Good morning.
It was a combination of things. After the intensity and focus of Thursday’s performance invoked the Tottingham malaise of not quite being at the races for their next game. QPR pressed and pressed. The first half and indeed good spells of the second were miserable.
A key issue we have is that the physical absences of Modric and Rafa have been filled but the overall creative footballing IQ of the group has dropped.
Now this is in part to players still finding their way. But right now we aren’t as mentally dangerous as we were. Or at least we weren’t yesterday. Now, fortunately we have a manager with a tactical brain of immense human dimensions, but the plan that I and many others thought was good turned out to be …less than good.
Bale at left back didn’t work. Not only was his heart not in it, but it left us beyond uninspired up front. And of the entire 90 minutes Bale’s charge alongside Jan Vertongen and the subsequent goal was not only the only highlight of the afternoon but what is really damning is that it is was a one off. Bale eventually moved up to play as an inverted winger and it was here when playing from deep he and Vertonghen showed the benefit of players with pace having space to in which to exploit it.
Admittedly this isn’t a classic example to make the point I appreciate, as it was a break. But Bale in a position that is too forward negates his pace as he has nothing approaching the space in which to fly and really cause havoc. I think his worry is that he was turning into a one trick pony who every time he got the ball he went haring up the wing.
If his season continues like this the only positive that will come out of it will be that January’s back pages won’t be carrying any ‘Barca Set To Swoop’ tales.When I wrote that Ego Has Landed piece it wasn’t well received. Weeks later fans at games were singing ‘He plays on the left’.
Bale is drifting into the realm of the mediocre and he needs to find a compromise that works for Tottenham somewhere between his Ronaldo ‘vision’ and being an outstanding footballer in the Lilywhite. Right now, he’s being indulged. So there, I told you so.
The boss switched to a 442 or as near as dammit in the second half and this made the onslaught from QPR ‘less worse’.
The league table says we won and took all 3 points but the table doesn’t say how fragile we were and how much possession QPR who aren’t the world’s greatest were allowed. Manchester United up next in the premiership and we won’t buck the losing habit of a lifetime playing like that. It was confused and unconvincing out there yesterday and a really talented outfit would have kicked our heads in.
He kept us in the game. He stopped them from winning.
If he wasn’t a footballer he’d open up a gym called ‘Love Muscles’ that would shut down within a year. Or start a fight in a Chick King demanding to order a pizza. Thick as paint.
Yes he gave the ball away, yes he was off his game. Playing with Kyle would leave most people sucking their thumb in the fetal position, with a facial tick. So he did quite well to stay on the pitch.
I’m a fan. Very, very happy to see him out there. More please.
Forget the big boys coming in for Bale. Jan’s the man who will be getting all the press attention come the new year and it will be genuine. Eridivisie player of the year and looking good enough to walk into any top flight European first eleven.
It’s early doors but we urgently need to find this guy a specific role. Right now we have a talented bloke who seems to spend most of his time doing a good impression of a dog chasing cars. This was QPR and he wasn’t quite up to the task.
Beast-like. Given that fact that he was doing the job of at least three people it’s little surprise he looked knackered come the end. He was outstanding.
Suffering from being frequently hemmed in, but he didn’t help himself. He needs to move. make space and have in his head, ‘what would I do if I got the ball know?’ Too frequently the ball came to him and he seemed to start weighing up his options from scratch.
Lennon flattered to deceive. Lots of huff and puff but bantam weight on achievement. Needs to find the confidence to start taking shots on goal, especially when cutting in, he also needs to do this and make his passes at least a yard sooner. You can hear every fan in the world shouting ‘hit it!’ then there’s a 2 second delay and he does it.
Sort it out.
A bit nothingy.
He scored. Elsewhere he contributed zip.
The good news was that he changed the system and by the skin of our teeth we took the points. I’m really worried that players like Walker and Bale are saying, ‘yeah boss, 100% boss’ and then going out there and doing whatever the hell they feel like. When Benny returns he needs to shuffle the back four and bench Kyle.
You were booing again weren’t you? Those that boo their own should be evicted by a squad of heavy mob stewards. If the price of admission is weighing so heavy then refund these arrogant dogs.
Nor do I want to hear that ‘others were doing it and they just sort of joined in.’ Funny, that’s what a lot of people said about National Socialism in the 1940’s. Booing at half time and clapping at full time. If I was playing I’d tell you to stick your full time cheers up your bottoms. You’re not fans, you’re idiots. How do you go in the Home stands when you sound like the blokes in the Away end?
i’m putting a tenner on us to beat UTD,now that’s crazy talk
Talk on, you crazy diamond.
We won’t be hearing any Boos at Old Trafford.
I think I’ll have a tenner myself.
Manure are shaky at the back, like us and it’ll be 3-4.
we’ll probably lose,hopefully draw but i’m banking on avb to somehow break the old trafford jinx
Agree with all you said this time Harry ! Gylfi showed two or three glimps of what he can do yesterday but that was it. I don´t know what has happended but he looks completely lost out there. The guy has been a hit everywhere he has been before except the last season in germany. Get him ticking and spurs wont miss VDV or modric.
One thing that has to change is this shooting from hopeless chances when a more creative pass could be made. This is something you would never see from modric for example.
when bale hits his golden patch,which he will,we all be creaming,bale and defoe still made the goals which is the main thing
Yeah, I’m finding the Bale negativity slightly snore worthy now – he still MAKES THINGS HAPPEN. He still SCARES THE LIFE OUT OF OPPOSITION DEFENCES. He’s still hugely important and having an impact if not anywhere near his best again this season…yet.
he is our most dangerous weapon,just let him get on with it
How we missed him first half,second half he was tops :happy:
HH, spot on with the creativity bit and it makes the departure of VDV look even more fool hardy.
Vertonghen was a class above. 2 tackles, one in the first 5 mins and then that one when Gallas forgot he was supposed to mark his attackerat the end were in the Bobby Moore league.
Said yesterday Bale should have started on the wing and why it took AVB 45 mins to work it out is beyond me. We could have been 3 down by then.
Sigurdsson unfortunately looks out of his depth.
Will Levy spalash the cash in January – dont hold your breath as these training grounds and new stadia cost money.
We may have been shite in the first half, but if Defoe could understand the offside rule, we might have been up 2-1 anyway.
We honestly have not had an attack resembling a top-flight premiership team since it was Berbatov and Keane. As bad as we were yesterday, we still opened things up enough to create chances. With a better striker it would have been good for a goal in the first half and it might have been a different game.
Defoe is much improved and I hate to keep on about it – but I’m keeping on. Sometimes we will play well, other times not – but if we play Defoe upfront, by himself, we will struggle to win both kinds of games. Yesterday we played poorly and won, but our margin of error is fast disappearing.
Pity we didnt go for Berby & Fletcher. Along with Defoe that would have been a really tasty attack. Somebody got slated on here some time back for mentioning Fletcher but his has got the nack of scoring.
With those 3 you could have forgotten all about Ade “I only play when theres a contract up for grabs” byor. He’s just a problem waiting to happen & I dont think AVB will have the experience to deal with it.
Defoe isn’t offside that often. It’s all an illusion, apparently.
Oi! Back off! :whistle:
If I’m not mistaken, he was offside twice in 90 minutes yesterday. That was hardly our biggest problem.
Still too much, if you think of how many opportunities we actually created, you can’t go wasting two by being dim-witted.
Although I think that complaining about Defoe being offside and greedy is something akin to berating the rain for being too wet.
The rain is too wet. No question.
But as I said, the biggest problem wasn’t Midget Gem being offside twice. You’ve said it yourself. The problem was that we didn’t create enough chances.
One of those two offsides was a great push-up by the defence, which left him 3-4 meters behind the line. That will happen to any striker at some point during a game, unless they’re playing too deep. It is then up to his teammates not to pass him the ball when he’s a mile offside, but keep possession until he has a chance to get back on.
The other one was admittedly down to the dim-wittedness to which you allude.
I remember him being offside at least three times in the first half alone – once for yet another disallowed goal. I believe once or even twice, it was not whistled because he saw the flag and pulled up, but the commentators noted that the flag was up.
I think Ade at his best would be the best striker we’ve seen round here, certainly better than Berbatov. But remember that Ade had the guaranteed cash last year – if it was all about money, he was sorted. It was not a ‘contract year,’ if you will, but rather the first time he looked interested in playing football for fun since the bus incident in Africa.
Last year we saw flashes of the old Ade but he never really put it all together at once, except maybe that first game with Saha when he dropped the smart bomb on the barcodes. Even in that game he wasted some chances that he would have made at one point. I really expected Ade to have a great year this year, frankly – it was all set up for him to have a comeback year. I don’t see him as a ticking time bomb, not anymore anyway, and I also note that last year even when he was not 100% he still played with incredible intelligence, guile, and unselfishness. That is one way to raise the IQ on the pitch HH – let’s get Ade fit and in the side.
Even Defoe would be a lot better if he were playing next to Ade, formation issues aside.
The offside one was the one where I felt he shouldn’t have got the ball in the first place. You may well be right that it was more than 2, I didn’t actually count, just the ones I remembered off the top of my head.
In general, though, Defoe just isn’t offside any more than other PL strikers per minute played. It just isn’t true, at least last season the stats showed clearly that it wasn’t.
That is not to argue that a fit Ade isn’t a better option in most games. He probably is, what with the intelligent play you mention, and a great workrate out of possession as well (although Defoe does a good job of harrying the defenders on the ball, too).
I think we should just be happy that the little one happens to be in a rich vein of form right when he needs to be, when we don’t have another good (fit) option available, rather than spending time pointing out his limitations and flaws.
My frustration is more with the club for not finding something better after this many windows where we were desperate for a striker. Yes, they got Ade and that’s a coup. But the fact that it’s just the two of them is absurd. We don’t even have a Frazer Campbell option.
I am glad Defoe is knocking them in for us and he clearly gives it all for our club. So I am proud of him. I’m just frustrated because I want it to work out with AVB, I think it could still go either way, and no matter how good his ideas are, running this through Jermain is not going to show it in the best light. If we had a different striker we would be scoring more goals – especially before yesterday. AVB’s system is showing signs but it’s missing the final ball.