Ratings vs Norwich City

[Spurs_Bear]

Thought BG liked yesterday's performance?

He did. BC is just being a bellend. Apparently I'm lumped in with it too this evening.

 

[mpickard2087]

I have been a busy **** this weekend so I'm very late with my thoughts, but here they are...

It was a very enjoyable game to watch for 70 minutes (and the game only died out after that because of all the subs), for a team that was a bit of a bogey side for us Naaaaawridge were very negative and pretty woeful. Yes there will be far sterner tests and we shouldn't get carried away, but you have to give the team credit for the way it stamped its authority on the game from the start. We got about them, controlled possession and committed numbers forward, which isn't always the case. One passage of play saw Walker cross from one side and Rose get on the end of it at the back post. That's what I want to see, we can be adventurous as well as control the game.

As someone who has been a bit critical of our play and our lack of nous on the ball, I was delighted by Eriksen's contribution. He linked up play and we finally look to have someone who can orchestrate and set the tempo and directive. His assist for Sigurdsson's opener I really liked. May have looked simple but shows superb temperament, composure and decision making ability. 90% of players would have taken the shot themselves in that situation, rather than playing the unselfish pass to the team mate who has an even better opportunity.

With Eriksen always available as the hub, it allowed others to play off him, Soldado seemed more involved than any of his previous games and meant our play looked a lot more fluid and the man on the ball had options. Early days for him, but his impact on just one game was fantastic and I cant wait to see more. We still have Lamela to introduce as well to team up with him...

Eriksen showing for the ball and moving into channels to get it allowed Sigurdsson to concentrate on getting into the box as an additional goal scoring threat. I have criticised the guy more than anyone on here probably but the set up yesterday is the correct way to get the best out of him. You don't want him that involved in play, the creative pressure is taken off him by the likes of Eriksen so he can focus on what he is good at, getting in and around the box and popping up a decent goal tally. The first was a good finish to round off a nice passage of play, the second he showed good desire and intelligence to get in at the back post. He did well.

The two centre mids did have a very good game, albeit against a gruesome twosome that Norwich fielded. Dembele looked infinitely better and more spritely than for a long time. Paulinho is a tank and gets through so much work, still coming to terms with the PL (I have noticed his impact lessens around the 60 mins mark in games) but he can only go from strength to strength.

Most encouraging performance though was from Rose. There was the odd blip but he got forward all day, took his man on down the outside, played some intelligent, head up passes and in defence came up with two crucial blocks. Very good wing back performance. While this wont be the type of game he is judged on ultimately, I hope a performance like that gives him some breathing space and the doubters give him some time to show what he has got.

Ratings:

Lloris 5 - A spectator for most of the game, then started flapping towards the end and I was shitting myself he was going to get red carded. Not a good week for him. A blip though, I'm sure.

Walker 7 - Contributed to the cause.

Dawson/Vertonghen - Easy game.

Rose 8 - Very good game.

Paulinho 8 - Absolute tank. Set the platform.

Dembele 8 - See above.

Townsend 7 - He is trying to vary his options and get his head up, a couple of times he played some good through balls but Soldado wasn't quick enough. A few too many spectaculative shots but he doesn't have a lot of options a lot of the time I notice when he cuts inside. Players are moaning at him but they all make the same run for a very low percentage through ball that isn't really on. He is very direct and makes metres with the ball, which is a useful option to have. If he keeps working at it then he should be a handy squad player.

Sigurdsson 8 - As I said, this set up is what suits him best. Got the crucial goals.

Eriksen 8.5 - A good way to announce yourself.

Soldado 7 - Unlucky not to score. Signs that things are gelling and we can get him the service he needs.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

What does fast direct football mean exactly ?

Does fast and direct mean Eriksen should have shot instead of passing to Sigurdsson or Paulinho when we scored. It would have been faster and more direct ?

Every time I talk about possession you and him post the Brendon Rodgers gags, and the "we won the possession" jokes. BG has said previously he doesn't like the way Barca play for example.

I've argued many times, including with you and him last week was that it is building block that just needs more intelligent operatives to capitalise on it.

You cannot have performances like yesterday without those fundamentals being in place, but all you and BG seemed to see was "pointless possession".

What the actual fuck are you talking about squire?

 

[Damian99]

I have been a busy **** this weekend .

Ooooooooooh BCs type a guy

 

[Bus-Conductor]

He did. BC is just being a bellend. Apparently I'm lumped in with it too this evening.

What do you mean this evening ?

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Thought BG liked yesterday's performance?

He hasn't actually said, in this thread anyway.

 

[sloth]

I assume this is aimed at me as I haven't seen anyone else reference BG.

It's his aversion to possession football. He's told me he doesn't like it, he prefers teams to sit deep and break fast. We fundamentally disagree about how the game should be played. He usually ribs me when I say "we lost but we had more of the ball" as it being meaningless. But I have always countered that's it's a fundamental building block that just need intelligent operatives to guild it.

He also argued that AVB doesn't like "clever" player but prefers powerful ones. Which is wrong.

Sorry not you BC! I liked your little quip at the end, since then however there has been a few posts in here directed at BG and a whole thread dedicated to the same. For what it's worth I've been arguing with him too because I think his criticism is unfounded (football has not been dire, or a borefest), and over the top (we've lacked a bit of creativity but the former lack of goals from open play did not tell the story of chance after chance created!). I was just making the point that it would not be inconsistent for him to like this match and not like previous ones.

 

[sloth]

A brief comment on Townsend. He's raw, but his spirit is correct, I'll take him missing a few because I know he's got it in him to score them too and I'd prefer him to keep the ambition and mess it up sometimes than go down the inhibited Lennon route. Against teams like Norwich, when we're dominant, he does need to temper it a bit, but a goal or two from nothing this season (a la Bale), against obdurate opponents will be a very useful return.

 

[Mr Pink]

He hasn't actually said, in this thread anyway.

Ah right. Must of been in the where is BG thread...sure I read it somewhere

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Sorry not you BC! I liked your little quip at the end, since then however there has been a few posts in here directed at BG and a whole thread dedicated to the same. For what it's worth I've been arguing with him too because I think his criticism is unfounded (football has not been dire, or a borefest), and over the top (we've lacked a bit of creativity but the former lack of goals from open play did not tell the story of chance after chance created!). I was just making the point that it would not be inconsistent for him to like this match and not like previous ones.

Ah, fair enough, I actually think it would be slightly inconsistent, because for me, yesterday was a performance that was born out of the other performances this season, but with the wit (Eriksen) we have been saying would gild it.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Ah right. Must of been in the where is BG thread...sure I read it somewhere

I actually hadn't seen that thread.

 

[Gedson100]

A brief comment on Townsend. He's raw, but his spirit is correct, I'll take him missing a few because I know he's got it in him to score them too and I'd prefer him to keep the ambition and mess it up sometimes than go down the inhibited Lennon route. Against teams like Norwich, when we're dominant he does need to temper it a bit, but a goal or two from nothing this season (a la Bale), against obdurate opponents will be a very useful return.

I agree with this but surely he's keeping Lamela's seat warm?
He's done nothing to deserve being dropped, quite the opposite in fact but Lamela will surely start games soon.
Maybe one will have to go left to accommodate both, but then that's harsh on Chadli and Sigurdsson.
Fuck me we have some options!

Meanwhile, why was Eriksen not our first signing this summer then?
If Willian was a preferred option, he must be some player

Maybe we've ended up on the right side of a deal there

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I agree with this but surely he's keeping Lamela's seat warm?
He's done nothing to deserve being dropped, quite the opposite in fact but Lamela will surely start games soon.
Maybe one will have to go left to accommodate both, but then that's harsh on Chadli and Sigurdsson.
Fuck me we have some options!

Meanwhile, why was Eriksen not our first signing this summer then?

I think Willian was AVB's preferred choice.

 

[ShelfSide18]

A brief comment on Townsend. He's raw, but his spirit is correct, I'll take him missing a few because I know he's got it in him to score them too and I'd prefer him to keep the ambition and mess it up sometimes than go down the inhibited Lennon route. Against teams like Norwich, when we're dominant he does need to temper it a bit, but a goal or two from nothing this season (a la Bale), against obdurate opponents will be a very useful return.

Actually a good point regarding the ambition / inhibition factor, but I do think we need to stop taking so many pot shots at goal. Not just Andros, there was one that Paulinho had which was stupid in a very good potential situation. We often have seemingly amazing looking shot stats and hence 'chances created' stats, which really don't tell a very good story at all - you'll see guys doing stats analysis which I find interesting but it annoys me when they say 'XYZ had a good game creatively with 6 chances created' when in reality they were 5 yard passes which ended in a long shot.

Treat the ball like a golden bullet, pass it, probe with it, create a genuine chance...

 

[Gedson100]

I think Willian was AVB's preferred choice.

Yeah (see my edit) but that only came about late after the Anzhi meltdown.

Surely we were interested in a creative player prior to that?

It was said that Eriksen 'was ours if we wanted him', and it has long been suggested that Sherwood liked him. Now he's here you have to wonder why he wasn't here on July 1st.

I said ages ago, semi-joking that at £10m, with a year on his contract and with a massive potential upside Levy wouldn't be able to sleep if he let Eriksen go, and so it came to pass, he signed him.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Sorry not you BC! I liked your little quip at the end, since then however there has been a few posts in here directed at BG and a whole thread dedicated to the same. For what it's worth I've been arguing with him too because I think his criticism is unfounded (football has not been dire, or a borefest), and over the top (we've lacked a bit of creativity but the former lack of goals from open play did not tell the story of chance after chance created!). I was just making the point that it would not be inconsistent for him to like this match and not like previous ones.

Just to add, it wasn't just the wit of Eriksen. People like Dembele, Soldado, Sigurdsson and Paulinho all made better final third choices and execution of situations - this was the point made after Arsenal too. Our tactics got us into Arsenal's final third more than they got in ours, just that all our choices were much poorer. I appreciate some of that is to do with the opposition but much of it wasn't, it was just our people making poor choices.

 

[sim0n]

It wasn't deliberate.

not last man back either -- 2 defenders behind him at the time - not a clear goalscoring opportunity.... yellow only

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Yeah (see my edit) but that only came about late after the Anzhi meltdown.

Surely we were interested in a creative player prior to that?

It was said that Eriksen 'was ours if we wanted him', and it has long been suggested that Sherwood liked him. Now he's here you have to wonder why he wasn't here on July 1st.

I said ages ago, semi-joking that at £10m, with a year on his contract and with a massive potential upside Levy wouldn't be able to sleep if he let Eriksen go, and so it came to pass, he signed him.

I agree mate, he was top of my wish list all summer, check my donation pledges. I even said I'd be more pissed off at not getting Eriksen than losing Willian like we did.

I think maybe AVB wanted to switch predominantly to a 433, and Willian was a better fit (ALM) for that system ?

 

[danielneeds]

I agree mate, he was top of my wish list all summer, check my donation pledges. I even said I'd be more pissed off at not getting Eriksen than losing Willian like we did.

I think maybe AVB wanted to switch predominantly to a 433, and Willian was a better fit (ALM) for that system ?

I'm pretty sure a lot of teams demurred, perhaps us too, on Eriksen because of the fear that he may lack that yard of pace to be up there with the the best of the best, that put together with the fact he was only prepared to consider elite clubs.

 

[Gedson100]

I agree mate, he was top of my wish list all summer, check my donation pledges. I even said I'd be more pissed off at not getting Eriksen than losing Willian like we did.
I think maybe AVB wanted to switch predominantly to a 433, and Willian was a better fit (ALM) for that system ?

Having done a bit of memory refreshing, it's commonly assumed Bale wanted out from Hong Kong onwards (20somethingth July), 7th of August Anzhi started selling, so I suppose we had 10 days of thinking 'who will replace Bale?' followed by a few days of 'We'll take Willian' and then a quick 'Go on Eriksen then' salvo towards the end.

It really does support the idea that although we had players we were interested in, nothing was going to be done about it whilst Bale was staying. Then he was going and it was shopping time. I remain convinced Bale's greatest gift to our club will have been his departure.

[Anyway, 'Ratings thread' will stop going on now]