Wotcha.
Something’s gotta give. Three games in 7 days and an physio room with standing room only this is no time to be sending out a full strength side. What I would like is a the following with a few gems on the bench if we look like we’re making a meal of it.
Clipboard Chris will himself be making a few changes: “There will be changes – how many I don’t know yet,” he said. “I have to say that where I am fortunate is that I’ve got good options and we are not the type of squad that has got a best 11 that’s far better than those outside it .”
What I find infuriating is this from the Independent: “Striker Emmanuel Adebayor is a doubt for Tottenham’s Capital One Cup game at Norwich after he missed training yesterday with a stomach bug.” Is the guy dragging his feet or is he simply unlucky? If he cannot play -which I would like in order to get him some game time prior the Wigan game – then we should run with Dempsey.
The back four needs Jan, Billy Walker all to put their feet up. So an opportunity to ship in Naughton, Smith and Dawson. The midfield is a grim business, I’m struggling to see beyond Thudd, Jake and some rosary beads.
The Adebayor thing is now officially an issue. Despite the boss’ faith in Defoe he’s such a one dimensional option I can’t help but think that right now, ‘we’re merely getting away with it.’ Teams need some luck, for sure. But I fear we frittered a fair whack of ours in Southampton.
Provisional squad: Friedel, Lloris, Cudicini, Naughton, Walker, Caulker, Gallas, Dawson, Vertonghen, Smith, Livermore, Parrett, Dembele, Huddlestone, Dembele, Mason, Sandro, Sigurdsson, Lennon, Townsend, Bale, Falque, Dempsey, Defoe, Adebayor.
The Eyeballer indeed heralded AVB’s appointment.
He is getting a little nervous though – we should be beating teams like Norwich, Southampton by two to three goals without getting into third gear.
We have not put in a solid 90 minute performance yet this season – The Eyeballer can accept a poor performance here and there, no problem with that, but when you consistently exhibit average performances, albeit sneaking unconvincing wins, the ‘chickens tend to come home to roost’ and a hammering may be imminent….
The pressure is beginning to ramp up a little after last nights defeat, a win against Wigan will keep a lid on it, but if we lose to Wigan, The Eyeballer is worried about the set of following games. As a poster said above, we will certaintly have a better idea of how we stand come the turn of the year….
COAVB, COYS!
The El to the Double EL concurs with all of that. And would like to add that those accusing those who are concerned with what we’ve been seeing as lacking spine or reason are not in possession of any more of either, just a different opinion.
Not an ideal evening but wanting the burn the whole house down aver losing in the Capital One cup is a tad of an overreaction.
I agreed completely with a point Mysterious made – That AVB in some eyes is damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t. Without doubt, he is playing with a lesser hand than Harry, he is also trying to change the philosophy of the club – For the better I think.
Under Harry (And Jol), there was a feeling that we were winging things. That we had somehow ‘stolen’ into the top group and that it was all a bit of a laugh. Trying to catch teams on the break and hoping that they didn’t notice Bale until it was too late. Not a long term plan.
Very few teams now come out to attack us and AVB is trying to set the team up to be able to play football that can control games. For large parts of the game, this is working but the missing link is getting it to work over 90 minutes. This is where the inexperience of the side he is dealing with is starting to show (Hence the importance of Gallas recently). But that experience will come.
Comparing Redknapps team with AVB’s is apples and oranges, they are completely different sets of players. AVB has inherited a side that had it’s attacking heart and guile ripped out and has inexperienced players to put it back together with.
Players such as Siggurdson who is taking a huge step up and is struggling – But who obviously does have the ability as he showed against big teams when playing for Swansea. If anyone remembers Modders when he arrived, he hardly looked like the world-beater he turned out to be.
Missing out on Moutinho was a massive mistake – And hopefully the tale of two penalties last night might have illustrated that to our Chairman. Hazard showed in the 90th minute at Second Hand Fridge why you pay the money. We don’t have their kind of money to throw around, so we have to make the most of opportunities like Moutinho that we get. We made the same mistake with Damiao when there was only a small difference in the modest fee asked a few seasons back.
We are starting again. Make absolutely no mistake about that. The only difference is that I feel like we are starting from a position where we feel we deserve to be at the top table. AVB, along with the training ground has bought that. Experience will come. Hopefully so will slightly better squad members. In the meantime, I think we’re getting close to as much as we can out of what is available.
Done by Norwich reserves. When Bale go’s we are finished. Note to Deschamps: Lloris is shit. Stop mouthing off.
Congrats to the football elite. We have gone from a tremendous side and genuine challengers to a weak clueless mess. Job done for them. Van der vaart out, Dempsey in? In a nutshell.
Yesterday was not something to go by in real terms.The overall quality in my opinion is not better.
We need Dempsey to find those spaces and opportunities,Walker to know that defence is more important than attack (especially when we have 2 good wingers as it is) and players to fight a little harder,have more of an edge.
Livermore is absolute crap.No better than Jenas.
Its fine playing well but we lack at striker and cant seem to find a way to make Defoe and Ade some kind of force.
We dont have Modric its true but we still have great supply.So why cant we score more goals??????
This is the number one problem AVB has and he hasnt solved it.
Livermore was crap? really-if you’re judging last nights performance, then how was he crap?, Ronnie your assessment of players is very so strange-you slated Brad for ‘not coming off his line’, yet laud Lloris as being a super human Gallic God of sorts-If Brad had put in that performance you’d have been the first to whine about not cutting the cross out for the winner or not holding onto a pretty easy header when truth be told. At least have the good grace to admit that there’s nothing between them and perhaps Friedel’s form is what kept him in the side. I’ve seen nothing-absolutely nothing to suggest we’ve got the next goalkeeping superstar on our books-far from it. But like many on here you need a player or two to bebrate-so at least slag one off who deserves it and that certainly wasn’t Livermore last night!
I agree about Livermore. I don’t think he’s good enough for us or any other top 10 PL team but I don’t think he did much wrong last night and I was actually surprised he came off at half time. I didn’t think he was part of the problem at all, for a change.
Clearly took a knock to the ankle,or else it was poor management on AVB’s part to play Huddlestone so early on-I suggested way back in August that AVB wanted a fit Huddlestome and the loan move to Stoke was a sure way to get him the fittest he’ll ever be-he’d have returned a much leaner,keener machine if it had happned that’s for sure-still happy he’s still with us all the same.