[Player Ratings] How Tottenham’s Players Rated During Their 2-2 Draw With United

Tottenham Hotspur bounced back from a disappointing 6-0 thrashing by Manchester City with a well-earned 2-2 draw against Manchester United on Sunday afternoon. Here are player ratings for the home side by The Spurs Blogger:

Hugo Lloris 6/10

Many will highlight the penalty for Manchester United as Hugo Lloris’ fault, but watching back replays, Lloris literally stroked the back leg of Danny Welbeck, wasn’t enough force to bring down a child let alone a strong athlete. Welbeck was always looking to go down. However he cannot be blamed for the first goal and overall looked back to his confident self.

Kyle Walker 7/10

Completed the infamous task of turning from hero to villain. He scored his first goal in over a year from a fantastic free kick to give us the lead, then made a mistake which led to Wayne Rooney equalising. This performance sums up Kyle for the past two seasons, one moment of brilliance cancelled out by a lack of concentration, this happens too often, Kyle needs to mature. 

Vlad Chiriches 7/10

Vlad continues to impress and presses a claim to remain in the first 11. He continues to play risky, but his ball playing skills were impressive. A couple of important tackles and the prospect of him linking up with Jan Vertonghen is quite a mouth-watering concept and an inevitable link up, once Danny Rose returns from injury.

Michael Dawson 5/10

Considering the amount of times this season that we’ve insisted on playing from the back, Michael Dawson still isn’t competent in passing out. The captain demonstrated his strength and effort nethertheless, despite the ever growing calls for him to be dropped. It may be time for that to happen however.

Jan Vertonghen 5/10

Of all of his games played at left full back, this was his least confident performance. Antonio Valencia played him off the park for the majority of the game, although did apply a few important clearances. Nacer Chadli aided him greatly defensively, cover which he hasn’t received whilst playing behind Gylfi, Andros or Erik. We need him back in the middle.

Sandro 8/10

Sunday marked exactly a year since his last goal for us, so what did he do? Score what he claims to be ‘the best goal of his career’, for our second and what would be our last goal of the game. He lined up in a solid midfield three along with Paulinho and Moussa Dembele. He looked confident and marshalled the midfield. He is such an important player to our side, brings balance to the midfield and provides Paulinho license to roam forward and for Dembele to drive the ball. Beast.

Paulinho 7/10

Was pushed farther forward than usual in this match and impressed there. His link up play with Robbie Soldado was commendable and played far, far better than last week. Many, including myself, called for him to be dropped but instead he was changed position. I have criticised him for taking possession of the ball as a given, which cannot be his mentality when playing deeper. Good signs.

Moussa Dembele 7/10

On a number of occasions, Moussa Dembele has ran the Manchester United side rugged and once against yesterday he played incredibly well. He drove the ball forward and was difficult for the opposition to get off the ball, drawing a lot of fouls. Formed a very good partnership with Paulinho and was dynamic in when to roam forward.

Aaron Lennon 6/10

Lennon started on the right, rather than the left where he has played, un-effectively, recently. Brought a lot of balance to our midfield as he avoided the direct tactic shared by Lamela and Townsend. Despite the Spurs fans at WHL thinking otherwise, AVB was right to replace Aaron early in the second half as he was completely unimpressive, failing to complete a single pass in the whole of the second half, although should now be fit to start against Fulham on Wednesday and against Kieran Richardson? Yes please.

Nacer Chadli 6/10

Received his first start in the league since the Arsenal match and was clearly brought in to add cover for Jan Vertonghen at LB, due to the obvious threat of Antonio Valencia. His crossing was impressive and once again stuck to the wide position allowing our central players room to play. His work ethic is something to be admired in a wide player and make a good stake for a place on the left.

Roberto Soldado 4/10

Seems like I repeat this week in, week out, but Robbie struggle again against Manchester United, despite some positive link up play with Paulinho behind him. He clearly doesn’t work hard enough for the side, due to his style of play, despite being a ‘top, top player’. Sadly we may be beginning to see that he isn’t the right ‘top, top player’ for the system which we play. Saying this, at times held the ball up well and brought Paulinho and others into the game, but for me, didn’t do enough for the team, as well as missing a simple sitter.

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