Hola,
Player ratings and after sleeping on it, I’m no more cheery about the tactics both on the pitch and off it. I understand it was ‘only’ the first game, but our team was more rested than United’s and with the exception of Modric we weren’t missing anyone we needed to do a better job.
The blunt reality is that for an hour or so the game could have gone either way, as bwin betting suggested. Then they scored and and we collapsed. The collapse came in the shape of poor tactics and an inability to concentrate. They scented blood.
But instead of doing the best with what we had, the pot shot tactics that had failed were repeated again and again.They tasted blood with the second goal and Rooney in particular was becoming visibly tetchy he hadn’t scored.
The net result of our dual substitutions was zip. The net result of Sluralix’s substitutions was to provide a more sophisticated foil for Wazza. Giggs was on a matter of minutes before he did what he was told to do.
I refuse to buy anything the Arry apologists are selling. That team, with those tactics last night wouldn’t have put 5 past Hearts. Our tactics were poor. So poor I struggled to work out what, beyond VdV taking pot shots, they actually were.
Friedel -Brad. Dammit Janet! He must be good, he conceded three and still Gomes’ days are sadly unnumbered rather than numbered. If Arry had given him a number it might at least given him some idea of when this humiliation might end.
Walker -We appear to have an ongoing pattern of players who get a bit Tom & Dick. Is this girly nerves, or are they simply not washing their hands after they have been to the toilet?
Dawson – Particularly unawesome this evening. I saw no Captain.
Kaboul – MOTM for the first have and ran out of steam in the second. He was steamless. We are paying these guys too much for them to buckle after an hour.
BAE – Assued stuff in the main. Was he told not to make any runs up field? Ah so that’ll answer that one then.
Lennon – Frail, vulnerable. Like a new born chick he pecked about a bit but largely he fell over and missed the security of his shell. We should sell him …to Venkys.
Kranjcar – It wasn’t Heart you see and under real pressure his touch was less sublime. That said, he was good. He’s a great player. Worth keepin and worth our respect.
Livermore – Ran his heart out and this was largely as he was doing most of our defending on his own. To that note he was a little out of his depth. He’s good stuff, but this was the deep end.
Van der Vaart – Great to see him all lithe and energetic, but less great to see such wasteful play, de Gea is a bit of a wobbler – but all bar one of his shots at him were actually useless. Was this dumb greed or was he instructed?
Bale – Took a while to get into things and then decided he didn’t fancy it all that much after all. Which was a pity, we could have used him. It was big game.
Defoe – Looked right up for it. Like a dog chasing for scraps. Had his shot that hit the post gone in people wouldn’t be cursing him. Again.
Corluka – He calls his slow cooker ‘the microwave’.
Huddlestone – An abysmal contribution from a Sub. This was Old Trafford and we were lagging. Utterly abysmal.
Another typical Harry effort.. no plan b.
Whats the point us going out and buying a top top forward when Harry wont play to his strengths?
Laughable.
I dont think Luka is unhappy that we let him go to Chelsea for the pay rise, i think the lad see’s that under Redknapp we will only ever be nearly runs so he wants out to join a team that will sack a manager that got them to Champions League final, or a manager that won them the double the seaon before in the attempt to find a manager that can win more.
Not saying lets sack our manager after every season until we win the league, but lets bring in a manager that has more then 1 idea.
Dont get me wrong Harry did wonders taking us from bottom to Champions League in 2 seasons but i think he’s over reached and now doesn’t know what to do.
I have many Portsmouth and Southampton friends who also agree that if a player is not one of Harry’s chosen few he wont get a chance.. i’m looking at Gio mainly here although i’m sure there are lots more.. how can the boy be young player of the world cup yet not even get on our bench? instead we have the likes of Jenas (easily one of the worst players ever to pull on our shirt) even the Hearts game he included 2 goal keepers on the bench.. WHY?!?!!? U21 players dont need to be registered so why not one of our many good young players? Kane?? give them 20/25 mins see what they can do.
grrrr…
Our young’uns had a game on Wednesday.
TBH it was just rubbish, I have no confidence in Kranjar at best he is a god sub for us because he has no pace, stamina, strength… for some reason all Spurs fans got happy that they beat Hearts 5 nil, Hearts are a awfull team and the quality of football is 2 division.
In summary we fans knew we had to strengthen but we didn’t so this is the result. I don’t even want to think whats going to happen at Man city,Liverpool and Arse!
I agree that Niko is a good sub, but a “god” sub?
;-)
Tactics were wrong, but how can you stick to a game plan when so many go missing?
What annoys me most was the fact that ‘Arry seems to be copying Big Martin Jol’s tactic of watching the opposition swarm all over us and sitting there doing nothing.
We need a procative coach (and chairman) not a reactive one. You could see what was going to happen before Man U got their first, and what did ‘Arry do? Nothing.
C’mon ‘Arry, I know we never win at Man U but we never will until we have a proper game plan and have a go.
And Niko had a shocker. Passing let him down, and he kept giving the ball away. Would rather have seen big Tom start.
Think it would be nice to have a new coach……freshen things up a bit… Klinsmann would have been nice…
Problem is with Klinsman he would have ‘radical’ approach and all of a sudden we would be faced with a situation of Hoddle and Ramos’ love child as our manager… He is a legend though!
PS you would also need a 5 year plan with Jurgen (like Ze germans nearly didn’t have) as he has some wonderful but ‘out there’ ideas….
I just worry that we could have a similar situation to the Ramos disaster…
If we aren’t careful we could lose our best player, get off to a terrible start in the league (looking at our next few games it’s not impossible) and be playing catch up for the rest of the season.
How long before ‘Arry starts saying “2 points in 8 games, actually isn’t that bad a start!”
Couldn’t agree more….
BECAUSE there WAS not alternative! Sandro, Modric, Pienaar, Jenas all out! What else can you do? And HUDDLESTONE WAS INJURED and could not start. The tactics were correct. Man U were not particularly threatening until the last half an hour. Don’t just criticise, say what you would have done differently then?
(1) Coach our players to believe they can win.
(2) Coach our players to pass and move
(3) Coach our player to defend for more than 60 mins
(4)Coach our players in the ‘smoke and mirrors’ art of simple tactics
(5) Sign a striker in the last 3 years who can hold a ball up and score every now and then
Oh and tell em about plan B ! If there actually was one of course…
PPS and see SPURSSINCE82 below at 8.14pm. Sums it up perfectly..
DYiddy, you are a plum.
’nuff said.
I actually agree with DYiddy’s points to be honest. They do ring true.
I love plums, apples and sometimes even the occasional orange..
Friedel -Brad. Solid 7
Walker – Is this really the new ‘Roberto Carlos’? It’s early days, but not seen much to excite me so far.
Dawson – Big heart, but sadly not top shelf. Or a captain imho?
Kaboul – Great for 89minutes
BAE – Missed his link up play with Bale
Lennon – frustrating as hell! Have a plan ffs!
Kranjcar – Not Modric’s arse, looks good against the bottom feeders, but scared of the big games. Had so many opportunities to turn on the ball and charge a makeshift back three, but always rather ‘one-touched’ the ball back to another inept and afraid midfielder. A silky Jenas with the energy of the Thud.
Livermore – Good engine, but plenty to learn.
Van der Vaart – Greedy, greedy, greedy
Bale – How about we give this lad some ball and space? Oh wait, they can double up on him all day because everyone else is so dismal.
Defoe – David Villa without all the finishing touches
Corluka – Waiting for a taxi.
Huddlestone – Formed the weakest defensive midfield in the history of the world with VDV for those last awesome 25 minutes.
Arry – Only seems interested in hanging out with his chum Fergie – How about you manage the team and throw a few hairdryers you old git! I swear he has shares in a Manchester based lube outlet!
And now selling Modric is not an option! Stop the circus Arry!
couldn’t agree more
Agree with every word apart from Defoe comment. He is not like Villa without all the finising touches, JD is like me with all my finishing touches…
Haha… Yeah, without the finishing touches was maybe a little subtle. He is actually only really short like David Villa! Crikey he is pants and Arry’s love affair with him is beyond ridiculous. I’d actually have settled for 3MP yesterday, at least he would have held up the ball 20% of the time. VDV with Adebeyor could be quite tasty if it comes off, but if not – it will be interesting to see who wins the sulking contest!
Thought we looked pretty good against a confident Man U team at Old Trafford…in the first half. Once the goal went in (not controversial either…who’d have thought) we fell to pieces.
Agree with Bob-Spur, Niko is just not a big game player. It’s all well and good stroking it around in the middle of the park when you’re playing a dodgy Scottish team…not when you are playing Man Utd. Livermore did ok but he is still learning at this level.
My main gripe with yesterday’s performance was Van der Vaart. Did he think he was playing up front on his own? De Gea must have thought ‘who is this nice player in white who keeps rolling the ball back to me?’…he probably thought twice about using his hands. If I was Defoe I’d be furious. It remains to be seen whether Adebayor would put up with this…
Oh well, we’ll lose against worse teams than this. It’s generally the hardest game of the season for most teams and we’ve got it out the way now. Onwards and upwards. COYS!