Alert: The NT Players Performance and Ratings Thread 2012/2013

5 goals wow. I didnt watch the game. What happened there ? Bologna is 12th and have absolutely nothing left to play for. Maybe they lacked motivation ? Anyway it is pretty impressive. Congrats to Klose but he still shouldnt play in the world cup. He will be 36. Just stick with Thomas up front.

 

I say take him to the world cup, he retires afterwards anyway.

 

If we had a fully fit and firing Klose for the WC, he would be my undisputed starter. However, it remains to be seen whether he can be relied upon to maintain that fitness.

 

That's why he should be our plan B until we get to the tourney and our plan A hits a roadblock.

 

Pretty much this, cant trust Klose for a 2 week tournament anymore. And Mueller up front would be good to try, hopefully he gets to play some minutes there for Bayern at some point.

 

He has on several occasions this season. Mostly in the final 10-15 minutes of a match. I hope Pep experiments with him as a CF more often. I believe that is his best position.

 

Speaking of striking options, Podolski started up front for Arsenal today and scored a brace. He looked comfortable playing as a CF in the PL, but is still hampered by that same knock from 4 months ago and may require minor surgery this summer. I think if he fits in anywhere in our current 4-2-3-1 setup, starting or bench, it will be at CF.

 

I want Klose to be our plan B though. I'd love to see him take fat Ronaldo's record and he's a good old hat to have with a group that's still as young as ours.

 

Anyone follow Holtby at Spurs? I followed him through January until he left Schalke. He would probably play 2nd fiddle to anyone we currently have in the AM trident but still I like his style of play

 

That's silly, Holtby could still well be our second best box to box'er. No one really knows what his ceiling is because we still don't even know what position he plays. He flourished for Schalke as a ten this year but in england has been far more combative and plays a more traditional midfielder role. If he keeps developing in that direction why can't he beat out Lars Bender for the role backing up Sami?

Now he racked up a bunch of Jones like bookings and couldn't...what the ******** is the english for "durch setzen"?...offensively as he was trying too hard to fit in as a complimentary guy just passing it around, when Tottenham needed him to give them more creativity.

 

He hasn't really started all that often. Hasn't scored a goal, the kid has talent, the question is whether or not he can shine for Spurs next season. He's 22 now, and his development is highly contingent with whether or not he can play for tottenham next season, start every game and show that he has some game in him. He hasn't scored or assisted much for them, but best of luck to him.

 

Honestly, if I were Holtby, I would have chosen England, they seem to be running out of younger players and I honestly don't believe he can push out ozil, gotze or anyone else from starting 11. Maybe he can fight with Kroos, since Gundogan is now really pushing for a starting position with the national team, next to Schweini.

 

Where is Kirsten19 ? I wanna talk to him about Draxler's positioning/movement inside the box and execution/finishing for that 3rd goal. It was a world class tap-in.

 

The same could be said about ter Stegen and his goal.

 

Interesting report, the 10 most decisive players in the game(2012-13)

1. Messi
2. Ribery
3. Ronaldo
4. Ozil
5. Gotze
6. Iniesta
7. Fabregas
8. Kroos
9. Muller
10. Suarez

http://www.football-observatory.com/IMG/pdf/AR2013_exc-2.pdf