Good morning fight fans.
There was a point in the game, just before half time when I let my mind wander and ask why this Liverpool side were having rings run around them. My mind came up with a few simple suggestions.
First up, we were first to virtually every ball. And when we weren’t we didn’t sit back off them – we tackled and it has to be said won the bulk of those challenges. Of equal importance was our ability to retain possession. I’m no stat man but I only noted one or two occasions where duff passes crept in. Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce Pathe News Boy.
The absence of Azza and Pete also played an enormous part in matters. Lennon’s form every season is up and down like bloggers blood pressure and for every run that ends in him skipping his way into a brick wall or crossing to no one there is always a counter attack from the other lot.
3MP’s absence has been as refreshing as a lottery win. The days of hoofing it to Tall Circus Man who was pretty bloody awful at heading the ball are over. The days of opposition players walking up behind him, holding their face and pretending they were elbowed by the boy who was born with his limbs stuck on backwards are equally over.
The Europa tactic appears vindicated. Certainly we looked spritely enough and Stoke’s walloping at Sunderland certainly says, ‘Something went horribly wrong’ rather than, ‘unlucky.’ That said, just as the game vs Liverpool was a thing of beauty; the match against the Greeks was not.
Dalglish needs to watch himself. He’s rapidly wandering into Aunty Wenger territory with his conspiracy theory that the MIBs have got it in for him. The reality is that he needs to keep backward thugs like Charlie Adam in check and practice winning and then retaining possession.
In the slow mo replay of Adam’s vicious assault on Scott Parker you can see his eye-line rise up from ball to man just prior to his studs plunging into our man.
Brad
Spotted in a local shop trying on wigs and false nails for a laugh in the 2nd half. At full time he was seen hiding a Chick King box in his glove bag.
A&E
Looked Accomplished & Elegant with every touch. He must revel in days like these. Calm under pressure, cunning going forward.
Walker
Increasingly looking the part, lots to learn then who hasn’t? He appears thankfully mature for his years.
King
Didn’t put a foot wrong and the brown paper & string held up in the heat. Nobody enjoys the whole, ‘will he, won’t he play?’ routine, but that’s showbiz.
Kaboul
Always benefits hugely from having Ledders with him. His performances with Dawson are not so neat and contained.
Krankie
A discreetly brilliant performance. I’m not convince Arry either understands or appreciates him but I’d like to watch him blossom at The Lane.
Modders
No like Second Hand Fridges. All the ‘why can’t he bloomin’ well do that for us’ merchants after his recent Croatian goal can come out from down the back of the sofa ooh in another day or two.
Parker
Pathe News Boy is what we have been missing for about 20 years. Delightfully no nonsense, British bulldog stuff from start to finish.
Bale
Some extraordinary touches and some less extraordinary ones. Still an absolute motoring monster. Needs a goal.
Adebayor
Another day another masterclass in being a supremely talented and intelligent Premiership striker. Can we buy this one, please? Can we? Can we?
Defoe
Clearly benefiting from the ‘Ade Effect’ that said my aunt Dolly would up her strike rate palying in the same team as him
VdV
All the good stuff with none of the wasted chances stuff. A bit out of position but this was a substitution. Great sub to have, eh?
“There was a point in the game, just before half time when I let my mind wander and….”
There was also a point just before half time when it could have been touch and go – the midget missed a great goal opportunity reminiscent of bean pole days and then the Dippers nearly equalised – that’s if my memory serves me correctly. When we score early in the first half we need to firm up the score with a second before half time.
That’s my only negative about an otherwise perfect day for the Mighty Spurs.
He said firm up giggidy, alright.
? :wassat: Is Mikey another way of saying moron? :winke:
Is eastanglianspur another way of saying “I have no sense of humour” Chill out!
Wasn’t aware it was meant to be humorous, not knowing what giggidy means hence the question mark. Some of us don’t watch the conditioning machine (TV), if that’s where the term originates. Have a nice day.
We were very good yesterday but in my opinion Wolves away was a better performance. We won at Wolves because we competed and had better players and made good choices etc. Liverpool just did not compete. We would have won anyway imo but we were tested more at Wolves and came out on top.
Wigan and future opponents will watch yesterdays video and one thing they will be sure of is to start lively and compete. Wigan have better players and more technical coaching than Wolves so if they add some fire to that they will be more of a challenge than either of our last two opponents.
Assuming we field the same line up next weekend and play with the same intensity we will win (acts of god permitting). But we should be sure not get carried away and expect us to seamlessly roll over teams like Wigan because they are in theory small fry compared to Liverpool.
Finally, if Dalglish is smart yesterday could turn out to be the best thing that could have happened to them. A kick in the nuts can shape up a side and raise issues and solutions that mediocre performances can obscure. So I still expect Liverpool to be one of the teams in 4th-6th place in May like us.
:daumen:
Wolves away might have been a better result, but no way was it a better performance. For the first hour of that game we were pretty abject, whereas yesterday we were sublime for practically the whole game.
We played great yesterday but it is important not to confuse concepts.
While yesterday was prettier than vs Wolves it was also less challenging to the team.
Wolves posed far more threat than Liverpool. Miles more, by a factor of ten, Wigan will too I expect.
The more you overcome challenge and adversity the more impressive your victory is.
Ideally a game is both pretty and challenging but if it is a choice give me the latter every day (so long as we win).
Anyway we were far from abject for the first hour at Wolves. We were excellent and sowed the seeds of a hard fought victory.
Nelson’s mantra was “First you win a victory, then you make the best of it” Wolves was exactly that, and yesterday’s was a result of Thursday’s team selection. We’ve a big enough squad when everyone’s fit to select a team to do a specific job, and then by January we’ll see where it requires reinforcing, which is a direct result of clearing out the crud this summer allowing squad spaces and finance to get decent already targeted players and not last minute bargains so many were screaming out for.
Not giving Harry any credit then?
Formation? Tactics? Team selection?
Why is anybody surpised – he’s been saying ‘give me 2 world class players’ and look what happens.
Harry hasa been right all along – and he wanted Parker years ago
or have you conveniently forgotten?
He also said something on the lines of 25 years of ‘almost, not quite and nearly’ Which Harry are we talking about here?
Well if playing players in the right positions and resisting the urge to hoof it to anyone over 6ft is grounds for praise… then let me be the first to congratulate him on a magnificent achievement.
Adebayor revealed how he was told, ‘go out there and enjoy yourself.’
Does this then merit a peerage?
Also, If you’d see any of my previous posts, you’d note that against the tide, I’d suggested that better coaching and tactics were more likey to solve our problems, than spending fortunes on new recruits, many of whom were on show for Liverpool yesterday. Additionlly I adovocated that keeping Modric was more essential than selling him and buying ‘3-4 player’s’ as Harry wanted, so by your reckoning does Levy get any credit, because he’s certainly due some.
The way Ade played. Yes it does merit a peerage.
If we finish 4th, then it’s O. B. E. fo’ me.
Harry would also have sold Modric and invested the money in a few top top and triffic players.
Think any Spurs fan knows we’ve needed a world class striker for 2-3 years. We’ve got Ade for a season at the moment.
Spot on old chap. Full credit to HR, and i was beginning to waver in support. But to be fair most fans are fickle and short tempered, and normally its only cause we want to win things!
Yes he finally noticed the 442 works …not like anyone else though, he spotted it before all the rest of us???
I believe Jol wanted Parker as well.
* when he was still Spurs manager, and Parker was at the Barcodes.
Thought Parker became pretty redundant myself especially when they went down to 9. Would have taken him off (he was on a yellow too) rather than Defoe. He’s pretty tidy and never gives the ball away but does like to pass the ball back and sideways.
What happens when Sandro is fit? Will Tommy be our fourth choice cm now? Harry’s going to have to rotate well to keep everybody happy.
Adebayor looked great for first half then drifted a bit (but strangely scored his two goals in the last half hour) – he’s got
everything we’ve missed and created so much space for everyone else to play. Just a shame he may not be in town for the long term.
Keeping Modders could prove to be the signing of the summer.
Matt, THFC website is reporting that Sandro could be fit to face Stoke as early as tomorrow night, along with Gallas. Great news and more back up for King and Kaboul from Gallas.
My point was if fit does Sandro play or does Parker start our PL games? Think Harry has a job keeping everybody happy?
Gallas we need back badly – King is superb but won’t play every PL game.
It’s a squad game, now – and, while we’re playing 2 games a week, it’s not going to be that hard to keep everyone happy, IMHO…
Plenty of games for everybody this season. No need to rush Sandro back only for him to get injured again either.
add to that suspensions
What a problem to have to choose two from these
Thudd
Mod
Parker
Sandro
Krank
VDV
Livers
Peanut
Personally I’d pair up in the following way for PL & FA Cup games:
Mod & Parker
Mod & Thudd
Mod & Livers
Mod & Sandro
Parker & Thud
Parker & VDV
Thud & Livers
Thud & Sandro
Any CC & Europey games you mix the rest together (including Carroll and Parrett etc) depending on opponents
Todd Manager (without any twitches)
If Gallas & King can job-share and we get 20 games out of each then we stand an excellent chance of achieving our goals
With the added protection of Sandro & Parker in midfield, when necessary we can really shut up shop to protect a lead or make ourselves less open and hard to beat!
Only niggle in the back of my mind is Adebayor…if he gets injured or gets the red mist vs Goons and gets a straight red, we would really really miss him and we’d be back to last season. At the moment Pav is simply not a viable option, VDV playing off Defoe, been there before, even as early as teh first 2 games this season. We need to pray Ade stays fit until Jan and then get in some proper cover…Leandro or similar.
yep; that worries me too. Maybe Pav and Adrian B should get some game time. Maybe Arry missed a trick on Sunday there?
I dint want him playing tomorrow night against Stoke. OS suggests some kids and some seniors which I think is about right
So HH, I don’t want to sound smug but are you begining to see the big picture now and are you getting over all the immediate gratification stuff of last week? It was sooo undignified!;-)
I tell you what I do get, is tetchy when patronized by roadkill.
Why could you possibly be smug? Over what? :ermm: My opinion hasn’t changed, the games against the Greeks and the Jambos were grim.
As for your reference to self gratification I plain do not understand what you mean. Try communicating in English.
Don’t get sucked in HH, the ‘Dear Leader’, ‘Twichy Personality Cult’ brigade just cannot seem to fathom the simple principle of criticism.
Nobodys perfect, people make mistakes. But there seems to be an element amongst our ranks who take criticism of our ‘Dear Leader’ as a personal slap in the face. When results go our way he’s lauded and applauded, when they don’t and he gets pulled up on it the ‘Twichy Cult’ members throw their toys out of the pram.
Oh, and we were awesome yesterday!
:daumen: