It was important that we got back to winning ways this weekend ahead of our return to Champions League action. We managed to find the winning thread again, although the performance wasn’t the best. There is a clear lack of confidence in the squad at the moment, but three points will help with that. Below we rate the performances of each player.
Nick Pope – 7 – It was a better performance from the goalkeeper. He has had a difficult start to the season and it is clear that he is still recovering from his finger injury. A good early save and a couple of authoritative claims helped us to our first clean sheet of the season.
Kieran Trippier – 7 – There needs to be careful management of the captain over the coming months, as he is so important to us. Trippier played well at the weekend and played a key role in and out of possession. His delivery throughout the game caused problems.
Fabian Schar – 6 – Schar played his role in the clean sheet, but it wasn’t his best performance. He only completed 76% of his passes, while he lost six out of his 13 duels.
Sven Botman – 8* – It was fantastic to have Botman back in the team. He was arguably the man of the match, as he was assured both in and out of possession. A 91% success rate of passes show how good he was on the ball.
Dan Burn – 5.5 – Another difficult afternoon for Burn. He is clearly targeted by opposition attacks, while he is left as the spare man when we have the ball. A great challenge on Schade late on was crucial though and showed the value he offers.
Sean Longstaff – 6 – The balance of the midfield felt better today with Sean Longstaff in the team. He was hard working without the ball and helped us get control in central areas after an initial slow start. His rating is lowered due to a few careless turnovers in the middle of the park.
Bruno Guimaraes – 7 – This felt like the Bruno Guimaraes of old, especially towards the end of the game. There were a few occasions were he powered forward past an opposition player. That dynamism has been missing from his game in recent weeks.
Elliot Anderson – 6 – It was a challenge for Elliot Anderson to come into the team. He deserves more minutes, but there needs to be patience with him, as he is getting to grips with a new position. There were some nice touches with the ball and plenty of graft without it. Lots for the coaching staff to build on.
Anthony Gordon – 7.5 – This was a showing that proved that he can be used on the right wing. He showed plenty of work rate, while he is very dangerous when he is driving with the ball. It was smart play to win the penalty, but he needs to work on his petulance as four yellow cards already is a concern.
Callum Wilson – 7 – There are a lot of differences between Wilson and Alexander Isak. Matches like these suit Wilson though, as he bullied the opposition defenders and was unlucky to have a goal disallowed prior to his penalty. It was a good striker’s performance.
Harvey Barnes – 7.5 – It has taken time for Harvey Barnes to get his chance, but he impressed on his first start. His willingness to run with the ball caused problems for Brentford. There were a couple of nice crosses that came close to creating a chance. If he had a more attacking left back to link up with, he could be even better.
SUBS:
Miguel Almiron – N/A – As ever, Almiron worked hard, but he didn’t have time to impact the game.
Agree this was a better performance from Bruno but an absolutely stupid yellow card, Burn and Botman far to easily prised open in the first half although Botman was a rock for the rest.
Wondering how long it will take for us to get the midfield and forwards sorted, credit to Brentford who did look dangerous early on but unfortunately had nine behind the ball and with a bit more ambition could have made a more interesting game of it.
Definitely not a penalty imo but there was absolutely nothing wrong with the disallowed goal, it will be a no contact sport the way things are going and the FA need to sort out their stupidity with rules and VAR quickly.
Joseph(Quote)