Player Ratings: Newcastle v Chelsea (A)
By Wasim
August 27 2012
For the second game running, Hatem Ben Arfa has been named man of the match, by Tyne-Talk's player rater Wasim4nufc. With sixes and sevens all round, our defenders were rated more highly that both Demba Ba and Papiss Cisse, both of which failed to find the back of the net. Read on to see how the rest of the team faired....
Player Ratings
Tim Krul (7) - Did very little wrong and unfortunately could do nothing about both their goals. Dived the right way for the penalty though.
Danny Simpson (6) - Defended reasonably well but was poor going forward. So far he has attempted 8 crosses and only 1 of them have found a teammate. Was therefore substituted in the second half.
Steven Taylor (7) - Looked fairly solid at the back although Chelsea seemed to drop down a few gears in the second half.
Fabricio Coloccini (7) - Had a busy first half, marking Torres but considering this was his first start of the season he did fairly well.
Davide Santon (6.5) - Decent enough game from him although he hardly had the chance to go forward in the first half. Did better in the second half.
Vurnon Anita (6) - Struggled at times in the game and gave away the penalty at a point where we were doing fairly well. Will learn from it I'm sure and he did do some good things as well. I remember him winning a few tackles.
Yohan Cabaye (6.5) - Had a better game than he did last week, however his set pieces were poor. It was the one area we could have had an advantage over Chelsea but that unfortunately did not happen.
Jonas Gutierrez (6.5) - Worked hard but did not influence the game as much as we know he could.
Hatem Ben Arfa (7.5) - Was our most dangerous player and showed many glimpses of his class. We needed him to see more of the ball in the final third if we wanted to get something out of the game which hardly happened.
Demba Ba (6.5) - Was more involved than Papiss Cisse but only really had two chances in the whole match. He should have scored with the chance towards the end but Cech seemed to guess right when a goal looked certain.
Papiss Cisse (6) - Has had a poor start to the season but then again he has hardly had chances in front of goal. He generally is not involved in build up play that much so if he is not given chances he is very ineffective on the field. Should probably have been substituted but we did not have a striker on the bench!
Substitutes
Ryan Taylor (7) - Did not do too badly when he came on. Set up Ba with a nice header at the back post and also made one notable clearance in the box.
Sylvain Marveaux (6) - Had one or two nice touches but did not see much of the ball in the 15 minutes he was on for.
James Perch (7) - Did well when he came on.
Newcastle United Man of the Match - Hatem Ben Arfa
If you do not already have an account Click here to Register.
I recall Tiote's first few appearances involved some similar mistakes to Anita - either losing the ball or fouling players in dangerous positions.
Hopefully Anita can adjust as quick as Tiote did.
Shame the game isn't on the TV (manu v soton are).
Krul-7, Simpson-5, Saylo-6.5, Colo-7, Santon-5, Anita-5, Cabaye-4.5, Jonas-5, HBA-6.5, Cisse-4.5, Ba-7
Krul did everything expected. Colo probably saved a goal. Ba was lively and tracked back for the ball. Cabaye & Cisse look well off pace. Cabaye's delivery was shocking. Cisse appeared to lack energy to get behind a ponderous back line. I can't give better-than-average marks for wide players who had so much space to exploit and failed to do so. (It would have helped to go to 4-3-3; we've yet to win a game under AP when we go behind.) Anita put in good challenges and looks comfortable on the ball...a bit too comfy at times. He was guilty of giving away possesion more than once and conceded the penalty with a silly, silly challenge. Made worse by the fact that he had Colo covering. HBA was lively as always but wandered all over the park-personally I think that should be his official role but it wasn't v CFC. Saylor was good though he was guilty of backing off a bit much. I won't comment on Raylor and Marveaux who were hardly involved. I would have started Perch over Anita. Water under the bridge.
I feel the toon need to change the formation especially when we play at home, and depending on the team maybe revert to the 4-5-1. At home I would like us to play in a 3-5-2, with the defence made up off Simpson, Colo, Saylor, midfield made up on wings back Jonas and Santon, centre midfield of Cabaye and Tiote and a free role in CM of Ben Arfa, leaving BA and Cisse up front.
As Santon and Jonas are up and down generally through the game then I feel that the defence, Tiote and Cabaye can cover, Ben Arfa needs to be in the CM more as when he is on the ball then he is capable of taking anybody on. With Ben Arfa and Cabaye passes and BA and Cisse's movement then they will get chances
back 4 that we've had this season, jonas and tiote covering the defence in the centre and give cabaye a more attacking role, have HBA in a free role and BA and Cisse up front!
If we did this then the opposition would need to commit a player to man mark HBA and this would leave gaps for cabaye and the 2 strikers to exploit!