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███████ Match Ratings vs Swansea City ███████

MOTM


  • Total voters
    119

bigturnip

Tottenham till I die, Stratford over my dead body
Oct 8, 2004
1,640
49
I thought we lacked discipline today, it was hard to know who was supposed to be playing in what position at times, that freedom might pay off at home, but away from home I think we need to try and keep it tighter, especially when we're holding onto a 1-0 lead late in the second half.

I don't think anybody was terrible today, but I don't think anybody was outstanding either. It just seemed like a typical lacklustre Christmas performance, maybe the players were thinking about getting home in time to down a few bottles of Babycham before midnight or had just had too many Christmas leftovers, but they seemed to wander off all too often or not get back into position quickly enough.

On the bright side though, we managed to score against the must frugal home defence in the country who have only lost to Man U there all season. We have 3 very winnable home games in a row coming up, maximum points would be a pretty good antidote.
 

OmarsComing

Mentally Disturbed Individual!
Jan 2, 2011
7,255
7,665
Adebayor 4 - Got to say iv had a chance to meet him twice in two days and both times he has been a wanker and refused to sign something for a little boy that idolises him! my little nephew even had adebayor on the back of his top and ade first time round said noo im going for food and today at the liberty he just walked passed ignoring us even though we called him and asked.

play from 2:00 onwards

[yt]hiqERjtAkwE#t=121s[/yt]
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,776
99,336
I hope Lennon, King and Kranjcar are in the side to play West Brom, we need an injection of freshness. In fact I would play Ade and Defoe up top as well.
 

Spursbabe63

Active Member
May 11, 2005
791
214
Kaboul was great,
Sandro and Assou-Ekotto were ok,
rest were mostly average or under par,
Bale weak and selfish,
Adebayor sucked donkey balls



Have to agree with that today - i know he has had his shooting boots on recently, but today he should've passed to players in a better goal scoring position than he was...
 

ajspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2007
22,987
31,167
I hope Lennon, King and Kranjcar are in the side to play West Brom, we need an injection of freshness. In fact I would play Ade and Defoe up top as well.

Yea agreed.
Friedal

Walker King Kaboul Ekotto

Lennon Modric Sandro Kranjcar/Pienaar

Defoe Adebayor

Or

Friedal


Walker King Kaboul Ekotto

Lennon Modric Sandro Kranjcar/Piennar


VDV

Defoe/Adebayor
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
OK, I have recovered for the dagger in the heart that is the late equaliser. Always worse for me than the last minute loser, as the last minute loser only costs you 1 point, the last minute equaliser costs you 2 precious points.

For sixty minutes that wasn't a bad game to watch or a terrible performance by us, but it wasn't brilliant either, and you know that if Rogers had players like we have and he got them playing like he's got that bunch of very average journeymen playing they'd have tonked us.

I had concerns about the 433/VDV right against Swansea because Sinclair is one of the liveliest left wingers in the EPL, but to be fair, it looked like Redknapp had briefed VDV well and he pretty much run his socks off making sure Walker was rarely too exposed. Several times I noticed VDV virtually playing as RB.

As is becoming our way we started slowly and Swansea had clearly done their homework and pressed us better than we pressed them, as a result for the first 20-25 minutes they were by far the better side. That was the fundamental difference between the two sides early on, the quality of the pressing. Parker realised this and started moaning at those around him to work harder and it worked. When we started to press better, a little higher we gradually got hold of the game and for the next 35 minutes (20/15 each side of half time) we gave them a game and saw a really good share of the ball.

Ekotto did really well for the goal, and one of the things I like about this 433 is that it gives Ekotto license to get forward more, I like him getting forward more than I like his defending. He has a cool head and can beat players with guile. More of this please.

I posted an article about Rogers in the summer and said he's worth watching and I've watched Swansea a few times because of this. I know they like to dominate the ball, especially in the first half of games, so for us to end up with a near 50/50 possession split at half time was, even for a club who would normally expect to have a good share, no mean achievement. To come in 1-0 was the icing.

Most of the times I've watched Swansea, they've often looked less composed second half, often seeming to tire a little, and when we came out and bossed the first 15 minutes I thought we looked fucking comfortable. They are a superbly coached side and still had some ball at this stage, but they lacked any kind of quality up front to do anything with it it and Kaboul and Gallas were playing superbly.

It turns out it was us who started to look ragged. 15-20 minutes into the second half Swansea were gradually getting on top. We were doing our sit deep and stand off thing more and more and then we lost VDV and Parker, which was a real killer blow.

I thought Parker handed Modric the captains armband, but it turns out he handed him an invisibility cloak, because from that point he disappeared. Having lost the two players who make themselves available to receive the ball the most from him I guess he wasn't helped but defensively I watched again as a handful of times he gave players 10 yards grace or walked to a challenge. Up until then Modric had played well.

Bale was once again the worst offender. As good as he was tuesday, he was bad today. Up to the 50th minute I'd counted 5 occasions when he'd ducked out of actually pressing his opponent when he could and should have. It was this attitude that ultimately cost us a foothold in this game. His refusal to pass and go for glory when he had Adebayor and VDV (I think) in the clear was fucking piss poor. He's having a great season, his pluses outweigh his minuses, but he's a bit of a bottler when it comes to actually tackling someone, and it annoys the fuck out of me, because he ain't Ronaldo or Messi enough not to.

The last 30 minutes was an ever decreasing circle of pain. We shrunk and shrunk and just seemed to stop moving off the ball. All of a sudden people had no options when in possession where for while they'd had two. Why does this happen so often to us ? Once again it was our inability to prevent a preventable cross from coming in that was our undoing, why does this happen so often to us ? Friedel seemed culpable to me and I have no idea what Walker was doing when Sinclair waltzed in to score (but I haven't seen the goal incident again yet so reserve judgement to withdrawer those criticisms, they were just my observations at the time).

It ended up being yet another game when we got outplayed by a bunch of vastly inferior players for a big chunk of it, which is disappointing, although there was a 35 minute spell where I was actually thinking we were doing pretty good.

I like this formation, and it is to his enormous credit that he has come up with it, and the deployment of personnel within it. I have no problem with the side he picked today, this was to tough a game to rotate and for 60 minutes I was thinking we're doing OK, not fabulous, but pretty good. But ultimately it was Tactics 1 Coaching 1.

Ratings:

Friedel 5 - Line limpet deluxe, you pays your money and you takes a view. Friedel's a good line keeper but give me one that commands his box and saves shots any day.

Walker 5 - Has anyone noticed how few times he actually beats a player ? It's all about racing with him. If he can't win a straight race he isn't winning. He got a great clearance in, but his defending is robotic at times and he got himself skanked a few times.

Gallas - 7.5 - Great game.

Kaboul 8 - Great game, this lad's got it all. Power, pace and he can dribble ! I wouldn't swap him for Vidic.

Ekotto 7 - Good going forward, his defending is still slack at times.

Parker 7.5 - Very good game, ran his little legs into the ground.

Sandro 7.5 - Very good game.

Modric 6.5 - Pretty good game for 60 minutes, then went awol.

VDV 7 - Worked hard defensively today, scored a vital goal, played Adebayor in (mis-controlled).

Adebayor 6.5 - I thought he looked a bit fucked at times today. He works hard and covers a lot of ground, it would be great to be able to relieve him sometimes with a stand in.

Bale 5.5 - Players like Bale won't always have great days, what he has to do is put a shift in on those days, and that shift has to include more than feigning to close down and standing off.
 

jonathanhotspur

Loose Cannon
Jun 28, 2009
10,292
8,250
OK, I have recovered for the dagger in the heart that is the late equaliser. Always worse for me than the last minute loser, as the last minute loser only costs you 1 point, the last minute equaliser costs you 2 precious points.

For sixty minutes that wasn't a bad game to watch or a terrible performance by us, but it wasn't brilliant either, and you know that if Rogers had players like we have and he got them playing like he's got that bunch of very average journeymen playing they'd have tonked us.

I had concerns about the 433/VDV right against Swansea because Sinclair is one of the liveliest left wingers in the EPL, but to be fair, it looked like Redknapp had briefed VDV well and he pretty much run his socks off making sure Walker was rarely too exposed. Several times I noticed VDV virtually playing as RB.

As is becoming our way we started slowly and Swansea had clearly done their homework and pressed us better than we pressed them, as a result for the first 20-25 minutes they were by far the better side. That was the fundamental difference between the two sides early on, the quality of the pressing. Parker realised this and started moaning at those around him to work harder and it worked. When we started to press better, a little higher we gradually got hold of the game and for the next 35 minutes (20/15 each side of half time) we gave them a game and saw a really good share of the ball.

Ekotto did really well for the goal, and one of the things I like about this 433 is that it gives Ekotto license to get forward more, I like him getting forward more than I like his defending. He has a cool head and can beat players with guile. More of this please.

I posted an article about Rogers in the summer and said he's worth watching and I've watched Swansea a few times because of this. I know they like to dominate the ball, especially in the first half of games, so for us to end up with a near 50/50 possession split at half time was, even for a club who would normally expect to have a good share, no mean achievement. To come in 1-0 was the icing.

Most of the times I've watched Swansea, they've often looked less composed second half, often seeming to tire a little, and when we came out and bossed the first 15 minutes I thought we looked fucking comfortable. They are a superbly coached side and still had some ball at this stage, but they lacked any kind of quality up front to do anything with it it and Kaboul and Gallas were playing superbly.

It turns out it was us who started to look ragged. 15-20 minutes into the second half Swansea were gradually getting on top. We were doing our sit deep and stand off thing more and more and then we lost VDV and Parker, which was a real killer blow.

I thought Parker handed Modric the captains armband, but it turns out he handed him an invisibility cloak, because from that point he disappeared. Having lost the two players who make themselves available to receive the ball the most from him I guess he wasn't helped but defensively I watched again as a handful of times he gave players 10 yards grace or walked to a challenge. Up until then Modric had played well.

Bale was once again the worst offender. As good as he was tuesday, he was bad today. Up to the 50th minute I'd counted 5 occasions when he'd ducked out of actually pressing his opponent when he could and should have. It was this attitude that ultimately cost us a foothold in this game. His refusal to pass and go for glory when he had Adebayor and VDV (I think) in the clear was fucking piss poor. He's having a great season, his pluses outweigh his minuses, but he's a bit of a bottler when it comes to actually tackling someone, and it annoys the fuck out of me, because he ain't Ronaldo or Messi enough not to.

The last 30 minutes was an ever decreasing circle of pain. We shrunk and shrunk and just seemed to stop moving off the ball. All of a sudden people had no options when in possession where for while they'd had two. Why does this happen so often to us ? Once again it was our inability to prevent a preventable cross from coming in that was our undoing, why does this happen so often to us ? Friedel seemed culpable to me and I have no idea what Walker was doing when Sinclair waltzed in to score (but I haven't seen the goal incident again yet so reserve judgement to withdrawer those criticisms, they were just my observations at the time).

It ended up being yet another game when we got outplayed by a bunch of vastly inferior players for a big chunk of it, which is disappointing, although there was a 35 minute spell where I was actually thinking we were doing pretty good.

I like this formation, and it is to his enormous credit that he has come up with it, and the deployment of personnel within it. I have no problem with the side he picked today, this was to tough a game to rotate and for 60 minutes I was thinking we're doing OK, not fabulous, but pretty good. But ultimately it was Tactics 1 Coaching 1.

Ratings:

Friedel 5 - Line limpet deluxe, you pays your money and you takes a view. Friedel's a good line keeper but give me one that commands his box and saves shots any day.

Walker 5 - Has anyone noticed how few times he actually beats a player ? It's all about racing with him. If he can't win a straight race he isn't winning. He got a great clearance in, but his defending is robotic at times and he got himself skanked a few times.

Gallas - 7.5 - Great game.

Kaboul 8 - Great game, this lad's got it all. Power, pace and he can dribble ! I wouldn't swap him for Vidic.

Ekotto 7 - Good going forward, his defending is still slack at times.

Parker 7.5 - Very good game, ran his little legs into the ground.

Sandro 7.5 - Very good game.

Modric 6.5 - Pretty good game for 60 minutes, then went awol.

VDV 7 - Worked hard defensively today, scored a vital goal, played Adebayor in (mis-controlled).

Adebayor 6.5 - I thought he looked a bit fucked at times today. He works hard and covers a lot of ground, it would be great to be able to relieve him sometimes with a stand in.

Bale 5.5 - Players like Bale won't always have great days, what he has to do is put a shift in on those days, and that shift has to include more than feigning to close down and standing off.

In my opinion, Modric defended/pressed like a girl throughout the game.
 

StartingPrice

Chief Sardonicus Hyperlip
Feb 13, 2004
32,568
10,280
Harsh on Walker's defending again BC...I seem to remember him getting quite a bit right. Wasn't counting, just thinking incident by incident that wasn't that bad.

Maybe someone could do a video of his defending in that game (and/or others), and we can see how good/bad it is, in the cold light of day.

Also, BC, he is very young - I can't help but feel that you are on his case a little bit too much. And he is pretty much doing the right side himself, ATM.

He does need to find some composure in the final 3rd, however.
 

lol

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2008
6,651
6,082
in the norwich game thread, i commented that what harry did could have been a tactical disaster if the 2 magic moment did not save him.some of the posters disagrees but this game shows it all. we did very well against norwich because of two things, 1st because they let us attack them by having 9 men in a having instead of us truly dominating them, and 2nd because we were saved by 2 moments of magic.i significantly said that spurs, although played well enough to get 3 points, did not actually play well.

In this game we basically did the exact same thing, playing the same tactic and line up,but our possession and attack got limited.why?because swansea did not let us bully them like norwich did. we had the same problem of having no right winger to drag the defense out of their line to create space of our attack.

our 'possession football' got pressed backwards and we started playing it in our own half. sandro doesnt not have the technicality to go forward, thus he kept passing the ball backwards to gallas and ekotto. combining the fact that gallas was not having a good game, our back line was under alot of pressure. secondly parker does not have a shot in him. too many times i've seen him make good runs into position where he can just unleash a shot. at least challenge the keeper, thats all i'm asking for. i'm sure as a EPL player he has the calibre to at least hit the target from those position, and sometimes although it might not be the best shot, keepers do make mistake. at least challenge them to put out a corner or something.

kranky or pienaar would have helped us way more instead of putting a very 1 dimensional player (defoe) on the right and inexperience centre mid(livermore) in. i love HR but i feel sometimes he shouldnt be so stubborn with the players he put in. lets just hope lennon gets well soon and we wont have to put up with a formation that breaks up the balance of our attack totally..
 

lol

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2008
6,651
6,082
Harsh on Walker's defending again BC...I seem to remember him getting quite a bit right. Wasn't counting, just thinking incident by incident that wasn't that bad.

Maybe someone could do a video of his defending in that game (and/or others), and we can see how good/bad it is, in the cold light of day.

Also, BC, he is very young - I can't help but feel that you are on his case a little bit too much. And he is pretty much doing the right side himself, ATM.

He does need to find some composure in the final 3rd, however.

walker's defending is actually pretty fine , given his age. what baffles me is actually his 1 trick pony of bombing forward. he looks amazing when paired up with lennon because when lennon cuts back, he gets all the space in the world down the by line to drill a cross in.

vice versa when lennon goes to the byline, he sticks closer to the penalty box hoping to drill a shot or cross in. BUT here comes his greatest flaw. when he gets into a 1 on 1 with defender, he can only go right. i dont mind him being extremely right footed, because there are players who are right footed but still knows how to cut in well(bale).

when ever walker goes for the attack its always fake to the left, kicks ball to the right and hope to out pace the opponent. he tends to lose footing for the cross most of the time when he reaches the ball. in todays game there were many chances where he could make a diagonal run into the box( like how glen johnson always does) and just take a shot. instead he does the same move and waste chances after chances..he seriously needs to work on dribbling towards his left because he is currently very predictable.

his last flaw is his technique to strike a ball. i've seen him deliver great crosses so i'm not talking about his delivery. i talking about ball striking technique. players with great ball striking technique are RVP, VDV, Henry, etc etc. they can hit those balls accurately even when they balls are at a uncomfortable distance to them. kyle, can only hit his balls correctly when at a comfortable position ( times when there are alot of space created by lennon).

for example when hes running towards a ball to make a first time cross, he will always miss. on the other hand when he crosses during the dribble, its fine. its all in the striking technique. sometimes i see him waste chances because there are golden moments where he should have struck the ball and it would have been the perfect delivery in. instead because hes uncomfortable with the position of the ball, he has to make an extra touch which result in a defender tracking ball or space of adebayor covered..
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,776
99,336
in the norwich game thread, i commented that what harry did could have been a tactical disaster if the 2 magic moment did not save him.some of the posters disagrees but this game shows it all. we did very well against norwich because of two things, 1st because they let us attack them by having 9 men in a having instead of us truly dominating them, and 2nd because we were saved by 2 moments of magic.i significantly said that spurs, although played well enough to get 3 points, did not actually play well.

In this game we basically did the exact same thing, playing the same tactic and line up,but our possession and attack got limited.why?because swansea did not let us bully them like norwich did. we had the same problem of having no right winger to drag the defense out of their line to create space of our attack.

our 'possession football' got pressed backwards and we started playing it in our own half. sandro doesnt not have the technicality to go forward, thus he kept passing the ball backwards to gallas and ekotto. combining the fact that gallas was not having a good game, our back line was under alot of pressure. secondly parker does not have a shot in him. too many times i've seen him make good runs into position where he can just unleash a shot. at least challenge the keeper, thats all i'm asking for. i'm sure as a EPL player he has the calibre to at least hit the target from those position, and sometimes although it might not be the best shot, keepers do make mistake. at least challenge them to put out a corner or something.

kranky or pienaar would have helped us way more instead of putting a very 1 dimensional player (defoe) on the right and inexperience centre mid(livermore) in. i love HR but i feel sometimes he shouldnt be so stubborn with the players he put in. lets just hope lennon gets well soon and we wont have to put up with a formation that breaks up the balance of our attack totally..

Sorry but stopped reading after this - and its just wrong in every sense.
 

ajspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2007
22,987
31,167
'Saved' by 2 moments of magic against Norwich, wow...

We could have won that game about 5-0. That's how dominant we were.

I actually love the new setup. What I love more than Bale's 'new role' is having Sandro, Parker and Modric in the middle. So strong, energetic and such a good balance in the middle.
 

jonathanhotspur

Loose Cannon
Jun 28, 2009
10,292
8,250
They look like they need some time to get used to it, ajspurs. Some of our boys were almost tripping over each other today.
 

ajspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2007
22,987
31,167
They look like they need some time to get used to it, ajspurs. Some of our boys were almost tripping over each other today.

Yea I agree with that but I think it's right to persist with it, for now at least. At least the team looks fairly balanced in this setup. Watching the 2nd half today, we didn't look brilliant but we looked quite solid as a unit. A few individual errors allowed them chances and their only goal even came from an error which really should have been avoided but when they were in possession of the ball we weren't easy to break through by any means.

Like you said though, it is just getting used to it. Bale's plays some nice little passes when he's more inside, obviously as does VDV, their are times when it's pretty much Parker, Sandro, Bale, VDV and Modric all in the middle and despite them gathering a good understanding with each other when they link up in the middle (which impresses me at times to be honest) our options out wide are more limited as a result. VDV was pretty good positionally today I felt but I would have liked to have seen Bale mix it up a bit more and to have hugged the touchline on more occasions. A lot of the time it was Adebayor on the left, or Ekotto further up on the left with Kaboul drifting wider towards him on the left when we were in possession but it would have been nice to see Bale appear there more to give them something different to worry about.
 

jonathanhotspur

Loose Cannon
Jun 28, 2009
10,292
8,250
Yea I agree with that but I think it's right to persist with it, for now at least. At least the team looks fairly balanced in this setup. Watching the 2nd half today, we didn't look brilliant but we looked quite solid as a unit. A few individual errors allowed them chances and their only goal even came from an error which really should have been avoided but when they were in possession of the ball we weren't easy to break through by any means.

Like you said though, it is just getting used to it. Bale's plays some nice little passes when he's more inside, obviously as does VDV, their are times when it's pretty much Parker, Sandro, Bale, VDV and Modric all in the middle and despite them gathering a good understanding with each other when they link up in the middle (which impresses me at times to be honest) our options out wide are more limited as a result. VDV was pretty good positionally today I felt but I would have liked to have seen Bale mix it up a bit more and to have hugged the touchline on more occasions. A lot of the time it was Adebayor on the left, or Ekotto further up on the left with Kaboul drifting wider towards him on the left when we were in possession but it would have been nice to see Bale appear there more to give them something different to worry about.

I'm all for sticking with it. I really dislike most of the other combinations we've used.
 

werty

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2005
25,074
26,310
It's not going to work if we don't start getting people up with and beyond Ade. The only time we got players in the box to support him we actually scored.

As for my ratings...

Friedel 5 - Really should have gathered the deflected cross. Maybe a few good saves, the mistake cost us dear.

Walker 6 - Overall his defending was good, but he was on his heels for the goal and left Sinclair free in the middle.

Gallas 7 - Good.

Kaboul 8 - Very good.

BAE 8 - Good and probably our best attacking player in the first half.

Sandro 6 - Not his usual superhero type game, but decent enough throughout.

Parker 6 - Didn't seem himself either. Looked like he was playing with an injury most of the game

Modric 6 - Alright. We need him to take control of the game when Parker and VDV came off but he didn't.

Bale 5 - Lazy, selfish and no impact on the game. Decision making was very poor too.

VDV 6 - Worked hard which was great but other than the goal and the pass than Adebayor didn't control he didn't do a whole lot.

Adebayor 5.5 - Hard one to mark. Pretty terrible in the oppositions final third, but the other two he was good in. Didn't help that he was isolated nearly the whole game.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,776
99,336
Kaboul really was excellent from what I've seen on football first. Really thought Bale was poor in nearly every respect, and I think we missed a trick by not freshening things up a little.

Parker, Bale, Modric, VDV, Adebayor all looked off the pace. Adebayor wasn't closing down from the front like he was against Norwich, Parker looked like he was injured throughout the game and Modric/VDV just looked really tired.

Its funny that our two best performers were Sandro and Kaboul, and the latter hasn't played all of the festive period and the former only came back early December (in the League), although Ekotto performed well and he has featured in all of them.

Hard place to go, decent point overall and you could say had Friedel not spilled that we wouldn't be talking about rotating etc...but I can't help think we needed an injection of freshness.

Overall all though 4 points from two tricky away ties is more than acceptable.
 

Blake Griffin

Well-Known Member
Oct 3, 2011
14,133
38,225
friedel 5

walker 7
gallas 7
kaboul 8
ekotto 8

sandro 7.5
parker 7
modric 7

vdv 7.5
bale 6
ade 6
 

kaz Hirai

Well-Known Member
Nov 5, 2008
17,692
25,340
my last post of 2011 via the magic of android.

Brad Friedel is a bloody fairy for not dealing with that cross. Still rate Gomes over him

love it hate it.

Happy new year kids, enjoy your final 12 months of life :lol:
 

Bulletspur

The Reasonable Advocate
Match Thread Admin
Oct 17, 2006
10,690
25,246
We didnt deserve a point and were second best throughout the game. No way in 90 minutes did we have any control of the game. We were out played and out thought by a second string Swansea team. I really wonder what game most of you watched based on your comments. IMO the only excuse for such a poor performance was that Harry has to realise that we have a squad of players and there comes a time that he has to trust in the squad instead of relying on his favorites who in my opinion, were either fatigued or just extremely underrated Swansea expecting 3 points by just turning up. I honestly would have preferred that we had lost the game but having played the best we can than this sham of a performance. A very bad day at the office. If I was to rate, no one would get higher that a six, where only Sandro and Kaboul would get.
 
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