Player ratings

[Chris_Unwin]

Here's my view on the players yesterday:

Walker - excellent all round, 2 good saves and very good handling (8)
Makin - Average game, did well enough defensively but felt he gave it
away too often and his crossing was not good (6)
Wilcox - A fairly quiet game but did ok, looked composed on the ball,
would like to see him get forward more (7)
Heath - Magnificent. fought for everything. Its great to see him doin well.
My MOM (9)
Dabizas - Also superb. Led by example and wasn't far behind Heath. They
look good together at the back (8)
Scowcroft - Decent game, thought he worked very hard, won most stuff in
the air. Will do ok this season (7)
Willams - Good game, will get better as well. Looked composed and made
a few good forward runs. Should get a few goals (7)
Nalis - Steady game, got stuck in and passed it around. Just gave it away
too many times (7)
Stewart - Did ok first half, but then disappointing 2nd half. Seemed to hoof
it anywhere most of the time. Didn't use his speed enough (6)
Dublin - Cant really comment, wasn't on long enough!
Connolly - Superb game. Was so hard in the conditions up there on his
own, but did brilliantly. Showed good bits of speed and skill,
and will score lots this season (8)

 

[Cobbo]

0-0 against our apparent main promotion rivals after going down to 10 men is a good result. A bit of an anti-climax maybe but I think we did all that we could after losing our main target man. Connolly had 4 defenders to deal with after that and he did all he could to try and score, but with 2 marking him and 2 covering he really had no chance.

Walker - 8/10 - Cracking double save from Harewood and then Sheringham, seemed to command his box well too and communicated well with the defense.

Makin - 7/10 - Solid in defense, good marking and jockying also seemed calm on the ball.

Wilcox - 4/10 - Didn't do anything to impress, marking was poor and he's plainly too slow to cope with any sort of fast winger. Suprised West Ham didn't try to exploit him more.

Heath - 6/10 - Looked defensively sound, even looked ok on the ball at times, taking on playes...oh my! He needs to work on his heading though,

Dabizas - 8/10 - Won most things in the air and marked superbly. When Harewood was in the box in a promosing situation for West Ham and Dabizas managed to push him out of the box, superb defending! Occasionally dodgy when trying to take people on! Still, my MOTM.

Scowcroft - 7/10 - After Dublin had gone off, any thing played long had to be played to him, and it was. Even though it was obvious where Walker's kicks were going, Scowy still won nearly all of them.

Stewart - 5/10 - Not good with the ball at his feet, needs to utilise his pace more when going forward. Looking more of a defender than winger in my eyes now. Hopefully he will work better with Tiatto when he comes back from suspension because with Wilcox we just seem to be asking for trouble.

Williams - 6/10 - Didn't really have much of a chance to show what he can do, didn't have much time on the ball at all. Never really got into the game.

Nalis - 7/10 - Did well, worked hard in 34 degree heat, good defensively, stopped a very promising West Ham attack in the first half in the area with a tackle. Distribution was occasionally crap but he looked fairly cool on the ball, unlucky with his shot that hit the bar in the first half.

Dublin - 4/10 - Did ok when he was on, but kicked Brevett and you can't do that, it is a red card offense, if someone from West Ham had done it we would have wanted them to get sent. Would have thought he would know better at 35, still seems to have that hot head nature.

Connolly 8/10 - Did all he could against 4, worked hard and showed a good turn of pace and quick feet. Two chances made himself in the second half, both spinning his defender onto his left....one leading to a cracking save, the other just fizzing wide. Looked by far the best of all the new boys.

 

[highland fox]

That is the big worry for me having Wilcox at left back,a fast right winger is going to cause him all types of problems.

 

[Tom W]

0-0 against our apparent main promotion rivals after going down to 10 men is a good result. A bit of an anti-climax maybe but I think we did all that we could after losing our main target man. Connolly had 4 defenders to deal with after that and he did all he could to try and score, but with 2 marking him and 2 covering he really had no chance.

Walker - 8/10 - Cracking double save from Harewood and then Sheringham, seemed to command his box well too and communicated well with the defense.

Makin - 7/10 - Solid in defense, good marking and jockying also seemed calm on the ball.

Wilcox - 4/10 - Didn't do anything to impress, marking was poor and he's plainly too slow to cope with any sort of fast winger. Suprised West Ham didn't try to exploit him more.

Heath - 6/10 - Looked defensively sound, even looked ok on the ball at times, taking on playes...oh my! He needs to work on his heading though,

Dabizas - 8/10 - Won most things in the air and marked superbly. When Harewood was in the box in a promosing situation for West Ham and Dabizas managed to push him out of the box, superb defending! Occasionally dodgy when trying to take people on! Still, my MOTM.

Scowcroft - 7/10 - After Dublin had gone off, any thing played long had to be played to him, and it was. Even though it was obvious where Walker's kicks were going, Scowy still won nearly all of them.

Stewart - 5/10 - Not good with the ball at his feet, needs to utilise his pace more when going forward. Looking more of a defender than winger in my eyes now. Hopefully he will work better with Tiatto when he comes back from suspension because with Wilcox we just seem to be asking for trouble.

Williams - 6/10 - Didn't really have much of a chance to show what he can do, didn't have much time on the ball at all. Never really got into the game.

Nalis - 7/10 - Did well, worked hard in 34 degree heat, good defensively, stopped a very promising West Ham attack in the first half in the area with a tackle. Distribution was occasionally crap but he looked fairly cool on the ball, unlucky with his shot that hit the bar in the first half.

Dublin - 4/10 - Did ok when he was on, but kicked Brevett and you can't do that, it is a red card offense, if someone from West Ham had done it we would have wanted them to get sent. Would have thought he would know better at 35, still seems to have that hot head nature.

Connolly 8/10 - Did all he could against 4, worked hard and showed a good turn of pace and quick feet. Two chances made himself in the second half, both spinning his defender onto his left....one leading to a cracking save, the other just fizzing wide. Looked by far the best of all the new boys.

spot on

 

[Leigh]

Walker - 8/10 - Almost tempted to give him MOTM for that very brave save he made, other than that he didn't have much to do... was trying to find different ways to work with goal-kicks etc rather than just putting them straight into the opposition box, but once we were down to 10 men that went out the window.

Makin - 7/10 - impressed me more than the last time I saw him, will be a constant in our defence I expect... but next time Micky put him at LB and Canero at RB because...

Wilcox - 3/10 - awful again, ball watches, can't defend to safe his life... can't even remember him crossing the ball in really... only trying to pass it through midfield a few times and failing always...

Heath - 7/10 - impressed me really after his performance last weekend, makes a good partnership with Dabizas and really seemed to do all his defensive duties well.... still can't go forward well though.

Dabizas - 8/10 - in top form again, not much to say other than that... won every ball in the air and connects well with midfield.

Stewart - 6/10 - Didn't think he was as bad as everyone seems to think... would do better if he had a better player to link up with... put in a few good long crosses

Williams - 6/10 - not very good corners or free kicks, but that's probably because the person all those were geared around was sent off. I was impressed by his general play, seemed to use his body well to win the ball and is nicely attacking minded... however he got in position to make a shot a few times and just left it that second too long...

Nalis - 7/10 - good tackling, good heading, good at hooking the ball over players and getting us out of trouble, great shot in the first half, slowed towards the end though.

Scowcroft - 7/10 - won everything in the air but doesn't seem to have the linkup play with Connolly off yet as it was with Dickov, was fast (seriously!) and generally impressive... but he still drifts in too much and leaves the wing exposed.

Connolly - 9/10 - MOTM, worked very hard with little reward... but his goals will come... linked up well with most of midfield and kept busy for the whole match... went on quite a few runs through their defence but had no-one to pass to at the end of them.

Dublin - 5/10 - was hardly on long enough to grade his performance, but it was promising, winning aerial balls and holding the ball up to flick on to Connolly when he was in a good position.

Subs:

Keown - 6/10 - it's so low because he wasn't really on long enough to grade, but he looked good, got every ball that came his way and marked well.

Blake - can't comment, wasn't on long enough.


copy/pasted from my post on that other forum incase you're wondering why it looks similar

 

[Dickovforengland!]

Thought Connolly and Williams were the best players on the park. Williams looks very good technically and put some heavy tackles in as well. Stewart was awful and Slowy looked OK in the air and will no doubt bag a few for us this season. Heath and Dabizas were OK but didn't instil huge amounts of confidence for me. Thought Keown looked like he did exactly what he was bought for as soon as he came on which is shouting and organising, noticed he had a stern word with Stewart. Excellent buy even if he does look like a monkey.