Good morning.
Our players won’t have been looking forward this. I’m not looking forward to this and the full extent of my involvement will be nudging the volume up and liberating something ice cold and imported from the Frigidaire.
QPR have made a mess of things. The chilling words of Neil Warnock, ‘I’ll remember where I left QPR …in the Premiership.’ may become indelibly tattooed on Tony Fernandez’s mind come the last day of the season.
Warnock may not be to everyone’s taste, but I still rate him and if left to manage with half decent resources he’d probably be a better than good Premiership manager.
Mark Hughes has his gang delicately poised 3 points above the burn outs that are Bolton, Blackburn and Wolves. My point being that this is wounded beast territory. Never more so than with QPR. Their form has fallen into a very simple pattern. They lose away and win at home. Their last 3 scalps being Swansea, Arsenal and Liverpool.
I chatting to a Spurs fan on Sunday about this and we both agreed that psychologically the pitch at Loftus Road appears narrower. It isn’t of course, but the way the ground is laid out it just feels that way.
So the board then.
fig.1=like a limiter in a car, the rear guard must stay in position. Parker, Walker and Benny aren’t the best men to play forward balls. fig.2=Modric mustn’t get bogged down playing ‘rush defensive mid’ his role must be forward distribution. fig.3&4=go wide and stay wide.
The plan here simple. Try to create space in the final third and take the initiative. This game could deteriorate rapidly into school playground game of punt and run with nobody having either control or a plan. With the ‘wing backs’ muzzled because they simply aren’t good enough at delivery, they can sit deeper and five defensive players ought to be enough.
It’s completely pointless playing into QPR’s hands and letting Azza & Bale ‘drift’ centrally in what will feel like a tight pitch anyway must be stopped. Adebayor and Saha need service and if it is supplied they have got more than enough to beat Paddy Kenny.
QPR are where they are because they do not play great football. Not because of bad luck or because they upset the gods. Spurs need to step up with a plan and stick to it. A casual approach with some ropy 442 or fielding players who either lack ability or class (hello Ledders and Half Nelsen) is guaranteed to be a waste of everyone’s time.
Eye-catcher bets from Boylesports.com 1-3 Correct score is 12/1, Last goalscorer Saha 11/2 and Spurs to win by 2 goals 11/1.
In between drag’s this is winnable if the players are disciplined and stick to a plan that can expose QPR’s weak links. There are several dangermen in this QPR side, Joey Barton and Bobby Zamora primarily but Derry is also a box to box man so Benny and Bale have to be disicplined. QPR play 442 mostly. Samba Diakite for me is the weak link as he makes silly fouls and finds himself out of position on several occasions, leaving his backline exposed.
Id set up first until we either concede or go 2 up….
3-2-4-1
Brad
Walker Kaboul Benny
Parker Sandro
Azza VDV Modric Bale
Ade
If winning stiffen up the defence moving Sandro back 4-1-4-1 sub VDV for Livermore Ade for Saha.
Concentrate on targeting Samba Diakite. Order Azza and Bale to stay on the wings and remind them of their defensive duties.
Just a thought……but then again what the f%c# do I know?
I to will be on the sauce for this one!
You remind me there of Bale’s seeming belief that ‘tracking back’ and ‘defending’ are things that happen to …’other people’.
arry alzhiemer!
Talk about cutting the ties that bind. But why would he think about the consequences to Tottenham? It’s only the team he manages, after all – although, not much longer.
Meanwhile, let him carry on ‘motivating’ our players to achieve 4th – it’ll be quite a prize, that Blankety Blank Chequebook and Pen.
Looong time reader, first time poster.
I’m worried we won’t be able to win any of our remaining games due of a lack of desire and determination from (most)our players. All of the relegation battlers will be playing for their lives, committing to every 50/50 ball and working that extra bit harder.
We seem to have approached the last few games against lesser opposition thinking all we have to do is turn up and we would win (the same being true after we where 2-0 up at the emptycrates).
Redknapp made his name lifting teams out of trouble and he need to do it again.It’s time for him to give these pansies (I’m looking at you Mr Bale and Mr Modric) a kick up the back side and tell them to show some desire and fight!
In a nutshell it’s time for the lot of them to do the job they are very well paid to do. Only Scotty Parker can be exempted from the ….. Too good to run around and make an effort malaise that has sunk in recently.
It’ll take more than Tugboat Parker to pull the Titanic ashore – and a few of his colleagues are probably already looking to their Lifeboats.
But, if they all pull together – and it’s a big ‘if’ – they just might reach the New Found Land of Champions League Football.
redknapp’s comments belies his attitude. He wants chelsea to win the cl because it is of no consequence to him if they do. If we come 4th and miss out he’ll just say ‘4th is usually ok, its not my fault it wasn’t enough this year, chelsea done great. Spurs are usually nowhere’
Spot on!