Good morning.
By the time the Reading goal went in I was like I’d been on the gas and air for a good while, I think I mumbled, ‘Mazel tov, you need another two and you’ve no minutes left to score ’em’ at the telly.
Yes it was a massive relief but it we must remember it was only Reading; a side that AVB baiting and hating pundits had tried desperately to eroticise into the leanest, meanest, grilling machine to ever grace a George Foreman wet dream. The reality was Reading were workmanlike. Not awful, not great. But workmanlike.
Our lads look to me like they are still getting used to the personnel changes and having to continuously play the ball on the floor. We should be grateful that this game has come up and we then have Lazio then QPR to further get our act together. If we were on a run of better clubs then the chances are we’d get beaten. A lot.
The intensity is there, the fitness is improving and say it quitely it under your breath, we may have a striker discovering some class of form on our hands. What we need to see is the players not only indentifying their their roles but slipping into them like their comfiest pair of slippers. Then we’re heading in the right direction.
Was he caught playing statues for their goal? who cares? We’ve got 3 more goalies up our sleeve! On a more serious note Bradley was on talkSPORT this morning and for the second time calling out the author of the ‘Lloris Angst’ and dismissed it as nonsense. He spoke of the hope to be involved in more than one campaign, ‘there will be lots of games to go around’.
Infuriating. The idiocy of the handball was unforgivably stupid, it’s a miracle that Webb didn’t award a penalty. Also, if he doesn’t get his act together as a defender he (and by that I mean us) are in for a long season watching people go past him. He shouldn’t be getting skinned by Reading players. Offensively he was useful, but that’s not his job.
Another pretty faultless performance. I hear some griping about him and I just don’t understand it. Is it an Arsenal thing from which he’ll never recover? A really solid shift.
Looks like one of those top of the range European center-backs you see on the television. What a buy he was. The only negative I can scratch up is that we could have done with him two years ago.
Would have quite probably looked a lot less like a Championship player had he not been played out of position. This was a great chance for Bale to step in and aid the cause, give the boy a dig out. But that didn’t happen.
He didn’t really get into it and this guy is a prime example when I was talking about knowing your role and slipping into it like it was second nature. My belief is that Bale is getting in his way and his role isn’t defined enough.
As Run DMC said, ‘Tougher Than Leather’. He was mostly very much in control and crucially got a lot of basic things right. No daft runs to pass onto the toes of a man three feet away from him. His mind looks clearer and he’s obviously fitter.
Box to box type stuff, again, once the players had settled into a shape that is genuinely familiar to them he’ll fly. Much of his work is understated and my prediction is he’ll attract a good few fans who like with Modric, simply don’t ‘get’ his importance.
Like a busy dwarf at an orgy. In and out, up and down, but didn’t really stand out. His ball into Defoe was at long last intuitive stuff and he needs to be doing that every game. Jermain can lap up passes like that all day long. Another concern is the narrowness of much of his play at times. That said, if we win, I really don’t care.
Simply not involved enough. Naughton could have done with dig out but too often the man to pitch in and help him out was like a guard horse outside Buckingham Palace, blinkered, eyes fixed forwards. He obviously wants to do more than power up the wing but that doesn’t give him a license to ‘join in when he wants’.
Could he be coming of age at long last? The short answer is ‘maybe’. He is certainly seems to be working harder to be less of a one trick pony. Which is pleasing. As per the comments on all of the lads, he needs to do this against superior opposition.
I’m not sure what formation we were playing. I’m sure someone out there will explain how he morphed seamlessly from 433 to 4321 where and when we needed to. What I do know is that much of what we did went down the middle of the park and the simple concern is that if we play like this against a mob with width we could get our undergarments pulled down. The boss must be relieved and he must be appreciative there’s more to be done over the next two games.
Always outnumbered, never outgunned. Away fans are fab. Their support isn’t conditional. It is to the eternal shame of those on Twitter etc that began soothsaying doom and gloom from just seeing the team sheet – before a ball was kicked. Too many Spurs fans kicking about at the moment who not only don’t sound like Spurs fans, but do sound like they don’t have the first clue about football.
I’m dreaming here, but you can guarantee that if we’d lost or even drawn that this page and many others would have been infested with the ‘I told you so’ brigade. Wouldn’t it be wonderful if even one of them emerged today and said, ‘It was only only Reading, but I am cheered by that game ..cecause I support the Spurs and I love it when we win.’
It was only Reading … the same Reading that were very unlucky to beaten by ‘champions-elect’ Chelsea the other week.
Much is being made of the fact that Newcastle, West Brom and now Reading didn’t press us for long periods of the game — well maybe this is because our style of play doesn’t allow them to.
I thought we played better against both the Barcodes and the Baggies, but we were still pretty decent yesterday. More of the same against QPR and that should set us up nicely for our trip to Salford in a fortnight.
We witness a one-in-a-generation occurance – Bale scoring with his right peg – and it doesn’t even get a mention? You’re slipping HH :silly:
Are you sure it was his right leg…… sure that was the one that swung, but I think the ball bounced off his left and into the goal.
A mere technicality,
I don;’t care how they go in I’ll take em however they come.
Hmmmm, food for thought. I’ll have to go back and check the slowmo again.
Is that Rabbi Slowmo?
You know him?
I know him? He’s asking if I know him. How could I not know him?
You forgot to rate Dembele and Gallas. Both played very well save a couple of giveaways. Hard to believe how athletic he still seems to be.
I think HH is spot on about Bale and Siggurdsson – they still are a ways from being telepathic. But it will come. Sig can play better, though the pass, as you said, was gorgeous.
I will be slightly
negativerealistic and roll my eyes at the Midget Gem lovefest coming from the press. You ever hear of pyrite? Does any reasonable person believe that Defoe is better than Adebayor (two Spurs players with long careers at other clubs: one with West Ham and Portsmouth, the other with Arsenal, Man City, and Real Madrid)? I probably am a bad person for noticing that when it was 1-1 and the pressure was on us (and you have to admit, this was looking like 1-1 for much of the second half), Defoe was off-target on several chances. Only once the pressure was off did he fire in another one.My heart loves his effort, and notes the well-taken first goal and the general improvement in his game. My brain sees the two easy-ish misses and the horrible, difficult shot when he had Siggy wide open in front of goal in the box, and knows that this is nothing but pyrite. Fool’s gold, in other words. I don’t see him scoring at Old Trafford, though if we are two up home to Southampton I could see a hat trick coming.
I hope I am wrong. If Defoe played like this all season it would be massive for us, massive. But let’s stay grounded everyone…a few days ago people were ready to write off the season. Now, after a good performance that was still occasionally somewhat shaky against a poor side, people are saying we’re back and will be led to the promised land by a resurgent Jermain Defoe!
Uh, right. I think I will stay on the fence for a few more weeks. But it was huge progress and I do feel a thousand times better.
Don’t get drawn in. This is the 7th season that Defoe looks like Gerd Muller against cannon fodder, the ultimate flat track bully. Like yourself, I’ll only be convinced if he bags 1 or 2 against Man U, but I’m not holding my breath.
I’d like to see Kevin COstner do the after match analysis with the SKy pad in a reprisal of his courtroom scene in JFK…
“Can you break down Defoe’s contribution for us Kevin?”
“Certainly. If you look closely, its quite clear: Turn, and shoot. Turn, and shoot. Turn, and shoot…”
the midget did score an overhead kick goal against MU once. but no one remembers… cos.. we lost 4-2 (if i’m not mistaken)
what a relief to get the win,don’t care who it is against,as is said in the film Troy,”may the gods keep the wolves in the hills and the women in our beds.”
been catching up on HHH’s and stuff,its good to see the new hotspur way is up and running and the new regime is in there making use of it all,hopefully it has an effect and we can beat some of our rivals,maybe even win at old trafford in a couple of weeks,you never know,stranger things have happened,someone has to be that lucky right
anyway like sandro and dembele in the middle with dempsey and adebayor,bale all bigger/taller lads,if they are on form should be a handfull for anyone,
don’t quite agree with the window talk,i think we needed a couple more in not sure we have bale/lennon back up if they get injured badly but like the disappointing draws at home we have to keep marching onwards,looking forward to lazio at the lane,itv4 i believe
COYS
Jeez Kojac, you watched ‘Troy’? Was it for community service?
:shocked2:
Dembele, bembele, hembele, hoorah, love the guy already.
i watch an awful lot of movies old chap
Our subs did well too I thought. Thud learnt from last week and didn’t go like a bull in a china shop, and Dempsey looked keen to get involved, albeit a bit out of step with everyone else, but with time he will gel with the others.
I watched the game a second time today and thought Dembele was awesome. Again I stress the need to be able to carry the ball between the centre circle and the final third. Finally we have someone who is willing to do it and do it well.
I’m looking forward to seeing what magic he will sprinkle on the team over the rest of the season.