longer than 5 seconds.

Anonymous said...

zokora had a terrible game (again)
jenas does the work of two men at times.

Anonymous said...

I don't know what to think anymore.....

I had been dubious of Jenas for a long time for all the headless chicken running around and lack of the ability to deliver an intelligent pass that any top class midfielder should be able to do lets face it.

Then under the circumstances of a 5th place finish last season, I convinced myself that somewhere in that season we needed all his running around, and convinced myself further its called hard work.

Frustrations again at the beginning of this season and again I question is this the top class midfielder we need to progress to a top 4 team?

He then comes back after a long lay off and scores a couple of crucial goals and coincides with a decent run, so again I put on my rose tinted glasses of blind loyal SPurs fan faith and tell myself he isn't that bad after all.

Then the same old Jenas shows up in our last few games and especially yesterday, made to look silly by slick passing intelligent players unfortunately wearing scum shirts.

Made me think of "danny's" (not Dannyboy's) sentiments a few days ago..."lets drag him on the street and give him a good kicking for that performance"...lol.

Then out of nowhere in the last second he comes up with that beauty!...no other contribution at all...apart from that lovely goal!

Don't know what to think anymore, but still would like to give him a few slaps for how bad he was for the previous 94 minutes!

Truly my suspicion, is he is not the midfield dynamo with the guile required to make us that top 4 team, but if he is willing to be a squad player as back up for that future midfield dynamo we will one day find, somewhere, somehow, we will just have to justify his squad place with those odd moments of important goals and.....oh yeah "hard work".....bargain for 8 million!...I can just see that smile on fat Freddie Sheperds face now.......Grrrrrrrrrrh!!!

Anonymous said...

Berba deserve a 8, for sure, and Keane a 7. Anyway, where's the post match interview? That one should be discussed.
COYS!

Anonymous said...

Berba's fury:
"We must think more when we play and sometimes we don't. Arsenal took the initiative and scored two goals - we were stupid to allow those goals and we must stop that if we want to achieve something," he said.
"I think we could have won the game. If we want to grow up like a team we have to play better."

Comments, please?

Anonymous said...

Zokora was definatley one of the better players, he was the defensive midfielder yet the only one (barring berb) with any balls to go forward! and robbie keane was crap, been one of our better players recentley but was in full on pointing and moaning mode yesterday! Jol is not a good manager, just like eriksson, good squad of players but cant manage them.

Anonymous said...

to the person who posted saying zokora was crap and jenas does the work of two men sometimes, you must be joking, i cant even believe youve said that, yesterday after the game i said to my mates iv just seen jenas put in one of the worst performances in a spurs shirt of any player for years!! barring his goal (which was brilliant) he was utter crap, if only zokora could finish he would be one of the best midfielders in the prem as discussed and agreed by everyone in my office at work today!

Anonymous said...

Glad to see you saw the same match as me Harry. And I completely agree with Vinny. The problem is in midfield. We have the drive with Zakora but unfortunately he becomes less of s threat the closer he gets to the opposition box. With the other midfielders we have, we lack creativity, vision and flair. I was undecided with the loss of Carrick but, after a full season, I can say that we have missed someone like him. Although Huddlestone is not the finished article, my opinion is to save the millions we will waste on another average player in the summer and build tactics to bring him on. The difference between the sides yesterday was Fabregas; a young, talented player who has been given 100% support from his manager and put at the middle of the team.

Jenas v Fabregas. You saw it, you know what I mean.

Anonymous said...

Please consult the statistics and you will find that we have not won a single game with Zakora or Jenas in the centre.

I'm sorry but I would like a reasoned case as to why people think Zakora is good. He can't tackle he just clatters into people, gets needlessly booked and he is goes down and feigns injury so much it is embarassing, not something we want at the lane.

His only chance of a goal will be a pinball effort a la fat lampard style.

I do not think a player running at full pelt towards two waiting defenders , without having clue what to do when you actually get there is brilliant...really.