Player ratings vs Cardiff

[goldstone]

What a truly awful and horribly boring first hour. After the three subs it seemed like a different team. Suddenly we appeared to be interested in the game.

Brez 5. Lost 2 points for that awful punch out that lead directly to their 2nd goal.
Reyes 4. Seemingly unable to pass to a blue and white shirt. I'm going off him very quickly. Problem is that Calderon is not the answer either.
Greer 7. Couple of stray passes but overall a good game.
ElAbd 8. Excellent commanding game again. The sponsors were right - MOM.
Mattock 6. Hardly saw the ball in the first half. More involved in the second.
Bridcutt 6. Not one of his best games.
Navarro 7. Tried to make things happen.
Razaq 4. Poor. Not involved enough and when he was he produced zilch.
Assulin 5. Marginally better than Razaq, but a big disappointment.
Barnes 7. Scored one, made one, but overall not a particularly good game.
CMS 7. I thought one of his better games until subbed.

Subs:
Noone 8. Made a big difference when he came on. Gave our game some purpose.
Buckley 8. Same a Noone. Suddenly Cardiff looked worried.
Vokes 7. Good goal. Good in the air. Held the ball up well.


We need to start both Noone and Buckley on Saturday.

 

[big nuts]

Gk brezovan 7 -
RB Reyes - 6
Lb mattock - 7
Cb Greer - 7.5
Cb elabd 8
Cm navarro 7.5
Cm bridcutt 6.5
Cm razzak 6.5
Lm Barnes 8.5 MOM
Rm azzaulin 7
Str CMS 6.5

Noone 7.5
Vokes 7.5
Buckley 7

Good character shown against a dogged, determined and well organised Cardiff side. Encouraging that our bench is regularly gaining points for us which is testament to the squad we have.

 

[One Teddy Maybank]

Brez 6
Jara Reyes 5
Mattock 7
Greer 7
El Abd 8
Razaq 6
Bridcutt 6
Navarro 7
Assulin 6
Barnes 7
CMS 6

Noone 7
Buckley 7
vokes 7

 

[CliveWalkerWingWizard]

Brez 6.5
Mattock 7
Greer 7
Elabd 8
Reyes 4 truly awful game
Bricutt 6.5
Nav 7
Razak 6
Assulin 6.5
Barnes 7
CMS 6.5
Noone 7.5
Vokes 7
Buckley 7

 

[Seagull1989]

Brez -4 - flapped at lead up to 2nd goal
Reyes -5- solid but what was with the free kick at the end ?
Greer -7- looked steady. Dealt with kenny miller all day
El Abd -8 MOTM let the Cardiff players know he was there. And showed passion
Mattock -6- some good runs down the left if we put him in earlier
Briddcutt -6- steady game in midfield
Navarro -7- did the easy passes and kept us ticking
Razak - 4- didn't influence the game at all
Barnes -8- great finish and assist for 2nd goal
CMS -4- missed a sitter. Imagine if it was barnes that missed that!

Noone -7- some good play down the left
Buckley -6- couple of good runs down the wing
Vokes - 7- showed his quality and good finish for 2nd

 

[Ninja Elephant]

We saw a different game there I'm afraid, [MENTION=144]goldstone[/MENTION]. I really enjoyed our probing and gentle fondling in the first half, and then our cut and thrust in the second.

Brezovan 7 - His kicking is fantastic now, both feet. Massive improvement, and he caught a few crosses. The second Cardiff goal was not his fault.
Jara Reyes 6 - He miscontrolled the ball a couple of times and misplaced a few passes but still shows his intelligence and is easily our best right back.
Joe Mattock 7 - I love that man. Quality left back, hit a shot and put in some composed challenges. Quality Championship left back, sign him up.
Gordon Greer 8 - Quality centre back, passing all over the place, driving out of defence and never bothered at the back.
Adam El-Abd 8 - Deserved the man of the match award. Drove forward with confidence and purpose, sheer class.
Liam Bridcutt 6 - Being wasted in our team at the moment, he works best when he's relied upon. At the moment, he's too crowded.
Alan Navarro 6 - Just offers nothing that I can see, but it's not a coincidance that we're unbeaten this year with him in the team.
Abdul Razak 6 - Tougher game for him because there wasn't the space there was against Ipswich. Looks class above, midfield was too crowded tonight.
Gai Assulin 6 - Very flash, good on the ball and can dribble for fun but he doesn't seem to produce much or contribute much.
Ashley Barnes 9 - Quality goal, cracking left footed effort after that goal and then he got the assist for the second. What a player.
Craig Mackail-Smith 6 - I feel so sorry for him. We change the team to play to his stengths, but he comes off. Baffling.

Subs
Craig Noone 6 - Brilliant to see him running at players, but produced nothing but for the through ball for Barnes. Oh, and the cross for Barnes' goal...
William Buckley 6 - I love watching him play, but he didn't really get going I didn't think.
Sam Vokes 7 - Scored the goal and worked hard off the ball, looks a good player but needs someone with him. CMS, FFS!!!

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. I thought the first half was thoroughly entertaining, watching Cardiff sit and sit and contain and then spring away when they could. They're obviously a good team with very good technical players, but they were happy to let us do all the running, work the ball and then spring out at us whenever they could. It was a plan they changed in the second half, they went more aggresive and were on top before scoring, then reverted to defending until we equalised and helped themselves to a wonder goal. They look a very good team but we matched them, and maybe were unlucky not to win. Had the Assulin (?) shot which hit the post gone in in the first half, maybe the game would have opened up like the Ipswich one and allowed us to steam roller them. Not to worry, good opposition and a good result overall. I was disappointed with the substitutions, I want to see CMS and Vokes play together as I think teams won't be able to handle our attacking threat if we tried it, and I want to see Bridcutt given more responsibility by not having Navarro sitting right next to him all game. I think he is the sort of player who makes a team tick, but we aren't using that aspect of his game at the moment because he doesn't have the room to really influence the game. I'm not moaning, what we're doing has kept us unbeaten so far this year, I would just like to see us be more attacking but if we were, maybe we wouldn't be doing as well as we are.

Greer and El-Abd is the best centre back partnership I have ever seen in the stripes.

 

[bhawoddy]

brezovan 4 - another poorly attempted clearance from a corner led to their 2nd.
Reyes 5 - Quiet game
Mattock 6 - Tried hard to get things going
Greer 7 - Easy for him tonight really with just 1 up front for cardiff.
El Abd 8 - Easily Brightons best player, strong and decent on the ground
Bridcutt 6 - Just gone off the boil in recent week, decent enough performance but definitely capable of more.
Navarro 6 - Defensive duties carried out satisfactorily. Pretty much all he does.
Razak 6 - never got into the game. Didnt get forward once, and was rightly replaced
Assulin 6 - looked dnagerous at times but didnt threaten at all, correctly replaced.
Barnes 7 -Decent game, is a striker without question, his best position bar none!
CMS - 5 Totally innefective, rightly replaced. Missed sitter too in first half.

Noone - 7 dangerous when he came on, should have been on before we were 1-0 down.
Buckley - 7 also dangerous when he came on and looked to make things happen.
Vokes 6 - scored a goal and looked to link play up whenever he could.

 

[Sausage]

I didn't go.

 

[seagulls4ever]

Brez 5
Jara Reyes 4
Mattock 5
Greer 7
El Abd 7
Razaq 5.5
Bridcutt 6
Navarro 6
Assulin 5.5
Barnes 6.5
CMS 5

Noone 6
Buckley 5
Vokes 6

 

[Waynflete]

Greer and El-Abd is the best centre back partnership I have ever seen in the stripes.

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but if that's the case why are we so bad at defending corners and free-kicks?

 

[Sussex Nomad]

Greer and El-Abd is the best centre back partnership I have ever seen in the stripes.

Nah... Lawrenson and whoever he carried!

 

[Ninja Elephant]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but if that's the case why are we so bad at defending corners and free-kicks?

It's hardly a disaster, is it? We've let in 36 goals in our 35 league games. I don't know the number, but it's not like every game we are letting in a goal or two from set-pieces. The team weren't set up brilliantly for the second Cardiff goal, there's no disagreeing there. Who was meant to be on the edge? And who should have been closing down the corner in the first half when McNaughton was able to amble forward? But it's not exactly a weakness if we're being honest.

 

[Acker79]

brez 7 caught most things. Good with both feet. His punch for the second goal was no where near as awful as some are painting it to be, but could have been better.
reyes 6.5 first half hour seemed out of sync with assulin. Seemed reluctant to cross the ball at times
El abd 7.5 solid
Greer 7 solid, but seemed to let the player pass him to easily for the first goal
Mattock 6.5 made some good runs that were never seen but seemed reluctant to get into the final third when he got the ball.
Razak 7 showed some good touches, but didn't seem to be as attacking as he was v ipswich
Assulin 6.5 trouble syncing with reyes, inconsistent generally with moments of good play and some poor passing, hopefully that's just match practice.
Bridcutt 7 generally ok
Navarro 7.5 continues to be a strong figure in the middle, breaking up play, passing the ball around, could be a little more forward thinking, though.
Barnes 6.5 didn't seem too involved in the first half, more noticeable in the second
CMS 6.5 not a great game, seemed to lack fight, the ball seemed to be bouncing off him

Noone 7 seemed more dangerous than his last appearance, but final ball missing too often. Good assist for Barnes
Buckley 7 seems to have lost a bit of his edge, but did make some good runs, only for the attacks to break down when he played it off to rayes who chose the side pass instead of a cross
Vokes 6.5 right place right time for the goal, but seemed to lack interest at other times, particularly after we equalised, seem to just let their defender walk the ball past him.


First half, cardiff parked the bus and we needed patience and guile. We had the patience, not sure we had the guile.

Second half Cardiff just seemed to find space too easily, they seemed to come together, bringing our defenders together, then spread out and our defenders stayed where they were. The punch could have been better, but it cleared the area and we should have put their player under more pressure, but he finished it perfectly.

Brez was under too much pressure to risk catching it, imo. He was catching a lot in the first half so it's not like he has given up on catching, as some seem to suggest.

I thought the ref didn't deserve some of the criticism he got. He let a lot of niggly stuff go, probably too much, but he was consistently letting it go, for both sides. I thought he got the major decisions right, none of the handball claims were deliberate handling, and the fouls generally were called right. Yes, he didn't book their keeper for time wasting, but I did notice he stopped his watch when the keeper dallied, and if he had stopped play to book him people would have complained he was wasting more time himself.

Cardiff came with a game plan, it almost worked for them, but they go away with a point. Generally I say any time you're ahead and you draw it's two points lost, any time you're behind it's a point won, so tonight was a point won.

We need a bit more creativity and positivity in such situations of teams parking the us.

 

[PILTDOWN MAN]

We saw a different game there I'm afraid, [MENTION=144]goldstone[/MENTION]. I really enjoyed our probing and gentle fondling in the first half, and then our cut and thrust in the second.

Brezovan 7 - His kicking is fantastic now, both feet. Massive improvement, and he caught a few crosses. The second Cardiff goal was not his fault.
Jara Reyes 6 - He miscontrolled the ball a couple of times and misplaced a few passes but still shows his intelligence and is easily our best right back.
Joe Mattock 7 - I love that man. Quality left back, hit a shot and put in some composed challenges. Quality Championship left back, sign him up.
Gordon Greer 8 - Quality centre back, passing all over the place, driving out of defence and never bothered at the back.
Adam El-Abd 8 - Deserved the man of the match award. Drove forward with confidence and purpose, sheer class.
Liam Bridcutt 6 - Being wasted in our team at the moment, he works best when he's relied upon. At the moment, he's too crowded.
Alan Navarro 6 - Just offers nothing that I can see, but it's not a coincidance that we're unbeaten this year with him in the team.
Abdul Razak 6 - Tougher game for him because there wasn't the space there was against Ipswich. Looks class above, midfield was too crowded tonight.
Gai Assulin 6 - Very flash, good on the ball and can dribble for fun but he doesn't seem to produce much or contribute much.
Ashley Barnes 9 - Quality goal, cracking left footed effort after that goal and then he got the assist for the second. What a player.
Craig Mackail-Smith 6 - I feel so sorry for him. We change the team to play to his stengths, but he comes off. Baffling.

Subs
Craig Noone 6 - Brilliant to see him running at players, but produced nothing but for the through ball for Barnes. Oh, and the cross for Barnes' goal...
William Buckley 6 - I love watching him play, but he didn't really get going I didn't think.
Sam Vokes 7 - Scored the goal and worked hard off the ball, looks a good player but needs someone with him. CMS, FFS!!!

Overall, I really enjoyed the game. I thought the first half was thoroughly entertaining, watching Cardiff sit and sit and contain and then spring away when they could. They're obviously a good team with very good technical players, but they were happy to let us do all the running, work the ball and then spring out at us whenever they could. It was a plan they changed in the second half, they went more aggresive and were on top before scoring, then reverted to defending until we equalised and helped themselves to a wonder goal. They look a very good team but we matched them, and maybe were unlucky not to win. Had the Assulin (?) shot which hit the post gone in in the first half, maybe the game would have opened up like the Ipswich one and allowed us to steam roller them. Not to worry, good opposition and a good result overall. I was disappointed with the substitutions, I want to see CMS and Vokes play together as I think teams won't be able to handle our attacking threat if we tried it, and I want to see Bridcutt given more responsibility by not having Navarro sitting right next to him all game. I think he is the sort of player who makes a team tick, but we aren't using that aspect of his game at the moment because he doesn't have the room to really influence the game. I'm not moaning, what we're doing has kept us unbeaten so far this year, I would just like to see us be more attacking but if we were, maybe we wouldn't be doing as well as we are.

Greer and El-Abd is the best centre back partnership I have ever seen in the stripes.

I need some of those mind altering drugs you've taken.

Poyet got the tactics wrong. Again playing the wrong formation at home. Watching us so called probing away 1st first, was in fact too slow, not wide enough, lacked ambition and was very boring.

Brez 4 catch the bloody thing man
Mattock 5
Greer 5 lacked ambition and only played the ball forwards in the last minute
Elabd 7.1 good
Reyes 4 truly awful game
Bricutt 6
Nav 6
Razak 6
Assulin 5
Barnes 6 would have been 5 until he scored
CMS 5
Noone 7.
Vokes 6
Buckley 6

Poyet 5

 

[Acker79]

I'm not necessarily disagreeing with you, but if that's the case why are we so bad at defending corners and free-kicks?

This was covered by ferret in the live chat with the argus. I believe we haven't conceded any goals from free kicks, we've conceded either 5 or 7 from corners (I've forgotten which one was how many we conceded, and which was how may we scored).

 

[LamieRobertson]

I thought tht got the MOM right tonight EL ABD is so much fun to watch

 

[Waynflete]

This was covered by ferret in the live chat with the argus. I believe we haven't conceded any goals from free kicks, we've conceded either 5 or 7 from corners (I've forgotten which one was how many we conceded, and which was how may we scored).

That's interesting. Maybe it's just my nerves giving me the wrong impression, but I'd be interested to know how those figures are calculated; my feeling is that we often just don't clear our lines from set-pieces which is one of our major weaknesses... not sure if that qualifies as conceding from set-pieces in the stats, though.

 

[GingerBeerMan]

Brezovan - 7. Had a decent game. Looked solid and I didn't shudder when get got near the ball. Warming to this guy.

Jara Reyes - 5.5 One of his worst games in the blue and white stripes. Lots of mis placed passes and slowed the game down when we wanted to play a high tempo game. Solid defender but maybe tries to hard to be good.

Greer - 7.5 Quality player. My POTS so far and had another good game.

AEA - 7.5 Equally good defensive display and always rattles the opposition strikers.

Mattock - 5 Had an equally bad game to Reyes and his defending looked sloppy in the second half when he was on my side.

Navarro - 6.5 Again, warming to this guy. Seems better than he should be. Had an ok game and broke up play, and create some chances.

Bridcutt - 6.5 Same as Navs, didnt set the world on fire, wasn't his best game, but done the job.

Razak - 6.5 Didn't play as badly as everyone said he did, however didn't do much of interest. Some good runs and passes but nothing noteable.

Assulin - 6.8 Had a good first half but had no finished product. Good at dribbling. Comment from a man behind me "He's there best player this bloke" in the first 25 minutes.

Barnes - 6.8 Again, really bad first half. He was no-where to be seen. After the 3 subs had been made he was looking sharper. His attacking position is great, as well as his finishing, however he needs more about him to play CM, CAM or LW. Lots of poor touches again though, needs to be worked on IMO. But a well taken goal + assist.

CMS - 6 Not a great game, can't remember him doing much

Noone - 7.5 Looked very effective when he came on. I forgot how good he was but that left foot is awesome!!

Buckley - 7 Should have been higher if it wasn't for some crude defending. So quick, he had their left back rattled.

Vokes - 6.8 Looks good, I have a lot more faith in his finishing and holding up ability than CMS.

 

[LamieRobertson]

I need some of those mind altering drugs you've taken.

Poyet got the tactics wrong. Again playing the wrong formation at home. Watching us so called probing away 1st first, was in fact too slow, not wide enough, lacked ambition and was very boring.

Brez 4 catch the bloody thing man
Mattock 5
Greer 5 lacked ambition and only played the ball forwards in the last minute
Elabd 7.1 good
Reyes 4 truly awful game
Bricutt 6
Nav 6
Razak 6
Assulin 5
Barnes 6 would have been 5 until he scored
CMS 5
Noone 7.
Vokes 6
Buckley 6

Poyet 5

Hmm.....when did Poyet com on?

What did Noone do to make him worth more than the other 2 subs?

 

[Teddy Maybank]

Adam, Greer and Nav were very tidy. Assualin looked good but kept on cutting inside to a v congested centre of the pitch. We play best when we have one or occasionally two wingers who run at defences and into space.
Barnes was once again v good.
Razak and Reyes were poor.
Thought the ref was immense.