Ratings vs Liverpool

[lennon4england]

While I don't agree with quite how scathing BC has been, I do kind of agree with the general thrust of his argument. Defoe did absolutely nothing last night and was just appalling. No attempt made to drop deeper to receive the ball or press the ball, he was just always looking to be on the shoulder of the last defender, which was never going to work against a couple of shithouses like Agger and Skrtrltlrrltllrlrltlrl. Ade last season showed a good striker who can hold up the ball can set up as well as put away a fair few goals.

I agree that when Ade is fit he should be playing, but at the moment Defoe is the only option we have so we should get behind him. I also think that with Dempsey's form it should potentially be Ade and Defoe not either/or.

 

[dav3j]

I agree that when Ade is fit he should be playing, but at the moment Defoe is the only option we have so we should get behind him. I also think that with Dempsey's form it should potentially be Ade and Defoe not either/or.

At the minute I'd sooner see someone else up front who can hold the ball up and drop deep when needed. Hell, it's no permanent solution but I think even Bale could do a better job as the lone striker.
I also think we should test the Ade + Dempsey / Ade + Sig combo before just going 4-4-2. Adebayor will end up dropping far too deep to make up for Defoe's laziness and goal-hogging tendencies, I think he is far better playing consistently further up the pitch and drawing defenders out of position for a CAM to exploit.

 

[stevenqoz]

Defoe is our only forward player who has in any sense resembled and performed like a goalscorer ....Dempsey and Sig have shown very little.....Ade has a mixture of unfit injured or banned.....we are harking back to last seasons form I believe.

 

[michaelden]

Lloris 12
the rest 7-8 maybe a 9 in there and definitely one 6 too

 

[jonathanhotspur]

The only positive Huddlestone has on us is give us a higher average weight in the scrum.

Huddlestone does not help us hold the ball better in the middle of the park, if this was true we would have seen even a minute improvement when he came on for the last 5 minutes. I'd be surprised if he touched the ball more than twice.

Touched the ball once (an interception). Zero passes.

 

[stevenqoz]

You are seriously evaluating Huddlestone on 4 minutes on the field

 

[Legend10]

I'm not really sure what people expected Defoe to be able to do in the 2nd half last night?

isolated, no support, balls knocked long in the air against centre backs way taller then him, nearly always 3 defenders for company and 1 can't keep pressing 3 or 4 it's just an impossible ask!

Ade would obviously have been a better outlet striker but that's hardly Defoe's fault as that isn't the kind of forward he is, in the same way that Adebayor isn't the driving style forward who could have scored defoe's first against West Ham. However due to Ade's recklessness against the Goons we were left without any real viable option or options to play a different way. Ade and Defoe together could have caused Liverpool real problems 2nd half when they were pushing on and would have given time for Bale and Lennon especially to get in support and for the whole team to move 10-15 yards further up the pitch, but defoe can't do this on his own with the type of forward he is, it's just ridiculous to expect him to be able to.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

You are seriously evaluating Huddlestone on 4 minutes on the field

As I said, if he made as much difference to us as you claim, we would have seen a minute difference. We saw nothing. He was on the field for 6 minutes, and blocked one ball with a lucky backheel, he didn't even get on the ball once. That doesn't spell a player that helps us in any way.

And I'm not evaluating him on 6 mins on the pitch, this is the myth that has followed Huddlestone for years.

 

[jonnyp]

As I said, if he made as much difference to us as you claim, we would have seen a minute difference. We saw nothing. He was on the field for 6 minutes, and blocked one ball with a lucky backheel, he didn't even get on the ball once. That doesn't spell a player that helps us in any way.

And I'm not evaluating him on 6 mins on the pitch, this is the myth that has followed Huddlestone for years.

That's completely unfair and I don't understand how anyone can say it with a straight face.

None of the players out there, bar the first 20 mins, took responsibility and contributed enough. It's a team game, and for anyone to be effective the whole team has to contribute. What did Bale do in that second half except his second free-kick?

There was no movement, and with constant hoofing from the back it that makes it hard to establish an effective passing game.

Defoe was on the pitch for the whole match, he did nothing. Most players contributed nothing in the second half.

Complaining about Hudd who was on for 6 mins when the rest of the players had been hoofing it away for 70 mins at every chance is just ridiculous.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

That's completely unfair and I don't understand how anyone can say it with a straight face.

None of the players out there, bar the first 20 mins, took responsibility and contributed enough. It's a team game, and for anyone to be effective the whole team has to contribute. What did Bale do in that second half except his second free-kick?

There was no movement, and with constant hoofing from the back it that makes it hard to establish an effective passing game.

Defoe was on the pitch for the whole match, he did nothing. Most players contributed nothing in the second half.

Complaining about Hudd who was on for 6 mins when the rest of the players had been hoofing it away for 70 mins at every chance is just ridiculous.

Read my ratings post for how I thought the others performed mate.

 

[stevenqoz]

Listen to yourself you are evaluating him 4-6 minutes....expecting him to make a difference. I said he makes a difference playing a game in our midfield which you would expect to be a reasonable time on the pitch. Huddlestone is slow...he is very deliberate since returning from a serious almost career ending injury....he seems to have lost some of his confidence in attempting incisive balls but he played his best game for us since returning against West Ham....passed well if somewhat carefully and ensured we were the side that had a clear possession advantage throughout most of the match. Last night Dembele and Sandro failed to maintain any meaningful possession second half....in the centre of midfield

 

[phil]

Listen to yourself you are evaluating him 4-6 minutes....expecting him to make a difference. I said he makes a difference playing a game in our midfield which you would expect to be a reasonable time on the pitch. Huddlestone is slow...he is very deliberate since returning from a serious almost career ending injury....he seems to have lost some of his confidence in attempting incisive balls but he played his best game for us since returning against West Ham....passed well if somewhat carefully and ensured we were the side that had a clear possession advantage throughout most of the match. Last night Dembele and Sandro failed to maintain any meaningful possession second half....in the centre of midfield

Against West Ham he played well after we went 3-0 up. Until then he was hiding from the ball and spending all his time pointing for team-mates to pick up players that he should have been marking. He reminds me very much of Keane at the end of his career with Spurs - lots of waving arms, very little in the way of football. Compare him with Tom Carroll or Allen, last night. They constantly find space and want the ball. Huddlestone does the complete opposite, hiding and pointing to somebody else to pass to. He can't tackle; his immobility is legendary; and he cannot track an opponent. And you want him playing as our DM? Get real, he's a liability. The sooner that Parker is back the better.

 

[Gilzeanking]

I kinda agree that you can be too miserable after a win vs a side unbeaten in 8 .

It is extremely frustrating to see us sit back and risk the game rather than push on for more goals , but I reckon some are letting this frustration cloud the plus points . eg we had a great 20 mins of scintillating football where we carved Pool open and got a coupla goals ....or Everyone else is sputtering too and we are 3 pts off third ....or We have been playing loads of games Europa Cup etc and could be tiring a bit.

Its right not to let any hint of complacency in after that frequently poor performance , but also its not time for hari-kiri either .

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Listen to yourself you are evaluating him 4-6 minutes....expecting him to make a difference. I said he makes a difference playing a game in our midfield which you would expect to be a reasonable time on the pitch. Huddlestone is slow...he is very deliberate since returning from a serious almost career ending injury....he seems to have lost some of his confidence in attempting incisive balls but he played his best game for us since returning against West Ham....passed well if somewhat carefully and ensured we were the side that had a clear possession advantage throughout most of the match. Last night Dembele and Sandro failed to maintain any meaningful possession second half....in the centre of midfield

I'm not expecting him to make a difference at all, that's my point regarding Huddlestone, I don't expect anything from him. You are trying to paint him as someone who helps us 'keep' or 'control' the ball. I'm telling you that a player that does that would touch the ball more than once in 6 minutes of football.

I would've expected Carroll to get on the ball 5-6 times in that, even if he misplaced the passes he would at least go looking for it. Huddlestone doesn't do that.

 

[ShelfSide18]

Not according to the guru that is Brendan Rodgers who said after the game:

'we had 65% possession tonight, and that's more important than goals'

Haha, jeez what a fuckin idiot he is!

He didn't say that, it was a twitter wind up that people fell for.

 

[hughy]

I'm not expecting him to make a difference at all, that's my point regarding Huddlestone, I don't expect anything from him. You are trying to paint him as someone who helps us 'keep' or 'control' the ball. I'm telling you that a player that does that would touch the ball more than once in 6 minutes of football.

I would've expected Carroll to get on the ball 5-6 times in that, even if he misplaced the passes he would at least go looking for it. Huddlestone doesn't do that.

You're right though. Difference is Carroll looks for the ball, Huddlestone stands there and waits for it to reach him. So if we're not in possession of the ball in those final 6 minutes, Huddlestone wont see it. It wasn't the right change, it certainly should have been Carroll just to retain the ball for a bit. Even if all he does is win a couple of free-kicks, it's eating up time.

 

[ShelfSide18]

I'm not expecting him to make a difference at all, that's my point regarding Huddlestone, I don't expect anything from him. You are trying to paint him as someone who helps us 'keep' or 'control' the ball. I'm telling you that a player that does that would touch the ball more than once in 6 minutes of football.

I would've expected Carroll to get on the ball 5-6 times in that, even if he misplaced the passes he would at least go looking for it. Huddlestone doesn't do that.

It was quite interesting how Huddlestone, against West Ham got more and more involved in our play once the game started fizzing out and we were 3 up and in control, before that when there was a semblance of a game of football on he was doing his usual hiding act. In the first quarter of the game, when you'd expect your metronomic, tempo setting playmaker to positively demand the football especially playing in the better side looking to dominate, he made 7 passes.

He doesn't help us keep or control the football at all, at least not when there is a game on his hands. He hides and points.

 

[guiltyparty]

He didn't say that, it was a twitter wind up that people fell for.

Talking about Rodgers, my favourite rating on Guardian comment thread...

'Waves a piece of paper at Rodgers'

'YOU"RE iN THE ENVELOPE, YOU"RE IN THE ENVELOPE'...

 

[felmani26]

It was quite interesting how Huddlestone, against West Ham got more and more involved in our play once the game started fizzing out and we were 3 up and in control, before that when there was a semblance of a game of football on he was doing his usual hiding act. In the first quarter of the game, when you'd expect your metronomic, tempo setting playmaker to positively demand the football especially playing in the better side looking to dominate, he made 7 passes.

He doesn't help us keep or control the football at all, at least not when there is a game on his hands. He hides and points.

Honestly, if Sky continued to provide a 'player cam' for the 90 minutes, it would be embarrassing to watch Huddlestone - not for his technique and not even for his lumbering around and falling into people, no it would be for the continued and very deliberate hiding either between opposition players or looking the other way only to then have the audacity to try and orchestrate where the player should direct the pass to.

 

[ShelfSide18]

To be fair to Rodgers, I'd fucking love to see my team play like that (and yes obviously win the game before anyone says it) away from home against a team considered to be challenging for the Champions League. They may not have the players yet, but he has already got his team doing the right things well, off the ball pressure, keeping the ball, suffocating the opposition. I'd love to see a decent team panicking like we did and resorting to lumping it forward to our insipid 2 foot anonymity up front.

If he is given time and backing then he has already laid foundations for a successful future, we have yet to see that much from AVB and I am perfectly willing to give him time myself.