Previous names: Dial Square, Royal Arsenal, Woolwich Arsenal
Google
 

Sunday, December 09, 2007

Arsenal Player Evaluations and Ratings Vs Middlesbrough

By 1970's Gooner

Almunia:

Came out too early in the penalty incident and in a way forced Toure into making the foul on Alliadiere. Otherwise did ok. 6

Sagna:

Not his usual self. His passing was sloppy and was not as offensively minded as per usual. Maybe Middlesbrough’s pushing tight from the front had something to do with it. 5

Clichy:

The same goes for Gael as for Sagna. Sloppy passing and no forward movement of note until late in the game. 5

Toure:

Just about one of a few Arsenal players to do ok. Went forward when required but more often than not kept playing those long balls to Adebayor. Maybe an indication that the Arsenal midfield could not be trusted especially since they were tightly marked. This wasn’t the case when Denilson came on by the way. 6

Gallas:

Solid game again but could not do much in the general malaise that was so evident throughout the team. 6

Eboue:

Had his usual game which means he was part good part frivolous. Did not connect much with Sagna when they tried to penetrate from the wing. 6

Rosicky;

Showed desire to get on the ball but his wide position did not allow him to do much with it when he got it as the rest of his team mates were not up to it. Well taken goal. 7

Diarra:

Did not perform as well as against Newcastle. He tends to delay the pass when he wins the ball and his passing quality was below average. 5

Gilberto:

He is getting slower and slower. He tries to do enough just to win the ball and even this he could not do well. No wonder Flamini was the preferred choice at the beginning of the season. 5

Eduardo:

Another inept performance. 4

Adebayor:

Out of the game completely. His control was abysmal and his positioning and running off the ball were as though he was in day dream land. 4

Subs:

Bendtner:

Looked useful but did not have enough time to make a mark really. 6

Denilson:

Had a decent game when he came on the field. Looked positive and had the quality in his passing that Gilberto and Diarra didn’t. Maybe should have started the game. 6

Walcott:

Had some of those pacy runs and looked dangerous on the wing. 6


Arsenal can win at Middlesbrough by dropping Eduardo and playing Rosicky central

25 comments:

Lost Soul said...

I cant believe anyone would call wenger ruthless after the persisted with the same team which performed so miserably against sevilla and boltcastle. gilberto and diarra as a combination is pathetic. diarra atleast gave a good account of himself in two of the games. eduardo looks totally outta place. the formation wasnt working!! why the heck did he persist with both gilberto and eduardo?? Though clichy did have a bad game, and probably so did toure lumping the ball forward at every opportunity, wastefully, the midfield that started was inept. gilberto and diarra were never in the position they should've been and no defender got the support from the 2 midfielders. rosicky tried his best, but boro hacked him down everytime he found space. adebayor was woeful. He's so frustrating. eboue was his usual self as you quite rightly pointed out. I was sitting with my buddy and watching the match, and he remarked, correctly it must be said, that we looked like we were the ones leading the game and boro chasing it even though it was the other way around. boro were hounding us when we had the ball, probably confident of snatching the ball away from our 2 midfielders while arsenal waited for boro to come onto them. It was a disgraceful result and for most parts, the performance was uninspired. As if it was a match that didnt matter. For me, most of the blame rests on arsene wenger. He should've got his team right. A midfield that performed so miserably shouldn't have been persisted with. I know denilson had a bad game in sevilla, but anything he offered that day was far better than what gilberto offered today and against boltcastle. I'm sorry, today i'm disappointed with the effort of the team. Had walcott shot first time and we might've escaped with a thoroughly undeserved point, but again, the performance was horrible.

Anonymous said...

I can only agree with you. Ade also had a good chance but once again his first touch let him down. Arsenal were woeful, that is it, nothing else to say!

Anonymous said...

It was definately due. All credit to Middlesboro and Aliadiere in particular cos he showed the fight that we were lacking and Boro exposed our pathetic midfield combination. Gilberto wasn't great but he was a shitload better than Diarra, lots of rave reviews about Diarra lately but not from me...He can defend and thats it-I hope that is the last time he plays in CM cos he has destroyed our possesion game for 4 matches in a row now and this game showed it. Nice to see Eduardo getting blamed even though he was our best attacker in the first half. What a difference Denilson would have made if he started the game with Gilberto, by the time he and Walcott came on we were already screwed cos we were demorilised. I feel the defence is knackered but they gave their all just like they have had to do in the last 3 matches because when our midfield has had the ball they have instantly lost it {mainly Diarra and Eboue} Rosicky has worked his arse off too lately and never given up but honestly with Diarra you only going to give posseion away or kill our flowing game.

Anonymous said...

What was almunia doing for the second goal? He pushed it right in front of that guy. He needs to take care it goes out for a corner. That is goalkeeping basics ffs! He is not the kind of goalkeeper who turns defeats into draws and draws into wins.

Anonymous said...

Some of these scores were generous to say the least. gilberto deserves at most a 2 out of 10 for todays performance and as for adebayor, wellllll. The reason toure played the ball long is because yet again our midfiled was ineffective and almost forced our defenders to play long rather than play through the midfield as we always do. I get the impression they back four lack confidence in those players who were in the midfield today. When has toure ever played long like that. It felt like I was watching liverpool.
why the hell did wenger sub diarra and not gilberto. It is clear that gilberto and diarra cannot play together they are far too similar in their styles and do not really offer anything offensively.
Hopefully, and I do feel sad to say this, this will be gilbertos last game for us, since he has come in hes looked sooo bad, not the same gilberto of old. shocking against seville, shocking against newcastle and now even worse against borough
(as a cm anyway, he should accpet he has lost his pace and become a cb).
Hopefully not another season where injuries shag us and our attempts at glory. Cos honestly without fabs, hleb and van persie, we look soooo average.

Anonymous said...

The reason Wenger subbed Diarra and not Gilberto is because Gilberto can pass a ball to a team-mates feet and because he can see a pass, that is something Diarra has no idea how to do!

Anonymous said...

Not at all, Diarra is all round a better player than Gilberto. Diarra also had a better pass completion in that game. So how can you say that?

Anonymous said...

Where do you get your stats from? watch the game and watch what Diarra does with the ball each time he is in possesion of it....Where are his passes going? no wonder Raymond 'egg" Domenech plays him at right back

Anonymous said...

haha
I did watch the game, as you did. and still have no idea how you think gilberto was any better.
The reason Domenech plays Diarra at rb is becasue they have noone else at the moment, so a midfielder good enough to play right back for the french national side in my opinion is a great player.(problems with sagnol at munich) Believe me, he is the future of the french midfield. He has many similar qualities to makelelle and once he gets used to our system and the way we play, we will have a fantastic tough tackling ball winning cm. Dont get me wrong I would take flamini any day over him, but as back up players go he is one of the best.
Gallas took almost a year to show how good he was. so give the guy some credit.
My stats are accurate stats taken by football staticians, not the opinion on what I think makes a good player.

Anonymous said...

I understand your frustration. It's 100% fine if you'd like to do a postmortem or dissect every bad move each of the players made. But putting up a poll to see what we think had the worst performance is really counter-productive.

Anonymous said...

Believe me I dont think Gilberto was any better but he had more options and he had more direction whereas Diarra didn't and his future is not what I am commenting on although now you mention it I cant see him linking Arsenals midfield in the future as great a tackler as he is and Makelele he is not cos Makelele has composure and reads a game well as well as knowing what to do with the ball when he wins it.

Anonymous said...

Louisa it's not a witch hunt just an opinion, I stated before the match that I didnt want a Diarra/Gilberto midfield again and I would hate to see that pairing against Chelsea. I was surprised Wenger didn't start with Denilson

Anonymous said...

He has only played a handfull of games for us, I bet you thought hleb was crap too when we first signed him....haha. Typical.
Makellele sits there and defends the back 4, again something he hasnt been able to do for arsenal because of our formation.
Have you seen Makellele play in a flat 4 man midfield??? I dont think so. Chelsea never play it and when they do, he doesnt start.
But Diarra is young and will learn how to fit into our system. Using his good attributes which he has already and improving his player awareness and other parts of his game, I am sure you will be a fan of Diarra soon.

Anonymous said...

the combination of Gilberto and Diarra seems a bit off and Bendtner should get a start. It would be good to use some of the reserve youth, these were the players that took Chelsea's fisrt team to the limit in the Carling Cup. it seems there are some players who could cause more trouble to defenses but there is an obvious fear to play them in the League. i also believe that Rosicky should be used more central with Hleb and Fabregas being injured. where is Diaby (he would have been great to me in this match). Anyway keep calm, its early and the best is yet to come. Arsenal will steam roll the league when RVP, Hleb and Fab get back and you can take that to the bank!

God Bless!

Anonymous said...

I thought Hleb was great when he first appeared in the community shield against Chelsea and I thought Gilberto was a good buy when he first appeared against Liverpool and have always backed both players. Diarra fan I am not. Are you the sort who thought Fanny Jeffers would be a great Arsenal player?

Anonymous said...

I think Franny had potential and was given enough time to shine, but he didnt take his chances when he was given them. The ages and experience are totally different. Gilberto joined us after winning the World Cup. Hleb was amazing in Germany too. Diarra and Franny havent had as much playing time so off course their developement will take time. Diarra hardly played for chelsea and Franny had maybe 1 or 2 good seasons for Everton. How can these players be expected to make an instant impact?

Anonymous said...

Oh by the way gilbertos leading the pole for our worst performer
hahaha

omar said...

very dissapointing performance by arsenal today but we have to move on... ive never really questioned arsene wenger and i always get pissed off at people who do hehe but i must say im really suprised by a few things lately. why didnt denilson start since wenger himself sais that denilson is the closest we have to cesc? why did eduardo play again today after his shocker against newcastle? i cant understand why eboue has started in the last 5 matches. but the biggest question for me is that why hasnt walcott gotten more chances to play upfront? he was magnificent against prague and he was our best player when he was playin upfront in the 1st half against wigan but wenger hasnt used him at all lately. i know people will say theo is inconsistent and stuff but whenever he plays i feel we have much more pace and threat going forward. i can bet on my life that if theo gets to play 4 or 5 matches in a row there is no way he is gonna be as bad as eboue or even adebayor sometimes. we need some pace in our team and i think its time theo is involved more. was it a coincidence that when he and denilson came on our tempo became much faster? it happens everytime he comes off the bench. i wish i knew the reason hees not playing

Wrighty7 said...

Astamann my friend, lets give Diarra a bit of time to settle in the Arsenal style! He will be a great asset for Arsenal. He is a player we need in the squad. He's a player that in games when u need a bit of presence and aggression will give u that. His ball winning skills are brilliant, its just his idea's of passing thats need's sorting. Which Wenger will.

Anonymous said...

2 defensive minded midfielders against Boro? That was never going to work..
Ok Denilson is equally defensive... But it shud've been Denilson-Silva. Silva plays extremely well when he HAS someone to pass to. Theo shud've gone wide with Rosicky going central..
We were handicapped creativity wise...

-=K=-

Anonymous said...

arsenal were lacking fight. if wenger wanted to start eduardo, he should have put him on the left and brang rosicky in the middle, and had bentner with ade start instead of gilberto who had a shocker. and walcott shouldv started rather than eboue on the right, walcott was much more creative and threatened the defence more. hopefully they can pull their fingers out and be ready for chelsea

Anonymous said...

Why wasn't Eboue among the worst man of the match candidates?

He's utterly crap, and will always be. He's got the mentality of a 7 year old.. SHIP HIM OFF!

Anonymous said...

Bendtner:
Looked useful but did not have enough time to make a mark really. 6


What game was you watching? The big Dane had 45 minutes to show what he can do. Everyone on show wasn't on song against Boro. Sometimes you can carry a player or two but the whole team didnt perform.

Arguably some players were played out of position - why Rosicky was on the wing when playing just behind Adebayor was the more obvious choice esp. with a Hleb-less midfield.

I feel sorry for Eduardo - people are now banging on about how shit he is - however he is lacking from the creative promptings from messrs Hleb and TheCesc. Don't get me wrong he was completely and utterly invisible on Sunday but then again the team as a whole didn't cover themselves in glory!

Anonymous said...

PS - why hasn't AW not figured out that Gilberto and DIarra cant play together in the middle? They are the same player - both excel at being defensively minded not exactly the right recipe for creating chances for the team.

Anonymous said...

Agree on most ratings but I thought you were a bit generous. Gilberto was about 1/10 and Adebayor, Eduardo and Diarra were not asa good as you said they were. Overall good article.

Visit:

www.freewebs.com/trugooner

for another opinion