player ratings v WSW

Workmanlike performance, but little excitement. I was hanging out for Benji to get a run. Oh well.

Pasty 6 Had little to do but was solid
Leo 6 OK, blocked a shot that looked on target, didn't get down the line much
Siggy 6 Kept it solid, caught up field once, an excellent cross from the right
Dura 6.5 Sound leadership
Lochie 6 like the rest of the defenders
Manny 7 Tried hard to make it happen, chased that lost cause down, one great bit of covering to save Leo
Lia 6 A good performance
Smith 6.5 Useful
Ifill 6 Pretty good but not special like we'd expect
Stein 6.5 Good holding up play and defensive headers. Did he have a shot? No.
Brockie 6 Lucky, but good on him.
Fenton and Boyd, useful impacts

Have your say

Thought our back four went very well today.  Lochhead had a better game than Leo.

though lia started to pick up in that second half. a lot of useful passes.

Manny hasnt had nearly as much impact as he did in the first few rounds

Smith is bossing it but sometimes not moving the ball forward fast enough.

Thought boyd did the best ive seen him, gave to great passes that should have resulted in goals. Fenton also brought great workrate off the bench, and the dropping may have been just what he needed.

Ifill needs to sort his shit out

Smith and Siggy both up 0.5 on that for me

Siggy got the three Alex Tobin points, Leo got two and Lia got one.

Surprised Lia got 1, but he's definitely coming back into form - last year he did look good at times - just a wee bit inconsistent. 

I like smith as a player, but not sure if he is linking up with the front 3 as much as he probably should. That could be also due to the fact that he generally doesnt have Ifill as an option as he is still sitting on his ass somewhere else on the field.

Id still like to see them swap huysegems and ifill. Whats with ricky signing players and then playing them out of position? There has been so so many.

yeah its so odd - he really isn't himself. I don't know if a spell on the bench would fix that though..

I feel like his best position now is right up top. He can beat a man, and seems a lot more interested and dangerous if he can beat a man and then get a shot off. I would consider dropping him to the bench and starting fenton who has a far better workrate and better defensively

the front three seem to swap around a lot during the game

crazy talk

ifill always starts

he's always a threat, even yesterday 

Huysegems and brockie swap around a lot, Ifill doesnt move too much...

Hmm, I think I watched a different game to some of you. I was most impressed by Huysegems (he makes good runs, just a shame we can't put the ball through to him more), and thought Smith looked alright. Ifill did more work than some of you are giving him credit for, and is noticeably the guy everyone looks for once they've made a break. Wasn't really impressed by Brockie (other than flukey goal), defensively he just seems to run at players with the ball, rather than anticipating where the ball is going to go - similarly in attack he runs a lot, but doesn't end up on the end of much. But then again... he keeps on scoring so...

I would have scored it:

Pasty 6 - very little to do, but nothing glaringly wrong
Leo 6.5 - thought he was quite busy and looking to attack
Siggy 6.5 - Solid but could have given away a penalty, one nice run forward
Dura 6 - Solid but could have given away a penalty
Lochie 6 - a few good runs and crosses, caught out defensively at one point
Manny 6.5 - Busy shutting things down
Lia 5.5 - A bit quiet
Smith 6.5 - got forward a lot, and covered a lot defensively
Ifill 6 - good and bad, but defenitely trying
Stein 7 - Held the ball up well, made some good runs but unfortunately not read by others
Brockie 5 - As Above

Ifill was great in the first 60. He was doing the classic double turn. A few classy touches.
He was almost non-existent after that sprint from half way to the corner flag. (which was impressive, I thought Smith was crazy for thinking he would win it, turned out to be a great ball).

Huysegems was clearly the best player on the pitch IMO. When brockie got the ball he just took it to the sideline and won a corner.
When Waffles got the ball he made a penetrating run into the middle of the pitch. Excellent close control. He just wasn't getting the support he needed. 
I'm sure he could have had a couple of assists on a day when everyone else was playing a bit better.
Can't wait to see him playing with Sanchez

Lia had a good game but I still thought he was the lesser of the 3 mids.

Pitty there was no Totori. He had a great game against the Jest. Is he being punished, or is his ankle not actually better. And if that's the case why wouldn't you put Boxall, Clarke or Biss on the bench?

who got in whose way for the tap in? Huysegems or Brockie? 

Yeh- did seem odd that we didn't see Totori. I'm sure that Boyd is a talent on the rise and that's probably good management and that- but Totori sealed the game for us against Newcastle. Totori for Ifill earlier might have been an option...I still think Ifill should perhaps be more central as we have guys with pace who can play wider.

Because stupid FFA rules say we can only have 4 subs. I wonder if anyone has ever risked not having a substitute keeper on the bench and had four outfield players. I dread to think what would happen  if Siggy or Dura got injured early or sent off early in a game and we had three attacking subs and a keeper on the bench. If we were allowed five subs, we could have Boxall on there every game.

Lia has been decent in the last two games. At times he takes low percentage options, a few in the first half, but when he is playing well he gets into good positions to receive the ball and moves it on quickly. IMO, has been playing better than Smith - though Smith it looks like has been given the Brown role of getting forward and contesting long balls so not getting on the ball as much as earlier.

why the hell would you put tottori on in that game? Serious question.

The guy looks great going forward, but atrocious at defending. So when youre one nil up, why would you put someone like that on?

Thanks for clearing that up Ryans Rovers. I still think the rules are stupid.

Because he was more likely to make it safe than not..u dont see Boyd or Brockie defending much so why expect Totori to..and even if he had lost it they were useless.  We needed some fizz to keep them pinned back.

thought Siggy was our best