CandH’s Niall McDonald hands out the marks
Hart: A clean sheet and no mistakes on his homecoming – relief all round. Guaranteed at least one more start now 6
Burke: Comfortable defensively 6
Reid: Q
uick to clear his lines. Left injured on 85 mins 5
Ogbonna: Not quite the challenge of dealing with Kane and Co today 6
Rice: Calm and assured again. Showed great touch going forward down the left 7
Masuaku: This was not a day for mazy dribbles, surprised to see him play in honesty 5
Obiang: Struck what may have been our first shot on 79 mins 5
Kouyate: Awful distribution but a great last-ditch tackle at the death 5
Cullen: I’ll prevent myself from wondering if this is his level and recognize his tackles, set piece deliveries, ability to get round the pitch and survived loss of a tooth late on 7
Ayew: Took a while to get over a bad clash of heads before the break 5
Hernandez: No more opportunity today than Thursday night at Wembley 4
Subs
Martinez: The enigma appears!! Closed down enthusiastically. No sights of goal 4
Quina: On late for Reid, involved in some brief passing moves No rating
Have to agree with you on most of those, might have given Obiang a 6 because he was better second half but overall I wish I’d gone shopping with the wife would have been far more productive.
We were poor..simple as. The squad is very depleted of talent we need an injection of good players and fast …
Only to be expected that we were not like Barca. Yes we have a weak squad, and even that is weakened further by injured and/or worn out players.
It’s actually good that we live to fight another day with a better team out, and that we face Huddersfield with a refreshed squad.
I have no complaints under difficult circumstances.
I hope Burke gets another chance or two.
Burke was terrible – how you could score him better than Reid is quite simply amazing. Yes he was played out of position as was Rice but there was Rice was in a different class. Cullen poor too until he moved more centrally late on. I thought our best players were Rice at the back, Obiang and Masuaka and I liked the young lad Quina when he came on – looked to have a lot more about him than Cullen. I can see him playing in the PL.
Not sure what if any contribution young Quina made in his limited minutes on the pitch. However, he wasn’t too impressive either against Arsenal in the League Cup. I’m not a romantic to think all our youngsters (or any or them) are gonna be good enough for the first team but they sure deserve a fair crack if only to see what returns one might get for the Club’s investment in them. Apart from Rice, I fear none of the others on show will make the grade.
One player I have seen more than enough of is Ayew – what exactly is the guy good at other than the odd 6 yards tap in?
Totally agree with Spindoc, only Rice is anywhere near good enough to perform at PL level.
Yet to see why Quina gets such high accolades. Hernandez doesn’t know how to play the role he is playing, non existent and off the pace against the Spuds, had every chance against this level of defence to shine but seemed less than committed to me. Martinez did chase around, Chico put more energy into rolling around on the ground. I can see why Moysie doesn’t start him when Arnie is fit. Young Cullen and Ayew both had bad knocks, Josh was very brave coming back on, Hernandez won a BAFTA for a tap on the knee. Sorry we where pants today, I would have given Rice and Hart 7, Oggy 6 and the rest 5 down to Chico 2.
For me, Cullen was our best player & Hart did well. Burke did enough to get more chances & the rest were poor; particularly Kuoyate & Ayew. Quina wasn’t on the pitch long enough to enable any assessment,
I should have also said that Rice was very good.