White Hart blame
Sunday, October 21, 2012 at 5:58PM Tottenham 2 them lot 4
I’m over this result already. I'm philosophical about it. Ignoring the fact that losing to them is like stepping in dog sh*t, when you lose because of defensive lapses, it’s still self-inflicted which means you can tighten up and improve. It's a fine line. You might prefer to be out classed and thrashed and lose thanks to the brilliance of the opposition’s performance as it’s more clean cut but there is something ever so slightly comforting in today’s defeat. Let’s start at the beginning.
We start the day off with no Dembele and no Bale. The former injured on international duty (although seen walking around okay at the Lane – so perhaps precautionary that he wasn’t risked to avoid any long term issues) the latter in the starting eleven initially only to be replaced by Huddlestone. Gareth’s missus goes into labour and a 1000 twitter jokes are born asking why he didn’t shag her a day earlier nine or so months ago. Already there’s cause for concern. How are we going to shape up with two key players out? Dembele was possibly known in advance but with the amount of perpetration work AVB sticks in leading up to a game, Bale not being available will impact the structure of the side. We know our squad and we know there will be scenarios where it will be tested. If we do lack a certain degree of depth, we have to deal with it. There’s also a lot that can be said about application and urgency even if there’s missing quality. We have to be able to adapt.
With some irony in the opening forty-five we lacked not just application and urgency but any form of stranglehold on the game. Our passing was untidy and there was no shape making it relatively easy for Chelsea to ping the ball around confidently. No such concerns for a side that boosts a £150M + midfield. I probably wasn’t alone looking up at the sky cursing those damned footballing Gods. Christ, some one up there hates us. Probably his dad.
Other contentious selection posers: No Lloris who could aid with possession. Defoe retained his spot up front. Regardless, we made it very comfortable for Chelsea. Tempo, intensity and passing – second best. No complaints.
The story of the first half:
One – nil down, Gallas clearance an assist, Cahill volley deflected in.
Late second half rally, growing in confidence, Chelsea for all their tidiness lacking cutting edge.
Mata, Hazard, Ramaires, Oscar on form.
Subs essential at HT.
Far too many lacklustre performances. There was nothing cohesive about our play. Sandro had to do the work of two. Huddlestone struggled with the pace of the game. Players pushed out far too wide. I’m not taking anything away from the visitors. They’re a side in form (have only dropped a couple of points this season), this was no easy task for us but you felt the game was not beyond a comeback. Personally, I wasn’t quite sure how it would transpire unless we made personnel changes.
Something thankfully happened at half-time in the dressing room placing the necessity for subs aside. There was a reinvention of attitude in the second half. Motivation from the coach? A kick up the backside. Plenty of animated motivation from Freund on the touchline too. No major shift in leadership but a genuine team effort tinged with ample mental strength. We got in amongst it more and stole an early goal. I kept thinking to myself, it’s about aggression. It’s all about aggression. Be forceful, relentless and ruthless on the ball and off it. Hassle and pressure and push up. Be decisive. Again I had to quickly stare up at the sky and release a middle finger because the two players missing are two players so key to us being bullish and dominant where it matters most.
Dembele, the manner in which he drives forward and Bale – who can be so influential as an outlet on either flank and through the middle – something sorely missed today. No immense dimensional play from the home side and after all our huffing and puffing, it was ominous that the aggression would run low and Chelsea would simply pick us off. And they did just that thanks to more individual mistakes. But all this followed us going up 2-1.
The story of the second half:
1-1, Gallas header. Perfect second half start.
Better tempo (be it no subs), great pressing
2-1 Spurs, Lennon, Defoe. Goal out of nothing. Game of two halves. Electric atmosphere.
Plenty of guts, determination, fight.
2-2. Another woeful clearance from Gallas. Mata. Vert not covering.
Livermore on for Huddlestone
Vert goal saving tackle on Torres.
3-2 Chelsea. Gallas aided by Walker and enough space for Hazard to thread the ball to Mata (again).
Chelsea with creative clinicality.
Adebayor on. Dempsey off.
Far too many shots straight at Cech.
Ade 88th minute 'chance' from Cech spill. Doesn't quite connect.
Walker long range effort, saved.
Walker ‘whatever that was meant to be’ to allow Chelsea to score a 4th.
It's worth pointing out we had 26 attempts (10) on target compared to Chelsea who had 10 with 7 on target. Ho hum. Cue the standard what ifs about being at full strength and not making schoolboy errors. Fine line, right?
There were other heart in mouth moments, Defoe dipping effort and Torres missing a certified sitter. It was naturally quite an open game of football. Exciting and end to end punctured with some brilliant sublime moments (Hazard’s pass to Mata for their third) and some stupidly casual errors (see Gallas). Did Chelsea score a clean goal? Do they care? They took their chances when presented with them. We didn’t. Seems Gallas picked the wrong game to have a brain collapse. Lucky for our opponents. Bitterly frustrating for Villas-Boas – because shared points looked the most likely outcome.
They just had more spark and consistency and most importantly composure when it mattered most. They kept the ball better than us. But there were positives. When we were on top we looked very good and tested them. If this side we faced are title contenders, I’m not exactly sold on the way they defend. RDM seems to be a very fortunate man at the moment and I still believe he will be tested more so when his side hit a dip of form. Will be interesting to see if they can shift gear and step it up a notch further.
What’s also frustrating is that we’ve yet to really see us boss a game at WHL with the same signature football we’ve seen away. It will come and we’ll have to continue with being patient as there are one or two issues that need resolving first.
Kyle Walker being one of them. Okay, so here’s my rant.
Just some food for thought. Stop slagging off and writing off Kyle Walker. Was it okay to write off the Spurs team at start of season? No. He's completely off the pace and out of form. Needs to be managed by the coaching staff and AVB. It's down to them to sort the player out and for the player to sort himself out.
All this 'he's f*cking sh*t' nonsense is hypocritical. He needs a rest, he needs competition. He also needs to develop his defensive game (and do the simple things right) but his form is rotten at the moment so his going to be prone to mistakes. It’s hardly a situation that is easily solved as we all know that if you persisted in selecting a player out of form, there is no guarantee of improvement and if he’s dropped his confidence could drop further too. I support the team and AVB and his staff are paid to manage and develop. And that is what I hope they do with this particular headache. The kid has raw talent. It has to be nurtured. Once again he lacked positional sense and discipline, when to overlap and when not to.
I’m having a dig at the selective criticism that tends to play out when players are not performing well. Some of the abuse dished out to footballers that wear the Tottenham shirt is on par with the abuse opposition players get. Some shameful behaviour from some of our lot. You’ll have your own opinion but to me it’s not as simplistic as ‘he’ll never make it, get rid of him’ which appears to be some people’s attitude toward resolving it. Another example: Siggy. Obviously over-rated because he's not sparking up the midfield yet so let's get rid. How about we stick 'em all in a Big Brother house and vote out the weakness link every week? Then we can start to pull supporters from the stands and off social media to play in their place.
On the subject of Sigurdsson he's still not found his groove (along with Dempsey who both attempted to compensate for the lack of Bale on the left). We say that most weeks but it's still early days. The argument might be that a player of a certain quality shouldn't be taking this long to adjust. So does he have the quality to succeed in the long term? I don't agree he's over-rated. It's a cliché, but he just needs that one defining league performance to find that extra step up. The midfield, our midfield is still in a state of flux. The holding positions are sorted but the attacking midfielder/second forward still hasn't owned the mojo as well as van der Vaart had it. Worth mentioning that Rafa (brilliant footballer and one that could craft something out of nothing) also struggled at times. Just remember the age gap and experience factor between the two.
Also on the subject of Gareth Bale. Football banter aside, there is very little in life (if anything) that should stop you from being by the side of your missus if there's a chance you're going to witness the birth of your child. At the time of writing I don't know if she's given birth. Knowing our luck she'll be in labour for 20 hours. Actually, that's probably unlucky for her. What we went through today is hardly as painful as giving birth. Good luck to the both of them.
As for those aforementioned contentious pre-match questions. Adebayor did very little when he came on. Someone that’s not played this season (aside from subs bench cameos) should have no excuse to not chase down the ball. Defoe on the other hand performed admirably depending on your perception of what warrants a solid performance. He’s goal was sweet (be it out of nothing but that's what he does) and his work ethic again commendable – but I can’t quite work out what else he offers to the team. However, I'm still appreciative of the fact he was one of our better players on the day. He’s an ambiguous footballer. I guess the confusion arises from the fact that we are always comparing him to the type of player Adebayor is meant to be for us. This story arc will run and run (or stand still depending on what Adebayor plans to do).
Also, time to bench Brad and start Hugo as the definitive number one. Nothing against Brad aside from the fact that Lloris is a better footballer and goalkeeper. This will be one to watch in the next week or two because Villas-Boas has to be decisive here. We need to cement that spine.
More food for thought for our head coach in the coming weeks: Vertonghen to displace Gallas and regain his place alongside Caulker, all dependent on Benny's return to the side. Not forgetting Kaboul. We need to fine tune our defence but can't do so with players out of position.
Sandro missed Dembele, seemed to be ineffectual in presence to the standard we expect from him when lined up with our Belgian beast. Scott Parker's return still not booked into the calendar.
So in the end we got a game of two halves plus an encore. Not in it for the first, came back in the second, lost that impetus and pressing game and allowed them to claim it back before we almost stole an equaliser only to see another twist and concluding goal that sealed it for the visitors. The fact we conceded four mistakes the way we did will not be lost on AVB – who can do very little but bemoan the fact we let ourselves down. But then if you want to be truly reflective you'll admit that the point of a truly solid performance is mistakes are not made and if they are you either take advantage and punish them not find yourself on the back end of one (or two or three or four). Which they did to us, be it with some supremely talented players (Mata is terribly good). Heads up Tottenham. Here's to the next encounter with us being at full strength.
Villas-Boas a class apart in his post-match interview, composed and honest. Giving credit where it was deserved and indicating what proved to be so costly. Was a cracking game. Onwards to the next one.
So that’s that.
Hopefully someone in Lilywhite is having some fun this weekend. I reckon it’s in a private hospital ward with Gareth Bale blatantly smashing his way through the gas and air.
Reader Comments (81)
Lucky the supporters sang from beginning to end, aye...although I don't remember us being champions of europe?
Spooky agree with you on everything, I am quite happy from that as there were positives which could easily on another day been at least a point or more. I've never been Walker's no 1 fan but slagging him off is unreal on the way out of the ground and on Twitter, if that shot had crept in everyone would have said he was the best thing since Kyle Walker against the Woolwich last year. Keep it up Spooky
I do hope AVB sorts the keeper situation out and soon. We don't want another 1980-81 season fiasco! Daines, Aleksic (RIP) Kendall (RIP) scenario.
Also, I wish Lennon would've had a go at Ivanovic at some stage (especially as he was on a booking!)
As a whole, I thought at times we played very well. It's easy to criticise individuals, but in this case serves no purpose. Spurs under AVB, like to play high up the field, like Barcelona. This will only work if all players are willing to get back fast & defend, or you just happen to have Messi in your side. As we don't have him (untill the Jan. transfer window. I wish) we better learn to defend as a collective unit.
We really aren't far away from making this work, I feel we just need that replacement for Modric.
As for Gareth Bale & his misses, good luck to them. I wouldn't have missed my children being born, so why should he.
spot on with the 'stepping in dog sh*t' bit.
time for now for avb to sort it out. lloris in and,yes he's scoring goals but adebayor has had more assists in 1 season than defoes entire spurs career,so get him in.AND,this is just a thought and i would like your views on this if you read this,what about parker with sandro at the heart of midfiel with dembele playing the no 10.
Totally agree with what you're saying. Kyle didn't play his best, but the abuse he received was completely unecessary. Anyone got any idea about how long Dembele might be out for?
Been saying for a while now that Spurs need additional cover for Dembele, and in other spots. A club with Spurs' very high ambitions must have a bigger and quality squad to provide strength in depth - to mitigate injuries, tiredness, WAGS going into labor and what not. Missing out on Moutinho hurts. That could be rectified in January, hopefully. Sigurdsson and Dempsey aren't performing well in advanced positions. By the very latest next August, Spurs ought to get a quality attacking midfielder, and get rid 1 of Sigurdsson or Dempsey if no improvement. Get a good attacking fullback to cover for Benny. Maybe get a good, fast and strong centerback to replace Gallas. Get a young defensive mid because Parker's age is catching up. Lennon's position has no cover, so get a quality right wide forward. To top it off, get a quality striker with dangerous aerial presence to get on the end of Spurs' countless crosses that amount to nearly nothing so far.
Time to give Naughton a start while Walker be rested, reflect on his performance, and come back stronger. Not sure why Andros Townsend wasn't put in in place of Bale.
Bale's Brat!
This guy gets paid more in a week than most of humanity receives in a lifetime. His wife/partner is about to sprog, he decides he isn't going to turn to work, his team loses a vital match, his wife/partner was apparently never in any danger nor his child-to-be and at most he would have been away from her side for three hours - and we still don't know whether the kid was sprogged yet or not. And nobody seems to mind? You didn't even comment on this, thinking it quite normal for the team's best player to bugger off and let the rest of the team and the supporters down for what? For a sprogging!?!? An event that happens a million times ever day, most of the time with no sign of the male partner in attendance. And you're okay with this?!?! Am I alone in thinking that Bale's place on Saturday morning was at WHL, not in a maternity ward??!!??!!
As a Chelsea fan, instead of gloating/mocking Spurs fans, may I humbly suggest that Gallas' best days are over, and it would be a wise move to shop for a new defender in the January window. Or make that two defenders, if you think Kyle Walker is shit.
Don't take it the wrong way, Chelsea still needs a stronger Tottenham to shave points off other league title contenders. One of two Manchester clubs has already been out to the sword by Tottenham. There's also your red North London arch-rival.
The enemy of my enemy is my friend. You want a UCL spot, we want trophies. I believe there is no conflict of objectives.
What Defoe offers the team is a three on two attacking situation with 2 team mates in space and he opts to shoot straight at a defender. If he could eliminate that selfish shit from his game he might make the complete forward. But sadly I doubt it...
This is turning into a witch hunt. Walker is out of form and confidence - yes, but considering who he was up against, I thought hé did well (mistake aside). Let's not destroy him because he doesn't live up to his billing from last season. Siggy was also more involved than I remember seeing this season and found some good positions.
They're both young ffs and still learning. Get off their backs and support. Moaning and whingeing will just see them end up like so many other Young spurs on the scrap heap
Yes Ed, you are! A father should ALWAYS be at his child's birth! What planet are you from man? It may well happen a million times a day, but not to the same woman! (Unless she's my wife's cousin!)
Just imagine something happened to Bale's other half ( or yours for that matter!) during labour? How would you feel?
It's just football! There ARE bigger things in life mate.
Trust me, I know. My wife has Lupus and for a while it was touch and go whether she or both would survive labour, so don't joke about something like that!
Timo- what game were you watching? Defoe was all over the place, working his backside off and passing to teammates. Yes I think he made the wrong the choice in one instance but frankly he was great. I respect others opinions usually but you are talking bollocks.
What exactly is Dempsey bringing to the team? Barely mentioned in your article, barely mentioned during the game, barely mentioned in every game so far this season....he must contribute more.
Ed, Although I ain't got kids right now I know that being by your wife/girlfriend at the birth of your child is more important than all the money ever printed.. don't matter that he's loaded - he's human, and i'm glad of that.
On Walker (and not aimed at Ed), hes crap in defense right now, and he's a right back. That is not unusual. Roberto Carlos was similar, A C(H)ole was definitely written of for having no defensive sense. On the other hand Paul Stalteri was a good defender........
Ed - No, you're not alone, and I despair of the huggy-feely, fluffy pink bunnykins twerps who clog up this and most other Spurs websites with their new age PC claptrap. Oh, and I wrongly suggested on the Harry Hotspur site yesterday that HH was the arch-proponent of such rubbish - it's actually Spooky, and even HH seems finally to be realising that AVB might not be quite as much God's gift as he initially thought.
On a slightly different note, I'm not crazy about Livermore. Not that he did anything particularly wrong yesterday but for some reason he reminds me of a younger Jenas. Plenty of room for improvement no doubt, and I personally hope there will be. Give Walker a chance, lads. He was really good last season and the season before for Villa. In any event, I reckon we could give Naughton a lil more play so there's that competition going on in that position. Amazing how we're already missing Dembele, and well done for Gallas but I think we may need a replacement there, he's getting on in age.
On a lighter note, Lennon the pacemaker is looking well good again these days and I suspect we have AVB to thank for that, he just seemed to be losing the plot under Redknap's supervision. The result hurt me, and it didn't help that I have a fever, but I can see us picking up points again from next weekend.
Fuck international break.
Everytime Jake Livermore plays me lose. This is because he is fucking shit, he is unbeleivably crap why does Avb pick him and why does Avb always try and defend a lead?
Unless Dawson gets games, he's not going to get match fit. I don't think he has, too often, headed out of defence straight to oposing players. Gallas is a good lad for his 'peer quality', but Dawson should be in there while Kaboul is injured. Also Falque should be used in a real game, he's a good player (with bags of confidence) and he could have replaced Siggy at half time, without knocking Siggies confidence. We will be 'up there' this season and that's coming from someone who didn't want AVB. I wanted Moyes.
Agree with the Livermore/Jenas comment - works hard, achieves nothing.
With regards to Dempsey. Are we all forgetting about Gareth Bale's early games for us?? Did we all think he was a waste of space/time?
You can't compare Bale with Dempsey. One was a young up and coming with potential - the other is supposed to be a proven professional with experience and many goals to his name. He should be imposing himself much more on the game, not hiding.
Lloris in goal - drop Dempsey and bring in Ade to play with or off Defoe. Furthermore, wait until the beast and Bene are back.
Stay calm, things are moving forward. For all their money, they did not look that far better than us.
And for all those idiots screaming at Walker, remember Bale!!!! Get off his back, he will be the best right back ion the country soon.
Are you kidding me! I would do anything to be playing for a massive team like Tottenham and I tell you something I would not need competition or a rest to play at my best (maybe a rest every so often but he did have the summer off when he was injured) He should be performing at his highest every game, seeing as it is his job! Okay everyone can have a bad game but from what I heard on his tweets they are worrying he said he gave one hundred percent more like 60%! Also in my eyes AVB had to play Walker, if he had dropped him and played naughton (who is actually a rb) everyone would go what is he doing?!? (lIke we all did with Bale lb) so I back AVB completely and be honest would you have been like FTW if you saw no bale, no dembele and no walker in the team sheet??
Good post. In full agreement.
By the way, respect to the Chelsea fan’s comment above. Eloquent, witty and polite. Rarity from a Chelsea fan if I'm honest.
Calm about the development of the team.
Spooky i did a long blog ranting on so i destroyed it and the damming information it contained. So this is my short version once again we are moaning about the team AVB picked they say never change a winning team and in this case its right Hudds was of the pace but he has not got the shit in him Chelsea had nor the game time so he did well with his limited energy levels and no Bale and ADY to aim is missile passes or Dembele to moved the ball up the field at pace Sandro was playing is guitar because i could not find him neither could Hudds, When we got the lead Chelsea high energy levels meant they would come back this was where we needed numbers in the box good clearances and some great saves we got none. Chelsea got all three and won reason Abv brought on Ady and took of his supply line Hudds and brought Livermore on English Sandro who cant score or pass long no Townsend no Dawson i would only say Dawson would have conceded one goal Matas last one but i would not put money on it. So apart from dodgy work rate the same one Everton use and a few others growing by the desperate season in the North west its rife and i no its not England's ex band drug Caffeine and one of Chelsea s player used it to star and it burnt him out he is back on track and energized. So my honest in the know Verdict was we where pressed by Chelseas terriers beat by old legs and even older hands and Avb was bound to fail against a Russian who gave him 15 million of is Oil profits to fuck off and ruin the team who would not sell them Modric and beat them to fourth. This meant he had to watch Chelsea Lucky Lucky horror show in the Champs league something he hates doing and spent a fortune proving it. Chelsea are younger gifted cant tackle but throw there body's in the way and do what the other attacking team do Barca dominate the ball through extra energy but the problem is burn out can happen and soon Chelsea wont be able to play Hazard Oscar Mata together because of it.
I dont get the livermore bashing going on. When he came on yesterday he did a good job of breaking up play, and played some nice link passes. It seems like everybody takes him for something hes not. His place in the squad is to break play up and then make the easy passes, whether they are forward or back. In the same mould as Rodwell or even Carrick in his prime for us. People are to quick to start criticising!
Spurs have the worst supporters of any Premier team. No support for for the players when they going through a sticky patch. Why would a good young player would come to Spurs rather than say Liverpool where suport is always provided by the fans.
This childish behavour is a handicap to the progress of players and the club. Why not stay at home rather than boo, catcall moan etc at a side still at an early stage of development. Thank you for not attending!
Walker is a fantastic player. He is not even playing that badly - just by his own high standards. We do not need ot look for people to blame, there were a few defensive mistakes, but overall we played pretty well. I do not understand the need to find scapegoats. Obviously we can analyse the performance, but singling out a player for blame against a top team like Chelsea seems unnecessary (but its Gallas, everytime).
Agree with most things that have been said,especially your blog spooks. I was there on Saturday, Paxton Road Upper tier gangway 53 right in the middle, I gotta say i'm so pleased i went, apart from the result it was a cracking game, after a really poor first half and feeling very low from the level of performance from our boys, the way we started the 2nd half without any substitutions being made was quite staggering... Gallas levels right before my eyes 1.1 instant tonic... we carry on playing at an electric pace looking dangerous and really having a go at them... Defoe scores !!! I can't remember the last time i went totally berserk at a goal, it wasn't just me it was everyone around me, the place was rocking, even after going 2.1 up we still looked dangerous.... that 1st 20 mins of the second half was worth the ticket money alone.
They were quite simply better than us over 90 mins and thoroughly deserved their win.... if only the boy Bale & Dembele were playing... Oh what might of been.
Bale's Brat!
To all those who criticise my post, I have a few comments cum questions. Has the brat been sprogged yet or is the wife/partner still in labour? And if she is still in labour what the fuck was he doing not playing at WHL yesterday? If it has been sprogged, just when did this happen? During or after the match and if the latter, how long after the match? And was he there? And if he was, since his absence arguably costs Spurs the match and since the fans who had to endure yesterday's disgrace ultimately play his wages, could we please have video proof that he was there? After all, we pay his wages, he didn't turn up to work and if it was you or me, our boss would sure as hell demand similar proof from us!
Another issue. This guy gets paid so much money he could easily have had a video link hooked up to the maternity ward which he could have checked at half-time, or someone could have been monitoring events for him and reporting to him. Or, while we are on the subject of obscene payments to players, most of whom don't care a fuck for the team they play for or the fans who follow it, he could easily have afforded to fly in a mobile maternity ward and she could have sprogged somewhere in the grounds/environs of WHL! Why not? These creeps have the money and without the fans who get ripped off every saturday most of them would instead be spending their saturdays in the pub or kicking cans around the streets.
And don't give me crap about husbands wanting to be beside their wives when they sprog! Be honest, most want to be a million miles away. Bet you money his agent said to him that for PR reasons he better say he wanted to be at her side otherwise the Daily Mail would have one more reason to crucify him (one week he is diving all over the pitch, next week he's abandoning his sprogged-up wife) and then he would never get to play alongside the rat Modric in Madrid!
Wow Ed! You're quite the "catch" aren't you!!
F*** it! Why not "fly" White Hart Lane to him while we're at it!!!
Ed - you're flogging a dead horse here. You're absolutely right; the players don't give a damn about the club, let alone the poor old supporters, and they genuinely believe they're above criticism, hence Walker's petulant departure from Twitter. They come (like most of the people who post on here) from a culture where everybody must be given respect, where the worst crime is to be judgemental or critical, and where entitlement is the watchword. God knows what Bill Nick (let alone Bill Shankly!) would have made of Bale's desertion, but the diving cheat himself is probably completely oblivious to any criticism, so self-satisfied is he.
I went to the game on a high, and felt sure we would tonk them. Then when we meet up with the lads, word is Dembele injured and Bale off to the birth of his child.
My heart sank there and then and said to the lads we are doomed. There he goes again, where is the confidence in your team me mate said... I reply, Im a realist as you know, and know my team's strenghth and weaknesses. Ist half ,me.. I told you so . 2nd half 20 minutes taking the piss out of me, but was so glad I was wrong.
End of the game I tell them, I fu(king told you so, bloody pisstakers.
Seriously though, although we lost we did not disgrace ourselves. And as you say Spooky there is a lot of good to come out of this team, and if the 2 were in the team we would have definately got something out of the game.
COY MIGHTY SPURS
One thing mo-one has pointed out is that for the first time in ages .. we scored from a set-piece. one positive at least.
Milts1882 - for the sort of money these wankers get, yes it would be quite feasible to fly WHL to him! I mean look at Adebayor. £160,000 a week! £8 million a year! And my dog, which has arthritis in the hips, can control a ball better than he does! Adebayor could afford to ship Togo to WHL and still have change left from his monthly check. When people are getting paid such obscenely large amounts of money for doing so little, the very least we can expect is that they turn up to do their job, sprog or no sprog!
Ed- cheer up it 'aint that bad
relax we do not have as money as Chelsea and we cannot do anything about it. we lost to a team which has spent 1,800 million pounds in the last 7 years on players fees and wages. They are currently champion of Europe too. All these players: Hazard, Oscar and Mata were linked to Spurs at some stage but went to Chelsea because they were paid more.
On the bright side, we are not playing badly but have to be realistic .
Stop blaming Bale , he has not done anything wrong. We cannot win the league yet. Bookies are not wrong. It is between Manu, Man city and Chelsea . Hope we can be fourth. Thanks god Arsenal lost
DD - yes, you're right, it isn't that bad. Just worse.
Shameful behaviour by some called fans. I remember benny going through many shady patches but he came good, Kyle is 22 FFS. I thought there were a quite a few Positives. Chelsea were at full strength, we had 2 of our best MF's out and that's before you include other absentees, kaboom, Scotty and benny. Saturday evening got a lot better watching Norwich beat arsenal, I've got real belief in this squad and manager. Keep the faith. COYS
Yep, pretty much agree with all of that. The moment the final whistle went it was like the world had ended for me but now I've had the chance to reflect I think there is a lot to feel positive about moving forward. Objectively speaking I really feel the Friedel/Lloris issue needs to be addressed asap and although not really at fault for the goals, I think now is decent time to make a change. The bottom line he is the future and the back four aren't gonna appreciate not knowing who's playing behind them each week. I still feel against the top 4 teams with Defoe upfront it playing a 4-5-1 won't always work. Okay, we won at Old Trafford but as you've pointed out we haven't put a red-hot attacking performance in at home yet. Would love to be proved wrong though. I'm a big Defoe fan. Was totally embarrassed to hear about the Kyle Walker nonsense. We have to earn the right to be in the top four and some of our fans are totally delusional. When players make individual errors in big games it's hard for everyone to take but the reaction of a few fans was utterly ridiculous.
Livermore looked WAY off the pace and always out of position. He made a series of poor passes that spinkled the momentum dust into the Chelsea midfielders' psyche enough to grow it into an inevitable Spurs loss. He is a good kid, but looked like he hadn't played in a month and wasn't ready to play at all. The worst decision AVB made in this game and I think he knows it. Dempsey looked spent from the Internatonal break. Lets see a rebound this week. COYS!
Fairly even game for the first 35mins, we had the better of the 10mins prior to the break. Invigorated start to the second half 2 goals and a confident 15min spell, we have not yet mastered possession and putting teams to the sword or even seeing out the game. We were caught out by our own maintaining the High Line, at 2-1 should we have reverted to a close back four and packed the mid field with Defoe as the lone striker, this would have tightened the spaces and made it difficult for them to create telling passes.
I have no doubt AVB will analyse the game and reach the only logical conclusion, we are a work in progress, a Project......we can and will do much better in the weeks and months to come, no need for a knee jerk reaction, we are in it for the long haul.
Disappointed, of course I am but I'll still wear the shirt with pride because it's better being a Lilywhite, you know I'm right.
Nice post Spooky. Agree with you on everything here except for us deserving a point. I don't think we did but I do think if we hadn't let in that crap goal at the end we'd be feeling much better about the performance. Still a lot to be positive about. COYS!
I have never been an AVB fan. In fact I always believed that DL only got him because he didn't have to pay anyone compensation to land him. But in this game I don't blame him one bit for what happened. The game was there for the winning, and certain players blew it.
1). The passing was very poor.
2). Our corner kicks either picked out the first man or sailed over everyone.
3). Chelseas first and second goal were carbon copies of goals we conceded against WBA and Norwich. We didn't clear the crosses properly, but simply put them right into the centre on the edge of the penalty box. Their second goal even went into the bottom left hand corner exactly as happened with WBA and Norwich.
4). Their third goal was simply down to the fact that Gallas seemed oblivious to the man making the run until it was too late.
5). The fourth goal was, without doubt, the farce of the season. No wonder Walker closed his twitter account. He should go on holiday to sort out what he is meant to be doing. After his performances last season he is but a shadow of his former self.
Despite the above it was pleasing to see that once again we played better in the second half than we did in the first. Cech was the busier of the two keepers. Until Walkers howler I always though that we could at least get a draw. We have now dropped 7 points AT HOME because of amateur defensive lapses. All the good work done at Old Trafford has been undone by a series of defensive howlers.
The only positives from the game was that we scored 2. That should have been enough to win the game. When is Kaboul due back?
Walker isn't that far from being a fantastic player. His form hasn't been great this year but that mistake he made was a fluke. He needs our support, not our abuse.
Sometimes I wonder if we're slowly turning into G**ners ...
as you can see from the following link, if the grossly overpaid Bale had advised his wife/partner to avoid sex, piss regularly and drink lots of water he would have been able to play against the racists on saturday morning, Spurs might have won and we wouldn't be having this conversation now!
http://community.babycenter.com/post/a21508483/how_to_delay_labor
Do you have children Ed?
I personally think AVB made a judgment error by not playing our better goalkeeper, Lloris, since we were up against a strong attacking team. Friedel would have his turn against Southampton.