after watching the game..

[floyd the barber]

decent performance, solid...nothing spectacular..

BUT a fantastic result..

 

this was a game we could easily have lost, especially during a poor first 15 mins of the 2nd half where Reading hit the bar..well crouch hit the bar and nearly scored for Reading..

 

 

Anyway i wasnt sure about Rafa taking Crouch off as he was doing a good job holding the ball up, then after taking him off we completely lost momentum with no options in the penalty box....but then Rafa proved why hes manager and im not with kuyt scoring from the other sub..pennants cross.

 

And a little word about the little chief Macharano...superb again, regarding his partner today Sissoko, well he was definetly off the pace and had a poor game

 

Ratings

reina 7

finnan 6

arbeloa 7

hyypia 7

carra 8

gerrard 7

mascharano 8

sissoko 6

bellamy 6

gonzalez 6

crouch 7

 

 

subs

riise - didnt have enough time to be rated

kuyt 7

pennant 7

 

 

also Arbeloas goal was quality, great pass by crouch to play Arbeloa in who played a nice curling finish past the goalie!

[Coyler]

Yep, Mascherano was good all right. Didn't really watch with enough of an eye to give ratings though; Pennant had a bright cameo and Arbeloa has a lovely smile but his teeth are a bit small.

[Bootle Buck]

Reading have a lot of character and never stop. That was a well earned win. I thought we were going to do another Newcastle away for a while.

[Coyler]

That Reading goal was a lovely finish, actually. The Shearer simile in the match thread was spot-on.

 

Pat Dolan re: Pennant's gorgeous dink for Kuijt: "that's what you call a 'stand-up'!".

[RedNik]

Sissoko 6 seems a bit high for me - thought he was just terrible. I know its been debated to death .. but I think he really needs to work on his pass completion ratio. I don't have the numbers but it was attrocious. Maybe he needs to try and make the simpler, square pass - like didi used to do.

[Guz]

We havent squeezed out results despite not playing that well as we should've this season. Excellent result

[floyd the barber]

was actually tempted to give him a 5, he was our weakest player..performance wise, yet i`ll give him the benefit of the doubt due to him being out recently...

 

His passing yet again was awful....not premiership level, not even championship level, he really needs to work on that in the summer.

Edited April 7, 2007 by Winding Wheel