Heaton 6
Lowton 6
Tarkowski 6 a bit mixed
Mee 7 good mom
Ward 6
Gudmundsson 4
Defour 6
Cork 6
Brady 4 rotten performance
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 7 did well. Heatonesque save

People often get criticised for high ratings after a win. Not this time.

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8
Mee 9 superb
Ward 8
Gudmundsson 8
Defour 7
Cork 7
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 7
Defour 7
Cork 9* - flawless
Brady 5
Vokes 6
Wood 6 

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Tarky 6?

I had to listen on the radio but it sounds like he should have been heading for MOM not a 6...

Heaton 7
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 9
Mee 9
Ward 8
Gudmundsson 8
Defour 8
Cork 9
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 7

Pope 8
Barnes 8

starting_11 wrote:Tarky 6?

I had to listen on the radio but it sounds like he should have been heading for MOM not a 6...

Tarks deservedly SKY mom.......immense.

Take no notice whatsoever of any clown saying otherwise.

Tarkowski was outstanding second half and MOM for BBC too. Cork was immense all game. I thought Lowton was very good also.

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 8
Mee 7
Ward 6
Gudmundsson 5
Defour 6
Cork 7
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Heaton 6 - nothing to do till taken off
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8 - getting better and better manged benteke well
Mee 8
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 7 - best game ive seen him have for us
Defour 7 - worked hard
Cork 9* - brilliant today as obvious a man of the match as you are likely to see
Brady 5 - he blows hot and cold today was cold
Vokes 6 - tireless unlucky with header
Wood 6 - took his chance well, but then dissipated a bit

Pope 8 - stepped forward and did well
Barnes 6 -


andros townsend for them was immense today

Please leave ratings for all players who have played 20 mins or more. This includes first two subs.

Scoring is from 3 to 10 as follows:

10 - Out of this World
9 - Excellent
8 - Very Good
7 - Good
6 - Average
5 - Below Par
4 - Poor
3 - Abysmal

CT, please can this and the other thread be merged

Keep them on here please - can't see another thread but if on two threads it makes it difficult for me to collect them

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 7
Defour 7
Cork 9* - flawless 
Brady 5
Vokes 6
Wood 6 

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Found it and merged - and has someone really given JBG a 4?

ClaretTony wrote:Found it and merged - and has someone really given JBG a 4?

yes but when you see the other player ratings it gives you the context

JBG must be the new whipping boy......he works super hard 4 really?

From the TV due to kids football matches

Heaton 7/Pope 7 - for all their possession, relatively untroubled and a cracking save from Pope
Lowton - 7 - defensively sound
Tarkowski - I'd give him a 6, but I'm not insane or smacked off my tits, so its actually a 9 and MOM
Mee 8 - sound
Ward 7 - as Lowton
Gudmundsson 7 -
Defour 7
Cork 8
Brady 6
Woods 7
Vokes 6

Barnes 7

Not sure I'd want to watch too many more games like that, as a better team than Palace would almost certainly have taken advantage but three points is three points.

Nowhere near a good with the ball as we have been under the 4-5-1 as well.

Food for thought for SD

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 7
Mee 8
Ward 6
Gudmundsson 7
Defour 6
Cork 8
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 7
Barnes 7

fatboy47 wrote:Tarks deservedly SKY mom.......immense.

Take no notice whatsoever of any clown saying otherwise.

It will be because he dwelled on the ball too long ,and gave it away which could easily have cost us a goal , otherwise he made some outstanding clearances.

Heaton 7 - Going to miss him big style.
Lowton - 8 Defence deserves high marks as over used and great goal line clearance.
Tarkowski 8 - Good but some last ditch defending due to initial errors and or poor positioning. A work in progress just like Kean in early days.
Mee 8 - Immense as usual
Ward 7-
Gudmundsson 6 - Bit anonymous as times but some good contributions
Defour 7 - Working very hard but part of a hard pressed and overrun midfield
Cork 9* - Great signing and seems to be a 8/9 every game
Brady 5 - Really poor.
Vokes 6 - Worked his socks off but no real support
Wood 7 - What a classy finish. Battled manfuly and showed good stamina considering his travels over last few weeks

Pope 7 - Yes a 3 points saving stop but looked nervy (understandably) and generally does not instil confidence for me. Hope I am wrong and we will find out if he is a worthy No 2 over next few weeks.
Barnes 7 Showed why we should not be looking to sell him. Got us back on the front foot (ish)

SD - Glad he was very honest about the fact Palace were better than us, because they were and we wil need to improve performance wise but a mahoosive 3 points and result. A butt ugly win but a win is a win. No complaints from me.

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 7
Defour 7
Cork 9 MoM
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8 (MOM)
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 6
Defour 6
Cork 8
Brady 6
Vokes 6
Wood 7

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Blackrod wrote:Heaton 6
Lowton 6
Tarkowski 6 a bit mixed
Mee 7 good mom
Ward 6
Gudmundsson 4
Defour 6
Cork 6
Brady 4 rotten performance
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 7 did well. Heatonesque save

People often get criticised for high ratings after a win. Not this time.

JBG 4 ???????????

Heaton 7
Lowton 8
Ward 7
Tarkowski 8
Mee 6
Defour 7
Cork 8 MOTM
Gudmunsson 7
Brady 6
Vokes 4
Wood 6

Pope 7
Barnes 7

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Ward 6
Mee 7 A number of his passes today left his team mates under pressure leading to us losing the ball, decent defensive display though
Tarkowski 9 MoM excellent defensive display
JBG 7 Drove and took on opponents and worked hard.
Brady 4 Awful in possession and rarely helped Ward out who was taken to the cleaners by Andros T at times
Defour 7 Worked tirelessly despite being overrun time and again
Cork 7 See Defour
Vokes 5 Partnership with Wood needs work
Wood 6 Plus for the finish but not great really

Pope 8 I thought he Looked assured and made great stop
Barnes 7 Typical Barnes

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 9
Mee 9
Ward 8
Gudmundsson 8
Defour 6
Cork 8
Brady 5
Vokes 6
Wood 7

Pope 8
Barnes 7

Heaton 6

Lowton 7
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 7

Gudmundsson 7
Defour 7
Cork 9 MOM
Brady 6

Wood 7
Vokes 7

Pope 7
Barnes 7

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 8
Gudmundsson 8
Cork 9
Defour 7
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 8
Barnes 7

Heaton..6
Lowton..7
Tarks....8
Mee......7
Ward....7
JBG.....7
Cork....7
Defour.7
Brady...5
Vokes..6
Wood...6

Pope....7
Barnes.7
Westwood..6

Blackrod wrote: Tarkowski 6 a bit mixed

Hilarious

Heaton/Pope 7
Lowton 7
Tarky 9
Mee 9
Ward 7
JBG 8
Defour 7
Cork 7
Brady 5
Vokes 6
Wood 7

What a strange game! When we beat Liverpool 2-0 with 19 percent possession I understood the game plan. I m not saying we didn't have one today but I don't know what it was:

Heaton - 7 - Not much to do
Lowton - 8 - Thought that defensively this was his best game for us. Particularly in the first half he was like an extra CH. Couple of good movements forward too. Just about MOM for me.
Mee - 8 - A rock at times as usual
Tarks - 8 - Outstanding for most of the match, got caught out badly once.
Ward - 7 - some great movement forward in the first half.
JBG - 6 - some exciting movement, but we need more
Defour - 6 - seemed to me he was better at closing down and harrying than he was at creating
Cork - 8 - Another class performance
Brady - 5 - Poor today. Didn't close well and off the boil creatively especially in the second half.
Vokes - 6 - Didn't win that much
Wood - 7 - took the opportunity very well
Pope 7 - came on and did very well
Barnes - 7 - Thought he made a difference, pushed their defence harder, won free kicks and held the ball well.

Heaton 6

Lowton 6
Tarkowski 8
Mee 7
Ward 6

JBG 6
Defour 6
Cork 7
Brady 5

Vokes 5
Wood 7 (+1 for goal)

Subs:

Pope 7 (+1 for excellent save)
Barnes 6
Westwood 6

Heaton 6
Lowton 8*
Tarkowski 8 - he's ******* massive. Proper defender.
Mee 8
Ward 8
Gudmundsson 7
Cork 8
Defour 8
Brady 6
Wood 7
Vokes 6

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Heaton 7
Pope 7 (some very good 'keeping, not certain yet about his kicking)
Lowton 8
Tarks 8
Mee7
Ward 7
Defour 7
Cork 8* (MOM)
JBG 7 (looked much better today)
Brady 4 (eventually some wag will start a "What's the point of Robbie Brady?" thread like they did with Boydy)
Vokes 7
Wood 6 (worked hard, but despite taking his chance with aplomb I thought generally he looked less of a threat than Vokes. If he's £15 million then what's Sam's value???)

Barnes 7 (definitely made a positive impact which is almost always the case with our Ash)

Weird isn't it? West Brom cross the half way line once all game and snatch 3 points when we actually played some great football and looked a real threat. Palace cause us all sorts of problems going forward, dominate midfield, Townsend looks a class above and we cling on and win with last ditch defending and more than a bit of good fortune. As mentioned on another thread the 4-4-2 didn't really seem to work with the personnel we had on the pitch. It seriously restricted Defour imo and it meant Brady was required to be more defensive too and he struggled. The positives were Lowton, JBG, Tarks, Pope and in particular Cork who single handedly led by example and we'd have been sunk without him. Palace must be kicking themselves! UTC!!!

Worse performance for a long time. The famous blind man on a galloping horse could see we needed 5 in midfield, but we won. Last week we should have won but lost; this week we win but should have lost. Don't you just love football.
Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 5
Defour 6
Cork 8 (our one man midfield; immense)
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 7

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Off to Anfield next. Bet we go back to 451. Looking forward to it, hope I have a view from my seat.

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 7
JBG 7
Defour 7
Cork 8*
Brady 6
Vokes 6
Wood 6

Pope 8
Barnes 7

Heaton 6 nothing to do until his shoulder injury
Lowton 6 not as good as recently but ok
Tarkowski 8 solid
Mee 8 as tarks
Ward 6 struggled with Brady
Gudmundsson 7 bit better but needs a trick to get past a man
Cork 9 great performance
Defour 7 difficult to mark. Not sure him and cork work as a two. But he did nothing wrong
Brady 4 worst match for a while
Vokes 5 hope we don't see Vokes and Wood again they seemed to be too similar
Wood 6 see Vokes but with a point for the goal

Pope 7 did all we could hope for
Barnes 7 as often his introduction got us back from a sticky place

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 8 1 slip 1st half, but match winning block
Mee 7
Ward 7
JBG 7
Defour 7
Cork 8*
Brady 6
Vokes 6
Wood 6

Pope 7 - match winning save, kicking seems very suspect

We have and will play better and lose, absolute bonus points today, we should have been burried.

Great start to the season

UTC

Heaton - 6 untroubled. Claimed that ball well when got injured.

Lowton - 7

Tarkowski - 9 as expected, he's grown into the role with every game and is our best centre half

Mee - 7 beaten by the height of benteke a lot and put tarkowski in a dangerous position with a ludicrous cross field pass

Ward - 7 belting cross that vokes should have done better with

Cork - 9 superb

Defour - 7 we don't get the best of him in a central 2 but he was still very good

JBG - 7 his run and cross in the 1st half deserved finishing off and he was the better of the two wide men

Brady - 5

Wood - 5 lovely first time strike for the goal and had a strong start to the game but he's not quite on our wavelength yet and it was he who should have been hooked rather than vokes

Vokes - 6 should have buried his header from ward's cross, did well in the air and the ball stuck better when he was up top. Assume he was knackered from Wales duty.

Pope - 8 pressure situation for him and he handled it (and the ball) very well indeed, winning us the points with a brilliant save from benteke. Kicking isn't great, he spins it too much so it doesn't travel very well.

Barnes - 6 made a bit of a difference and forced a good save from Hennessey


We didn't look anywhere near as good as we do playing 451 and we dont get the best out of our best player in a 442 but the result was there today when it wasn't against West brom.

Vokes and wood could be a decent partnership but they remain a bit too similar. Wood will get better bit he's not used to the PL yet and we'd have been better withdrawing him instead of vokes, who knows how we play and is used to this level. We spent most of the 2nd half under pressure because the ball wasn't sticking up top and we didn't have the numbers to play through the midfield.

Food for thought but a good 3 points to set us on our way at home.

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8
Mee 7
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 7
Cork 7
Defour 7
Brady 5
Wood 6
Vokes 6

Pope 8 - That save was worth 2 points and looked very assured. Well done!
Barnes 7

We did a job on em.

Heaton 7
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 9
Mee 8
Ward 8
Gudmundsson 7
Cork 9
Defour 7
Brady 4
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 8
Barnes 7

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 8 mom
Mee 6
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 5
Defour 6
Cork 8
Brady 6
Vokes 7
Wood 7

Pope 8
Barnes 6

Heaton 6
Pope 7 Came on and did well to get a foot out for the 1 on 1
Lowton 8 thought he had a solid game stopped crosses comming in and covered CB well
Tarkowski 7 Grew into the game. If he'd have started how he finished it would be a 9
Mee 7 second half again much better than first one or 2 passes put players under pressure but defensively a rock as usual
Ward 8 got down the line well in the first half and linked with Bradey well.
Gudmunsson 7 decent enough game put in some good crosses and put himself about.
Defour 8* thought his work rate was immense. Calm on the ball. My Mom.
Cork 8 another solid player who worked his socks off today
Brady 7 first half was an 8 second 6 he linked with ward well first half went missing second.
Vokes 6 to be fair not sure he got the service in the second half but we had no outlet which should be what he is there for.
Wood 7 same as Vokes but scored
Barnes 8 was one of the few players to give us some breathing room with clever play getting us free kicks and reliving pressure.

From Sky
Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarkowski 8
Mee 8
Ward 8
Gudmundsson 7
Defour 8
Cork 8
Brady 5
Vokes 6
Wood 7

Pope 8
Barnes 7

Heaton 6
Lowton 8
Tarks 8
Mee 8 *
Ward 7
Gudmundsson 7
Cork 8
Defour 7
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 7
Barnes 6

Strange and, uncomfortable game to watch.
Game was littered with outstanding individual moments, but was the most disjointed team effort for a long time.
We were overrun in through the middle for long periods.
We'll play a lot better and lose this season, so I'll take three points.

Heaton 6 huge loss
Lowton 8 played well
Tarkowski 9 excellent apart from one split second
Mee 8 another good one, so reliable
Ward 8 as Mee
Gudmundsson 6 worked hard even though not much game off
Cork 8 cracking signing.
Defour 7 certainly come on from last season.
Brady 5 not at his best
Wood 6 not the best today but did what he had to when it mattered
Vokes 5 struggle for him today

Pope 9 suburb save near the end.
Barnes 6 mixed it up when he came on

Heaton 6
Lowton 6
Tarkowski 8 my MOM
Mee 7
Ward 5
Gudmundsson 5
Cork 7
Defour 6
Brady 5
Wood 6
Vokes 5

Pope 7
Barnes 5

Well, we won, but I must say I thought we were pretty poor, created very little and probably should have lost the game, and these ratings reflect that - and the fact that the reason we didn't was the performance of the centre backs in particular.

Heaton - 6 - Did fine in the period he was on. Keeping everything crossed that it is a relatively straightforward disclocation, as we might get by without him for a short period, but I'd worry about the inability to take Pope out of the firing line if he had a couple of poor games given the other options. But...

Pope - 7 - I thought he did pretty well, worked well with his centre backs, and made one excellent save when required.

Lowton - 7 - Solid and steady, if not the influence he can be in the attacking third.

Ward - 8 - Got forward to decent effect a couple of times, and his usual reliable self at the other end.

Tarkowski - 9 - Think he lost Benteke once, but in the context of a game when balls were raining down in their direction, that's an outstanding return. He saves his best for Palace - this tops the game at Selhurst at the end of last season as the best I've seen him play for us.

Mee - 9 - Thought he marshalled the backline tremendously in the absence of Heaton, and dealt with Palace's threat with his usual grit and determination.

Cork - 7 - Got through a huge amount of work, and looked to get us playing, but I think he can use the ball better than this. Did screen the back four well and did a lot of ugly stuff in front of Benteke.

Defour - 6 - Got through a huge amount of work, and looked to get us playing, but I think he can use the ball better than this.

Brady - 5 - Thought he was in and out of the game in truth.

Gudmundsson - 6 - A couple of nice runs down the line which delivered decent crosses, but another to struggle to get into the game consistently.

Vokes - 5 - Battled away manfully, but there wasn't a lot of coherence to our attacking play and he struggled to really get command over the Palace centre backs.

Wood - 6 - Took his goal delightfully, and was an intermittent threat, but I thought he and Vokes got in each other's way too much, and at times his build up play was a bit clumsy.

Barnes - 6 - Provided more mobility to our attacking play and gave us a bit more of a platform, without really changing the flow of the game.


Scoring early often changes the dynamics of a game, and I suspect we rapidly determined that we ought to be able to sit deep and soak up Palace's rather insipid attack without too much trouble, and then tried to hit them on the break. That was fine, but it didn't really suit our front 2, who were presumably there for an intense, high tempo game where we looked to win the ball fairly high and use their physique to pin Palace back. The game settled into a routine where Palace held an unusually high line, and forced the game into our half, and we lacked either the pace or refinement to get the game further up the pitch.

I wouldn't rule the Wood/Vokes partnership out indefinitely, but I do think it needs more work on the training ground before we adopt it in a league game again: some partnerships click naturally, but this one didn't and needs work. They aren't exactly the same sort of player, but (even allowing for Wood's willingness to look for the ball down the sides of the centre backs) both appear to want to play narrowly in our build up so we missed the willingness to get into the channels that Gray and even Barnes gave us last season when we played 442.

As a result of the above (not helped by the flickering performances of Brady and to a lesser extent Gudmundsson), our attacks were too often narrow and congested.

On the plus side, Tarkowski is beginning to prove his many doubters premature, and Mee once again really stepped up. That ability to dog out results has long distinguished us from some of our rivals, and its good to see its alive and well. 7 from 4 is a good start.

Heaton 6
Lowton 7
Tarkowski 7
Mee 8
Ward 6
Gudmundsson 7
Defour 6
Cork 8
Brady 5
Vokes 5
Wood 6

Pope 7
Barnes 6

How did we win that?, who cares 3 points in the bag. Thank you.