Player ratings vs Liverpool

[Mike O]

Despite the wonders of the 94th minute last night, I thought I'd seen some of the worst performances ever by key members of our team, and I don't want the hangover of today to start clouding that opinion, so here are my player ratings. Please feel free to chip in:

Cech: 8. Two fantastic saves at point blank range, one stunner with finger-tips at top left hand corner but still looked a little lost in the first half. Brilliant, but still not back to his 100% best

Ferreira: 6. Competent display but got skinned a couple of times and link play not what it can be

Carvalho: 9. Held the back line together, looked 3 times as assured and confident as his centre half comrade. In any other team, he'd be a captain.

Terry: 4. By his own standards, crap. Off the pace, lacking in confidence, bully-boy tactics, rubbish link play and looking lost as a captain. Needs to get back to the 05/06 Terry quickly.

A. Cole: 7. One or two stray passes but was convincing in defence with some crucial interceptions and could have looked dangerous in attack if he didn't have a muppet in front of him

Makalele: 2. Worst performance ever in a CFC shirt. Since when has it been his job to spray the ball forward for attackers? He didn't seem to complete one pass over 10 yards and was regularly robbed of the ball. Won the medal for 'most flailing legs in air as attempt to intercept ball' award.

Ballack: 6. So wants to stamp authority on the game but seems perennially reluctant to do so. The only player ahead of the front 4 to show any positive passion in the game and looked like our only danger man for large periods of the match. Sadly, the support around him failed him regularly.

Lampard: 3. Where were you Frank? I agree with comments about how he came alive in the last 10 minutes and had been too deep until then but how deep exactly was he? I struggled to notice him for 80 minutes until I realised that every time LFC were winning the ball in midfield, it was invariably off him. Should have shot earlier on about 3 occasions. Still, his head must be all over the place at the moment so perhaps he can redeem himself on Sat.

Malouda: 1 Offered nothing, managed nothing, meant nothing. 1 point is generous.

J. Cole: 3. One of his worst for us ever. Got himself into one or 2 good positions but then flunked it. Gave Drogs no support and was basically irrelevant. Deserved wholeheartedly to be subbed.

Drogba: 4. Frankly, he's now cemented his position as the no. 1 reason why people hate CFC. Petulant, cheating, pathetic etc etc. In his defence, he was isolated for most of the game and service to him was always shaky, but can you imagine Sparky behaving like that? He did cause the defence some problems but frankly the words 'disgrace' and 'embarrassment' currently say it all for me. Thanks for the good times Didier, now just go.

Kalou: 8. Only on for a few minutes but his energy and passion got us the goal. Can be quite headless and horizontal over 90 minutes but was priceless last night

Anelka: Didn't touch the ball over 5 minutes (I think?) so no score.

[Tim]

Since when has it been his job to spray the ball forward for attackers?

Have to agree with this Mike. Apart from a few times when Ballack dropped deep, time and time again we saw Maka spraying the ball around, to no real effect, and I have no idea why. We KNOW all to well what his strenghts are, and long range passing ain't one of them.

No more of that please.

[loz]

Mike

Just in case there is any confusion Joe is the little white fella, Malouda is the tall thin black fella!!

I thought Malouda was poor last night and maybe deserves the 3 you gave Joe but I thought Joe was rotten and might struggle to scrape the 1 you gave Malouda.

I would also be far more critical of Ashley Cole who I thought turned off his concentration button on a few too many occasions. Other than that I pretty much agree with your ratings.

[coco]

Agree with all the marks except for Maloudas, he won the majority of our corners, and for the first 10-15 minutes he was playing better than anyone in Blue.

He was worth a 6 at least.

[Tim W]

Did Drogba get the 4 points for falling over or the rolling around in agony? Mike you're are being too kind by saying he's a 'disgrace' and 'embarrassment'.

[valim]

Malouda: 1 Offered nothing, managed nothing, meant nothing. 1 point is generous.

i dont know how you see football i never see man like you noob or fullish

look the games

hahah he is 100.0000 better than joe cole

zzz joe cole is for sub look he never can drible skirlet or aruelo dont pass just aroud in pitch

My rating

cech - 8 Good Realy Good

ferreria - 6.5 he dont play good but never heve danger from babel or right cross

carhvallo - 8.5 if for me he is capitan he realy is organiser in defence

terry - 5 not good but lucky for not red card

a.cole 5 some error but good

makelele - 4 no comment

lampard - 5 eroor from goal dont play good but he is lampard

ballack 6 - some realy speed passs

j.cole 2 -total noob just go to west ham - slow not more lose realy good chance dont pass dont do nothiing

malouda - 6.5 he realy play nice have some speed runns some realy good pass

drogba 4 - good in air some / doing not at his best he like dont wana play more for chelsea

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Kalou 8 - it is my idol play like hero player like it wee need at line up not j.cole

anelka dont do any thing but keep pressure at riise at goal moment

avram grant 8 - ready good sub and deserve

[ethicalstrategy]

Mike, I agree we were poor last night but I think you are way off on some of your marks.

Ashley Cole got skinned by Kuyt at least twice in the first half so 7 is way over the top for him.

Terry wasn't great - he is certainly below his previous high standards - but 4 is way to low. More like a 6.

Maka is a difficult one for me. I tend to agree he was terrible, but the point has been made in a number of papers today that Gerrard was pretty much non-existent as a result of Maka marking him out of the game. I'd go more for a 4/5.

Ballack and Lampard - neither was great but I don't see a 3 point difference here. Frank started well but faded badly after 30 mins or so and was definitely culpable for their goal. He did finish well though. Ballack was very in and out. Again would go 5/6 for both.

Cole and Malouda - well Loz has said it already. Malouda wasn't good and wasn't bad. Joe was terrible. We were actually much better when he went off. I am struggling to think of one positive contribution that he made in the whole match. They put a stat up to show that he had covered more ground than any player in the first half - well it must have been whilst running away from the ball! So Malouda 5/6 and Joe 3

Drogba - I'm amazed that he is getting this much stick. He looked much more dangerous today then in recent matches. His main problem was that when he won the ball there was no-one within 30 yards. Malouda and Joe weren't anywhere near him and until the end neither were Frank or Ballack. I thought he was one of the few players that didn't deserve so much criticism. I give him 6.

[dreadis]

avram grant 8 - ready good sub and deserve

You are joking, right? I agree with JC sub, but Kalou should've been in starting XI instead of Malouda in the first place and than Malouda or SWP could've subbed JC at half time. Ballack should've stayed and AG has still proven he is not strong as manager to have the guts to take Lamps off when we can all see that he is having a horrible game. And putting on Anelka in 86th-ish minute was never going to have any major impact, he didn't even touch the ball!

And, also....some managers would pay to have more than 3 subs per game, but AG never even uses his 3!

[Mike O]

Fair points on Malouda and Cole getting each other's marks, I guess. My bias isn't helped when I've never seen Malouda shine in a game and have seen Joe do it plenty. Malouda never looks to me like he even believes himself that he can have an effect, Joe always does.

I can only hope in the new season that some sort of gallic telepathy sis truck up between FM and Anelka to make them the Pires/ Henry combo of 08/09.

Only hoping, mind...

[sweet waffle]

malouda - 6.5 he realy play nice have some speed runns some realy good pass

Surely this belongs in the jokes section.

[Nibs]

I'd go along with some of Mike's marks but not all.

No way does Ashley deserve as high as a 7. Okay at times but Kuyt got the better of him on a number of occassions and lets face it, Kuyt is no pacey winger. Funniest thing last night was when Cole completely took Kuyt out - a free kick for certain and the officials waved play on as if nothing had happened Just as well that wasn't a tackle on Drogba - he'd have never recovered.

Also JT 4??? He might not have been brilliant, but he still threw himself at many balls in and around the box and at times was very solid and composed.

Not a fan of Malouda but think he deserves at least a 5 last night. Whereas Joe - what went wrong He never once had a run with the ball and many of his passes went nowhere. It was like he froze on the night but he's played in as big a games as this one. Maybe he was told to play more defensive as we were worried about the threat of Barbel (and Paulo, although he had a goodish game, did struggle at times) but I've never seem Joehave such a stinker. In thje second leg I think it's key that Joe gets the freedom to run at defenders and play nearer the strikers, but if he performs as badly as last night then he'll be off early and rightly so.

[Gem]

Mike, how dare you not give Lampard and JT 10/10 each

[BLUENUT]

FM and JC both helped out their fullbacks last night, they covered alot of ground off the ball and didn't do as bad as some are making out. Malouda started really well, but neither really saw alot of the ball. It was a tight frantic game and we should have got them on the ball alot more, but they had a job to do and did it well enough.

We started 4-1-4-1 formation and they tracked back more than they ventured forward

In Mike's rating's he give 6 players less than a 5 rating - talk about riding our luck!!

[Lofty]

anelka dont do any thing but keep pressure at riise at goal moment

Oh is that all? On for 5 minutes, puts pressure on Riise that leads to the equaliser. Yes that's all.

avram grant 8 - ready good sub and deserve

Anelka on for 5 minutes is an improvement over Sheva on for 20 seconds, I'll give you that.

malouda - 6.5 he realy play nice have some speed runns some realy good pass

You're on drugs.

[BLUENUT]

Anelka on for 5 minutes is an improvement over Sheva on for 20 seconds, I'll give you that.

[dreadis]

Anelka on for 5 minutes is an improvement over Sheva on for 20 seconds, I'll give you that.

QUOTE OF THE DAY, mate!!!

[valim]

Oh is that all? On for 5 minutes, puts pressure on Riise that leads to the equaliser. Yes that's all.

what you want for 5 min to score hatrick

what drogba do for 90 just lose the ball

You're on drugs.

hahaha do you know with j.cole right midlefielnd is dead look 45 min what he miss what i speak for him when he can runs speed more than skirelt like tank him

[Mod]

anelka dont do any thing but keep pressure at riise at goal moment

Oh is that all? On for 5 minutes, puts pressure on Riise that leads to the equaliser. Yes that's all.

avram grant 8 - ready good sub and deserve

Anelka on for 5 minutes is an improvement over Sheva on for 20 seconds, I'll give you that.

malouda - 6.5 he realy play nice have some speed runns some realy good pass

You're on drugs.

Agree with that loft, spot on for the top one, if Anelka wasn't waiting to pull the trigger behind Risse, the silly boy wouldn't have f**ked up!

Though you did miss a vital quote from that bunch of chestnuts..

j.cole 2 -total noob just go to west ham - slow not more lose realy good chance dont pass dont do nothiing

[Lofty]

Oh is that all? On for 5 minutes, puts pressure on Riise that leads to the equaliser. Yes that's all.

what you want for 5 min to score hatrick

what drogba do for 90 just lose the ball

Whisper it: I was being ever so slightly just a little would you believe it oh yes I was really no kidding I kid you not what was that song again? Oh I know "where have all the commas gone" but never mind as I was saying I was being very very slightly the tiniest but oh my god I know it's the lowest form, of wit or so they so but what do I care. Sarcastic. But only a touch.

[Phillip]

I think Valim's ratings were good. Mike O's were made by someone who was smoking whacky weed. Malouda was competent out there, and to rate him a 1, and to rate him lower than Joe Cole who was terrible, is beyond reproach.

[wicksy]

I think Valim's ratings were good. Mike O's were made by someone who was smoking whacky weed. Malouda was competent out there, and to rate him a 1, and to rate him lower than Joe Cole who was terrible, is beyond reproach.

Agreed 100%. Judge Joe and Malouda on this game alone and not the whole season, then Malouda clearly had the better game.

Also Drogba, despite being a total embarrassment yet again with his diving antics, was our only threat in the first half. Sure he faded in the second but you can be sure the Scouse defenders found him a nightmare to deal with. I'd give him at least a 6.

[Lofty]

I wouldn't argue for one second about Malouda being better than Joe Cole on Tuesday. But to say we should send him back to West Ham on the strength of that performance is just plain daft. But then:

hahah he is 100.0000 (times?) better than joe cole

Smacks of wishful thinking. Or something.