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Hooooof!

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Good morning and welcome to the reality of the FA Cup. 

I think trying to pull player ratings out of that game would be about productive as teaching Dereck Chisora to use cutlery. 

The stark reality of playing a League 1 side seemed to take a few by shock yesterday. Yes, Stevenage were a bit rough, tough and generally didn’t play like nice boys. And no, you wouldn’t want to take a horse out on that pitch. But this is the FA Cup, mush. Whether you like it or not that Cup and Tottingham’s history are intertwined. Games like that are the very definition of taking the rough with the smooth. 

It’s a traditional English competition where conceivably a gang of part-timers can find themselves playing at Wembley Stadium. Try and get over it. 

Could we have done better? Yes. The game was crying out for 442, Bale and Azza to give us width and for all of our players to have been threatened with immediate execution if they hoofed the ball under any circumstances other than clearing it off their own goal line. 

Maybe Arry thought the best thing to do was to fight fire with fire. It was an insult to Livermore to leave him on so long. Arry clearly thought that the boy would be able to scrap it out with lads closer to his own level. When what was really required was us to raise the tone with some thought and finesse. Alas, we looked more like a side that was desperately missing 3MP.

Kaboul looked good, Rose looked like a man in urgent need of brain transplant. 

Anyhoo, bring ’em back to the Lane and we’ll skin ’em alive. Especially if we can string more than three passes together.

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120 comments

  • Hartley says:

    5-3-2….what’s that all about?

    • jim says:

      A HR tactical mistake I believe.Why do managers always put out a Second string and upgrade as the game goes along and not vica versa?

  • Gilzeanwasgod says:

    Banana skin sidestepped, pride slightly wounded, but bodyies largely intact, which is a blessing considering the list of sick and lame. Need the medical team to play a blinder this week

  • TMWNN says:

    Cudicini 5 – didn’t inspire confidence

    Kaboul 6 – okay

    Nelsen 6 – see Kaboul

    Dawson 5 – donkey, not good enough for the 1st 11

    Rose 6 – did well as wing back (especially the wing part)

    Parker 6 – okay

    Bale 5 – let’s stop this central nonsense

    Livermore 5 – ***** mk II

    Walker 5 – poor final ball

    Defoe 3 – waste of space

    Saha 6 – worked hard with little to work from

    Redknapp 5 – gains a point for not getting involved in the in-game interviewing (he was clucking, though).

  • A_Felching says:

    Only caught the last five, suffering from a hang over same as our chaps

  • rogerspurs says:

    In fairness to Arry his all round ‘not happy’ demeanour suggested that he was not getting what he expected. Doesn’t really make sense to have 3 in the middle, two attacking full backs in a 3 – 5 – 2 type combo only to see Dawson (particularly) happy to punt long balls up to nobody in particular. A banana skin sidestepped methinks – even if they did their best to get it smeared all over their boots. This and the Watford game had all of the hallmarks of ‘ when your names on the cup’. We haven’t had a prolonged blip yet – if we can play poorly occassionally and still be in the cup and 3rd then clearly wearing my lucky Argentina shirt from ’81 still has it’s merits (albeit being a bit tight rounf the midriff).

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