Pepe (4) - oh dear, clearly out of form. I expect he'll have a storming season in 2012/13.
Enrique (5) - he and Downing do NOT go well together. One of them has to go.
Agger (8) - very good game - I particularly loved the way he brought the ball out of defence.
Skrtel (7) - despite his mistimed block on Drogba for the second goal he otherwise dominated them.
Johnson (7.5) - excellent game defensively, offensively his control and trickery down the right, plus a number of incursions infield and good crosses caused them problems.
Spearing (4) - one of the main culprits in both goals. He seems to do a lot right and then just fuck it all up doing something stupid. Poor concentration rather than poor technique ?
Henderson (6.5) - I though he had a decent game, kept possession well, won the ball as much as he lost it and ran his socks off but, always an issue, he doesn't push the team forward.
Gerrard (9) MoM - I thought he was MoM. In fact I though he was trying to do too much, covering for Spearing/Henderson/Downing/Enrique and then pushing himself and the team forward. He absolutely ran his bollocks off. In the last 30 it was SG pushing that wave after wave of Red forward.
Downing (3+7) - absolutely abysmal in the first half, virtually no understanding with Enrique and constantly passed balls out of play or to a Chelsea player and zero forward impetus. In the second he started getting forward more and taking on Bosingwa, made a few decent crosses and his running with Suarez helped create problems.
Bellamy (5) - he has been off form for the past few weeks and that continued here, lost possession and didn't make use of his pace even when one on one. Plain vanilla game for Bellers.
Suarez (6.5) - isolated for much of the game because of the poor performances of both Downing and Bellamy though he didn't help himself with a few poor lay-offs. Once Carroll came on and Downing started to attack Bosingwa in earnest he got the little space he needs to do his magic and he started to turn it on.
Carroll (9) - Can't give him MoM for a 40 minute run against SG's 90 but this was otherwise a superb cameo. Created problems for the Chelsea defence from the word Go, very unlucky not to have two goals to his name (though he does have a tendency to power headers at saveable height rather than heading the ball down ..... which in this match would have been a certain goal, and the way we were playing maybe the match. His first goal was unbelievable .. I didn't know he possessed those skills and he turned Terry inside/out.
Kuyt (6.5) - An improvement on Bellamy. Got to the byline, won a corner or two and created some problems for them down the right.
Kenny (8) - started the team that most thought was right. Made an early change (55 mins) when we went 0-2 and it changed the complexion of the game entirely. Instead of having possession and no penetration we started to cause panic in their defence and they dropped deeper and deeper. The manager can only put the right team and formation out there and make changes at the right time if necessary - Kenny did that. We were unlucky to lose this, the better team on the day lost. Sometimes I hate football.
Enrique (5) - he and Downing do NOT go well together. One of them has to go.
Agger (8) - very good game - I particularly loved the way he brought the ball out of defence.
Skrtel (7) - despite his mistimed block on Drogba for the second goal he otherwise dominated them.
Johnson (7.5) - excellent game defensively, offensively his control and trickery down the right, plus a number of incursions infield and good crosses caused them problems.
Spearing (4) - one of the main culprits in both goals. He seems to do a lot right and then just fuck it all up doing something stupid. Poor concentration rather than poor technique ?
Henderson (6.5) - I though he had a decent game, kept possession well, won the ball as much as he lost it and ran his socks off but, always an issue, he doesn't push the team forward.
Gerrard (9) MoM - I thought he was MoM. In fact I though he was trying to do too much, covering for Spearing/Henderson/Downing/Enrique and then pushing himself and the team forward. He absolutely ran his bollocks off. In the last 30 it was SG pushing that wave after wave of Red forward.
Downing (3+7) - absolutely abysmal in the first half, virtually no understanding with Enrique and constantly passed balls out of play or to a Chelsea player and zero forward impetus. In the second he started getting forward more and taking on Bosingwa, made a few decent crosses and his running with Suarez helped create problems.
Bellamy (5) - he has been off form for the past few weeks and that continued here, lost possession and didn't make use of his pace even when one on one. Plain vanilla game for Bellers.
Suarez (6.5) - isolated for much of the game because of the poor performances of both Downing and Bellamy though he didn't help himself with a few poor lay-offs. Once Carroll came on and Downing started to attack Bosingwa in earnest he got the little space he needs to do his magic and he started to turn it on.
Carroll (9) - Can't give him MoM for a 40 minute run against SG's 90 but this was otherwise a superb cameo. Created problems for the Chelsea defence from the word Go, very unlucky not to have two goals to his name (though he does have a tendency to power headers at saveable height rather than heading the ball down ..... which in this match would have been a certain goal, and the way we were playing maybe the match. His first goal was unbelievable .. I didn't know he possessed those skills and he turned Terry inside/out.
Kuyt (6.5) - An improvement on Bellamy. Got to the byline, won a corner or two and created some problems for them down the right.
Kenny (8) - started the team that most thought was right. Made an early change (55 mins) when we went 0-2 and it changed the complexion of the game entirely. Instead of having possession and no penetration we started to cause panic in their defence and they dropped deeper and deeper. The manager can only put the right team and formation out there and make changes at the right time if necessary - Kenny did that. We were unlucky to lose this, the better team on the day lost. Sometimes I hate football.
