Player Ratings #25: vs Reading (a)

[OoooMarkWright]

Allsop 7.5 Great save in first half

Byrne 7.5 Great positions, good footballer. Crosses - mixed.

Forsyth 7.5 Played really well first half, bossed it down the left. 

Jagielka 7.5 solid

Davies 10 Hero, Legend, Icon!

Thompson 7.5 Kept us ticking over - we dominated midfield.

Bird 8 - Lovely balls threaded through.

Knight 7.5 Hardworking as ever

Jozwiak 7.5 Looked lively

Lawrence 7 Good movement, got involved

Plange 6 Needs a better touch. Put himself about

SUBS:
Kazim - 8 Got the important first

Ebosele - 7 Got involved - awful touch at times though

Ravel - 7.5 As Lawrence, threaded some lovely balls through 

A very dominant performance. Would have been a travesty to come away with 0 points. 

[LeedsCityRam]

Allsop - 7.5 - aside from nearly being caught in possession first half, thought he had a good game. Cracking save from Carroll & good in possession. Nothing he could do about their first & got little help for their second.

Byrne 7 - ordinary first half as we barely threatened right side but much better after the break. Cross for Davies' equaliser & a real threat going forward

Forsyth 7 - actually thought he was our brightest attacking outlet first 30 mins. Coped well with Carroll aerially too

Jagielka 7.5 - standard good display from Jags & had a bit of a running battle with Carroll

Davies 8.5 MOM - very solid defensively including taking a very wise yellow card. Caused carnage in their box last 10 mins & equalised with an obscene header

Thompson 8 - such a tidy & understated player. Dictates tempo, great vision & passing, presses the ball very well & constantly creating short passing triangles. Stayed close to Davies also to allow him an outlet - Reading barely bothered pressing Curtis

Bird 8 - excellent also. Along with Thompson, dominated midfield & gave us a platform to move into their final 3rd. Defensively made a number of timely interceptions/tackles. 

Knight 7.5 - don't generally like him left side but thought he was good going forward today. Worked well in tandem with Forsyth first half, then switched right side second half & contributed to us threatening on that flank too. Looked to be more one touch than usual

Jozwiak 6.5 - a decent hard working display but again just missing that cutting edge & meant we lacked any right side threat first half. Best chance was when Lawrence's second half effort fell straight to him but he took a touch instead of hitting first time

Lawrence 6.5 - largely on the periphery of things but some nice touches. Good effort early in second half that their keeper did well to keep out

Plange 6 - didn't get a lot of service early on as Reading had most of the play. One great chance with a header that he should have done better with. I do like his movement & runs though - definite player there

Kazim, Morrison & Ebosele all 7 & all contributed to Reading's discomfort & eventual collapse

[sage]

4 hours ago, mike93rh said:

This entire thread is redundant because of the number of people rating Byrne less than an a 9 today, I'm actually baffled. He was immense. 

And at fault for their first goal

[Jubbs]

14 hours ago, RoyMac5 said:

I KNEW someone would claim Allsop should have saved the 2nd. ?

6 is an outrageous score.

Not sure it is an "outrageous score"

He made 1 save (albeit a great save), should have saved the second (imagine the outrage if that was Roos) and he nearly gave Carroll a free goal

[RoyMac5]

8 minutes ago, Jubbs said:

Not sure it is an "outrageous score"

He made 1 save (albeit a great save), should have saved the second (imagine the outrage if that was Roos) and he nearly gave Carroll a free goal

Give your head a wobble. 

[Crewton]

10 hours ago, LeedsCityRam said:

Allsop - 7.5 - aside from nearly being caught in possession first half, thought he had a good game. Cracking save from Carroll & good in possession. Nothing he could do about their first & got little help for their second.

Byrne 7 - ordinary first half as we barely threatened right side but much better after the break. Cross for Davies' equaliser & a real threat going forward

Forsyth 7 - actually thought he was our brightest attacking outlet first 30 mins. Coped well with Carroll aerially too

Jagielka 7.5 - standard good display from Jags & had a bit of a running battle with Carroll

Davies 8.5 MOM - very solid defensively including taking a very wise yellow card. Caused carnage in their box last 10 mins & equalised with an obscene header

Thompson 8 - such a tidy & understated player. Dictates tempo, great vision & passing, presses the ball very well & constantly creating short passing triangles. Stayed close to Davies also to allow him an outlet - Reading barely bothered pressing Curtis

Bird 8 - excellent also. Along with Thompson, dominated midfield & gave us a platform to move into their final 3rd. Defensively made a number of timely interceptions/tackles. 

Knight 7.5 - don't generally like him left side but thought he was good going forward today. Worked well in tandem with Forsyth first half, then switched right side second half & contributed to us threatening on that flank too. Looked to be more one touch than usual

Jozwiak 6.5 - a decent hard working display but again just missing that cutting edge & meant we lacked any right side threat first half. Best chance was when Lawrence's second half effort fell straight to him but he took a touch instead of hitting first time

Lawrence 6.5 - largely on the periphery of things but some nice touches. Good effort early in second half that their keeper did well to keep out

Plange 6 - didn't get a lot of service early on as Reading had most of the play. One great chance with a header that he should have done better with. I do like his movement & runs though - definite player there

Kazim, Morrison & Ebosele all 7 & all contributed to Reading's discomfort & eventual collapse

Can't argue with most of this. 

[Jubbs]

9 minutes ago, RoyMac5 said:

Give your head a wobble. 

It was a weak shot straight at him... no wobbling needed

[Crewton]

5 minutes ago, Jubbs said:

It was a weak shot straight at him... no wobbling needed

I can see what you're getting at, but it was from two yards away. Most keepers would be anticipating the shot being hit high to their left or right. Hoillet managed to keep his shot low, actually slightly miss-hit it and, for a big keeper, that's the perfect place to put it. So in my view, yours is a harsh judgement. 

[RoyMac5]

26 minutes ago, Crewton said:

I can see what you're getting at, but it was from two yards away. Most keepers would be anticipating the shot being hit high to their left or right. Hoillet managed to keep his shot low, actually slightly miss-hit it and, for a big keeper, that's the perfect place to put it. So in my view, yours is a harsh judgement. 

And as a keeper with all the goal to cover you'd expect to have to 'spread yourself' somewhat. 

[England Ram]

Allsop - 7    Solid and dependable.

Byrne - 6        Got in some good positions going forward but crossing was terrible all game apart from that one at the end. Defensively average.

Forsyth - 6     Got in some good positions but crossing was not great.

Jagielka - 7    Did well against considering up against Andy Carroll but lost out on some key battles, one leading to the goal.

Davies - 9     Absolute legend. Defended brilliantly and one of the best forwards we have at the club.

Thompson - 8 Loved the work he put in with Bird. If we had a better forward line they would have been in for a bucket load of chances. Sadly those in front of the midfield were too static most of the time.

Bird - 8      Excellent Second only to Davies for MOTM. See my notes on Thompson for the better outlet needed.

Knight - 6.5    Did OK being played out of position again

Jozwiak - 7    Made a lot of good runs but was rarely passed to. Tried to make things happen.

Lawrence - 6.5   Average. Went missing for large parts of the game.

Plange - 6     Worked hard. Difficult for him up front on his own though and an experienced back line kept him quiet.

 

Kazim - 6.5    Gave us more of a presence up front. Severely lacks movement though.

Ebosele - 6    Looks so promising but had absolutely zero end product. Touch on occasion was worse than I've seen in a while.

Ravel - 7.5     Quality on the ball and can see a pass. Made a difference when he came on.

[Yani P]

 

Allsop 7.5

Byrne 7

Forsyth 8

Jagielka 8.5

Davies 9.5

Thompson 8

Bird 8

Knight 7.5

Jozwiak 7

Lawrence 7.5

Plange 7
 

kaz 8

Rav 7

Festy 7

[angieram]

Allsop 7.5

Byrne 7

Forsyth 7

Jagielka 7.5

Davies 8.5

Thompson 8

Bird ? 8

Knight 7.5

Jozwiak 7

Lawrence 6.5

Plange 6

Ebosele 7

Kazim-Richards 7.5

Morrison 7

[Rampant]

Cheers all.....result to follow.

[Rampant]

No great surprise that it's Cristiano Davies who takes the MotM award with a score of 8.63. 

On the podium we have Bird (7.45) and Thompson (7.32).

With the FA Cup this weekend I'll take the break in league action to post a full update on how our heroes are being rated by the forum.