*** SPURS v AALBORG *** Official Match Thread

[TheChosenOne]

I'm loving that Bale kid, so like Cyril Knowles from the past.

Quality

 

[SpurSince57]

Apart from the fact that opposition RMs/RWs aren't taking an unexpected seat in the lap of someone in the front row! :wink:

 

[snake1]

Great comeback and I'm very pleased we won, but we should be murdering shite like that IMO, we could have been dead and buried at half-time.

 

[SpurSince57]

Sorry, but that's a typically arrogant Spurs view. Shite they certainly weren't. Better than any of the sides we met in UEFA last season barring Sevilla, a good team, well-drilled, very comfortable on the ball and much better than the sum of their parts. No, we shouldn't have conceded two sloppy goals, but we shouldn't have conceded two sloppy goals against Sevilla.

Juande has exactly the same problem on his hands as Martin.

 

[N10toN17]

Very pleased with the result, a win's a win and hopefully coming back from two down will give the team a bit more confidence, they're still unbeaten under JR and that's great.

As for Juande, I think we can all thank him for the result tonight, because his changes at half time turned the game in our favour, he was brave and reacted positively by going 3 5 2, and then when we went into the lead switched back to 4 4 2, he also makes his substitutions early and definitely looks tactically astute.

Darren Bent deserves to start IMO, he runs the channels and makes himself available in a way our other forwards don't, I think he could do very well given a regular start.
The hudd and KPB came on and played pretty decent, as for Zokora, I'm not sure what to think. He was gash in the middle of the park in the first half and him and JJ in a 442 look poor to me, but as a makeshift CB, he looked better than Dawson!!!
I think Joey55 has commented in other threads that he'd be best suited to a 3 man centre midfield playing deep and I think that's probably his best position.

On a side note I thought Aalborgs support was very good and enjoyed them after the final whistle singing 2 nil and we fucked it up, fair play to them.

 

[eddiebailey]

Sorry, but that's a typically arrogant Spurs view. Shite they certainly weren't. Better than any of the sides we met in UEFA last season barring Sevilla, a good team, well-drilled, very comfortable on the ball and much better than the sum of their parts.

True, but to get things into perspective, there was not a single player in the Spurs 18 who on his own did not cost at least ten times more than the entire Aalborg team. In fact you could have bought the Aalborg team 160 times over just for the price we paid for Darren Bent.

 

[MattyP]

Great comeback and I'm very pleased we won, but we should be murdering shite like that IMO, we could have been dead and buried at half-time.

Have to agree with SS57 on this one. In the first half, AAB were as good as we were poor, their passing was crisp, the broke with pace and they were well worth their two goal lead.

Risky, or rather brave substitutions made by Ramos, changed formations and generally seemed to get things right, and in the end we were probably worth the win, could have easily had another goal or two.

I will for now reserve judgement on the Jol v Ramos debate. We were two down to Seville thanks to a couple of sloppy goals, managed to get it back to 2-2 and were a bit unlucky not to have won the game, if not the tie.

All I will say is so far so good, senor Ramos. I hope you keep this going.

 

[snake1]

Sorry, but that's a typically arrogant Spurs view. Shite they certainly weren't. Better than any of the sides we met in UEFA last season barring Sevilla, a good team, well-drilled, very comfortable on the ball and much better than the sum of their parts. No, we shouldn't have conceded two sloppy goals, but we shouldn't have conceded two sloppy goals against Sevilla.

Juande has exactly the same problem on his hands as Martin.

I agree, in fact, rather than abusing the team, that is what I was trying to say, albeit in a less than coherent manner. I wouldn't compare Aalborg with Sevilla (and I'm not saying you are) but IMO we should of been up and at them straight from the kick-off, but we didn't, we looked nervous and it showed immensly IMO. Aalborg, a very average Euro side, on the other hand came at us straight away and exposed us as seriously weak defenders and very nearly put us to sword.

Like I said very pleased with the result but not impresssed with the way we went about it.

 

[Black]

Whats was Lee like on the right ?

 

[SpurSince57]

True, but to get things into perspective, there was not a single player in the Spurs 18 who on his own did not cost at least ten times more than the entire Aalborg team. In fact you could have bought the Aalborg team 160 times over just for the price we paid for Darren Bent.

That's right, but it doesn't make them shite. Quite obviously, they weren't.

 

[MattyP]

Whats was Lee like on the right ?

Shit.

But then there were precious few who were not equally shit in the first half.

 

[snake1]

I thought Lee was pretty average, no wonder he plays as a left-back cos he's pretty useless at right-back, which is rather confusing considering he's right-footed.

 

[eddiebailey]

I will for now reserve judgement on the Jol v Ramos debate.

I do not think there is a Jol v Ramos debate. The debate is whether in replacing the manager the Board correctly identified the problem. As SS57 has said, Ramos is facing the same problems as Jol.

Under either manager we were only going turn things around by transfer activity. The difference is that wheras Jol perhaps just needed the missing peices in the jigsaw, under Ramos we are likely to be looking at a more fundamental restructuring. Ramos himself said in the pre-match interview that in order to play the football he wants to play he needs the right players. The question is will the Board let him sign them?

 

[eddiebailey]

That's right, but it doesn't make them shite. Quite obviously, they weren't.

I agree. In the first half they looked much the better team. Which is worrying.

 

[MattyP]

Oh, and if there was the opportunity to rep the opposition fans, AAB would be getting some rep from me.

Brought more fans with them than a lot of premiership teams do. Made a lot of noise, okay scoring in the second minute helped but they were still singing at 3-2 down. I for one would not be able to chant "You're shit and you know you are" or "Sing when you're winning" in Danish.

So credit to both the team and the fans. Hopefully they can somehow manage to win their last two games, get into the knockout stage and meet us up in Manchester in May.

 

[TheChosenOne]

I had a frightening thought that AFC,CFC,MUFC & LFC would rip the shit out of us if we played like that against them

 

[snake1]

Oh, and if there was the opportunity to rep the opposition fans, AAB would be getting some rep from me.

Brought more fans with them than a lot of premiership teams do. Made a lot of noise, okay scoring in the second minute helped but they were still singing at 3-2 down. I for one would not be able to chant "You're shit and you know you are" or "Sing when you're winning" in Danish.

So credit to both the team and the fans. Hopefully they can somehow manage to win their last two games, get into the knockout stage and meet us up in Manchester in May.

Fair play to 'em. I thought it was hilarious when thet started singing "You're shit, and you know you are..." Classic.:rofl:

 

[snake1]

I had a frightening thought that AFC,CFC,MUFC & LFC would rip the shit out of us if we played like that against them

Mt feeling exactly. If Aalborg can take liberties with us like they did in the first half, what will that lot do to us.Eek

 

[Juande_Ramos]

True, but to get things into perspective, there was not a single player in the Spurs 18 who on his own did not cost at least ten times more than the entire Aalborg team. In fact you could have bought the Aalborg team 160 times over just for the price we paid for Darren Bent.

Players cost sometimes means very little but how much money the buyers have. There some Brazilian or Argentinian teams that are way better than Spurs and didn't cost a fraction of the money to assemble.

This Aaborg team looked to me like a very decent outfit, well organised and technically good. On their first half perfomance I'd say that they would be fighting for a UEFA Cup spot in the Premiership easily.

 

[MattyP]

I do not think there is a Jol v Ramos debate. The debate is whether in replacing the manager the Board correctly identified the problem. As SS57 has said, Ramos is facing the same problems as Jol.

Under either manager we were only going turn things around by transfer activity. The difference is that wheras Jol perhaps just needed the missing peices in the jigsaw, under Ramos we are likely to be looking at a more fundamental restructuring. Ramos himself said in the pre-match interview that in order to play the football he wants to play he needs the right players. The question is will the Board let him sign them?

Maybe there'snot a full blown debate, but I've seen a few opinions on what would have happened tonight under Jol. Fair enough, thats people's opinions, all I'm saying is that I'd like to see how we perform against better teams than we've played in the last month before proclaiming Ramos as the latest messiah.

Given Juande's comments about the January transfer window, I think we will see just how good a manager/coach he is before the players that he wants become available in the summer. Who knows, by then he may have turned some of the existing squad into such players. Time will tell, I hope he does it.