*** NEWCASTLE v SPURS *** Official Match Thread

[Legend10]

Yet his first two seasons saw us conceding fewer goals than we had in years, and this isn't the first bad spell he's had.

If there was a major tactical error tonight it was that we were over-cautious and maybe too respectful for much of the first half, with our full-backs, Chimbonda in particular, staying back, but one could argue that wasn't too bad a thing. Would we have been better-off playing a higher line? :shrug: I thought the main fault was that neither Jenas nor Zokora seemed inclined to get up in support of Keane and Bent. Nevertheless, we pretty much held our own until a long ball left Dawson badly exposed at a moment when everyone had pushed upfield, and he was found wanting. The 'inexperiece' excuse really is running out as far as Daws is concerned, because although you can't blame him for basic lack of pace, especially against someone as quick as Martins, he had the chance to hoof the ball into touch and blew it. OK. shit happens, but he then lost Cacapa for the second. Jenas bottled the third. These aren't tactical errors, they are individual fuck-ups, and the same fuck-ups have plagued us from the Sunderland game on.

We all have our bright ideas, and yes, at the end of the day the manager has to take the blame, but so do the players.

The first goal was a catalogue of errors, daws might well have looked the culprit and in the main he was but where the hell was his help? kaboul was 40 yards away in the LB position, Chimbo was nowhere to be seen and Daws starting position was too deep. If daws had been 10-15 yards up the pitch with Cerny on the edge of his box we have no problem, if the flight of the ball beats daws then it runs through to Cerny, simple as. This I'm afraid is an error in our defensive set up which is then exaggerated by Daws making an individual mistake.

We defended too deep all night and have defended too deep all season, our CM players are taking real flak but their task is near impossible as the ground they have to cover between defenceand attack is too much and all the teams components are isolated. This also makes Zokora actually as bad as he is a better option than the Hudd as there is no way he can cope with gap between defence and attack. This is also a mistake in our defensive and overall set up.

Our dfensive line is always like one great big W with sometimes 1 central defender 10-15 yards ahead of the other, for defending that is unforgiveable, central defenders play as a pair and need to be in touch with each other and when required rely on their FB's to cover round. I've rarely if ever seen a team of our stature and at this level be so dfensively disorganised.

Cacapa might well have lost daws for the 2nd goal but why o why when you are conceding a hatful of goals from corners do you not have a player on both posts? Also if you man 1 post it would nearly always be the front one as this represents most danger as the ball has less distance to travel. This is just yet another tactical error.

Going back to the gap between the defence and the midfiled this also prohibits your DM player from screening the back 4 properly.

We also defend the pitch too wide, that's schoolboy stuff, when you are defending you get your defenders in touch with each other and shuffle across as a unit covering the width of the penalty area, real basics yet we defend far wider, why?

Football is relatively simple, when you are attacking you make the pitch as big as possible and when you are defending you make the pitch as small as possible.

We do neither, I'm sorry but we are an absoloute shambles and Jol has to assume responsibility.

Over to Levy.

 

[ethanedwards]

Yet his first two seasons saw us conceding fewer goals than we had in years, and this isn't the first bad spell he's had.

If there was a major tactical error tonight it was that we were over-cautious and maybe too respectful for much of the first half, with our full-backs, Chimbonda in particular, staying back, but one could argue that wasn't too bad a thing. Would we have been better-off playing a higher line? :shrug: I thought the main fault was that neither Jenas nor Zokora seemed inclined to get up in support of Keane and Bent. Nevertheless, we pretty much held our own until a long ball left Dawson badly exposed at a moment when everyone had pushed upfield, and he was found wanting. The 'inexperiece' excuse really is running out as far as Daws is concerned, because although you can't blame him for basic lack of pace, especially against someone as quick as Martins, he had the chance to hoof the ball into touch and blew it. OK. shit happens, but he then lost Cacapa for the second. Jenas bottled the third. These aren't tactical errors, they are individual fuck-ups, and the same fuck-ups have plagued us from the Sunderland game on.

We all have our bright ideas, and yes, at the end of the day the manager has to take the blame, but so do the players.

Yes SS57 your the resident expert on stats. How many goals did we concede last season?
Bt of a pattern developing methiks

 

[SpurSince57]

I'll pass, on account of far too much pastis, except on one point:

'I've rarely if ever seen a team of our stature and at this level be so dfensively disorganised.'

I have, back in the 60s. And in the 70s and 80s.

Two years ago Jol was getting stick for being over-cautious and over-defensive. We weren't playing proper Spurs-style football. Devil and the deep-blue sea. Rock and a hard place. We live on that Nicholson-Blanchflower dictum that says winning in itself isn't important, it's how you win that counts. Take that to its logical conclusion, and where are you?

Why is Wenger such a great coach? Not because he's a geat tactician (he isn't), but because he turned over a 70-years-old culture of ballsachingly dull football. What we need is someone who can do the same—get us to walk and chew gum at the same time.

 

[Class1987]

No-one picking on Zokora yet ?

What was wrong with him? He was our best player last night unlike his central partner who was totally shit all night.

 

[Jack2]

Our performance yesterday was just awful except the 10-15 minutes during the 2nd half. I just have to ask how long do we have to watch this?

You can't blame just manager, sorry head coach, but at the end it is his job to solve, or try to solve, the problems, change tactics, motivate players etc. And on the pitch I haven't seen anything like that, not even now after the 2 weeks break. There was no sights of something new, we just continued to bang our heads to the wall. The same old just goes on, no matter what the results are. It seems that Jol is just waiting everything to turn to the right direction by itself, but it is not going to happen.

Something needs to be done. Should've been done already when the 2 weeks break started. You can't sack all the players, so you know what you need to do to change things, or perhaps better to say to try to change things. I really don't know who would be the replacement, but that of course is not my job to think it over and sort it out. I am waiting, Mr. Levy and the board.

 

[Doctor Who]

when Berbatov come we actualy start atacking but nobody see that , when he don`t play our team look like body without head and that we was that at the first half

 

[batigol]

The problem I have with Jol, and I suspect for most fans who think he can't bring us to the next level, is that he is a reactive coach. He doesn't do enough to change the game even if he senses that something is wrong with regards to the game we play. Yesterday was a perfect example. He got Berbs in only after we were 2-0 down. He put Lennon on after we were 3-1 down. Does it require a 2 goal deficit for him to be brave enough make decisions to change the obvious issues we had yesterday? On top of that, he doesn't ever changes the way he plays Spurs away and isn't daring enough to make that gamble.

Yes, the players should take the blame for such an insipid performance but remember that we have no leader on the pitch. It is said that Berbs has a slight knock but he played fine for me so why was he not on earlier when Bent was clearly struggling with every high ball hoofed up. Make no mistakes, we have thrown away even the one thing we can acclaim to in playing with style; all we do is hoof the ball like Wimbledon. Also, it was Jol's decision to put Tainio on for Bale instead of Lennon (an obviously defensive choice). Then when Lennon comes on, he throws him to the left again in seeming hope that one day Lennon may suddenly become the left-winger we hope for. Crap if you ask me. The players couldn't be bothered and we can only depend on Jol to motivate the players but claiming that Newcastle is envious of our record and that they are not in our league is not motivating at all. His prickly defensive stance and motormouth is getting to me. We need results and not this crap.

Jol is living on borrowed time (He has been since the Ramos saga) and he is fast reaching the point where I might even consider getting rid of him now at the expense of massive disruption to the squad. He had two great seasons but it is painfully obvious in this season especially that he is found lacking. He has done well but the priority is Spurs and letting go of him now maybe the only way to change things around before we sink into oblivion or championship for that matter.

 

[Conando]

Bring back Ossie?

We cannot defend, why are we trying to play defensively and cautiously, constantly inviting pressure on our embarrassing defensive line?

No offence to Newcastle, but they are a shite team, and for 70 minutes they were at a canter!

At least Ossie worked out that if you can't defend then you have to attack!