Hughie hands out his marks
Areola: Produced a remarkable double save to keep the clean sheet – top game 8
Johnson: Worked hard down the right side and managed one or two reasonable crosses into the box 7
Kehrer: The odd uncertain moment and he will need time but no serious problems 6
Ogbonna: The PL may be a different proposition but was in fabulous form tonight 8
Cresswell: Very decent performance from the acting skipper 7
Cornet: Provided the assist for Benny’s goal but beyond that was not truly at the races and blasted one easy chance way over 5
Soucek: Got his first goal of the season and produced a generally competent display 7
Lanzini: What you see is what you get from Manu these days – nothing outstanding,. nothing seriously bad 6
Fornals: Another pretty quiet game from the No eight 5
Benrahma Always threatening – and a very fine goal 7+
Scamacca: Fine volleyed goal and always looking the part up front 8
Subs
Antonio, Downes, Coventry
From the sound of it we were very competent. Loving the idea of Scamacca as front man, it falls into place better in midfield then. With current personnel I think Bowen Benrahma Cornet is a good midfield attack. Lovely to see Oggy gracing our back line again. I understand Johnson and Cress were very sound too. Lovely
What with Fornals being seriously off the boil and Lanzini’s best years seemingly behind him, WHU desperately need Paqueta / Vanaken (better still, both) to stave off the certainty of a long and bleak season. I’ll give Scamacca 6 months to get completely disillusioned with chasing hit-and-hope long balls every game.
Cresswell was awful.
Offered nothing going forward lost the ball several times. Booked
4
Hi Hugh,
Did Pablo Fornals eat your dog or throw up on your shoes? I take a lot of pleasure reading this forum but the worst possible trait for a journalist is bias and unfortunately you don’t make any attempt to hide it or give honest justification for your bad ratings. Must I take every report, of yours, with a pinch of salt? I hope not,
All opinions. I respect yours :}
I thought Johnson had an excellent game and deserved an 8. Some of his long across field passing was fantastic, on top of the crossing and solid defensive display.
I also thought Cresswell looked rusty and certainly struggled with pace at time.
Thought Soucek had one of his better games for a while. And someone needs to explain the offside rule to Cornet – in both legs he was caught offside too much.
Your ratings of Kehrer and Cornet were a little cruel, they managed to do something our forwards haven’t managed for ages they produced shots and headers that had to be cleared, instead of doing what others have been doing, high wide and far from handsome.