stoke v spurs 11 12 2011 ratngs thread

[steve]

Funny, my Man Yoo supporting mate warned me about Foy today pre kick off...I shrugged it off in my usual 'we're fucking brilliant it won't matter' way but I wasn't prepared for that level of swayed by the crowd ineptness...

Apart from the obvious fuck ups, what about the 2 corners?!! Bale was 3 miles away from the ball and Woodgate couldn't believe he's been fouled against for the other with Ade - unbelievable and he needs kicking out of the Prem...

ps Parker let Etherington go for their 2nd...

 

[jamesc0le]

ade's sit down protest was classic though..

 

[steve]

yes excellent...Foy should be outed not 'cos it's Spurs but 'cos he's shit though...to high stakes to be that pony...

 

[stevenqoz]

Friedal 6
BAE 6
Gallas 6.5
Kaboul 6
Walker 6.5
Lennon 5.5
Modric 8
Parker 7.5
VDV 5
Bale7.5
Ade 7
Defoe 6
Bassong 7

 

[agrdavidsfan]

Freidel 6 - personally don't like the stand on the line type of goalkeepers I prefer the more Gomes keepers that think if they can get the ball they come for it! Few decent saves bit overall would have preferred heurehlo in goals today as he's been terrific everytime we've played stoke Freidel invites pressure when he's standing I'm his line.

Walker 7 - played well in his real first rough and ready test maybe needs to learn how to mark a bit better but he done alright

Kaboul 6 - ball watching for the first goal and silly choice to try and nick the ball for his 2nd yellow!

Gallas 5 - awful for the first goal god damn awful! We should have known tho when arsenal played stoke he was always all over the shop he doesn't like the good old physical games

Ekotto 5 - shocking at times Superb at others gave away way to many throwings for my liking though would rather keep it in play vs stone and nullify their main threat

Lennon 6 - looked bright and only played who looked up for first half should have tracked etherington for both goals tho or at least the first one

Modric 7 - rubbish first 30 mins sublime for the last 60 great too see his passion to win

Parker 5 - thought he was dreadful first half decent second half but overall he needs a rest as that was his worst game for us

Bale 2 first half! 7 second showed great passion and spirit to try and get us back In it

VDV 2 - was shocking sadly his worst game in a spurs shirt but hey everyone has an off day stoke were so deep he had no space to play nullifying his effect

Adebayor 6 - alright not great but ok! Arguably could have had a hat trick but the first half he was shambolic! Couldn't control the ball or do anything with it!

Bassong 7 - brilliant nice too see him prove he is a good player arguably as good as Cahill

Defoe 6 - tried hard but was ineffective loved him chasing back in the last few mins showed the desire of the man

Gds - didn't touch it

Harry 9/10 brilliant choice at half time to change it for a bit more luck we would have walked away with three points sadly his first half team talk or tactics were shite

Chris foy - well I hope he dies

Stoke - we knew how they play we should have dealt with it but fuck me are they awful to watch disgusting hurts my eyes watching them! They actually annoy me spend 30+ mil on players then still proceed to play that way! Horrible team but effective!

Crouch - how the fuck didn't we know how to stop him? It's so easy!

 

[phil]

assulting a referee = lifelong ban. So... good job he didnt.

Di Canio got an 11 match ban for assaulting ref, but that was in 1998.

 

[The Apprentice]

Bassong was fantastic when he came on.

Parker and VdV were way below standards.

Defoe was invisible.

Foy was Foy. I've seen displays like that from him loads of times.

Stoke are a horrible, horrible team. imagine having to watch that bollocks. what is the ruling with throwins? Surely you're not allowed to take as long as you would for a free kick or corner? They were taking like 30 seconds for every throw in. The anti-football.

 

[Gilzeanking]

Ah a couple of things on this page .

First the mention of the Stoke crowd . Now lifes not great when you live in Stoke...thats why they foam at the mouth en mass if a throw in decision etc goes against them , the wankers even attempted to whistle all the time we were in possession...with a 70-30 stat in our favour they didn't have the puff .

However , they literally wore down the ref , turned him their way ,intimidated him ,forced their presence into his decision making . We don't do this . Stoke crowd (bunch of twats) 10 .

Secondly as mentioned here , Ade was truly hopeless first half . Couldn't pass even 2 yards successfully ( is his form continuing to slip ?). I was also under the impression that the flick on for the 1st goal was by a man theoretically marked by Ade . Noone else mentions this so mebbe I'm wrong , but he wasn't near anyone . Ade 5

VdV , no matter what stat gets mentioned had little effect 4.5

Mods , truly outstanding performance one of his best which is saying a lot 9 .

Overall we were pretty good and worked hard to get something from this . Good ideas at half time from Harry too . Bad luck lads .

 

[yido_number1]

Modric was very good but was a great tactical change by Redknap at half time.. Modric looked like a world beater yesterday...

 

[camaj]

you really are a cock of the highest order. how the hell you have lasted on this site with near to 3500 posts is beyond belief. You are a joke. an absolute moron.

Anyone you disagree with is a cock of the highest order? :evil:

It was a blatent dive, lets not kid ourselves. It's amazing that we didn't get the decisions that we deserve but we got the only one we didn't. At least it made up for the ones we didn't get.

Initially I thought it was a penalty but on the replay you could see there was no contact, not even the get out of jail kind. I'm not saying we shouldn't be happy, most of the time we don't get justice so even things like that don't even the score but being dishonest does no one any favours and calling people names because they're willing to be honest is just disgraceful

 

[ShelfSide18]

Anyone you disagree with is a cock of the highest order? :evil:

It was a blatent dive, lets not kid ourselves. It's amazing that we didn't get the decisions that we deserve but we got the only one we didn't. At least it made up for the ones we didn't get.

Initially I thought it was a penalty but on the replay you could see there was no contact, not even the get out of jail kind. I'm not saying we shouldn't be happy, most of the time we don't get justice so even things like that don't even the score but being dishonest does no one any favours and calling people names because they're willing to be honest is just disgraceful

Watch it again, he kicks Modric's shin. It's a nailed on penalty, the Stoke players reaction said it all, he knew he'd been done.

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

Watch it again, he kicks Modric's shin. It's a nailed on penalty, the Stoke players reaction said it all, he knew he'd been done.

It was a great bit of skill, it was a clumsy challenge, having watched it again there may have been slight contact but he could have stayed on his feet. He really did make a lot of it. It was a penalty because there was contact and it was clumsy, but the fall was theatrical to say the least.

 

[Mr Pink]

It was a great bit of skill, it was a clumsy challenge, having watched it again there may have been slight contact but he could have stayed on his feet. He really did make a lot of it. It was a penalty because there was contact and it was clumsy, but the fall was theatrical to say the least.

There has been a lot worse that Modric's fall - obviously. Its just a pen all day long for me and the fact there is clear and blatant contact renders the former irrelevant (his fall)

 

[garyhopkins]

Friedel:6
BAE:5.5
Kaboul:7
Gallas:6
Walker:6.5
Lennon:6
Modric:7.5
Parker:6
Bale:7
VDV:5
Adebayor:6.5
subs
Defoe:5
Bassong:6.5
__________________

 

[stemark44]

Watch it again, he kicks Modric's shin. It's a nailed on penalty, the Stoke players reaction said it all, he knew he'd been done.

Yeah,it was a stonewall penalty.

 

[StartingPrice]

Anyone you disagree with is a cock of the highest order? :evil:

It was a blatent dive, lets not kid ourselves. It's amazing that we didn't get the decisions that we deserve but we got the only one we didn't. At least it made up for the ones we didn't get.

Initially I thought it was a penalty but on the replay you could see there was no contact, not even the get out of jail kind. I'm not saying we shouldn't be happy, most of the time we don't get justice so even things like that don't even the score but being dishonest does no one any favours and calling people names because they're willing to be honest is just disgraceful

It was not a blatant dive...and I am not bloody kidding myself.

Modric is toe-punted in the shin as he brings the opposite shin forward. he standing leg pushes backwards slightly in reaction to being toe-punted (you can even see a spurt of mud from the pressure as he does this). This causes his moving leg to try to compensate, and you can visibly see his ankle jarring slightly. This throws the whole stride of the now moving leg, which has just been toe-punted.

He could, maybe, have stayed on his feet - that that would, certainly have resulted in several irregular, jarring steps, probably veering to the left (the type were you see players get injuries when no-one is near them:bang, and he would have lost control of the ball - a penalty would have been justified.

Or, alternatively, he could have went down, and perfectly justified in doing so (especially in avoidance of injury).

Did he do it theatrically - yes. No-one has denied that.
But you are not being more honest in claiming he dived and it wasn't a penalty - you are being wwrong.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Ok, so finally got back and watched the whole 90 minutes. My belated thoughts are these:

The start of this game was reminiscent to others like West Brom. We have to set up differently away from home, win the battle first, then, if necessary adjust the side offensively as the game goes on. We have been fortunate in a handful of games this season in that this line up and tactics haven't been punished, our fortune was always going to run out at some time. This four man midfield with no pressure on the ball from wide, and little from Modric, gives home teams impetus and though teams like Arsenal and Fulham didn't manage to fully capitalise, both West Brom and Stoke did.

Once we are in possession, or teams are sitting back, Modric is great, but for the first twenty minutes on Sunday when we were under pressure he went awol, and worse, started giving the ball away as well.

Once again both goals came from our left side where for the first Bale, Modric & Ekotto managed to collectively stand off everyone and then the second goal starts with Lennon (now switched to the left) not tracking his man and Ekotto not getting in a decent challenge forcing Gallas to make a last ditch tackle (which ends in the throw they score from). Forget the high tempo, high up the pitch pressing, just fucking being diligent and pressing and tracking the man near you should be mandatory. This four man midfield of Lennon, Bale and Modric is not good under pressure.

The tactical changes made at half time were good in concept, but on reflection the reality was that it was poor tactics - tactics we have seen over and over - that got us in trouble in the first place, and if we are being brutally honest, we had already established some control of the game in the latter part of the first half. Clearly once two up, Stoke were never going to be more than an eleven man defence anyway. I understand the theory applied though, it made sense, and I applaud it, and if we had a better option than the inadequate Defoe it might have been even better. But actually, despite the diabolical performance by both Ref and Linesman, the sad fact is we still didn't exactly create a plethora of chances. We certainly had enough of the game and created enough to deserve more than we got, but we lost this game in the first twenty minutes.

I am bewildered by the criticism of VDV, who actually played 4 of the best 5 passes in the whole game, the only ones that put players either behind the defence, or into goalscoring opportunities. He also saw more ball than anyone on the pitch bar Modric. 57 passes and Ekotto, Adebayor and Parker all played behind the defence in that game was probably more noteworthy than anyone else's overall contribution.

Adebayor by contrast was as poor as he has been in a spurs shirt and largely ineffective. Yes he was unlucky to have a perfectly good goal disallowed, but apart from that his overall play was less than we have come to expect. Modric was good from about the 25th minute. Bale worked hard offensively but his end product was a bit disappointing really.

I'm pretty sure Gomes would have dealt with both those balls as well. Friedel stood routed to his line.

Foy was atrocious, but the worst decision was the linesman's. How you give that offside is a mystery. And apart from the flash major decisions, equally annoying were some of the others. Not even a free kick when their CB slides through Adebayor late on, or when Woodgate takes out Parker, yet Kaboul is booked for an innocuous challenge, probably his first foul in the game.

Ratings:

Freidel 6 - these are the sort of games where you need your keeper to be pro-active. Gomes was outstanding at Stoke the last couple of years.

Walker 6 - OK

Kaboul 7 - Was having a good game until the sending off.

Gallas 7 - good game

Bassong 7 - good half

Ekotto 6 - certainly not his greatest 45, but he was not helped at times by those in front of him.

Lennon 4 - Didn't contribute much positively, was sloppy for the second goal, and I wish he wouldn't keep giving the ball away trying stupid first time "flicks" and just put his fucking foot on it and help us retain possession.

Modric 7 - Poor first half hour, decent last hour.

Parker 7 - competent.

Bale 6.5 - He is at least seeing more ball in games this season, playing a more active part (38/56 passes) but his end product and defending were not great ultimately.

VDV 7 - Tried to play his game. Saw as much ball as Bale, Lennon and Defoe together and played a couple of the game's best passes. At half time he was also the player who'd covered the most ground in a spurs shirt (the first five places were occupied by Stoke payers) It wasn't his best game, but he was ok.

Adebayor 6 - Very limited contribution. Really needed more hustle from him on a tough day

Defoe - 4 - Apart from towards the end when he chased back and made a challenge on our "D" I can't think of a single meaningful contribution he made.

 

[StartingPrice]

BC, do you have a stat to show Chris Foy's error ratio :shrug:

 

[Bus-Conductor]

BC, do you have a stat to show Chris Foy's error ratio :shrug:

He had a bad day, but we have to be honest and say that we were already two goals down before he really statred to work his incompetence magic. We've had the rub in a couple of games from refs too. Fulham & Bolton for example.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

He had a bad day, but we have to be honest and say that we were already two goals down before he really statred to work his incompetence magic. We've had the rub in a couple of games from refs too. Fulham & Bolton for example.

If he hadn't missed Crouch's handball then we wouldn't have been two down though.