Good morning.
Questions in the house then about last night’s game. To use trade terminology that may throw laymen reading, it was a bit of a muddle.
First up, but in no particular order Modric. Arry stands before the world and says that the medic at Tottingham only told him after he’d submitted the team sheet that the Croat hadn’t been feeling too chipper for two or three days.
Hello? I know you’re in the mood for making stupid confessions Aitch, but what the hell is going on at this multi-million pound football club? Where’s the lines of communication? Where are our so called coaching staff? Is anyone talking to each other on a regular basis?
The team selection looked like one knocked together by an absentee landlord who had been briefed by Levy & Co to stick in a few more ‘A listers‘ to keep the sponsors happy. Judging by the game, the only direction the players were given was to the Away dressing room.
What last night also proved is that the heavily tipped stars of the future really aren’t burning as bright as they were said to be. It was Watford.
Oh look, here’s the ratings…
7.090 Occassionaly looked like a man trying to grab money in one of those game show blowing machines. But this was primarily down to the fact his defense was the sort that could land you 3 years. His distribution is better than Brads.
5.002 No wonder he’s in the fakin’ reserves. I can see a big future for him. In panto. Being a yoofstar these days appears to be all about speed. I’m an old fashioned gal and I like my footballers to also have a brain.
8.756 Man of the match again. His transformation has been a joy to witness. He clearly has willingness to listen and learn. If he can carry on like this he’ll be one of our most important signings in a generation.
6.222 He’s a guy that lapses too readily into ‘repel all borders!!!’ mode. Walloping the ball out like it’s the end of the world is pointless if it ends up back at the feet of the other lot. Urgently needs to find his form again.
4.767 What we got there was him minus the Forest Gump runs that so many of you seemed to coo over. And what was left was a guy who needs to work on his job. Which is being a defender. Is that incredibly mean? No.
7.333 A flickering bright light on dimly lit pitch. For most of it all he was knee deep in trying to unravel the mess of wayward passes and unsightly pinball that appeared to dominate the bulk of our central play.
6.454 Jake played well when he got on with the job. He kept his head and didn’t flap like many did. But the foul was daft and as I said last night, the ball under the arm and strutting up to the linesman routine needs to be canned. There’s a good footballer in there. Focus on finding him or they’ll be calling you Jason Dozzell 2.0
6.772 If anyone can explain the wisdom in running this poor guy into the ground than do get in touch.
5.001 He’s not been well. He played like it.
6.043 Brought when the footballing gurus managing our team eventually realised we had no width. Triffic. Did he then do that wing swapping thing again? Brilliant, I bet that threw Watford into a right state. Oh, wait…
1.800 “I’m the invisible man I’m the invisible man
Incredible how you can see right through me”.
2.843 Nights like these he must be wondering just what in the name of Jesus he’s gone and got himself involved in this time.
When the feck have we been a threat from a corner?
Cant be bothered we were absolutely shocking last night I feel for the poor Spurs fans that went there on a cold Friday night
Too many of them suffering from BBB (Bertie big bollocks) syndrome last night.
Not helped by clogging up the midfield and having no width.
There will not be that many premier teams in the draw for the next round so this is a competition we should be trying to win.
We missed Bale roaming through the middle and causing a trouble.
this is clever, trevor.
VdV 7.3? Apart from scoring a backpass, all he did was give the ball away for 90 minutes and hit long balls to no-one. He hasn’t played well for ages now and with Arry to afraid to drop him our team is horribly unbalanced. Watford had acres of space because playing with Rafa is like playing with 10 men out of possession.
I think its pretty clear we need a new forward, I’m starting to see why City loaned Adebayor to us. Dawson is a nightmare and Rose is a decent athlete who can’t play football.
I can understand somewhat why you bash Walker most weeks, he has never looked defensively solid. Best we have at RB at the moment. If he is the “next Roberto Carlos” he needs to watch some tapes and learn some intelligence and awareness past just lumping it and running.
Livermore wasn’t terrible yesterday but at 22, when do you stop being a prospect and become a good player? Looks to be J***s 2.0 sadly.
Rafa rarely gave the ball away and not only scored but also hit the woodwork and this on a night where he’s shackled by being put on the right wing. Harry is not afraid to drop Rafa he doesn’t want to as he knows that Rafa is a truly class act who can create and score goals at any time in any game. If you watch Rafa he gets through a lot of work most games and we all know he loves the club and it shows.
I agree with you about Rose and Livermore though I think there is a difference. Rose just doesn’t look like he’ll ever be good enough and is a liability every match. Livermore when he plays within himself and cuts out the clever stuff looks like he can do a job. Of course he needs to do more than that to become a regular at the lane but at least he can ‘do a job’ when we’re short.
Remember a certain G Roberts?, when he did what he did, he did it well, but for a few games after his England call up-he thought he was the Great Danes gonads and started to try and justify his International recognition and his form plummeted soon after until the penny dropped.
Livermore can do a good job, never a great one, he’ll be competent and reliable, but never International class, but good teams need competent players as well as superstars.
Our first eleven are a match for anyone.
Take a couple of players out that equation and we seem to struggle.
The fringe/youth not up to it ? It must be tough when you dont get a run of games or in the case of Pav/Peanut just the odd game when it doesnt matter surrounded by a whole team of fringers.
Harry we know doesnt do rotation. Picks his best players regardless. In a way this kind of reminds me of Sven when in charge of England.
What worries me is that with one or two injuries we can go from title contenders to also rans pretty dam quick.
Our Holy Grail seems to be the Champions league. But as a squad we cannot do two games a week.
Love Harry and appreciate all he has done for Spurs, but hope he has a nice outcome to his current dilemma. Would hate to see him ruled out of the England job.
King, Gallas, Bale, Modric for half a game. Take four top players out of any side and you will notice a difference, surely?
Yah, not to mention Sandro.
Huddlestone?
Notice a difference ? Yes
But not be a team at such an inferior level to our strongest eleven.
Our usual cup side would have made a better job of this if they had played 4-4-2.
I don’t see why we didn’t give them a run out with the Wigan match being three days away and rest PNB, Modric etc.