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.
unlucky for dawson too
Afternoon everyone, What a great day it is to be a Spurs fan, quarter finals of the FA cup, 3rd in the league, 4 points clear of our bitter rivals, 7 points clear of Chelsea and the sun is shining here in Liverpool in anticipation of our game on Saturday. No solar storm is going to ruin my hair transplant.
Anyway I arrived last night and went out for a few scoops, I met a grubby girl in a pink tracksuit and asked her if I could take her home, she replied (in that subtle scouse twang) Of course Jeffrey, your proper fit and have a great head of hair..Anyway her mood soon changed when I picked up her cardboard box and ran off with it…..
Ok that was a cheap joke, but it was a metaphor for life, perception is everything and I think some peoples perception is rather dour these days..
Mr Hotspur you have the platform here to reach 20 maybe even 30 Spurs fans and preach a positive message to the masses, yet you choose to peddle this moan and groan tactic as soon as something goes wrong, I think you are not the only Harry that is tactically naïve these days. Yes we have had a couple of poor games and were on fire earlier in the season but no team can perform perfectly week in week out, Even the great Barca team are 10 points behind in their league, but Guardiola is still the best, better than Mourinho…The season is not over yet and I for one am not going to throw in the towel because we have struggled a bit of late, that is for the mentally fragile and I am anything but that…
I think it was the late great Winston Churchill that wrote and performed the classic track ‘ When the going gets tough, the tough get going’..Think on Captain Keyboard
Cheap,meaning shit
shit, meaning pointless
Pointless,meaning our last 2 prem games
In the spirit of continuous improvement, I can agree with some of the criticism of the team at the moment.
I was there on Sunday and we played very well for 60 mins. Without Bale. Without Parker.
60 mins, though is never enough and we were sucker-punched just before half time. Set piece defending. The second goal was a farcical gift. And by the time we allowed a “worldy” from Young we were on the “feeling sorry for ourselves” bandwagon.
So, I don’t think criticism of ‘Arry or the team is a bad thing. Don’t get me wrong…I’m not into “‘Arry out” or Bale for sale…but I do go to matches and watch on TV and like to see excellence as well as observe areas where I think there is room for improvement.
Criticism is healthy. It’s usually a point of view. That’s all.
And it doesn’t have an effect on the team if Bruxie says Bale needs to stop his wandering.
I doubt ‘Arry reads this. And the players have a team spirit which would have them collectively creasing up at some of the posts on here.
Including mine.
Good stuff.
“Prattle” should be mandatory reading for them all before each game…. erm, hang on a minute, if their literacy skills anything like Redknuts that could be a big ask…better get that podcast ready soon as if I were you HH
The only people we influence on this blog are:-
1) Rival websites;
2) Daily Mail – if they are short on lies and fibs;
3) Lazy reporters who quote “the feeling amongst Tottenham supporters is…”
4) The sad b’stards who read it during half term.
Then again…
I don’t seek to influence people.
What’s that in Latin?
“Non quaero summam populi”
Apparently.
I just got a ghostly boardrubber around my ear from a deceased latin teacher.
:wassat:
Nil desperandum ;-)
Yes, criticism is useful and welcome. There is quite a bit to criticise Redknapp for, but overall the is still much to be thankful for. The problem here is when criticism spills across into bare negativity and defies common sense.
Anyone calling for Harry to be sacked this past week or so is not only a fickle fool but also shows absolutely zero understanding of the small matter of club finance, and displays zero awareness of the status of our club, i.e. where we’ve been and where we are. Where we are now is as good as it’s been for a long, long time. We have no divine right to a top 4 finish. Our squad is neither as good as everyone thought it was 3 months ago neither as bad as many seem to think it is now. Same thing with our manager. But he’s still doing a pretty decent job. Enjoy it you cretins, we may never have it so good again!!
Spot on, the thing that annoys me are those queuing eagerly to say ‘I told you so’, whereas the simple answer’s are..1.It’s still early March, and you were saying the same rubbish in August.
2. We’re still third and have 11 games to play yet!
Even stranger is the consistent posting regarding our lack of transfer activity, but were we not once relegation candidates with such a poor squad?
Bale did less roaming and managed quite a few hard and low crosses from that left flank begging for someone to just tap in.
That’s one area Arry can work on, getting our front men to believe more in Bale’s ( or Lennon’s ) delivery and rush more towards the 6 yard box… we could have added at least another 2 goals from that yesterday
Agreed, our forwards are terrible at positioning themselves for crosses. Defoe is the only one who seems remotely interested in crosses between defender and goalie, though he hasn’t had much luck lately in converting these chances. Manu, Saha and VdV all seem to drift out to the edge of the box and look for a cut-back in stead. VdV I understand; he won’t win a 50-50 header, and usually isn’t quick enough to get to the low ones first. But it just doesn’t work when we have 2-3 players in the same space waiting for that cut-back.
I guess I can understand the forwards, though. Hasn’t really been much reason to get deep into the box for crosses in the last few months. Our right winger has been injured and/or off the boil and our left winger has decided to play central attacking walkabout in stead. Quality crosses from near the touchline have been few and far between, and it has been easier to get on the ball on the edge of their box. Problem is, that makes it easy to defend. Need to penetrate (that’s what she said).
Yep, need to penetrate she said, only we’re all foreplay ( like Cescesque Arse ) and not much of the real thing… the ratio of side passes to vertical ones is way too high.. too much tapping getting us nowhere very fast… Man U were happy watching us do this for 70 odd minutes Sunday.
Scottie’s alright winning balls and taking the ball out of our area, but we need Luka, VDV or Niko for that final pass from central positions… right now I don’t see that often enough.
We need Thomas back.