Good morning.
On the news this morning they are stock taking at London Zoo. How quintessentially English. If all zoos do this as a matter of course I don’t want to know. I like to think of American, Chinese and German zoo keepers all zapping and their resident’s from golf carts using bar code guns.
While in N1…in the midst of four dozen penguins there is a man in wellington boots armed with a pen and notebook. “27, 28… hold up fella, weren’t you number 17?”
Perhaps this is a good time take stock; count our penguins, tot up our tigers.
Yachtsman made the suggestion of not just ratings for the game but cumulative appreciation which is an excellent suggestion particularly at this mid point in proceedings. So when leaving your, ‘What game were you watching? 7.045?! He was easily worth a 7.047!!! It’s a good time to reflect upon the individual player’s season so far.
7.001 Another one of those ‘he had little to do but done it well’ sketches for the Bradster. He’s been consistent and that is why he was shipped in and that is why he’s been a success. My one criticism are his kick outs. 99% of them fall into enemy hands. Ball on the floor please. Ball on the floor.
7.002 This was him in good form and pleasing to see it. He might draw negative comments for his crossing or whatever but I’m more interested in him being trained to lay the ball off to someone we pay to do that. No costly errors worth discussing at the back and that’s the important bit.
7.432 I see him and I start to hear Ashford & Simpson’s ‘Solid As A Rock’ playing. He’s a hunched, dogged soldier keeping guard and I sleep soundly on his watch. Something we’ve been missing for donkey’s years. A sluggish return from injury but hey, spring chickens don’t have that level of experience.
8.999 The meteoric improvement in young Younes has been a pleasure. He was undoubtedly shipped in as cover/addition to/replacement for Ledders. He began his time brightly and then deteriorated into race horse that kept getting stuck in the stalls. Last night shows just how far he has come.
6.861 Oh Kyle. You need to sit down in a quiet room and dwell a while on your situation. We all love the idea of you, what you could offer. But you need to focus on being a great defender first and foremost. These forward runs are beginning to grate. Again, we have other folk on the pay roll to do this and do it well.
8.442 The old Dutch masterclass. His determination and energy levels were superb. A swash buckling performance. The only question mark is what to expect from him on a game by game basis. One minute he’s pulling more strings than the London Philharmonic the next he looks like he don’t know how to quit.
7.000 This little fellow needs to start delivering some consistency. I’m not sure what the problem is but this was West Brom not Bayern Munich. Another game where he pottered about in the first half and then improved inthe second. If you think you’re worth £40M and he keeps telling us he is, then he needs to step up to the price tag every game.
Ouch. We wish you well.
6.901 Another one who has gone from being a leading light to a walk on part. This whole drifting about business isn’t working. What’s actually occurring is that he’s less involved in the game and passing over attacking reigns to men who aren’t qualified – aka – our noble ‘wing backs’. On the wing, occasionally cut in if you wish but knock this roaming spiel on the head. Please.
6.901 There will soon come a point when he needs to start scoring again. My admiration for him stems from what he brings to the entire team and specifically his selfless play dropping deep and generosity around the penalty box. But he’s a striker and he either creates or scores or he’s playing out of position. He’s missed some good chances this season, less so last night. But he needs to start scoring.
7.090 His game last night was hugely improved. Call me a miserable sod but that still leaves him as an occasionally offside one dimensional chancer. But he scored and that’s what he’s paid to do so point in digging too deep I guess.
Oh, i know a write a lot. It’s just deep passion for football and the club hehehehe. Forgive me for overloading ur blog. This is probably the 2nd time i’ve posted. Quite enjoyed reading ur blogs.
Nevertheless, just to add a constructive argument on Ade that u were critical about –
I share most fans’ sentiment on his inability to be a Van Persie like in goal scoring, or darren bent like, and yes he is not clinical when given a clear opportunity, HOWEVER, in this game per say against Brom, Ade had almost no service. He reminds me of Kanu, although quite different perception wise, I wouldn’t treat ade as an all out striker. Hence you can’t judge him on the par of Hernandez. Yes he is the only striker (most days), but this guy simply isn’t given the role to play as an in the box striker. Most games, he is always the pass before the assist, or the assist’or himself. Against Nowrich, did we forget that it was his incredible service, to hold off a gang of musketeers, with 3 touches and serve Bale with the goal that unlocks the game? The 1st goal always counts most. Against the swans and even today, i have often said, he has been extremely tired.
To me, we judge ade no different to judging VDV, on the basis of performance. WIth that said, only defoe is played as an actual striker, hence that asserts even further the need to sign a STRIKER. Ade to me is a target man playmaker. Bale/VDV is in the box more often than Ade is all game. It’s just an observation, no actual prove. Clearly Harry knows how Ade plays (even before joining Spurs, back in the days of arsenal), and that’s how the gaffer rates him and judges his contribution. If he scores, brilliant. if he assists, or help make a goal, that’s his job. His job is to help insert a short passing patient game into Spurs, as far as i can see, he has done incredibly well. I still rmb his backhell in the West Brom game, which defoe volleyed it way above the bar.
Until we sign an actual forward, a defoe like, hernandez, suarez, villa like, someone to partner Ade, we will never see the real potential ade brings to the game. All i know is, whoever who partners him – if talented enough, will at least bag 30 goals a season – in all competitions. Norwich needed 3 men to take on Ade, and they still failed – which led to Bale’s goal.
To me, Ade is a world class player, who’s contribution is rarely spotted unless contrasted (when he’s not playing in the team). He is however an underachiever though. Hopefully spurs is his HOME!!!!
Good points. Defoe will always score goals (usually against sides in the bottom half), but a real striker with presence would fill his boots playing with Adebayor.
i rmb watching ade back many years ago, the only time Wenger plays ade alone up front is when he REALL needs 5 man midfield. Games against MU, both home and away in around 07 i reckon, where Arsenal won both games. One of those yrs, can’t recall exactly. I rmb watching it, and Ade was up front all alone. That was the game that made me notice his actual gameplay ability. He took on almost 4 MU defenders each time, everywhere side of the pitch, moving from left channel to right.
Apart from the “odds against us” games, Wenger usually pairs him up with a striker to benefit from Ade’s ability to drag players to him, therefore allowing other players to exploit the space created (eg. Cesc scored a handful).
It’s not about having a physical presence, i mean look at Carroll, and then have alook a drogba. Drogba to me, is a different type of forward to ade. He’s like Torres but much bigger and stronger, with power. THat said, i hope we get someone who’s a poacher like, need not be massive in size, just be bigger than Defoe will do! Actually, i silently hope we sign drogba in the summer when his contract expires hahahaha!
To clarify, when I said ‘presence’, I did actually mean someone bigger than Defoe who can play, rather than a big lump of shite that can’t.
I was making the point that to score against the ‘lesser’ sides or failing to, is exactly why we didn’t qualify for the CL last season! And when some (mentioning no names of course) were then slating the club for not going out and spending money we don’t possess on any number of potentially club bankrupting players that were then flavour of the month.
3PTS IS 3 points, it’s the same 3 points whether it’s Wolves or Man Utd!
I disagree 3 points against Man Utd, is 3 for us and 3 less for them, in the race for the title.
ok 3 pts, but ugly… this was a team we beat 3-1 away… full marks to VDV, BAE, and Kaboul.. all three had this inspiring urgency to get the ball to oppo box at the earliest without too much frills… the rest of the squad appeared to be wilting under the pressure of home expectancy.
hoped HT pep talk would bring them out of their shell but looked as if Arry too fell short in that yesterday.
otherwise, we’re there in those dizzy heights, and as long as VDV & King remain regularly available to inspire on the pitch, we look fwd to gutsier performances oozing more self-belief
You should not forget that in the 3-1 win, we spent most of the second half at 1-1 and it was only in the last ten minutes that we scored 2 of our goals.
Look up your marks for previous games and then tell me Bale has become a walk on part. Our leading goalscorer has got to start scoring sometime!
Your offerings can’t always be on form that would be to much to expect, even if you do expect the impossible and for Modders to do it every game, nobody in world football does that!
Ideal sound, execution needs some more training ground practice.
Again very harsh on Walker HH; still banging MDHotspur is he?
We need to buy/loan a couple in January now that Billy G is lame. Where was Dawson? Even as a sub he shoulda been there….
Adrians reputation is getting him by but he needs to score and have one blinding game…..my fear is he aint 100% fit and is holding bakc
So we do need a striker after all.
Still, we won; they lost. Onwards and upwards
Is there a Spur anywhere in the World waking up this morning (or tomorrow morning in the Antipodies) and looking at the Premier League Table with pride and relishing the contests to come. Who among you dares to doubt our place among Europes elite ? Who among you doubts our Managers and our Chairmans resolve to adapt and address the current injury crisis ?
Over to you Harry and Dan, time to unveil the Masterplan !