Good morning.
We won and that is what we call in the trade, a good thing. ‘I want Champions League and the FA Cup.’ said Tottenham supremo Arry Redschnapps in a rare post match interview.
You have to wonder what he’s planning to do with either should he achieve this ambition. The team that blazed a trail and forged a 10 point lead over Arsenal were industrious and talented whereas this mob have sadly descended into being merely looky-likeys of the 2011/2012 Tottenham.
Tactically ineptitude is the heart of the malaise and for obvious reasons it reveals itself when not masked by individual brilliance. Some are refusing to acknowledge this and are exasperated by what they perceive as the constant nit picking at a manager that has achieved so much. Which must be fabulous way to lead your life. If your definition of fabulous is to be blinkered, unambitious and unquestioning.
This team doesn’t just have the makings of a great one …up until recently it was one! Some refuse to acknowledge the direct correlation between us going off the boil and Arry’s mind being on the once impending threat of abysmal room service in Pentonville or what impact the introduction of Paul Scholes will have on England’s midfield needs. Anyone who genuinely believes this probably also thinks that those Til Payday Loans on the telly are good value.
It is depressing after having shot like Lilywhite comets that we are rapidly heading into damage limitation territory. We’re at the business end of the season and it’s been mooted by some that our run in is kinder than that of others. I’d be fascinated to know how they came to that conclusion.
We don’t appear to have any system in place. Every single player in the first squad other than Brad walks out thinking this could be the game where they score a ‘wondergoal’. Defending is an optional extra. Set pieces are an anathema; throw ins have become elaborate drop balls and our corners are so consistently poor the bulk are taken short in an effort to give us some advantage no matter how brief.
A serious shake up is required. If last night had been a boxing match and you airbrushed away all the goals, Stevenage might well have just won on points.
7.881 Occasionally seem pulling children out of a burning building. I’d be genuinely interested in playing him over Friedel in the Premiership.
5.986 If pace were pennies he’d be a millionaire.
6.743 Adequate enough but CB’s work in pairs and he is a party of one. We’re linked with a constant stream of strikers, I want us to build from the back.
3.001 Making Sebastien Bassong memories happy ones. Compounded his stupidity by boring the referee with his life story afterwards.
6.353 Daft as a brush.
7.645 Another shift of having to do the work of three men.
6. 555 Isn’t good enough to play defensively. Livermore should have started if Sandro wasn’t up for it.
6. 010 This man has a vision. Excused defending and or making any other useful contributions unless it is contained within the vision.
7.646 The few glimpses of loveliness came from him. The player that gives our manager an obvious headache of where to play him.
6.944 I like him lots. It’s taking me a while to accept that he does not, cannot, will not set every gave alight.
8.000 Our saviour. A man among men. And a veritable hit with the laydees to boot. On the downside he’s a profligate, self indulgent one trick Shetland pony.
Lets not forget that we were not at full strength (Modders missing is our creative heart removed). I still think we will finish third and all teams have a blip so lets not go into panic mode yet.
I agree that it is strange that we had a great formation with Ade and VDV just behind and two wingers on the wings but maybe we will revert to that (Assuming Lennon gets fit) and then we will start terrorising teams again. And Stevenage deserve a lot of credit for how they raised their game last night and in the first game.
When can we go into panic mode? How will we know? Will there be a memo?
i don’t think bale was bad yesterday and he put in another couple of crosses that our frontmen should have been gobbling up,i still don’t understand why modric was on the left against utd and i doubt we will get away with a wide open right at everton,
we are on a mini wobble and speculation only matters when you are losing games,in reality we lost away to the goons and got beat by utd,not unexpected,of course it all feels ugly because it matters and we are being reeled in,but fear not fellow lillywhites we will prevail,top table and a wembley final are still in the cooking pot and if we can just click and have happy thoughts we will put one of the scums in the ropa dopa dustbin,good times
COYS
we could do with peanut back really by the looks of things
As for rating the players, Defoe did what he does; scored goals. Yes he’s one-sided, but if you’re a striker it’s not really that bad a side. If he keeps scoring, keep playing him, imo.
Adeboy adds so very much to our team, but why is he never anywhere near to box when our crosses come in? At least in him we seem to have someone who can score penalties for a change. Which is nice…
I thought Rose had one of his better games. One or two misplaced passes, but got stuck into it and was no pushover for their right wing. Largely pretty good positioning when defending. Apart from the penalty I though Nelsen looked alright beside Kaboom. Walker useful at both ends of the pitch, but could have used the night off. Must have covered more ground than any of our other players this season, by a wide margin.
Krankie can’t be one of two centrals mids. It is that simple. He trys hard but to little or no effect. Parker made it look much easier than it was making up for this. Bale… No comment (or see above). Lennon never got going. VdV was classy as usual. Was afraid he’d be bullied out of it by big, bad league one physical football, but his lack of pace/fitness was outweighed by his skill and craftiness. A shame he had to be moved out right when Azza went off.
Carlo “Motorpsycho” Cudicini was solid.
Well done Defoe, saved our bacon last night.
He’s not cut out for the higher echelons of the PL, but played at this level every week, and in a team where the players don’t mind if he never passes to them, he’d be top, top quality.
I thought Bale did well last night. Although his roaming causes us to lose shape, against a 3rd div team we got away with it.
I’ve seen enough of Kranjcar. Gifted, but not a winner. We’ve had too many players like him for too long.
VdV slowly got into the game, but was nothing special.
Lennon, the new sick note?
Adebayor put a proper shift in, but his attitude suggests that he feels he’s slumming it. With some of these losers, perhaps he is.
Parker was alright, but seems to fall apart the higher up the pitch he goes. It’s like he suffers from some kind of horizontal vertigo.
Back four looked shaky when ever the box was invaded (ooh er!).
I think this team, with Redknapp in charge, and with the momentum it’s gained so far this season, will have enough to stumble over the finishing line into fourth.
I’m sure this will bore you ;-)
Not meant as a jibe at you in particular, but to people who seemingly dislike Defoe on genereal principle. Your post was just a convenient peg to hang it on.
“He’s not cut out for the higher echelons of the PL”
This season Defoe has scored nine goals in the PL in 937 minutes played. Four of these goals have come against teams currently placed in the top seven.
That means that he’s scored a goal every 0,92 games against teams outside the top 7 and a goal every 0,8 games against teams in the top seven. Considering that the bottom 13 conceded on average 41 % more goals per game than the top 7 (not including us); Defoe has actually done much better against the top teams than the bottom ones (realtively speaking).
In response to this, someone will no doubt be tempted to say that he scores goals when it doesn’t matter. Of the nine goals he’s scored, only one (against Bolton) was scored is a situation where we were leading by more than one goal (“icing on the cake”).
Sure, there’s more to football than scoring goals. He’s not the right player for every type of game (utterly useless as a lone strikier). But JD is as good as they get when it comes to scoring goals, and when you look at this maybe it is a bit more understandable that he tries to go for goal “a bit too often”. He’s bloody good at scoring when he does get a pop.
Added to which, the last three he’s scored have all been absolute belters.
And quite a few of the previous ones, too.
If he’s so prolific, how come he’s only scored over 15 league goals once in 10 seasons, and only over 10 in two other seasons?
My Grandad’s broken watch is still winning…hooray!
Does it matter how good he has been in the past? I’m talking about how good he is now.
Did you know Lionel Messi didn’t score a single goal for the entire La Liga season in 1994 (when he was 7)?
You see… now he’ll spout out that Harry is crap because he didn’t visit Argentina and snap the child up, despite the fact he was managing Bournemouth and his crystal ball was in the pawnshop!
I can’t believe more isn’t being made of Dawson’s injury. He was deliberately pushed whilst in mid-air causing him to fall awkwardly and will now almost certainly miss the rest of the season. Meanwhile, his ‘assailant’ is free to carry on as normal. This cannot be right.
Had Dawson been injured as a result of a genuine attempt by both parties to reach the ball I could accept it as just one of those things. But that isn’t the case. This League One clogger has put Dawson out for the rest of the year and probably ended any hopes he had of making the Euros. I hope he’s happy, ’cause I most certainly ain’t.
Very much agree.
Cowardly challenge when players are at their most vulnerable.
Cowardly is spot on.
He was trying to “put it to” Dawsom physically and set the tome that he wasn’t going to be pushed around. Maybe make him hesitate for a split second in later challenges.
He was not trying to make him fall akwardly on his leg, rupturing his ligaments.
It wasn’t a friendly challenge, but it was hardly some despicable act of hatred. Closer to bad luck.
If he pushed Dawson in the back whilst he was in mid-air, can he reasonably expect an awkward fall to be anything other than the expected outcome?
It was a foul and nasty challenge that has gone completely unpunished. ‘Cowardly’ is spot on.
Sorry LL – got to disagree.
Even rugby players on the ground are not allowed to challenge players who are in the air.
The guy had no intention of going for the ball.
He hit Daws around the hip area with his shoulder.
Retrospective action by the FA wouldn’t be out of place. But it’s too late now.
Not arguing that it is permissible. It was a clear foul, and the ref has missed it. Maybe even a yellow card.
As for retrospective punishment, I don’t see what you can do. Sure, he’s injured himself badly, but the outcome can’t dictate the severity of the offense. By that logic you’d have to allow headless, two-feet-off-the-floor, studs first challenges – as long as they don’t break bone (I exaggerate, but you get teh point).
It is a foul every time you go for the body without looking for the ball in an arial challenge. If you go in with your elbow aiming purposely for their face, it’s a straight red. If you give a sort of innocuous half-nudge to put them off a bit, somewhere in midfield, there’s no card at all. And then there are degrees in between.
Like I said, I thought the one last night was a clear foul – maybe a yellow. You can’t have the refs/officials taking into consideration severity injuries that ensue in doling out punishments, however. And if you look at the challenge in itself, you’ll find that that happens 10 times in an average PL weekend (most of these in Stoke games).