It wasn’t always pretty, but we came away with a 2-1 win over League Two Tranmere Rovers, with goals from Jamaal Lascelles and Chris Wood sending us through to the third round.
Here come the ratings from last night’s win on Merseyside:
Karl Darlow – 6 – Couldn’t do much about the goal. Was the victim of a horrendous tackle from Tranmere’s centre forward in the first half. Caught the ball well from high balls into the box to take pressure off the defence. Distribution not brilliant, but we know this isn’t one of his strong points.
Emil Krafth – 5 – Stretchered off in the 39th minute with that looks like a bad knee injury. Didn’t impact the game much while he was on. Let’s hope it’s not a serious one.
Jamaal Lascelles – 7 – Suffered a pretty horrific nose break in the first half during an aerial challenge, but responded brilliantly. Battled well throughout the game and kept his cool – not looking for revenge after Nevitt’s flailing arm left his face bloodied up. Some sloppy passing but dominant in the air and got us back into the game with that crucial goal before the break.
Paul Dummett – 4 – Lacks physical presence for a centre back and was exposed on a few occasions by the Tranmere attack. Caught in no mans land for their goal and gave away the ball several times with wayward passes out from the back. Looked off the pace throughout.
Matt Targett – 5 – Caught too high up the pitch for Tranmere’s goal where the ball was put over the top. Subbed at half-time, perhaps to save him for the weekends game. Didn’t offer much going forward, but was sometimes ignored when making overlapping runs.
Sean Longstaff – 5 – Didn’t really grasp his opportunity to impress. Failed to make an impact in the match, losing possession 11 times. Lots of stray passes, failed to show his supposed ‘Premier League’ quality against fourth tier opposition. Plenty of sub par performances but this one may concern Howe given he may be needed in Shelvey’s absence.
Elliot Anderson – 7 – Showed glimpses of real quality in the first half, drifting into pockets of space and receiving the ball on the half turn. Tried to drive us forward, got stuck in and worked very hard, being one of our best pressers on the night. Dispossessed a few too many times and had four efforts go wide, but plenty to like about his display.
Joe Willock – 6 – A solid 60 minutes under his belt this evening. Didn’t offer much going forward and spurned one decent chance, but his movement and pace helped him pick up pockets of space others failed to find.
Jacob Murphy – 4 – Totally anonymous all evening. Lost possession 12 times and often looked slow to react and wasteful in the final third. God loves a trier but I believe Murphy lacks the quality to hold a place in Howe’s squad moving forward. Someone I’d be looking to move on.
Matt Ritchie – 5 – Can never fault his endeavour and fight, however lacks the cutting edge he once offered a few years back and has lost a good few yards of pace. Clearly, Ritchie is someone Howe feels is important to his dressing room, but I’m not sure he can offer enough on the pitch now.
Chris Wood – 7 – Was extremely quiet first half but seemed to grow into the game. Took his goal brilliantly with a flicked header from Trippier’s pin point corner and won more in the air than any other player on the pitch. Should’ve buried a chance in the second half when put through by a superb pass from Trippier.
SUBS:
Kieran Trippier – 9* – Not the worst substitute to bring onto the pitch! Five chances created, seven crosses, one assist and played a key part in both our goals. Subbed on for the stricken Krafth in the first half and completely transformed the side. Whipped in a stunning corner for Wood’s header and created a further four chances after that. I was chewing my nails off when he went down with what looked like an injury second half – luckily he looked okay! Best player on the pitch by a country mile.
Sven Botman – 6 – Defended well after being brought on in the 70th minute for Lascelles. Battled well in the air and showed real recovery pace on a few occasions.
Jamal Lewis – 5 – Will be struggling to retain his place in the squad if he can’t stay fit and kick on soon. Offered nothing going forward and often went backwards, albeit with only 45 minutes to show his talents. His first appearance of 2022, so I expected him to be rusty, but he looked low on confidence.
Joelinton – 6 – Subbed on in the 60th minute for Willock. Could’ve had a goal late on if he had pulled the trigger. Battled well and looked confident in possession Adds presence to our midfield which is apparent as soon as he is on the pitch.
Bruno Guimarães – N/A – Came on with five minutes to play. Didn’t have much time to stamp his authority on the match.
Jacob Murphy appears to have gone backwards as a player, Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummet are past it.
They say you are only as strong as your reserves, if that’s the case we are in trouble.
Lascelles , Anderson and Willock were the only ones who appeared to be up to the challenge.
Joseph(Quote)
I notice you give Lascelles a 7 and Dummett a 4 saying Dummy was caught in no-mans-land for the goal.
No mention of the fact that Lascelles got the step-up for the offside totally wrong and it was his man THAT HE HAD LOST by a couple of yards who actually scored Tranmere’s goal.
Showing your preferences there mate!
Daveys **** mate(Quote)
Murphy was a disaster, Matt Ritchie and Paul Dummet are possibly a bit slow for the way Toon now tries to play. Given lack of training and game time Jamal Lewis did OK but wouldn’t want him in EPL match just yet. Lascelles is a bit of an enigma but ultimately probably not an EPL player. Poco a Poco, little by little things are changing but for a while Eddie Howe has to make the best of what he has got. A challenge he is embracing very well indeed.
Cuban Geordie(Quote)