Blackburn Player Ratings

I differ in a few of these, although not wildly:

Schmeichel: 8 - Pulled off one very good save, ensuring we landed the vital first goal in the process. Tidy and untroubled otherwise.
De Laet: 7 - Good forward running and defending, occasionally caught out of position though.
Morgan: 7 - Solid if unremarkable performance.
Keane: 8 - I thought he had a really good game; gave Campbell nothing.
Konchesky: 8 - Decent contribution to both attack and defence.
Marshall: 8 - Some very good crosses and ultimately assists after a subdued start.
King: 8 - Worked hard, passed well, defended very well, my choice for MOTM.
Drinkwater: 7 - Steady, commanding performance, although he looks a lot better in the midfield than he does around either penalty area.
Knockaert: 7 - Entertaining at times, although not his most dynamic performance. Worked hard for the team though.
Wood: 7 - Bagged the first goal, looked a threat for most of the evening.
Kane: 7 - Linked up well with Wood and got in some very encouraging positions. Hold-up play very effective although this is always easier when playing a team who don't want to tackle.

Vardy: 6 - It's clear that none of us rate him, but his job was to chase defenders and make a nuisance of himself, which he did.
Dyer: 7 - Lively, looked like wanted part of the action and made the Blackburn defence look stupid at times. Almost got wiped out for a stonewall penalty+red card, but was too fast!
Waghorn: 6 - Crossed for King's goal, didn't have a lot of time to do much else.

Incidentally, referee: 8. Let the game flow, wasn't interested in players rolling around, kept his whistle and cards in his pocket if he possibly could. Ok, he and the linesmen didn't get everything right (there was one blatant corner that Blackburn should have had that he missed), but this is the style of officiating that makes for better matches.

Schmeichel - 9.5 - did nothing wrong and everything right with that save. Not his fault he was rarely tested.
DeLaet - 8 - great going forward
Konchesky - 8.5 - best game for a while
Morgan - 8 - bored of giving him 9s and 10s
Keane - 8.5 - excellent performance. Very good on the ball.
Marshall - 9 - the cross for Wood would win 'cross of the season' if there was one
Knocky - 6.5 - didn't really come off for him last night. Marked him down for the ongest sequence of consecutive step-overs since Ronaldo was a teenager
King - 9 - consistently picked up the pieces in the middle of the park and more of a force going forward
Drinkwater - 8.5 - excellent in possession and always provided a pass out for the defence
Kane - 7.5 - some intelligent runs off the ball. Held up the ball pretty well. Could have scored more
Wood - took his goal well. Always looks a danger. Unlucky not to score whem he ran onto Marshall's through-ball
Subs - Dyer made an impact and Vardy brought some energy to the front line after Kane looked knackered. Waggy not on long enough to comment much, but still got an assist from the corner

Great result, amazing how quiet it is on here today

“Schmeichel - 9.5 - did nothing wrong and everything right with that save. Not his fault he was rarely tested.”
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I always find it difficult to rate the goalkeeper. If he does nothing for 90 minutes because the team is so good do you give him a 10 or a zero. If he makes one good save that wins you the game does he automatically get a 9 or 10? If he makes one mistake that costs you the game does he automatically get zero or one – or maybe less than 5 if he was brilliant for the rest of the game? It seems the only way a goalie can get MOTM is if the team are really poor and he keeps you in the game and is only the worst player if he costs you a goal – the rest of the time it’s varying degrees of average.

I agree Joby, rating a goalkeeper is difficult. I tend to work on the basis that ratings are about your contribution to the whole match rather than as an individual, but keepers are something of an exception to this. I guess you have to look at how he commanded his area, what his handling of high balls was like, how he kicked under pressure, that sort of thing. Ask yourself whether he looked like a steady member of the defensive unit. Schmeichel did have things to do yesterday and he generally did them well. However, the MOTM award should go to a positively influential player and goalkeepers can only achieve that if they're in the action a lot. I think FFS's 9.5 is a fair reflection of his individual performance but not his influence - largely because it wasn't needed. However, you could just as easily argue that a goalkeeper who's beaten by one arguably-savable shot but otherwise doesn't touch the ball could be rated as a 1, and that's why I prefer a slightly lower score for Schmeichel tonight. Still, it's hard to argue that he made any mistakes. (I can think of one poor kick. Perhaps that's why FFS took off a .5. )

Incidentally, on reflection I undermarked Andy King. He deserves a 9 for last night.

Dunge,

I suppose it’s subjective and that’s what makes it interesting. For example: I suspect that you sit on one of the sides of the ground rather than behind the goal.

I say this because you consistently rank Andy King’s performances higher than I do. It’s sometimes difficult to pick up the contribution that the midfield is making from behind the goal where I sit and performances from defenders and strikers are often more visible and obvious. I have had to concede on a few occasions that people may be better placed to see what Drinkwater and King are doing than I am.

The reason I picked Marshall over King for MOTM is because I always look for the contributor who was perhaps the main influence in terms of us achieving the win (or least negative when we lose). Whilst King’s overall contribution was good, I personally believe that Marshall’s two assists were more influential of the outcome.

You could argue the nuances all day and not reach a conclusion but, from what I’ve seen (including other forums), everyone is fairly consistent in saying that Schmeichel, Konchesky, King and Marshall were the stand out performers. So from collective evidence it may well have been one of those four - and my vantage point argument might explain why I’ve not plumped for King.

I do indeed sit to the side of the pitch: J2. It's great for the view, but poor for the fact that the replays on the big screen show me exactly what I've just seen from pretty much the same angle.

I wouldn't argue with Marshall as MOTM. The cross for Wood's goal was excellent - I thought he'd run out of space but he got it in anyway. Plus, his confidence soared from then and we saw that in his overall play.

It is true that incidents win and lose matches; of three key incidents in the match yesterday, Marshall was involved in two of them. (I count the other as Kasper's save rather than King's late 3rd when the match was already won.) So on that basis Marshall definitely deserves it.

However, I guess it comes down to the argument of whether we deserved to win. When we played Blackburn earlier in the season, I wasn't there but I've heard it described as 'we destroyed them', etc. Did we deserve to win? On balance of play it seems we did, but on the basis that they scored one more goal than we did, no we didn't. Which is more important is a matter for debate, but I tend to towards favouring the balance of play as I believe winning that across the season will get you up around the top of the league while individual incidents will win or lose specific matches. Essentially, if you win the balance of play, the incidents will tend to happen at your preferred end of the pitch. I suppose in reality success is balanced between the two.

I suppose why I've rated King highly for this match is because I thought his contribution to the balance of play was massive - which is great because that's generally what you want from your central midfielders.

I hope that doesn't just sound like pretentious nonsense!

I'm going to be lazy and agree with Dunge's ratings - with Kingy as MOM and a 9.