NLD journal #2
Thursday, November 18, 2010 at 1:00PM We have missing players and I'm genuinely gutted because in an ideal world I'd love to see us play the scum with a full strength side with them lining up equally complete rather than having several key players missing. A ding dong derby it would be.
A lopsided derby on paper doesn't mean it should be discounted because as cited many times before, no matter the players (legal caveat: as long as the players actually form a cohesive unit as opposed to eleven randoms because that definitely does not work) there is no excuse that would be rendered acceptable unless 100% + blood + heart on sleeves is not applied across the ninety minutes plus stoppages.
I'm pretty sure I remember Zokora laughing at the final whistle whilst chatting to opposition players after a 3-0 spanking. This is unacceptable.
Forgetting to unscrew daft heads Worzel Gummidge style and replace them with intelligent ones. This would be unacceptable.
Capitulating off the back off one mistake. Unacceptable.
Playing passive non-effectual possession football (for an example re-watch recent 2-0 loss at Old Trafford). This would be hugely disappointing.
Harry for me has to avoid quirky experimental nonsense with his selection. Simply:
- Pick the strongest side from the pool of available players
- Play them in their best positions
- Man up
Then all that is required is (moon on a stick time) focus, belief and passion.
Focus. Concentrate, be ruthless and relentless in application and with intent. Hassle them and fight for the ball. Heads should never go down.
Belief. Confidence - if I could bottle and sell it, I'd be living in the Caribbean…having bought it and the surrounding waters with the revenue made. The scum have an unnerving arrogance about them. Their manager might be blind to everything else but he can see that if you have eleven players who care for nothing other than winning you'll half way to achieving it. However, would much prefer to achieve this without being moaning cheating hypocritical jumped up tw*ts, mirrored by their bland boring one dimensional fans (ooh, in there with the digs, zing).
Passion. The players only need to match the fire in the belly of the Spurs fans. That's enough. More than enough. Or failing that, just tell them if we lose the game they'll all be fined four weeks worth of wages.
All that probably wouldn't fit on a clipboard but I'm sure Harry would sum it all up by saying 'have a go at 'em, enjoy it, kick the ball with your feet' or words of similar standing.
It's Thursday. I'm still not nervous or particularly excited. I remain calm before what I hope will be the perfect storm.
More. Later.
Reader Comments (35)
Tough one to call, this. Let's just have a go. Play without fear and like there's nothing to lose. Open, sweeping, attacking play.
We have to turn up.... dont give me an old trafford performance, and for fucks sake start playing when the whistle blows, not some considerable time afterwards.... like 80 mins at the reebok.
This game is of huge importance, not just coz its against scum bags but we have to stay in touch at the top of the table. Lets go and play our hearts out thats all i ask.... oh yea and win the game COYS !!!
defend properly and give the ball to bale. Arsenal will be too arrogant to double up on him. Thats it.
Bale will rip them a new one.
I say a years wages if they don't beat them.
He better start Pav. However if he goes with his pet Crouch, he better remember this: Crouch owes us. He scores nothing all season at Spurs and then runs out and scores last night after a minute. He can do it but needs to turn it on.
Crouch scored last night.
He'll do it again on Saturday and shove it up smug cnuts like this: http://arsenalarsenal.wordpress.com/2010/11/18/arsenal-tottenham-man-city-boo-boys-compared/?
Yawn, Yawn, Yawn.
All the Henry the 5th "Once more unto the breach...etc...etc" rhetoric will not change the fact that unless there is a shift in the cosmic balance of forces we will be once again royally stuffed and humiliated by their fans as usual.
Every year we say the same along the lines of "If the real Spurs team turns up" and every year they miss the bus/tube and decide to go for a game of snooker down the pub instead.
Taking Henry the 5th as an example, we desperately need someone like him (or at least his scriptwriter) to take the rest of the team by scruff of the neck and shake the football out of them. Give the arm-band to VDV Harry or maybe even BillyG and let's see if for once we can celebrate a victory. COYS and FOYG.
Our players must play CONCENTRATED, decisively, smartly.
If Newcastle and WBA could do it.
who would have thought Sunderland could beat Chelski 3-0 at StBr ???
who would have thought Spurs could be Arse 3-0 at Emirates ??
:)
Yes Machine, but neither teams are rivals which meant the way Arsenal approached the game will not be the same way they approach it against us.
Not particularly looking forward to this one, not with our indifferent start to the season.
DaveK... I've got to give it to him, at least ONE of you lot can have a level-headed view of what Saturday will be like. We're going to shit stomp your weak lot. Your twitchy-faced manager will point to injuries, when you couldn't match us at full strength either way, and Song and Sagna are going to have a laugh at Bale.
This isn't Stoke or Fulham (notably your only away wins in the league this year, congrats!).
This is your daddy's house.
Zane. 'Song and Sagna are going to have a laugh at bale'. Wait, I'm slightly confused here;you are talking about the same Bale who murdered Lucio, Samuel, and Maicon, widely acknowledged to be the best defenders in world football at the moment? So, by your reasoning, the mighty, title-winning, soul-destroying Alexander Song Billiong and the fearsome, impregnable Bacary Sagna are better than those three, correct? Well, well. And they say we Spurs fans are myopic. Get this-we will arrive at your swamp with Dawson, King, Huddlestone, Defoe, Woodgate, and most probably Lennon all out, not to mention Dos Santos, Keane, O'Hara, and all the other back-ups. Additionally, Van Der Vaart and Gallas are still some way from full fitness. That will equate to you being without Vermaelen, Koscielny, Squillaci, Song, Van Persie, and Walnut,plus back-ups Denilson,Bendtner,and Vela. Add to that, Fabregas and Djourou being unfit. With an injury list like that, the fact that we're here talking about the possibility of winning is in itself a testament to our squad strength. Song and Sagna are average players, and Bale is more than capable of overpowering one or both. Hell, being as arrogant as you are, you may not even double-mark him. I'll look forward to seeing that. Simply put, we'll come over to your death star, and we'll put up a fight, even with our list of debilitating injuries. And if we win, after all that...Oh, then I'd love to hear you prattling twats make excuses.
Got to love Zane's stupidity. Daddy's house huh? Well Newcastle and WBA have bitch slapped Daddy so I'd rather be a bastard child thanks.
"Arry just do one thing please Guv,DO NOT PLAY 4-5-1..!!!!!!!!This Goon side is vulnrable & there for the taking like no other time in recent history.If we are gonna lose lets give it a real go,none of that negative shit that we got at Bolton or Wet Spam please.Their shit fans have really got on their back at home this season & if we can get an early goal the frustration they show will seep through to their side.They also have the worst keeper in the League so lets work him & make him crumble.I think we may have Ledders back as well.C"mon you Spurs.to dare is to do & all that...!!COYS
So erm... what is this strongest line up in their strongest positions you think we should field then ?
Mine would be:
Gomes
Hutton Gallas Kaboom Benny
Bents Modders Genius Bales
Rafa
Peter
Bonzer !!!
No 4-5-1 from the start please... We'll need creativity to break the Arse down. Having Pav up front with Crouch could be the key to unlocking their back 4.
our strongest line up is in fact
Gomes
Bus with 9 outfield players
VDV
Given the respective injury list for both sides. this will either be a cagey bore draw, or whoever gets first goal will open up the other like a cheap kentish clam.
Not gonna give it the big un' as not exactly confident, and long term memory works significantly better than the short term one.
I wonder what odd's bill hill have on a 92nd min own goal from gallas?
We need to play 4-4-2 with Niko and Pav as our strikers, (no im not mad, only a realist with a vivid imagination) VDV in the middle with Modders and our Boom Boom Bale and Lennon on the flanks= The cock up Le Arse anal.
COYS
Ah! Spuds
Then you call us whingers for complaining about our injury list.
Not really complaining though is it?
It's more about you lot refusing to acknowledge when Spurs are missing 4-5 key players and then using the same excuse when you get beat.
Will be watching more in hope than expectation. But then, hope is a beautiful thing. I learnt that from the Shawshank Redemption. Other than that, I thought it was a rather overrated, over long, saccharine slice of american pulp cinema bull shit. COYS
Team suggestion: Gomes; Bale, Bale, Bale,Bale; Bale Bale, Modric, Bale, Van der Vaart, Bale.
Then I suggest we give the boy rest, before Tuesday.
"All that probably wouldn't fit on a clipboard but I'm sure Harry would sum it all up by saying 'have a go at 'em, enjoy it, kick the ball with your feet' or words of similar standing."
How true, and at the same time, how sad. No fucking tactics and game plans. Only the adrenalin. And adrenalin can carry us through few big games, but without it we are mightily struggling against lower echelon teams, where tactics, any fucking tactics, are crucial to have and try to execute.
One thing we have going for us is that Arse would go top table if they were to win whereas we have injuries and are not expected to win at all.
Sounds like potential banana peel time for the Woolwich Wanderers.
Your "injury list" is cobblers. Whether you want to accept it or not, all your best players are available bar King and you'll have practically as good a team as possible lined out for this game............NO EXCUSES!
euh mr Machine , what would you do with Huddlestone ,Lennon and Dawson ? All first choice players , aren't they ?
No they are not. Not according to Arsenal fans. They make the rules Belgian.
Ok thank you for informing me Spooky , now things start to make sense , so let me see if i get this :
It's not the kids if we play young players without first team experience but it's a kids team if they play a team full of youngsters with first team experience
It's not their first string if they have Vermaelen missing but it is our first string if the above players aren't there ?
It's a micky mouse cup if we win it but it's an important domestice challenge if they beat us ?
Put it this way - if we had almunia, diaby and walcott, or maybe clichy missing, but everyone else was fit and you beat us, what would you say if I came out saying "no it doesn't count we had the heart of our team ripped out", "our first team would have beaten you" "we're so much better than this, if diaby was playing you would have lost"?
Because thats what you sound like with your bleating. Defoe, Huddlestone have repeatedly proved themselves incapable of having an impact against us, or even performing adequately, and lennon's been off colour this year. I'll admit Dawson or King would improve you if they started, but in general we're in even stead, yet you seem to make out your at some kind of massive disadvantage, which is untrue, and pretty much an excuse.
Huddlestone is a big loss, well he is big...........
Defoe and Lennon in the squad....
@bigredmachine, let me take you back to last year's win over you lot at the Lane and afterwards constant bleating about your injury list, so--obviously--the win didn't count. But hey, no excuses, right?