Good morning.
The Bale”s on the wing; The Jakes’s on the scoreboard; God’s in his Heaven – All’s right with the world…
First up I want to tackle the obvious charge that this was only Hearts and Hearts weren’t very good. Agreed that was the case. So this gives us an accurate gauge of quite how unspectacular the SPL really is. The Jambos, don’t forget are the widely regarded third best firm up there. Ouch.
Anyway. The Jam Tarts weren’t completely useless and to their credit they not only ran all night and remained determined to mount a comeback. My point being they were hard tackling and in Tottingham’s faces all night long.
Gomes -6 You make me nervous
Walker – 6.32 Lots of positives, more please
Dawson – 7.64 Every inch a captain. That’s what she said
Kaboul – 7.57 Rock solid
A&E -8 Assured and intelligent
Azza –7.58 Few trademark runs, but lots of clever little passes
Kranjcar – 8 Blimey he’s good. I doubt Arry noticed
Livermore – 8 Really decent type, a pleasure to see him in the shirt
Bale – 8.023 The mega bids in January will have many clutching their teddies
VDV – 8.024 Red hot & Dutch
Defoe – 7 The best I’ve seen him in years. More please
Hudd – 6.89 Very, very assured.
Townsend – Give him more game time, someone…
Pav – Not on for very long …I s’pose
Gorgeous highlights HERE courtesy of TonguesTooShortToFelch
There’s one point about HR that I haven’t really seen mentioned on here:
It’s about the style of our football, since he took over: we almost always set out to play with verve, style and swagger under HR…
…those qualities are dear to our hearts as Spurs fans (and why Graham and Ramos were always facing an uphill struggle… as would Moyes, O’Neill, etc… even Mourinho…)
Not only that, but under HR we’ve managed to combine this with the ability to get results in tough places, where we’ve had to dig in, use the beanpole to nick points & defend corners, and leave the swashbuckling for neat one-two’s & swift counter-attacks…
I’m not a blind Harry-lover (I’m not a particular fan of him as a person), but I don’t think HR gets enough credit for our current style…
I’ve sat (and stood) through an awful lot of dross at WHL but the football under HR has often been sublime… and gloriously Spurs-like…
C O Y S!!! B I O Y F M C!!!
Hear,hear.
Harry has faults, too inumerable to list.I certainly wouldn’t want him as a neighbour, unless I could afford a house on Sandbanks, and even then I’d move.
People get all starry eyed about Maureen, quite literally, if your name is Vilanova. However; I would hate him to turn us into Chelscum mark2.
A recurring theme in what his players say about him, is that he allows them each the freedom to express themselves. Basically, he lets them play the game they want to play. Which happens to often be the game we like to watch.
When it doesn’t work, ‘Arry is slated as being tactically naive. When it works, though, you get beautiful (and effective) football.
couldn’t agree more.
incidentally, am I alone in thinking that our most popular manager in years(Jol), really was tactically inept; far more often than rubberchops? But he came across as a good bloke, so that’s allright then.
There were certainly plenty of people on t’internet claiming Jol didn’t have a clue on the tactics, that he had taken us as far as he could, blablabla. I think he was definitely less inclined to take tactical risks than Redknapp is, but that doesn’t necessarily equate to BAD tactics.
Impossible to judge objectively, but my personal view has always been that it is very harsh to claim that the man who got us back into Europe (one slice of lasagne short of CL), and delivered back-to-back 5th places, didn’t know what he was doing tactically.
There were with Jol, as there have been with ‘Arry, plenty of instances where I was shouting at the telly for them to make a sub/push forward/stop passing to J****/stop passing to circus man. Just because I don’t agree with the tactics, doesn’t mean they’re wrong. In general I think we armchair-managing geniuses need to have a bit more humility when it comes to criticizing tactics. These men have A LOT more experience working within professional football (as players and coaches) than we do. They are no doubt also privy to myriad details and rationales that are never made public, that would change the way we view the situation.
No matter how frustrating the performances, I doubt I could do any better than any of them myself.
I would be the first to admit that the football played under Harry can be fantastic, but he doesn’t trust it enough and plays circus man up front which alienates the quality in midfield all too often….
Fair comment,but to be honest i’d be happy to win more games playing workmanlike football.I thought the 0-0 draw with AC Milan was one of Harry’s best performances
There’s a difference between workmanlike football and hoofing the ball up to a lanky streak of p*ss who can neither head it or control it. You can’t play cavalier football all the time but good players can be workmanlike whilst keeping hold of possession…..and we do have good players, especially in midfield.
As someone who generally defends H & DL against second guessers, I’m reluctant to make 2+2=5. However; with the window soon closing, I’m intrigued-and generally pleased-with Harry’s selections last night.Injuries excepted, he’s cup tied Krankie but not Crouch or the Cetnik.Is ratboy going,or was he being preserved for bigger games? Is Crouch going to be sold to a glue factory?
The permutations are endless but, in my humble opinion,worthier of dicussion than just how big a knob Harry really is.
Finally;it was good to see many of the youngsters given a chance, and take it so well. More of the same please, Harry.
With both Stoke and Fulham in EL (and likely to stay there for a bit, given the results yesterday) we may have a clue as to Crouch & Palacios’ future homes.
Although Modders’ injury may have been more of an excuse to avoid a real injury scuppering a move than an actual medical condition, it will certainly not have been to avoid cup tying him. He says he is leaving us to play CL, so avoiding being cup tied in EL shouldn’t really concern him. He would still be able to play CL for Cheatski if he went (the only risk would be being cup tied for EL if Cheatscum placed 3rd in their CL group, but that probably isn’t a big concern for him or AVB).
It may be that Fulham and/or Stoke are waiting to guarantee their inclusion in the group stages before they move for our players. If so, we may be waiting to bring IN players until we have our lads out.
Alternatively, we haven’t let Crouch & Palacios go until the in-comings are confirmed (Adebayor & Diarra are the flavour of the week).
No way for us to know from the outside, but the circumstantial evidence really does indicate that there are transfers on the horizon.
I think the Sarge was knackered, but it’s generally accepted that he’s on his way.
As for Modric, I am not as confident of my grasp of the eligability rules. I will defer to your greater knowledge.
True re: Sarge.
It’s not “my” knowledge per se. Wikipedia. Look up “cup-tied”.
Syria have just been banned from the 2014 world Cup, for fielding an ineligable player. Tajikistan has been re-instated.
So a country which is busy slaughtering it’s own citizens has been replaced by a totalitarian regime which permits no public criticism of the government. All because of an ineligable player.
Thank God FIFA has a sense of proportion.
Rules is rules ^^
I really don’t believe that FIFA should get too involved in politics. It is such a dysfunctional organization that I really, really don’t trust them to get their message right.
In fairness, I guess I could rightly level the same criticism at the US House of Representatives, the EU governing body and the Communist Party in China.
I agree in principle, after all, where would it end? With parts of London resembling a Clash single, we might not make it. And a final between San Marino and the Faroe Isles wouldn’t catch on.
It’s just the breath-taking hypocrisy of it that gets my goat.
The old “Sport and Politics” debate.
For years we banned S.Africa, yet we hold an Olympics in Beijing. The Chinese promised to improve human rights if they got the Olympics.
So today we see Israel classed as European, and we give the world swimming championships to China.
As far as Fifa is concerned, I wouldn’t trust them to run a F… up in a brothel.
See my previous post. It’s all a bad joke.
I remember the Moscow Olympics cluster fuck. We didn’t send our equestrian team. I bet that learned the commie bastards. Still, at least Tessa Sanderson won a gold.
I actually think that FIFA could run a fuck up in a brothel, the committee members are all pimps.
The Olympic games should be held in GREECE in perpetuity!
FFS
We have to get something right! sooner, rather than later, the reputation of Enlightened Humanity is at stake. IOC’s a brainless bunch of twatters on the greedy gravy train to fucking armageddon, whilst Greece goes bust… :angry:
Good to see a few goals last night, and if we dont spank the Mancs with all their crocked players we might as well give up…
Soooo COYS! Spank da mancs
That wad 84 in los Angeles not Moscow. Alan wells won the 100 there though.
It was Moscow. Some countries boycotted it in protest over Russia invading Afghanistan (oh the irony). Thatcher tried to put pressure on the UK not to send a team, but the British Olympic Committee, left it to their individual member associations to make the decisions.
As ayback, Thatcher refused to give any of the winners MBE’s etc. These were eventually awarded after labour came to power in 97.
All the Warsaw Pact countries, with the exception of Romania then boycotted the next Olympics in LA. Thatcher was so impressed with the Romanian leader Ceausescu, that she awarded him an honorary Knighthood, but still refused to honour our medal winners. Ceaucescu was one of the worst despots ever produced by Romania, and was later executed with his wife by firing squad after trying to flee the country.
I have a certain degree of ambivalence towards the “Sport in Politics” debate, but I can’t help wondering, “What if we had turned a blind eye to what the Russians were doing in Afghanistan”? They might just have dealt with Osama Bin Laden twenty years before 9/11.
No great goalkeeper questions himself and if he does, it is quickly dismissed. Gomes has far too much self doubt to ever become a modern day Jennings. Shot stopping is taken as read, it is command of his area and set pieces where any dificiency becomes evident and in both cases, Gomes is not up to scratch.
Hands up who would have preferred a punt on Foster, rather than Friedel; with Cudicini fit what does Brad offer?
I’m a huge fan of Gomes, but I’m starting to agree with you: his confidence is shot.
Yes, it does seem to be at the moment. I’m willing to give him a few more chances, though. His first few months were not any better than what he delivered at the back end of last season, but he managed to recover back then and perform at the very top level for a good long while before the latest collapse.
Can’t really conclude anything from last night at any rate. He didn’t ooze confidence, but didn’t really make any mistakes either (didn’t really get the chance to).
Somebody posted further up a link to a list of the PL goalies. He made by a good margin the most saves of any goalie from a top 6 team last term.
Everybody seems to just assume that Friedel and Cudicini wouldn’t make any mistakes if they were put in, and that the only difference would be one or two missing world-class stops. I KNOW Cudicini makes mistakes, though, we’ve seen that ourselves. Fridel was hardly perfect last season either.
I can’t fault you, which is starting to worry me.
I really hope he comes good; his personality and enthusiasm make him easy to like. And his shot stopping can be sublime.
I don’t really understand the Friedel thing at all. I would have prefered Given.
Goalkeepers shouldn’t be ‘confidence players’, they simply can’t afford to be that fragile – it costs goals / games.
Chirpy: Ideally, nobody “should be” a confidence player. A striker low on confidence can cost a game just as well as a goalie (as we saw way too many times).
If you see my post at 2.12pm, you can see that there is a link with PL goalkeeping stats, and Gomes is up there near the top.
I expressed a theory, here and elsewhere that part of the problem with him might be the defensive tactics has left him exposed more than most other GK’s. If you look at the link, you will see that no GK from a “big six” team had to make more saves that Gomes, and of the teams of the four GK’s who made more saves than him, two were relegated and the other two finished 14th and 16th.
This suggests to me that (in spite of the howlers), Gomes is one of the best in the PL. Before he joined us, he set a record for the most clean sheets in the Dutch league. There are plenty who would take the view that scoring 30 goals + in a Dutch league season is easy enough., so that gives you some idea of how good he can be.
I do agree that his confidence looks “shot”, but I think that much of this is down to playing with an unsettled defence. Last year, for example he played with eight different CB’s in front of him, including makeshifts like Charlie and Thud.
I recall the number of howlers he made when he first joined us, and these problems seemed to go away once there was “one-on-one” coaching, and in his first season, we only conceded 9 at home – a PL record. The following year, we were still the best defence at home giving up just twelve goals.
All the stats tell me that Gomes is a class act, and is probably the best we have had since Clemence. I believe that if he were able to play with a settled defence for half a dozen games, we would see him at his best.
Agree with all you say (I even referred to your link, but was too lazy to actually scroll up and find it again), except I would still put Thorstvedt ahead of Gomes in the “all time” stakes.
You my hero.
An eloquent defence of a much maligned player.
@ LosLorenzo. In all fairness to Thorsvesdt, if I am critical of the defence now, I recognise it was a lot worse in Erik The Vikings tenure. Intersting fact about ET, there was a time when we had all three Norwegian GKs on our books, and the pecking order was Erik, then Bardsen and then Frodo. The Norwegian team manager rated them in reverse order, with Frodo being the No1 choice.
@SteveSpur: It’s a shame that we have so many fans who can only see the worst, be it HR, 3MP, Gomes etc. At the end of the day,even Jenas needs our support. In the case of Gomes, I think that he has produced the goods for us enough times to show his class, and looking at the stats, he has performed above and beyond.
One good thing that HR seems to have achieved in signing Gallas, was to destroy the prejudices we have against ex-Arsebandits. Remember there was a sizeable group of us who were threatening to boo Gallas. Now the bulk of us are praying we get Adebayor. I just wish they were as flexible in supporting our current team, and in particular, Gomes.
Out of the three keepers that moved on, Foster Given and Fridel, we definitely chose the wrong one…..
Why we or others didn’t go for Given seasons ago I’ll never know
Not sure but maybe we couldn’t match his wages and now he want 1st team football to secure his Ireland shirt
LosLorenzo,
With reference to your reply regarding Jol. Maybe I could have expressed myself better. The point I was trying to make was that Jol was often tactically flawed, yet personable, and as such, revered. Harry often gets us playing beautiful football, but is often a prat, and as such vilified.
As for thinking I know better than the manager, I think my recent posts militate against that.
Oh, I took your point, and totally agree with it. Was merely making a point of my own.
But, yes. Many, many people let their emotions/prejudices colour their convictions, rather than facts and evidence. Frustratingly, these people are never aware of their cognitive biases, and become near impossible to have an intelligent discussion with.
Was not suggesting that you are any worse than me or the rest of us on here at besserwiss‘ing. More a general point that we could all do tempering our criticisms of the professionals. When JP Morgan Chase take a $2bn hit because the markets are re-pricing themselves, I don’t start second-guessing their fund managers, pretending as though I know better. PL managers are in the same way at the very forefront of their trade.
Sorry to rake up the Harry hating bit again,but surely it depends on what facts you wish to use. I don’t see how the chaps who ain’t singing Harry’s praises are seen as prejudice or too thick to have a debate with.Most of us welcomed him with grateful open arms but opinions change,no malice involved
A reasoned debate is one thing. Mouth frothing character assassination, quite another.
We are all entitled to our opinions, and you certainly don’t have to love Harry.
One of the wisest things ever said to me was, “no matter how thin a pancake is, it has two sides”. I’ve tried to live my life based on that. It just doesn’t work when I think of Jenas.
I’m sorry, FW2, but I have to take issue with you, there…
…an awful lot of people on this and other sites had no time for HR from the start, esp given his W Ham connections: at best, they tolerated him (while reminding everyone that it was all about to go horribly wrong…)
When it didn’t / hasn’t, the ire has moved to non-footballing matter: his PR style, dodgy tax affairs, construction schemes, daughter-in-law, etc, etc…
That’s prejudice in my book & there was (and still is) plenty of it: just hit the button, called Archive… ;)
Of course it depends on which facts you choose to consider. That is sort of my point. People who already dislike Harry (because of his media image or twitches or whatever other non-footballing reasons) will choose the facts that speak against him, and ignore/deny the rest of the facts.
I am NOT saying you or anyone else shouldn’t criticize Harry. From what I’ve read, you tend to have reasoned opinions, even the ones I don’t agree with.
What I am saying is that many people form their opinions before they formulate their argument.
If you (plural) have been on this blog, or another blog, read someone else’s post, and had their arguments change your mind, you are probably a pretty reasonable person. If you come on here to inform people of the objective truth, and have never been proved wrong… well, you’ve probably stopped reading this already, so what’s the point…
Alspur, I’ll admit my annoyance at him labeling some Spurs fans idiots(i know you agree with him and i’ll just have beg to differ)his team selection and use of subs was baffling to me and with the players available, we should not have performed so badly against lesser teams,it seemed like all the motivation had gone and for that i do blame Harry.I would love Harry to get it right this season and my opinion will change back to the way it was when he came here.Believe me its not a case of me wanting to be proven right
LostLorenzo,i read to the end and i am always capable of a change of opinion, like most of us.Its good to have a good ole rant at times then think about the things you said or wrote that you wish you never.
@Frontwheel. Your post @ 8.25 sums up exactly my views on HR.
I am sorry to say that there are those amongst us who seem to have a pathological hatred of HR, and would love nothing better than for us to lose our first eight games of the season, to prove that they were right. And should we win four trophies this season, will still tell you that he was lucky, and that, Ramos would have won the CL for the last two years if only DL had not been so preciptous. And next season he will get us relegated. Commoli was the genius that built the team etc.
Personally, I am sick and tired of them.
I fully agree with your criticisms of HR, as being a perfectly reasonable response to last season. For what it’s worth, I think we were the second best team in the league last season when we were playing to our best, but I also think that the nearest we came to perfection was the win against AC Milan. For the life of me, I can’t understand why HR never used that formation again.
For the record, that was the first time I’ve read “militate” in a post on a football blog.
Well it’s the first time I’ve seen “Besserwisser”, du alte hund,du.
As for the JP Morgan thingy; when banks lose billions on toxic debt, yet few heads role, I think Joe Public does have a right to call shame. As with most things, it’s a question of degree. To continue your analogy, if a manager is clearly out of his depth, or otherwise unsuited to the job-Gross springs to mind-then people have a right to call time. But the witch hunting that goes on, just because the cut of a man’s jib is not generally liked, is puerile.
Most of our best men are gone, save thee and me. And I’m not feeling too well myself.
I wasn’t thinking so much about 2008 (where there certainly were many negligent [at the very best] parties) with regard to JP Morgan.
I was thinking more like the past week as a analogy to ‘one poor performance’. I didn’t ring up my stock broker to tell him he’s an idiot, just because my investments had lost 8% of their value.
It’s not a very good analogy.