Wednesday, October 06, 2004

Match Report 041002: Yet another away loss

0-1. I think our performance is not that bad. 1H they have lots of chances but for some reason Lampard missed a hat trick. 2H we are more even, but Joe Cole's goal (was it a well planned freekick or a fluke?) seals the game. We only have 1 shot on target at the 90 minutes, which is worrying, but Cisse did almost scored.

It's really good to see Kirkland get a chance, and I think he is more commanding than Dudek, as he screams at the defenders to organize things and won't hesitate to come out and punch the ball.

I think the zonal defensive system is gradually in place now. We defended quite well except for the goal, especially Carragher. That goal will probably still be scored even if we man-mark (after all, I can't see us man-marking Joe Cole)....

We now played in 2 of the 3 away games vs team ahead of us last season. Hopefully from next game onward we will be keep on winning, both home and away.


Player Rating:
Kirkland: 7 A good performance despite we lost the game. He seems to be more confident than Dudek and more commanding. England #1.
Josemi: 5 A poor performance and was rightly substituted. He was outpaced by Drogba and Duff frequently.
Carragher: 7.5 He should be the captain as he is more inspiring than Hyypia! Cleared the ball a lot of times. Didn't do a single thing fault.
Hyypia: 6 Not as commanding as Carra and Kirky, perhaps it's time to hand the vice Captain role to Carragher.
Traore: 5.5 A rare start, and doing OK. Just OK.
Garcia: 5.5 A quiet game for player of his standard. Still struggling away from home.
Alonso: 5 Balled 4 free kicks at the same position. He had a very poor game. But why don't he let the other guys to take free kick?
Diao: 5.5 Same comment as Traore.
Riise: 6 Doing not bad both defending and attacking.
Kewell: 5.5 Played slightly better in 1H, but his only contribution was a last man save from a corner.
Cisse: 6 Has a missed chance in 1H. Struggling with no service to him.

Substitutions:
Baros: 6 Worked very hard but can't change the result.
Finnan/Hamann: No effect to the result. Finnan did has our only on target shot.

Rafa: 5 Probably changed too many players. And why isn't Sinama-Pongolle even in the sub?

Chelsea: 6.5 I don't think they were outclassing us too much, but they probably will finish 2nd.

Man of the match: Carragher again. He's everywhere in defense and seems to be playing the zonal defending quite well. But Kirkland is not too far behind.

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