Fulham (a) - Player Ratings

By Matt Jones
January 15 2006

Player ratings from Craven Cottage from forum regulars "Paul Goddard Fan" and "Jebediah". Newcastle United lost the game 1-0, but did the result reflect our performance?

Paul Goddard Fan:

Shay Given 7 , One class first half save and if truth be known he had little to do after that. I thought he was unlucky with the goal as it was an inittial good first save . His kicking from backpasses couls of been better.

Stephen Carr 8 , Had a fantastic first half and was comfortably our best player for that period. Was the inspiration leader we needed winning tough challenges and being vocal. I was fooking gutted when he had to come off though injury.

Celestine Babayaro 5 , Not one of his better days , he reads the game so badly from his full back position and showed his opposing player the outside line too much. Needs to improve alot to have a future at our club beyond the summer.

Jean Alain Boumsong 7 , Dominated in the air against the physical McBride . Made 2 great bloks when Fulham put us under pressure from set plays . He and Ramage looked settled and will get better with games . Was unlucky not to score when his header was cleared of the line , his leap for the effort was immense. All in all a much better Boumsong .

Peter Ramage 7 , The kid did good , wore his heart on his sleave and got stuck in. Maybe guilty of giving away the odd needless foul . Worked very hard and gave Boumsong a new lease of confidence. Without Taylor this could be our centre half pairing till the end of the season.

Lee Clark 6 , He was all over the pitch but his overall contribution was much. Kept the passing simple and never really gave away possesion . He's done a steady job since he's been called to play after first team injuries and this was another one of them performances. Steady sure and nothing either too special or flashy

Lee Bowyer 4 , Our worst player by a country mile , didn't make any of his trademark runs beyond the front 2 . Was lazy in the middle of the park and gave away too much possesion. Clearly to blame for the goal with the inittial stray pass and followed by a half hearted attempt to win back the ball. Playing for a move and has performed in ways i never thought he would. Not interested at all .

Nobby Solano 5 , Not one of his better days and once again played more infield . Had the better of his man on a number of occasions but still took the inside through ball. Traked back though to help out with the diving but dangerous Boa Morte. Wasted a good frekick towards the end aswell.

Charles N'Zogbia 6 , Looked to be playing upfront in the first half and was deffinatly further forward than Luque for most of the period. Is quick and brave , he goes at his man putting doubt in their head. Not always productive but always trying. Had a few long range shots and i personally was backing him to make something happen.

Albert Luque 6 , Had a good first half and showed some brillient touches. The boy has obvious ability but still really didn't influence this game. Made some great headed clearences from Fulham set pieces and worked harder than expected. He faded badly in the second period and was very harshly booed when substituted. How his confidence is going to recover from that is beyond me.

Alan Shearer 6 , Had absolutly nothing in the way of service . Worked very hard as expected but was well beaten for most headers by the impressive Zat Knight . He's had better days and it's a shame to see him run into the ground because of squad injuries. I'm sure the plan at the start of the season was to rest him for these kind of matches.

As for the subs ratings, I'll give them a joint 6. O'Brien and Chopra did give us a bit of needed pace . O'brien in particular impressing me. Elliot was just, well, Robbie Elliott.

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Jebediah:

Shay - gave what we have come to expect. One dodgy sliced clearance is the only foot I remember him putting wrong. He had no chance with the goal and made a couple of good stops before that. 8

Carr - me and PGF were talking at half time about what a difference this guy makes and then he has to go off . A really great performance, led the line well and came across to make one outstanding block which possibly saved us a goal. 8.5

Babayaro - Quiet game, didn't do much wrong but unsurprisingly drifted inside a couple of times leaving our left side exposed. 5

Boumsong - Improved performance, won more balls in the air than he has done all season I reckon. Their strikers didn't get much of a sniff from open play until their breakaway goal. Also had a header cleared off the line, and went on a rampaging run at one point during the second half 7

Ramage - Every time there was a possible threat Ramage would be there to deal with it. 7

"The centre backs" - I thought this pairing did very well today, perhaps their styles compliment each other. If they can play a bit more together and sort out defending set pieces and communication, Bramble will find it tough to get back in the team. Boumsong's best performance for a while, and although he has done a good job when he has played there Ramage is no right back.

Solano - Poor. Aimless punts upfield for a 35 year old striker to try and run on to. Very disappointing, couple of decent deliveries from corners but thats about it. 4.5

Clarky - Wasn't really involved in the game at all which is unusual for a central midfielder, but he did work hard trying to make something happen. 6

Bowyer - Heavily involved during the second half. Made some intelligent runs which looked our biggest threat of scoring. Unlucky not to score when a Fulham player handled it on the line at 1-0 down. 6.5

N'Zogbia - I'm not going to defend him just because he is a kid, because he was also disappointing yesterday. Didn't run at the defenders, and lost the ball when passing more times than he kept it. 5

Luque - Quite possibly his best game for us. Wasn't really sure what he had been asked to do, as he was often hugging the left touchline and N'Zogbia would go more central. Won a lot of headers, didn't have too many runners to look for when he was on the ball though. The bottom line is though, he looked threatening, which can only be good. Ridiculously boo'd off by a lot of idiots. 7

Alan - Didn't really have an impact. Got nothing out of Knight especially in the air. 5

SUBSTITUTES

Elliot - decent from what I could tell, he was defending at the other end though so it was hard for me to see what individuals were doing. 5.5

O'Brien - very lively, prepared to run at the full backs and gave Chopra a chance with a good low ball in to the box. Certainly gave us a different dimension when going forward. Doesn't need to be skillful with the pace he has got 6.5

Chopra - hungry, made intelligent runs and was close to fashioning an opening a couple of times. 6.5

Overall, although we might feel hard done by that we lost, we never really created much. Certainly until we went behind that is.

On defensive set pieces we looked fragile pretty much every time, something Boumsong and Ramage will need to work on if they are going to form a partnership.

 
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