Bolton Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[lilywhitecurtis]

while i agree with this, its still better that having one of Pav or Crouch up front with noone able to play just off them.

There is a huge gap between the striker and the midfield, so Crouches knock downs go to noone and Pav gets muscled off the ball before he can pass it.

In a 442 we have a better shape and balance when VDV is out.

That's exactly the point I'm trying to make. We had masses of possession today (off the top of my head 60%) yet no one could hold on to the ball in the upper tier of the field. Modric won't get close enough to Crouch.

 

[mike_l]

Is Arry the new Tinkerman?

If anything I'd say the opposite, obviously today he just randomly dropped 3 players into the side for no apparent reason, but the porblem is that they all sucked massively due to having very little match fitness and rhythm with the other players.

If he tinkered more when everyone was fit and blended the fringe players more with the regulars we would a) have fresher regulars and b) be better equipped when the regulars are injured, with someone able to slip seemlessly into the side.

 

[worcestersauce]

The one thing that really gets to me about Crouch is he never plays a forward ball or looks at nipping one round the corner. As soon as he gets the ball with his back to goal he will pass it back another 10 yards every time and it kills any momentum we can gather in an attacking position.

Who the fuck is he going to pass it forward to? there's never anyone ahead of him or running past him to take the pass!

In hindsight perhaps we should have played Bentley from the start not Kranjcar, mind you some of us had hindeight before the game. When Hudd came on he took the time on the ball to see the pass shame he missed the first half.

I thought the ref should have booked Steinson when he done Bale at the beginning, if he lets Bale know he's there the ref should let him know that he's there even so Bale got some great balls across the box just no one there to snap them up

Bolton were good worked hard but lucky with an offside starter.

Mostly average other than that.

Back on the roller coaster

Perhaps a bit too soon to play Sandro away to Bolton

 

[There's always next year]

Lets be honest. We have a trio of world class players, then a couple of decent players and then the rest are simply not good enough to sustain a challenge on the PL.

 

[TwoSaintsComeMarching]

What was worrying was Harry's post match interview. He reckons we were "too open".. which means he wont be switching to 442 any time soon.

 

[TwoSaintsComeMarching]

Why start a new thread?!

 

[worcestersauce]

I think we just lost the title race today

 

[we_all_loved_freund]

Harry made his mind up after the Wigan game that he would 'freshen things up' after a CL game. He was trying to stop a lacklustre performance but the players that he put in didn't step up and do the job.

I don't think HR had a choice today tbh. VDV wasn't fit, Hudd wasn't really fit and neither was Lennon. The only thing he could have done was possibly play Jenas instead of Sandro. I don't blame HR I blame players like Niko, Sandro and Wilson who weren't at the races.

 

[Bill_Oddie]

bolton weren't bad today but my hatred of kevin davies has grown immensely. i think when he just threw himself at bale and didn't even get booked really annoyed me. such a fouling twat.

and whoever it was that threw their whole body into huddlestone's legs then wondered why he got stamped on. granted the hudd could have been more careful and looked as though he didn't care when he rebalanced himsself by stepping onto the guy's body, but ffs, what do you expect when your game is outmuscling and horror tackling?

take nothing away, we need more squad depth big stylee. January is huge.

Mate, seriously. Watch it again. Now, have a deep breath and watch it again and imagine the player on the ground is a Spurs lad and Hudd is from the oppo. Tell me he shouldn't have been sent off.

He jumps in the air to avoid the challenge and then - on the way down when his feet can easily land on clean grass - he double-kicks out. It's appalling and doesn't befit any footballer. I'm ashamed of him.

It also cost us momentum as we were driving forward at the time. Noticably after that challenge we barely got it into their half.

 

[andyw362]

Why start a new thread?!

Messageboard aint it?

 

[claw_diddy]

Harry made his mind up after the Wigan game that he would 'freshen things up' after a CL game. He was trying to stop a lacklustre performance but the players that he put in didn't step up and do the job.

I don't think HR had a choice today tbh. VDV wasn't fit, Hudd wasn't really fit and neither was Lennon. The only thing he could have done was possibly play Jenas instead of Sandro. I don't blame HR I blame players like Niko, Sandro and Wilson who weren't at the races.

MY thoughts exactly.

Jenas and Bentley should've been handed starts.

Wilson has been suspect all season and Sandro is unproven.

Midfield would've been more rounded.

 

[theShiznit]

a few things i want to get off my chesticles...

Poor selection today and we all (well most of us) knew it.

To bring in three slow midfielders when you are without Lennon or Defoe offering pace, is poor.

I do not blame Kranjcar, Palacios or Sandro, these are players who are not getting regulare games, and they are expected to come in to a very tough Prem game and boss midfield... they played poor but it should have been expected.

Crouch was poor (again) and this is the striker who IS playing regularly, so no excusesof lacking sharpness/touch etc.

The sad thing is this was an average Crouch performance for my reckoning.

Luka looked good in the first half, but as he was so high up, there was no movement or anyone offering anything for him (other than Bale)

I'm already fed up of Gallas' moany face! to blame for at least one goal, and made the lineman's (wrong) decision easier by coming back when Davies was clearly off-side.

Also, don't expect Pav to start any time soon, as Harry hates him, for the umpteenth time this season i saw saw 'arry spitting Vitriol to Kevin Bond, and then shout a string of expletives with Pav on the end of it... I wonder why he doesn't do the same for Crouch (maybe that's the limit of his motivational skills?)

and just when i'm about to give up watching, the fuckers make me believe we have a chance!

 

[kernowspur]

What do we expect though just dropping 3 players who have played very few minutes this season into the midfield against one of the more aggressive teams in the league? There was no continuity/fluidity/team play/whatever and that can't be that surprising surely?

Redknapp fucked up big time by adjusting the side to try counter Bolton, they're not Barca ffs, we should have gone there to play our own style, in the end we just played into their hands.

Look at the Stoke game, we went and played our best team and our own style against a similar side to Bolton, we won and played well.

I agree Harry got it wrong in a big way.

 

[shelfmonkey]

If anything I'd say the opposite, obviously today he just randomly dropped 3 players into the side for no apparent reason, but the porblem is that they all sucked massively due to having very little match fitness and rhythm with the other players.

If he tinkered more when everyone was fit and blended the fringe players more with the regulars we would a) have fresher regulars and b) be better equipped when the regulars are injured, with someone able to slip seemlessly into the side.

Good point

 

[BorisTM]

Well I have noticed that we dont do well in the light blue gear. We dont seem to pass the ball as crisp and quick as when we play in white or dark blue. As if the players have difficulties seeing each other.

 

[danielneeds]

We are not and never will be in Uiteds League, not a good comparison... we deserved this defeat as we have been riding our luck a bit .. WE have had a crap season .. FORGET THE CL ...

I not saying we are in United's class, but the point is if a team as experienced and talented as them struggled with juggling CL and the league, then how is our much callower squad supposed to just cope with it with no trouble?

Harry is finding out the true strength of his squad atm, due to form and injury it isn't as deep as we need it to be.

Also Bolton were fricking excellent today, sometimes you have to give credit to the opposition.

Everyone stop jerking your knees, you will ruin your cartilage Ledley-style. Forget this, go forth and enjoy the rest of the weekend. We just need to keep going at the moment, beat Werder, and then we can concentrate fully on the league over the make or break period of the season.

 

[mike_l]

Harry made his mind up after the Wigan game that he would 'freshen things up' after a CL game. He was trying to stop a lacklustre performance but the players that he put in didn't step up and do the job.

I don't think HR had a choice today tbh. VDV wasn't fit, Hudd wasn't really fit and neither was Lennon. The only thing he could have done was possibly play Jenas instead of Sandro. I don't blame HR I blame players like Niko, Sandro and Wilson who weren't at the races.

How can he expect them to be at the races, especially Niko who has played all of half an hour this season.

 

[kernowspur]

Mate, seriously. Watch it again. Now, have a deep breath and watch it again and imagine the player on the ground is a Spurs lad and Hudd is from the oppo. Tell me he shouldn't have been sent off.

He jumps in the air to avoid the challenge and then - on the way down when his feet can easily land on clean grass - he double-kicks out. It's appalling and doesn't befit any footballer. I'm ashamed of him.

It also cost us momentum as we were driving forward at the time. Noticably after that challenge we barely got it into their half.

Agree with you Bill, for the second time this season Hudd was lucky not to be sent off.

 

[raf18]

Crouch was the reason we lost. It would have worked better for him if we had taken the lead. We didn't, and so we needed a different striker up top once we went behind. He is not a poacher like pav/defoe and so he was never going to be a real threat around their box.

Keeping him on and switching to 442 just opened us up more. I think in hindsight, the best option was to take him off for pav and perhaps also bring on thudd for wilson as we had no real control in the middle, during the first half.

 

[werty]

Look at the Stoke game, we went and played our best team and our own style against a similar side to Bolton, we won and played well.

We won that game, but we didn't play well. The first half was fairly even and it took a superb goal from Bale to put us ahead. They were the better team in the second half and had countless chances. Fortunelty, their finishing was shit. We probably only had one chance in the second half in that game.

You're right that we should have played our own style though.