14th round prospects comments and Top 3/Flop 3

By: Evilo | November 17th, 2008

So who was impressive and deserves a place in our Top 3?
Who was dismal and deserves a beating in our Flop 3?
Let’s make a round up of the U22 performances of this weekend of L1 action.

Marseille 2-3 Lorient
As expected, Gameiro (L’Equipe’s mark : 6) had a great showing against OM’s terrible defense. Ben Arfa (E : 4) on the other hand was really average, with flashes of brillance but a lot of nothing. Bad game for him. Kaboré and Grandin saw a little time but couldn’t do much.

Le Havre 1-3 PSG
Nestor (E : 4) had a tough game against Rothen, and he didn’t show his usual poise.

Toulouse 2-0 Grenoble
M’Bengue had a good game (E : 6) facing Feghouli (E : 6) who once again showed his willingness to accelerate the play with one touch football.

Le Mans 1-0 Valenciennes
Maiga and Gervinho (E : both 6) had an average game. Coutadeur (E : 7) scored on a direct corner. For VA, Sanchez (E : 5) had a tough game in the middle.

Nancy 1-1 Caen
Toudic (E : 6) had a good game and made a great pass to Savidan for the opening goal. Raineau (E : 5) had a very good game for someone with that few experience.

Auxerre 1-0 Sochaux
Riou (E : 6) was very good and Narry (E : 5) had a decent game for Auxerre. For Sochaux, Erding had a bad game (E : 4), Martin had a decent showing (E : 4) and Jokic did better than expected (E : 6). Carlao had to be subbed early after a head injury.

Lille 3-0 St Etienne
Big news is obviously that Hazard (E : 7) had his first start and he sure didn’t disappoint. He scored a great goal after a couple of stepovers and created danger all around. Matuidi (E : 5) was sent off after he tackled him going to the net. All around great performance.
For Les Verts, as expected, another bad performance from Payet (E : 4), Mirallas (E : 5), and as said above, Matuidi was sent off.

Rennes 2-1 Monaco
For Rennes, Kembou (E : 7) showed some good things on the wing and Lemoine (E : 5) I thought had a much better game than his mark gives him credit for. M’Bia (E : 5) had a traditionnal strong outing. Moussa Sow (E : 6) had a goal, which is better than nothing.
For Monaco, Nkoulou had an uncharacteristic bad game (E : 3), responsible for the second goal. Yohan Mollo (E : 4) had his usual “make two stepovers then lose the ball” game and Nimani (E : 4) was uneffective.

Nice 2-1 Nantes
For Nice, Modeste (E : 4) had a dreadful game.
For Nantes, Bekamanga (E : 3) was awful and Ricardo Faty (E : 5) was decent.

Lyon 2-1 Bordeaux
Benzema (E : 7) was once again decisive, scoring after some nice work by Fred. Gassama (E : 4) on the other hand, had a tough game. Lloris (E : 6) was nearly perfect though I would have liked to see that last goal saved.
For Bordeaux, Gourcuff (E : 6) tried a lot, and probably too much. He’s off his game these days. Gouffran (E : 3) had an average game, certainly not as bad as his mark shows.

And now for our Top 3 of this round :

1- Eden Hazard (Lille) : 17, and already player of the game? Not too shabby.
2- Karim Benzema (Lyon) : when you need him, he’s there.
3- Kévin Gameiro (Lorient) : his quickness killed OM’s defense and his nice goal tied the game.

And now for our Flop 3 :

1- NKoulou (Monaco) : when you’re 18, it’s tough not to have a bad game, and when you’re playing CB, a bad game results into goals. That’s what happenned yesterday to Nkoulou, but he’s a prime talent and he’ll have a great career.
2- Bekamenga (Nantes) : I’m sorry, but I’ve always found him bad. However, THAT bad? No way.
3- Tie : Hatem Ben Arfa (OM) and Mevlut Erding (Sochaux) : both are the offensive leaders of their team and as such, shouldn’t have bad games like that against average defenses.