Randolph: Only had to deal with three shots and let down by the ref for a goal that shouldn’t have stood after he was fouled 6
Antonio: Had a frantic afternoon trying to deal with Martial but got forward in the second half and late shot might have won it 6
Reid: Pressed into action too soon with only a day’s training behind him and left the action hopefully as a precaution 5
Ogbonna: Outstanding contribution at the back and distribution excellent when moving forward 8
Cresswell: Outstanding contribution front to back. Offensively this guy is something else 8
Noble: Continues in fine form and has one heck of an understanding with Dimi 7
Kouyate: Perhaps not at his absolute best but bags of energy 6
Lanzini: Flashes of brilliance but in and out of the game 6
Payet: Incredible goal, great touches, should have had penalty 8
Carroll: Had a couple of early chances which went begging. Middle of the road performance 6
Emenike: Missed outstanding early chance and misdirected headed chance. Not the best 5
Subs: Obiang 5 Sakho 6 Valencia 5
If Payet was a bargain Ogbonna is starting to look like a great buy,
Antonio played well out of position,
But it’s time to bring Sak back he is our goal scorer and offers so much more,
l dont know that some of these marks are not predetermined is all l will say about it, as some will always score better than their “competition for places”, even after putting in distinctively average performances.
Anyway, today l thought we suffered for lack of width and pace. l would have gone with Moses and Antonio on the flanks and Sakho upfront alone to run the channels. Our narrow formation and choice of lumbering strikers deprived us of the ability to counterattack, which we sorely missed. The game was there for the taking, but we never really took it to them.
Randolph only a 6? Correct he did not have much to do, but what he did have to do he did well.
My MOTM was Ogbonna. Outstanding performance.
Like others I thought Ogbonna was excellent, Reid looks completely out of place on the right side of central defence and should only ever play there as a last resort, was a shame Oxford wasn’t given his chance again, hopefully Tomkins or Ginge will be fit soon to resume in that position. Antonio again worked tirelessly but against the silky Martial he had a tough assignment and did as well as a non defender could do. I didn’t rate Noble today looked like he was getting in the way of players but as usual he did give 100% would have liked to see Song given 90 minutes against them but its very difficult to drop your captain. Emenike tried hard put himself about but missed a glorious chance in first half, Carroll caused them a lot of problems aerially but that defence would have struggled more against outright pace so would have been better to have played with Moses Sakho and or Valencia. SB has a tough job because he needs to give his fringe players time but if he is serious about winning the cup in the replay he needs to play his best players and that would mean Sakho up top probably with Valencia they stretch the game which will give Lanzini and Payet more space to operate and would mean Noble who will undoubtably play would be less in the way of play and would be more effective, if we don’t have a fit right sided cb Oxford should play he did a good job at Everton other than the Lukaku moment and could no doubt also do a good job against United.
Thought Carroll’s first half performance was excellent and warranted more than a 6.
Won the ball on the floor as well as in the air and put Emenike through with a glorious through ball who should have scored as well as playing others in as well.