Calming, Almost Serene Player Ratings

Good morning.

It’s all over the front page,  Foy gives you ref rage.

The live scores are in, it’s all over bar the shouting and it seems that could go on for days. Yes it was only one game but my take is that as Tottingham fans of no short measure we went – in our minds at least – from title contenders to a bunch of ponces that buckle the first time we face a bit of bustle.

The Foy Factor was a disaster. Of course it was. And it’s a sad indictment that referees like this are still getting paid to wreck the game. Refs like this went out with the Indians. They make a mistake, get chastised and then instead of trying to do their job better they spend the remainder of the game in a bloody minded funk making bad decision after bad decision to hammer home to the players that they are in charge.

Technology is long long overdue. People like Foy must not take this personally. I couldn’t do a better job. Nor could 99% of the people screaming despicable things at him from the stands, bar stools and from their sofas. 

And that is the point. Human error is making a mockery of a game that is now unmanageable by man alone. If I ask you what 12 times 3 is, I’d ideally like you to ‘do it in your head’. But if I ask you what 3.84746 times 59,8243 is, I’d really expect you to produce a pocket calculator. 

Player ratings then.

 6.912 No King and so everything deteriorated from the moment the team sheet was announced. Do our defenders know that they are primarily there to defend? Brad pulled off some great saves and it could have been worse. Much worse.

 5.678 It must have been a close run thing between him and Gallas as to who was going to watch the second half from the stands. He was rattled, roughed up and remaindered by Stoke. They gave him no time, ignored his moves and reduced him to much booting of the ball away in a panic.

 5.321 Shakier than Shakin’ Stevens. These are the games where an old war horse like Billy are supposed to put a shift in. Instead we got a Freddie Starr impressionist wearing Jimminy Cricket’s wellies.

 5.0121 Another guy who on paper should have been mixing it up with their part time pipe fitters who looked ‘a bit confused’ by all the attacking business. The red was fiasco. 

 6.457 On the whole he didn’t have the worst game in the world. No one came out of this looking like a superstar but he was relatively sound at the back and threw a few half decent shapes upfront. 

 6.732 Dangerous enough when in possession but he had so little of the ball. Probably as he was playing on the grass and wasn’t in a circus trapeze. The Stoke aerial style doesn’t suit footballers and being a quality footballer it didn’t suit PNB. 

 7.001Uninspiring at the beginning. Some poor passes. But he’s an intelligent chap and soon got to tackling their weakness which was playing football. The penalty? Well done Manu.

 5.633 Frustrating appearance. He did try, but running at that lot was largely futile. He was too small, too frail. His shot was naive. How the hell he thought one of his little blast off his instep was going to find it’s way through about 14 legs that looked like tree trunks is beyond me.

 7.002 Our constant almost singular glimmer of hope. If you take into consideration how much he’s bulked out and what great physical shape he is in – it shows just what we were up against when they knocked him over like he was made of balsa wood.

 5.674 Never got into it and it seemed we lacked the creativity to allow him to get into it. He didn’t have that space that he needs – and as for his usual devilish flicks and tricks – we got a far more subdued showing. Made me laugh when a card was flashed and as Foy had been so so bad he initially thought it was for him.

 7.003 His first half showing was pretty awful. Off the pace, off the boil and generally out of it. He’s one cool cat though and for the second half he did his absolute up most to turn the sinking ship around. Very nice penalty. Nearly a very nice goal from open play.

Subs: Defoe’s movement created some distraction and space, Bassong headed the ball out at least four times. Might have been five.