Good morning.
Valencia away it was then. The first thing that struck me was that this didn’t look very friendly. A stadium rammed to the rafters with energetic, relentlessly noisy fans and if they play with such fierce tenacity in a friendly then few will be leaving the Mestella with more than a point when playing them in competition.
None of this blog is by way of excuse. It’s more by way of explanation. That and pointing out the naffing obvious. The passing and ball retention we showed for all of the first half and bits of the second was superb. Valencia were a tough outfit, particularly in the midfield where we were lightest. In the end, that strength, the tempo and two pretty excellent goals were all too much.
Poor old Brad must have wondered what he’d done to upset someone in a former life. One obvious Villas-Boasism is the back line retaining possession when under pressure. So instead of hoofing it out (losing possession) or smashing it up-field (creating a 50/50 ball) the ball is worked back to the keeper so you start again.
Secondly, I only noticed Brad make one big kick up-field (which resulted in a 50/50 ball we lost) again. He rolled out everything that he had. Why give the ball away? Why risk giving the ball away? These two small devices are incredibly smart as they can have a huge significance upon the way the game is continually shaped.
Inspection of the back four was a mixed bag. I don’t think Benny’s fit. He was spritely enough in the first half but slowed down minutes into the second half. He’d been run ragged and it was showing. What’s obviously required is a proper left sided player to allow Bale to pursue his vision.
The higher line (which we actually saw for the first time last night, despite numerous uninformed comments on previous games) left him gasping for air playing the roles of both left back and pressing wing back. Walker coped far better and probably had one his best ever games for us. He was controlled and actually achieved far more than what I’ve snidely referred to as his Forest Gump routines of the past. He frequently beat his man, tackled well and when he got up the pitch he kept his head, secured ball in and won corners.
Vertonghen gets an honorable mention in dispatches. Brave, smart and fit. Three very desirable qualities in a centre back.
The pairing of Livermore and ***** isn’t good enough. Livermore’s career is in it’s infancy so subject to the safe return of Sandro from Stratford City. As for ***** Andy McNabb, the ex SAS chappy and author describes being captured and ‘playing the gray man’. The less you stood out the better for survival. If ***** were a food, he’d be tofu.
Who steps in? Huddlestone who doesn’t really do tackles? Parker’s absence is too grim to think about. Sandro needs to be at his best, but the real ire here is that he put country before club and went to the Euros then had his operation. His age and the nature of his play combined don’t inspire me to believe he’ll be back September one jigging about like a Riverdance cast member.
Azza Blud fizzed around more than usual and was unlucky that his effort to score and actually half decent balls into the box didn’t do more. Gilly and Bale look to be developing into a interesting two man crew. If they can not get distracted from this I’m convinced that they will deliver a lot of goals this season.
And so to our old mate the Midget Gem. He’s not a lone striker and I would imagine Villas-Boas know this. But what can you do? There isn’t anyone else. Beyond that his ‘shot’ on goal reminded everyone that he’s as one dimensional as a Bernard Manning joke. And the sooner we get over this ‘he’s a Yiddo’ cobblers. stop hoping and replace him the better. The only role left for him at Spurs is as an impact sub, Plan B or perhaps even C.
So right now it’s about fitness and getting the personnel in.
I notice talk of brinkmanship in relation to transfers. Perhaps this is the case, I don’t know.All I will say is that the market is stagnant. Yes the Woolwich Wanderers have bought a few decent players as have the Blue Racists, but beyond that there really is very little movement out there. Lots of talk, but not much going on.
That said, if we go into 2012/13 with the strike-force we have this morning , then we’re in for a long season.
And still no striker. Im hoping come the start of the season Modrat has gone along with the likes of J**** and Bentley and we have another midfielder in with at the very least one striker. Until then, i remain cheese off.
When did he earn the “J” back?
When he got subbed last night.
The lack of transfer activity highlights the sheer bloody stupidity of transfer windows.
Far from sticking pins in a list marked ‘strikers’ and ‘keepers’, Levy and AVB know exactly the players they want and have in all probability sounded out availability/lodged bids.
The clubs involved then just sit back and wait to see if other offers emerge before the end of the month – if nothing, our bid goes through with 5 mins on the clock.
And before we start bitching, it’s exactly what we’re doing to Real Madrid.
No transfer window = not much point pissing about.
Think you’ve said it ll there H, didn’t see the game but we need Parker / Sandro back sharpish. We’ve needed to unload bits of dead wood for a while Jenas, Bentley, Gomes being the main ones.
We could live without another CM, not selling Modric or selling him and without a new GK. We could do with all of the above but as you say the stagnant market is an issue. However we need at least two CF’s stagnant market or not, we may not be able to get value but it’s too late for all that, we’ve sold 3MP, Pav and PSB and not replaced them. As such we have to. Us someone upfront now. Love Levy and think he’s done really good things for us, but selling 3 of our 4 strikers and not bringing anyone in is a huge failing and one for which we will pay dearly, either via an inflated fee or by totally destroying our start to the season (which in turn leaves us open for our better players to want out…again). The time for posturing is over, all other issues including Modric need to be put on hold while we get a striker, once we’ve got one we can piss about for a couple of weeks filling our other gaps (including another striker) but we need one now!
spot on, our biggest problem may be that any selling clubs might look at our very weak bargaining position and absolutely stripe us
two losses in 1st two games and selling clubs with rub their hands with glee
I wasn’t too worried overall with the performance considering it was without Luka, VDV, Sandro, Parker and Hudd (although Rafa got some minutes near the end). We clearly lacked a passer in the middle to keep the ball moving quickly and forwards, instead of the sideways and backwards passes that Livermore and Jenas tend to play.
I was quite surprised how cynical alot of the Valencia tackles were. Lennon was repeatedly pulled back and held when he was moving round the full back, as was Bale and Sig. Things that that would normally get punished in a competitive game weren’t as it was a friendly so they could keep doing it.
As you mentioned Defoe simply can’t play the lone striker role but was forced to as we have no alternative.
Valencia are a strong outfit and from looking at the twitter feed and various reports we played well, just missed the solidness in midfield and a goalscorer. Plenty of reason to be optimistic, especially if we get get the Adebayor deal completed this week. Normal business resumes next week. On the subject of Friedel, Parkes still believes Gomes is the best keeper we have. What is AVBs opinion?