Actually he'll play against Holland midweek - probably what he needs. Let's get a game in between this one and the next one - hopefully something positive to build off of.
I totally forgot about international week Hopefully, if any Dutch players (KUYT ) try and kick him, Heitinga will give them a good ear bashing and maybe a dig or two Maybe he can bribe JH into gifting him a goal or two!
No he doesn't... He's heading to New Amsterdam to play against Holland on Wednesday. Part of the reason why he was on the bench today. Good thing is that the Hull game is on Sunday, so he'll have 3 days to rest... More than the rest he got this week, as it was a Thursday and Sunday game. EDIT: Appoo, you beat me.
I only watched the second half (off YA) + the goals but I thought Howard played very well. Modric's chip was just first class. Howard played off his line, as he has to, to cut down the angles. I was counting his touches - several balls lost, one forward pass completed (I may have missed a few lateral touches), 3 bad crosses, 1 OK cross + that miss. Sky gave him a "7"? Wow.
Ok I dissected his touches.... 62:40 Landon Donovan enters game. 63' - Does not receive an Arteta pass to the end line. A little too hard from Arteta, but Landon could of done better, 64' - Receives ball from Neville and one touches it to the middle of park past Bale. Pass not completed. 64:30 - Arteta makes a quick pass to landon on the wing who is getting sandwiched by Bale and someone. He one touches back to lose possession. 67' Tracks back to help Neville defend Bale. They successfully do. 68' - Neville floats the ball quickly to the middle to reach Landon. Landon receives the ball and holds it while Neville repositions. He successfully passes back to Neville. Good possession by Everton in this sequence. 68:30 - Heitinga delivers a good through ball to Landon who receives close to box but dribbles to sideline to fight off (Bale?). Makes a nice quick to to Arteta who crosses to no one. 71:35 - Neville starts off sequence by passing quickly. Landon one touches back lazily to a running Neville, but gets the ball tackled away. Good defending by Tottenham. 72:20 Arteta takes short corner. Landon receives and crosses into mixer. Ball is headed clear. 75' Arteta starts sequence by passing to Landon. Landon one touches back to Arteta and Arteta one touches right back to him. Landon runs and holds ball with open space. He hesitates to take on his defender and passes ball to Heitinga who passes to no one. 76:30 - Landon receives deflected ball 6 yards from post and shoots into side-net. 78' - Landon still seems shaken by the miss. 79' - Receives long ball from Yakubu while running. Dribbles to sideline and holds ball with Bale on his back. Passes to Arteta who is close by. 82:40 - Gets in front of Vaughan to receive a cross in the box. Results in corner. 85' - Cuts incise to receive low cross from Neville. Quickly passes to Arteta who is close by on the wing. 88:20 - Receives ball from Heitinga. Holds it while Neville overlaps. Hesitates and sends a low cross into the box that (Vaughan?) receives. 89:50 - Tracks back to help defend. Intercepts ball and takes off. He passes to (?) who holds the ball waiting for Donovan who is running. Landon receives the ball back too close to the sideline and loses it by one touching it to no one. 90:30 - Receives ball on a counter. Runs with it and cuts back to beat his defender. Bale comes back to help and disposes Landon. Bale takes off, with Landon behind him. He outruns Landon and nutmegs Jagielka close to Everton box. 92:10 - Receives ball from Yakubu on a counter. Runs with the ball and crosses into to box to no one. Stats... Balls received - 16 Attempted passes - 11 Completed - 7 Attempted crosses - 3 Completed - 0 Shots - 1
Donovan was ok, nothing special in this one. The sitter was painful, but not the worst miss ive seen. He was outside the outisde post and volleying it, he needed to bring it back and he didnt get enough on it. He should finish that, and he knows it, but that sh** happens.
Guardian chalkboards said he made 11 passes and completed 9. I thought he did ok overall, he had some nice interplay. I just think he looked a little off, I'm putting it down to illness though.
For once he's right. A 7 is too high . . . if only just because of the "sitter" (which wasn't quite a true "sitter"; he jabbed at a knee-high ball; if he had it to do again, he'd guide it in, but it was a bang-bang play; it's not like it was actually sitting on the ground for him to poke home and he knocked it over). It's just a short sub appearance. It doesn't undo everything he's done. He's one of Everton's 2-4 best players consistently. One bad play doesn't undo that. Other than the "sitter", he was a little off, but not terrible. His crossing wasn't great, and he missed a few passes. I give him a 5.5 or 6. After all, Everton was better when he was on, and there were less runs up his side than before he came in. His quality is clear to see. I'd like to see him have a season to settle. Do you remember Tevez at West Ham? People thought he wasn't going to pan out. Dempsey has gotten better with time. It's natural. Landon has been FANTASTIC for a short-term January loan.
That's why Mr. Jones and me were passing a bottle, telling each other fairy tales, staring at yellow haired girls and black haired flamenco dancers. Maybe Mr. Jones and I should pass SFS a bottle... give him something to believe in. We all know that deep down, he wants to be someone who believes in something. New Amsterdam... fun times!
Donovan is at the highest level in terms of speed, endurance, work ethic, and professionalism. He is one rung below in terms of technical ability and football decision making. To be clear, he didn't fail at Bayern. It seems clear that Bayern's decision not to sign him had more to do with his high price tag and the management's dislike of Klinsmann and his methods, and less to do with his ability to help Bayern.
This. The "he failed in Germany" mantra gets tiresome. When you're loaned to a club where the management is fighting within itself, you face an uphill and maybe even an unwinnable battle. The "not good for Bayern's reserves" comment was completely out-of-line and false and it was only said to get a shot in at Klinnsman. Everton has been the perfect fit for him, and, it turns out, vice versa. Even the best players "miss sitters" and have bad games and Donovan isn't the type of player to do either that often. I don't even think he had a bad game here. It was bad for him, though. There's a difference. I think that Everton will continue to do well even after he's gone as they have a good team that works hard and has some talented players. That said, I don't think anyone can deny the impact that Donovan has had. This game doesn't change that.
No, you're not. Howard just jumped up after the shot; didn't attempt a save with his hands (even if it would've been futile) at all. It's one of the things that concerns me about him.
it was a complete sitter. But this is why he needs to be playing in that caliber of league with that caliber of pressure. Because in MLS if he misses that in a regular season game, nobody but a few supporters cares. It's not in the papers the next day. There's no Match of the Day discussion. He has no fear of remaining on the bench for the next game. I doubt the, maybe, but i doubt, the galaxy thread at big soccer is all bent out of shape over it for this many posts. it's a big deal there. they dropped at least two points with that miss. In MLS people get less bent out of shape cause normally one game wouldn't knock them out of the playoffs. There will always be more. I hope he can bounce back and hits a double to redeem himself. And shows can ask a few more questions of his defender. I'd like to see him take on his defender for an entire game. Sort of the way i saw Bale go after his guy the whole game. Regadless hopefully he'll bounce back. This is the tests he needs week in and week out. There's a proverb that goes, "Calm seas do not make skilled sailors."
Okay, I moved a bunch of stuff out of this thread. Let's see if we can keep the next Donovan thread from turning into Peyton Place, folks.
Saw it last night, and it was not as bad as it seemed to be here. That being said, he should have scored or at least put it on goal.
I have to agree. That ball came in with a lot of pace and took a bit of a hop. At least he kept the ball down. I've seen players knock it over the crossbar on a ball like that, even that close to goal. But no, I don't think Donovan's greatest strength is redirecting high paced balls into the net. It's something he may want to work on.
Donovan says sorry for horror miss "Landon said sorry to us afterwards," said midfielder Mikel Arteta... "This is just a really disappointing moment for me personally," Donovan, 27, said. "I've put a lot into my time here and another goal would have been a nice reward. "I got myself in a good position at the back post and was hoping Jack was going to put the ball across goal. He did that and it came perfectly for me. "It's hard to understand what went wrong. I felt like everything was right but then I looked up to see the ball had hit the side-netting.
So, I am at Infineon Raceway yesterday playing racer in my M3 and trying to follow the games on my Blackberry. One headline on BBC or Sky was "horror miss." So, I am thinking OMG he really screwed it (not that nullify his contributions over the last month). I watch the highlights on FSC and it wasn't a "sitter." Should have scored and would most of the time but it had pace and took a nice bounce. From the prior descriptions I thought it was similar to one of those shots a guy puts over the bar from 2 yards. I think Peinnar's failure to find his two teammates on the penalty spot on an earlier chance was as bad a "miss."
I have to admit - I watched it a second time last night and it wasn't as terrible as I had remembered - although it's still a horror miss in my book. We talk about how quickly Landon adjusted to the game in the Premiership, but I chalk it up as an example of where he still needs to make an adjustment - at times he seems too deferential and we haven't seen angry Donovan yet have we?