Asteras Tripolis Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[spursbri111]

In future I would just leave out the italian, spanish or portuguese market. THere are the odd hitters, but overall it just dont seem to be the football needed in England. Rather look out what is there and maybe go more to the Dutch/ German market.

I sometimes think our team could be a decent outfit in Spain or Italy, but not really in the Prem.

spot on. There a regular easier matches in those leagues. the prem is a tough game week in week out.

 

[SpurSince57]

I think you know that I was referring to the magnificent 7, who changed the face of our play and impacted our then existing squad members.

I know no such thing. I was taking your 'despite the squad['s] being brand new' at face value. If you meant something else, you should have expressed yourself differently. We signed five players that summer, one of whom had been with us on loan the previous season. Again, that does not constitute a squad, never mind a brand-new one.

 

[prawnsandwich]

Just seen the Verts challenge again that the ref decided was not a foul. Not as bad but Fazio gets sent off.
Love the words from Harry and Andros-but not our manager.

 

[SpurSince57]

Fazio will be fine.

bloody stupid penalty - the sticker just fell over

these referees are a bloody joke

Yes, but he's got to learn that if you touch an oppo player in the area he's going to make the most of it 9 times out of 10, and the ref's going to apply the letter of the law 9 times out of 10. I'd say Aguero dived at the Lane, but there was a distinct touch and that's all it needs nowadays. Same tonight. Contact was minimal and their man contrived it, but contact there was.

 

[Spurs 1961]

Agree, why oh why can we not defend. Unfortunately the basics of defending have mainly eluded us for the past 5 decades I've been following us. I know it's not deliberate but sometimes it looks as though we go out of our way to give the opposition as many chances as we can, with atrocious defending, we seem to find new ways of creating panic in our own half and box, whoever is in our back four. I know we have had some excellent individual defenders but I'm beginning to wonder whether defending as a unit is deliberately coached out of our players on the training ground just to put our fans through it for the hell of it.

Perhaps we should change our motto from "To dare is to do" to "To dare not to defend properly is to do" .......

Sure our defence always seems a liability but then who apart from Chelsea have a decent defence in the Premier League? All look like they have more holes than any Swiss cheese

 

[SpurSince57]

There's that and also our lwf and rwf are not functioning properly. The space behind them is exposed way too much, they need to work harder and be more alert to the counter.

We are a long way away from being a functional team tbf. We'll look something like one come the nearing the end of the season though.

That will be after the new manager's come in, will it?

 

[SpurSince57]

Sure our defence always seems a liability but then who apart from Chelsea have a decent defence in the Premier League? All look like they have more holes than any Swiss cheese

Southampton.

And really, saying that everyone else is crap so why should we worry is plain silly.

 

[SteveH]

Yes, but he's got to learn that if you touch an oppo player in the area he's going to make the most of it 9 times out of 10, and the ref's going to apply the letter of the law 9 times out of 10. I'd say Aguero dived at the Lane, but there was a distinct touch and that's all it needs nowadays. Same tonight. Contact was minimal and their man contrived it, but contact there was.

we need referees with abilty to destinguish between diving when just touched and impeeding/fouling.

 

[Sweetsman]

This may come as a surprise to some on here, but the point of these early rounds and in fact all stages of a cup competition is to win; you don't get extra marks for artistic impression. I was frustrated as any of you with the defensive horlicks and especially second half.

 

[CrazyHeart]

I know no such thing. I was taking your 'despite the squad['s] being brand new' at face value. If you meant something else, you should have expressed yourself differently. We signed five players that summer, one of whom had been with us on loan the previous season. Again, that does not constitute a squad, never mind a brand-new one.

Wow. Okay then...

 

[1882andallthat]

Sure our defence always seems a liability but then who apart from Chelsea have a decent defence in the Premier League? All look like they have more holes than any Swiss cheese

You have a point but my point is not just now but consistently over the last 5 decades, I would be hard pressed to find a comparable team that defends so poorly as a unit than ours and has done so consistently almost year on year. Even the most mediocre of teams seem to have been able to regularly cut through our defences like knives through butter, whether we are talking about the 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s or in the current decade.

However good our goalkeepers are and in Lloris we have one who is world class you would never pick one in any fantasy league team because you know they will be given an almost impossible task of having to bail out a shambles of a defensive unit that will constantly put them in the sh*t. Lloris and Vorm should stick with us because they will never get better opportunities and chances to pull off World class saves anywhere else.

 

[miles_64]

You have a point but my point is not just now but consistently over the last 5 decades, I would be hard pressed to find a comparable team that defends so poorly as a unit than ours and has done so consistently almost year on year. Even the most mediocre of teams seem to have been able to regularly cut through our defences like knives through butter, whether we are talking about the 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s or in the current decade.

However good our goalkeepers are and in Lloris we have one who is world class you would never pick one in any fantasy league team because you know they will be given an almost impossible task of having to bail out a shambles of a defensive unit that will constantly put them in the sh*t. Lloris and Vorm should stick with us because they will never get better opportunities and chances to pull off World class saves anywhere else.

Has Lloris in Fantasy Football team

 

[doom]

You have a point but my point is not just now but consistently over the last 5 decades, I would be hard pressed to find a comparable team that defends so poorly as a unit than ours and has done so consistently almost year on year. Even the most mediocre of teams seem to have been able to regularly cut through our defences like knives through butter, whether we are talking about the 1970s 1980s 1990s 2000s or in the current decade.

However good our goalkeepers are and in Lloris we have one who is world class you would never pick one in any fantasy league team because you know they will be given an almost impossible task of having to bail out a shambles of a defensive unit that will constantly put them in the sh*t. Lloris and Vorm should stick with us because they will never get better opportunities and chances to pull off World class saves anywhere else.

gosh you are right - our best premier league defence was in 05/06 with Naybet and Lasagna Gate - we let in only 38 and then only some 40's until last year - pre- Jol we were in the 50's and 60's for conceding. At least it's not boring!

 

[sim0n]

happy with the result -- fazio seems to have a bit of a curse on him at moment with these red cards.... weird...

 

[1882andallthat]

Has Lloris in Fantasy Football team

Good luck, because you will only consistently gain points from the number of saves he is forced to make to bail us out. Clean sheets, forget it. Even the Southampton one was lucky because one of their players conspired inexplicably to miss an open goal from less than 6 yards out in the last couple of mins which gifted us the 3 points.

 

[Gassin's finest]

Our lot were already on the plane home after half time, and we got lucky. But I'm just glad we've got past another dodgy european tie, on a pitch that looked like the Somme, with maximum points. Shite game.

 

[SpurSince57]

gosh you are right - our best premier league defence was in 05/06 with Naybet and Lasagna Gate - we let in only 38 and then only some 40's until last year - pre- Jol we were in the 50's and 60's for conceding. At least it's not boring!

Naybet ('He comes from Casablanca, He thinks Henry's a wanker') only made a couple of appearances that season; it was mostly Ledley and Dawson, with Gardner and Davenport filling in when needed. We also kept it down to 38 in 95-96. Our best-ever was 33 in 42 in 70-71. Somewhat surprisingly, the manager with the best defensive record was Harry.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

This may come as a surprise to some on here, but the point of these early rounds and in fact all stages of a cup competition is to win; you don't get extra marks for artistic impression. I was frustrated as any of you with the defensive horlicks and especially second half.

This.

Tbh I don't know why some of you feel the need to spit your dummies out over group stage europa league matches. We hardly ever play champagne football in these kind of game no matter who the manager has been. The aim is to navigate these tricky away matches without dropping any valuable points. Which we have done to extent and seem certain to qualify.

 

[newbie]

Naybet ('He comes from Casablanca, He thinks Henry's a wanker') only made a couple of appearances that season; it was mostly Ledley and Dawson, with Gardner and Davenport filling in when needed. We also kept it down to 38 in 95-96. Our best-ever was 33 in 42 in 70-71. Somewhat surprisingly, the manager with the best defensive record was Harry.

When Harry arrived I believe he really worked the team hard, I new a couple of guys who worked with Dawson's soon to be wife, remember the city game where we got champs league (we also had king, Woodgate,Dawson and a good kaboul) and city got to the byline and we had all there options blocked/covered our defence was really good.

I think harry took his foot of the pedal in latter seasons which is a shame as he had a chance to win things.

 

[GMI]

Clarke Carlise aluded to it, as did Strachan. We brought an expensive, and prolific, centre forward who thrives on crosses. Since buying said striker we have ceased crossing the ball. We play the ball centrally and nullify he best attibutes. Call me crazy and naive but I think we should revert to some form of 4-4-2 with Townsend on the left, keeping the width, and crossing to either Soldado or Kane. Its not viable becasue we have over 50 central midfielders in the squad but there must be some solution. My point, I suppose, is we brought the wrong type of stiker for the system we were playing.