Redknapp slams long ball label

[mawspurs]

Source: Sky Sports

Spurs boss happy with Crouch option.

Tottenham manager Harry Redknapp has hit out at claims that his side are a 'long ball' team.

With tall striker Peter Crouch now a regular starter in the Spurs team, certain critics have accused the North Londoners of adopting a route-one style.

Stoke players commented on their opponents going long after their victory at White Hart Lane earlier in the season and Villa goalkeeper Brad Friedel brought the subject back to attention following the 0-0 draw between the two teams at the weekend.

However, Redknapp is angry at these suggestions and described the claims as 'absolute nonsense'.

He said: "That's rubbish. Absolute nonsense. We pass the ball to death and hit Crouchy in the right areas.

"They (Villa) got labelled a long-ball team by Arsenal, maybe a couple of their players wanted to pass the buck to us but I wouldn't know what a long-ball team was.

"If you can hit a 50-yard pass, it's better than a 10-yard pass or a backwards one. It's about creating strikes on goals, if it's 50 yards then it's a great ball. It's about quality."

"Every time we hit Crouchy against Villa he knocked the ball down and we had chances to score.

"If you are going to have Peter Crouch in your team you have to use him, you can't expect him to run up channels or to come short. That's not his game.

"He is an option when teams fill up the midfield and you can't pass through them. We have that great option to miss out the midfield, hit him and pick things up around the box."

Option

Spurs currently occupy fifth place in the Premier League and take on Wolves at Molineux on Wednesday.

Redknapp will be hoping his side can continue their push for a UEFA Champions League place and insists having Crouch is an option that makes them a better team.

"That is what makes us a much better team - we have options and don't have to keep passing," he added.

"You can pass all day. We've seen that recently from teams. People say they are playing fantastic football but they are not winning games.

"We are playing fantastic football but also have an option with Crouchy as well, which is good."

[ziggy]

"You can pass all day. We've seen that recently from teams. People say they are playing fantastic football but they are not winning games.


Hmmm wonder who he's talking about there LOL

[pistolP]

We are a long ball team, period. The Skysports News stats showed that we played long ball more than other premiership teams.

[Spurs_Bear]

We are a long ball team, period. The Skysports News stats showed that we played long ball more than other premiership teams.

Rubbish.

What a surprise old negative Pistol who cannot say anything positive about the club he supposedly supports. You should be embarrassed after your comments during the Leeds game.

Just for your information, as has been said on another thread, the Sky stats are showed for passes over 30 yards, with the pitch being 70 yards wide every pass when switching wings or Huddlestone trying to find Lennon is counted as a long ball. Added to that we have had the lions share of possession in so many of our matches it's no wonder we have made more of these passes.

Why do you bother coming onto this site? You don't add anything to it apart from 1 line negative comments.

[nferno]

brad freidl is a nob.

[pistolP]

Rubbish.

What a surprise old negative Pistol who cannot say anything positive about the club he supposedly supports. You should be embarrassed after your comments during the Leeds game.

Just for your information, as has been said on another thread, the Sky stats are showed for passes over 30 yards, with the pitch being 70 yards wide every pass when switching wings or Huddlestone trying to find Lennon is counted as a long ball. Added to that we have had the lions share of possession in so many of our matches it's no wonder we have made more of these passes.

Why do you bother coming onto this site? You don't add anything to it apart from 1 line negative comments.


Why do you bother coming to this site ? please you can answer the question as well. If you think your opinion is all that matters and that no other Spurs fans should express and have different views that does not concur with yours, you know what to do. I will support Spurs until i breathe my final breath on this earth and i am sure you will as well. There is a reason why i am called Pistolp and you are called Spurs_Bear and many other Spurs fan with different names. This is a Spurscommunity of different minds and views. Thank you.

[Spurs_Bear]

Why do you bother coming to this site ? please you can answer the question as well. If you think your opinion is all that matters and that no other Spurs fans should express and have different views that does not concur with yours, you know what to do. I will support Spurs until i breathe my final breath on this earth and i am sure you will as well. There is a reason why i am called Pistolp and you are called Spurs_Bear and many other Spurs fan with different names. This is a Spurscommunity of different minds and views. Thank you.

You. Don't. Have. Any. Views.

That's my point........your response to my question is the longest post you have ever written, and probably the most positive.

[roomer]

Rubbish.

What a surprise old negative Pistol who cannot say anything positive about the club he supposedly supports. You should be embarrassed after your comments during the Leeds game.

Just for your information, as has been said on another thread, the Sky stats are showed for passes over 30 yards, with the pitch being 70 yards wide every pass when switching wings or Huddlestone trying to find Lennon is counted as a long ball. Added to that we have had the lions share of possession in so many of our matches it's no wonder we have made more of these passes.

Why do you bother coming onto this site? You don't add anything to it apart from 1 line negative comments.
I was at the villa game and I was frankly disgusted at how often the long ball was hit to crouch it was some what embracing in fact we do hit the ball long but do it in such a way that no one has questioned this. I am a season ticket holder and can say we do hit crouch long way to often to the fact it was so predictable predictable against villa.

[Spurs_Bear]

I was at the villa game and I was frankly disgusted at how often the long ball was hit to crouch it was some what embracing in fact we do hit the ball long but do it in such a way that no one has questioned this. I am a season ticket holder and can say we do hit crouch long way to often to the fact it was so predictable predictable against villa.

As am I. And I couldn't disagree more.

[JimmyG2]

We do have a problem hitting long balls to Crouch at times although I thought we mixed it up quite well against Villa and that Crouch was more effective.
Even Gomes hits the ball long more frequently now that we don't have Ekotto who was our main short outlet. We then played the ball through the mid field.
Now if it goes short to Dawson he invariably hits it long.
Harry makes it sound as if he didn't buy Crouch, just found him wandering around the training pitch and thought;
'Hmm' he's nice and tall lets see what he can do'
We may not be a long ball team but we are a more frequent long ball team than I would like because it cuts out some of the contribution that our skilled mid fielders can make.

[Boony]

Apart from any of this, I feel its time to give one of the other stirkers a start. THe Defoe partnership is not producing enough goals at the moment, so I say give Pav (if fit) a try, secondly Gudjohnson to work alongside Defoe. Crouch for me, is just not doing it at the mo. We've recently seen two players (BEntley and Bale) show us what they can do, so im sure Pav can do the same. If he plays well and the fans get behind him, we never know what might happen

[2bearis2do]

1. "Every time we hit Crouchy against Villa he knocked the ball down and we had chances to score¨. -- Errr I wish that was true Harry!
2. "If you are going to have Peter Crouch in your team you have to use him, you can't expect him to run up channels or to come short. That's not his game¨ - Correct Harry. It thereby follows that all he is is a target man. It follows again that he gives us that option. That ONE option. And that ONE option that we have with PC, is to hit him with the LONG BALL!
3. "He is an option when teams fill up the midfield and you can't pass through them. We have that great option to miss out the midfield, hit him and pick things up around the box." - Hate to burst your bubble Harry but every team has that option with a decent CF. The difference being that their CF's give them more than ONE option, their can play it to their feet, or play it short and turn, or indeed play the PC option and head it on.

I unlike you Harry, wish we had more than just the ONE option with PC.

Harry sounds to me like a man who is getting quite riled at the moment, by the press, by the supporters (90% of whom I'm sure are willing Pav to get in the team for decent length of time, this was proven by the majority calling for him at WHL for the Leeds game) and by our results. I don't think he is used to this pressure, he's only ever been with teams whose only job was to survive relegation, anything else was a bonus.
What's happened this season, is that Spurs burst out of the blocks and expectations went sky high. Liverpool spluttered, Man City coughed & spluttered and we had a great opportunity. But I'm afraid Harry has never in all his 500 premier games been there before and it's beginning to show.

[2bearis2do]

As am I. And I couldn't disagree more.

Yup, but you're also one of the very small 'strange' minority who thinks that Crouch is a great player and the best thing seen at WHL since Martin Chivers. Decent - yes. Works hard for the team - absolutely, I can't praise him enough for that. But a great player? Someone who is going to move us forward? Nope.

[Spurs_Bear]

Yup, but you're also one of the very small 'strange' minority who thinks that Crouch is a great player and the best thing seen at WHL since Martin Chivers. Decent - yes. Works hard for the team - absolutely, I can't praise him enough for that. But a great player? Someone who is going to move us forward? Nope.

Why you getting personal darling? I thought we kissed and made up a long time ago.....

Crouch is not a 'great' player, he is a good player, who's Martin Chivers again?

Don't put too much emphasis on people 'calling' for Pav against Leeds, that didn't happen. What happened was he got on the pitch and people 'supported' him (I've highlighted that word for your benefit as I'm not sure you know what it means....) but you could look at it another way and remember that those same people supporting him were the same that were booing him off against Man City last season.

AND the same people who were calling for Crouch to start over Keane earlier this season when it was clear Robbie was a stone overweight and playing poorly.

We're very fickle us fans remember, Pav will come in, people will remember what they saw last year after a couple of games and be calling for Gudjohnsen (who personally I'd rather see over PC and Pav everytime when he is fit...). Same goes for Bentley, he's played well in the last 3 games and is quite popular at the moment, but it doesn't mean he isn't more than two fancy flicks and a poor game away from being public enemy number 1 again.

[2bearis2do]

Why you getting personal darling? I thought we kissed and made up a long time ago.....

Crouch is not a 'great' player, he is a good player, who's Martin Chivers again?

Don't put too much emphasis on people 'calling' for Pav against Leeds, that didn't happen. What happened was he got on the pitch and people 'supported' him (I've highlighted that word for your benefit as I'm not sure you know what it means....) but you could look at it another way and remember that those same people supporting him were the same that were booing him off against Man City last season.

AND the same people who were calling for Crouch to start over Keane earlier this season when it was clear Robbie was a stone overweight and playing poorly.

We're very fickle us fans remember, Pav will come in, people will remember what they saw last year after a couple of games and be calling for Gudjohnsen (who personally I'd rather see over PC and Pav everytime when he is fit...). Same goes for Bentley, he's played well in the last 3 games and is quite popular at the moment, but it doesn't mean he isn't more than two fancy flicks and a poor game away from being public enemy number 1 again.

All fair points dear.

What's your reaction to the post before and the fact that our one option with PC is the long ball? And that if he plays 90minutes every game, that one option becomes played far too often?

I think PC is a useful impact player and nothing more. the problem is we only had Pav as an alternative. Good to see Harry buy Gudjon as an option, interesting to see if he has still got it. I guess ultimately Crouchy has played the full 90minutes in 14 of the last 16 league games. So we've been tending to rely on him and the long ball far too much, and Harry has done nothing to change that system.
Since Wigan, We've played 12 W4 D6 L2 And only scored 13 goals. With that record, I'd have thought we'd be trying something very different by now.

[pistolP]

You. Don't. Have. Any. Views.

That's my point........your response to my question is the longest post you have ever written, and probably the most positive.

And you have?

[pistolP]

You. Don't. Have. Any. Views.

That's my point........your response to my question is the longest post you have ever written, and probably the most positive.

And anyone that resort to insults, name calling and abuse obviously has not got any views to start with.

[Spurs_Bear]

All fair points dear.

What's your reaction to the post before and the fact that our one option with PC is the long ball? And that if he plays 90minutes every game, that one option becomes played far too often?

I think PC is a useful impact player and nothing more. the problem is we only had Pav as an alternative. Good to see Harry buy Gudjon as an option, interesting to see if he has still got it. I guess ultimately Crouchy has played the full 90minutes in 14 of the last 16 league games. So we've been tending to rely on him and the long ball far too much, and Harry has done nothing to change that system.
Since Wigan, We've played 12 W4 D6 L2 And only scored 13 goals. With that record, I'd have thought we'd be trying something very different by now.

And I agree, I just don't know what the other system is? I wouldve even been tempted to play Niko behind Defoe in the whole, he at least seems to know how to put the ball in the net.

The Crouch factor I think gets overplayed a bit, but when your team creates 28 goalscoring opportunities against Villa (BBC) and forces 12 corners, I have no issue with the style of play.....just the fact that we didn't bloody score!

I don't think that Crouch was ever supposed to start as many games as he has, but then all of a sudden we tore Wigan a new arsehole with him and Defoe and then he scored twice at Blackburn and he was undroppable. Added to the fact that Keane was poor and Pav was......still Pav.

I still think Crouch plays better when you play to his feet, by he's missng Lennon (as we all are!) who can provide another 'out' ball. One of our best performances of the season was Man City at home and we were far from long ball that night.

[pistolP]

I was at the villa game and I was frankly disgusted at how often the long ball was hit to crouch it was some what embracing in fact we do hit the ball long but do it in such a way that no one has questioned this. I am a season ticket holder and can say we do hit crouch long way to often to the fact it was so predictable predictable against villa.

Spurs_Bear is going to come after you with his customary, irrational rants.

[Spurs_Bear]

And anyone that resort to insults, name calling and abuse obviously has not got any views to start with.

I'll give you a packet of dry roasted peanuts if you don't make a negative comment on the match thread during tomorrow nights game.

[pistolP]

As am I. And I couldn't disagree more.

One line comment ?

[Spurs_Bear]

One line comment ?

Ditto......

[pistolP]

I'll give you a packet of dry roasted peanuts if you don't make a negative comment on the match thread during tomorrow nights game.

You are inherently negative, abusive, perochial to others.(Spurs fans) It is posssible make your point without insulting me or others,that you do not agree with. You can choose to ignore me or be permanently angry.

[pistolP]

Yup, but you're also one of the very small 'strange' minority who thinks that Crouch is a great player and the best thing seen at WHL since Martin Chivers. Decent - yes. Works hard for the team - absolutely, I can't praise him enough for that. But a great player? Someone who is going to move us forward? Nope.

Thank you. We are not like Spurs_Bear that thinks no one should have contrary views to his. It is only his views or the highway

[Spurs_Bear]

You are inherently negative, abusive, perochial to others.(Spurs fans) It is posssible make your point without insulting me or others,that you do not agree with. You can choose to ignore me or be permanently angry.

if I insulted you by calling you 'negative pistol' I am very sorry......would you like one of my 'man pills'?

See you tomorrow in the match thread for some team slagging.

[pistolP]

Why you getting personal darling? I thought we kissed and made up a long time ago.....

Crouch is not a 'great' player, he is a good player, who's Martin Chivers again?

Don't put too much emphasis on people 'calling' for Pav against Leeds, that didn't happen. What happened was he got on the pitch and people 'supported' him (I've highlighted that word for your benefit as I'm not sure you know what it means....) but you could look at it another way and remember that those same people supporting him were the same that were booing him off against Man City last season.

AND the same people who were calling for Crouch to start over Keane earlier this season when it was clear Robbie was a stone overweight and playing poorly.

We're very fickle us fans remember, Pav will come in, people will remember what they saw last year after a couple of games and be calling for Gudjohnsen (who personally I'd rather see over PC and Pav everytime when he is fit...). Same goes for Bentley, he's played well in the last 3 games and is quite popular at the moment, but it doesn't mean he isn't more than two fancy flicks and a poor game away from being public enemy number 1 again.


Kissing and making up ? And you are asking why others are getting personal. You have a history of getting of personal and that is why you are persistantly having to kiss and make up.

[pistolP]

if I insulted you by calling you 'negative pistol' I am very sorry......would you like one of my 'man pills'?

See you tomorrow in the match thread for some team slagging.

Keep your pills, i don't pills.

[StokeSpur]

that's the most hypercritical thing ive ever read lol.. to say were not a long ball team and then say this is unbelievable!

"Every time we hit Crouchy against Villa he knocked the ball down and we had chances to score. - i take it we hit him with 5 and 10 yard passes from midfield then? (btw i'd be surprised if Defoe got on to half a dozen of his knock downs in that game)

"If you are going to have Peter Crouch in your team you have to use him, you can't expect him to run up channels or to come short. That's not his game. - that means we play the long ball to Crouchy.

you really have got to laugh.

[bspurs]

We are a long ball team.
Crouch sucks. I hate Crouch.

Oh yes, I am negative.

[lyndonh]

1. "Every time we hit Crouchy against Villa he knocked the ball down and we had chances to score¨. -- Errr I wish that was true Harry!
2. "If you are going to have Peter Crouch in your team you have to use him, you can't expect him to run up channels or to come short. That's not his game¨ - Correct Harry. It thereby follows that all he is is a target man. It follows again that he gives us that option. That ONE option. And that ONE option that we have with PC, is to hit him with the LONG BALL!
3. "He is an option when teams fill up the midfield and you can't pass through them. We have that great option to miss out the midfield, hit him and pick things up around the box." - Hate to burst your bubble Harry but every team has that option with a decent CF. The difference being that their CF's give them more than ONE option, their can play it to their feet, or play it short and turn, or indeed play the PC option and head it on.

I unlike you Harry, wish we had more than just the ONE option with PC.

Harry sounds to me like a man who is getting quite riled at the moment, by the press, by the supporters (90% of whom I'm sure are willing Pav to get in the team for decent length of time, this was proven by the majority calling for him at WHL for the Leeds game) and by our results. I don't think he is used to this pressure, he's only ever been with teams whose only job was to survive relegation, anything else was a bonus.
What's happened this season, is that Spurs burst out of the blocks and expectations went sky high. Liverpool spluttered, Man City coughed & spluttered and we had a great opportunity. But I'm afraid Harry has never in all his 500 premier games been there before and it's beginning to show. :clap:

[beuller]

For me the problem is...... teams know how to play us now. I go to most home games and from what I've seen, they let crouch win the first header and beacuase is isn't that good at directing the ball anywhere, they concentrate on picking up the seconds. It turned Saturday into an absolute bore fest to be honest.

My problem with crouch as a player is his lack of strength and pace, he is so immobile that you can’t realy play it to his feet and when he closes people down, they still have an eternity on the ball. For me, he offers nothing but the ability to win a ball hung up in the clouds. <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" /><o:p></o:p>
I’ve also been mildy disappointed by his finishing.
To be honest, I don't rate our striking options that highly.

[14/04/91]

3 times in the 1st half on Saturday we played 'long' balls to Crouch who chested down to Modric. If any of the resultant shots from Luka had gone in we'd have (very likely) won the game.
I don't think we overused Crouch against Villa and we certainly don't hit hopeful balls to him.

[mil1lion]

I think the loss of Aaron Lennon has limited our play somewhat. We're certainly not a long ball team. We are easily the best footballing team outside the top 3. We pass and move, pass and move, hit it long, medium and short. We mix play up very well, which is what Harry is saying.

The trouble is, without Lennon, we don't have an out ball out wide. Modric comes infield and he doesn't have blistering pace. So we need a winger like Lennon to expand play a little. We play plenty of good football through Modric and Huddlestone, but its very narrow with those 2. And if those 2 lack space, then we need to get it up to Crouchie. But thats only because we dont have enough width at the moment so we're forced through the middle. Even then, we still have Bale down the left getting forward and taking players on, Bentley whipping crosses in, and Corluka overlapping down the right.

We have far from one option. Heck, we create plenty of chances all over the pitch. But we're playing more and more teams that get players behind the ball and make it difficult to score. We just need to start taking more of those chances.

[DC_Boy]

i thought crouch did well v Villa - and deserves to start v wolves - but maybe bolton will see pav or EG starting

[GlennHoddle]

Frankly Harry, with Crouch in the team we are predictable and a bit easier to defend against IMO