An Assessment of Player Performance v Brentford

[tonyoz]

 

An assessment of player performance v Brentford 

Each player was judged on the following criteria:

Instance of excellent play                                     *

Instance of decent/good play                              *

Instance of disappointing/poor play                   *

Instance of terrible play                                        *                                                       E&OE

 

Ratings

Raya                   **          ***                                                ***

Nyambe                          ********                                      *****                 *

Lenihan                           *******                                        *

 

Mulgrew           *            ******                                                     

 

Bell                     *            **************                        *******              **

Smallwood                     *************                            **

Evans₍₇₆₎                           ********************            *

Bennett             ****     **********                                   *

Rothwell           *            ********                                        *******

Palmer₍₆₈₎          **          *********                                      ***** 

Nutall₍₅₈₎                                ****                                                 ****

 

 

Graham₍₅₈₎        *            **********                  

Conway₍₆₈₎                       ***                                                     **         

Travis₍₇₆₎                          *                                                                    

 

Highlights and Lowlights

(A justification for the main ratings above)

1.      Nyambe gets his foot to a ball into the box but there is a lack of control and the ball  runs dangerously towards a Brentford man. Fortunately Mulgrew is alert and slides in to prevent a goal.

12.  Bell attempts to break up an attack but succeeds only in passing to Forss directly in front of goal. Fortunately his shot is weak and straight at Raya.

12.  Palmer slips a lovely ball inside for Nyambe to run on to but again he fails to control the ball in a promising position.

18.  Yet another chase back by Bennett to win back the ball.

26. Another mis-control by Nyambe gives Brentford the ball.

31. A lethargic Bell allows the Brentford man to line up a cross. Benrahma heads on to the bar.

35. Bell is completely done over by Watkins who lets off a decent shot……just wide of the post. No sign of Rothwell either.

41  Another great chase and win by Bennett who passes forward for Rothwell to chase but it’s just too far and he’s offside anyway.

49. Fancy footwork by Palmer gets him past two defenders and into the box but his cross is weak and blocked.

52. Bell is caught out of position by a neat Brentford move which allows them to move the ball across the edge of the box. Yennaris’ shot brings a fantastic save from Raya who pushes the ball on to the bar.

53. More tigerish midfield tackling by Evans and Smallwood allows Evans to pass inside to Rothwell who plays a fantastic pass across the park to Bennett. Bennett controls beautifully but his cross into the box is not the best. However, the goalkeeper can only push the ball into the path of the on-rushing Palmer who fires home.

55. Again too much flashy stuff from Palmer. He shows a great first touch but loses the ball.

55. A rasping drive from range by Benrahma brings another wonder save from Raya……same top corner as the last one.

63. Nice to see Palmer back in our box defending today.

64. Now Palmer wins the ball in Brentford’s half but gives it away with a poor pass.

71. Tight on the touchline and facing his own goal, Bell beats his man nicely and clears upfield. Bennett still chasing everything!

73. A noticeable difference since Graham came on – he wins every header, flicking the ball on, looking for teammates.

73. Evans and Smallwood again clear up midfield.

74. More fantastic work by the tireless Bennett, winning the ball in midfield.

77. For the umpteenth time Graham holds up well, flicking the ball inside. Quality show.

78. Bell is missing allowing the winger to cross along the edge of the box but Watkins shot is wide.

80. Good chasing back by Travis.

93. A moment of hesitation by Lenihan allows the Brentford man a shot from the edge of the box. Just wide.

 

 

 

 

Edited September 1, 2018 by tonyoz

[philipl]

Again excellent and illuminating analysis.

[bluebruce]

I'm curious Tony, how do you put this together? Do you somehow get a full video of the match to watch back and analyse? I don't think I could take notes of this detail in just one live viewing for a team I support!

[JacknOry]

32 minutes ago, bluebruce said:

I'm curious Tony, how do you put this together? Do you somehow get a full video of the match to watch back and analyse? I don't think I could take notes of this detail in just one live viewing for a team I support!

Surely would take that - its a lot of work I would imagine. The match is 90 minutes long as it is but all that pausing, typing, scoring and then playing back again would probably be at least 4-5 hours in total I reckon.

Interesting to see that Palmer really is a victim of his own talent. Has great feet and skills but often overdoes things and loses the ball. If he can get that right and learn to keep things a bit simpler he could go on to become a great player. Ronaldo was similar when young doing thirteen stepovers and other tricks when not really needed and has gone on to become one of the games greats.

[tonyoz]

5 hours ago, bluebruce said:

I'm curious Tony, how do you put this together? Do you somehow get a full video of the match to watch back and analyse? I don't think I could take notes of this detail in just one live viewing for a team I support!

Hi bluebruce. I have ifollow, it would be impossible to do this on one sitting. The new videos have a “rewind 10 second” button. This saves time as i do not have to stop and rewind continually (much messier believe me.....i used to do that!)

Sometimes I rewind a lot to try to get the full picture. I try to be objective but, as we all know, football fans will have widely different views of the same incident.....especially if a particularly popular/unpopular player is involved!

For instance, in this match.....part way in, one of the commentators said that Nyambe would be one of the first names on his teamsheet. By this time I had already noted 3 or 4 disappointing incidents down to Nyambe!

Also people are raving about Rothwell. This was the first time I had seen him start and apart from his wonder pass for the goal, I wasn’t particularly impressed.

Interesting in this game was the balance of ratings between the midfielders and the centre backs. I have never seen the centre backs involved so little. Usually they do more work than anybody......in this game Evans, Smallwood and Bennett did all the work. Evans was amazing, the best I’ve seen him.

Lastly, as I intimated above, Graham’s input in the 35 minutes he was on the pitch was very impressive.

 

Edited September 1, 2018 by tonyoz

[JBiz]

1 hour ago, tonyoz said:

Hi bluebruce. I have ifollow, it would be impossible to do this on one sitting. The new videos have a “rewind 10 second” button. This saves time as i do not have to stop and rewind continually (much messier believe me.....i used to do that!)

Sometimes I rewind a lot to try to get the full picture. I try to be objective but, as we all know, football fans will have widely different views of the same incident.....especially if a particularly popular/unpopular player is involved!

For instance, in this match.....part way in, one of the commentators said that Nyambe would be one of the first names on his teamsheet. By this time I had already noted 3 or 4 disappointing incidents down to Nyambe!

Also people are raving about Rothwell. This was the first time I had seen him start and apart from his wonder pass for the goal, I wasn’t particularly impressed.

Interesting in this game was the balance of ratings between the midfielders and the centre backs. I have never seen the centre backs involved so little. Usually they do more work than anybody......in this game Evans, Smallwood and Bennett did all the work. Evans was amazing, the best I’ve seen him.

Lastly, as I intimated above, Graham’s input in the 35 minutes he was on the pitch was very impressive.

 

I think your summary put meat on the bone that my thoughts about “general” fans only seeing attacking play, (and last gasp defensive action) as “worthwhile” in terms of player judgement. Ofcourse that could be seen as  arrogant but I always felt DMs- particular midfielders who’s game is to “show” and break attacks up - get a raw deal. Tony’s system seems to credit them with this and clever play in our own half.