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Canada World Cup Player (and Coach) Ratings


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Time for an aftermath thread to take us home. My player and coach ratings for Qatar 2022.

Borjan    5

Did not make a single save to keep us in games, and made a glaring error vs. Morocco.

Lack of leadership on the pitch from one of our captains.

Vitória    7.5

One of our most solid players. Could have handled some of those high balls over the top, but was not well assisted by his speedier mates. Kept his composure, looked to be a factor defending and attacking free kicks, cleared headers, and was smooth with his passing. 

Johnston   7

Had moments of strength and impressed, others he was challenged. Could have been helped more as was too often in isolation defending. Needs to fix little details, but has a strong upside for the future.

Miller    6.5

A solid player who is a bit slow, and not very smooth with his feet, nor particularly strong in the air. So has physical and technical defects that were slightly exposed in this World Cup. Plays flat-footed and slows down our play. We could use an upgrade in this position.

Laryea  7.5

While not starting and not always getting minutes, and being asked to do different tasks, he almost always was up to it. Stayed in the zone, was very focused, did not try to do too much, and then had his moments, especially going forward vs. Belgium. His reputation has to have improved after this venture.

Adekugbe   7

Similar to Laryea, but clearly not so much of an attacking player. If he was supposed to be helping in defense, the role was limited, though he is a very solid defensive player. I give him credit for a gutsy play that gave us our second goal at a World Cup. 

Eustaquio   7

Our best midfielder, but not his best game and a half. He did not get into his groove, and perhaps was not used as best he could be by Herdman. Is he supposed to be a DM, an AM? We did not see his best virtues. Won't overly judge a player who went down in the line of duty.

Hutchinson   7

Ups and downs. A very weak performance vs Croatia, exacerbated by Herdman not helping him out, was contrasted by solid play vs. Belgium and a near goal vs. Morocco. Has defects because of age, but compensates them, and then shows he still has something.

Hoillet    7

Did what we'd expect of him. Is not fast, but is smart, and if used right can be useful for us. Good set pieces, nice tempo in the middle, decent decision-making. Nothing special, but nothing to really complain about.

Kone   7.5

What can you ask more of at his age, with his experience? He was smooth in his first minutes, and even sharper vs. Morocco, mind you with them sitting back. Still not sure if he should be harnessing the back as with Croatia or attacking more, as seemed to be the task vs. Morocco. Nice tournament for him.

Osorio    7.5

Very effective player with a high skill level, intelligent on the pitch and with good decision making. Did not get to really show his full talents, but a fine tournament from a guy who has played little this season. Bodes well for his club next year--whatever that club may be. 

Davies  6.5

To much is given, much will be required. The goal was not enough to mitigate some very poor play, made worse by often blatant misinterpretations of his role on the team. Rarely beat anyone in speed down a flank, rarely dribbled effectively into attack, mostly lost the ball trying to do what he does not know what to do. Missed a penalty you have to score (kudos to him for having the balls to take it, and thumbs down for thinking he had to be the one to take it). The goal keeps his rating higher than it would be otherwise. 

David    6

Very poor tournament. The only time we saw a bit of his quality was when he was going into the midfield 2nd half vs. Morocco. Not clean shots, no creating chances for himself, not locking down defenders to create space for others, no work in the air. Not even that effective in the press, which is a virtue he has for Lille. He'll be disappointed too. 

Larin    5.5

Even less interesting than David, as he has even less ball skills and did not get on anything of worth. With Tajon taking on defenders, you'd think he would have made himself available; ditto with quite a few corners. Not the striker we hoped he would be. 

Tajon Buchanan     8

In my opinion, our consistently best player. Showed high maturity for his age. Took on defenders, beat them had great scoring chances he should have converted, was always a threat. Helped on defence, was a team player, kept his head up. Good further back, further up, left or right. Nice tournament.

Cavallini     6

Short sub appearance where he showed he has some use for the national team. But will probably be phased out.

Millar     6

Same as Cavallini. A left wing who would be a natural sub for Davies if Davies were our left wing. At least tried to be that player. You feel he needs to step up, he's not a kid anymore, he has to show more grit and be more determined because he could have gotten a shot away late vs. Belgium. Will be interesting to see how he matures.  

Wotherspoon  

Too few minutes to count.

????? I probably missed someone??????

 

Herdman      6.5

Made the right decision to take the Belgium game as the key match, and prepared it very well. The players went all in and it was not his fault we could not convert. But he is at fault for not leading when it comes to that penalty, and too many free kicks taken by players who do not deliver: you are Davies coach, he's not your boss; you owe it to the team. Did not get the best from our best players, mostly Davies, David. Seemed he trusted his staff little, as I can't believe anything they were telling him had much to do with what we saw vs. Croatia or Morocco. Also, has not solved basic problems we have seen throughout qualifying, such as no connection between the strikers, no real midfield harmony. Our shape was unclear and our virtues not always brought to the fore. Misplayed Atiba vs. Croatia and misread the Croatia match when ahead. Against Morocco corrected some weaknesses with his subs, but that is odd: the best set of subs on the last day when it did not matter. For a guy with big tournament experience with the women, blew it with the Croatia insult which was beneath him and us. As he often is able to correct mistakes, let's see it over the next year or two.

 

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Not much to disagree with here.  My view of MVPs for us that played significant minutes would be Buchanan, Hoilettt and Eustaquio, in that order.  Buchanan had moments of brilliance, but also disappeared for brief moments.  Hoilett was probably our most consistent on the ball.  Eustaquio was brilliant vs. Belgium.

A note about Davies - I don't think he should play anywhere but down the left until he develops more confidence with his right foot.  Early in the first half vs. Morocco he had the ball at his feet at the top right of the box and rather than pushing forward with a clear shot from his right, he cut back into traffic on his left and ran into three players and lost the ball.  That kind of play happened far too frequently.  He's too one dimensional in those kind of situations.

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I think Buchanan was the player who had the most impact in the WC.   If I were to choose an MVP, it would be him.    David had some chances that he should have buried, one against Belgium comes to mind.   Davies shows his skills but needs to start working and linking up better with teammates.

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^That OP is an excellent summary.

You summarized Herdman discussion better than anything else I have seen.

I think you are being a little hard on Davies, he was terrific against Belgium (notwithstanding the penalty miss). He did open them up with pace in that game.

I don't see Kone as having performed as you and others have. I don't think he moved the ball forward that well. I have him at a 6.

Edited by ensco
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2 hours ago, Free kick said:

I think Buchanan was the player who had the most impact in the WC.   If I were to choose an MVP, it would be him.    David had some chances that he should have buried, one against Belgium comes to mind.   Davies shows his skills but needs to start working and linking up better with teammates.

Remind of the David miss vs. Belgium.

I think it was so intense (I was nervous af) and I was in an incredibly crowed, noisy bar with tons of Canucks and Belgians, and think I must have missed plenty of details. 

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1 hour ago, ensco said:

^That OP is an excellent summary.

You summarized Herdman discussion better than anything else I have seen.

I think you are being a little hard on Davies, he was terrific against Belgium (notwithstanding the penalty miss). He did open them up with pace in that game.

I don't see Kone as having performed as you and others have. I don't think he moved the ball forward that well. I have him at a 6.

I give Kone that rating for what might be expected of a player of his age and experience. So I adjusted it. He's not like Musiala or Gavi, he's not a teen on a premium club you end up asking to perform for you at a top level, he's just emerged. So I cut him some slack. But appreciate the view.

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Kind of hard to give out number ratings over 3 games. In general I would say Borjan, David, and Davies performed below expectations. The only ones who played above expectations were Buchanan and Laryea. 

More or less everyone else did what you would expect given the level they play at. Some good and some bad. 

I am not so sure about Herdman anymore. I hated it when he got hired, obviously came around during qualifying, but then these last couple months make me not so certain again. Not opposed to giving him another year or so. But he may not be the savior we thought he was.

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Just now, Stryker911 said:

Kind of hard to give out number ratings over 3 games. In general I would say Borjan, David, and Davies performed below expectations. The only ones who played above expectations were Buchanan and Laryea. 

More or less everyone else did what you would expect given the level they play at. Some good and some bad. 

I am not so sure about Herdman anymore. I hated it when he got hired, obviously came around during qualifying, but then these last couple months make me not so certain again. Not opposed to giving him another year or so. But he may not be the savior we thought he was.

I was as thrilled as anyone that he got us qualified and I think he made mostly correct decisions along the way. But does anybody think he's in the top echelon of international managers? Because that was what would have been required to get us qualified out of our group given the gap in talent.

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1 hour ago, Unnamed Trialist said:

Remind of the David miss vs. Belgium.

I think it was so intense (I was nervous af) and I was in an incredibly crowed, noisy bar with tons of Canucks and Belgians, and think I must have missed plenty of details. 

I have a vivid memory of it.   when I find the exact minute of play.  I will update this post

 

Edit:  The one i was thinking of was Buchanan.  But none the less, here are the high lights and i still noted the following:

at the 1:34 min

at the 6:45 min

at the 4:47 min

at 6:06 min is the Buchanan miss

 

 

Edited by Free kick
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The more I think about it, the more I think a lot of what was to come was exposed in the Japan game.

- the route 1 goal over the top

- getting opened up on the counter by being too high (Japan threatened numerous times, and hit the post late on one of those counters)

- the disorganized looking, poorly taken PK

 

Herdman bears some responsibility for not adjusting after seeing all that.

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The biggest issue, for me, is that the only 3 established midfielders trusted by Herdman were physically compromised. None of Eustaquio, Hutchinson, or Osorio were  100% in Qatar nor did they come into the tournament with anything resembling an appropriate preparation. Pair that with Davies basically having no training with the team ahead of time, and you've got an issue.

Now we can talk all about how he should have gone 3 in midfield at times, and maybe he should have. But he clearly didn't think a midfield 3 that might include 2 of Piette, Kaye, Wotherspoon or Fraser could get the job done. Can you blame him?

Canada would have been hard pressed to get out of the group with full health and ideal preparation. There are things that could have been done tactically to keep things closer against Croatia, but I don't think the final outcome would have been any different.

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On 12/4/2022 at 5:49 PM, jonovision said:

Now we can talk all about how he should have gone 3 in midfield at times, and maybe he should have. But he clearly didn't think a midfield 3 that might include 2 of Piette, Kaye, Wotherspoon or Fraser could get the job done. Can you blame him?

So stick with two ailing guys against arguably the world's best midifield central three?  That makes no sense.  You need to get another body in there, whether it was Kone or Osorio or one of the four you listed.

If he's truly honest with himself, then Herdman probably would like to have that line up decision as mully.

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My assessment of Herdman's coaching in Qatar is that he believed his team was going to  surprise and do well enough to advance.  I see Herdman as relying too much on each player's ability and experience.  I see Herdman as coaching individuals rather than as a team of well connected players with clear tactics and system.  Herdman needed a stable group of players who knew each other well and had a plan.  Frequent differing formations and changes tends to deter what we call a good chemistry.  It appeared that some of his players were physically unprepared or fit which created added problems.

Overall rating I would rate the players slightly ahead of the Coach.

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3 hours ago, The Ref said:

My assessment of Herdman's coaching in Qatar is that he believed his team was going to  surprise and do well enough to advance.  I see Herdman as relying too much on each player's ability and experience.  I see Herdman as coaching individuals rather than as a team of well connected players with clear tactics and system.  Herdman needed a stable group of players who knew each other well and had a plan.  Frequent differing formations and changes tends to deter what we call a good chemistry.  It appeared that some of his players were physically unprepared or fit which created added problems.

Overall rating I would rate the players slightly ahead of the Coach.

One thing you see about all the teams that are successful, in this WC and in leagues, is that they play as teams. They are able to execute a game plan over 90 minutes. They have glitches but can survive them. This is how we played the qualifiers, eking out games and being tough defensively.

We looked like a team that was not asked to execute and could not in fact execute, for example defensively. 

I don't want to overstate the Croatia mess, because we just couldn't finish vs. Belgium. But it was a mess, and I agree, that mess was mostly on Herdman.

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With two of the teams in our group making the final four, there has been much in the way of "Group of Death in hindsight" talk. While I think it is true that this group was much tougher than most were giving credit for (AFAIK among the pundits only Charlie Davies was calling this the Group of Death before the tourney started), we should not let that blind us to the fact that - while I think we performed well overall and even better than I expected in some areas - we still made a couple of individual errors leading to goals against (the same volume as the goals we scored) and that our game plan/tactics vs. Croatia (along with the Herdman gaffe of motivating the Croatians) were erroneous. Definitely still room for improvement heading into 2026.

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2 hours ago, Gian-Luca said:

With two of the teams in our group making the final four, there has been much in the way of "Group of Death in hindsight" talk. While I think it is true that this group was much tougher than most were giving credit for (AFAIK among the pundits only Charlie Davies was calling this the Group of Death before the tourney started), we should not let that blind us to the fact that - while I think we performed well overall and even better than I expected in some areas - we still made a couple of individual errors leading to goals against (the same volume as the goals we scored) and that our game plan/tactics vs. Croatia (along with the Herdman gaffe of motivating the Croatians) were erroneous. Definitely still room for improvement heading into 2026.

In retrospect,  i would say goalkeeping was also a bigger factor that we believe.  And that was one I didnt expect.  Even in the Belgium game,  it was interesting to watch replays of the goal allowed.  
 

There is an angle in the replay that is taken at field level and when you look at that angle you get a much different perspective than the higher up camera angle that you most often see.  From the higher up angle, the shot looks unstoppable (ie.: fired high and hard in the top left hand corner).  But on the ground level view you can tell that the shot was very well within reach by Borjan from where he was standing.  There was a similar play in another  game that a Senegalese keeper was able to stop.  It would have been a good stop by the keeper to parry that shot.  But, as somebody else said a few days ago,  in this WC we didnt get enough good stops. 

Edited by Free kick
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1 hour ago, Gian-Luca said:

With two of the teams in our group making the final four, there has been much in the way of "Group of Death in hindsight" talk. While I think it is true that this group was much tougher than most were giving credit for (AFAIK among the pundits only Charlie Davies was calling this the Group of Death before the tourney started), we should not let that blind us to the fact that - while I think we performed well overall and even better than I expected in some areas - we still made a couple of individual errors leading to goals against (the same volume as the goals we scored) and that our game plan/tactics vs. Croatia (along with the Herdman gaffe of motivating the Croatians) were erroneous. Definitely still room for improvement heading into 2026.

Considering how subpar Belgium was in this tourney (and even in our match, they had terrific opportunities snuffed out by a poor final pass decision or execution or a last ditch challenge/block by Laryea), and considering how Croatia was stifled by Morocco in that opener, I really think that we listened too much to the hype coming into that second game, scored incredibly early, but then got steadily and systematically dismantled by an experienced, highly motivated, and talented side working as a team.  That was a match where we were not a "tough out," so to speak, and that was disappointing.

I think our individual defender limitations were exposed in key moments and we were duly punished but in the process of trying to catch up and "make things happen," we lost our collective and tried to do other players' jobs, and that wasn't just Davies. 

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8 hours ago, The Ref said:

My assessment of Herdman's coaching in Qatar is that he believed his team was going to  surprise and do well enough to advance.  I see Herdman as relying too much on each player's ability and experience.  I see Herdman as coaching individuals rather than as a team of well connected players with clear tactics and system.  Herdman needed a stable group of players who knew each other well and had a plan.  Frequent differing formations and changes tends to deter what we call a good chemistry.  It appeared that some of his players were physically unprepared or fit which created added problems.

Overall rating I would rate the players slightly ahead of the Coach.

There has always been that Norman Vincent Peale-esque philosophy in the background that supersedes the need for pragmatism at this highest level.  On this occasion, it burnt him.

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On 12/12/2022 at 3:03 AM, Unnamed Trialist said:

One thing you see about all the teams that are successful, in this WC and in leagues, is that they play as teams. They are able to execute a game plan over 90 minutes. They have glitches but can survive them. This is how we played the qualifiers, eking out games and being tough defensively.

We were a tough out, and you are always always in the hunt if you are that.  It doesn't mean "parking the bus" which is the binary option given on one of the threads here.  We needed to bring the road mentality we had in Nashville and Azteca to face Croatia.  Instead, we decided to go toe to toe and got KOed. 

 

Edited by BearcatSA
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24 minutes ago, BearcatSA said:

Considering how subpar Belgium was in this tourney (and even in our match, they had terrific opportunities snuffed out by a poor final pass decision or execution or a last ditch challenge/block by Laryea), and considering how Croatia was stifled by Morocco in that opener, I really think that we listened too much to the hype coming into that second game, scored incredibly early, but then got steadily and systematically dismantled by an experienced, highly motivated, and talented side working as a team.  That was a match where we were not a "tough out," so to speak, and that was disappointing.

I think our individual defender limitations were exposed in key moments and we were duly punished but in the process of trying to catch up and "make things happen," we lost our collective and tried to do other players' jobs, and that wasn't just Davies. 

I think even this is overstated. Belgium were the better team vs Croatia, and only failed to score because Lukaku thought he was wearing a Canada shirt and couldn't finish his chances. This was a match that Croatia could not afford to lose, but nearly did. Now they're a step away from the final.

Borjan gave away one absolute freebie and allowed at least one or two more that would not have been spectacular saves had the shots been stopped.

The margins were slim in some cases. There were individual errors and coaching errors on all of the teams. Croatia-Canada was the one match that was only ever going to end one way given the talent discrepancy. All of the other group matches were relatively even and could have gone either way. Canada might have stolen a point or even a win if things went right.

The biggest issue is that Herdman didn't believe that his second-tier midfielders (Piette, Kaye, Fraser, even Osorio) were good enough to do a job, and made the bet that their lack of ability was greater than Eustaquio and Hutchinson's lack of fitness and form. Whether he was right may be up for debate (I believe he was), but this belief did tie his hands tactically.

Edited by jonovision
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Herdman is an excellent motivator. After many years of failure he successfully got the players to believe that Canada could qualify for the World Cup. 

Did the players really need to be motivated at the World Cup. You would think that all players from all teams would be motivated just being at the World Cup. Motivation was not the primary requirement to succeed at the World Cup. Herdman stiil tried to use the brotherhood as a motivator. 

What Canada needed was a specific game plan for each of the opposing teams. It seemed that Canada had one game plan that they applied to all teams. That was a coaching shortcoming.

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4 hours ago, The Pessimist said:

What Canada needed was a specific game plan for each of the opposing teams. It seemed that Canada had one game plan that they applied to all teams. That was a coaching shortcoming.

We had a combo of underestimations and overestimations that left us out of the tourney after our second match and that was that.  

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