Blues Ratings (7 Viewers)

Grendel said:

We created our two best chances when he wasn’t on the pitch

He had a good game but aspects are disappointing - missed a good chance and his set piece delivery has declined sharply since the first half of last season

Click to expand...

I think it says it all about his performances this year when people are orgasmic over a decent 45 mins from him.

Grendel said:

Whenever we had a good long throw specialised we used it - it’s as beneficial as a corner

Click to expand...

Don't think it was ever the main focus of our attacking intent though, just an added bonus. That said we didn't make as much use of it as we should have done when we had Gunnarsson, and I can only remember on one occasion us scoring from them at that time. He had as good a throw as anyone but you could tell Coleman had not worked on planning for them, compared to that same time when Pulis had Stoke really making effective use of the tactic.

Grendel said:

We created our two best chances when he wasn’t on the pitch

He had a good game but aspects are disappointing - missed a good chance and his set piece delivery has declined sharply since the first half of last season

Click to expand...

I think that’s more to do with blues naturally sitting deeper and deeper to protect what they had. It was always going to be one way traffic last 20 or so.

You can’t deny that Hamer was outstanding last night until his knock.

H

GaryMabbuttsLeftKnee said:

I think he’s great and don’t understand the criticism for him, but that kind of hyperbole probably stokes the fire. He’s very good for us in the championship. ‘Absolutely world class’ is overdoing it, let’s be honest.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Click to expand...

His free kicks really frustrate, he has to be has to be better there. But other than than that his forward drives, started every good move, and was up the other end of the pitch in no time. Always looking forward so assured, should have capped it off with a goal soooo frustrating.

The football we play at times is sublime one touch that teams cant live with in this division. But the final ball/ decision yesterday was bad.

Dabo as guilty as anyone. He needs a rest for Saturday.

Baffling game, and on another day I think we win that 3-0.

Thought everyone played quite well also.

Moore - 7 - did everything well

Dabo - 6 - would've scored higher but his delivery was really bad
Rose - 7 - very solid, no complaints
Fadz - 7 - classy moments, although almost gifted them one first half
Hyam - 6 - distribution second half pretty bad
Maatsen - 8 - thought he was class, looked like a PL player

Kelly - 5 - looked a little off the pace to me (which you might expect) picked up second half, but overall I don't think we had the level of control Sheaf gives us
Hamer - 8 - he was superb last night, on the edge of a great night if he'd got the assist or scored
O'Hare - 7 - brilliant performance in so many aspects, but just didn't have the final ball

Godden - 6 - a good effort, some nice link up play, but not his best night
Gyokeres - 5 - by his own standards not a great night, still absolutely essential to how we play, but made the wrong decision a few times

8 said:

I think that’s more to do with blues naturally sitting deeper and deeper to protect what they had. It was always going to be one way traffic last 20 or so.

You can’t deny that Hamer was outstanding last night until his knock.

Click to expand...

Re watching the game back on Sky the commentators and analysts were just purring at Hamers display.

Moore 8

Came out for crosses well, dominated area by and large and distributed well. Couple of sloppy kicks but overall good.

Hyam 7

Tidy. Coped with their movement well.

Fadz 8

His forward runs give him an extra dimension and therefore an extra mark.

Rose 7

Tidy again. Had a tendency to kick out for throws rather than hit long back upfield which wasn’t particularly smart thinking. Their long throws were their main outlet and then being able to soak up time later was their aim, but having Robert’s keep running back over added to both Just a minor quibble.

Dabo 6

Looked a bit indecisive with his throw ins which meant that the ball was turned over a couple of times. I’m a Dabo fan - he got past his marker well but the final ball wasn’t Dijon enough. I was surprised that Kane wasn’t thrown in at 65 to add some fresh energy.

Maatsen 8

Cut in well and caused havoc by doing so rather than always hitting the byline. Impressive performance and did well standing up to Deeney.

Kelly 6

A so-so performance and again, throwing Sheaf on might have been a solution on 65.

Hamer 7

Busy. Some good touches, needs to have a crack more often. Fluffed a couple of good free kick opportunities. Mixing the corner takers up might be a thought.

O'Hare 7

This bit applies to the entire forward line:
Decide who does what; when the ball comes across from a wing back etc. then one forward needs to attack near post (Godden), one (Taller, Gyok) needs to get to 6 yard box edge for a header / slightly deeper pull back and someone needs to sit around penalty (O’Hare or Hamer if one or the other is putting the ball in) spot for a rebound or knock down. On several occasions the ball was free in the space and there was no one there. They need to work on that.

Godden 7

Showed a bit of trickery and running that he doesn’t normally which was a positive. But didn’t attack the near post enough. Chased down the keeper a few time left but faded on doing that. Pressing their keeper stopped him trying to hit Deeney for their aim of getting our defence to hit it out for their long throws

Gyokeres 8

Stonewall penalty, harassed their back line, chased and won lost causes.

——

Allen 5

Just not quite there. Gets knocked off the ball too easily. Have a few steaks lad and become a low-centre-of-gravity player because at this level it’s a problem being too small.

Walker 5

Fluffed his lines at the end and did little else. Get him out on loan.

Moore - 7 did what he had to which wasn't a great amount. Although he deserves credit for closing Hogan down for his only chance.
Hyam - 8 I thought he was decent and found Dabo with the ball plenty of times.
Dabo - 6 Did ok in spells but lack of end product going forward is starting to become an issue.
Mcfadz - 8 Solid again. He seems to be getting better each week
Rose - 7 Did well in the main but let Hogan go for his only chance.
Maatsen - 8 Looked very good on last nights showing. I think not having JCS next to him may actually help.
Kelly 7 - Did what was required Mopping up and looked after the ball.
Hamer - 9 MOTM said a week or two before that he supposedly preferred to play with Kelly as he got more freedom. It showed last night.
O'Hare - 8 He's a pest to defences and uses the ball well.
Godden - 7 Worked hard and won a few headers again. Good save by their keeper to dent him a goal.
Gyokores - 8 Held the ball up well. He was shooting sooner rather than taking the extra touch earlier in the season maybe he should try and get a couple of shots away earlier again.

Subs
Allen - 6 Kept things ticking
Walker - 5 Lack of awareness when he had the golden chance. Great movement to get there but really should have ran in on goal instead of taking a shot straight away in that position when hes totally unmarked. He doesn't ever seem happy (maybe rightly so due to lack of game time).

A special mention to Blues who were the worst side I've seen home and away this season (except us at Luton). Stop the long ball and all they had was long throw in's. Their tactics last night were like watching some league two teams trying to stop us playing a few years back. I genuinely wouldn't want to pay to watch them each week if that's what they do.

I think we need Waghorn back around the team, he was a great link man, and would be a decent replacement for one of the strikers or O'Hare if we're chasing a game.

Grendel said:

Whenever we had a good long throw specialised we used it - it’s as beneficial as a corner

Click to expand...

Yeah, it’s a great weapon to be fair. Thought we handled it pretty well overall but still not easy having to deal with it constantly. I think it’s the combination of that, plus cynical fouling, time wasting and bit of hoof that would be people’s issue rather than that as a standalone.

Fair play though, they came for a point with players out and took one away

Londonccfcfan said:

Maatsen 9..His best game for us.
Hamer 9...absolutely world class. If anyone cant see that then they are blind.

Rest 7s

Dabo was only 6.

Take the point. By far the better team. They were absolutely dogsshit.

Click to expand...

World class? He’s 24 and playing in the Championship

The Philosopher said:

Walker 5

Fluffed his lines at the end and did little else. Get him out on loan.

Click to expand...

To be fair he was only on the pitch five minutes and in that time he got himself into a position to score, albeit he did miss it. If the strikers don't get more than one good chance in the first five minutes of a game should it be said they've done very little and should be sent out on loan?

Sky Blue Pete said:

Mom not even rated

Click to expand...

I rate your mom.

covcity4life said:

Kane isn't gonna be knocking it past players or doing that inter play with o hare tho. Not to same level anyway. But a good cross makes wing back role perfection?

Ffs

Click to expand...

So we have all this lovely interplay and then he fails to beat the first man with the cross and it comes to nothing. If the ball doesn't end up in the net it doesn't matter how much fancy play goes on before it. Beckham rarely beat his man but his crossing was that good he didn't need to.

The Philosopher said:

Walker 5

Fluffed his lines at the end and did little else. Get him out on loan.

Click to expand...

Oh dear

Re the defence

I think we can be proud about how our defence stand up to teams who come at us with tactics from the medieval times. Both Cardiff and Blues have now tried this on us and we have gave them absolutely nothing. Seasons gone by we would have been bullied but we are comfortable with dealing with it now. Credit to them.

Last night they were set up by bowyer like a 70s team dogshite tactics and will be EFL level forever more.

Greggs said:

Ref was dogshit too. Talking of dogshit, the bloke that moved seats and sat next to me second half - brush your fucking teeth man.

Click to expand...

Good Covid test then

The Philosopher said:

Moore 8

Came out for crosses well, dominated area by and large and distributed well. Couple of sloppy kicks but overall good.

Hyam 7

Tidy. Coped with their movement well.

Fadz 8

His forward runs give him an extra dimension and therefore an extra mark.

Rose 7

Tidy again. Had a tendency to kick out for throws rather than hit long back upfield which wasn’t particularly smart thinking. Their long throws were their main outlet and then being able to soak up time later was their aim, but having Robert’s keep running back over added to both Just a minor quibble.

Dabo 6

Looked a bit indecisive with his throw ins which meant that the ball was turned over a couple of times. I’m a Dabo fan - he got past his marker well but the final ball wasn’t Dijon enough. I was surprised that Kane wasn’t thrown in at 65 to add some fresh energy.

Maatsen 8

Cut in well and caused havoc by doing so rather than always hitting the byline. Impressive performance and did well standing up to Deeney.

Kelly 6

A so-so performance and again, throwing Sheaf on might have been a solution on 65.

Hamer 7

Busy. Some good touches, needs to have a crack more often. Fluffed a couple of good free kick opportunities. Mixing the corner takers up might be a thought.

O'Hare 7

This bit applies to the entire forward line:
Decide who does what; when the ball comes across from a wing back etc. then one forward needs to attack near post (Godden), one (Taller, Gyok) needs to get to 6 yard box edge for a header / slightly deeper pull back and someone needs to sit around penalty (O’Hare or Hamer if one or the other is putting the ball in) spot for a rebound or knock down. On several occasions the ball was free in the space and there was no one there. They need to work on that.

Godden 7

Showed a bit of trickery and running that he doesn’t normally which was a positive. But didn’t attack the near post enough. Chased down the keeper a few time left but faded on doing that. Pressing their keeper stopped him trying to hit Deeney for their aim of getting our defence to hit it out for their long throws

Gyokeres 8

Stonewall penalty, harassed their back line, chased and won lost causes.

——

Allen 5

Just not quite there. Gets knocked off the ball too easily. Have a few steaks lad and become a low-centre-of-gravity player because at this level it’s a problem being too small.

Walker 5

Fluffed his lines at the end and did little else. Get him out on loan.

Click to expand...

Walker come on 88th min...again too late

Moore - 7 - thought he did what he had to do well. Claimed at least one of the long throws that came in. Not massively called into action but kept the ball ticking over in possession.

Hyam - 7 - thought he had a really good game from a defensive aspect, though no doubt the game suited him with little runs in behind. Distribution was very sloppy second half.
McFadzean - 7 - don’t remember him doing an awful lot defensively but primarily because we as a team coped well with what was thrown at us. Took advantage of the space opening up in front of him well.
Rose - 7 - generally switched on, good covering tackle on one occasion when their attacker had broken through. Some of his passing was excellent.

Dabo - 5 - poorest game in a while I thought. Crossing was the same as ever but also switched off to the winger/wing back running past him off the ball a few times. Also some sloppy passing and a seeming lack of willingness to get up the pitch when off the ball, especially in the first half.
Hamer - 8 - thought he was excellent, and was the spark to most of our good moments. He did look to play with more freedom and was able to get into dangerous areas, but also kept us probing. Final ball a little lacking on a couple of occasions.
Kelly - 6 - first half he very effectively screened Deeney, who barely got a kick. I expect that’s what he was in the side to do. Passing was ok, some nice balls but equally some typical hooks upfield when under pressure. Disappeared from the game in the second half when they engaged us more, and a smarter midfielder would have used the ball far better.
Maatsen - 7 - sensational in the first half, and clearly part of Blues’ half time team-talk was to stop him having the freedom of the left. Ended up with 2-3 players marking him at times. Quietened a bit in the second half because of this, and set piece delivery was quite poor.

O’Hare - 6 - full of energy, but not great use of the ball for me. No doubting he’s good, but not one of his better days.

Godden - 7 - played well and kept the intensity up for around 70 minutes, but needed to come off by that stage in my opinion. Clever movement and always looking for the opportunity to shoot.
Gyokeres - 7 - typical hard working performance albeit he was up against very (overly) physical defenders; Sanderson in particular impressed me with his defensive nous. Seems to have lost his magic touch but not for want of trying, and he’ll be back on the scoresheet very soon I expect.

Subs

Allen - 7 - some very clever movement into pockets of space, not always spotted by the defence/midfield. If he’d had more of the ball when he came on I think we may have seen more chances.
Walker - 5 - really like him but you have to rate on what you’ve seen, and he should have done far better with his one chance. Don’t think he was expecting the pass, and that’s a by-product of having barely any game time. Strikes me as someone who needs a decent period to bed into a game.

Anti fucking football, they came for and got their point. Made Preston of last season look like early naughties Barca.

7s all round but with an 8 for Maatsen.

Another welcome clean sheet but really two points dropped. No wonder they resort to post match thuggery having to watch that shite every week.

Grendel said:

We created our two best chances when he wasn’t on the pitch

He had a good game but aspects are disappointing - missed a good chance and his set piece delivery has declined sharply since the first half of last season

Click to expand...

The best chance was the one he put on a plate for Maatsen.

Greggs said:

Are people giving Hamer MOTM because he managed to not get booked?! The fact he got dragged after an hour speaks volumes. Cash in and reinvest in Jan.

Click to expand...

I couldn't disagree more. He just looks superior to every player on the pitch in almost every game, his vision and movement as well tenacity. His shooting has been a bit off for a couple of games but that is usually good too. I think he's the most important player at the club by a distance.

SlowerThanPlatt said:

World class? He’s 24 and playing in the Championship

Click to expand...

He won't be in the Championship next season, that's for sure.

pusbccfc said:

He won't be in the Championship next season, that's for sure.

Click to expand...

Exactly....even if he is, hes still in one of the best leagues in the world. Even of its the 2nd tier of our pyramid.

Londonccfcfan said:

Exactly....even if he is, hes still in one of the best leagues in the world. Even of its the 2nd tier of our pyramid.

Click to expand...

He's not world class but he definitely Premier League quality.

Pretty decent and never really threatened apart from Hogan's over the bar. Defence and keeper well marshalled at the back. Loved to see them marauding into that open space in front of the too in a kind of Big Mo esque way. Extra point for Fadz versus the rest. (5 x 7 and an 8)

Midfield we controlled, Kelly (6) didn't do a lot but what he did was ok just hadnt got the legs to get about as Sheaf would have, but was decent. Hamer (7) played some lovely balls, but our set pieces his included are generally pretty poor and rarely look a threat.

Up front Godden (7) and Gyok (8) worked hard as did O'Hare (7) in behind and arguably all should've possibly scored, but put a decent shift in and Gyok was a real handful for them. Concerned about confidence after a spell without scoring and a couple of gilt edged misses.

Finally - I've defended Walker on here previously and he wasn't helped by Robins only bringing him on at 90 mins, but that effort at the end was absolutely woeful (and I think he may have even been offside which would have been sweeter). Put no pace on the ball, no direction, no extra touch or used the space or find someone else simply dragged it well wide under no pressure. With some of the scores I see on here sometimes I'm amazed he's being given 5's all round. If Waghorn isn't back for Saturday then I think I'd put Tavares on the bench and give him 20 minutes.

rob9872 said:

Pretty decent and never really threatened apart from Hogan's over the bar. Defence and keeper well marshalled at the back. Loved to see them marauding into that open space in front of the too in a kind of Big Mo esque way. Extra point for Fadz versus the rest. (5 x 7 and an 8)

Midfield we controlled, Kelly (6) didn't do a lot but what he did was ok just hadnt got the legs to get about as Sheaf would have, but was decent. Hamer (7) played some lovely balls, but our set pieces his included are generally pretty poor and rarely look a threat.

Up front Godden (7) and Gyok (8) worked hard as did O'Hare (7) in behind and arguably all should've possibly scored, but put a decent shift in and Gyok was a real handful for them. Concerned about confidence after a spell without scoring and a couple of gilt edged misses.

Finally - I've defended Walker on here previously and he wasn't helped by Robins only bringing him on at 90 mins, but that effort at the end was absolutely woeful (and I think he may have even been offside which would have been sweeter). Put no pace on the ball, no direction, no extra touch or used the space or find someone else simply dragged it well wide under no pressure. With some of the scores I see on here sometimes I'm amazed he's being given 5's all round. If Waghorn isn't back for Saturday then I think I'd put Tavares on the bench and give him 20 minutes.

Click to expand...

I agree with most of this and agree about Walker.

The issue with the miss is that he has so many options: one touch and place / blast / lay off. He simply had a lazy slash at it with no thought or real effort. His head may be down, hence I suggested a loan move at the end of next month. With his L1 record I’m sure someone there will do a decent wage contribution which will free us up some options. He needs to bag a few goals and then maybe come back better.

If I was walker i'd be putting my hand up for a transfer in January. He's not being set up for success being thrown on in the last 5 minutes. To the point where you wonder if he just has an unused substitute fee or something in his contract, it's baffling

A shame because I think he's a great option and at least as good or if not a better option than Godden.

In terms of Walker's chance at the end I just don't think he realised he had the space he did, and given that he knew time was short I don't really blame him for trying to get a shot off quickly. Whats for sure is if he had taken a moment and looked up to play one of our other players in, but then hit the first Birmingham defender as many of his colleagues had done throughout the match before that, he would have got pelters off the same people criticising him for shooting too quickly.

robbiekeane said:

If I was walker i'd be putting my hand up for a transfer in January. He's not being set up for success being thrown on in the last 5 minutes. To the point where you wonder if he just has an unused substitute fee or something in his contract, it's baffling

A shame because I think he's a great option and at least as good or if not a better option than Godden.

Click to expand...

I get the feeling he will start on Saturday. Godden and Gyo not completely on it at the moment. So hopefully, he will get his chance.

People who don’t see the talent Hamer has, and displayed last night simply don’t have an eye for a footballer.

He was fabulous last night, as he has been in most matches this season. He will be gone in summer for sure.

Apparently Gerrard and Gary Mac were there last night, I presume watching Hamer

cc84cov said:

I don’t think Greggs watched judging by that comment

Hamer was class

Click to expand...

I don't think he watches anything, he's just a wum

stevefloyd said:

Apparently Gerrard and Gary Mac were there last night, I presume watching Hamer

Click to expand...

Or ex-Villa Callum.