Pope is our top man at the Etihad
He conceded the penalty that led to Manchester City opening the scoring in our 3-0 defeat last Saturday at the Etihad Stadium, but Nick Pope’s excellent performance has been recognised and led to him winning both the man of the match vote and the player ratings.
I think we all know that the penalty decision was certainly at least harsh with many of us still believing it was a poor decision with Bernardo Silva, if being polite about him, going down too easily, but Pope made a number of good saves in the game and is definitely deserving of winning the vote and ratings.
It was close in the ratings but no so in the vote with Pope polling 49%. Both James Tarkowski and Jack Cork won 18% of the vote with Tarkowski finishing just ahead of Cork to take second place. Steven Defour, with 5% of the vote, was fourth.
The top three were also the same top three in the ratings but this was very close. Pope’s rating was 7.59 out of 10, just ahead of the 7.55 scored by Tarkowski who was ahead of Cork whose rating was 7.50. Fourth place this time went to Stephen Ward whose rating was 6.77 out of 10.
That all means that Pope has won the maximum ten points towards the Up the Clarets Player of the Year. Tarkowski picked up six points with Cork winning four points and there was one point each for Defour and Ward.
The top three in the table remain well clear of the rest with Tarkowski now having stretched his lead over Cork to seven points while Defour is now a further five points behind. Pope has now moved ahead of Ben Mee into fourth place.
The next vote will come after next Monday’s home game against Newcastle with the Manchester City result and the current player of the year table below.
MAN OF THE MATCH
49% – Nick Pope
18% – James Tarkowski
18% – Jack Cork
5% – Steven Defour
4% – Ben Mee
1% – Stephen Ward
1% – Robbie Brady & Matt Lowton
1% – Scott Arfield & Ashley Barnes
1% – Jeff Hendrick & Chris Wood
PLAYER RATINGS
7.59 – Nick Pope
7.55 – James Tarkowski
7.50 – Jack Cork
6.77 – Stephen Ward
6.45 – Ben Mee
6.32- Matt Lowton
6.18 – Chris Wood
6.14 – Steven Defour
6.00 – Robbie Brady
5.95 – Scott Arfield
5.77 – Ashley Barnes
5.64 – Jeff Hendrick
UP THE CLARETS PLAYER OF THE YEAR
49: James Tarkowski
42: Jack Cork
37: Steven Defour
23: Nick Pope
15: Ben Mee
13: Robbie Brady
12: Stephen Ward
11: Sam Vokes
10: Phil Bardsley
7: Scott Arfield & Johann Berg Gudmundsson
6: Ashley Westwood
5: Tom Heaton & Charlie Taylor
3: Chris Wood
2: Jeff Hendrick
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