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Morning one and all.
The good ship Tottingham sailed into the the quarter finals of the Champions League last night. It wasn’t how many of us thought it would be. AC where bound to come out fighting and they certainly adopted a different strategy to the one that saw them get beat at the San Siro. But the real difference was how Spurs stood their ground.
The unsophisticated viewer might say that a ‘bus’ was parked. But without being to biased I felt that what was implemented by Arry and the boys was a tad classier. Parking the bus is everyone and the tea lady blocking play, your centre forward as a centre back. Hello Wolves fans.
Spurs actually held a line and held a shape that wasn’t breached too often despite the Italians chucking their fancy top of the range kitchen sink at us. It was a credit to Spurs that they had the wit and the wisdom to adapt and survive.
It wasn’t a thing of beauty, but then it’s difficult to imagine that 3MP in the nip is either – but Abbey Clancey’s let him get off with her so much experts say that she will sire a baby giraffe by him later this year.
Gomes 6.87 Apparently he’s a big Shaking Stevens fan.
Charlie 5,43 Not at his best but still worth 2.5 Begbies.
Gallas 8.23 ‘Too old’ – Arsene Wenger. ‘Super duper’ – Harry Hotspur.
Les Dawson 6.38 Held the line well enough.
A&E 5.99 Under pressure he cracked.
Azza Blud 6.92 We played down the middle a lot. He was okay.
Sandro 9 MOTM A revelation. Lots more, please.
Modders 6.93 He was swamped. Not an excuse, a fact.
Peanut 5 Arry, play Krankie, old son. Please.
VDV 6.45 I’m terrified he’s in an ‘injury cycle’. I hope I’m wrong.
3MP 7 The referee was a wonker. He couldn’t buy a fair call.
Bale, Pav & Jen*s all too little time to warrant a score…
Can you hear that in the distance, it’s the sound of Chas and Dave clearing their throats :freu
yes I can hear them, I think its a remix by none other than dazzy B when is it gonna be released?
Do you remember at the beginning of the season, some ‘experts’ said that we would not qualify for the Champions League proper and that we would be an embarrassment to the EPL and would cost the Premier League points towards the 4th Champions League place – well guess what, they picked on the wrong North London team with these comments.
COYS.
What was that song they used to sing ?
“Champions League, your’e having a laugh ?”
They were right, it’s been a laugh from the start but no sign of the finish yet.
Good stuff from ‘Arry.
Worrying for Ledders though. Retirement beckons at the end of the season?
http://www.talksport.co.uk/sports-news/football/premier-league/5832/5/exclusive-redknapp-fuels-fears-over-kings-future
Nice to see our favourite part-time pundit Clarence Seedorf sum up the mood in Milan!
Harry,
Don’t quite see how Modric gets a better rating than Dawson who was a rock. Modric was way too deep for most of the game and looked to be chasing it in a Jenas like fashion. In the main, events seemed to pass him by. If he was held to account in the same way that Jenas is, he should be slaughtered for a poor performance, more 5.00 than 6.93 imo. He seemed to be trying to play as a DMid, why? luckily Sandro gave everybody a lesson in how that’s done.
(PS No, I’m not a fan of Jenas)
I agree. Modders and Sandro were given a lesson in ball possession and poise yesterday by Seedorf. They were able to shut down every attack easily and then work the ball down the middle all the way to the goal box at will.
Outside of the two blocks in the box I thought Sandro played a lot better in the first leg against Milan. It is painful watching him go forward. It is like watching a tree run down the pitch. He also had way too many turnovers, a couple lead to their best scoring chances.
I have watched every Milan match this season and Dawson is the first centreback that has completely shut Ibra down. Ibra has been unstoppable the last month, yet did not have a shot outside of a set piece all match.
It was a masterful performance from a player that I normally do not rate at all. Dawson gets my 9.0 and hands down MOTM.
really….Sandro worse than Seedorf last night; c,mon your pulling my cock right?
Sandro is 21, plenty time for him to become a better player than Clarence
they were playing different games!!
If Seedorf was playing for us you would have seen a very similar performance to Sandro’s, only with less forays into the opposition half. We sat back in our half and he was the guy looking for the ball from their CBs. He got plenty of space and time no matter how we tried to close him cos we were so deep.
Also didn’t help that VdV really couldn’t chase last night, which he does a surprising amount of normally.
Great point on VdV. He usually stands around the halfway line and forces opponents wide. He was definitely not at 100% yesterday.
In the first match, Sandro was in Seedorf’s grill the entire first half and never gave him an inch. It was an awesome performance from a player that looks like he is going to be an Essien-like holding mid.
Also, in Sandro’s behalf last night, I forgot he did not have Sarge next to him. Modders was awful last night. He looked like a leaf getting tossed around in a typhoon.
There was a fair amount of confusion in our defensive shape in the first half. Harry saw Milan overrunning our midfield and came to the sideline to set up a bus in our half. Our wings and two front men gave us no outlet so we were often pinned in our half. We were much better at keeping possession in the second half playing a more compact shape. As our substitutions came on we were better as well, and could have stolen the game if Crouch didn’t blow his chance on the free header.
I like that shape. I think HR does too, especially against the big boys away from the Lane. What Thudd gives you there is the ability to spring the wide players with his brilliant long passes. We are desperately missing that with him out of the lineup.
Bale and Lennon’s speed (fed by Thudd) allow us to play on a giant sized pitch, and the buzz of excitement they create can be a thing of beauty. On the other hand, players like Peanut and Krankie make us have to play narrower through the center and rely on Luka and Rafa’s skill to pick our way through opposing teams. Hopefully Sandro will add his skill to that mix so we can open up teams that park the bus against us.