Akins Official Player Ratings - Man Utd Home

By Akin
August 23 2003

"Akins Official Player Ratings" from the 2-1 home defeat to Manchester United. Alan Shearer netted first for the Magpies', before Ruud van Nistelrooy and Paul Scholes won it back for United.

Goals

A free kick from Robert saw captain Alan Shearer nodd Newcastle in the driving seat 1-0.
Roy Keane played the ball into van Nistelrooy who was played onside by Hughes, 1-1.
Keane crossed a ball in from the right and found Scholes unmarked on the far post and he shouldered the ball into the net, 2-1.

For the benefit of those who didnt get to see the match heres "Akin's Official Player Ratings" Ratings

Given 7/10; Not much he could do about the goals
Griffin 6/10; Quiet second half which was weird as all we seemed to be doing was defending
O'Brien 7.5/10 Played well - couldnt fault him for either goals made an excellent tackels in the first half
Bramble 7.5/10 Had a good game - played as well as O'Brien
Hughes 7/10; Would have been a star defensive performance if not for his poor positional play on the van Nistelrooy goal
Bowyer 6/10; Poor home debut for the lad - dosent look comfortable on the right. Did a fair job in the first half tracking back
Dyer 5/10; He was awful. His first touch was poor and he couldnt create anything in the form of an attacking threat, was not the same Dyer that played for England and the most annoying thing is that he lasted the whole match. When Shearer played him through in the 78th minute he didnt even attempt to shoot; instead he tried to cross that epitimised his POORFORMANCE
Speed 6/10 He was just as bad as Dyer giving the ball away in the middle of the park, was scared of going into a fifty fifty, with roy keane it was just bad. got a six because he made about three tackels
Robert 6/10 Couldnt be bothered today was poor
Shearer 8/10 Breath of fresh air captain fantastic came up trumps today as usual he carried the whole team to day unfortunate to finish on the losing side
Ameobi 6.5/10 Not his best game good first half but he got lackadaisical with his touch in the second half

Subs

Viana 7/10 Held possesion and attempted to contol the game
Jenas 7/10 Another good performance won the ball in the middle and attempted to create something
Chopra 6/10 Was put through one on one with the keeper and he should have taken it first time but his touch allowed rio back in to get a vital block. least he got in a good position to be able to take the keeperon on one

Summary

First half I was jumping up and down singing "Were going to win the league" - 10 mins into the second half I feared the worse as a dose of realty exposed our WEAK midfield for what it is. The problem doesnt just rest with the defence is starts with the midfield. Get your cheque book out Freddy!

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