Back to business
Saturday, January 16, 2010 at 11:44AM Morning. Another small club that has a habit of sometimes punching above their weight (as we found out when they famously beat us 1-0 at WHL). I'ts Hull at home.
There is no need for deep analytical discourse on who should play and how best we break them down. It's Hull. And we need to do one thing. Remember what Stoke and Wolves achieved in our back garden? Complete avoidance of anything similar is the order of the day.
Hopefully those complacent, rusty and somewhat wasteful in front of goal efforts are a thing of the past now that the second half of the season is upon us. The players have to be professional and prove they want it and show belief. I guess that's what makes the best in the country the best. The teams that constantly believe and play to the required standard.
Three massive points IMO today. Mainly because losing these types of games at this juncture in the season WILL be costly. Liverpool away is a similar game re: under-performing when considered to be favourites - with 3 of their best players (their only decent ones you might argue) out injured. But more on that early next week.
All eyes on Harry I'm sure, with how he handles the occasion with that slight distraction of a certain court case on the horizon.
For now, it's all about the footie. No mistakes or over-sights permitted.
Reader Comments (41)
If we don't win I blame Keane, bale and the inland revenue. If we do win its cause I'm there and a little drunk already!! Coys
The postponement of the Liverpool game has certainly worked in our favour in terms of injuries. Although King is not fit I would have saved him and Lennon for Wednesday in any case.
No excuses on this one; we are either serious or we or not about success this season. I don't care who gets the hat trick for us as long as somebody does.
Should set us up nicely for Liverpool and the next run of games.
What Jimmy said.
"we are either serious or we or not about success this season"
There is nothing more to say.
About to leave for the game. Would love a DVD performance out of this afternoon, but a hard working 2-0 will do us just the same. No Azza, but these days we can live without him what with Niko and Luka in the side.
COYS
I hope your joking when you say we can do without Lennon if they had played a few more games you could say this but they are up against a five man Midfield today and the only way is over the top with speed this is my worry.We struggled to score against Posh till the second half and don't let other clubs here you say that about Lennon.lets hope you are right and we win the Energised Hull .
We have to be able to beat teams without Lennon. We are not a one man team
Jamies back I read it on Twitter Danielle said so. Are they allowed to go to the engagement party tonight? They may be all busy thinking about outfits and what not.....
I think there is too much focus from our end on the Liverpool game..........sure its very important but we have a game today which is very important too............lets hope Harry has the players focused on today and not on Wednesday.....proffesional performance, then lets go toe to toe wih the with the mickey mousers......COYS
bollocks to playing nice footy against hull..kick em in the cobblers and kick em off the park......
ok, for me the game rests on team selection, and showing no signs of complacency like against Wolves and Stoke ie Dont friggin start Keane!!!! He started both of those games and was as shit as ever. He was only good when either a) the rest of the team was pretty medicore or b) when berbatov was holding his hand. If you start keane, you are in effect playing a 'weakened' team, and deserve to lose. Its not clever, or good squad managemnt Harry, it's stupid and has cost us pretty much 6 points already this season. Accept the fact that 15mil for Keane was a waste of money. Don't try to validate the purchase by playing him, becasue your stubborness is only having the effect of making the signing look even worse. Yes Keane is not awful. But he is a dead weight in our team. He would prob fit in well at Hull.
Keane gives the quite bizzare impression of a player whose legs are shot by the mid 20s. Weird or not, it's happened. Stop asking ourselves why. Just accept that it has happened and move on. He has been quite disturbingly poor this season, and im sorry but we are not a rehab clinic for players with the yips. We are supposed to be challenging for the top 4, and if you are you dont put in a player who has been playing as poor as him unless you absolutely have to. Come off the bench yes, but even if defoe or crouch was unfit, I'd rather play another midfielder, we have 3 top quality forward moving midfielders. Ok so Lenny isn't fit, but just put JJ (yeah, even he is more reliable than keane atm) in and give modric and niko more license to annihilate.
In short, I hope Harry isn't arrogant or stuipid enough to think we can win without playing our best team. I hope he has learned the harsh lessons of wolves and stoke. Harry is not stupid, but he is arrogant. Just swallow your pride and get rid of keane mate. He has been total dead wood this season.Even signing someone like james beattie (and im not for a second suggesting we should) would be preferrable because keane does almost less than nothing when he plays.
As for the rest of the team, I honestly can't see anything going wrong.
Congrats on the award spooky. :-)
http://www.adifferentleague.co.uk/default.aspx?Tab=1&Page=6&Article=1100
Haha, no HH on that list. Funny shit.
What can I say.. that bale boy is hexed...
at home....against the worst defense in the league...no goal....two points lost....
that result says a lot about your teams capability of finishing top 4!
c'mon spuds....
As soon as I learnt that horrible Keane was starting I knw we would'nt win. When was the last time we won a game that the traitor started? Its our punishment for lacking any pride and giving captaincy to the guy after the unforgetable shame he put us through...
Well, we've sold our right to the top-4 for the right to accomodate the Horrible PSB.
One of those days. Didn't play well, should have won but didn't thanks to that annoying git in between the Hull goal.
Congrats to them.
City losing to Everton, missed opp for us. But goes to show that this is going to be a long long season.
How many times do i Have to tell my fellow Spurs fans Stoke wolves Hull Wigan Burnley Everton Fulham Liverpool without Torres And Gerrard . have got points from shocks and in all the games goalkeepers that have conceded loads of goals Where outstanding.Some one sooner or later will stop calling players and start looking at why these teams even with some of there better players missing are stealing points .I no the answer and my last blog on the subject on this site and a few others warning about Hull have bean proved right .We are in the desperate desperate side of the season and the man of the Match will be the medical bag and The blind Uk sports
Er, what?
Davspurs
Seriously, how come all these said teams, according to you, are rubbish one week, and scrape a win the next? Do they take ephedrine for selected games? Do they take it week about? Or do they just take it against Tottenham? And why aren't every club in the country doing the same? And why aren't Spurs on it?
Too many flaws in your arguement. I want answers Goddamnit!
The sooner we realize Bale's a boy lad with a bad jinx, the sooner we will permanently bench his ass for league games. There was nothing today to suggest we shon't take all 3 points but that element of luck seems to desert us anytime Bale starts a match. Maybe I am being too harsh on the kid but this is going 2 years and counting and things still remain the same.
Davspurs. He's an institution.
Started the day in fifth.
Disapointing result but now fourth on merit!
What were you saying Brook ?
Keane blew an assload of chances today. Defoe was wasteful as well. I wish we had started Crouch instead of Keane.
"Davspurs. He's an institution"
He's escaped from one is what you meant to say.
Chrisman hit the nail earlier on, couldn't have said it any better. With those 8 points lost we could've been second ffs
spurs 18 attempts on target
hull 2 on target.........
we are playing well
Fa cup and 3rd please!
Ahhh ... we're due some goals is all I can say. Lots of good performances actually.
It is gonna be a long season and we didn't look bad today despite the result.
COYS!!!
One of those days again lads, a shame as we would have been clear of city now. We did NOT lose, and we totally smashed their goal all afternoon, when Defoe missed that opportunity in the first half, it was never gonna be our day.
To finish in that that holy 4th spot, we will have to beat Liverpool away, City away and Villa at home. Fuck it, we might aswell throw in a victory against the scummers at the lane in April also.
Long season guys, we are in 4th and as i write this Villa are knocking on the door of the west ham goal - if they win, there will be 3 of us all on 38points (i think) with us toping the list.
COYS
PS: I agree, Crouch starts from now on, leave Keane on the bench and for the love of God - please give the armband permanently to Dawson.
The points dropped at home to Hull, Stoke and Wolves hurt like hell, but every team is doing the same this season so its not the end of the World just yet.
Villa have taken 1 point out of 6 off West Ham this season.
Man City cannot win away from home.
Liverpool are struggling.
Looks like Everton are trying to join the party.
Still all to play for but would be nice to bring in 1 or 2 big signings in this window, as a statement of intent.
Congratulations Spooks. Well deserved award.
Always interesting
Usually informed
Sometimes over the top
Occasionally right. (Very occasionally mind you)
I see that HH.is 2nd on the list now. Thats about right I think.
What a surprise. Harry,your 15mil captain moron plays, in a fucking lay up against shitty hull, and what happens? Fuck all, thats what. It wouldn't be as annoying if it wasn't so fucking predictable! Having said that,we made enough chances to bury them, but if Harry can't see that playing with Keane up front is effectively playing with a handicap then his droopy eyelids have clearly infringed on his ability to see the plainly fucking obvious.
And as a footnote, Robbie, when the ball is pinging aroundthe penatly area, why not actually try and score instead of appealing for penalties that are clearly notgoing to be given.Thanks for your idiocy, arrogance and immaturity.
And Harry, let me spell this out for you- KEANE AND DEFOE CANNOT PLAY TOGETHERR. When you play in a team who like to move the ball out wide, how much sense does it make to have no one in the box for crosses? When you have a player who thrives on flick ons and nod downs, how much fucking sense is it to have no one to flick/nod the ball to him??!?!? Well done, you neutralised our main goalscoring threat, and made our main route to goal totally redundant. Harry, you are lucky that there are actually managers out there thicker than you who will take this useless piece of garbage off your hands.
The defenced was solid, the midfield was good (modric good, palacios better than he has been, Huddlestone average and Krancar not as good as recently), but up front we were really poor. If Harry can't see the reason for this, then he's pretty blind, since I could have told you the two couldn't play together about 4 years ago. Doesn't really bode well. When you look at things yeah ok Harry has done pretty well, but probably no better than the squad merits. He bangs on saying crap like 'they've nevr had it so good' well sorry Harry but we did finish 5th, twice, like 2 years ago. So unless you finish at least 5th, you've taken us backwards, with a far better squad.
I could probably think of at least 5 strikers who would cost less than a quarter of what Keane cost, and would be far more effective. If he's so good for morale, why do we have to play him? Why not give him some fucking pom poms? Do a swap deal with Stoke for Riccardo Fuller and 10 mil. Now
Monstrously frustrating but this was nothing like the wolves game. We didn't deserve to get anything from that one at all. Hull were timewasting from the first minute and the ref seemed totally unable to give any hull players a card yet booked jenas for a perfectly fair tackle late in the game. They day back and slowed down play yet we stillanaged 18 shots. Frustrating but not disastrous. I thought bale was brilliant all game. Great attacking threat. Chased every ball and even defended very very well. Performances like that should build his confidence and we should see the player we all know is lurking inside there. As someone astutely said earlier, our style of play does not accomodate two short men up front. Keane has got worse than we rember but you have to remember that he was so good because our system used to come down the middle a lot more due to Berba being there to hold up play. Defoe was just as average as keane if not worse. He was dominated by Anthony Gardner for fucks sake! It's not a loss. It's a draw. Even motd held off calling us crap for once because it was so obviously myhill that stopped it being a comfortable 4-0
Martin Jol; Sacked due to persistent inclusion of Paul Robinson despite his pathetic form. Now Robinson plays for relegation threatened Blackburn while poor Martin, for all his loyalty to Droppo, can only dream of what could have been.
2011 - Harry Redknapp; Sacked due to persistent inclusion of Robert Keane despite horrific form and shameful disrespect and disloyalty to the WHL faithful. Now Horrible PSB points and runs aimlessly at Celtic while poor Harry can only dream of what could have been as he sits in the dugout...at Southampton.
Robbie Keane has scored 9 goals in 19 games, if he scored in his next match that's 1 in 2, not bad at all if he is our supporting striker as well as not always starting. Oh and he's scored in every single match in the cups that he's played in. I leave you with this thought.
We have to look at the plus', 0 conceded in 6 games now, if we can keep that run going i will be chuffed.
We are up to 4th in the league again.
Yes we had 18 shots on target, which is annoying, but Myhill had one of those days.
If we can turn it on against a gerrard and torres free liverpool ill be loving it.
By the way what about suspensions, thanks to saturday palacios, the hudd and jenas are all on 5 yellow cards for the season now.
Yellow cards have been reset.
soeone press 'control' 'alt' and 'delete' up at FA HQ in Soho then oracle?
Ricardo Fuller chrisman ? serious ?
You can't be ...
looks like they nicked my 'm' key temporarily as well.
Still have it back, so I can now say, 'That Myhill, what a git, turns in his best performance on the day we ned it least. How many times have we seen games like that where we bring the best out of the keepers? It sucks big-time and with city losing and liverpool drawing was a bad time to become goal shy. And he looked like humpty dumpty at the end of the game.'