Good Week/Bad Week

[Krafty]

Good Week

Aaron Lennon

'Azza' kept his early form going, picking up another assist for Defoe and looking dangerous every time he picked up the ball, making ArseHole look ordinary.

Given how he has played, and the fact Sigurdsson/Dempsey were playing from the left, you have to wonder why we did not look to use Lennon more often. It's the same reason why I was surprised he did not play against Poland (with Cleverley on the left) as he offers the width, pace, and attacking threat of the midfield. First half we didn't look to attack their left flank nearly enough. Lennon was THE threat and should have been used more often.

Jermain Defoe

First half he was the bad Defoe - out of the game, and greedy when he did get on the ball. Second half he looked to have more support, was in the game more, and scored, which apparently he doesn't do against the top teams (which of course the best players do every single time....yawn)

Possibly Michael Dawson, but probably Benoit Assou-Ekotto

There is a question mark over one of our centre backs now (see below), possibly giving Daws a route into the team. However what I feel will be far more likely will be BAE returning at left back and Vertonghen partnering Caulker in the centre.

Brad Friedel, but ultimately Hugo Lloris

So Brad returned and while he wasn't bad, there wasn't any conclusive reason for him to still be first choice. Some saves were pushed back out into the danger zone, he was still a little hesitant coming off his line, and I think it is now time to play the XI who will be starting next season.

Huddlestone

First league start, looked to impose himself better in the second half, and delivered some good set pieces. I was surprised to see him subbed off as he was one of two midfielders who looked comfortable on the ball, Lennon being the other.

Bad Week

William Gallas

From zero, to hero, to zero again. He got a goal but his defensive play was terrible. If Caulker had made those errors you would say he needs to learn from it, but even then it's defending 101 to clear balls away from the goal, not put them on the penalty spot. He seemed to have problems sorting out his feet, and I think its time to move on. The beginning of the end? I think so. He's done a lot for us, but AVB should look to the future.

If Gallas plays like that then you might as well play Daws who is equally ungainly but much stronger in the air.

AVB

Another poor first half, and more late goals conceded. I can't fault him for going 4-2-3-1 to begin with but the central two midfielders were so deep they were stepping on the defenders toes and gave Chelsea's central two far too much time on the pitch. Second half we pressed them a lot better but the sub of Huddlestone was a little strange for me, and we turned to jelly once we grabbed the lead.

Also, the Sigurdsson/Dempsey problem arose again. In the 4-2-3-1 system neither get near enough the striker, and whoever is meant to be on the left doesn't get anywhere near the touchline to help Vertonghen and offer an option. Second half and the 4-4-2 seemed to help Sigurdsson as he finally understood what his role was, but in hindsight should Bale's replacement been a more natural like for like in Andros Townsend? Dempsey and Sigurdsson are not suited for that role.

That being said, losing Bale so late would have made things difficult.

Massimo Luongo

Ipswich are struggling but judging by the Ipswich fansites Massimo has been one of the better performers. However the tractor boys have brought in more experienced players like Nigel Reo-Coker, and Paul Jewell looks on the brink. The new man will want results so its unlikely he'll get much game time. Would not be a surprise to see him recalled, then sent out on loan somewhere else in January.

Subs Table

Defoe + 4
Caulker + 3
Lennon +2
Dempsey +2

Sandro 0
Kane 0
Adebayor 0
Mason 0

Livermore - 1
Huddlestone -1
Townsend -2
Jenas -2
Sigurdsson - 5

 

[UncleBuck]

Addition to "Bad Week", the midwife who told Bale's other half to "push" instead of slowing down her contractions for 90 minutes

 

[vuzp]

also bad week for the morons on tweeter giving Walker a hard time.

 

[JonnySpurs]

I don't like seeing Sig at -5. I agree that he's struggled a bit so far but he's still very young and has been used in a number of different positions. The talent level for him is through the roof and with time and a more settled role he'll get better and better.

We need to get behind him and give him encouragment as much as we can as fans, in the long run he'll be a quality player for Spurs.

 

[GlennHoddle]

Although i also feel Gallas should be on the bench for us, there were worse players than him on the pitch yesterday.

At the match, i felt he was at fault for the 1st, which he should have headed out to the byline rather than back across the box, but Kyle Walker was in a much better place to take control, call out to Gallas and head to safety himself.

For the 3rd goal, it looks like Walker left Mata go again to creep in between himself and Gallas.

The 4th goal, oh dear!

So bad week for our Kyle, hope he learns from it, i think a bit of rest could do him good, been off the pace for a couple of months now, hopefully he has what it takes to get out of this sticky patch as he has all the attributes to become world class with a bit of guidance

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

Another poor first half, and more late goals conceded

What's new and different about that? If AVB has the team sitting much deeper they would have been charged for seats. Familiar pattern and instead of going for the jugular from the very start AVB had the team sit back and admire their midfield. His comments on their midfield after the game were baffling. Pity he couldn't have made that speech to his own players before the game started.

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

Cant say I agree with a whole lot of that.

Lennon was our main threat I agree, however watch it back and see how many times he attempted to get past Ashley Cole and failed. Over the years I've noticed 2 things, Lennon likes Evra, he doesn't like Cole.

I think you're being hard on Gallas who suffered as a result of having a poor Walker, a young Caulker and an out of position Vertonghen playing with him. He also didn't get the protection from midfield he's probably come to expect.

I think Dempsey deserves an extra special mention though for absolutely mediocrity - how many times did he receive the ball when we had a very good opportunity to counter in numbers only for him to put his foot on the ball and mess the whole thing up?
I know and appreciate he's speedy winger, but all he had to do was keep the ball moving forward. It didnt need Usain Bolt, just forward movement to continue the momentum.


All in all though I cant say I expected anything less than what we got at kick off. Any team going in to a game against Chelsea will suffer without a 1st choice CB, (aruguably 2 if you include Vertonghen being pushed to LB) a first choice LB, a first choice CM and a first choice LM. Especially when all of those players could play for most teams in the league.

And despite that, for half hour, we battered them senseless!

 

[kungfugrip]

Lennon back looking really sharp. A real weapon when he's on this form. I just kept shouting ' give it to Lennon' at the TV.

 

[deadlight]

One thing that Gallas DOES have over Daws is speed. If the striker/CF/whatever get beyond the CBs, Gallas will get back to get a tackle in - Daws won't.

 

[beuller]

What's new and different about that? If AVB has the team sitting much deeper they would have been charged for seats. Familiar pattern and instead of going for the jugular from the very start AVB had the team sit back and admire their midfield. His comments on their midfield after the game were baffling. Pity he couldn't have made that speech to his own players before the game started.

Sorry, I am not trying to reply to your every post...

But why would we go straight for the jugular from the very start?

They were setup beautifully to break on us with their two holding players and amazingly lively and skilful advanced players. We were also missing two of our more dynamic forward players to get at them.

I could see exactly why we setup slightly cautiously. I thought we did ok. Not great, but ok. A couple less individual errors and we could well have got something.

By all means criticise the manager, I think it's healthy to question him. But it feels like you have already decided that he is not as good as redknapp and want to say so at every opportunity.

The old manager has gone for good. The new one has lost one game in about 7? Something like that anyway. Let's give him a bit of a chance.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

But why would we go straight for the jugular from the very start?

AVB's alternative was to sit back and let them play. Sooner lose fighting them than just defending deeper and deeper.

But it feels like you have already decided that he is not as good as redknapp and want to say so at every opportunity.

Total nonsense.

I say it as i see it and at this moment in time HR was the better manager in my opinion. When AVB secures 4/5/4/ places over the next three seasons then he will become as successful a Manager of Spurs as Redknapp. That is unless we should be judging AVB's success in anything else but results? I would suspect that Danny Boy hired AVB to do just that.

Iv'e no preference who manages Spurs so long as we see a natural progression on the pitch. So far this season it's been a very mixed bag in my opinion, with almost a quarter of the season gone, two EL games and a Cup match so enough time i would have thought for the team to have gelled.

 

[beuller]

Fair enough. It's all about opinions I guess.

I personally think he's done quite well considering. The late late transfer show did him no favours. Losing the creative sparks whilst failing to replace them with moutinho and willian was not ideal.

He's implementing a new way of playing (which we were all crying out for under redknapp), integrating youth players and we are still on the pace for CL. I think it's a pretty good effort all round.

Redknapp secured champions league football once in 3 full seasons, if villas-boas does it in the first season using a negative transfer budget and using various formations and integrating youth, it would be a fantastic success. wouldn't it?

Cut him some slack.
Give

 

[spud]

What's new and different about that? If AVB has the team sitting much deeper they would have been charged for seats.

This has been puzzling me, as the only evidence that I have seen of our pressing high up the pitch with a high defensive line has tended to be when we fall behind and need a goal. We have defended more and more deeply as games have progressed (when we have been winning them) and often conceded as a result.

I realise that this weekend has been 'have a go at Gallas' weekend - and I have been as vocal as anybody in doing so - but I think that he may be the reason. He continually dropped behind his defensive colleagues on saturday and played Chelski onside when they were clearly trying to hold a line higher up the pitch. My feeling is that he is uncomfortable holding a high line as he has lost some speed, and is tending to move towards his own box where a forward has less space to run into.

It will be interesting to see if we defend further up the pitch - which will enable us to press the opposition in their own half - if and when Gallas isn't playing and we have, for example, Vertonghen and Caulker in the middle.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

Redknapp secured champions league football once in 3 full seasons, if villas-boas does it in the first season using a negative transfer budget and using various formations and integrating youth, it would be a fantastic success. wouldn't it?

O.K. i will bite...........

But for Chel$ea winning the CL it would have been two CL qualifications, and i cannot ever remember the new Uefa ruling costing a "qualifying" club a place in the following seasons CL but i may be wrong on this. So without looking up i think Redknapp ended up with a 8/4/5/4 finish over his contract. Many felt that some of his tactical decisions cost us third place last season, but fuck me what teams outside of the traditional top four would bitch at those finishing positions?

I don't understand what you mean by "negative transfer budgets" as AVB would have told Levy what his shortlist was (possibly before agreeing a contract). Last minute signings on transfer deadline day are nothing new to a Spurs manager and Jol, Redknapp and AVB all had them. Anyway Levy was never going to pay the sort of money Porto wanted for Mout's in the same way as he didn't for Rossi (seasons back) Hazard, Hulk, Leandro, Falcao or any other player that would set the club back 30 million plus.

Integrating youth? Well who has AVB integrated that Redknapp did not? Caulker and Naughton were always going to be first team players at some point even had Redknapp still been here.


AVB was given a lot on money to spend, and despite losing Modric (which he new about) and to a lesser extent VDV (too good a deal to turn down for Levy) he has a team that is capable and should at least match what Redknapp achieved. Let's see if he has what it takes to put a side out that can win games that we should and need to in order to hit at least seventy points because that's what it's going to take to secure another CL spot unless we are to be once again unlucky and a top three side from the PL win it again. I don't expect AVB to beat Redknapps record i just feel that he should at least match it, or why did Levy bother changing Managers?

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

This has been puzzling me, as the only evidence that I have seen of our pressing high up the pitch with a high defensive line has tended to be when we fall behind and need a goal. We have defended more and more deeply as games have progressed (when we have been winning them) and often conceded as a result.

Even the momentous, staggering, splendid, monkey off the back win at Man Ure featured forty five minutes of backs to the wall, desperation football. Perhaps we miss Parker more than i realised but had QPR, and Aston Villa fielded strikers who could hit the frigging target then we may be sitting in eighth place and eight points.

I want AVB to win us silverware, and a CL spot, no less than i did Redknapp i just can't see the team gelling, pass ad movement and finishing like we had this past three seasons. Sorry but i just can't.

 

[spud]

I don't expect AVB to beat Redknapps record i just feel that he should at least match it, or why did Levy bother changing Managers?

My own feeling on this is that he realised that Redknapp wasn't going to buy into the club's (Levy's) long-term philosophy of mainly buying cheaply and developing players in order to maintain a consistent challenge while staying within budget, but was instead concerned exclusively with the now. I think Levy saw a future with a squad stuffed full of over-30s on relatively high wages with no transfer value and decided that he didn't like it.

I'm sure that levy - like all of us - wants AVB to match and exceed Redknapp's record, and doubtless believes that he will. But it would be a little naive to think that was the only motivation.

 

[beuller]

Don't know what happened. Blaming it on the phone.

 

[beuller]

O.K. i will bite...........

I don't expect AVB to beat Redknapps record i just feel that he should at least match it, or why did Levy bother changing Managers?

This is what I don't understand. What does it matter? We did change managers, you need to move on. Criticise villas-boas for sure but don't beat him with the redknapp stick. It's not his fault that redknapp didn't do enough in levy's eyes to keep his job.

Ignoring the turnover at the club plus the fact we have recouped more than we spent is just obtuse.

But it fits your argument in which I am sure all future managers are compared to redknapp.

I liked the football we played under redknapp, it was a good period. If he was being judged purely on that, he'd probably still be here. But he wasn't and he isn't. Move on. He is a former employer.

Re youth. You are being silly now. Saying Caulker was always going to be a first team player at some point is just conjecture. The fact is, he is a starter under villas boas. Townsend is a regular feature on the bench. As are many other kids. Mason, smith etc. Naughton was trusted to do a job. I honestly think none of the above would have happened under redknapp.

Summary - redknapp is gone so stop banging on about him.

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

It's not his fault that redknapp didn't do enough in levy's eyes to keep his job.

So i guess that AVB will be measured the same way: Results & CL qualification or like i said to at least match Redknapps record. I'd expect no more after next season.

You are being silly now. Saying Caulker was always going to be a first team player at some point is just conjecture. The fact is, he is a starter under villas boas.

The fact actually is that Caulker will not start when Kabul is fit as he will partner Verts in central midfield with Bennie returning to left back. You cannot be serious in thinking otherwise. Caulker will eventually be an automatic first team choice but stood little chance with Dawson, Kabul, King and Gallas at the Club these past three seasons. That is unless you wanted King finished last season or the season before when Caulker was quite rightly loaned out to get experience in the same way that Walker and Naughton were?

I guess that it is wrong for those players to be loaned out under Redknapp but o.k. for Kane to go to Norwich and Levy buy the older Dempsey? Sorry for writing or referring to our most successful PL Manager and if it pisses you off that much then ignore my posts.

 

[beuller]

So i guess that AVB will be measured the same way: Results & CL qualification or like i said to at least match Redknapps record. I'd expect no more after next season.

Agreed that's exactly how he should be judged

The fact actually is that Caulker will not start when Kabul is fit as he will partner Verts in central midfield with Bennie returning to left back. You cannot be serious in thinking otherwise. Caulker will eventually be an automatic first team choice but stood little chance with Dawson, Kabul, King and Gallas at the Club these past three seasons. That is unless you wanted King finished last season or the season before when Caulker was quite rightly loaned out to get experience in the same way that Walker and Naughton were?

I guess that it is wrong for those players to be loaned out under Redknapp but o.k. for Kane to go to Norwich and Levy buy the older Dempsey? Sorry for writing or referring to our most successful PL Manager and if it pisses you off that much then ignore my posts.

I agree with Caulker being loaned out last season and I NEVER wanted Leds to finish.

I think Caulker would probably be behind Daws this year, with Redknapp and therefore would possibly be loaned again.

I disagreed with Kane going (should be on the bench with Townsend IMO) and I feel Dempsey was a panic buy and not particularly suited to our side.