Well since Geez has lifted this from the game comments, I will post the reply I posted there here!

My main problem with Malbranque is his persistence in wandering over to the right. Why does he keep doing this? I don't know if this is a deliberate tactic by Jol to confuse the opposition by allowing both his wingers to wander, but while Lennon does at least return to his position when play is down that side, the left is too often left exposed. Time and again someone else was having to cover that side (often Berbatov). If he just stayed there, our shape would be so much better.

As for Lennon, it's interesting that Jol said that. I am just back from the game, and everyone kept questioning what exactly Lennon was doing and why he wasn't staying in position. I said to those around me that I felt the only explanation was that Jol was trying to prevent him being man-marked, and by allowing him to wander to the middle and the left, it would avoid this happening. So seems I was right. The only problem with this is that too often our shape was just all wrong, and with him and Malbranque both drifting around in this way, it a) makes our play too narrow, b) leaves the flanks exposed and c) pulls other players out of position too trying to cover the flanks, so in the end everyone is in the wrong place (their goal today was partly a result of this).

This may work against rubbish teams like Charlton, but not sure it will be very effective against good teams. We'll have to see how this tactic develops.

One thing I was pleased to see for once was Lennon actually making tackles and tracking back. For that reason I would vote him my MOTM because it just shows how much more you can achieve when you work hard. Much of our success today was down to his work.

A good result today and a good boost to our goal difference! Lets take this to Man City next week now.

Saw the match on TV, and was really happy seeing five goals, all the result - maybe not Tainio's - of clinical finishing, which we've been lacking this season - despite our strikeforce.

Berbatov - as has been mentioned - is a top class player. Look at the way he plays in Europe, with 4 goals, and more and more frequently also in the premiership. Lots of players - especially strikers - struggle alot with the pace and muscles when the first arrive in England. Just look at Tevez. But Dimitar has apart from the game last weekend been our best player the latest weeks; scoring goals, setting up others, beeing a constant threat to defenders. His got the touch, the wisdom and the finishing to be a legend at The Lane.

However, I also have some negative remarks. Today was maybe the home game where we produced the least chances, and our very poor opposition controlled the opening half hour of the game. And without the energic present of the heart of our midfield - Zokora - Huddle was off pace, Tainio invisible, and Malbranque/Lennon doing very little to close the opponents down. We could have been punished by a stronger team, and the ugly smell of last weekends display more than once appeared. A better team would have punished us, and I am still not convinced that Tainio and Huddle is a match made in heaven...

Of course, we were saved by an excellent controlled finish by our Bulgarian, and from that point we didn't look back. Malbranque IS getting there, Defoe is born to score goals, and arguably our two best players, Berbatov and Lennon, are more than a handful for any back four. With their movement and positioning they create spaces for the other players, and the sorry defenders can't figure out which one needs the most intense attention.

In the end, credit to our excellent attackers, and to Malbranque for his first goal for us (and what a goal it was). But there is still work to be done, and I must say that I can't wait to see Zokora and Jenas back - battling for the place next to the Hudd!

Of course it is. With Huddlestone playing deep chimbo and lee (or Ekootoo) can push up a bit and steed and lennon play fairly free in the midfield, with Teemu (in this case) palying a central role. Both are players who can play both sides, so it is useless to keep insisting they are posiional 'wingers.'

It worked stunningly well today against a very weak team. But Spurs have not played this formation in recent memory but it appear to be how Jol would like to move. It is enabked by the rather stunning development of Hudds, who has, in recent, looked several years his own senior. The fact that he can play in the center of defense and swith forward open up this kind of flexible formation.

I love it! We can wreak havoc on defensive marking like this. It is, however, a difficult formation to maintain. The team need to be on the same page as to whether the wingbacks should push forward or drop back, depending on the position of Huddlestone. But, so far so good..... we'll see how it works away from home.

The game today was typical Tottenham. Having said that, so are most of the reports I've read on here.

What I mean by that is, we were "great" for 45 minutes (before and after half-time) and "terrible" for the rest. The reason we're relatively successful right now is that it used to be "good" for 20 minutes (before and after half-time) and "worse than shite" for the other 70. We're improving under Jol - no doubt.

By and large Tottenham fans are regarded as being extremely fickle. I've never understood this. We want to win and we want to annihilate the opposition by constantly playing well and constantly being better than the opposition. We want 100% domination. That's not fickle - that's demanding.

But is this too much to ask for? I'm not too sure. Perfect is always an attainable goal but it's tough isn't it? Always wanting to better yourself and never settling for second best.

Before watching THFC vs Charlton I caught the second half of Man U vs Man C. In that half, Man C looked the better team whereas Man U had all the real chances. At times, a combination of good City play and bad Utd play meant that Utd looked a bad team. But they're not. They're top of the league and have won 10 out of 11.

The same applies with THFC today. In that first 30 minutes Charlton played a system that, as Jol freely admitted afterwards, was not the one he expected them to play. They hassled without the ball and look composed with it. They also attacked at every opportunity and didn't just come looking for a point (which I suspect Jol thought they'd do). Again, a combination of good and organised Charlton play plus sloppy Tottenham play made us look worse than we actually are.

Then, after we'd figured out what to do, we tore them apart time and time again. Yes, they had a few chances of their own near the end that most teams would have buried. But they're a Premiership team with some good players. We weren't playing unknowns !!!

2 defeats in 17 games is great going by anyone's standards. However, too many draws and THAT defeat against the Arse means that we can see the deficiencies very easily. But there are less now than there were last year. We've just not had the luck that we had last year (and we did have quite a bit) and we have, yet again, more new players trying to bed in to the system. I hope we buy two more players in January (CB and LM) but more importantly, two more who already know the Premiership and what it takes to do well here.

Man City away will be a tough test. We beat them 2-0 last year in the corresponding game but, if it wasn't for a mistake by Distin that let in Lennon to set up Mido, there wasn't much between the teams.

They played well on Saturday and I'm not sure if they've conceded any goals at home so far. It can only be a couple if they have. Any kind of result there would be a good one. If we did manage to sneak the 3 points, then that would be a great result.

And hopefully yet another step to "perfection".

Before that, Dinamo at the Lane. Or for this particular ex-pat - Dinamo on Romanian TV via the laptop.

COYS !!!

PS - I know this went a bit off tangent but heck, I love my THFC.

Of course, I meant expat. Not ex-pat....... :stupid:

cant believe we win 5-1 and there are still people complainin, the players know that there will be harder games and we will need to step our game up and if we didnt score in the first half then in the second we would have stepped up a couple of gears

Now that's really not so. The first half hour, we were playing very badly, mainly because our midfielders couldn't pass straight. Jol spotted a problem with the formation, told Lennon to come inside and immediately we started to take over the game. Within 5 minutes, we were ahead and a few minutes later we were 2 up. I call that good management.

But what I take issue with is notion that we played badly after we went 5-1 up. Rubbish. Jol knew the match was won and threw on a succession of substitutes to give the first choice players a rest - we have another game this week.

Despite Murphy, Mido and Stalteri playing pretty well, the team shape suffered and our attacking play started to cool down. But our defence held up excellently and our goalkeeper showed his class. We soaked up the pressure, pinged the ball around, refused to be knocked out of our stride and cantered to the end without conceding. Where's the problem? What do you want them to do when they're 4 goals ahead and there's 20 minutes left, go hell for leather and risk injuries? Of course not. 5-1 is ample "100% domination" for me. I don't see why we have to wear out our players, in the middle of a month with 9 matches, going for a 6th and 7th goal.

I'm not sure which matches you've been watching. What draws? Our last 17 matches have produced 12 wins, only 3 draws and 2 losses. It's true that some of those wins have been against lower division or European opposition, but extrapolating that record over a 38 match premiership season would give us 87 points. As I said: what draws?

I watched that game. We dealt very comfortably with Man City, especially in midfield, and were rarely in danger of losing. It was a very good away performance.

You don't like the word "fickle". I wonder why.

anyway next up dinamo bucharest would like to see similar team but am sure that MJ will bring in two or three

my startin lineup would be

robinson
chimbonda dawson davenport lee
ghaly zokora tainio malbranque
mido defoe

i would give a rest to the likes of lennon and berbatov because they have been our best players this season and have played nearly evry match they have benn available

king obviously has an injury and so would need a rest and huddlestone will now play instead of zokora in the league so give him a rest

ghaly would come in for lennon and mido come on for berbatov so that he can get back to match fitness and get some confidence and maybe a couple of goals as he hasnt looked good when he comes of the bench recently

DM - I don't have a problem with your critique of what I wrote. But I'm just not sure if I clarified what I'm thinking very well.

Point no. 1 - I'm very happy with 5-1. I got grief in the pub when watching the game because I shouted "We want 5" when the score was only 3-1. 5 minutes later when the score was 5-1 I wanted us to keep on going. I remember a few times when we've been caned 7-0 and 7-1 at Newcastle and I want us to do this to a team once in a while. The Arse have done it - Man U have done it and today was a very good chance for us to do it.

Also, our goal difference is still minus. It needs to be in the plus. We had 20 more minutes to score against an already demoralised team yet failed to take the opportunity. If we were thrashing teams 5-1 every week then I wouldn't care. But we're not. So I do.

Point no. 2 - I'm all for taking off Berbatov and Chimbonda when we did. They need their rest. But after that we took our foot of the gas and Charlton could/should have scored two more. For me, there's no excuse for that. And yes, I know Huddlestone had his chance to in the last 20 mins. But all that proves in my eyes is that we could've created more chances but just didn't want to.

Point no. 3 - Do I want them to risk injuries? Of course not. But as we saw with Ledley at Everton in April or Eto for Barca against Bremen, injuries can happen whenever and wherever. Playing softer doesn't guarantee no injuries.

Point no. 4 - I, like everybody else, loves the whole "2 defeats in 17 games" statistic. But really, when it comes to the Premier League, it's 2 defeats in what? 11? 6 wins, 3 draws, 2 defeats (or 21 points). Now, I like that situation a lot. I just choose not to wallow in victory. I immediately think about how THFC can get better. And to be honest, I think that's what most of us THFC fans do. Man Utd have won 10 out of 11. If they can, then so can we. If we don't believe it, then it'll never happen.

Point no. 5 - The Man City game last year WAS a very good performance. Did I say anywhere that it wasn't? All I said that it was a bad decision by someone else that gave us the impetus we needed to win that game. And I, personally, don't like that trait.

After the Arse game last week, I (and no doubt others) realised that if we won our next two home games (which we did) then we'd probably feel a lot more bullish about our chances (and we are).

All I know is that Tottenham are never as good as we think we are and also never as bad. But, as long as it keeps on getting better (which is what my first paragraph was saying), then we will be approaching that 100% line that I believe is possible.

I'd just like to develop a different attitude within the team. To make us more ruthless in games.

Oddly, after writing all of that, I don't think there's too many
differences between what we want for THFC. We just have different ways of doing it.

Anyway, I'm off to bed now.....

I think its an insult to huddlestone to say he is looking more and morelike carrick.... at 19 he is already doing things carrick didn't dare do till last january and still doesn't dare do. Hudd may be similar defensively and when passing from deep (though admittedly his execution isn't up to Carricks standard... YET) but going forward Hudd gives us so much more. He has so much more vision, even if the final execution isn't there yet... he ahs the bravery to try that difficult which carrick never had. Which is Why Hudd is more Glenn Hoddle and Carrick is more Ray Wilkins. For instance, can you imagine Carrick even now doing what Hudd did in the approach for our first goal today... carrying the ball half the length of the pitch before feinting to shoot and laying it off for Lennon (who himself played a great throughball to Berbatov). Huddlestone may have his similarities to Carrick, but he is far more adventurous and if he's like this at nineteen I think when he matures he will be a complete playmaker and ten times the player Carrick is!

DM's comments are just excellent!

Thanks David. I missed the game and you gave me a flavour of it.

I agree that we were not good in the opening sequence, and perhaps even right up to the first goal, and as David says we shouldn't get too carried away just because we finally bury our chances.
But saying that the opposition was "very poor" is not fair either. First of all there are NO very poor sides in the Premiership and secondly Charlton crowded the midfield very cleverly in a tactical manoeuvre that almost paid off. Jol responded as quickly as he could, changed the midfield setup, and the result was a rout in the end - albeit more down to some clinical finishing than a top drawer performance.

I kind of want to back up White Hart 4evers comments... I think the result was excellent and within it there are several enormously encouraging elements: Thudds ever increasing influence; Malbranque's goal; Berbatov's continuing class; Defoe's classic screamer; the concentration shown by the defence right until the last kick; Lennon's all-round contribution including tackles, passes as well as running with the ball. But...

Just as people shouldn't get carried away by every defeat nor should they get over excited over this victory. For a good proportion of this match we lacked fluency and for a while it was hard to see where the goal was going to come from. We created few clear-cut chances but were blessed with several moments of sheer class. It's reassuring to have the class confirmed but we still look like a top six team rather than a top three'er

Reading through the match day thread it made me laugh to see people tying themselves in knots as they see-sawed from gloom to confidence back to doubt and finally to exhaltation... some of the posters were worse than a woman on her period!!

The serious point in all this is persepective, if you're only ever going to react to what's right in front of your face then you're forever going to be startled by sudden and unexpected events.

So a few home-truths are in order, first the bad news:

We've still a fair way to go before we bridge the gap to becoming a regular top-four type team. We still lack that ruthless streak or the ability to keep to a high standard of performance throughout the majority of a match .

The good news is we've huge potential, we are a developing side and I believe we are best placed of all the teams outside the Champions League cartel to eventally get up there and stay there.

What we need though is patience, not uncritical patience, but criticism (Stuck-in-Poland) has to be based on who and where we are, not on who and where we think we are.

We played well at times yesterday as we have at home in general this season. I honestly think that our away form will improve because the quality of the opposition that we will face will not be as high as it has been thus far. How many teams will have got points from scum, pool, mancs, reading, bolton? Not many, it has just been the case that we have not had 1 easy away game this season, you may argue that there are never any easy away games but it is all relative isn't it. I would suggest that charlton, boro, west ham, sheff utd, among others, especially after xmas will yeild points either because the teams are poor or because they have little to play for.

I am not saying we have been that good away, because we have not, but we were not awful at mancs, pool, blackburn or watford we just did not take our chances. We need a win. when it comes more will follow and we will be back in the hunt for 4th.

There are so many little areas that are causing our problems, the way that chimbo interacts with lennon forcing him to retreat or come inside, the lack of cover in front of the left back, although steed does at least get tackles in, the ever changing midfield pairing, the lack of form of our forwards and berbatov's settling in period. These problems are gradually being solved and we will see our squad talent and depth taking us above pompey, wigan, reading and bolton and once again battling with pool and the nomads for 4th place. We also have the advantage that we will play man u, bolton, scum, reading and the pool at home.

My thoughts exactly as I read your post.

"This may work against rubbish teams like Charlton, but not sure it will be very effective against good teams. We'll have to see how this tactic develops"

Seems to me that whatever BMJ trys to do someone somewhere has to question his ability to play a formation and tactics that a effective for one match only?

It is obvious that we will play a different formation and tactics against Man Ure than Charlton. Only last week people on here were moaning at the way we set out against the scum, then still moan about yesterdays tactics and formation.

BMJ said after the game that he changed tactics alsmost straight away by bringing Lennon inside, to counter the five man midfield that Charlton set out. I suppose that unless Lennon plows a furrow up and down the right side some fans just will not be happy. With Lee, Chimbo covering both flanks well and Dawes and King pushing well up it freed up the Hud and also covered the area left by Lennon.

In my humble opinion BMJ got it spot on, though it appears that some of us would prefer a 1-0 win with Lennon in a straight jacket on the right side of town....:shrug:

There are no easy games in the Premier League (look at Watford away for an example of that). Consistency is the key. This was not a perfect performance yet we still win 5 -1, it says a lot about where this team is going.

If we can sort out league away form out then there is no reason why we cannot get that elusive 4th place finish.