Georgios Samaras

Thought he was superb defensively ladt night actually, supported Izzy well. Had a few of his excellent moments going forward and faded in the second half when they got more men on him.

Done excellent at the 2nd goal.

 

Aye that was brilliant! I think he was probably going to lay it off for Balde though and I genuinely think we might have got another goal.

Second half was comfortable for us apart from the 5 minutes after Biton's sending off.

 

Not one of his best games for us but still a decent shift. There are times when I wish he would look up and release the ball earlier, but there are also plenty of times he plucks the ball out the air, beats two men and sets off haring for their box and you just think 'no one else could manage that'. He can relieve the pressure on us like no-one else can, I just think maybe he feels he has to do too much sometimes. I'm very happy with him though.

 

That's a fair assessment, but nobody can surely say that they weren't frustrated at how regularly he surrendered possession. He sometimes needs to lift the head, and realise that the simple pass is the better option, than running into 3 and 4 men. By all means, have a go at the full back if he gets one on one, but there is sometimes he is trying to beat 2 and 3 at a time, and he gets crowded out.

 

Was not his best euro night, he will be key in the dam though.

 

He was robbed of a Fabregas esque goal last night when the ref blew for FT

 

He seems to think he can run through people

 

It wasn't his greatest game last night but his running power shouldn't be underestimated, while it's frustrating to see him run into people amongst other things, that ability to run with the ball even if it's just to get us up the park is vital in these European games as it relieves the pressure on our defence for a while.

 

On the flip side though, he just invites pressure back on when he loses the ball cheaply. I know what you are getting at, and I don't mind one bit, if he wins a throw, a corner etc. But it was actually from him losing the ball by running into a defender last night, that Biton then went in for the challenge, two passes later.

 

Absolutely, but that's the nature of wingers, most of them are risk takers and part of their job is to try and make something happen even if that means losing the ball a few times. As frustrating as he is at times I'm sure you'll agree that the big mans good points far outweigh his bad points, especially in these type of games.

Sammy is our out-ball in Europe and he has performed that task greatly for us but he isn't only an out-ball as he has chipped in with a fair few goals for us in Europe and genuinely causes problems for European defences.

 

I love the guy but if he would lift his head a little bit more that would be great, it's not too much to ask or expect.

Not his best game last night but * he back.

 

Im usually critical of Samaras but thought he played really well last night, Van Rhijn got the pish ripped out him about half a dozen times off him and couldnt get near him.

 

It wasn't Samaras' best game last night but even at that he was still the main protagonist in the lead up to the 2nd goal. Crucial as always.

 

I wasn't too impressed with him last night at times, due to him giving the ball away more than he normally does on European occasions, but he more than made up for it with his involvement in Kayal's goal and the way he took the * out of their right back for most of the night.

He will be the key man yet again in two weeks, as he is even more of a talisman for us in away games. Goals away to Spartak, Barca (deflected) and Benfica last season, and unlucky not to score away to Milan last month.

 

I agree about him being our out-ball in Europe, and I agree that he has been a stand-out performer in Europe, but last night, I felt he done more bad things than good. I just felt he lost the ball one too many times last night.

Sometimes it's on to have a run, other times, it's better to keep possession. I think he needs to sharpen up his decision making in that sense. Because, against better sides, we will be punished if we give the ball away cheaply.

The run that led to the second goal, he made the right choice, he was one on one, and had the beating of the full back, but there were other times, where he was running into trouble. I would always have the big man on the teamsheet in Europe, but I just didn't feel he had a great game last night.

 

He didn't have a great game last night, I said that myself in one of my posts. That is Sammy's major flaw though, his footballing intelligence isn't that great which leads to the inconsistency you see from him during games. It's extremely frustrating as he has all the physical attributes, if he had the footballing brain to go with that then he probably wouldn't be playing for us.

I agree with most of what you have said.

 

There was a wee bit there in early part of the 2nd Half, I think, in the bottom middle part of the pitch, he was a pushing people around ... knocking into them roughly, trying to knock the ball away. Being borderline reckless, but not quite. It was awesome. It's not really a style I guess I see too much outta him. I wanna see more of that.