The jerking of the knee
Sunday, August 29, 2010 at 9:10PM I'm not saying don't be critical or angry or upset. It's your (our) right to ask questions and feel aggrieved. You should do. So should the players, and the more it hurts - more so now than similar results from last season - the better. Positive from a negative. No point in wallowing in self-pity. Use it to fuel correction and thus redemption.
We can't afford to be making the same mistakes, the exact same mistakes, at this point in our progression. It's frustrating because its unnecessary. But this loss, the first in eighteen at home, with the last defeat coming against Wolves, illustrates that we can count the bad days on one hand. And of course, it also highlights the fact that both of these losses were hardly expected and should really be unavoidable based on the quality we posses. Complacency is the enemy within.
How many times did we question Harry and the team last season? And how emphatic was the reply?
There's not that much more we need to do to get it right. And that's probably why we feel sick for losing all three points in the manner we have. This isn't the 1990's where defeats like this came about every other week.
Keep the faith.
Reader Comments (48)
What can WE do? That's the question. None of us are going to head in the next corner, or save the next shot.
WHITE HART LANE was silent in the second half yesterday. That is something we can do something about.
We make a big deal about our wonderful atmosphere at Spurs. If you don't support, are you a supporter?
LET'S MAKE SURE THE NEXT TIME THE TEAM NEEDS A LIFT, IT GET'S ONE.
please excuse: get's
Best one yet
Yes but this does not happen to teams like Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea and even Liverpool. Tottenham can and will beat teams like inter, Madrid, barca, arsenal, Chelsea even Man u (this year). We just can’t beat teams like wolves, stoke, wigan, leeds because our subs like palacios are not good enough. When people say we have strength in depth I feel like our 2nd team all the way to the youth team are average. I was thinking that Arsenal have three brilliant left backs and we have no decent left back. I wish harry was confident enough to play his kids, at the end of the day they will never get a chance.
LETS MAKE SURE THE NEXT THE TEAM NEEDS A LIFT, IT GETS ONE.
Absolutely brilliant video !!!! I needed a laugh after that shambolic display on Saturday.
Let's face it we were total shite.... Should arry rotated, yes for sure, we looked very shaded in all areas, JJ should have been given a game, and believe me I'm not his number one fan, but he has looked fairly good in the few appearances recently, Gio too should have been given a chance.
Surely arry has to start utilising his squad as we have such a big season ahead of us.
You can't compare that home defeat to last seasons Stoke at the lane... We did everything but score.Wigan were well worth the 3points we were total crap !!!
Anyone else heard the rumours in Italy that weve signed Sully Muntari?
Spooky is hurting. Like the rest of us. Completely agree that losing like this now, three, four games in will do us a favour in the long run.
Why didnt Harry make a few more changes from wednesday? The best teams do. You could see their hearts werent in it from the start. And why does he insist on playing Hudd and Wilson, two defensive midfielders, when we knew (and he's admitted now) that we need players who can break down a defensive team. Krancjear should have started the game in centre mid.Tom had his worst game for a long time. Slow, predictable, sideways passes (when he's under any pressure it's back to Dawson for a big punt upfield). I just dont get the hype about him. 2 or 3 goals a season, he plays to impress (ooh look, he's played that with the OUTSIDE of his foot! Wow!). Sorry, not good enough.
"Yes but this does not happen to teams like Arsenal, Man U, Chelsea and even Liverpool."
It does, but only about once a season. Let's hope that this is our one for the season.
still need a decent goal scorer, I'm not a defoe fan, he's an overhyped striker, who has a mediocre scoring record for us. last season 18 goals from 34 league games sounds good, but then if we ignore the 8 he scored in 2 games against hull and wigan, that becomes 10 from 32. It's not like he's playing for wigan where chances might not be common, spurs are always creating chances, he's also not a striker who is often providing assists, so he surely should weigh in with more goals??
LETS NEXT SURE THE LIFT THE NEXT TEAM NEEDS ONE, IT GETS ONE
Ive got to say, that made me laugh! brilliant.
Thanks Spooks. Made me smile too.
Everyone was having an off-day. Even Harry. I think there should have been substitutions early in the match to change the pace of the game. Hey Spooky, why didn't Gio play? Is he injured?
we need a ruud van horstleroy goal machine in his prime & either a rejuvenated sgt wilson or bring in ron burgundy. That plus some sensible squad rotation & we will get past the likes of wigan after a hard midweek match.
Gio came on as a sub. Unless I'm imagining it.
He did come on as sub in second half. And Daws still kept hoofing the bloody ball upfield. No one used Gio, it was bloody frustrating.
We have a captain but we dont have any fundamental instructions barked out to calm down players. Hoofing is the perfect example of nobody on the pitch or on the bench getting the message across to pass it on the fucking grass and not up in the air.
Can Sandro speak English?
Mike - Thud's 'punts up field' are normally accurate long range passes that start moves into the box. Not sure where the complaint is with that?
http://www.guardian.co.uk/football/chalkboards/d3243214xEBZ4EH3MH88
68 successful to 7 unsuccessful pass ratio. Not bad.
I do feel sometimes like we could do with using a few players that are not as fancy as the normal first team bods - for example whilst freezing my arse off at Wolves last year, I was thinking that a mid field of O'Hara and Livermore might have been better suited - I guess I'm saying that it doesn't necessarily need to be beautiful.
Good video. Exactly what I have been thinking in the last 2 weeks. lol COYS
Some people complain Hudd makes far too many attempted long range passing. I think its highlighting the stupidity some of our fans demonstrate when they attempt to scapegoat.
One of the things we miss when Modric is out is someone who will both give and receive firm passes to feet whilst under pressure 30 yards from the opponent's goal. We lacked someone who could operate in that space and so either forced ourselves out wide or gave it back to Dawson to hoof up front.
What is going on with Sandro? First I hear Sherwood saying he's looking immense in training and next Harry is saying he hasn't turned up yet?? Do we have him or not?
Gomes and Dos Santos are prob going to be a big help in getting Sandro up to par, if he ever arrives.
Looks like Taarabt is having a blinder of a season so far QPR
Dos Santos doesn't speak Sandro's language by the way - unless he learnt a second language when growing up...
Yesterday was a balls up. Wigan done their home work on us and stopped us playing. they worked their socks off and then after Redknap took off Akouto that area was left wide open as Bale was too far up the pitch.
Rodallego had already been up that side twice before he scored and put in good crosses that they should have put away. Bale was LB, he should not have been so far up the pitch.
We were poor yesterday because of Wigan's hard work, and complacent because we thought that the goal would eventually come.
You have to work hard to earn the right to play your football, that is why these kind of results happen to us and not the mancs, arse & chelsea.
My view is that we did not work hard enough and should not have subbed Akouto.
Also, in that kind of game the last thing you do is put Pav on, he is too lazy and is easily closed out of a game.
Bit of a boo boo by Harry methinks.
Hear hear Spooks!
Well done.
Citeh losing today hit home to me today. It is way too f*cking early to start writing the melodramatic obituaries on the season because top teams are also going to drop dumb points on occassion. Yes, we cannot afford to do this again and we absolutely must avoid shambolic displays like what we saw yesterday but we are just getting started and odds are high that many of you won't even remember this in a few months. We just finished week 3 of what will be a long season FFS.
Trust in Spurs and believe that we can do this. COYS!!!
Dos Santos' dad is brazilian so I would think it likely he knows a little portuguese. insert jose dominguez joke here
As long as we learn from this, and never repeat, we should be okay. Yes it was bad, but perhaps it's time to move on.
Moving onto transfer speculation, I understand that there's rumours of Keane moving and Parker / A Young coming in. Hopefully HR and co. will pull out a surprise at the last moment.
No matter how much transfer business we manage to do (or not do) we really really need a good back up GK. No matter how crap the defence is, a good GK would more likely than not protect the goal, conversely, no matter how good the defence is, a bad GK would always leave us vulnerable.
CC is not good back up. He should have saved the shot from going in. He has done this mistake before and he will do it again. I know nothing much about Alynwick, but if he is not good enough, then please please please look for another. What about Jansson? He seemed decent enough last year?
Whatever it is, CC is not good enough for us. Funny how no one blames him for the defeat. The rest failed to win the game for us, but he cost us the match. Please do something about back up GK. Otherwise there will be more days like this.
The problem for us is over expectation on the one hand and mobility on the other. The fans over expect...we are not going to win the Champions league... my guess is we will go out in the initial group stages.
Losing on Saturday illustrates how much Spurs flatter to deceive. You can call it a blip if you want..a rare occurence but can you imagine the likes of Man Utd,Chelsea or Arsenal losing at home to one of the worst teams in the league just after being victorious in a champions league game?
We were good in the first half against Man City and poor in the second. We were lucky against Stoke and beaten up by an average team in Switzerland. On saturday we were absolutely pathetic..make no bones about it..pathetic. So the start to our season has been crap and right now I see no way that we will finish in the top 4 again. Our lack of mobility stems from the football equivelant of the robotic Frank Bruno..Tom Huddlestone in midfield, cart horse Corluka at right back and a very poor Palacios. Palacios has not been the same since he considered retiring after his brother was murdered. He had a poor world cup and a very poor start to the season. Personally it might be a controversial but I think we should off-load him now whilst we can get some money for him. Huddlestone is never going to be sharp and will get turned inside out by the midfield of other champions league teams....he has never been quick or mobile lets be honest. As for Corluka...he reminds of lurch from the Adams Family when he runs and his distribution is appalling. Up front we lack guile and sharpness and unless we address all these areas and stop dreaming we will finish 6th if we are lucky this season but just as likely mid table.
Some of you crack me up. If we'd won on Saturday the same fools would probably be tipping us for the title
my knee is so jerky that I am going to blame Corluka for saturdays defeat even though he didnt play
Whitehartlad, how very,very true.
I watched some of the WBA/Liverpool game yesterday (not MOTD2) and WBA played Liverpool off the park with great movement and box-to-box mid-fielders and were very unlucky to lose. It was interesting to see how so-called average players played such great football, with only the lack of a finisher letting them down. No long-ball stuff, except in emergencies, player on the ball always having 2 options to pass to, and then passing and moving into a good position to receive another pass.
Comparing that with our displays to date, I have to wonder what the coaches are doing in training? We are just not performing as a modern football team. I hope that Sandro is as good as the expectation level surrounding him, in which case we can dispense with the rock that is Huddlestone and start to play football, coaches permitting of course.
If Huddlestone is to stay then he needs to learn to tackle and move back to centre-back where I think he would be so much more effective. Yes the lad can pass, but he can't run and we need that energy in mid-field.
We have WBA coming up, so it will be interesting to see if Harry has learned any lessons.
"One of the things we miss when Modric is out is someone who will both give and receive firm passes to feet whilst under pressure 30 yards from the opponent's goal. We lacked someone who could operate in that space and so either forced ourselves out wide or gave it back to Dawson to hoof up front."
This is excactly the problem. Both huddle and wilson positioned themselves too ar away form Wigan's box. Wilson is plainly not good enough in games where we need to play quick, short passes. Thuddle should have been covering the area between 20-35 yards, in stead he was walking around 40-50 yards from goal, kicking the ball to either side or backwards, playing with minimal risk. That will not get us goals. He needs to be up there, involved in link up play with our strikers, Lennon, Bale etc.
This should be simple, though we never seem to learn from our mistakes.
By the way, Gio could easily have filled this position at half time. Harry should have taken Wilson off the pitch, as his service was not needed the way the game was played, and given gio a chance in his favourite position behind the strikers. Thuddle could have been kept in the Defensive midfielder position.
Ye gods, there's some drivel being spoken today. Dispense with Hudd so we play football? Truly clueless. The problem is playing Palacios when we have 2 wingers. We outplayed Citeh because we had 2 ball players to hold it together.
It didn't work v Young Boys in the first half, hence the reason Hudd came on. No-one said Modric wasn't good enough after that dire 30mins did they? When Modric, then Kranjcar, went LM, and Bale went to LB, we got a foothold in the game.
Despite the score, it didn't work v Young Boys in the 2nd leg either. We didn't control the midfield for long periods in that game.
Harry should have started with Bale at LB yesterday. If either Hudd or Modric aren't available, then Bale simply can't play LM - Palacios isn't good enough if we want to control the midfield. Maybe Sandro can do the job, but i'd like us to sign Diarra.
Thanks for the stats dRb: 68 successful passes from Thudd- wow! How many of these are under any pressure and find a player who can hurt the opposition? Anyone can pass sideways 10 yds to an unmarked player. I'm not saying he can't make a difference but he is totally ineffective when a team gets 10 men behind the ball.
Thanks for the insults grimdownsouth but its not the long passess that are the problem - its the short ones.
Ossiesknees is quite right. We missed Modric - but Krancjear can do that too.
All the Thud-knockers should find someone who recorded the away game at Young Boys, and watch it again. He changed the game for us. I'm sounding like a fan club, but what I'm actually bored with is the same old bollocks being dragged out about the same players. No matter what happens on the pitch, the same lines get trotted out.
I can't be arsed to go back and work out actual numbers, but you can't possibly deny that Thud's long passes out from our half to either Bale or Lennon on the wings are one of our main routes to the oppo's goal?
I go to the same restaurant at least every other week, I like the atmosphere and the food isn't too bad most times. This Saturday the meal was awful, despite the price paid for it, so I asked to see the chef to complain. He came out and asked what the problem was so I said what was served up was dreadful. The chef replied,"but wasn't it good on Wednesday?" I replied Yes it was so he said "Fuck off them" I cant create good fayre every time you come here"
bloody English chefs eh?, I wonder what ever happened to that Spanish bloke that used to be there?
DRB, "I can't be arsed to go back and work out actual numbers, but you can't possibly deny that Thud's long passes out from our half to either Bale or Lennon on the wings are one of our main routes to the oppo's goal?" errrmmm, they would be if the ball wasn't then passed back inside again. Noone denies that Hudd can kick a ball a long way in a straight line. Unfortunately in the modern game you also need to move up and down the pitch. He has a terrific shot, but rarely gets in a position to use from under 30 yards. He doesn't get in amongst the opposition mid-field and defence to create real chances for the strikers, and he is never in the box when crosses come in.
OK, so you label him a DM, but then at the same time claim he is our creative force. Obviously the lad is confused.
I think he has talent, but it is not in the middle of the park. He could develop into a perfect sweeper/CB though.
I agree he changed the game against YB over there in terms of stopping them running through our mid-field every 2 minutes, but we still never looked like scoring a goal. Bassong's header was a determined effort from a corner and Pav's goal a result of our one class move in the whole game, which did not involve Hud.
We need better players and better tactics. No more to say really.
ditch the hudd, are you guys fucking mental? He is one of the best midfielders currently playing, and tackle, his win tackle ratio is one of the highest in the league. When the Hudd came on in switzerland, the game changed and we ended up leaving positively. How can selling the Hudd possibly improve us you spanners!
Its one defeat, ONE DEFEAT. Calm down, I agree the team is not looking 100% so far, but we are in week 3. Chill out and trust the manager who has done SO much with this team in such a short space of time.
COYS.
My knee jerk......
Crouch is panties we need someone better. Discuss.
Now beetle where are ya!!
Fuck it. Shambles on sat (became an uncle though so good news there) but unlikely to yield such a poor defeat again this season. Yeah sure we'll be poor again but we'll grind em out.
WTF Is "empathic"?
Dos Santos' dad is Brazilian so I would be surprised if he didnt speak Portuguese.
WTF Is "empathic"?
-
It's the word you type when you forget to spell check.
Studs Up is quite funny today...for those of us who could use a laugh...
Hi Tom,
I was and still am speechless regarding Wigan game. I think I know where your aiming, but the last thing I would do is criticize Crouchy. For Christ sake, the man got his ribs “fixed” by Wigan thiefs, all thanks to the fucking ref. The very same idiot would never allow the same blows to be dealt to ManU, Arse or Cheatski players. This was not an exception but the rule, because just a week ago Stoke players were allowed to do the same thing and get away with murder. It is obvious to me that the fucking FA officials bagged us in the same sack with Wigan, Wolves and other mediocre teams, and I’m not sure what it will take to change that.
As for the game, it was a collective brainfart, including HR. The players never played as a team. The substitution decisions were awful and their timing was terrible.
Anyway, if I don’t have anything good to say I will rather be fucking quite.
beetle..howdy
yeah spot on re the ref and calling the game a brainfart its exactly what it was. No excuses bad day at the office everyone had an off day even Harry. Loads of people have been saying we were complacent etc and only had to turn up to bag the 3 points and the players felt this was too...the press made so much of the fact that wigan had shipped 10 in their first 2 games, we put 9 past them last season, unbeaten in 17 at home including 11 clean sheets blah blah....this got to the players and I'm bloody sure that it was in Harry's mind too and he was rather slow in trying to sort things out.
But harry still has my respect (oh i'm sure he's happy about that!!) for telling that mong from Sky to fuck off (slightly immature "i'm a manager.." ) but its what I would have done too...I hate the fucking lot of them
Crouchie should have done the same on wed night when they asked him about a "group of death" with Real and Inter in the most patronising way possible and making it sound like we did a sutton utd esque giant killing act. Pricks
Speaking of Crouchie....I'll always respect him for who he is (started with us had the balls to come back etc) and for scoring the important ones in the biggest games we've played for a while (even though the 2 headers on Wed were "gimmies" due to the defending - the penalty was top class though) but I just dont see the value of starting him up front with anyone in the PL. Impact sub in the pl...start him in CL his height will confuse defenders for a bit. I liked the formation against Stoke but bale and lennon didnt get enough crosses into him.
He's an enigma even for his teammates and thats not exactly what we need right now. Fucking pity we couldnt discover a van horseface in our academy or something.
Huddlestone plays a bad game/is not selected - Spurs look unbelievably awful. Does this not tell you something about his value to the team, and how well he plays? If it doesn't, go have an MRI or something because you have a serious brain injury