NUFC v Everton Player Ratings
By Wasim
February 24 2009
Jose Enrique was judged Man Of The Match for his performance against Everton on the weekend by Tyne-Talk's resident player rater Wasim4nufc. Read on to see how the rest of the team faired......
Player ratings
Steve Harper (7.5) - He made a couple of outstanding saves in the first half and did well to keep a clean sheet. It felt like the first time, I never really missed Shay Given. Credit to Harper for that.
Steven Taylor (7) - He was good going forward and didn't do too badly in defence. He still does the odd unneccessary thing but with a clean sheet, we can't fault anybody.
Fabricio Coloccini (7) - He defended well, and his decision making was excellent, with regard to when to pass back and when to clear. Good to see that calming influence at the back.
Sebastien Bassong (8) - The guy is solid at the back. Two things came into my mind when watching him on Sunday, Firstly, he has to have an outside chance of making the French squad for the World Cup next year at this rate, while secondly how are we going to keep hold of him, because his caught the eye I'm sure. Quality performance from the young man.
Jose Enrique (8) - Seems to be showing why we paid a lot for him with another top performance at left back. He's really impressed me, and the way he calmly gets himself out of tricky situations shows he is beginning to believe in himself and that can only be good. He also went into some one on ones where he shrugged the opponent off and that shows his not backing down from the challenge ahead. Credit to Enrique, he is slowly proving me wrong.
Damien Duff (6) - He was very ineffective and was rightly substituted. Did deliver one good cross, but he can do so much better.
Kevin Nolan (6.5) - Played some good passes through for the guys to run onto, but he also got himself sent off, with a silly challenge. He should have known better.
Nicky Butt (6) - Showed great committment but he did give the ball away sometimes and he could have done better for me.
Ryan Taylor (7) - He's set pieces were good, and its great to know we are a threat from dead ball situations with him in the team. Good shift from him.
Peter Lovenkrands (6) - Missed a beauty of a chance, but just seemed to be trying too hard. It was his first start at St. James so may be that got him over anxious.
Shola Ameobi (6) - Its frustrating watching him most times and this match was nothing different. Thank goodness we now have some strikers coming back from injury.
Substitutes
Obafemi Martins (6) - Wasn't in the game that much when he came on, but did set up Jonas for a good chance. Being down to 10 men made it hard for him to have the impact we know he can have as a substitute.
Jonas Gutierrez (6.5) - Did better than Duff, and perhaps should have started the game in the first place. Missed a great chance in the second half.
Alan Smith (N/A) - Never really noticed him when he came on, but then again he didn't have much time to make an impact.
Positives
* Clean sheet.
* Played a good side and they couldn't break us down, even with us being 10 men.
* Martins, Smith and Viduka in the squad.
* Enrique and Bassong standing out.
Negatives
* We looked poor in the first 20 minutes.
* Nolan will now be banned.
* Lack of open chances created.
Man of the Match: Jose Enrique
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Harper 5@#$%&Kicking
R Taylor 6 Nowt special
Nolan 4 Sent Off
Butt 5 Waste of Space sooner gone the better
Lovehandles 5 Very Poor and missed the sitter
Ameobi 3 A disgrace to the shirt
Subs
Jonas 5 Very Poor
Wasim's Sport Blog
Toon4life
Quote:lostmekeys
who will never appeal to the 'highlights' generation
Meoooow, get you!
Quote:lostmekeys
who simply dont get what football is about
And again!
Ask 1000 fans to name there preferred first 11 and Butt wont get in it. He is back to the poor football he was playing when he first came. Backward passes, silly linges and braying the ball upfield to no-one.
I am afraid he is definately yesterdays man. The sooner Barton is back with his clever fast passing and defence cutting passes the better.
butty cant do right for doing wrong, but only in the eyes of a minority. not sure why this forum has become infected like this, i think its what phsychologists call a meme, and has become an identity tag rather than a reasoned point.
Maybe we can see that he is now turning in poor performances and you are blinded to this due to some former glory.
Barton and Guthrie
Barton and Nolan
Barton and Smith
Barton and Nacho
Barton and Jonas
Anything Butt.
as for those midfield pairings, they all just show us how weak the squad is, none of them make a great case for dropping nicky butt, which says it all considering his age
''At least we all agree that Butt had a poor game. He does jump/slide into needless challenges and that is something that gets to me. Guthrie and Barton or Nolan would be my first choice central midfielders so it shouldn't be too long before Toonbart gets his wish I think''
hoooowld on wasim, how is that 'we all agree that butt had a poor game'? sky, and me, said not. harumph.
at least bart gives an indepth explanation of his thinking...
''Nope, he's crap.''
If it hadnt been written into his contact, this summer would have probably been the time to let him go and save his wages. But he is a top pro and after a shakey start to his toon career and been a top performer for us.
Quote:Lostmekeys
hoooowld on wasim, how is that 'we all agree that butt had a poor game'? sky, and me, said not. harumph.
I may have gotten carried away when I said we all agreed that Butt had a poor game, however some of the guys on here did agree with me, so surely we can't all have been wrong. Its nothing against Butt though, because he did get a 7.5 rating the previous game, so it was just how I felt he played on Sunday.
Wasim's Sport Blog
Toon4life
it would be interesting to hear exactly how many of our current squad are good enough to stay and play a part next season, in the opinion of those on this forum, cos personally my list would be short. boring things like contracts and budgets mean we'll end up keeping some players we dont all want to keep, but they arent the reasons i'm talking about
Wasim's Sport Blog
Toon4life
