Harry's worst selection decisions saved for the big 3

[doubledecker]

Why does Harry choose games against the big 3 to make such poor team selections ?.

Manure ( League ) . Played Keane at LM , Kranjcar on bench

Chelsea- Switch to 3 man MF of Jenas- Hudd- Palacios

Arsenal - repeated the same mistake despite our hammering at Chelsea

Manure Cup - Switched Lennon to LM to fit in Bentley

I don't particularly care about tonight apart from the embarrassment of losing to their reserves.

But why does he always feel it is necessary to change our team shape when we play the big 3 ? Inferiority complex ?

 

[Davo99]

He seems to think we should have an extra man in the middle to make us more compact in the midfield, whereas I think our best bet is not to stifle the other team but to try and outplay them.

Every other match we play our normal game and open up sides. But he knows we risk getting killed by a top side so changes it to go more defensive and to fill holes. But we end up getting spanked anyway.

 

[Spurs_Q8]

it was even poor vs Sunderland but we won

i agree about Man Utd (H) but he admitted it and he will never do it

but vs Chelsea & Arsenal the tactics were right, individual mistakes didn't help

as for last game vs Man Utd, if Defoe took his chance well, i'm sure we could win it

football is about scoring, our worst defeat was vs Stoke, it could give us extra 3 points which should be for us.

 

[doubledecker]

it was even poor vs Sunderland but we won

i agree about Man Utd (H) but he admitted it and he will never do it

but vs Chelsea & Arsenal the tactics were right, individual mistakes didn't help

as for last game vs Man Utd, if Defoe took his chance well, i'm sure we could win it

football is about scoring, our worst defeat was vs Stoke, it could give us extra 3 points which should be for us.

I disagree the tactics against Arsenal and Chelsea were right - we were pathetic in both matches.:shrug:

 

[DEFchenkOE]

We didn't change our shape yesterday, just personnel, isn't that allowed? Or is our only tactic every game to give the ball to Lennon on the right and pray for the best!!???

 

[mattyspurs]

I didn't see too much problem with changing things last night. Lennon can open up any defence wether it be on the right or left. Bentley is supposed to be a fantastic crosser of the ball from the right hand side. Ok, it didn't happen last night, but i'm not going to lay all of the blame on Harry for that. He thought what he was doing was for the best.

 

[14/04/91]

So who should've played on the left then????

 

[AngerManagement]

I was more dissapointed in the way some of our fringe players performed. Not so much Bale because although he was sloppy and wasteful with passes and his defending/postioning etc he did put the effort levels I'd expect from someone (who should be) wanting to prove their are a first team player.

Bentley, Jenas and even KEane really didn't seem that interested to me, none of those were busting a gut to show what they could do and try and make themselves undroppable for the next game. I was personally very dissapointed in all three of those players.

Palacios was strowling around yesterday, he never got in the game and was a big part of Utd being granted the freedom of the middle (resulting in both goals) not to mention the excellent and energitic display from Anderson....Palacios was off pace and maybe should have been rested.

Lennon got little joy off Neville on the left, but there was always a little hip knock from a utd player, they knocked us around and consistantly broke up the continuity of our play (good gamesmanship) There was also very little movement from our players which made it hard for our midfield to create anything much. (it must be said that Vidic was immense and made creating chances very hard)

In hindsight I wish we gave the likes of LEnnon, Defoe and Palacios a full night off, but hindsight is a wonderful thing.

I knew it would be a tough game, I hoped we would be more creative and control the ball a little better, but then it was really a flat game of few clear cut chances and won and lost on fine margins. They scored two freak long range efforts (allowed by slack pressing from us) which won them the game where as we missed (and were snuffed out) when presented with easier chances to take the lead or atleast get back into the game.

I am not overly bothered about crashing out at this stage, the Everton game on Sunday is far more important in my eyes. I don't really miss the Uefa cup at all to be honest so do not feel the need to have a safety net of european football from the Carling Cup. While another Wembley trip and silverwear would have been great, I would much rather concentrate on our league campagin this year....CL football is the real target, although I doubt our ability to make it this year progress in league performance is what it's all about for me currently (6th or better this year, push on to 4th in the next two years hopefully).. If we get Europa football from our league postion great, but its a by product of good league form for me rather than a target in itself.

 

[bubble07]

So who should've played on the left then????

Bentley, and have lennon torment that rookie left back. I thought before the game we should have played a few fringe players but if we played the same side as we did against villa and play bale left mid for the cup tied Kranjcar we would have won the game no problem

 

[gibbs131]

Everyone was saying how strong the selection was before KO.

 

[Hoowl]

I think the formation was fine. The issue I have is that we had some great crossers starting in Bale, Bentley (and to a lesser degree Lennon) but left Crouch on the bench. Then we played two short men up front but left out Huddlestone, the man who can find them with through balls.

However, I think the team we put out was still good enough to win the match. We dominated the first half but had very few good chances. Too many players underperformed, notably Hutton and Bentley down the right.

 

[14/04/91]

Bentley, and have lennon torment that rookie left back. I thought before the game we should have played a few fringe players but if we played the same side as we did against villa and play bale left mid for the cup tied Kranjcar we would have won the game no problem

But Lennon tormented 34 year old Gary Neville. We just didn't get the ball to him quickly or often enough.
Assou Ekotto was always going to be rested, by all accounts he's been carrying an injury hence why Bale was lb not lm.

I honestly don't think the selection or formation was the problem; the lack of application & desire (especially in the 2nd half) in the quarter finals against a virtual 2nd team was very worrying.

 

[14/04/91]

Everyone was saying how strong the selection was before KO.

Exactly! then hindsight kicks in....
That team of players should've won, end of story. We just didn't have the bollocks AGAIN. Maybe they thought it'd be easy, looked like it.

 

[PT]

I think that Redknapp got it spot on when he said the lack of atmosphere in the stadium killed the opportunity of a good red blooded game. If it were a league match with upwards of 75000 in there, you can rest assured the real Spurs would have turned up. There was no tackling like it was meant, poor decision making through lack of concentration and no fire in the belly last night, from either team.

 

[gooch]

it didnt make sense to play both lennon and bentley out of position when lennon could have played on the right and just bentley out of position.

is bentley the biggest waste ever? slows things down, always looking for the foul, couldnt cross, and wtf was that bicycle kick to no-one about?

big dissapointment last night. no courage and conviction from the players in a game that was there for us to take

 

[JJetset]

I think that Redknapp got it spot on when he said the lack of atmosphere in the stadium killed the opportunity of a good red blooded game. If it were a league match with upwards of 75000 in there, you can rest assured the real Spurs would have turned up. There was no tackling like it was meant, poor decision making through lack of concentration and no fire in the belly last night, from either team.

I can't remember many tackles at all ?? It was so half paced i had to put on x2 on my Fox IQ player to enjoy the game!

 

[14/04/91]

it didnt make sense to play both lennon and bentley out of position when lennon could have played on the right and just bentley out of position.

is bentley the biggest waste ever? slows things down, always looking for the foul, couldnt cross, and wtf was that bicycle kick to no-one about?

big dissapointment last night. no courage and conviction from the players in a game that was there for us to take

How was Bentley out of position!?

 

[sunnydelight786]

I think that Redknapp got it spot on when he said the lack of atmosphere in the stadium killed the opportunity of a good red blooded game. If it were a league match with upwards of 75000 in there, you can rest assured the real Spurs would have turned up. There was no tackling like it was meant, poor decision making through lack of concentration and no fire in the belly last night, from either team.

I disagree PT. The lack of home atmosphere should have been a encouragement to our team. It is not very often you go to OT in a cup game that is not a sell out and the home crowd VERY quite. The better teams take advatage of that and get the job done whereas our pampered fairies go into there shells. Nights/games like last night are exactly why we wont finish in the top 4. We just dont have the bottle, belief or mental strength to get results against the big teams or away from home on a consistent basis.

 

[gooch]

How was Bentley out of position!?

oops, got my wires crossed there! that's what bentley has done to me!

meant we should have played bentley out of position and not lennon. why have a weak left and a weak right when we could have just played bentley out left and let lennon play his natural game on the right because he is not as effective down the left

bentley pissed me off so much last night. a sainsbury's shopping trolley would have been more productive than him

 

[mendesstormer]

Bentley, and have lennon torment that rookie left back. I thought before the game we should have played a few fringe players but if we played the same side as we did against villa and play bale left mid for the cup tied Kranjcar we would have won the game no problem

Trouble with this is, that rookie left back played Lennon so much better than Neville did.