Bolton - Aston Villa Spelarbetyg
Steve Rose ger oss sin speciella syn på spelarna i matchen
These are 'as assessed from the ceiling of my lounge', so they may not be all that objective. Bolton had 8 shots on target that yielded 5 goals, three of which were from set pieces. One statistic that says most if not all about this evening's cat-kicking entertainment.
Sorensen - 6 : Not overly culpable despite the scoreline. Hopelessly exposed by his defenders at times (at least 5 of them).
Delaney - 6 : One or two nice passes going forward, no obvious howlers defensively. Crosses the ball as well as any player in the team, something he desperately needs to improve upon.
Mellberg - 3 : And a charitable 3 at that. His worst game in a Villa shirt by some distance. After playing so well against Henry & Pires he makes some very average plodders look like world beaters. Still, I suppose if anyone should be allowed a long overdue stinker it's him.
Dublin - 3: I like Dubbers, but he spent most of the game impersonating a beached whale. Presumably his inclusion in the team was intended to nullify the aerial threat of Davies. It didn't work.
Samuel - 3: Very talented player, but could do with some advanced psychosis coaching. Should have been prepared to lose teeth when it came to challenging for the overhead kick. It's what defenders do. With tonight being one of his pass-to-the-opposition games, he didn't contribute that much going forward.
Hendrie - 3: The ultimate lightweight. Plenty of effort and vitriolic bark mixed in with the odd perceptive pass and run. But no bite whatsoever. Almost makes me hope we sign Alan Smith. Okacha's showboating near the end should have earned him immediate assisted passage to the other side of Bolton. There are too many mincers in our team for that, and Hendrie is the leader of the pack.
McCann - 6: Tried hard, worked hard. Commendable niggle with the appropriately named Campo when it looked like it was all going to kick off in the first half. Couldn't do it all by himself.
Whittingham 5: Played his part in some very nice passing movements, but lacked physical presence, especially when we needed to consolidate and build upon the recovery to 2-3. To be fair the lad's only 19 and shows encouraging signs of developing into a good player. I do wonder, however, if at this stage in his career we can afford to have him starting games like the one tonight.
Barry 3: Ever since the teacup-class storm over new contract negotiations, he's looked a shadow of the player that shone so often last season. His arse is big enough, O'Leary; give it a good kick.
Angel 8: Tired hard, produced several moments of real quality. If Henry or Van Arkle had scored such a goal, Chris Kamara's semen would have landed half a mile away. Fluke huh? Pity it was wasted on what now seems a desperately lost cause.
Vassell 6: Still nowhere near his best, but did well in a 'fans don't always appreciate it' kind of way. When the ball was played forward to him we retained possession more often than not. This is nothing to be sniffed at in a team of such committed possession-squanderers. Nice one-two (and then three-four) with Angel for the second goal. I can only assume that Angel had his hazard warning lights on and was therefore perfectly entitled to park himself so illegally.
Subs.
Johnsen 4: Was once one of the most effective defenders in Europe. It's certainly starting to look like the years have caught up with him. That said, hindsight dictates that perhaps he should have started ahead of Dublin.
Hitz-Scharnhorst (can never spell his name) 5: After a fine display against Arsenal, where he slugged an excellent battle out with Viera, tonight was a bit disappointing. Maybe he also would have benefited from starting the game.
Allbaeck - 5 : Retrieving a 2-5 deficit is clearly not his forte.
Steve Rose
