Good morning.
Straight to business then and I do hope those of you feverishly composing letters in green ink from ‘outraged consumers’ to Levy & Co. this morning are will remember to thank them for at least the first hours worth of football yesterday.
As I commented yesterday much of our play was up their with the gods. Slick and dare I say it, scintillating. The passing and movement was Barcelonaesque. West Brom couldn’t get possession. They couldn’t get more than two passes together. They couldn’t catch us.
Who could have known that the removal of van Der Vaart would caused the whole Jenga Tower to go over? The issue was, as ever that the Dutchman was pooped. Done in. If anyone can highlight an instance where he’s played a full 90 minutes at anything approaching that tempo speak now or forever hold thy …well you know.
But the substitution of van Der Vaart was the cataclysmic. The change saw the arrival of Adebayor who is I see is accused of being unfit, but I suggest that the real issue is that with vDV gone a vital cog in the mechanism to serve him wasn’t there anymore.
Sandro was next to depart and too was knackered. He was far more impressive than he was last week but he was beginning to pant.
The problem is replacing Modric. We haven’t. Van Der Vaart was only masking the problem and when he went it was exposed for all to see. As per the Newcastle game, Jake Livermore is a player that doesn’t really do much wrong, but he neither does he do much of genuine note.
The addition of Gylfi was good, but if I look at my chalkboard from yesterday I would argue we needed him on from the start. Worse yet, Azza Blud and Bale switched wings. The net result was suddenly neither contributed anything of note apart from when Baled wandered back in centrally.
If the subbing of van Der Vaart was serious flesh wound then Defoe’s disallowed goal was a dirty great fistful of rock salt rubbed into the thick of it. The Tottenham of old emerged from the psyche. And so we brought on J****. Jesus wept.
In an instant all the delegates for Invisible Man Convention were seated and ready for the presentation. Villas-Boas, please tell us all that you don’t really have any belief in this pilchard. He was booed I hear by some of our lot. Presumably this was our fans and not his team mates. Either way it’s seriously not on at games. That’s what the Internet is for. Grow a brain.
We removed Van Der Vaart, paired Livermore with Jenas and the net result was a pair of giant Monty Python hands came out of the sky and laid onto the centre of the park the world’s largest Welcome Matt.
West Brom suddenly went from having little possession to the lion’s share. Thankfully this was West Brom and the worst they did was hurl the blunt yet nevertheless determined instrument that was Lakaku at us. I lie, the worst they did was score.
So where are we? Well, yet again we need to replace Modric. Because the answer is not on currently on the books and there isn’t a way of rearranging what furniture we have left to disguise the fact we’ve been burgled.
The boss is right. This is the beginning of a very exciting new era, but whilst we need more than a limited Defoe and a questionably fit Adebayor, what we really need is a Modric.
Made a pair of great saves. Saved our bacon. Hates leaving his line. Hates it.
Steamin’ and screamin’. A credit to the firm.
He really has come on leaps and bounds.
The lovable lunatic.
Looking every inch the part.
Should have started.
Fizzed in then fizzled out.
Characterless.
Immense.
You don’t know what you’ve got until it’s gone.
Slayed ’em.
A player of an immensely limited dimension.
Fitness isn’t the issue. Supply is.
He undoubtedly has the tactical nous, he simply doesn’t have the personnel.
As AVB stated “1 more point than at this stage last season”. Don’t panic Mr Mainwaring.
Shades of ‘Arry there…
Our start this year has been considerably easier than last.
Very true.
Yeah but we played man citeh and manure so go figure…
And it is 3pts less on the 2 same fixtures last season…
Fans look at it different to managers. Beat Norwich at home next and equal on points. 2 games in FFS, let’s not get carried away. Spurs’ season NEVER starts until September 1st and that will continue until we have a chairman that doesn’t haggle over fussily.
True but I fear for what we saw in the last 15 mins as I’m sure we all do…
We look great indeed, H, but….these 5 points are gonna cost us for sure..
Defoe, as i stated before, simply not good enough..the guy can’t hold a ball for toffee..
He isn’t interested in holding the ball.
Get ball
turn
shoot
Simples. It doesn’t matter if you have a chance of scoring. If you could set someone else up that could score they should definitely be ignored. Shoot shoot shoot.
“I just wanna score goals” I despise Jermain Defoe
That 2nd half was as poor as I’ve seen us play in some time. You have to go back to the 2 from 8 Ramos era I think. Bad omen? No, it’s too early to judge.
Yes, we looked a bit sexy in the first half. But even still we were never going to put out. One weak shot on target in the 45th minute tells it’s own story. In a way it looked like the culmination of all I saw in pre-season – the fluid, quick approach play and bossing of possession, and the complete breakdown of incision and common sense in the penalty area.
I thought Livermore had one of his best games, and I’m a doubter, but he did show glimmers of genuine usefulness. Like the through pass to Lennon for instance – that was, wow, Modric-esque. I shan’t get too carried away though.
Slightly worried by the fact that each of the bosses substitutions seemed to contribute palpably to our lack of control and in the end I feel slightly fortunate that we left with a point. It really was gruesome out there in that 2nd half.
I’m also genuinely perplexed that anyone would see Jenas as a better option than Thud. Both yesterday and last week he was the man to bring on. ‘Cept he wasn’t there.
All in all AVB gets nothing more than a C+ so far. He’s trying hard and all his preparation is good but he’s also making some bad mistakes. He needs more and better tools though. Levy is currently looking at a big fat fail for this Summer’s business and needs to seriously pull it out of the bag this week.
Agreed… Far better analysis than the blinkered tosh above.. Getting alittle tired of the virtual wankfest that hh pumps out every day – modern day poet my arse…
Agreed. I get the feeling everyone is prepared to say anything rather then admit that Harry might have gotten better results in these last two games. Only two games yes but so far I’ve seen jack to suggest AVB is some tactical genius. What would HH and all this site have said if Rednapp had brought Jenas on?? Or Bale played on the right??
All this we’re playing good football rubbish is, well rubbish. Yeah we can have as much of the ball as we like, but as usual, no goal threat AT ALL! How can people say we look like a top 4 side?? Have you seen the other squads…a few injuries and we are fucked!
In my opinion we have sacrificed a guarenteed top 4 finish on a gamble that may / may not work out. Dont get me wrong, Harry wound me up just as much as everyone else with his rantings, his drop of 13 points,poor set pieces and for his lack ever to comit to the club until after he didn’t get the England job…but, I still think the team were playing fantastic football for most of the season.
Of course I wont judge just yet as AVB really needs a creative Mid, a striker and poss a keeper. If he gets the tools then no excuses. God forbid Ade gets injured and we’re left with Defoe, cause lets be honest, Kane aint up to Prem standard yet.
People say we’re better off then last year but come on, we had played both Manchester clubs at this stage last year.
Come on Spurs, come on!!
Yes yes yes faaaaantastic. 60 minutes of attractive passing and a point every other game and I’m happy :/
Should Livermore grown a beard and had a parrot on his shoulder.Characterless… lazy text more like.