The truth will out at the Lane
Saturday, November 7, 2009 at 10:08AM Today we welcome back Darren Bent. And it's been nothing but Darren Bent we've had to listen to in the past few days. In fact all the attention has been on the return of the much-maligned-when-he-was-at-Spurs player, that I reckon I've missed Robbie Keane's latest warcry, lost somewhere between Twittering and how welcome Sunderland fans made Benty when he signed for them. Andy Reid has also been informing us about how he has nothing to prove to Spurs. It's been relatively quite in comparison to the last weekends build up. And I don't mind it a bit. Jenas might have muttered a few words about something and Harry still insists his wife would have scored the chance Darren missed, but other than that, this game seems to have sneaked up on me. It's going to be a mess if we lose to a group of ex-Lilywhites. Terrible time for Bent at Spurs according to the man himself. Let's make today an absolute nightmare for him.
Today, the talking has to take place on the pitch. I'm not going to go all ridiculous on you and tag this game as 'The Biggest Game In Our History' but in relative terms, it's going to be a tad depressing today if we lost all three points. Three successive defeats will pretty much equate to a massive loss of confidence and Harry needing to brush up on his man-management skills to bring us out of the lull and his first lickel potential crisis problem (with no Ramos to place the blame on).
In the next few weeks, we expect to see the return of Modric and the possibility of an almost practically fully fit squad. The Stoke defeat was just one of those things. The Arsenal defeat was a completely wasted North London derby. Sunderland are also in lower regions of the pretenders category, looking up at 4th spot and scratching their chin, pondering the possibility of challenging for that spot whilst Liverpool continue to lose themselves in their mini-crisis. City are stuttering subtly. Villa too. This game will go along way in showing us whether we do genuinely have the heart and mental strength to dig deep and pull ourselves back up again to something reminiscent of a month or so ago. We'll forget about the tactical limpness we've displayed against the 'Top 4' (other than the scousers) and just make sure we beat the clubs that consider themselves our 'equals' with regards to that push up to 5th/4th.
Lennon might be back today which means no more hoof and hope. Mainly because he'll be able to cross for Defoe - also back and hopefully eager and hungry to make up for his sillyness and suspension. He owes us something. So do our non-existent (last week) midfield. Palacios has not been refined in performance in recent games. He has to be on top of his game today because I doubt Sunderland are going to sit back. They will come at us. And that bloke we sold them (I'll let you guess which one I mean) will no doubt want to show everyone his weight in gold. He's already stated he plans to celebrate if he notches one. He has no qualms about doing so. He's moved on. And we need to be moving on up.
You know that blood and thunder that was missing against Arsenal? Just a slice of that will do us today. It's not just Wilson who has to bring it either. Whomever is standing by his side in the middle also has a responsibility. Three successive defeats will not look good. It will in no way spell the end of any ambitious challenge we have, because mathematically there's an age to go. But it may well hurt the players, and just prove that the fragility in the team (club) is still very much festering away. I'm not going to give up just yet. And neither should our players.
Let's avoid a Bent Twitter gloating session cometh this late evening.
Today is the day for redemption.
Reader Comments (36)
Im about to leave for WHL now, lets give them hell...Bent by name, Bent by...everything else?
I can see today being very very difficult. Sunderland are on a buzz.
No Bassong. No Charlie. And still no word on Azza. Score draw for me.
No Charlie? That's news to me. Would anyone else like to see Naughton given a run-out ahead of the rather shakey Hutton? A Naughton-Lennon partnership down the RHS could be blistering.
http://www.skysports.com/story/0,19528,11675_5678517,00.html
this makes me laugh. i don't think anyone really cares about him leaving, no more so than Reid and Malbranque (who was a real hero for us). Bent obviously thinks people care. he's living in his own little twitter-world.
also, how disgusting was it to see Jenas doing an interview like that days after getting destroyed in the NLD. I'm really sick of that guy, and he doesn't seem to realise that he is crap. he's barely a Premier League standard player, yet thinks he should be in the Engalnd squad. To me it looks like that's all he cares about. If he is so good, why hasn't any team bid for him...ever?! Also we, were top of the league and flying it when he came back from injury. He's not even an automatic starter for us either. That says it all really.
Charlie is ill apparently. Not injured.
Drop Keane
Someone able to actually FINISH would had us 3 up last week before their first goal
Keane ? Dropped? Not a chance mate not a chance. It's written into his contract and he could sue the club if he started on the bench.
It is great to have Defoe back.I fear we are going to have more aimless running around like a headless chicken from Keane.I hope Bale will play.He needs practice to bring his game back to its full potential.Does anyone remember that before his injury he never missed a penalty and was the side's most used penalty taker.
Some of this please:
http://www.dearmrlevy.com/dml/2009/1/17/how-to-not-lose-games-and-alienate-your-fans.html
I reckon Bent will be up for this, he defo has something to prove and its on the cards he'll score a brace. Another 3 points dropped. Ha ha
It seems a common trait amongst us Spurs fans is to question a player's value and performances, and then when they are injured to rest all blame on their absence.
I saw it with Jenas countless times last season, when we would exclaim "what the **** did Jenas do today", and then the following week claim "I hate to say it, but we missed Jenas today"!
I hope there isn't too much to rebuild when Modric comes back to fitness, or else he will have to live up to the fantasy flawless genius many have created in their minds whilst he's been missing...
whatever he does ......we need three.......concentrate on our game etc......
That's the such a classic observation and one that rings true. JJ does bring something to the side when the side is playing well and when he's not there we do miss a spark. But he is so inconsistent people tend to allow the lad to drive them up the wall. I like JJ. Good player. Just nowhere near great.
Jenas is what's wrong with Spurs. He's average at best.
1414: Tottenham v Sunderland line-ups:
Tottenham: Gomes, Corluka, King, Woodgate, Assou-Ekotto, Jenas, Huddlestone, Palacios, Keane, Crouch, Defoe.
Subs: Alnwick, Hutton, Bale, Bentley, Pavlyuchenko, Dawson, Kranjcar.
Sunderland: Gordon, Bardsley, Turner, Da Silva, McCartney, Malbranque, Henderson, Richardson, Andy Reid, Bent, Campbell.
Subs: Fulop, Ferdinand, Nosworthy, Murphy, Meyler, Healy, Adam Reid.
Referee: Kevin Friend (Leicestershire)
Keane remains. Three forwards. Can't fail, can we?
Anyone watching this on ESPN Live? The commentating is ridiculous.
Honestly, if you go on what the commentators are saying you'd think Spurs were hanging on for dear life and the home support are about to burn down the ground in protest.
Sorry to be so trivial, but the addition of the poppy on your cardholding bod is a lovely touch, Spooky.
Good man.
Oh, and cermonyouspurs.
To be fair they are looking more tidy than us, but we're likely to score a second on the break. Not a very convincing first 45 for us.
Tubbs, what game you watching? We are playing SHITE.
ROBBERY!!! 2-0 !!
LOL at Bent, the diving twittering twat.
Last 25 mins its been all us. Nice of the lads to wake up.
Gomes. World class.
lol db the miss dives 4 a pen and does what he does best misses a sitter my little boy could of scored that pen!that does not hide the fact we were shit up untill the 65min and we have gomes to thank. The quicker modders and azza are back the better oh and the quicker the clause in keanos contract is wiped out the better he needs to take a long look at himself he was woeful today as was palacios. This win kinda makes up for the stoke loss
coys
We were dodgy today but I will happily take that result!
Crucial fucking win.
Scoring a couple goals hides a multitude of sins. And we had many today
Lady luck is back.
Not a good display today but a clean sheet (thanks to Gomes) and the thing that matters most, the three points.
COYS!
After what Stoke did to us and the damage at the Emirates, I'll take this result and the performance as long as there is a marked improvement when Lennon and the rest are back. Sunderland played the best they could but Gomes was outstanding. The man is a hero. Looking forward to football first and MOTD. For once.
-ve: I have to say Palacios was awful today and if Thudd hadn't scored one I'd be saying his long-range passing was dismal, so I'll just say it was terrible.
+ve: On the plus side Gomes had a blinder and Defoe showed his class.
-ve: For the first 65 mins it seemed as if we were doing our best to lose the game.
+ve: How many times have we heard The Pundits' Tenet - Teams With Class Win Games When They're Playing Badly - See that? That was us today, that was.
And did it seem to the consipracy theorists out there that Steve Bruce did his best to field as many points-to-prove players as he could in the vagrant hope that one of them did prove a point - hah! point proven.
We done a Stoke. A real smash and grab job considering the chances Sunderland had and how badly we played for 65 mins.
We were awful today. No width or pace and that had to be down to Harry's team set up. It was no coincidence that the one time we managed to work the ball wide in the first half we scored. To be fair Harry turned it round with the introduction of Krancjar on the left which gave us more balance and allowed Hudd to press forward and create.
Jenas was next to useless. Great bombing forward with the ball at his feet but had no idea what to do when he got into the final third of the pitch. He just span round on the spot, looking for the sideways or backwards pass. Add to that the fact he can't pass or tackle and he's a candidate for becoming the new Zakora. Not sure why he marks a player when we have a throw-in rather than looking for space either.
Gomes was awesome, Palacios needs a rest and having to squeeze Keane into the starting eleven is becoming detrimental to the team. I can see him leaving in January.
To play the devil's advocate, Keane did score a very important albeit ugly goal today
I'm no fan of the man but I think he deserves a little bit of respect for working hard and finishing in one critical play today. No?
You are spot on about us pulling a Stoke today.
Onward and upward yiddoes. I think this win will do wonders for the lads' confidence
Christ, how biased was the commentator on MoTD? And I laughed at that wanker Bent diving and failing to score miserably! Briliiant!
Dive, dive, dive. What a guy.
Did Hansen say anything about our win, does anyone know?
You can see how the commentator emphasis is on the luck we had, whereas Stoke pulled off a magnificent victory against us.
Formation was wrong yesterday - 433 has never worked for spurs - okay there was no luka or lennon but we would have been better of having bentley and krancjar wide in a 442. Dont play 443 again harry!!