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.
I actually really disagree with your assessment of Bale and Livermore.
Livermore is a limited but committed player. He’s still relatively new to Premier League football and I thought he did what he did well. It is not his fault that he was paired with Sandro and not Modric. He’s a decent passer, tackler and mover of the ball, and is definitely a step on from the likes of J**** and O’Hara.
Bale on the other hand did… what now? I thought he was totally anonymous for large parts of the game. It didn’t help that the softly softly system doesn’t play to his strengths – searing pace and power. But if he only plans on giving that much every game, then we need to add a left winger to the shopping list for competition. Maybe he will focus once the window closes, but for a player of his calibre I thought it was an absolutely dreadful showing.
First half Bale and Lennon were very good. For some reason they swapped wings in the second half and haven’t been seen since.
Yes, another tactical master-stroke from our master tactician in chief. :ermm:
Run about a bit, he said.
The both disappeared for a stretch of the 2nd half – agreed…
But Defoe’s goal against Newcastle came from when Lennon had moved to the left..
Livermore is good but not what we need when we play at home. Ee should have played a midfield 3 Of sigurdson vdv and sandro cuz we have the ball most of the time anyway. Please levy I am begging you by moyntnhio at any cost it is a must!!
Bale immense?? he was average at best Livernore is a stopper and without any creativity him and Sandro were like actors without a script.
By the way watched MOTD last night and they did not show our 2nd disallowed goal, the first was marginally off at the most (Torres midweek was way off in compariso), they did not show the one we scored after the equaliser at all, was it a dream!
We will come good when we sell rat face buy replacements and regroup but they must back AVB.
Also am curious if anybody went to Valencia? how much did you pay for a ticket? I was fortunate to be in the area and after a few attempts to buy on the net I called a sczammer in Madrid who wanted approx 100 euros?? for a preseason friendly??
I went to the Mestalla and paid 24 euros for 4 tickets and met some unfortunates who paid 110 each??
So why does the club not do something to prevent this?
Rant over
MOTD are a disgrace. They either don’t understand football and what constitutes a match highlight, or they have a gooner in charge. I wanted that one cleared up as I wasn’t conviced at the time.
Maybe I’m being cynical, but the fact they didn’t show it makes me suspect it was a perfectly good goal.
Either way, sack the director.
motd is anti tottenham, always has been , even linekar is a cad/harry lover these days, the past is gone, move on
Come back to reality! We couldnt beat an average West Brom side at home – top 4? No, not a chance. All you AVB lovers sound like BMJ fans all over again. He doesnt know how to get the best out of Bale, Lennon and VDV – 3 players who have taken our attack and team, to another level in recent years. Full backs had no options inside so had to punt long up the line, Adebayor was a plank of wood when he came on – and Jenas? JENAS? We’re in for a long hard slog to 7th/8th and the gulf between us and the Manchester clubs / Chelsea will show to be huge when we play them – whereas last season under Harry we finally looked on their level if not above in some parts of the games. Why are we wasting 20+m on untested strikers with no PL experience when Defoe bangs in 18 from the bench alone? He needs to play and he will score. Invest in the service to him with good midfielders. As for defence – watch the final 10mins of yesterday and tell me you have faith in us dealing with balls into the box! Because I certainy dont. Disappointed and out.
Well said. Harry won all his games against West Brom. And Blackpool for that matter.
Never mind +1, +10!
Bale = left, Lennon = right. They’re both wingers which means that they DON’T PLAY IN THE MIDDLE!
Why is this so difficult for them to understand? Stick out wide & stay there. Probably the fastest to wingers in the Prem & yet they continue to drift about. Stupid is as stupid does….
’nuff said.
Bale sent at least two cracking balls along the six-yard line, but our Midget Gem was nowhere to be seen for either of them. A proper striker would have anticipated at least one (if not both) of those balls and the result could have been so different.
As with the game last week, if we’d gone in at half time two-up (as we deserved to) we’d have run out comfortable winners and would be sitting proudly on six points now.
Having said that, as with last year our start only serves to highlight our shortcomings and I’ve no doubt we’ll be moving to plug those gaps next week. Two wins out of two and we’d maybe have a false impression that everything was rosy in the garden.
Assuming we do make the necessary moves in the transfer market, I’ve seen nothing so far to shake my belief that we’ll finish top three at worst this year.