Blogs

The Analysis & The Ratings

|
Image for The Analysis & The Ratings

Good morning.

Lilywhite shirts blazing under the lights, a lady for an ‘otdog, God is in his heaven and all is right with the world. Well, you know, if you turn a blind eye to refereeing that would be more at home at the centre of a match fixing scandal and a deaf ear to the monkey noises from the Lazio fans.

I’m not spearheading some crackpot conspiracy theory here, but it was curious that the game was officiated pretty impeccably everywhere other than our attempts to get the flippin’ ball over the line.

Caulker’s header was never up for debate. The ‘man’ in front of him crumbled and should’ve been booked once the goal awarded.

The game was enthralling. Having enjoyed watching Real Madrid the other night it was pleasing to see so many similarities in our play. Ball on the floor, players brains working over-time to find a way, make the break.

What I was watching was an AVB masterclass. Tactically we were thoughtful and committed. The only absent element were the goals to win the game and I wonder if one of our lot had launched one into the Lazio net from 35 yards the referee would have found some infraction to deny it.

One thing that drives me out of mind is watching footballers repeat the same mistakes. 5 games in I might be delusional, but I think I’m seeing fine tuning taking place with a number of players.

The monkey noises need to be investigated and this is as complex as asking ITV for a copy of the tape and hitting the play button. This is a club with a checkered past and without passing comments such as ‘Paulo Di Canio always looks very smart in a black shirt’ Lazio need to be heavily fined to ensure that they genuinely tackle the matter internally.

Now he didn’t have to do much but what did he did do and the body language were all positive.

 

A few excellent balls forward, notably to Azza. Sadly matched by a few sloppy losses of possession that he’s fortunate we weren’t punished for.

Mustard.

Much improved from the Reading game. Fine tuning or coincidence? Either way, more please.

I really want to see more of this guy. On last night’s showing he’s a perfect fit for the boss’ template.

Now that’s what I call solidification. He bossed and bustled. A proper menace.

Did nothing extraordinary but everything he did was integral to what we achieved as a unit. A quality footballer.

Captain my captain. He obviously felt more responsible about things, but his performance in the opposition’s 18 yard box was Arsenalesque. Shoot!

Hmmm. I don’t think we’re getting value for money from him in this central role at all at the moment. Not at all.

The offside decision was farcical. On an upbeat note he looks sharp and every inch a professional I’m convinced he’ll notch ’em up this season.

He played as well as he did against Reading, just didn’t get the breaks. Thought he was more involved again, more of a team player. Keep it up.

QPR await and if he can summon up immense human dimensions from our lot on a par with those he summoned up last night we will be in business.

That was an interesting night of football. Newcastle and Liverpool played ‘Redknapp’ sides. The Newcastle game was appalling. Unwatchable.The Liverpool game was surreal. A cross between the old Monty Python ‘100 meters for people for no sense of direction’ and err… a football match.

Rodgers and Villas-Boas both want to play football a little differently to way their new clubs are used to. The difference appears – at this stage- that one of them took into consideration the existing personnel before agreeing to take over… and one of them didn’t. If you’ve any loose change floating around the house, stick it on a Manchester United win this weekend.

Funny breed are our home fans. Turned out in decent number to watch some truly mediocre fayre in this competition last time round yet there were about 10,000 spare seats last night for what will be remembered as a truly memorable game. Oh well.

Share this article

180 comments

  • 77spur says:

    what happened to giving the striker the benefit of the doubt? we are a chqampions league standard team, patting ourselves on the back for a o-o home draw against a half decent side is odd. They should have gone in at half time 2 up after the only times they had the ball should have ended up in our net. Neat and tidy, but we would have ripped them asunder under HR…

    • LosLorenzo says:

      If HR was our manager this season, we would have started with

      Gomes
      Smith – Dawson – Nelsen – Byrne
      Falque – Huddlestone – Carroll – Townsend
      Obika – Saha

      Before kick-off he would have told them that this game wasn’t important, and that they should run around a bit.

      I highly doubt an asunder-ripping would have ensued.

    • essexian76 says:

      No-ones patting themselves on the back or anywhere else-the consensus appears to be that most see a team taking shape, with players who have a better understanding of what’s asked of them, performing better in the process- we’re not there yet, not by a long mark-but it’s looking pretty good at this particular moment

      • 77spur says:

        Thats the point though mate, we have a team taking shape, but we already had a devastating, pretty much complete team 8 months ago. Strange decision when thats the case to go backwards and re-build?

        • essexian76 says:

          8 months ago, I’d have agreed with you-in fact I argued the case quite strongly. However 4 months ago, the team and it’s then manager forced Levy to make changes. If a backward step is required to make long term progress, then I’m all in favour. We’ve got rid of self promoting parasite and I for one couldn’t care less at his demise. He brought it upon himself and even if the fates conspired to get us that 3rd place, HR said himself he’d have been sacked-so let’s all just move on eh?

  • wardy says:

    if dempseys goal was allowed then we would have won by 3 or more as lazio just parked the bus and it would have made them TRY to play some football leaving gaps for us to exploit, the ref was a joke.

    i was happy with the performance but would like to see bale using the wing more than cutting inside alot, i would play dembelle behind the striker as he just glides past peeps so easily and has a nice shot on him too so he would get more goals, i am a huge defoe fan but i would like to see ades if fit start against qpr with dempsey or dembelle behind playing huds in dembells place.. the team i would like to see this sunday is

    lloris
    walker verts caulker naughton
    sandro huds
    lennon dembelle bale
    ades or dempsey

    with this team i can see plenty of threat and goals from spurs but if avb sticks with pretty much the same 11 as before then we still will beat qpr…my prediction spurs 3 qpr 0
    coys

  • Left Teste says:

    “Turned out in decent number to watch some truly mediocre fayre in this competition last time round yet there were about 10,000 spare seats last night for what will be remembered as a truly memorable game”
    We are in a double dip apparently and folks don’t have the wonga, that said you cant get a ticket for Sunday.
    Thought it was an admirable performance last night and we are going to get better. Azza for me didn’t play as well as he has ( was it the three players sucking his toes every time he got the ball or the capt I dunno. Shame Ade wasn’t fit but I think the best thing about the whole performance was the way we came back from being under pressure and didn’t buckle.
    Looking forward to Sunday COYS

  • Billy Legit says:

    Nazio by name, Nazio by nature.

    It’s about time somebody hit these fascists where it hurts……….like the bollox! (strung up to a lamp post a la Mussolini).

  • conerpin says:

    Immense Human Dimensions. Class Act.. AVB..Print the T Shirt..I would wear it with Pride.. Come on you Spurs, its coming to together nicely….

Leave a comment

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *