Player Ratings - PL: Arsenal vs Manchester United | 03/01/06

[Wenger14]

Dead accurate Asa. Except for Cesc, I'd give him a 7.

 

[raphael_as]

Reyes - 6 (might have been more had he not had to spend the night covering for Cygan)

How can the fact that he was covering back in defence be considered a negative. I could maybe understand it if he was playing as a striker but he wasn't.

Bizarre.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

Jens- 6. Some ****e kicking
Ralph- 7. Tempted to give him an extra mark for the hack at Ronaldo.
Cygan- 6. Adequate. Made some good tackles, but does seem to have brain lapses too frequently.
Toure- 8. Business as usual for Kolo.
Campbell- 9. Big improvement and, for the most part, kept United's goal threat down.
Gilberto- 7. Better than of late.
Fabregas- 7. If only he could have kept his first half level up, he was magnificent, but died in the second half.
Hleb- 7. Another improvement, we really died after he went off.
Pires- 7. If only he could have taken either of those chances. Nonetheless some good running and intelligent passing.
Reyes- 9. Arsenal's biggest threat on the night, worked tremendously hard, skillful, fast and getting stronger.
Henry- 5. This lone striker business ain't for him really, is it?

Flamini, Bergkamp- 6
Eboue-7. Just for the clearance.

 

[Tegh]

Jens - 6 For the same reason as Casbah's. For a ten minute spell at the end of the second half when we weren't looking comfortable, he had my heart racing.
Lauren - 7.5 Pretty steady and solid, tried to make his way up the pitch and put the odd cross in the box for no-one to attack. Beautiful foul on Ronaldo + 0.5 rating and + 12 Tegh respect points.
Kolo - 8.5 Solid as a rock, kept Rooney at bay - and on his recent form that's something to be proud of. Close runner up to my Arsenal MOTM.
Campbell - 8 Some vital headers, especially from corners, kept RVN and Rooney at bay with Toure. Clean sheat is good for all.
Cygan - 6 Got caught out too many times, and had it not been for Reyes's aid, and Ronaldo leaving his shooting boots at home, we could have paid dearly for his lapses. Composed on the ball, simple passes, job done.
Pires - 7 Some nice passing, tried to create space, shame he didn't punish Utd when given the opportunity.
Fabregas - 7 Great in the first half, but tired in the second - which was understandable having played so much this season (particularly this festive period) at such a young age.
Gilberto - 8 A much better performance. Decent cover for our defense, broke up attacks, played it simple and one of his better performances this season. About time.
Hleb - 7.5 One of our better players, looked composed and comfortable on the ball, fluid passing, good tracking back. Shame he got so tired and had to be subbed as he was our main attacking threat alongside José.
Reyes - 9 Awesome work-rate, determination, tracking back, team-work, skill last night. Skinned Gary Neville countless number of times, and was our main attacking threat. Helped Cygan out in defense against Ronaldo which proved vital.
Henry - 6 A very subdued performance. Doesn't look well playing under 100% and needs to be rested now. As a lone striker he's practically useless, and that's no good.

Agree with the above's substitute ratings, Eboue's clearance saved us a point and some pride.

 

[omega man]

Jens- 6. Some s***e kicking
Ralph- 7. Tempted to give him an extra mark for the hack at Ronaldo.
Cygan- 6. Adequate. Made some good tackles, but does seem to have brain lapses too frequently.
Toure- 8. Business as usual for Kolo.
Campbell- 9. Big improvement and, for the most part, kept United's goal threat down.
Gilberto- 7. Better than of late.
Fabregas- 7. If only he could have kept his first half level up, he was magnificent, but died in the second half.
Hleb- 7. Another improvement, we really died after he went off.
Pires- 7. If only he could have taken either of those chances. Nonetheless some good running and intelligent passing.
Reyes- 9. Arsenal's biggest threat on the night, worked tremendously hard, skillful, fast and getting stronger.
Henry- 5. This lone striker business ain't for him really, is it?

Flamini, Bergkamp- 6
Eboue-7. Just for the clearance.

Spot on.

 

[Ratinho]

Reyes - 6 (might have been more had he not had to spend the night covering for Cygan)

How can the fact that he was covering back in defence be considered a negative. I could maybe understand it if he was playing as a striker but he wasn't.

Bizarre.

Because it made sure I saw very little of this threat that people are talking about, if any at all. His work rate was fantastic, as was his covering for Cygan. He was basically our only forward aside from Henry out there, and I can't remember an effort on goal, or even danger from him. It might have been more if our second most potent attacking force wasn't made to play wing back, but as it happened, he didn't have muich choice.

6 is above average, as 5 is obviously average.

How people can give Henry above a 5 is bizarre pal.

 

[patrick42uk]

i;m slightly surprised at the ratings reyes is getting. i think he worked very hard and played like he had something to prove. i also feel he went overboard on the closing down e.t.c to make up for his lack of a real threat offensively. i dont remember him creating anything, taking shots on target e.t.c. maybe he bit neville a few times but i dont remember it leading to anything in particular.

maybe i shouldnt be surprised. there is a desparation for him to do well that i cant understand. on some of his worst performances, we still get his name being sung at highbury. maybe its the work rate. could explain why pires is hated so much too. but we cant forget his priority should be in offesnive duties.

 

[Ratinho]

Although you can see I agree about Reyes yesterday, why is it a bad thing his name being sung so often?

He's a young guy, who is trying so hard and has shown us how good he is capable of being. He's not impressing me right now beyond his work rate and agression, but he is exactly the kind of player in the squad we have to keep confident and happy. Simply because he is never better than when he is confident and happy.

 

[kel varnsen]

i;m slightly surprised at the ratings reyes is getting. i think he worked very hard and played like he had something to prove. i also feel he went overboard on the closing down e.t.c to make up for his lack of a real threat offensively. i dont remember him creating anything, taking shots on target e.t.c. maybe he bit neville a few times but i dont remember it leading to anything in particular.

maybe i shouldnt be surprised. there is a desparation for him to do well that i cant understand. on some of his worst performances, we still get his name being sung at highbury. maybe its the work rate. could explain why pires is hated so much too. but we cant forget his priority should be in offesnive duties.

first of all, you're wrong. he created a lot. the fact that cesc, hleb and henry gave the ball away seconds later doesn't change reyes' performance. reyes was our main offensive threat last night.

as for your second paragraph, i really don't get you. work rate is now something negative? please, get real. great stamina is extremely important in football. you also say his priorities should be the offensive duties; are you forgetting that cygan was playing left back? reyes had to protect him. don't know how many times reyes helped cygan out covering ronaldo.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

What a f'cking Scrooge you are, patrick... have we not all been asking for fight, heart and commitment from the players? Well Reyes embodied those three qualities last night. That's why people like him, they also like him because as we have seen at various stages over the festive period, he has skill. And lots of it.

As Ratinho says, getting on the guy's back will solve nothing, and he's playing pretty well right now. Certainly better than the club captain, for a start.

But I can see the point that a 9 was maybe excessive. I guess I got carried away by seeing an Arsenal player playing with desire.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

you also say his priorities should be the offensive duties; are you forgetting that cygan was playing left back? reyes had to protect him. don't know how many times reyes helped cygan out covering ronaldo.

Had to laugh at that. Nice one kel, the truest observation you've ever made.

 

[whoztheman]

i;m slightly surprised at the ratings reyes is getting. i think he worked very hard and played like he had something to prove. i also feel he went overboard on the closing down e.t.c to make up for his lack of a real threat offensively. i dont remember him creating anything, taking shots on target e.t.c. maybe he bit neville a few times but i dont remember it leading to anything in particular.

maybe i shouldnt be surprised. there is a desparation for him to do well that i cant understand. on some of his worst performances, we still get his name being sung at highbury. maybe its the work rate. could explain why pires is hated so much too. but we cant forget his priority should be in offesnive duties.

is that the voice of reason i'm hearing!! lol. brilliant, fair stuff mate. kudos.

edit:reyes' work-rate, commitment etc etc did it result in anything? a goal? a shot on goal? a shot OFF target? no. sol, kolo, ralph. cygan and gilberto did all the hard work, they get stuck in, they tackle, they played out of their skins yesterday-all that goes unnoticed-reyes is the MOM. henry, pires apparently had a bad game-but they took shots on goal and passed balls into the penalty area a lot more than what reyes did.

any sign of reyes showing a hint of getting back on track results in "masturbation"around here.

 

[patrick42uk]

i'd go as far as saying the way he played was a bit naive. wenger usually takes him off at the 60-70 minute mark due to fatigue but he ran himself into the ground at half-time. i felt at halftime that the energy he wasted chasing down lost causes could have been directed at making more pentrating runs. his biggest strength for me remains being off the ball. there was an increased importance on his movement yesterday seeing as henry was being played as a central forward, pires isnt getting younger and ljungberg was absent. in fact, when the second half kicked off, he made his first useful run (offensively) of the game beyond the man utd defence and we won a corner. i think it might have been on instruction. problem was we couldnt see more of that because by the hour mark, he had disappeared completely.

i'm only telling it how i saw it. i dont think i'm being bias against him in the way a lot of people are towards him.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

You two are like the Muppets' Statler and Waldorf.


Except not as funny.

 

[RockyRocastle]

Patrick and Ratinho are spot on.

Reyes played well last night. His work rate was excellent and he alone really got the crowd going. But most of his best work was done without the ball. He posed no threat to Utd at all, the praise he gets off some people on here is way OTT.

 

[Anonymous]

Did I mention that Hleb done flying **** all?

Sensimilla is more entertaining, and has a result at the end.

 

[RocktheCasbah]

any sign of reyes showing a hint of getting back on track results in "masturbation"around here.

Such a cheap shot and you're better than that. You even edited your post to add that!

Reyes was our best player against Portsmouth, he worked his arse off and scored a goal. Same against Charlton without the assist. And he put some major effort into last night, in your rush to lavish praise on Cygan, you forget how many times Reyes had to sprint back to cover the guy, in fact I'm sure Reyes ended up playing left back for a couple of minutes last night, so positionally clueless is Cygan.

And one 25 yard free kick over the bar is end product is it? That's what we're entitled to expect from one of the best players in the world? I despair of you lot sometimes.

 

[sabret00the]

i hear where you're coming from Rocky about people going OTT for Reyes alot around here, but last night he was our best player, now i could understand if he got the service to have the onball presence you're all asking for, but we didn't play that sort of game. we didn't play to win, so wanting soemone to provide an attacking threat when we're playing 10 men in our own half at all times is just a tad ludicrous. blame the tactics!

 

[polaris sc]

kolo and reyes had very good games, kolo is begining to show his leadership abiltys

 

[Viper]

Ji Sung Park.
What Park lacks in pass ability, he makes up with directness, stamina, ball control and endeavour.

So Hleb has no ball control?

I'd say his ball control is better than Park's. He is also a lot more quicker than Park.