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.
Rose will forever live in the shadow of ‘that goal’.
Would have like to see Bale as a wing back, think that formation could work with him there.
Amazing how we play when we lose Modric and VDV and have Daws in.
Harry put out a dodgy team (and expected a dodgy performance) on purpose i reckon!! FA/ England scout was in attendence and harry needs an excuse for not taking the England role!!! tin foil hat crew!!
Being a man o th people and champion of the underdog as trouty seems to be, he was probably helping the steves to trouser a bit of a bonus….good idea!
But Danny Rose was man of the match apparently according to the Sun H and id like to think the Sun knows a little bit about good performances by players!
I’d like to thinks so too! But they don’t.
Home ties against Stevenage and Bolton are all that separates us from a semi-final spot. Added to which there is absolutely nothing to fear on neutral ground from any of the others still left in it.
The question isn’t so much “Can we win the cup this year?” as “Can we win the league to supplement our cup triumph?”
Arry put out his strongest side. Anyone missing was injured or ill. Even though Ledley was on the bench he was never going to play.
Injuries mounting for the Woolwich game.
I didn’t know that when I posted earlier. From the sound of it seems they could be ready in time.
It wasn’t so much the selection (although we started without Lennon and Kranjcar), it was the formation.
Apart from the second half at Stoke, that formation hasn’t been used this season, and not at all with those players. We had the players to play a much more effective system.
Trying to be too clever, when the opposition didn’t warrant it.
It worked well second half at Stoke and I assume HR used it Sunday as he thought we would be on the end of an aerial bombardment.
The system seemed to lessen Walkers attacking threat and in hindsight, I think we would have been better off playing our usual game and letting them worry about us, rather than changing our shape because of worries about how they might play.
Re this Sunday’s game, HR likes to play the injury game and usually the players involved are fit for the next match so let’s hope this Sunday is no exception.
Modric is said to have flu so he should be ok, unles it is man flu,in which case he will be out for the season.
I’ve no problem with different formations, horses for courses and all that, but why wait so long to change it?
Modric keeps having these little flu episodes, I reckon it’s more like Redknapp giving him the day off.
“I no like bumpy pitch, could get injury and not get big money move… ahhh chooo!”