I've just finished watching the full game and logging everything he did. I'll hold my hands up and admit that describing him as poor was wrong. But neither was he MOTM as some are claiming. That was KDB by a country mile.
Checking my notes and the good bits were:
- The assist for Yaya's goal
- His involvement in the other two goals.
- 5th minute - failed to control a difficult ball but won it back and turned the West Brom defender beautifully
- 14th minute - chases down over-hit corner and keeps it in
- 16th minute - does well to win ball and feeds Sane perfectly who fails to get his shot on target. That really should have been an assist for him.
- 27th minute - goes deep, picks up ball from Yaya and does a nice lay-off to Silva.
- 39th minute - Nice 1-2 with Silva and hits good shot but straight at Foster.
- 46th minute - powerful run from about 30 yds out and pulled ball back
- 55th minute - back in our half to win ball
- 72nd minute - shot deflected for corner
- 76th minute - nice chest down to Sane from a Jesus long ball although it's a bit too far in front of him.
- 81st minute - lovely cross-field ball to Jesus that he just fails to control.
- 91st minute - Kolarov wins ball in our half and breaks forward. Sergio picks it up and makes good run into box (but weak end product).
The less good bits were:
- Poor control on a few occasions and lost possession too easily a couple of times.
- A few times where he needed to show a bit more commitment to close a West Brom player down and win the ball. That's one area where Jesus wins hands down over him as he's really strong and determined. To give an example, in the 64th minute Sergio receives the ball about 30 yards from goal but loses it too easily. He then tries to win it back and there are 3 chances to close the player down and put a foot in but he simply doesn't show enough commitment or desire.
- There were at least two occasions where Sane was caught offside but, if he had been on-side, Sergio wouldn't have been in the right place to receive the ball.
- Sometimes he seems to be not quite aware of what's happening around him. There a few times where he should have been in a better position to prevent a pass or cut off the channel but reacted a second too late. In the 49th minute KDB played the ball towards him & it wasn't near enough. Kolarov won the ball back but it broke to a West Brom player and Sergio was too slow to close him down. Right at the end of the first half, Silva plays a beaut of a high ball into the box for Kolarov, who's racing in but Sergio isn't aware and gets in his way a bit.
I'd give Sergio a 7 or 7.5 out of 10 overall but I'd put him behind Sane who I rated 8/10 and maybe 8.5 for Jesus (KDB being a 9 or 9.5/10 in my view). Silva had one of his quieter games by his standards but was still very effective and I'd rate him about the same as Sergio. So he wasn't anywhere near as terrible as I initially thought but he wasn't quite as good as some others are making out. He's working harder, dropping deeper and some of his link-up play was a cut above what we've seen from him before. He's clearly trying very hard to change his natural game and certainly deserves credit for that but there are still times he switches off a bit. I think the odds of him being here next season are tipping in his favour.
