Time to recall Robbie Keane (cough)
Friday, March 19, 2010 at 2:56PM If we lose because we fail to defend a Delap throw and a Stoke player headers/bundles the ball in…I'll be gutted. If Palacios and Modric don't soak up the physicality and in-yer-face tempo of their midfield and fail to control and boss the park…I'll be gutted. If Roman fails to make a goal-scoring impact and wastes glorious chance after chance…I'll be gutted. If Bale isn't destroying the flank, powering past opponents…I'll be gutted.
0 points? Gutted. 1 point? Gutted.
Three points? Gutted. Yes, gutted. I want us to not just beat Stoke but to beat them so badly, so emphatically, we're awarded an extra two points just to back away from their bloody broken body. I want them decimated. Smashed up. Ruined.
Wolves. 6 points lost. Stoke. 6 points lost? No thank you very much, no sir, no way.
This isn't a personal thing against Stoke. I actually don't mind them. They don’t annoy me, not really. It was more our fault than there's that we failed to break them down at the Lane earlier this season. Can't expect sides to just play open football because we do. Yeah sure, they've got that cheeky long throw tactic, but they can sometimes play a bit too. Teams with lesser quality always seem to be able to produce massive dollops of effort that can sometimes cause sticky moments for the opposing team visiting their humble home. Opposing teams, regardless of their superior quality on paper, sometimes fail to match the tenacity of the effort a Stoke City possess.
i.e. Tottenham.
People cite our erratic away form. Like the oracle of football predictions, Mark Lawrenson, who has us pegged down to lose 2-1 because he is not convinced by our travels, even though we are 4th and have gained 20 points away from home. Still plenty of improvement can be had, which I suppose can be roughly translated as Spurs being a tad inconsistent. And there are some who are nervous about tomorrow because Stoke will show us no respect and go for our jugular, expecting and forcing a text-book powder-puff collapse from us. Because it's happened before. Wolves away, which was the type of depressing performance that is detrimental to all the positive progression we've made this season.
But as we enter the final 9 games, there is no room for these negatives. These ready-made excuses.
So screw Lawro and stick it up your bollocks if you're not ripping the shirt of your back and slow-clapping 'Oh when the Spurs go marching in…' come Saturday afternoon.
What's that? Defoe has torn his hamstring? Out for a few weeks? Er...oh…fuck. Really? Injured? Christ. Those sonsofbitches footballing Gods have hit the target again. They aim for the most important, most vital of Spurs players and strike them down. Gomes, Woodgate, Modric, Lennon, Huddlestone and now Defoe. Backbone players. All with spells out this term. Add King who can only ever play the equivalent of half a season anyway, and it's enough to bring on an epic twitch spasm.
No idea where the Jenas injury fits in with the above. What's that? A voice in my head? Calling out for JJ? Sad sad times.
And yet we've somehow managed to dig deep and get through it all. But is this now one injury too far? A cruel twist so close to seasons end.
Roman, Crouch, Eidur (yes really)…your time is now. Take down Stoke. Decimate. Smash up. Ruin.
Sigh.
Who am I kidding?
If we score in the 93rd minute, deflected shot off someone's bum having been dominated for 92 minutes, and win it 1-0, I'll gleefully accept the undeserved/lucky three points and move on. One game at a time.
Time to recall Robbie Keane then.
What? He can't be recalled? Celtic have his registration? Bless 'em. At least there's some good news that's come out of today.
COYS
Reader Comments (30)
no. he is not up to the task...
"I want us to not just beat Stoke but to beat them so badly, so emphatically, we're awarded an extra two points just to back away from their bloody broken body. I want them decimated. Smashed up. Ruined."
Brilliant, just brilliant.
yep its a nervous time ahead, i sit on the half way line opposite sir 'arry triffic redschnapps and its not just the burger bars that give me the shits but the real real fact that i want 4th place more than anything and its becoming an obsession to the degree that i would gladly sacrifice my most loved ones to gain a place in europe, still gonna vote tory though an the election....
Looking on the bright side, it's a chance for Crouch and Pav to link up and provide a bit of muscle against those brutish Stoke defenders. In fact, perhaps we should be grateful that JD is out of greater harms way considering his Scum roots...
Typical Spurs luck. Pav will hopefully continue to score but its Crouch in the side that worries me. Hoof hoof hoof
I also saw Lawrenson's comment on our poor away form & then checked it against the rest of the league. Only Villa have lost fewer than us away (Lawrenson's beloved Liverpool have lost 3 more than us!) and only the top 3 & Villa have won more away fixtures. So 5th best away record in the league is poor, God help everyone else then!
As for the game itself, it is vitally important to get 3 points, as these are the kind of games a team with CL aspirations have to win, tough, maybe but Stoke home record is not as great as it is made out to be (23 points from a potential 45)
You'll be welomed to the bearpit .... like the walrus and the carpenter welcomed their oysters .... like lambs to the slaughter .... and you'll be going away with nil points !! Believe ..... the Stokies have finally had a week's rest and they'll be up for it .... we need 40 points first, then we will look to beat last year's total and it will have been another great season. I quite like Spurs (apart from Arry). Enjoy the game, sorry about the scoreline, 3-1 to Stoke.
Anyone work out who'll be on the bench.
I have starting line up as
Gomes
Corluka Dawson Bassong A-E
Kranjcar Palacios Bale
Modric Gudjohnsen
Pav
Bench as:
Alnwick
Crouch
Dervite
Kaboul
Livermore
Townsend
+ 1 other (WHO?)
New injuries to Defoe and Kyle Walker have left us really short. Possibly time for Bostock to make an appearance?
I hope Wilson gets a yellow tomorrow so he misses Fulham & Pompey.
Robbie Keane better stay away. I will blame him for everything if he comes back!
since wilson has been on this 8th yellow card, his form has returned!! lets hope he stays like it for the rest of the year!!
COYS - we still have enough in the 1st eleven to do this lot tomorrow.
I entirely agree if we get 3 points with a superb flowing game of football then great. But if we get a lucky 90+ minute goal after Pav has handled the ball into the ref and it relects onto the post back onto the goalkeepers arse and into the net then we will still be 4th. After 50 plus years of supporting the Lilywhites I deserve some luck too. COYS.
You have to question how this has happened. If he was left to train and broke down its scandalous.
They are Pony. Lets just hope we dont play down to their level as we seem to do a lot against the bottom feeders.
Too right Cej! we can turn them over, no sweat! COYS!
Cant see anything less than 3 points Spooky, for us. Even without JD.
3-1 Spurs.
What a piece of news! Defoe's injury couldn't have come at a worse time!
Who will start up front tomorrow gents? Crouch and Pav? Gudjohnsen and Pav?
Losing Defoe is a massive blow, can be as upbeat as we can about it but if you look at our fixture list and the cup game and the games in April, we are stuffed tbqfh.
Lennon? Hudd? Bentley? Even Jenas. Need them all back asap. This is going to be over very quickly if we lose 2-3 games in the next month.
What a massive match tomorrow with us looking to consolidate on 4th and looking for revenge for when they did us at the Lane. As Spooky says, we can't let this be another Wolves.
Our midfield looks very strong, despite the injuries, so I think we can boss the game from there and look to them to help out Pav and co. in the goals dept.
3-1 to Spurs. Yidos, yidos, yidos.
Fucking hell Grim down South, keep away from the razors !
The conspiracy theory now is that defoe isn't injured, he simply booked a last minute thomas cook flight, but the terms and conditions say that he has to join Mr & Mrs Jamie Redknapp at stanstead airport tomorrow at 11am to be on 'standby'.
The reason for all this is that if defoe misses the slot Harry doesn't get his 'pony' for the 'refer a friend' discount for his summer holibobs to lanzarote,and harry's already pissed at defoe for getting banned and he was using defoe's shell points.
He's already got Woody and JJ signed up on his airmiles cards, and negotiated THudd's Nectar points when he signed up to the new five year deal. Apparently the stumbling block for the Bale proposed contract is who get's 'laithwaites voucher'.
Have a good weekend y'all.
Fingers crossed for a nervy (and even if undeserved) goal of kaboul's arse in the 96th minute.
Don't think your midfield will be strong enough to compete with Stoke (unless palacios gets booked/sent off). Don't think your attack can compete with Stoke. Don't think your goalie can compete with Stoke's set plays. I do like Dawson though - top man. I'm amazed you are so confident ... just because you're 4th doesn't give you the right to 3 points - you have to earn it and your best 2 players are out.... and who's the chap who said that Spurs mustn't play down at Stoke's level .... you're sad fella ! If your team is not 100% on their game you may as well stay at home 'cos Stoke always play at 100% - ask manciti - man for man they were miles ahead of us but they didn't want it enough and let Stoke boss the game .... Arsenal (ie the Whingers) only beat us 'cos of Ramsey's injury, it affected Stoke far more than the whingers.
to be honest i would have played crouch with pav tomorrow anyway. defoe will get muscled outof the game and not contribute anything. However, I'd have backed him to put a couple past fulham and grab another 5 against pompey.
2P8G "Looking on the bright side, it's a chance for Crouch and Pav to link up and provide a bit of muscle against those brutish Stoke defenders." LOL,LOL,LOL
The fact that Lawrenson has predicted a Stoke win is in our favour since often when he tips us to win we don't.
Modric will be able to run between the legs of most of Stoke's team so they won't know where he is and he shpuld be able to control the game from his parallell universe.
It's either 3-0 to Stoke, or 1-4 to us...finely balanced.
2-1 after a battle, 2010 spurs are up for it
3-1 stoke ... pulis (the apprentice) puts one over his master (arry) !!
What happened to our bench of all stars ?
Any more injuries/ suspensions and we will not be able to name 7 subs.
Now Pompey are as good as buried, can we not "persuade" them to return O'Hara ?
And before his critics jump in, yes I know he is not a World beater but he would have been more useful than most of our current bench and ideal for tomorrows battle.
If Walker is injured we have no right back cover ( Kaboul is not a right back and never will be) but we have Hutton and the other Kyle playing elsewhere.
Does the fact Corluka has no competition explain his recent loss of form ?
Hindsight is a wonderful thing but our long list of injured players combined with our failure to strengthen in January and policy of loaning so many players out could really come back to haunt us over the next few games.
And anyone who thinks we will just turn up tomorrow and take 3 points without a real battle is deluded. Stoke never give less than 100% and if we fail to match them they will just roll over us.
we might get a lucky win....last week we dominated the game and nearly let blackburn back into it....and that was at home..no king/woodgate/defoe/lennon/..blimey a lot of good players missing....so without that lot nobody would realy expect us to take a top four position...so who have we got left?pav/crouch/bale/modders/palacios/corluka/daws/niko.... not to shabby a bunch of players....will we play 5-4-1? ha ha ha ha go for an away draw?get a 0-0 settle for a point and a clean sheet.im afraid we have to keep playing 4-4-2 n playing attacking football that leaves us a bit open to the counter attack and so what..we need to nick a win at stoke end of story we dont av enough points between us and the rest of the teams chasing 4th...audere est facere
Why are we so afraid to lose?
1. There is plenty to play for, even if we dont win, it's still not the end of our campaign. Stoke is just another hurdle to overcome. If the rivals dont win, then it's status quo.
2. Looking at the rivals,
Liverpool have other problems or distractions, but are starting to look good.
Villa is going to be overburdened with the games in hand to be rushed in March, and MON is getting the excuses out now. Eventually they are going to break. If they dont falter, and that's a big if, then we need to win everything.
Man City is keeping quiet and staying low, doing the smart thing and making their point on the pitch. City are the biggest threat. City play Villa on 1 May and then play us on 5 May.
None of them have any "easy" run-ins.
3. So Defoe is out injured. We just soldier on, manage the situation and keep plugging away. One game at a time. Play smart and safe and treat each game as a Cup Final. We've got momentum, and I guess due to injuries, more or less a settled side. That's almost the best consistency as we could be.
4. So we've got a difficult run in April. I understand the Arse match will be played on 14 April if we beat Fulham.
I hope HR doesnt "throw" the FA Cup replay.
If we lose to Fulham, we play l'arse 3 days after their CL match, and 1 week after our game with Sunderland. We play Chelsea one week later.
If we beat Fulham, we play l'arse 3 days after the FA Semi and they would have had 1 week's rest. 3 days later, we play Chelsea. Seems a tad unfair to reward success with burden but, what the hey, if we need to beat all of them, then we've got no choice.
Looking at the fixture list, except for next Wed (24 Mar) and 5 May and potentially 14 Apr, we have no midweek games, so fatigue should not be a major factor.
COYS
Perfect. Tough battle today but we pulled the rabbit out of the hat. COYS.