Good morning?
It’s a funny state of affairs that some believe it’s not ‘right’ to consider replacing Arry Resdschnapps when he himself has announced he’s considering replacing us.
Another loss then. Another week of our advantages gained being slowly eroded and we need to explore why. The obvious answer is that we played two top top teams. But the game against Arsenal was joke shop of a game. Had the incredible fortune to score 2 iffy goals in swift succession then conceded 5.
Against Manchester United we actually played well for a long time. Lots of possession. Lots of looking every bit like a home side. We couldn’t get past their midfield, but we were doing a good impression of a mob that were in control.
But possession doesn’t win prizes.
In both games our manager was found to be tactically out of his depth. Arsenal were greater than the sum of their parts quite simply because the disciplined manner that they played. Van Persie is one of their best players and so they fed him. Bale is one of our best players and we let him go AWOL, living’ his agent’s wet dream.
Ans then against United we replaced Bale with …wait for it, Modric. Our most creative player, most likely to supply the front men player and we stuck him on the wing.
You know, I would have played Krankie on the wing yesterday or even Rose. The latter’s pretty gormless, but he could have done a job without having to greater a negative impact on our overall shape.
Up front, Adebayor and Saha couldn’t score. Frequently outnumbered and with Modric out wide their supply routes were limited. Defoe should have come on far far sooner.
Defensively we were laughable. Two naff games in a row for a Ledley King who is looking increasing shot to pieces. The last 180 minutes have hurt him and it’s killing us. The Midas touch he had is now working in reverse and where once his presence was infectious, now his vulnerability is seeping into the entire back line.
So what is the answer? Well if Arry isn’t being distracted by his showbiz career then I’m a monkey’s uncle. His Court case naturally overshadowed his managerial efforts. He could well have gone to prison, you know. But who’s fault was that? I didn’t open an account in Monaco and move money about in his name. Nor did any of you. If he conducted his financial affairs like a normal human being opposed to some cartoon character on the run from the mafia this wouldn’t have happened.
Then this England business. Not only do we get lucky that Arry announces he’d like the job but we hit the jackpot as Fabio gets the bullet not a week afterwards.
Since then, the FA have lived up to their reputation and done sod all in slow motion. The press have asked Arry on the hour about the position and on the hour he’s provided blushing quote after blushing quote. He’d play Theo Walnutt, he’d bring Scholesy in.
Of course, it would be vicious and vile of me to ask him what his strategy is for Tottenham against Stevenage. He’s the best manager since Burkinshaw, you know.
We’ve a cracking squad but the man in charge isn’t entirely focused on the job and it’s showing.
5.089 Immobile?
5. 090 Weak.
5.777 Knackered.
6.567 Not awful.
6. 566 Not dreadful.
7.802 Possibly his best game in the shirt to date.
7.454 Took the sting out of Scholes.
7.454 Could have been so important, but was stuck on the wing.
7.563 Inspiring stuff.
6.997 Looked damn hungry, then faded.
6.893 Woeful first touch.
8.001 Deployed far too late.
Harry Hotspur – you’re turning into one of those ‘fans’ you were decrying a few weeks ago that could only offer abuse and negativity! I am struggling to understand the negative comments here today and yesterday – is this site now the ‘Arry ‘Aters blog? Two PL games ago we’d stuffed Newcastle and taken 22 points from 11 games since losing ( unluckily) at Stoke! Not league winning form but most certainly CL qualifying form. And aside from ‘frustrating’ rather than ‘catastrophic’ performances vs Swansea, Wolves and Liverpool we’d been getting some good strong performances – “we want you to stay” and “Arry Redknapps Blue & White Army” sang the crowd. One poor performance (against the worst team we’d want to see one, admittedly), and a good (in the main, apart from slack defending – not Arry’s fault there I’d venture) yesterday and all that went before the Newcastle game is conveniently forgotten. All teams have a bit of a blip – and despite the current general feelings of angst this current Spurs team DOES HAVE character. Get some perspective guys – we’re still a good team, we will bounce back , all is not ‘woe is me’!Now is NOT the time to sack the manager, with 11 games to go – we’re 3rd, and need 6 wins to get past the 70 point mark.Wholly achievable. Now is the time to show some encouragement and get behind the team – or do you want to be relegated to the “your support is fuckin shit” category. Honestly – there’s nowt as queer as folk!
I’d agree with this! I have slated Harrys tactics above, But if we get back to winnig ways (And the next 6 games are all winable games), we will be in a strong position again. I just wish he’d play our best team agaisnt the best sides, instead of taking uneccesary risk!
COYS
The last 2 were winnable.
Their all out of step except my son Roger :blink:
Nearest sacred cow to this blog is grazing peacefully in Delhi.
Here here, I am a huge fan of Harry Hotspur, but this is truly not a balanced view of the game…
Football is a simple game. Win against next 2 teams and we’re back on track.
If we had won all of our games we would be even more on track.Funny old game football.
Not sure about Defoe getting motm for us, he was only on 10 mins!
On a side note, the ads are doing my head in, no, I do not want to do a survey for Sure!
Anyone know how I can block the popups?
Have you taken a look at your browser settings?
Totally agree on the ads, there is a plugin for Firefox to stop things like those Ads… search for something like ‘Stop music playing automatically when opening webpages’. And also on the Defoe comment… he deceives even more than he flatters, the only reason we’ve needed to buy Saha is that he’s not up to it… never has been – a couple of goals then he’s missing all over the shop…
Don’t think it’s fair to blame King for anything that transpired. Man U scored on three of three chances, and none of them were Ledley’s fault.
1st goal is 100% on Walker dropping his marking on Shrek. 2nd goal is almost entirely on Modders for falling asleep and not seeing their player ghosting in behind him from the throw in (who is then completely unmarked to cross in at his leisure). 3rd is a world class finish, but if there is blame to be shared it goes between Texas Ranger and Raging ‘Boul, who both maybe could have closed down Young more quickly.
So, the defense hold Man U to three chances in 90 minutes. King makes no mistakes as far as I can see (other than looking a bit sluggish, which he has done for years). Yet this game is being held up as further evidence that he’s done. Knee-jerk (no Ledley-pun intended) if I ever heard it.
Not saying he wasn’t bad against Le Arse, but so was the whole rest of the squad, especially Parker. Is he done, too?
I was surprised by Livermore, our MoM for me. Easy to say that Modders must play in the middle, but I’m not sure. I think Sandro and Jake did a great job of getting up Carrick and Scholes. They’re the type of players who, given a few extra yards of space (as they would have had with Modders trying to close them down in stead), they will find a player in space. They didn’t really get to do that. Besides, Modders was only on the wing when we were defending. Whenever we got possession and built from the back, he came central and pulled strings just how he likes, with A&E providing width left.
I think ‘Arry got the tactics pretty much spot on yesterday (as opposed to last weekend, which was dire). It’s not his fault when individual players make elementary marking errors. It’s not his fault when Saha smashes the ball straight at Adeboy in stead of the 4 metres of empty net to the right.
I’m as frustrated as most with the will-he-won’t-he of the England job, but I don’t think we can put yesterday’s defeat on that. We made Man U look average for most of 90 minutes, but didn’t catch any breaks. They scored on each and every chance they got. I don’t think there’s a team in the world who beat Man U on a day like that.
Forgot to mention. Totally agree that Defoe should have been introduced earlier on. With both him and Krankie on the bench, and Bale and VdV nursing their gout, we had absolutely nobody who posed a real threat from outside their box. Made it easy for their defense and CM’s to drop back and close passing lanes rather than having to worry about closing down.
Well done mate, a victory for rational thought and intelligent, considered analysis amidst all the other nonsense around here.
A couple of weeks ago we were – rightly – laughing at Gooners for there fickle negativity and dim-witted grasp of basic facts. All this kind of comment does is show up some our fans as worse than there’s. That’s pretty depressing.
of?
when?
Couldnt agree more…..
Agree with most of that LL.
Impressed with Livermore and Sandro.
Lennon was good, too.
Would have liked more width on the left and Modders behind Saha or Ade.
Both managers reflected on Manure’s luck.
Three chances – three goals.
Sh*t happens sometimes.
Yep, you’ve got my vote – we were “mugged”, good & proper…
I told my missus we’d need a bit of luck to beat MU… ball to arm would’ve been a good start…
We didn’t get an ounce of it, yesterday.
Hurrah – at last some bloggers whose cups are half full.
All together…”In our team we’ve got Ossie Ardiles, he’s had a dream for a year or two….”
A wet dream :-D
what cup?
The FA Cup!!
it has been 21 years since we last had a sniff of that cup…..
Well you’ve got to be in it to win it and we’re still in it!
at which time we held the record for the most FA Cup wins…