Player ratings Blackburn

[goldstone]

Greer 5 Not at his best, again. Some misplaced passes, another own goal attempt and didn't offer much attacking set pieces.
Dunk 6 Composure, strength on the ball, confidence and positional awareness. Sheer class, a big miss at Norwich.

Not sure how you can give a 6 to Dunk ("sheer class") and a 5 to Greer? Would have thought sheer class would have warrented a 7 at least if not an 8?

 

[withdeanwombat]

Thought all the players had reasonable games, as did all of the Blackburn players. This meant a reasonable if anaemic game at a time when we could really use that extra goal.

So I agree with some of the comments about Baldock. Why play him up front ,alone. Mind you, over the past few seasons we've done the same with CMS, and that has often attracted the same sort of comment (lots of running about and effort, for little return) Why not try Halford up front with one of our mini strikers alongside ? OK, it wouldn't be Mellor and Ward, but possibly better than Baldock and..........nobody.

And where on earth does our manager go during the game ? He's rarely to be seen in the technical area urging the team on. Alright, it's not the Premier League or the Bundesliga but a bit more animation might prove he's not the dead parrot after all.

 

[Let's Have A Winner!]

FWIW I thought the back six (I'm including Walton and Ince in that) all had decent games, and the rest so-so:

Walton 7: growing in confidence and the own goal (which he was faultless for) didn't affect him in any way
Calderon 7: great first half, faded a little second
Bennett J 8: class above the rest, MOM
Greer 7: good first half, ok second
Dunk 7: solid but stupid booking ruling him out of next game
Ince 7: best game I've seen him have for a while, should keep the shirt next game
Forster Caskey 6: neat and tidy as always without imposing himself on the game. That cross though...
Gardner 6: neat finish for the goal, getting better slowly
Bennett E 6: good link up with Calde first half and one blinding cross, quiet second half
Lua Lua 6: terrible first half bar one lovely left foot cross early on, unusually got better as the game went on
Baldock 6: tried hard with little service

McCourt 6: flashes of brilliance, flashes of liability
O'Grady 6: did ok for 5 minutes...should have been brought on at least 15 minutes earlier

Hyypia 6: better shape to the team and generally looked more solid, but not convinced if the correct players were picked and poor use of subs

 

[litmanen]

Just returned to Helsinki. Was a nice few day trip to England. The flight to Gatwick was exciting already; some british guy started to behave a bit insane, and nobody could tell what he was saying, so eventually the staff handcuffed him, and when the plane had landed policemen rushed in and arrested him =)

Anyway, the coast of Sussex was nice, visited places like Eastbourne and Shoreham-By-Sea (good luck with the sunny sunday weather), and the game against Blackburn was OK.
Of course i wanted Brighton to win as much as everyone else at the Amex, but for me it was really important that The Seagulls would at least score once, since i finally made the long trip to the Amex, so i was at least somewhat happy with the result. The stadium is nice, the people there were nice, and the lower West Stand was a
good place to sit. I thought E. Bennett and Kazenga were the men of the match.

Btw, just noticed that Finlands most popular sports news "Urheiluruutu" made a report about Hyypiä on Saturday, where the reporter visited the Blackburn-game too and interviewed some Brighton-fans about Hyypiä. Maybe you guys recognize some of the people interviewed there (others than Naylor), the report of Hyypiä starts at 7:35: http://areena.yle.fi/tv/2274912

 

[Lifelong Supporter]

FWIW I thought the back six (I'm including Walton and Ince in that) all had decent games, and the rest so-so:

Walton 7: growing in confidence and the own goal (which he was faultless for) didn't affect him in any way
Calderon 7: great first half, faded a little second
Bennett J 8: class above the rest, MOM
Greer 7: good first half, ok second
Dunk 7: solid but stupid booking ruling him out of next game
Ince 7: best game I've seen him have for a while, should keep the shirt next game
Forster Caskey 6: neat and tidy as always without imposing himself on the game. That cross though...
Gardner 6: neat finish for the goal, getting better slowly
Bennett E 6: good link up with Calde first half and one blinding cross, quiet second half
Lua Lua 6: terrible first half bar one lovely left foot cross early on, unusually got better as the game went on
Baldock 6: tried hard with little service

McCourt 6: flashes of brilliance, flashes of liability
O'Grady 6: did ok for 5 minutes...should have been brought on at least 15 minutes earlier

Hyypia 6: better shape to the team and generally looked more solid, but not convinced if the correct players were picked and poor use of subs

Yes, this is how I saw it. Apart that is from Walton, he is due a 6. He did fine but nothing remotely memorable. He did not have a lot to do but what he did was ok. Marks given above for him seem to be out of some belief that as an 18 we should expect less. If Stockdale did the same he would be getting 5s and a thread as to why he did not get to the near post header for the goal which was from a relatively long way out.

 

[Skaville]

Its happened so few times that he is supposed to know where the ball will land, the crosses you refer to were in one case pulled back so it was behind him and the other when looking for it to be puled back was straight across the goal in front of him. The guy is clearly quick, we're not utilising his skills and giving him opportunity, more wasted talent at the Amex. Ulloa missed many opportunities, but because he was afforded so many he scored more. Its not that our forwards are lacking.

Completely agree with this. My observations in the last two games are:

- that he is selfless, working hard for the team even if means he is out wide putting in a cross (like the one for the Wigan role)
- works bloody hard despite a lack of service
- makes intelligent runs. The way he peeled of his defender for his only chance on Saturday was terrific. The kind of movement we have lacked recently. CMS works hard but rarely looks like he will be in a goalscoring position
- he wants the ball earlier than he's getting it
- he needs support. Tuesday was better than Saturday in that respect

I truly believe he will come good and is by far the best of our attacking options

 

[Acker79]

Average Ratings

Highest Rated:
J. Bennett 7.09 (98mins, 27 votes)

The Rest:
Walton 6.80 (98mins, 27 votes)
Ince 6.77 (98mins, 28 votes)
Dunk 6.46 (98mins, 27 votes)
E. Bennett 6.33 (98mins, 27 votes)
Calderon 6.30 (98mins, 27 votes)
LuaLua 6.13 (98mins, 27 votes)
Gardner 5.96 (98mins, 27 votes)
Greer 5.74 (98mins, 27 votes)
<Baldock 5.54 (93mins, 27 votes)
<Forster-Caskey 5.43 (73mins, 27 votes)
>McCourt 4.98 (25mins, 23 votes)
>O'Grady 4.88 (5mins, 4 votes)


Squad average: 6.03