Player ratings vs Reading (h)

[drew]

Sorry, but can't understand the adulation for Murphy? His defensive performance was poor in the first half as he allowed too much space to the their wide players which, when playing a pressing game, you shouldn't do. I'm not a fan of his as I think he as an abundance of talent but hasn't normally got the intelligence to make use of it. However, he did take his goal well and he laid the ball off for Knockaert (easy pass though). He had another chance when releasing the ball about a second earlier would have taken out about 5 defenders but he held on to it and it seemed all 5 tackled him!!!

 

[dazzer6666]

Sorry, but can't understand the adulation for Murphy? His defensive performance was poor in the first half as he allowed too much space to the their wide players which, when playing a pressing game, you shouldn't do. I'm not a fan of his as I think he as an abundance of talent but hasn't normally got the intelligence to make use of it. However, he did take his goal well and he laid the ball off for Knockaert (easy pass though). He had another chance when releasing the ball about a second earlier would have taken out about 5 defenders but he held on to it and it seemed all 5 tackled him!!!

Get yer tin helmet on, Murphy was very good today. Everyone around where I sit was talking about how well he was doing defensively............let alone what he offered going forward.

 

[drew]

Get yer tin helmet on, Murphy was very good today. Everyone around where I sit was talking about how well he was doing defensively............let alone what he offered going forward.

well in the first half, from my view in the south end of the WSU, he was giving too much space and any passes to any wide player on the left was easy.

 

[Hyperion]

Brighton 3. It's the only rating that matters.

 

[Shoreham Beach Seagull]

Sorry, but can't understand the adulation for Murphy? His defensive performance was poor in the first half as he allowed too much space to the their wide players which, when playing a pressing game, you shouldn't do. I'm not a fan of his as I think he as an abundance of talent but hasn't normally got the intelligence to make use of it. However, he did take his goal well and he laid the ball off for Knockaert (easy pass though). He had another chance when releasing the ball about a second earlier would have taken out about 5 defenders but he held on to it and it seemed all 5 tackled him!!!

The amount of times McShane had to turn and play back to keeper/sweeper CB on the right hand side shows that he must have been keeping his shape pretty well. Plus it's not easy for either winger to defend today. They both had to try press the third Centre Back whilst watching a wing backs run. Add into this that defending probably isn't any wingers forte.

The run Murphy made set up the 'easy pass' to Knockaert, can't take that away from him.

I'm more of a March fan than Murphy for the said lack of clinical decision making, but to say the above after the game he had today is utterly crazy.




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[sussex_guy2k2]

Sorry, but can't understand the adulation for Murphy? His defensive performance was poor in the first half as he allowed too much space to the their wide players which, when playing a pressing game, you shouldn't do. I'm not a fan of his as I think he as an abundance of talent but hasn't normally got the intelligence to make use of it. However, he did take his goal well and he laid the ball off for Knockaert (easy pass though). He had another chance when releasing the ball about a second earlier would have taken out about 5 defenders but he held on to it and it seemed all 5 tackled him!!!

I assume you don't know much about tactics? If you thought Murphy was poor defensively, you must have thought Knockaert was absolutely horrific. The space, due to how their formation matched up against ours, was in the wide areas offensively, as they often had the sided centre back, the wing back and the nominal wide player up against our full back and winger. Doing the maths, that's a 3 v 2 in their favour. Considering this, Murphy almost never got caught, yet Knockaert got caught 4 times by my count as he stayed with the left sided centre back rather than tracking the left wing back...

The long and the short of it is you're letting your dislike for Murphy skew your opinion, and you're using your tactical ignorance to support your argument

 

[goldstone]

I would take a point off of Stephens for yet again fannying around in a dangerous position and causing a very dangerous problem. Outstanding player though he is, I do wonder if he thinks he is better than he is. Happening almost once a game recently. A bit like Dunk's old problem of one "switch off" per game. Very difficult to criticise anything else he does but that makes the frequency of this overplaying even more frustrating.

My thoughts exactly. He needs to cut that out of his game.

 

[spring hall convert]

It's one thing for Hughton to get the tactics spot on but it's not so easy to pull that plan off against a good team. Outstanding performance from all the players, might well have been our most impressive team display at The Amex.

 

[spring hall convert]

Sorry, but can't understand the adulation for Murphy? His defensive performance was poor in the first half as he allowed too much space to the their wide players which, when playing a pressing game, you shouldn't do. I'm not a fan of his as I think he as an abundance of talent but hasn't normally got the intelligence to make use of it. However, he did take his goal well and he laid the ball off for Knockaert (easy pass though). He had another chance when releasing the ball about a second earlier would have taken out about 5 defenders but he held on to it and it seemed all 5 tackled him!!!

Crazy talk. Murphy's best game for us by a long distance. Far more tactically disciplined than Knockheart yesterday. Frightning in both wide and central areas on the break.

 

[Marshy]

Stockdale 8

Bruno 8
Poc 8
Dunk 8
Duffy 8

Sidwell 8
Stephens 8
Knockaert 8
Murphy 9 mom

Baldock 8
Murray 7

 

[DarrenFreemansPerm]

Have we learned something from Huddersfield i.e a high press and quick to counter?

We did to Reading exactly what Huddersfield did to us. Very pleasing to see Hughton is confident enough to use a completely new (to him, and us) strategy. Worked perfectly. We've got such a savage counter attacking team, if we get our noses in front we're horrible to play against, the press just gives us a far better chance of taking the lead.

 

[Finchley Seagull]

Stockdale 7 - Did everything he needed to but it was so little it is hard to give him more
Bruno 8 - Absolutely perfect ball for Baldock's goal. Solid defensive performance too
Dunk 7.5 - Solid defensively although slightly out of position for the chance that Duffy blocked on the line
Duffy 8.5 - Fantastic clearance on the line and then a brilliant headed clearance to start the move for the second goal. Solid all night
Pocognoli 7.5 - Another solid game with a couple of good crosses. Very good signing. Really hope we can sign him permanently in the summer
Knockaert 8 - A bit greedy at times but involved in the second goal and scored the third. Always a threat
Stephens 8 - As others have said, gave the ball away a bit but what a ball for the second goal. Good game overall
Sidwell 8 - Solid performance. Seems to be getting better as the season goes on
Murphy 9 - Best performance in a long time. Always a threat. Great finish after missing a couple last week and a couple of fantastic runs for Baldock hitting the post and Knockaert's goal. I prefer him starting to March as March seems to have best impact off the bench
Murray 7.5 - Held the ball up well and won a lot in the air although a couple of poor passes could have cost us
Baldock 9 - My man of the match, just ahead of Murphy. Well taken first goal, also hit the post and caused problems for Reading all game

Subs:

Hemed 7 - Excellent control a number of times. Not many teams have a player with 10 league goals to bring off the bench
Akpom 6 - Lively and caused a few problems. Would be great for him to get a goal soon to give him confidence as we'll need him to start at some point
Tomori 6 - Not much to do but did well to see the ball out of play when his winger tried to go past him

Hughton 10 - Excellent. Worked out Reading's tactics perfectly and took advantage of the gaps they leave at the back

 

[Two Professors]

Newspaper ratings:

Stockdale 7
Bruno 7
Duffy 8
Dunk 7
Poco 7
Knocky 8
Stephens 7
Sidwell 7
Murphy 8 MOM
Murray 7
Baldrick 8

Subs 6

Broadly agree,but would give Murphy a 9,best I've seen him play.Reading looked like us under Gus,but Chris had them sussed.

 

[BensGrandad]

9.5. For Murphy who did everything expected of him and more
9 for Duffy Baldock and Sidwell
8 for everybody else except Akpom and Timori who werent on long enough to mark.

 

[Machiavelli]

Crazy talk. Murphy's best game for us by a long distance. Far more tactically disciplined than Knockheart yesterday. Frightning in both wide and central areas on the break.

Is this Knockheart related to Mel Gibson?

 

[Machiavelli]

Sorry, but can't understand the adulation for Murphy? His defensive performance was poor in the first half as he allowed too much space to the their wide players which, when playing a pressing game, you shouldn't do. I'm not a fan of his as I think he as an abundance of talent but hasn't normally got the intelligence to make use of it. However, he did take his goal well and he laid the ball off for Knockaert (easy pass though). He had another chance when releasing the ball about a second earlier would have taken out about 5 defenders but he held on to it and it seemed all 5 tackled him!!!

I'm aware that this place is about 'opinions', but I'm going to join the chorus disputing your opinion on Murphy yesterday (at the very least). I endorse what everybody else has said in response to your post about Murphy. His defensive work was excellent pretty much throughout, and his greatest strength is the directness of his running. Fortunately he had three, four or perhaps even five occasions to do this yesterday, where he pretty much carried the ball from one end of the pitch to the other, and on every occasion created an opportunity, made the right decision, and executed it to a tee.