Team of the Week: Trippier torments Man United, Dybala delivers for Roma
Here's our latest Team of the Week of the 2023/24 campaign.
Goalkeeper
Nathan Trott (Vejle) - 8.9
The Flashscore player ratings are a great way to come across players that you might otherwise overlook. Nathan Trott, on loan at Danish club Vejle from West Ham, is one of those players.
He scored the best rating in Europe amongst goalkeepers over the weekend in his side’s goalless draw with Randers. That result might not jump off the screen but Trott made seven saves and kept a clean sheet despite the hosts registering an expected goals score of 2.64.
Defence
Kieran Tripper (Newcastle) - 9.2
Featured in our Premier League Team of the Week and fast becoming a regular in this feature as well, Kieran Trippier registered the highest rating of any defender this weekend in Newcastle’s win over Manchester United.
Trippier assisted the only goal of the game and made six key passes. He continues to prove he is one of the best players in his position in the world.
33-year-old Portuguese defender Ivo Pinto’s career has taken him far and wide - from Portugal to Romania, Croatia and England. He now plies his trade at Sittard in the Eredivisie - a league that tends to contribute to our Team of the Week regularly.
On the weekend, Pinto assisted two first-half goals against cellar-dwellers Vitesse before Sittard went on to win 3-1.
Frederik Tingager (Aarhus) - 8.9
Towering Danish centre-bac Frederik Tingagar scored a first-half goal as Aarhus stunned Champions League participants FC Copenhagen 2-1 in the Superliga.
It was a huge win for his side and Tingager didn’t just score, he was also immense defensively, winning six aerial duels and three on the ground.
Kolbeinn Finnsson (Lyngby) - 9.1
The third player in our team from the Danish Superliga, Icelandic wing-back Kolbeinn Finnsson assisted Lyngby's first and scored their second in their 2-0 win over Silkeborg on Sunday to notch a fantastic rating.
Finnsson wasn’t just great going forward, he made three tackles and won six duels during the 90 minutes.
Midfield
Karol Knap (Cracovia) - 9.7
With two goals and an assist, midfielder Karol Knap of Polish Ekstraklasa side Cracovia was the top-ranked player in our ratings this weekend with an almost perfect score of 9.7.
After taking an early lead in the match, Cracovia were reduced to 10 men after half an hour and were 2-1 down at half-time. Largely thanks to Knap, they came back (more than once) to draw 4-4.
Adrien Rabiot (Juventus) - 9.1
It looks like Juventus will be stuck in the tight title race with Inter in Serie A this season and, as such, they can’t afford to drop too many points. After Adrien Raboit put them ahead against Monza on Friday, they conceded a late equaliser. Rabiot was on hand again, however, to assist Federico Gatti’s late-late winner.
An assist and a goal are more than most midfielders can hope for in a day's work. Rabiot is proving himself vital to Juve’s hopes and has an impressive average rating in league matches of 7.6 this season to date.
Ryan Christie (Bournemouth) - 8.9
Another player who was featured in our Premier League eleven, Ryan Christie shone at the heart of Bournemouth's midfield as the south coast club went three league games unbeaten with their vital 2-2 draw with in-form Aston Villa.
Christie assisted Antoine Semenyo's opener in the match and went on to make six tackles and maintain a passing accuracy of 86%.
Attack
Paulo Dybala (AS Roma) - 8.9
Jose Mourinho’s Roma love doing it the hard way, it’s all about the drama. After 75 minutes, they were trailing 10-man Sassuolo 1-0 on Sunday before Paulo Dybala scored a penalty to equalise and assisted Rasmus Kristensen’s slightly fortunate winner. Cometh the hour, cometh the man.
Dybala is Roma’s talisman and he’s already scored four times in the league this season, notching five assists with an average rating of 7.6.
Ferdy Druijf (Zwolle) - 9.1
At almost an hour into Zwolle's trip to Volendam in the Eredivisie over the weekend, it was still goalless. Ferdy Druijf was introduced after 58 minutes and by the full-time whistle, he had scored not once, not twice but three times for the visitors, who incredibly won 5-0!
Before that game, Druijf had only scored twice this campaign and he only notched five in the entirety of last season while at parent club Rapid Vienna. If he can keep this run of scoring up, he might be moving to bigger and better places.
Georges-Kevin N'Koudou (Damac) - 9.2
Former Tottenham and Besiktas forward Georges-Kevin N'Koudou has wound up at one of the Saudi Pro League lesser lesser-known clubs - Damac. They beat fellow mid-table side Al Feiha 4-2 on Friday with N'Koudou scoring in each half and adding an assist to boot.
It’s fair to say that the Cameroon international is having a great season in Saudi Arabia, he’s already scored 11 goals with four assists to his name.