Go get some
Saturday, February 25, 2012 at 9:43AM One thing that's sticking with me at the moment is that thanks to the lofty position and the accolades and all the positive sound-bites and of course not forgetting the facts relating to form...we go to the Emirates as a team expected by some many to win. Wasn't that long ago we couldn't muster a win away from home against any of the considered 'big clubs'. We've only recently punctured that unwanted record (last year at the Emirates and Anfield) so this derby day on Sunday will require us to consolidate the new found belief we've stamped across the league this season and truly, definitively, once and for all prove we've grown up and don't mind invading someone else's patch and giving them a good smacking (that's a metaphor for the football rather than any norty business outside).
This isn't about coming back from the dead like last season. We've done plucky one too many times. This is about playing the Tottenham way, with pace and style. Playing without fear and playing to win not survive. No doubt they will also embrace pace and their own style and attack us. Best midfield wins. The irony is lost on them however, believing we are the ones that remain in their shadow when the reality is, they refuse to step out of the shadow cast down on them by distant memories of former glories.
Caution from within however, even a slight sense of nerves or an inability to focus and its not beyond the realms of possibility to get knocked out, blind sided. But if there's one thing this Spurs side don't struggle with these days is knowing what's expected of them and delivering it.
I hope I'm right. I hope their position flatters them and we flatten them.
Time to find out how big our balls are.
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Episode 31 of The Fighting Cock podcast will be released Saturday after midday on itunes and the FC website (click on image below). It's a North London Derby special. Ooh, I can feel it in my bones, I'm going all tingly...North London is ours, North London is ouuuuuuuuurs...
For the podcast archive click here.
Reader Comments (40)
Bring ut the fuck on.
COYS
Yeh, Lets do them good style
Coys (also first)
Exactly right Spooky. This result will tell us whether we are the real deal as many think or just pretenders once again.
Simply put, Arsenal have to win this game and so do we.
Personally, I think we will struggle since their style of play will give them loads of possession in mid-field and it will be only a matter of time until VPersie scores, especially if Dawson is playing.
It's a conundrum in my view in that we really need both Ade and Saha to play but that leaves our mid-field under-manned and with Parker not playing well and creating nothing I think we will be under the cosh for long periods.
If Harry plays VDV instead of Saha again we will struggle in MF and pose little threat going forward unless Bale and Lennon are playing and can get into the game which will require some creative MF play that knocks balls behind their defence so that Bale and Lennon can use their pace. Will Modric have the chance to do this or will he be too busy covering?
Fascinating set of problems for Harry to resolve.
Personally, I feel no more confident of winning than I have in the recent past (last year was a pleasant surprise) as although Arsenal are a shadow of their former selves, their level is still relatively high in EPL terms, they play good football and that is always a sound base to move forward.
Very strange davek, what tottenham side are you watching?
Parker not playing well? IF bale and lennon play? We need to play 2 up top in your opinion but wont win like that as our midfield will be over run? Think you may have started writing knowing what you wanted to say but then got lost along the way!
At least one sound comment, Dawson, but lets not forget le arse normally play 1 up top so our 2 cb's should be able to cope with him as a pair, lets hope it is kab and king
Win is vital, dont really care if it is pretty or not, 3 points is all that matters at this stage!
I hope their position flatters them and we flatten them
Quote of the week Spooks.......COYS
They will be up for this in a big way. To some extent, this is their cup final, when it used to be ours. My concern is being over run in the centre of midfield and having little possesion. Our best chance is to get an early goal, as this will give them the and their fans the jitters and hopefully give us the advantage to take control of the game.
I think their heads could drop very quickly if we start firing 'enmass straight away. Don't allow them any rythm (not that they have any real rythm) we need to banish nerves early on.
Ossie, what I was trying to say was that to play at our best we need to play both Saha and Ade, BUT, IMO, Parker has been weak in our last few games and offers nothing going forward so that formation would probably be overrun. Just really saying that Harry has problems to solve, nothing else really.
Hope we win, but can't see it.
Parkers job isnt to offer creative forward play, his job is to allow modric, bale, lennon etc the freedom to attack without leaving us exposed, exactly the kind of player we have been crying out for in the last 20 odd years. He is probably the best at his role in the premier league and has been our best and most consistent player this season.
Think we should play to our strengths and we will win, their midfield is nearly as strong as our whether we play as a 4 or a 5.
"isnt" nearly as strong as ours!!!!!
My guess is that 442 today will win because we are better whereas 451 invites them into the game and is a more troublesome route to victory. So I hope we field the side that beat Newcastle with two up front and blow them away but I expect Harry to drop Saha for VDV and play Ade as lone striker again. This is easily the best Tottenham team for a generation and easily the worst Arsenal team for a generation so we should play our game and go for it. It is about glory and TDITD and all that after all. COYS !
Ossie, understand what you are saying and hope it works out today.
I agree with COYS in terms of shape but still think this only really works if we have 2 box-to-box CM's....just my opinion.
Anyway, a convincing, winning performance would be nice!
I feel physically ill.. thank fuck I took off tomorrow.
Absolutely despicable performance today. There us only one plus point, being that we still hold a 7 point lead. If they don't pull their socks up it will end up with us finishing 6th. I told you this would happen!!!!
We were so atrocious today that I have to laugh. Well done, Arse, you played like a proper football team today. Can't say the same for our team.
Harry for England!
:)
@Walkerboy, 7 point lead now , but we have Man U next , so by the time we play our next game it could be down to 4points
Also if Lennon was on the bench, why the frickin hell didnt he play him, and Adebayour didnt hold the ball up very well today either
Next matches us home to ManU, Arse away to Liverpool.
Well, that was shit! At 2-0 up we were still giving away the ball as if it was a present and they were walking through us in the middle. Bale once again opted to shoot when people were in excellent, unmarked positions. No one tracked runners except Parker. Some people have made negative comments about King's defending. I must say that I can't comment on it as the defending in general was far from composed. I am hoping the Scousers do the Goons next week at Anfield.
Why the hell we didn't tighten things up at 2-0 I do not know, but I think that Harry lost his concentration with the comments from the home fans.
For some reason Bale is starting to piss me off more and more with each match I watch.
"Time to find out how big our balls are"
didn't know u had one...
Shocking defending today. Bale had a poor game giving the ball away and a lack of defensive awareness but our whole shape was off throughout the game. Bale's "free roaming" role is fine against some clubs but not those playing well - which Scum did today. Parker's second challenge was silly but deserved the booking. His dignity and sportsmanship was 100% and made me sick to see the pathetic Gooners waving red cards at him - though what would you expect from a bunch of nomad twats who don't understand how to support unless they're winning?
We're going to miss Parker in the next game as if Sandro does what he did today (i.e. play as a second striker rather than a holding midfield player) then we'll be in trouble.
Saying that, what happened to us today was essentially just us "doing an Arsenal". Just a blip. Learn from the wound, keep it, feel it, deal with it.
No compromise, even in the face of armageddon. Keep fighting. Keep our heads up. No reason we can't get a result next game.
Brook .. Not seen you on here for a while, where you been hiding ?
Kudos to DaveK for the foresight. Both his concerns were proven spot on today.
Absolute shambles today tactically, but surely Redknapp can't fuck up a 10 point lead to finish outside the top 4, can he?
I see Brook is back. Where have you been Brook? Not seen you for over a year? How big of you to turn up and say hello today of all days. Enjoy your day in the sun.
Arsenal fans truly are muggy cunts aren't they?
total disgrace. TOTAL DISGRACE. Harry fucking sort it out and fuck off to England job if this is what you're going to give us, this is not a part time JOB. EMBARRASSED.
If we had any balls, they were cutt off, chewed, then spat out out. Now we'll see what Tottenham are made of. Best chance of beating the arse today and put them to bed for the season. If Redeknapp wants the England job, then he should make his mind up
once and for all and put an end to all the speculation.
I am a fan of HR but am starting to wonder if maybe England and Harry deserve one another :)
They wanted it more... gutted!
Think the fuck up was playing Kranjcar, who is good, but can't see how he'll work other then in the Modric role when both Luka AND VdV are out.
The Rationale... Our 1st choice shape is 4-4-2 but play a 4-5-1 because VdV is that good that we change shape to accomodate him. When VdV is out, Kranjcar isn't good enough to justify that change in shape or so usually ends up playing out wide in a 4-4-2 where he just doesn't work because of his lack of athelticism. With that said, without Bale AND Lennon playing, 4-4-2, doesn't work either and highlights how much we could've done with Krasic. When Modric is out, I'd prefer VdV to drop in his role and play a 4-4-2, leaving Kranjcar out again.
Only way I can see Kranjcar working is when either with Lennon/Bale are out, meaning a 4-4-2 won't work due to lack of like-for-like replacements and when I think we should play a 4-2-3-1 w/ Parker & Sandro covering the back 4 and VdV, Modric, Bale or Kranjcar playing behind our striker. Even then, he's only playing if one of Bale/VdV/Modric are out...
End of the day, we lost away to a Top 6 team, when injuries affected our shape. Worst things have happened.
"Worst things have happened."
Yes m8 and here is the list.
1 - holocaust
2 - battle of somme
3 - boxing day tsunami
4 - THIS
JESUS!!!
To be honest, I think the Stoke game where we were denied about 3 penalties and an onside goal was probably 'worse' then this considering we should've, had officiating been fair, at least drawn. You could also say the City game when Balotelli should've gone off for stamping on Parker and we would've gone into the last 8 minutes with a 1-man advantage over a team we WERE competing for the title with was a harder loss.
Essentially this doesn't change anything, before this game we knew we weren't going to win the title and were aiming for 3rd so this loss changes nothing. We will still finish 3rd. However, had the City and Stoke games gone our way, we would've still been in the title race.
I have supported Harry through thick and thin and confess I like the guy, but after today and Stevenage last week I have to say that those who believe that he has no tactical awareness are correct.
Playing like this, after the Utd and Chelsea games our lead will be down to 1 point assuming Arsenal and Chelsea win their games and with Liverpool coming strong this could be another disaster season. Finishing outside the top 4 will see the departure of so-called key players (although where they were today I don't know so maybe we won't miss them that much).
To be fair, we have to wait until the end of the season to judge Harry properly, but at the moment the real downside for me is that I can't see any International managerial selection committee giving the England job to someone whose teams have just turned in diabolical performances against 2 very poor sides and concede 5 goals in the process.
The only saving grace is that other teams know how to play Arsenal ie: high-tempo, in- your-face domination so they won't have such an easy game against Liverpool and the likes.
There is definitely a lack of collective spirit in our team and it has been there for many seasons. They just don't compete.
Oh well, a perfect end to a perfect week....just glad I shave with an electric razor!
Harry's tactic was to allow Ars the ball and let them play around the penalty area. We played too deep and we did not stick to a formation as the game advanced. Very poor from Harry and the players. You saw the frustration when dawson came on. He was yelling at one of our players to retain and play in his position and stay put. We were all over the place. Harry tried to fill the midfield with passers to counter their game, but we simply played to deep. We were static, not dynamic. We were ball watching and not moving with the runners we were slow, a sleep. Just look at Parker tracking back for Walcotts 2nd goal. He was trotting back and reacted too slowly when walcott went past him. Harry's tactical play is very poor. We changed the formation to meet Ars when we should have come out and played our game ensuring Ars worried about us and not us worry about them.
Harry has to sort his head out, England, The Sun, TV, Radio, now the entire management team going with him to England. He needs to shut the f@@@ up, get behind closed doors and sort his head and the teams head out.
We are in danger of imploding, and pls don't come on here and tell me I'm panicking, you saw what happened today and it's Utd next week and then we have to deal with the pressure of the run in. This is it, big men for big occasions, are we up for it???? harry said we came in at half time as if we had lost a game, to me, that is really worrying, where is the spirit we had at City and Liverpool, what on earth happened today!!
We gave them too much respect, as if we were afraid. At 2-0, we should have ripped their hearts out, but no, we sat back, played deep and let it go. We made them look 100 times better then they really are!
I also stand by what is said a few months ago, in my eyes Ade is not good enough. very poor first touch, we lose procession and are back defending before we know it!
The facts that we lost against Arse drew with Stevenage are not concerning in the abstract.
However the way we wound up with such results is really disconcerting.
This is the first time under Harry that I have felt that he and the team owe us fans an apology.
WE have Sandro back for the Manure game. He was brilliant before he got injured and has this 45 mins under his belt now. Ade was kack most of the game. Never worth £170k a week, saha was miles better. Just a bit fucked off.
Disappointed that we were unable to put this game to bed, losing 5-2 after being 2 goals to the good is completely unacceptable especially when playing against a bitter rival. Still trying to fathom out we decided to sit so deep and allow them to attack at leisure. Back to the drawing board for 'Arry I'd say and some of the players also need to take a long hard look at themselves. Capitulation doesn't sit well with me, hopefully normal service will be resumed rather sharpish, it's the Mancs next week. TTID COYS!!!
Harry wanted to reduce the space for arse to play in. I think he thought that if we try and play high up the pitch, they may have passed us to death and this would allow them more space to play in, so he sat the team deep to reduce the space. So we changed to accommodate Ars way of playing instead of playing our own game. Also, we did not have the ability to change our game plan, ie, 2-0 up, let's go for the kill. The minute we scored the 2nd, we sat back straight away. Not good at all!!
We have tried to change our formation/game plan in the last 2games!! Stuff is going to Harry's head, he thinks he is some master technician. Play to our strengths Harry and stick to what we do best mate otherwise you will make yourself and the team look stupid, as you have done today.
You speak the truth Hotspurs.