Humbled by Stuttgart

By: ryan_s | October 21st, 2012

Things were going swimmingly before the break, as HSV had picked up 10 points from 4 games and had the opportunity this weekend to move into fourth place with a victory. Former coach Bruno Labbadia was in town with the talented but shockingly bad thus far Stuttgart, and the feeling amongst the fan base was that of timid excitement. Stuttgart are a good team that are bound to start winning games, but wouldn’t it be cool to be in fourth?

Anyway, it was not to be. Stuttgart completely outclassed HSV in the first half, with the prolific Ibisevic getting his name on the score sheet. It could have been worse if not for some poor shooting from Stuttgart and some last ditch defending at times. Hamburg did slowly grow into the game and even had a goal correctly disallowed for offsides when Milan Badelj’s hammer from 30 yards hit the post but still fell to the head of Rudnevs, who made no mistake in slotting home. No mistake besides being offsides, that is.

The second half featured HSV with a lot of possession and a lot of halfway decent shots from distance between Beister and Van der Vaart, but there were very few chances that really put Stuttgart goalie Sven Ulreich under pressure. HSV ended up throwing everyone forward in the hopes to get a point, but in reality HSV were well beaten. Stuttgart could have ended up with three or four in this game, even if HSV could also feel hard done by for not getting on the score sheet.

Player Ratings

Adler – 7.0 – Made some excellent saves, and could do nothing about Ibisevic’s wonderfully placed goal. Distribution was better from the back than in previous weeks as well. Was helped by some defenders throwing themselves in the way of shots and by Stuttgart’s poor finishing.

Diekmeier – 7.5 – I thought Diekmeier played very well today – even if he didn’t quite get forward as much as he may have liked early on. Probably should have been played in on goal by Son in the first half after a wonderful run, but Son unsurprisingly elected to shoot from distance. Won a large amount of his duels and his pace added a lot of cover at the back.

Mancienne – 5.5 – Saw some people thought he had a good game today, but in reality it was very mixed. Looked like a little kid against both Troare and Holzhauer in the box, as both beat him easily on the dribble. Luckily, both of their wide open shots were pretty tame. He also had some absolutely shocking giveaways that were entirely unforced. Otherwise, had some very nice blocks on shots in the box that may have saved a goal, and won many duels.

Westermann – 6.0 – Had a moment here and there of insecurity, but otherwise had some really magnificent tackles. Picked his moments to get forward well, though his end product was lacking. Wasn’t really helped by Jansen in defense and ended up getting overrun at times by Stuttgart’s quick passing.

Jansen – 5.0 – Was helpful in offense in that he got a number of crosses into the box, but as is usually the case with either him or Aogo, they didn’t lead to anything. Was dusted a couple of times on defense, including in the buildup to the goal.

Badelj – 5.5 – Like Mancienne, had a very mixed game. Most of his undeniable class were here and there – his awesome shot off the post was the high point – but also was overrun at times by Stuttgart’s quick attackers and gave the ball away cheaply a couple of times.

Arslan – 6.0 – I really like watching him avoid defenders on the ball – he’s extremely clever and quick. Neither him nor Badelj helped the back four enough defensively, though.

Son – 2.5 – Remember how last week I was apologizing for having criticized him so much in the past? Well, the old Ryan is back with a vengeance this time. Terrible game. He doesn’t care about anything except shooting, seriously. Any other activity is a bore and he has little interest in it. Every time he received the ball, he would look up to see if he could shoot, ignore all of the players making runs in behind him, and basically walk slowly backwards until he passed to a CB or DM. He won 3 out of 20 duels today – that is embarrassing. Completely ruined the chances of many counterattacks.

Van der Vaart – 5.5 – A very subdued game from the man who enjoyed real success for Holland during the break. Was marked out of the first half completely, and then was forced to drop back and help control the passing game from a more reserved role. His free kicks were a bit listless, and his shots from distance were always right at the keeper.

Jiracek – 5.0 – Only played for one half and had a couple of halfway decent crosses, but really doesn’t add a lot in that position. Wasn’t awful, but a pointless addition to the offensive side. Why not just play a 4-3-1-2 if you want three CM’s and VdV out there? Only attempted two passes while on the pitch.

Rudnevs – 5.0 – Starved for service and generally didn’t do much besides get a goal disallowed for being offsides. Had three completed passes over 90 minutes of play. 3!

SUBS

Beister – 6.5 – Injected pace, creativity and a lovely shot in his half on the pitch. Repeatedly forced Ulreich into saves that he couldn’t quite handle. Attempted some nice through balls too – but like VdV was slowly forced into dropping back in order to get involved.

Berg – N/A – Dribbled past a player once but then just dribbled into another player directly after.

Scharner – N/A

Leave your thoughts! Nur der HSV!