Gedson100
Well-Known Member
- Feb 13, 2012
- 4,487
- 14,648
They ran around a bit
It's been suggested in the past that rather than a well-oiled machine, behind the scenes at Spurs is more of an amateur hour operation & this week has given plenty of credence to such suggestions.
I maintain Andre walked, because even Levy, despite his faults, is not stupid enough to have created such a shambles of a situation for the club. Mere months ago a shiny training ground, handsome coach and a who's who of who will be great in World Football rolling up at the Lane promised great things.
Sure the cracks were being papered over and the coherence wasn't there; Andre was an island & without him or maybe because of him there is now a void at the club.
A void that Tim Sherwood has manfully thrown himself into.
Today's game is tricky to analyse. To so utterly reject Andre's key tenets of patience, caution and resilience, for all that they were in short supply in recent weeks, was a clear statement. Whether or not this was a product of strategy or daring I can't decide. Make no mistake: this Spurs team wasn't the first team, injuries and suspensions saw fit to stop that, but even so it may well have been a trial; for those players with less than certain futures to state whether or not they merited further consideration or the exit door.
Because we have so little understanding of the nature of who signs our players, and how seriously we took this game, we have no real idea what value was put into it.
Defoe, reported to be sold, starts. Ade; forgiven or shop window? Sigurdsson, shoehorned into central midfield? Eriksen, thought to be a Sherwood signing, rested. Soldado, barely a week on from a hat-trick, rested or dropped. The League Cup with the possibility of facing both Manchester clubs to win the competition? an inconvenience or a treat?
That we then sacrifice our formation and roll up in the classic Harry 4-4-2 is odd. The interim coaches don't use this formation at youth level, why start now?
So to the match:
Initially some things were clear; our pace had doubled, and players were playing with complete freedom. At times it resembled the classic playground-style of football we all grew up with. Why is Danny Rose cutting onto his right foot and shooting? What is Ade doing tackling back in his own half?
In truth, the match was an entertaining spectacle, at least for a non-caring neutral.
So much of what went on there for 75 minutes resembled what the AVB detractors wanted and it nearly paid dividends. For Adebayor to sprint, yes, sprint into the box to finish gleefully, take the plaudits and win the match was poetic justice for the big African, and the headlines were written.
'Job well done. What crisis?'
And then, as used to happen under Redknapp, we ran out of puff. We stopped being fluid, speedy and entertaining and we became abject, desperate and poor. We hadn't scored enough goals in the good bit and we lost. Villas Boas might have taken the game through 120 minutes without goals, but he sure-as-shit wouldn't have lost it in that manner, league result or no league result.
So did we get our Tottenham back?
Well, yeah, in a way. But not the Tottenham that I really want.
It felt like watching an undercoached team of children giving their all but refining nothing in what they did. It looked like stupid football. It looked like we no longer had intelligence in our play, and unless, as I suggested, the match was some kind of elaborate trial for the weekend, it was ultimately not what I ever want to see from Tottenham ever again. They all got tired... it all turned to shit. Nice one Arry.
Paulinho, Lamela, Soldado, Holtby, Sandro were uninvolved tonight and when you consider the first three alone cost about £75m in transfer fees, you expect Dan's man, Tim, to start playing those he can ASAP.
Sunday can't come soon enough and will be a big test, another test being my patience if the concept of 4-4-2 or Defoe are the core we're building around.
Townsend's absence is a shame but it forces the hand and teams involving Lamela and Eriksen are what we dearly need to be seeing, and fast.
I pray for a more organised set up at the weekend with better personnel, after all, if not, Sherwood isn't just wasting his own time, he's wasting all of ours.
Yet despite it all that was unlucky! LO-fucking-L!
Positives?
Sigurdsson in central midfield is well, odd, but the idea that players aren't so rigidly wedded to their positions as Andre had them has mileage. Just don't put Sigurdsson in central midfield.
Ratings:
Lloris 7
Walker 5 At fault
Chiriches 6 At fault
Capoue 5 not a CB
Rose 7 tenacious
Lennon 6 Lack of end product
Townsend 6 Lack of nous
Dembele 6
Sigurdsson 5 New position?
Adebayor 8
Defoe 5
Sherwood: Either he's kidded us all or that really was his best idea.
It's been suggested in the past that rather than a well-oiled machine, behind the scenes at Spurs is more of an amateur hour operation & this week has given plenty of credence to such suggestions.
I maintain Andre walked, because even Levy, despite his faults, is not stupid enough to have created such a shambles of a situation for the club. Mere months ago a shiny training ground, handsome coach and a who's who of who will be great in World Football rolling up at the Lane promised great things.
Sure the cracks were being papered over and the coherence wasn't there; Andre was an island & without him or maybe because of him there is now a void at the club.
A void that Tim Sherwood has manfully thrown himself into.
Today's game is tricky to analyse. To so utterly reject Andre's key tenets of patience, caution and resilience, for all that they were in short supply in recent weeks, was a clear statement. Whether or not this was a product of strategy or daring I can't decide. Make no mistake: this Spurs team wasn't the first team, injuries and suspensions saw fit to stop that, but even so it may well have been a trial; for those players with less than certain futures to state whether or not they merited further consideration or the exit door.
Because we have so little understanding of the nature of who signs our players, and how seriously we took this game, we have no real idea what value was put into it.
Defoe, reported to be sold, starts. Ade; forgiven or shop window? Sigurdsson, shoehorned into central midfield? Eriksen, thought to be a Sherwood signing, rested. Soldado, barely a week on from a hat-trick, rested or dropped. The League Cup with the possibility of facing both Manchester clubs to win the competition? an inconvenience or a treat?
That we then sacrifice our formation and roll up in the classic Harry 4-4-2 is odd. The interim coaches don't use this formation at youth level, why start now?
So to the match:
Initially some things were clear; our pace had doubled, and players were playing with complete freedom. At times it resembled the classic playground-style of football we all grew up with. Why is Danny Rose cutting onto his right foot and shooting? What is Ade doing tackling back in his own half?
In truth, the match was an entertaining spectacle, at least for a non-caring neutral.
So much of what went on there for 75 minutes resembled what the AVB detractors wanted and it nearly paid dividends. For Adebayor to sprint, yes, sprint into the box to finish gleefully, take the plaudits and win the match was poetic justice for the big African, and the headlines were written.
'Job well done. What crisis?'
And then, as used to happen under Redknapp, we ran out of puff. We stopped being fluid, speedy and entertaining and we became abject, desperate and poor. We hadn't scored enough goals in the good bit and we lost. Villas Boas might have taken the game through 120 minutes without goals, but he sure-as-shit wouldn't have lost it in that manner, league result or no league result.
So did we get our Tottenham back?
Well, yeah, in a way. But not the Tottenham that I really want.
It felt like watching an undercoached team of children giving their all but refining nothing in what they did. It looked like stupid football. It looked like we no longer had intelligence in our play, and unless, as I suggested, the match was some kind of elaborate trial for the weekend, it was ultimately not what I ever want to see from Tottenham ever again. They all got tired... it all turned to shit. Nice one Arry.
Paulinho, Lamela, Soldado, Holtby, Sandro were uninvolved tonight and when you consider the first three alone cost about £75m in transfer fees, you expect Dan's man, Tim, to start playing those he can ASAP.
Sunday can't come soon enough and will be a big test, another test being my patience if the concept of 4-4-2 or Defoe are the core we're building around.
Townsend's absence is a shame but it forces the hand and teams involving Lamela and Eriksen are what we dearly need to be seeing, and fast.
I pray for a more organised set up at the weekend with better personnel, after all, if not, Sherwood isn't just wasting his own time, he's wasting all of ours.
Yet despite it all that was unlucky! LO-fucking-L!
Positives?
Sigurdsson in central midfield is well, odd, but the idea that players aren't so rigidly wedded to their positions as Andre had them has mileage. Just don't put Sigurdsson in central midfield.
Ratings:
Lloris 7
Walker 5 At fault
Chiriches 6 At fault
Capoue 5 not a CB
Rose 7 tenacious
Lennon 6 Lack of end product
Townsend 6 Lack of nous
Dembele 6
Sigurdsson 5 New position?
Adebayor 8
Defoe 5
Sherwood: Either he's kidded us all or that really was his best idea.
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