Player Ratings vs. Paraguay

Player Ratings vs. Paraguay

This is my interpretation of the effort last night:

Paston - 7.0: Pretty solid game, couldn't do much about either of the goals. From a keepers perspective he's a bit too predictable to know what way he's diving from pens, but I can't fault him on much else. Good distribution, a few good saves.

Reid - 5.0: By his standards, very poor. Think he was really missing Admiral at the back telling him where he needed to be (2nd goal came from him darting out of position to put pressure on the ball). A bit of youthful inexperience perhaps. Looked good in patches racing back after we'd lost the ball further up the pitch. Awful Tackle later on, deserved that red.

Siggy: 4.5: Terrible first half. Couldn't stick to his man close enough and a clumsy challenge led to the penalty. Got done for pace for the second goal as well, which I sort of expected. His game picked up in the second half though, but by then, it was far too late.

Vicelich: 6.0 Was more reliable at the back than the other two. Some good tackles, but sometimes I felt he needed to pass the ball round a bit more at the back, retaining possession, rather than just trying a long ball that led to us giving up the ball.

Brown: 6.0: Same old Brown really. Defensively solid, but becomes completely invisible as soon as we get the ball. Made a good ghosting run into the box for that Brockie cross, but hit it straight at Villar

Elliotttt: 7.5: Old Reliable. Played really well, his corners were better this time. Great one-touch passing, runs his arse off and helped out our lack-lustre defence a lot. Ricki was a nutter not to sign him for the nix.

Brockie: 7.5: Created heaps. Was a constant threat down the wing and he can be proud of himself. Linked up well with Elliotttt, and tracked back well to make a few tackles at the back too. Unlucky not to latch onto that through-ball in the 2nd half, that Paraguayan just got a toe in to poke it away from him.

Bertos: 6.5: Better than he's been for the nix recently. I still feel that he hangs onto the ball a bit too long, tries to take on too many defenders, perhaps if Brown was showing for him more often we wouldn't have lost as much possession through him. His crossing was a bit hot and cold. But he was keen to get at the defenders and gave them a hard time, which I liked.

Wee Mac: 7.0: Looked threatening all game. Always looking to go forward and create chances. Got the ball tangled up in his feet a couple of times, which was a bit unlucky.

Killen: 7.0: Worked very hard, tracked back to help out in midfield, and was always in the mix up front. Deserved a goal for the effort he put in, but couldn't hit a ball on target to save his life. So unlucky not to score a screamer after that chest down, turn and shot.

Wood: 6.5: Wasn't involved in the game as much as he usually is. Used his body well as always. Scuffed a couple of shots, but managed to get himself into space quite a bit, and was hungry for the ball. Was unlucky at the start of the game that that ball played to him by Wee Mac wasn't just a bit further ahead of him. Game could have turned out much different.

Subs:

Fallon: A physical presence as always, gets his head in first, but doesn't offer too much else.

Moss: Didn't have a hell of a lot to do as Paraguay were happy to sit back and defend their lead. But was reliable when called upon.

Boyens: I'm not a Boyens fan. Lacks composure. Didn't really have enough time to screw up, though.

Clapham: Looked very good. Saw more ball in his 10 mins than Brown saw all game. Composed, even when pressed by multiple defenders and made a good sliding tackle in defence too. Keen to see more of him.

But for me, the worst performance was Ricki. There's no way we should have played a 3-man backline without Nelsen, especially with someone as slow as Siggy. Does he have no plan B?
conorphelan2010-10-13 12:50:43

Yeah those are pretty close imo. Id knock bertos down .5. Needs to learn how to cross a ball, not just kick it in the box

I think that's way too hard on Siggy. I wasn't counting but I suspect Siggy completed more tackles and won more ball than any other player. I thought he did OK. The second goal, which I have just watched a replay of, was not even his man. Siggy had another player outside he had to mark, Reid had no one, didn't seem alert to the runner and was the one to play him onside. rjmiller2010-10-13 13:10:14

i like brown type of player as many  footie managers,  he does the dirty work  for the team,  to  track down rivals, get a leg marking for someone else gets the ball

i think he has a great  2nd  half  and villar  was  very  lucky  on that one,  it should have been a goal....but

I didn't say it was Siggy's fault, I said he got done for pace. And you're mistaking Reid for Vicelich in that move. Reid pushed forward to put pressure on the ball and it got 2-passed around him. Vicelich couldn't track over in time, and Siggy was left with 2 attackers. He isn't quick enough for that, but that's more Ricki's fault for having 3 at the back. Siggy also played Nelson Valdez onside later in the half, giving him a 1v1, which he luckily muffed. I agree he did a lot better in the second half, I said that in the original post. The reason for his bad rating is because of the impact it had on the game, he may have only made a few mistakes, but they were mistakes that cost us.

I agree about Brown, he is hard to rate, because you see bugger all of him. But that's what I don't like about him. If you're a Box to Box CM, you have to be showing for the ball, even more so being the captain. You have to lead by example.

Pretty much on the button except I'd give Killen 7.5, Wee Mac 6.5 (poor first half), and Brown 5 Hammer Head2010-10-13 15:33:16

The was Vicelich, he marking air while Siggie was marking his man perfectly. 90% ivan's fault, and 10% Reid's flying out of his CB position to intercept the initial pass.

I went to both games and just focused on Brown for long periods as on TV you cannot see what he does off the ball... well Brown does nothing but hang about 10 to 20 mteres off the strickers looking for scraps from long balls.. he never offers a square option hence we always paly down the long or Elliott has to switch using a long pass.

Paston 6 - solid game, distribution could have been better.
Sig/Reid/Vicelich 4.5 each, ragged back 3 too many errors.
Brockie 6.5, contributed to some of the better moves and showed Bertos up for getting ball into strikers. Needs to cut out some of the simple errors like when he tried to beat his man on half way with a move that would not have beat someone with their leg in a caste.
Bertos 5, first half was poor received a lot of good ball and really squandered it, improved in second half but at best a minor influence on game when he should be offering a lot more.
Elliottt 7, great work rate, always prepared to show for the ball and at the heart of most passing moves.
Brown 5, ran around without making any impact and gives the appearnace that he does not want the ball in the midfield.
Weemac 6, always looking to do something with ball and looked at home in second half.
Wood 6, battled hard but gave away a bit too much possession too easily at times.
Killen 7, great work rate and looked most likely to score also involved in a lot of good passing moves.

Boyens 3, totally at sea there must be better options!

+1
 I realise these forums are probably not the best place to come and slag off Tim Brown, but come on, guys. He does nowhere near enough with the ball for a CM. In truth, I've even forgotten he's playing in some games, until he has a shot from a late run into the box from nowhere.

My old man was at the NZ-A vs. NZFC All Stars match earlier this year, where Clapham and Brown were playing on the park at the same time. The only time you could get a true comparison of the two. I heard Brown was his usual invisible self, and Clapham was the most dominant player in the game.

Can't be bothered rating them all but I have to say that, other than his shot which went just wide in the first half, Killen was very poor.  Nothing on his last performance at Westpac Stadium.

Rating the players without assessing the tactics is a bit pointless.  I haven't seen a good match report in the papers, so this will be purely from memory.  In addition, my view wasn't particularly good in the first half (I was practically man-marking one of the ball-boys) - in the second half, I went around to the empty side of the stand for a higher seat.

Main difference 1st half vs 2nd was that the AWs sat off Paraguay in first half content to ask them to break us down (pretty much as we had done at the WC). But they did break us down, so the AWs clearly changed the approach at half time and tried to press Paraguay further up the park - and actually turned over a suprising amount of ball.