TFI – Player Ratings vs Manchester Utd – 22 Aug 15

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Cal
Denmark (Kasper)
Denmark (Kasper)
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TFI – Player Ratings vs Manchester Utd – 22 Aug 15

Post by Cal » Thu Aug 27, 2015 9:07 pm

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Bouncing back from a disappointing defeat, McClaren's Magpies earned a second encouraging draw of the season, this time keeping a clean sheet at Old Trafford, threatening to steal a win on occasion.

For the TFI, we ask our forum members to rate each player’s performance in the concerned game out of 10, which we then average out to get a rating representative of the fans’ views, we also collect a few user comments to summarise how the player did and show a few different viewpoints from the board. The top scoring player is man of the match; the lowest is mug of the match.

As you might expect in a game of this nature, the back five were given a lot of credit for their performances and role in keeping us in the game. Coloccini returned to his form of old, leading the way to a man of the match award with an 8.39. Taylor, who accompanied Coloccini at centre-back as Mbemba was shifted over to accommodate for Janmaat's idiocy, also impressed, scoring 7.45. Krul made a number of good saves, although as always his distribution disappointed, to get a 7.48. The full-backs didn't impress quite as much, but still earned respectable scores of 6.98 (Mbemba) and 6.57 (Haïdara).

At the other end of the scale we have the match's two disappointments. Obertan (4.89) failed to find the usual spark that he displays twice a season against his former club, and was noted to have left his full-back vulnerable too often. Colback (4.84) was the poorer half of an overrun deep central midfield pairing, earning mug of the match in particular for losing the ball in dangerous situations a couple of times.

The team averaged an impressive 6.61, while McClaren's ability to get the team to defend cohesively with occasional forays on the counter earned a 7.50, both ratings decent improvements on the opening day's 6.25 and 7.21 respectively.

[tfi]150822[/tfi]
(You can click on player names to go to their pages)
Krul - 7.48 Ratings ranged between 7 and 8
"7 - Vital save and sound keeping all round."
"7 - Still cant kick but he saves briliantly."
"8 - Best game from him for a long time. Despite what Owen might have said, he made a fair number of good saves."

Mbemba - 6.98 Ratings ranged between 5.5 and 9
"7 - Out of position, occasionally committed too easily, but generally good. That cross for Mitro. <awe>"
"7.5 - Tough first 20 but as game grew became best defender (blocked more than anyone else and was excellent in the air). Had to stop BOTH Memphis and Shaw as Obertan provided little help."
"6.5 - Not his position, and it was obvious."

Taylor - 7.45 Ratings ranged between 5.5 and 9
"8.5 - Brilliant committed performance. Made some great blocks, tackles and interceptions."
"8 - Solid, hes a good player when he's not injured/doing something stupid."
"7 - Pretty solid, between him and Colo, we kept Man Utd restricted in the final third."

Coloccini - 8.39 Ratings ranged between 7 and 9
"7.5 - Some crucial blocks and organised the defence brilliantly. Because of a solid 90 minutes (compared to Mbemba's 70) was my MoM today."
"8.5 - Best performance in literally years."
"7.5 - Against intricate play infront of him he's fine. There was no pace today to trouble him. Still comes massively out of defence for no reason."

Haïdara - 6.57 Ratings ranged between 5 and 7.5
"7 - Usually suspect, but alright today. Looked better with Ayoze's help from ahead."
"7 - Good going forward and defended well."
"5 - Shown he has the stamina for full back but has no end product when forward but more worrying, gives opposing widemen too much time and space. Lucky for us Man Utd had little aerial threat today or there could have been goals from his flank."

Anita - 6.25 Ratings ranged between 5 and 7.5
"5 - Both players [Anita and Colback] were dominated and offered no protection to the back four."
"7.5 - I'm a bit of a sceptic but he was great. Broke up play loads and surprisingly strong. Was aware often to wide players drifting in."
"6 - Worked hard and stuck to his position, a little too lightweight to be lone DM in this match, needed more support from Colback."

Colback - 4.84 Ratings ranged between 3 and 6
"3 - I'm a Colback fan, one of the biggest on here. He worked hard today, getting stuck in. But lost the ball too much, often though misplacing simple passes."
"5.5 Average game, failed to move the ball around and wasn't as busy as his midfield partner."
"5 - Some good tackles and blocks but his passing and positioning were awful. Getting too high up the pitch and leaving us totally exposed."

Obertan - 4.89 Ratings ranged between 3 and 6
"4 - Tough game because Man Utd had so much possession but he was very lazy and let Shaw run pass him too often. Offered nothing going forward either."
"5.5 - Unremarkable. He needs to be 1v1 more often to be worth playing, and Man U doubled up on him."
"5 - Frustrating. Wish he'd just use his pace to beat the full back then cross it in. Its the only thing he's good at yet he just stops and turns round to pass it backwards."

Wijnaldum - 6.25 Ratings ranged between 5 and 7.5
"7.5 - Made a few very clever passes, a class above our other midfielders"
"6 - Busy in midfield and passed ball around when he could but could have offered more defensively - I know that's not his role but against Man Utd that's what he needed to do."
"6 - Worked hard, a few decent breaks and a good touch to Haidara where we nearly scored, limited due to their dominance."

Ayoze - 7.20 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8.5
"6.5 - Not his best performance with the ball, wasted on the left. Massive defensive shift."
"8.5 - Great defensive display. Tracked the runners well and on a few occasions him and Colo sniffed out danger from our left well. Some great tackling. Good outlet as well with his turn of pace and close control."
"7 - Offered little going forward but defended wonderfully. This was never a game we were going to win so it was all about not getting beat and he worked as hard as anyone down the left flank. Obviously in other games will need to show more going forward but today did his job well."

Mitrović - 7.14 Ratings ranged between 6 and 8.5
"6.5 - Did well up front on his own holding it up, almost scored a class header, got back a helped out a lot, but he did have limited service."
"8 - Great outlet. Held the ball up very well. Constantly put pressure on the Man Utd back line. Made Rooney look like a fool when he mugged him. Unlucky not to score, brilliant header and 8 times out if 10 they will hit the back of the net."
"7 - I would have scored him more highly because he was a threat in the air all day and offered an outlet... BUT... watch what happened 80% of the time after he held the ball up... He lost it because he tried to run with it and got crowded out. Some of that can be put down to lack of support but I've watched the game again and very often he had his head down. Needs to look up a bit more."

Thauvin - 5.86 Ratings ranged between 5 and 7
"6.5 - Relatively quiet, gets an extra 0.5 or so for immediately tanning Luke Shaw. Shame his leg isn't 1 inch longer."
"7 - Promising, wanted to use the ball in dangerous deep positions. Worked hard tracking back."
"6 - Few nice touches, looking forward to seeing what he can do with more minutes and more time with the team."

Tioté - N/A
"N/A - 0/1 tackles completed - even if he was only on the pitch for 10 mins, that's not a lot - that's Tiote's strength, in theory..."
"6 - Better performance than opening day, did a job."
"N/A - Provided more strength in the middle."

Cissé - N/A
"N/A - Probably should've scored, or at least set up Thauvin..."
"6 - Not much to do today but almost got an assist."
"N/A - Great player to have as a impact sub. Perhaps unlucky not to come away with an assist."

McClaren - 7.50 Ratings ranged between 7 and 8
"7 - Tactics spot on. Well drilled defensively. Tough to breakdown and a thourghly deserved cleansheet. Decent on the counter as well and we were unlucky not to nick it with either the Mitrovic header or Cisse/Thauvin at the end."

"7.5 - We looked so organised, even players who looked lost last season. <awe>"

"8 - Had the team fighting for the first time in ages. Glad to see Mitro and Ayoze start, Hopefully they'l both get a good run in the team now. Too slow to bring Thauv on though, Obertan was offering nothing going forward."

"8 - Don't know how he did it, but from the moment he came out of the stands and to the bench we were a completely different team."