Good morning and welcome to the breakfast show.
The quotes below hit the back pages of the Sun yesterday and drew some pretty predictable thoughts from me. But first, over to Van der Vaart…
“I have definitely had a series of irritations. You want to play in the position where you do best. But if I have to chase after an attacking full-back every time, I can’t play my own game to my best ability.
“Sunday was not the first time I have played out wide and I was given the freedom to move infield. But you could see from the goal I scored that my strength lies in the centre of midfield.
“It proves that I am more dangerous when I am close to the goal than when I play out on the wing. I do what the manager asks me to but I hope this won’t be a regular occurrence. In my opinion he made a mistake in making his comments about my most recent injury.
“He took me off because he did not want to take any risks with me. I can understand that but I am convinced I could have played for 90 minutes. I was amazed to be taken off. I felt I’d played a great game. I scored and also three times put team-mates in one-on-ones with Arsenal’s keeper.
But I could perhaps understand it from a tactical viewpoint. Arsenal’s left-back was continually moving upfield and I’m not the type of player who consistently runs after opponents.”
Nothing there I can really disagree with in that. He’s right.
The dangers here though are screamingly obvious. Speaking out in the press against your manager can never be described as inspired. This can of course, be viewed as a sauce for the goose, sauce for the gander moment. I can’t think of anyone in football who is more media friendly than our Aitch after all, including those working as full time pundits.
But you must scratch your head and ponder why this can’t be resolved ‘in house.’ There’s nothing controversial there, other than the fact it reveals that Rafa is as depressed by his manager’s infatuation with Defoe as everyone else is.
3MP was torn still suckling from Arry’s breast (what a deeply upsetting image, I apologize) despite the inarguable fact that he was rubbish. I define rubbish in this instance as being hired as a goalscorer and failing to score any.
Defoe will have to be removed by specialist surgeons.
The entirety of last season was spent hoping someone would score. And while we waited Rafa was juggled about as he doesn’t play the lone striker role. Now Adebayor has landed we are still juggling.
The NorfLandinDarby™ was partly dogged by Defoe’s selection over Sandro and my fear is that Arry won’t be changing his mind anytime soon. Van der Vaart has his faults but on balance he’s a classy character who routinely assists and scores goals. His name ought to be one of the first on the team sheet.
If Defoe really is – as we are surely being led to believe – ‘pulling up trees’ in training, then it down to him to then force his way past lesser players. If there aren’t any then he either has to work harder or bide his time. But you cannot have a situation where he’s hogging a place to little purpose.
We’ve been here before though, haven’t we? PSB was fielded endlessly to the mind numbing sorrow of all those unfortunate enough to be watching.
Will Arry see sense, or will this serve as a catalyst for one the best players we’ve signed in my lifetime to be sold off sooner rather than later?
Persoanlly I’d like to see a 433 rolled out with Ade playing of Bale, Modders and VDV with Parker and Sandro sat just behind…especially away to some of the bigger teams. Although the Ade, Defoe combination can work, just need someone else on the wing…Harry does need to play people in the right position though!! Oh and bring back 3MP….
…Joking BTW…Tony Pulis is my hero!! :-)
Tony Pulis is a god who I pray thanks to every morning…. :angel:
We need JD and VDV, perhaps not always in the same team but defo in the squad. Re VDV’s comments he’s Dutch, that is what they do! To all those getting precious about it… FFS, GROW SOME!!!!
How the hell was it tactically wrong to play VDV out of position?
I thought we won?
but to be fair, we should have battered them. the second half was more one sided than a gang rape
by the way, judging by HH’s last blog, that comment might not go down to well so for the record…
David Haye’s words, not mine :wassat: :whistle:
-3 points
-a win against those chaps from woolwich
-couldnt give a shit if we should have beaten them by more. Did we say the same when we beat chelscum in CC by that purest of headers by woody?
Nah
It’ll only be successful if he wins
It’ll only be successful if he wins games on the bounce regularly
It’ll only be successful if he wins against the top 4
It’ll only be successful if he wins against the top 4 away
It’ll only be successful if he wins against the top 4 on a regular basis home and away (ManUre & Cheatski to go)
It’ll only be successful if he wins away at places like Wolves and Wigan
It’ll only be successful if he qualifies for the CL
It’ll only be successful if he qualifies for the CL on a regular basis (Yet to be seen)
The only thing set in stone is that them goalposts will keep shifting!!!
Well said – do we ever stop moaning ? Well done to HR and his merry team for recovering from the first two games …. when calamity was at our door – have we forgotten already….. I’m happy since last international break in the league P 4 W4 D 0 L0.. c’mon credit where it’s due…. COYMS
Sorry Astro, but couldn’t resist reposting this from a TT post in the summer of 2010Essexian76 says:
Date: July 4th, 2010 at 2:28 pm
Whats all the fuss about Gareth Barry then? Parker would have been a far better option than a totally unfit and out of condition Barry would have?. Yes hindsights a wonderful thing, but it shouldn’t have been, watching Barry was like being time warped back to Mexico 1986, and seeing Peter Reid trying desperately to track Maradonna, and not even having the energy to keep up with him.
[Reply]
Superb player, exactly what Spurs need, please Harry go get him in the summer, he’s a Spurs supporter as well, make his day Dirty Harry!
A few have beaten me to it, but I don’t think it’s fair at all to claim that Defoe has been undroppable during ‘Arry’s tenure.
I do agree that it is difficult to fit both VdV and Blackcurrant Winegum in the same side without our classic “two wide players” shape suffering.
However, if both PNB and Sandro are playing, surely Texas Ranger/Charlie would have enough cover defensively to accomodate not getting much cover from the “right winger” (incidentally, last weekend I saw Defoe spend just as much time defending our right as I saw VdV do. They were pretty much switching positions throughout).
But, HH, your argument that we must play Sandro and PNB in the middle, and therefore must drop Defoe still doesn’t remove the necessity of playing someone out of position. VdV and Modders can’t both play in the hole, and someone will still need to keep a bit of width out right, even if Walker is the one hugging the touchline. How long before Ratboy decides that being playaed out of position is a good reason to f*ck off to Chelsea?
We have midfield/forward players that perhaps most fans consider “undroppable”. Adeboy, Ratface, Van the Man, Beast, PNB and Sandro. None of them is a right midfielder.
I think this is what is called a good old fashioned Selection Headache. You can’t keep everyone happy all the time, and no matter what (when everyone is fit) someone will have a more or less legitimate criticism of Aitch’s selection for the big games.
What I’m saying is, maybe we should at least wait until we lose a game before we start complaining, eh?
If you don’t know the difference between your Wine Gums and your Midget Gems, how can you expect to be taken seriously?
:wassat:
I stand corrected.
but not very tall
how did you know that?
Cos your a midget……..gem
get it?
dada-tch! :-)
With the exception of the sweet-based faux-pas, I have to thank you for saving me from typing. Great post & absolutely spot-on.
Everything else is grumbling for the sake of it. For a blog that pitched ‘avergrumble & twitch’ on us out of angst against ‘arry’s grumbling, we do an awful lot of grumbling ourselves.
Are we proposing we let VDV pick the team now? Maybe we can make him London Mayor after Boris has run out of bikes? Maybe even Guiliani or the UN might have a job for him?
VDV is a very capable manipulator of the media and while some of you might guffaw that it’s a case of the biter bit, one of the characters out of VDV & Harry is paid to play and the other to manage. I’ll leave you wits to work out which. Either way, anyone who thinks that VDV doesn’t play this fiddle exactly how he wants it has been eating too many Midget Gems!
:daumen:
hello HH hello all,
vdv is no cruyff but being typically dutch he believes he’s better than that. holland won euro88 in spite of themselves, toyed with the germans in 74 and then lost and even without cruyff and with military junta interference in 78 could have won that world cup. dutch players are often difficult and sometimes impossible to manage particularly on international duty, when divisions in the squad on team selection/tactics /city/club/class/race etc develop into unbridgeable chasms. they are well educated, have been extensively coached and are encouraged to think about all aspects of the game and life and to put forward their opinions(in many languages). vdv knows he should start and finish for us and believes he should play in a ‘free’ role with little defensive responsibility. on sunday we were being overrun in midfield and exposed down our right always likely given hr’s selection. sandro should have started, he is a wonderful footballer, a beast of an athlete and another player we will have to fight to hold on to in the near future. vdv also starts, he’s too good not to, i know this because he told me.
Great post and so true about the dutch; south africans are the same; adore their self belief
I think this is a rare issue of how to keep 5 players happy;
Bale, VDV, Modric, Defoe & Sandro
When Thidd is fit theres a sixth
It will be a rare thing when all said players are fit so this discussion will also be a rare thing.
Arry also needs to consider forthcoming games as well. When the squad is full to brimming it is a nightmare which he kind of covered on Sunday (and got the result which a lot on here have forgotten)
When we progress in the Waffa and FA Cups the games will be thick and fast and all will get their playing time
I personally dont see the point in changing our formation to accommodate all of them; it increases the risk of key players getting injured unnecessarily
I also think we can beat most sides with any combo of 4 or 5 across the midfield such is our core strength and ability in there; shame VDV cant see that too
Mullingarspur..You are so damn right on the “the Dutch, they’re very well educated” part..
HH is right, Rafa’s a great player and scores goals..JD is mediocre at best, and doesn’t score too often, does he..? (misses sitters even..)
Cheers (a word i can say in 17 different languages by the way..:-)