Robinson as a playmaker

[Berbati]

Robbo hoofs the ball to Berbatov who tries to flick it on Keane: that's too predictable and doesn't make Spurs look a quality side.

Spurs midfielders have some good qualities the main of which is to run a lot and/or fast. Leave aside that ability, which of course is an essential attribute of all quality midfielders, and Jenas, Zokora, Lennon and Malbranque would appear as limited players. The key is that they cannot hold up the ball and link up the play under pressure. When they are pressed, they either lose possession or pass the ball back to the defenders and Robbo. Thus Robbo becomes the playmaker of the team which is pathetic in itself.

Spurs have to sign at least two quality midfielders who can offer more when it comes to hold up the ball and link up the play under pressure. The Hudd is a good passer of the ball but he isn't good under pressure.

 

[MattyP]

Behave yourself.

We were poor last night, everyone knows that.

Let's get some perspective though. Blame the midfield that Robbo bypasses them by hoofing it long, blame the midfield for Woodgate doing the same thing.

We weren't the best team in the world because we won the Carling Cup, we're not the worst team in the world because we lost last night. Same goes for our midfield.

The object of your desire did not exactly have the greatest game either but no-one is suggesting we should flog him and go out and sign two decent strikers in his place.

 

[spurs4europe]

yes, but when your midfield is being dominated by an opposing 5 man midfield, i guess desperate times call for desperate measures.

i agree with you that he kicked long too often. even before we started getting urgent about our play, he started going short and his first long kick was so effective it seemed to go to his head and didn't go short thereafter.
i'd much rather he mixed it up a lot more.

oh and i don't have a problem with a slow build-up if we actually do something with it at the end. passing slowly between the back 4 is not what is required to pull and stretch the opposing team.

 

[Flatters]

I was impressed with Robbo's distribution again last night, especially when he perfectly picked out Keane, who controlled brilliantly, and managed to have a good effort on goal.

 

[Berbati]

Behave yourself.

We were poor last night, everyone knows that.

Let's get some perspective though. Blame the midfield that Robbo bypasses them by hoofing it long, blame the midfield for Woodgate doing the same thing.

We weren't the best team in the world because we won the Carling Cup, we're not the worst team in the world because we lost last night. Same goes for our midfield.

The object of your desire did not exactly have the greatest game either but no-one is suggesting we should flog him and go out and sign two decent strikers in his place.

MattyP, your post does not address any of my points. It's general, vague and answers points I didn't make.

If I was a great player I wouldn't come or stay at WHL because Spurs make 7-8 great games per season and the rest of the time are average or crap. If Spurs don't show consistently good performances till the end of the season, it would be very hard both to attract and keep great players at WHL. The whole positive effect of winning the CC may vanish which will be sad. Hopefully, Spurs will win in Holland.

 

[michaelden]

I hate Robbo's long ball kicks. Trot on to Bolton Robbo or sign for Big Sam.

We want football not longball.

And for all you who say he got it up to Keane for a great chance and missing the other 50 times it bounced off Berbs, Keane, and Lennon to go to the opposition.

Even Berbs stopped caring, cos when the ball went high he stepped back into the defender then fell forward hoping for a free kick.

 

[Michey]

I hate Robbo's long ball kicks. Trot on to Bolton Robbo or sign for Big Sam.

We want football not longball.

And for all you who say he got it up to Keane for a great chance and missing the other 50 times it bounced off Berbs, Keane, and Lennon to go to the opposition.

Even Berbs stopped caring, cos when the ball went high he stepped back into the defender then fell forward hoping for a free kick.

:clap: Great post!!

Should rep you but daddy told me to spread my love more.

 

[Berbati]

The next three games are massive. If Spurs win them, everything will be wonderful again. If they lose them...

 

[chrissivad]

I hate Robbo's long ball kicks. Trot on to Bolton Robbo or sign for Big Sam.

We want football not longball.

And for all you who say he got it up to Keane for a great chance and missing the other 50 times it bounced off Berbs, Keane, and Lennon to go to the opposition.

Even Berbs stopped caring, cos when the ball went high he stepped back into the defender then fell forward hoping for a free kick.

Should he take Woodgate with him? or is he exempted from the same thing?

Berbatov steps back into the defender about 90% of the time. He has given away 53 fouls in the permiership, more than any other of our players. These freekicks are not because he is trying to takle someone ether..

We did try and play the ball out from the back, or to go out wide at times, but it normaly ended up with us losing the ball or the ball went back to one of King, Woodgate or Robbo. With the midfeild pinned down by PSV we had very little option than to go long.

 

[themanwhofellasleep]

There was a moment near the end of the game when Robbo booted the ball long and it went straight to the other keeper. He passed it out to the PSV defence, and they came forward and had an effort on goal.

We have players who can pass the ball, so it seems crazy for Robbo to just boot it out ALL THE TIME. The occasional long ball is good and can catch out defenders (see the Keane chance) but when you do it non-stop for the last 15 minutes it's a bit pointless.

Still, I thought Robbo had a decent game overall. It's the first performance in ages where I can't blame him for any goals conceded.

 

[tRiKS]

i felt sorry for Berb and keane with all the throat high passes they had to receive all game. The full backs and midfeild did kind of force our hand somewhat though, as early on they showed little in the way of crisp desicive passing and movement. Robbo will get much of the blame for our tactics but it's worth remembering the outfield players had enough opportunity to change the way were were playing but either didn't try or tried but failed.

 

[SpurSince57]

So what else do you suggest to get the ball to the strikers? No, it's not what we want to see, but we don't want to see the strikers in good positions on the edge of the box crying out for the ball and the ball going sideways or backwards, either.

There is still something fundamentally wrong that has got to be addressed before we can move forward. We simply aren't causing the opposition problems down the flanks; how many decent crosses went in last night? We aren't playing quick balls forward from central midfield so the strikers can try and run blind side of the defence. We aren't taking good advantage of set plays (and their goal and Gilberto's yellow and the free-kick that came from it both resulted from abysmal free-kicks).

Basically, PSV sat back and played rope-a-dope whilst we fannied around trying to play the ball through the middle.

Until we sort this out expect more long punts.

 

[RickyVilla]

MattyP, your post does not address any of my points. It's general, vague and answers points I didn't make.

If I was a great player I wouldn't come or stay at WHL because Spurs make 7-8 great games per season and the rest of the time are average or crap. If Spurs don't show consistently good performances till the end of the season, it would be very hard both to attract and keep great players at WHL. The whole positive effect of winning the CC may vanish which will be sad. Hopefully, Spurs will win in Holland.

You wouldn't happen to be talking about Berbie there would you?:grin:.

 

[Evolution]

I thought his distrubution was immense last night. I hate seeing the long ball game and I think we employed it way too much last night. But he made some good/quick passes.

We tried a passing game early on but PSV flooded the midfield and choked it. We then resorted to long balls to berba and that was game over for us. There was a recent thread regarding creative midfielders....and last night was a case in point where one was badly needed. Although Jenas can open up a defense. his main asset is his high workrate (box to box player). Stick someone like Kaka in our midfield and I think we would have opened them up no problem last night without hamving to resort to hoofing loing balls to Berba.....

 

[Dougal]

Surely Robbo's long punts were orders directly from Ramos, otherwise he would have been told to cut it out?

 

[michaelden]

Should he take Woodgate with him? or is he exempted from the same thing?
Woody didn't do it all the time. Daws has even stopped hoofing it as much.

We did try and play the ball out from the back, or to go out wide at times, but it normaly ended up with us losing the ball or the ball went back to one of King, Woodgate or Robbo. With the midfeild pinned down by PSV we had very little option than to go long.

We never went wide Eek we congested the centre.

There is still something fundamentally wrong that has got to be addressed before we can move forward. We simply aren't causing the opposition problems down the flanks; how many decent crosses went in last night? We aren't playing quick balls forward from central midfield so the strikers can try and run blind side of the defence. We aren't taking good advantage of set plays (and their goal and Gilberto's yellow and the free-kick that came from it both resulted from abysmal free-kicks).

Agree totally

Basically, PSV sat back and played rope-a-dope whilst we fannied around trying to play the ball through the middle.

Until we sort this out expect more long punts.

god I hope not

I thought his distrubution was immense last night. I hate seeing the long ball game and I think we employed it way too much last night. But he made some good/quick passes.
He booted it straight up the middle most of the time. Atleast go to thw wings FFS Robbo!

We tried a passing game early on but PSV flooded the midfield and choked it. We then resorted to long balls to berba and that was game over for us. There was a recent thread regarding creative midfielders....and last night was a case in point where one was badly needed. Although Jenas can open up a defense. his main asset is his high workrate (box to box player). Stick someone like Kaka in our midfield and I think we would have opened them up no problem last night without hamving to resort to hoofing loing balls to Berba.....

I'd rather another box-2-box CM and leave the creativity on the wings

Surely Robbo's long punts were orders directly from Ramos, otherwise he would have been told to cut it out?

Not sure about this Doogs. He's so fucking proud of his kicks I'm sure he would kick even if told otherwise.

 

[Dougal]

Not sure about this Doogs. He's so fucking proud of his kicks I'm sure he would kick even if told otherwise.

Ramos has dropped him once, you really think he'd disobey his orders again so soon after getting his place back. I watched Ramos on the touchline while the kicks were going upfield. Arms folded, just watching, while everyone in the stands was going mental at them. Definitely a Ramos tactic. And if not, why did he not say something?

 

[michaelden]

meh... Ramos stands like that all the time. He only jiggles abit when we score.

 

[SpurSince57]

Would there have been much point booting it to the wings? If there had been someone there to receive it, yes, but Malbranque was playing narrower and narrower, and Lennon was coming inside far too much.

Two years ago people were complaining that our main offensive tactic seemed to be to land the ball on Mido's bonce for a knock-down to Keano and JD. People were also asking where were these fantastic headers we were supposed to see from Mido?

The answer, of course, was that there were no crosses coming in for Mido to attack. And the corners were pretty crap as a rule.

Are we actually that much further forward?

 

[Michey]

This stupid thread and topic wouldn't exist if we had a midfeild that could run the shit.