Monday 8 October 2007

Fulham v Portsmouth: Player rankings

Here's how I scored our players:
Keller - 7/10
Not at fault for either of the deflected goals and made some outstanding saves. At last we have a decent keeper.

Baird - 5/10
Was completely muscled out of it for the second goal.

Hughes - 6/10
An average performance. Was lucky at the end of the second half when Benjani got inside him and Keller pulled off a good save.

Bocanegra - 5/10
Poor. Keller saved him in the first half when he was skinned by Muntari - and Benjani turned him easily for the opener.

Konchesky - 6/10
Okay. Made some good tackles but struggled at times to contain Benjani.

Smertin - 5/10
Virtually invisible.

Simon Davies - 6/10
Not one of his best days, but still delivered some decent crosses.

Davis - 5/10
Generally poor. His best moment came midway through the first half when he dispossessed Benjani at the start of the move which ended with James saving well from Healy.

Bouazza - 7/10
One of the most exciting players on the field. Showed some great skills and has one of the fiercest shots of anyone around. His little flick over the head of Johnson was particularly good.

Dempsey - 8/10
His all-round work and commitment to the cause were very good. Although he failed to convert any of his chances into goals, he still looked our most dangerous player. It's also worth remembering he's not a natural target man.

Healy - 6/10
Okay. Never going to get much change playing against man-mountains such as Sol Campbell and should have done better with his shot from Bouazza's great cross.

Substitutes
Kamara - 5/10
Failed to make any impression on the game.
Murphy - 5/10
Did he actually come on?
Ki-Hyeon - 6/10
Made some good tricky runs but never looked dangerous.

Man of the match: Clint Dempsey for his all-round contribution. Bouazza and Keller highly recommended.

4 comments:

Chopper said...

I think you're spot on with your rankings and you're report. A really depressing half of football. Dempsey really worked hard throughout the game, he's probably impressed me more than any other player so far this season.

Rob said...

Cheers Chopper - wasn't it depressing? I woke up this morning feeling like a dark cloud was hanging over the bed. I keep telling myself it's too early in the season to start getting worried, but the signs are not good are they?

Anonymous said...

Are we being outmanaged? It seems a good investment for Al-Fayed to hire some consultants to answer that question. As was pointed out on CCN, just because Dempsey has shown good poaching instincts need not mean that his other considerable talents should be ignored. Boy, was Baird slow in reacting/closing down on the second goal!

Anonymous said...

Are we being outmanaged? It seems a good investment for Al-Fayed to hire some consultants to answer that question. As was pointed out on CCN, just because Dempsey has shown good poaching instincts need not mean that his other considerable talents should be ignored. Boy, was Baird slow in reacting/closing down on the second goal!