Hugh hands out his marks
Fabianski:Had one really unpleasant moment when he was left flapping in a goalmouth scramble but got away with it. Beyond that the usual 6 plus performance 6+
Fredericks: Saint Maximum is among the toughest of opponents but he did ok defensively and managed to get forward on one of two runs 6
Diop: Had one or two dodgy moments and doesn’t look quite the solid performer we had became used to 5
Ogbonna: Rock solid again – clearly Hammer of the Year 7
Cresswell: No complaints – decent 90 minutes 6
Rice: Another top level performance – always on hand to clear imminent danger and getting forward more 8
Soucek: Never over complicates things – can play simple and telling balls and is a clear and present danger in the box these days 7+
Fornals: Great ball to set up the Bowen cross for Antonio’s goal and always looking to p;lay to killer ball. Loads of energy in the boy’s game but may have been responsible to some extent for their second equaliser 6
Bowen:He’s becoming an assist king. Another wholehearted and highly effective performance 7+
Lanzini: What you see is what you get these days and sadly it’s not enough 4
Antonio: Massive amount of energy – a goal and always a menace 7
Subs:
Noble: Err why? Offered little 3
Yarmolenko: On for 15 minutes and always looked a threat notably with one pule driver of a shot saved well 6+
2 goals yet again. We cannot continue to concede 2 per game.
Diop solid performer? He’s been pony since the restart. Looks so nervous recently and could have done a lot better for the 2nd goal.
Personally I think Balbuena put in a much more solid performance the other week.
I think that was more or less covered
Didn’t Ogbonna play?
yes
The first goal happened when Lanzini warned Cresswell that the Newcastle player would be coming through, he stood off him and he got his cross. No complaints, I have. Teams tend to use Cresswell’s wing to break through a lot and he seems to be up the field to much and is often slow getting back. Others cover him and it leaves gaps. Basically, he is like Noble well beyond his sell by date.
Its alright warning Cresswell but leaving him with a 2 on 1 where 1 was Saint Max, Cresswell had no chance. If anyone was to blame it was Lanzini. Also thought we improved with Noble on the pitch rather than Lanzini.
Too harsh on Noble. They were looking shaky and Fournals had run out of gas. Noble settled things and allowed Socek and Rice more freedom to move up. Would have preferred Wilshire but Noble was solid.
Lanzini was absolutely appalling – either a 3-yard square pass or, more likely, a missed pass. No invention and little effort. He needs to see a shrink.
Does anybody find Moyes’ replacement of Lanzini by Noble perplexing, at a time when we were comfortable in midfield with little danger of being over-run? Moyes did bring on Yarmolenko later but if he had give the man an extra 15 minutes or so, Yarmo might bag you another goal.
Putting Noble on the pitch at anytime perplexes me. Get the old men out of the side. Think Leipzig.