Good afternoon. Well. That wasn’t very nice was it?
We were in all too many respects link a racehorse the handicapper got to. Bale’s wife went into labour. Dembele was injured and these two absences sent the dominoes inexorably falling. The worst of it was in the middle of the park. Sandro without his foil found himself drowning.
The first mistake was starting Brad. I really believe that we need to give Hugo a run of games now. He’s not some child, give him the shirt and let’s get on with it. This isn’t taking a punt. He wasn’t cheap. He’s one of the best keeper’s in the world. That’s not opinion.
Kyle Walker was finally busted. Not interested in how hurtful the Tweets were. He’s been gormless all season and we need to be thankful we spotted sooner rather than later. He might not need abuse, but he needs benching and it’s vital he’s dropped in favour of someone competent. The Forest Gump runs never impressed me and the headless chicken routine has just become depressing.
People were screaming for Gallas’ blood yesterday but with a no midfield in front of him and a lobotomised llama next to him he was never going to win the day. He did do some good work; but there seems a general undercurrent of unkindness toward him. His header out was powerful. It was blind luck it fell so kindly for Cahill.
Neither Caulker or Jan seemed to be quite at the races. Were they overawed? Well their performances against Manchester United suggest that wasn’t the case. But there were no runs, no dynamism. No sense of dynamism.
Huddlestone stepping in for Moussa wasn’t helpful. In fact it was equivalent of shoveling road gritting salt into a wound. He’s a sweet touch and that’s all he has. Like a comic trading off one good catchphrase. He struck several wonderful passes and then stood as if waiting for the applause. Desperately immobile. A desperate waste of a career.
Elsewhere we looked generally weak and a rather timid. The same old Lennon. Whizzing and skipping and zipping about but not really achieving all that much. It’s heartbreaking. Dempsey and Siggurdson were horribly unmemorable.
Villas-Boas is playing a risky strategy here with his choice of forwards and his seeming reluctance to make substitutions. Defoe is extraordinarily limited. Is Adebayor still not fit? If not, why not? This was a game where the midfield decided the outcome and we simply didn’t have one.
Sorry H but I disagree, our worst player yesterday by a country mile was Gallas, Sandro’s performance was on a par with Palacios….the worst i have ever seen him play. Huddlestone controlled the play for large parts and bearing in mind his playing time recently did very well. Dempsey looked out of sorts, Sigurdsson tried very hard but looked very average. I thought the rest did very well, Walker made a very silly mistake but the game was already lost, Gallas made quite a few when it wasn’t…..
Yesterdays game for me was about the keepers, their keeper was outstanding our keeper was hopeless…..that’s where the game was won and lost….
Agree with all of that
:daumen:
So Friedel cost us the match did he? 23 chances and 2 goals scored and it’s Friedel’s fault?
Friedel had 9 shots to save and missed four of them. His reflexes are poor, he didn’t move for the second and he should have been shouting to walker to cover the run of Mata for the third or have read the situation himself and got there first. That’s rubbish in my book and well short of what’s required at this level. Friedel used to be a competent goalkeeper (he was never world-class). We certainly don’t need a geriatric between the sticks when we have a world-class goalkeeper warming the bench.
Agreed, Lloris should be starting for us by now but I never said he shouldn’t be. I said that Friedel did not cost us the game, you are blaming him for three of their four goals which is ridiculous.
26(10) Shots (on goal) 10(7)
8 Fouls 9
7 Corner kicks 4
1 Offsides. 5
42% Time of Possession 58%
3 Yellow Cards 2
0 Red Cards 0
3 Saves 8
Stats don’t lie, a game of two keepers…… ;-)
Sorry, Spurs first for those that don’t understand the home team rule…..
More like one team had a decent attack and the other didn’t!
16 off target shots for us and 3 for them. 2 goals from 10 on target shots for us and 4 goals from 7 on target shots for them.
You are right Harts, the stat’s don’t lie at all!
Stat’s dont lie Harts?- Mate,they lie more than a politician’s expenses form-they’ll only be honest come May ;-)
Cech made 8 saves and conceded twice.
Friedel made 3 saves and conceded four.
Cech’s save from Walker’s thunderbolt gave Cheatski the win, Friedel’s save from Mata’s daisy cutter kept us in the lead, except he didn’t did he?
It all depends on how you look at it Phil and how argumentative you want to be…… :wassat:
I don’t want to argue, all I’m saying is that to blame Friedel solely for our loss yesterday is stupid.
I’m not blaming him solely as I also thought Gallas, Sandro (who for me should always be the first name on the team sheet) Dempsey (albeit out of position) and Sigurdsson were also awful, but Cech made the difference yesterday with his positioning and his saves……I do think that now is the time for Lloris to get his chance, conceding four at home should give AVB enough reasons to put Brad out to pasture…
I agree, I could see the point of easing Lloris in gently but he’s been at the club a short while now and has hopefully had enough time to see what the Premiership is all about.
:daumen: COYS! Still 5th and Chrissie Hughton put one over Whinger, so not all bad….
Agree with that analysis.
Broadly agree. For once! The game was lost because of:
1. Key injuries / omissions
2. Chelsea’s vastly superior squad / team
3. Flawed starting line up and failure to react to the game in the way of a meaningful change in personnel or tactics.
A tough day to be a Spurs fan for sure. My main hope is that number 3 is fixed soon as we can’t control the other 2.
I can’t help feeling, two goals against an excellent, near full-strength Chelsea team when we had key players missing is brilliant and very hopeful for the future.
Bale in the team, you’d feel we could potentially have had another after one of his runs and 3-3 going into final minutes, Walker ain’t gonna get mugged for a late winner.
No, it ain’t great to lose, especially to Chelsea, but I think we can take a lot of positives from the game.
I can’t help feeling, two goals against an excellent, near full-strength Chelsea team when we had key players missing is brilliant and very hopeful for the future.
Mmm.. not so much really as so far as their midfield attack is the best in the league by far, they are defensively very suspect. They’ll win most of their games through out-scoring the opposition. Like they did yesterday :-(
Even Reading scored 2 against them ffs!
How the milk float is still at the club is beyond me, a big useless lump who should be fucked off in January. Gallas is past it and would not be playing but for injuries, he was poor yesterday but at least he tries
Most of Stoke, Fulham, WH and Everton fans would react like most of you.
We need to improve our performance and make proper use of some of our players.
Improving our tactics I am afraid is also a must.
Too big distance between our lines yesterday and we couldn’t bring quick many players forward when we attacked.
We should be able to keep the lead we took in score.
A heavy home defeat to Chelsea is by no means acceptable to a Spurs fan.
It wouldn’t be the first time, it’s just we’ve been spoilt for the past seven seasons.