6 games, 2 wins
Tuesday, November 9, 2010 at 10:07PM From my match preview of the game:
No win in three in the league. All eyes on Harry and his selection. All eyes on our erratic Lilywhite troops. Get it wrong and we might find ourselves below mid-table. Get it right and it's one step back onto the path we want to be swaggering down. More like John Travolta. Less like Charlie Chaplin. And definitely no Harold Lloyd hanging off the hands of a clock high above.
Keystone Kops it is then for their equaliser.
Textbook infuriating performance we have become accustomed to this season. Practically dominated possession, carved out chances without really carving them out. Even our goal was scored with the help of a handball. Yes, yes Webb is a joke, but tbh I'm busy laughing (crying) at how we manage to make the art of scoring goals into a task equal to finding the end of a rainbow.
Modric buzzed, I snoozed. Most of them not good enough. Lacklustre. Plenty of effort but no cutting edge quality against what was a well drilled and organised Sunderland. But a Sunderland we can beat if we play to our tempo. What's our tempo? You know what our tempo is. It's the one that only comes out to play in Europe.
Countless corners. Around 4,000. Yet we are incapable of attacking them. Gallas and Kaboul get a second mention: KEYSTONE. Bale managed the one cross, majestic it was, Crouch to vdV for his obligatory Lane goal. Had we not gifted them a way back into the game we might have scraped a 1-0. Either way, it doesn't hide the fact that we are seriously lacking focus in the Prem at the minute.
Two points wasted. Six games played at the Lane. Two wins. Ouch.
Still onwards. Anyone for a 5-0 thrashing of Blackburn?
Anyone?
Reader Comments (64)
Do you mean "of" or "by"???? :/
They need to pull their fingers out of their fucking arses! Not fucking good enough. Simple as.
Do not know what on earth Kaboul was doing for the Sunderland goal, he just got in Gallas' way and then didn't challenge for the ball leaving his man Gyan free one on one with the keeper!!! worst bit of defending I've ever seen!!!
Nothing to do with selection or loss of key players. if you can beat Inter Milan you should beat Sunderland. However, and as ive always said, the mentality is not right from the dressing room. The players are not mentally prepared for Sunderland, Blackburn, Bolton, Stoke, but they are prepared for Milan and glory glory!!
What is it, do they get £10/week for games against Bolton and Sunderland and £75,000 / week against Milan!!
This approach equates to a mid table position and the loss of our world class players in the transfer market. Ive said it before and will say it again we need to get our priorities right we need to get our head right, and we need to get rid of Crouch before we forget how to play cuttting esdge football around and in the penalty area!!
fuck me ( go on you know you want to) that was so frustrating Bentley should be at twickers, Crouch should be on Strictly, and Gallas and Kaboul should be in panto. We are so predictable get the ball and try and give it to bale. We ned to try and go through the centre more and the wide men need to come inside much more ( I sa that to all the boys) We are so tame in the final third.
Just when we thought it was safe to come out the water!... We are Spurs and therefore, this sort of thing comes with the territory.
I can't understand how on earth we didn't get more goals. Possession dominated, chances galore, corners galore but only 1 goal. Oh, how we need a striker. Bentley put in a decent shift for me but too keen to impress at times. Gutted. No chance of top 4 if we don't sort this out and go on a winning streak sharpish.
Gallas f***** up - not my Younes.
While last Tuesday night was outstanding, I would rather have taken 6 points from Bolton and Blackburn. Creative in midfield but toothless in attack and worse at centre back. God for a fit Defoe, Dawson, king, or dare I say it, woody
Normally I'm not one to make excuses- especially after the c*ck up that led to Gyan's goal, but Zenden's takedown of Bentley in the box first half has got to be a penalty... Incidently, I thought Bentley did well- he definitely pairs up with Hutton better than Lennon. Having said that, they would be my second choice on the right behind Lennon/Corluka or Lennon/Kaboul. Even a crocked King makes Gallas look a pauper, sigh...
Meant Sunderland. Already looking ahead
I'm seriously annoyed about this now, it's getting ridiculous. We had all the ball yet I was still never convinced we would score, I know Huddleston hit the post/crossbar and Bentley had a shot and a few other bits and peices but we never really created a clear cut chance.
If we can't break down a team with Bramble, Turner, A Ferdinand, Bardsley and Onouha in its defence then we are in real trouble. People will say well Onouha and Turner played really well but that's only because we allow these crap players play well against us, they conceded 5 against Newcastle for God's sake!! we should be able to get at least 2 and don't get me started on Kaboul again, what the hell was he doing!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
One dimensional...Bale should not look for the long cross each time - take it in and look for the cut back...too few forward - crouch and VdV seemed to be the only guys in the box with about 5 or 6 sunderland players....new approach needed
i really hope home games are played with two up top (save 4-5-1 for away days). i would go for a 4-4-2 with a diamond midfield of hudd holding, modric and lennon/krank in the middle and VdV at the head of the diamond. Then pick your two strikers!!!!
Thoughts?
Absolutely typical of the season and I honestly can't see it improving much in the league unless we go out of the Champions League, we can't cope with the 2 competitions. Our form in the league has been average at best all season and we badly need another striker. I'm afraid Harry has to take responsibility too - enough of the nice friendly approach in interviews and for the press, if we're playing crap say so and do something about it, god knows we've got enough coaches to sort it out surely. Harry always says he speaks his mind, tells the truth etc etc, let's hear some honesty about our league form for once then!!
my knee is having a proper wob.....how bereft of ideas can one team be......we spent the entire first half playing to the ghost of crouch, cross after cross aimed at no one, its a good thing half of them never got past the first man. How can a team with modders, rafa and Bale lack so badly in cutting edge and creativity......i am seriously not happy. We are staring down the barrel once more and with performances like that we deserve to be. Short of pulling our fingers out (ever more doubtful) or winning the champions league (yes i wouldnt put it past Harry) we face the very real possibility of having put all of our best players in the shop window in order to ensure the next ten years of mediocrity are well funded. poo boo and hiss......i feel like i'm 5 again and i wanna stamp and shriek...... i can't even work up a reaction to horny helen....:(
think we can kiss 4th goodbye and dream of top 6 if we keep playing like this, defence again as I've said before we miss king Dawson woody more than goals. Last chance tottenham if u roll over aganist blackburn 4 has gone!
We are going to be knocked out of Europe eventually and then what will we be left with????
Mid Table mediocrity is what, this is a disaster it really is, I'm depressed, I'm going to bed.....
I need to look this up but when was the last time we scored from a corner, or a free kick? It's been a very long time...
and i should add, Bentley did not put in a shift or play well(can't believe some of you think he did!!!!!!!!!!!!!!)....... he failed to create anything meaningful even though he saw a huge amount of ball. For a guy who is supposed to be sublime on the ball his crossing was terrible, he barely got it past the first defender and to be honest half the times he tried there was no one in the box anyway....i know he is lacking confidence but he still manages to find the balls to twat a freekick into row z twice a game....he should have been off after 75 mins.
What was harry doing in the 2nd half after they scored we went very flat surely he should have put Niko on for Ekotto and moved bale back to left back. I know Kranjcar didn't play very well on saturday but neither did a lot of them and we should have gone for it in the last 10 minutes. I feel harry doesn;t know how to change it when things are not going very well
Dave I think it might have been King at Old Trafford last season..
Do we train at all? or did Harry do away with that when he did away with the reserves???
One problem is the influence Crouch has had on the style we play. We have forgotten to play football around the penalty area. Where are the one-twos, where are the ideas, where are our mid field players pushing up. Its one dimensional now teams have sussed out ou. and we are struggling. Stop Bale and Lennon and there is no need to worry about Crouch and VDV, so thats half the bloody team...................
Look at our free kicks, look at our corners - no imagination, no pre-worked moves, its take a shot and fling it over to Crouch!! There is nothing there. What the f@@@ do they do all day!!
As for corners, have you noticed that we still have one man on one post - do we ever learn - school boy stuff!! It will not be long before we concede another goal at the back post because we do not have a man defending it.
Im telling you guys, our priority is wrong!! Its the league stupid!!!
Looks like Crouch is now our only fit forward.
Just got back from the Lane... Bit of a shocker. Played some nice football in the first half, including Bentley. But second half he was back to his worst - he'd get the ball in promising positions but he's sooo slow that we'd lose all momentum. Lennon would've killed them. The longer the game went on, the worse Bentley got and I couldn't believe Harry didn't take him off for some fresh legs. Same with Modric - he was running the show, but after that tackle he went a bit awol. Not sure why Harry keeps persisting with Gallas, surely Bassong is worth a go? He's not bad from set pieces either. Gutted to only get a draw, but if the game had gone on another 5 mins you know that Steed would've stuck one in.
How different would our season have been if Dawson and Defoe hadn't been wiped out playing for England????
I cannot believe that Harry was caught on camera after Sunderland with a big smile on his face. He's definately lost the plot with the players, else he would have them up for tonight after the diabolic showing at Bolton on Saturday. He's a silly arsehole. He has to go and get Chris Hughton in.
Last season he was going to buy a 'World Class Striker and a World Class Defender and he bought William Gallas on a free. And no he didn't buy VDV. Daniel Levy did. Out with Harry Redknapp. Out with Harry Redknapp. Out with Harry Redknapp. Out with Harry Redknapp. Out with Harry Redknapp. Out with Harry Redknapp. Out with Harry Redknapp.
I place all the blame on our defense.
Granted it's a duct-taped half-assed defense but I'm not sure how we can expect to maintain our CL level if we don't have a solid defense.
We haven't kept a clean sheet. Tonight was the type of game most quality teams would lock the defense down and grind out a 1-0 win. We are incapable of doing that.
January can't come soon enough. I am fearing it might be too late.
Had Daws and JD not got injured we'd be top 3. Will still end up challenging for fourth once they are back and we add a couple more in January.
Worth pointing out that Sunderland at home was our 12th game of the season last year as well. We won 2-0, had 22 points and a goal difference of +8, which went up to 25 points and +16 after the Wigan thrashing in game 13. We had also played Man Utd and Liverpool at home as well as Arsenal and Chelsea away. This season the games have been much easier on paper, but we're just not scoring goals and not keeping any clean sheets.
Defoe and Dawson anyone?
I hope you are right Author of Comment. I agree with you that we are missing Daws really badly.
But.
We don't have enough depth in defense or in attack.
We have a world class or near world class midfield.
Our strikers are mediocre at best. Defoe was great at the beginning of last season and then checked out.
Our defense is way too thin. I almost threw up in my mouth when Kaboul started limping. If we were to lose one player from our makeshift defense we'd be screwed.
I actually place blame at Levy's feet.
Too clever by half.
You need to spend money to make money and not buying a striker or shoring up the defense, and drifting back down to midtable will wind up costing Tottenham more money in the end.
What a bunch of idiots. They just play in order to play. Almost none is playing to win. Just to play, finish their working time and get their money. No concentration, no determination to win or to battle, no fight spirit, no tempo. Does any of you has such a job? To get his salary without doing any duty? I just wandered who is more idiot. The coach and the president who buy such idiots and pay them huge salaries or the supporters who are pay to see those idiots and they don't demand more value for their money? If you love Spurs and you want to see them win championships then urge the president to buy ONLY players with a winner's mentality. Only then our team will improve permanently. For this purpose we don't have to increase the budget. Just to buy players with the proper qualities. Before you buy them check their intelligence, their physical and mental strength, if they have a strong personality and a winner's mentality. That's all.
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Its simple yet harry is too stupid to do anything about it. We need to play 4-4-2. When all are fit.. Gomes. Kaboul, Dawson, King, bale.
Lennon, huddlestone, vdv, modric.
Defoe, Pav.
For now we need to play.. Gomes, corluka, gallas, bassong, bale...lennon, hudd, vdv, modric...pav, Keane 4-4-2. We need to start scoring and we need to start defending. It isn't working at the moment and it needs to be changed..and quickly! We need to get back to how we were playing last season.
We have great talents but we are fragile mentally. We seem to switch off, over and over again. I worry about the mental strength of players like Gomes, Lennon, Kaboul, Hutton, huddlestone- players whose form can change so drastically from brilliant to awful and vice-versa. Can you imagine VDV hitting poor form? I can't see it somehow. So if we have the talent, then it's a mental thing. We need a captain. An inspirational leader that other players will respect and even fear a little.
I don't think Harry is a genius, but when I looked at stats recently I think he has won half his games which is very hard to do and only people like wanker and fergie have been able to do that (correct me if I'm wrong). I think we are all over-reacting a little bit, it's a tough old league, and our expectations are sky-high because of last week. Because we are not used to these highs, we don't know, yet, how to come down properly. Players or fans. More than certain players in certain positions, what we need is a shift in attitude. Players injured, tired, everyone has them. Look at united, their team is a shadow of what it was, they are not playing great, yet you never write them off. A couple of results and some self-belief and we can be on our way. COYS.
Its all about a strong mentaility and determination to win - we simply do not have this in the league. Too many mentally weak players. Turn up - play - wage packet!!!
Im afraiad Man U Chelsea and even Arse do -we dont!!! Lets face the facts!!
What a superb knock down from Pav to get the goal fo VDV.
Much better than that useless Crouch in the first half.
:)
Some delusional fuck said that we have the best midfield. Utter bullshit. We didn’t dominate midfield not only today but in any PL game this year. Richardson today owned the midfield, just as he did every time we faced them in recent years. Spurs had better and more versatile midfield w/o RvdV. They were more attacking minded and played one-two and other combination more often. Now the rest of mid players ship ball to him, sit back and expect him to pull miracles out of his ass every game. Modric plays too deep defensively for my liking. Is he now a holding midfielder? Today and at Bolton he was at average JJ’s level. Also, today, he was not even once closer than 30 or more fucking yards to the Cats’ goal. Still, nobody dare to criticize him, but throw shit at Crouch instead. Say what you fucking want, but w/o Lanky we would have lost today. Seems like this man cannot do anything to please few idiots.
I'm with you, "Ned" :)
If Pav provided this assist many in here would be crapping incredible praises. But when Lanky does it, they come out with BS that he is “destroying” our way of playing football.
Redknapp out, what has he ever done?
Arsenal 4-4 Tottenham
Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool
Man City 1-2 Tottenham
Tottenham 1-0 Chelsea
Tottenham 2-1 Man City
Tottenham 2-1 Liverpool
Hull 1-5 Tottenham
Tottenham 9-1 Wigan
Tottenham 3-0 Man City
Tottenham 2-1 Arsenal
Tottenham 2-1 Chelsea
Man City 0-1 Tottenham
Tottenham 4-0 Young Boys
Bremen 2-2 Tottenham
Tottenham 4-1 Twente
Tottenham 3-1 Inter Milan
I personally didn't get any enjoyment out of any of those games
I thought VDV's back heel to Pav was emblematic of our biggest problem: creativity in the center and around the box.
Plenty of you have already expressed it. But that move typified it. VDV had a great creative idea but the other half of the equation was missing with Pav still admiring his pass. We are almost there. Get us a striker with that creative vision and it will be fierce.
Although also to be fair, VDV maybe should have continued his turn and fired even if it was his right foot.
Not only that, BSS, but it seems that VdV is the only player who can foresee Crouchy's knockdowns, get on the end of them and easily score. FFS, Stoke has made more hay from fucking 30+ yards throw-ins than us from less than ten yards knockdowns. Also, none of our strikers even tried to obstruct the view of Cats’ goalkeeper, much less obstruct his movement as other teams are doing to Gomes. He was just left too much room in the box to pick all wiped in crosses with ease. No wonder why all opposing keepers have a blinder game at WHL.
With respect, the "two games a week is killing us" argument is BS - we seemed to manage perfectly OK in our brief fling with the UEFA Cup a few seasons back.
As for this season, Harry hasn;t got to grips with VdV. He's the only one scoring - yet it goes against Harry's instincts to play just one up top. Works just fine in Europe - but he very obviously hasn't figured out the Prem formation yet, which he needs to do pronto. Pav scores great goals - but isn't a great goal-scorer. Crouch is...well...Crouch. You like or you don't. I don't. Defoe + VdV ? Not entirely convinced that's the answer either.
We do desperately need one or more of KIng, Daws, Woody back asap. Isn't Bassong a better bet than Gallas ? And the usual OldSpur rant - we need a genuine world-class striker.
The one consolation I can take from current near-shambles is that everyone else is cocking it up too and a decent run post-Xmas (provided we haven't slipped too far behind) could see as there/thereabouts at the finish.
Harry has come out and critized the fans for booing at the end by saying '''
“They've had it so good over the years, you see. When you keep winning league championships every year, you get upset when you don't win.” '''.
Not the point Harry and you know it.
He doesn't have this team ready for battle on all fronts and he knows it.
To make a statement at the beginning of the season that the squad was the best in the League and as soon as we get a few injuries to be moaning steadily is typical of a manager who's lost the plot.
i am seeing the beginning of a rash on the inside of my knees ... if we keep this up i will have to see a dermatologist
This all comes back to Rednapp. He felt we had a good enought strike fore at seasons start - we did NOT
We got vdV because of Levy.
Rednapp turened down Huntelaar.
We have to crocked and should be retired CB in King and Woodgate.
ONE clean sheet?
How about two banks of 4 across the back with vdV and a striker up front?
AGAIN...ONE clean sheet?
All this we should have had a penalty, we bossed the game, we outplayed them....means nothing!
Goals scored and goals not conceeded win matches....simple!
Sorry tp say I was excited to see Rednapp originally but now....welll now I think a change is required.
Also...what exactly does the back room do? Ferdinand, Jordan, Bond, Sherwood? Useless.
We will be mid-table by tonight and will stay there..CRAP !
Err...fore = forced....to = two.. bit annoyed off....sorry about the misspelling. !
Do you know, I jsut can't be arsed with football today. Wake me up after Blackburn please.
Reading through these comments it seems Kaboul is getting away scott free for what I think was the worst bit of defending I've ever seen at any level!!!
Very frustrated with the team and extremely pissed of with Harry.
"They've [the supporters] had it so good over the years, you see. When you keep winning league championships every year, you get upset when you don't win."
F*ck off.
Wish he would stop chatting crap - http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/9174101.stm
The Crouch situation reminds me of another player of seasons past. His name was Gary doherty, he was useless, but he was the managers friend and he started games as our striker. People would appear in forums (the official site, Spurs2000 etc) to support him and would call us fickle when we pointed out that he was the most pathetic thing to ever happen to us....well, soon enough sanity came by and he was sold to a team at his level. Relegation(s) later, he is nowhere to be seen.
This Crouch nonesense will end someday too. And we will all laugh and remind each other about is. Fastforward to 2015 and this will be a common comment on Spurs forums, "It can't be too bad, remember Crouch?"
I still can't believe people talk about his un-tottenham-esque assists. I hope you realise that even Mathew Etherington has more assists than this clown/faker, and unlike the 3MP, he even has a few goals too. He's only a winger. Is he that good that GDS can't even get 15mins? Give us a break Mr. Redknapp!
really sad from Harry , be a man and face the mistakes you make Harry. I know he loves his soundbites but he should understand the frustration and in stead of being mad at the fans he should be furious about the way things are going in the league ... The performance was better then the one at Bolton but still below average to say the least.