Neil Banfield’s Reserves suffered their first defeat of the 2009/2010 Reserves League South campaign last night with a 2-0 defeat against Portsmouth.
Goals in either half from Tom Kilbey and Eugen Bopp secured the win for the visitors at Barnet’s Underhill stadium. You can view a Match Report Here. Scroll down for Player Ratings an analysis.
Wojciech Szczęsny – 6 – Tidy and reliable as always. Not at fault for either goal and his kicking was quite effective. Not really troubled much but dealt with a handful of efforts well.
Kerrea Gilbert – 6 – Solid and effective if a little predictable. Got forward well in the second half but was a little naive in some challenges, especially in the air. Elder statesmen of the side could have done more to lead and organise the backline.
Kyle Bartley – 6 – Shaky and rusty but improving. A real topsy-turvy evening which included some decent headers and some not so good ones. Tackling was firm yet lacked its usual aggressiveness. Excellent accurate passing from the back but wasn’t willing to push over the half way line.
Ignasi Miquel – 5 – Neat and tidy but when left exposed he capitulated. Couple of pin-point balls showed how superb that left foot is but tackling was non-existent and when separated from Bartley his lack of pace was evident. At fault for the second goal but otherwise decent until then.
Cedric Evina – 5 – Aggressive and quick yet final ball was terrible. Snapped into tackles and stuck to his marker well but crossing from quality positions was consistently terrible. Looked to have improved his defensive prowess but decision-making was poor.
Mark Randall – 4 – Decent but looked bored the longer the game went on. Slowed the play down with some of his touches yet he tackled well. Better in the second half until he gave the ball away for Portsmouth to bag their second. Must improve attitude more than anything if he’s to rescue his struggling Arsenal career.
Craig Eastmond – 6 – Tired right from the offset and returned to his simple style. Technically not very gifted so he played it simple and broke the play up well on occasions. Failed to play any creative passes but did he job quite well. Few passes given away but on a poor night he was solid.
Francis Coquelin – 6 – Almost invisible at times and lacked any tenacity. Simple passing didn’t do much to open the play up and he was very static at times. Attitude maybe not right after being notably frustrated after being left out of the starting XI against Liverpool.
Emmanuel Frimpong – 5 – Played out of position and extremely lapse. Caught offside easily twice, looked quite disinterested until dropping back into midfield where he picked a few nice passes but did little to convince.
Sanchez Watt – 5 – Proved he isn’t a striker once more yet worked tirelessly. Ran the channels well and looked at home when bringing the ball from the midfield forward but as a central figure-head he looked lost. Couldn’t hold the ball up all night and he didn’t even have a sniff at goal.
Gilles Sunu – 7 – Probably Arsenal’s MOTM but still not brilliant. Full of pace and tricks and had a couple of shots at the ‘keeper. Looked lively and willing to run all night yet he became isolated on the wing and struggled even more the longer the game went on. Deserved to see more of the ball.
Substitutes
Roarie Deacon – 7 – Inventive, tricky and a real handful. Should have started on the right flank and after he came on the game began to swing. Effective when running at defenders but that final ball needs some work. Very promising start to his Reserves career.
Rhys Murphy – 3 – Looked overweight, isolated and a little lazy. Not willing to impose himself or run the channels. Needs a full 90 minutes to get back to fitness.
Luke Freeman – N/A – Not on long enough but certainly had more about him than Murphy.
Article By – J.Sanderson
Failing to address the real problem with Pong, he needs to improve his technique, passing and getting his head-up quick to look for forward pass 1st, saying he is playing out of position is pure excuse [he still needs to be seen doing the right things even if playing out of position].
4 is very harsh on MR bcuz he was involved in the couple of good forward combination is 1st half and 2nd half & he was fouled for 2nd goal counter, the ref was just happen to be blind. Yes he could play a tad quick but thats only if teammates are making correct angled movement off-the-ball or offering themselves as options.
Sunu for me struggled, he did get enough balls but didnt vary is play enough, sometimes focusing on outsprint the fullback when he should be outthinking the opposition [where a player’s physically capable stops it begins for another players] thus Sunu needs to work on his intelligence and close-control. Focusng on speed & unneccesary stepovers means nothing.
Abit harsh to say Murphy is overweight when arsenal always use body-mass index to check if unneccesary timbers are been carried. Murf’s game is not about running channels, its about good accurate passes into his feet around the box bcuz of his movement, short backlift, deadly finishing and eye for goal
Direction of headers by KB was generally poor. All in all, no one was worth more than 6 yesterday.
Gotta agree with sanchez watt not being a striker, terrible 1st touch and cant hold ball up. His only redeeming feature is he does seem to have a knack of popping up with a goal, maybe a switch with sunu???
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He’s already made that switch with Sunu halfway through last season simply because he’s better suited to be a striker than Gilles. He’s adapting to a new role he’s never really had a run of games in before and he’s our leading goalscorer at reserves level thus far so those claims really don’t hold much weight mate.
you do talk some rubbish supergunner07 ive been reading your comments and you sound like you think your arsene wenger.
Just wondering how Murphy managed to “look overweight” after looking a bit underweight a few weeks earlier?
I agree about Murphy. He doesn’t look fit. The result of too many injuries. I’m starting to be concerned about him. If he doesn’t make it, it would be a shame, cause he is great talent. A Clinical finisher.
Is this site going to change back so it is readable for everyone as only the comments load up which kinda ruins the site.
Didn’t see the match, but based on the selection I’m not terribly surprised by the result. We played three d-mids in the midfield. They are all excellent prospects at that position but none are particularly inspiring in terms of creative instinct. Using the three of them together must have significantly reduced the quality of service to Watt and Sunu I would imagine.
Why the fuck do you play 3 defensive midfield players when Aneke can make attacking passes with one eye closed. Bizarre tactics and player selection. If the Barca rumoours are true he would do a lot worse than listen to what Guardiola has to offer.
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