Good afternoon.
Even the most ardent ‘I told you so’ merchants are struggling to find fault with a 3-1 win indoors over the great unwashed from the East End. That said I’m slightly surprised that more hasn’t been made out of how miserable West Ham were. Noble, Nolan and Diame had a bit of a go and when t hey eventually did press there was nobody for the second ball from Carroll’s headers.
Spurs were quite cagey in the opening exchanges and it took Defoe’s first goal before we appeared genuinely comfortable on the ball. Long range ‘shots’ and runs that petered out seemed the order of the day.West Ham were pretty awful. As toothless and witless as their support.
Caulker’s assist aside, Hugo had an decent game. He’s a spritely little fella and I feel a lot more comfortable with him in goal than Brad. He’s not better than Brad, they simply offer different things and I prefer what this guy has. He must however get a settled back four in front of him. Where for art thou, Benny?
Defensively he never really came under much fire. Offensively he made one memorable run during which he sneezed and his frontal lobe shot out of his nose and being the size of an ant’s arse it was lost in the grass. He won’t miss it. Then run ended with him also losing possession.
A remarkably measured game. Clearly he was instructed repeatedly not to hoof and it had sunk in. He was clearly brought on to diffusive the threat of Andy Carroll. The truth is he didn’t succeed and from memory Carroll won every ball. Mmmn.
He was having a steady enough game until the howler. One ‘new’ thing that our lads need to grasp is that punting the thing mindlessly is not on. It invariably hands possession to the other lot.
Commanding and thoughtful. Did anyone else spot him pleading for movement when trying to pass and take throw ins? Oh that must have been Tommy then…
Sam old same old. Some breathtaking passing that at once gave our play a lift. To counter this his movement was abysmal. More life in a tramp’s vest, And this shooting thing needs to be knocked on the head now. He hasn’t scored since forever and needs to stop shooting. I want Carroll given a go.
If all our players were as dedicated as he is, we’d win the Champions League. Left the pitch after vomiting. Word is he ate someone that disagreed with him.
Given how bloody awful they were he should have run rings around them, but he didn’t. I seriously get the impression he joins in when he’s in the mood. The assist was good, but that was an example of simply doing the right thing. Looking up and thinking quickly. He needs to employ this tactic every time he gets the ball.
At last. A proper performance. We now know what it was he was doing in training that kept getting him picked. If he can play like this and build from this, we could be on to something. Again, the opposition was pants, but you can’t help but feel slightly cheered by that showing.
Another improved effort but you have to ask why we aren’t getting this every week. We’ve enough on our plate without supposedly ‘world class’ players going missing or joining in when in the mood. He went through West Ham like he went through Norwich. We need to see him at it every week. No excuses. That Maicon business was a long time ago now.
What a goal. When wasn’t scoring he was of course serving up the usual. Selfish and wasteful. That’s what you get.
He looked pensive and rightly so. The fast food, Persian bazaar culture of the Premier League would have had him listed as having 2 games to save his job or some such gibberish had we lost. Hopefully he has faith in Hugo now. The sooner he can field a steady back four the better. Moussa clearly and understandably isn’t quite match fit. So it’s another week of sticking his head round the physio room door asking for updates.
What a wonderfully harsh review.
Defoe gets a hard time from his critics but i’d take him over most the other blokes that we’ve had up front in recent times.
He had a decent game yesterday. I’m not about to go and buy a shirt with his name on it. I’m not going to carve his name into my arm with a stanley blade. I just appreciate him for what he is.
Imagine if we moved him on again and kept Pav? A few of our wins have come down to what type of game he’s having, so we’re not in any position to be complacent.
Yesterday was important for a couple of reasons. It’s sparked a belief that we can put something tidy together and has put us on track to climb the table. This season may be painful for some but it is not hopeless.
Of course, we are always only one bad performance away from hearing “I told you so”. But lets enjoy the win and save those arguments for a less tidy performance.
Those Spammers are a bunch of ars*h*les and our guys pushed em down a notch in the Prem. And there’s a couple more pretenders above us too that need brushing aside.
I’d certainly take Defoe over Torres and Sturridge right now. And Welbeck. And Giroud. And Podolski…
Defoe is shite
Is that the unabridged version?
I have his album. Ha’penny Bridge Blues.
To be sure.
Top scorers are Ba and Suarez whos clubs currently sit beneath us in the Prem.
Player games Goals Assists Shots
VP 13 8 4 42
Defoe 13 7 2 56
Van Persie cost Manure how much? His wages are what now?
Think about what players VP has in support in relation to what Defoe has had.
Still early in the season I know and I will be very interested to see how they change.
That all looked a lot tidier when I typed it out….
And all RVP cost was 58 million,bargain-we should’ve Goon for him instead
wonder who sandro ate?
I absolutely don’t agree with your analysis on Thudd. Did you or anybody here really watch the match yesterday? Or did you just cut and paste comments from the Wigan match?
Sandro had 3 interceptions and maybe 1 or 2 completed forward passes the entire match. Sandro made Thudd look like Modric yesterday.
Thudd had 7 interceptions, one led to the first goal and his interception of Carroll led to the third goal.
Thudd’s passes were instrumental in almost every shot and attack we had yesterday.
His pass that setup the second goal was absolutely brilliant – maybe only one or two other players in the premiership could make that pass. For those that were sleeping, Thudd faked that he was going to pass back towards his own goal, spun a 180 and instantly slid a perfect pass directly into the path of Dempsey up the middle, who then setup Defoe for the goal.
Then throw in Thudd’s 98% completion rate (which was leaps and bounds above Sandro’s), several blocks and critical clearances in the box, and you have my MOTM.
Granted, Thudd’s shooting is not back yet to where it was before the ankle injury, but the rest of his game is finally back to his previous excellent level, so I can’t imagine the shooting will be far behind. He did launch a hammer blast around the 70th minute that was headed into the upper left hand corner and almost decapitated McCartney.
If he continues to play like this, AVB is going to be left with some tough decisions about what to do with Dembele. If you sit Thudd to play Dembele, then Dembele has to drop way too deep to get on the ball to be effective. And you are left with a massive drop off in your ability to defend. Neither Sandro, Parker, or Jake are capable of getting Dembele the ball on the other half of midfield.
Surely the solution is a midfield 3 of Thudd, Sandro and Dembele? Sandro deep, Tom hovering around the centre to receive the ball and pass it, Dembele further forward, both pressing the defence and receiving the ball / making runs and dribbling as he does.
Granted you sacrifice Dumper, but up until yesterday that hasn’t looked much of a sacrifice.
Sandro = ball-winner, Dembele = box-to-boxer, Huddlestone = playmaker. It’s the perfect Villas-Boas combination.
Having to drop Dempsey to accommodate the three of them is the icing on the cake.
So do you change the side for Weds or not LLL?
This depends to some extent on the fitness of Sandro and Dembele obviously…
However, I think to drop Dumper after he’s finally done something decent would be a bad move for the manager. So perhaps we don’t change the side, go similar again and bring Dembele on for the last 30 minutes – in place of who I’m not sure!
I was thinking along the same lines-and perhaps have a change in midfield for the Fulham game, allowing some players to recharge the batteries, because we’ve got another bloody fixture the following Thursday.
Defending Huddlestone is a surreal exercise.
Spellbound by a few majestic passes and blinded by the light.
As for harking on about his injury, when was that? He’s been a slacker for years. Unsellable/un-loanable even to Stoke.
Big, cuddly, likable Tommy the teddy bear? Nope, big, cuddly, likable …waste of rations.
I doubt that Andy Carroll is thinking of Thudd as a teddy bear after he ran into the Thudd wall four separate times yesterday.
Going back five or six seasons now, you have consistently slammed Thudd, while giving legendary status to a group of midfielders that were all duds: JJ, Zokora and Sarge.
I suffered through an entire season of vomiting while you talked up Sarge, who Sandro is exactly equal to at this stage in his development; a totally inept attacker who is lost on the ball, unable to deliver a forward pass, and runs around like a wild animal, constantly losing track of his runners and his position and exposing his defenders.
The Sarge, Bless him, is no comparison to Sandro…Sandro is Dave Mackay reincarnated (OK I know he hasn’t shuffled onto better just yet, but you get my drift…) as far as I’m concerned and most times is looking for a forward/progressive pass. His fiendish winning of the ball resulted in JDs 3rd goal yesterday (yes, yes Hudd got a little touch in its way as well, Sandro did the winning) and it isn’t the 1st time he has won the ball a long way back and resulted in a goal before now.
Sandro is quality, Hudd is average…we have around 5 maybe 6 CL Quality players at present, and we need another 6 at least !!
Behave yourself Harry-the bloke had a series of injuries and was effectively out for 2 seasons-I’d suggest the Stoke loan deal was simply to get him fit and return a leaner meaner machine- However,injuries have forced AVB to play him earlier than he or Hudd wanted or expected, but such is life-he played well yesterday and this blogs about yesterdays performance I thought?
Hogwash :blink:
@HH
I did get it. Would Oh Lordy pick a Gareth Bale of cotton? Would oh Lordy pick a Gareth Bale of cotton a(ll) day? :shifty: :daumen:
Fcuk me Spurstcus…only took you three days ;-)
@daytripper re 5.12 pm.
I am with you in praise of Thud, and I think Hartley summed it up beautifully when he said, “Tommy Hudd was born to play for Tottenham”.
However, I don’t think the comparison with Sandro does your argument any justice, as effectively, they are players with different roles, and its a bit like comparing Defoe with Verthongen. I think they both had good games yesterday, but the Thud’s contribution did shine.
It was great to see a good, sustained team performance for a full 90 minutes; over the years that’s been rare for Tottenham but I hope we now see it often under AVB.
Lloris, Vertonghen, Sandro and Bale are special players and if Dembele can stay fit he will be in the same category. The squad is still incomplete but with just one or two quality signings in January I believe we could be as good as any club in the premiership.
“just one or two quality signings”
I’ve just had a Harry Redknapp flashback.
Apologies LosLorenzo – I’m no HR fan but I do think this squad could achieve great things with a couple of reinforcements.
No need to apologise. I hope you’re right.
I bought a truss. Made a world of difference to me.
We’ve been just one or two short of a competitive side for years. One or two quality players come in one door, only for one or two quality players to exit another.
10 Million Quid doesn’t look so bad anymore…..
http://www.goal.com/en/news/15/germany/2012/11/25/3555672/rafael-van-der-vaart-expects-to-be-out-until-2013
Tell me, have we ever seen this before?
Loved the player, hated the hamstrings…
#itsallsylviesfault
VDV obviously needs time off to buy and wrap Sylvies presents. Can’t blame him really.
I reckon unwrapping them is even more fun