Tottenham vs Villa: Match Thread

[walworthyid]

We created as much without hime. Our strikers bottle it against higher leage opp. And Modric needs to work on his weak shooting.

yawnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnnn!:stupid:

 

[Kendall]

Modric's shooting is pretty shit on the whole.

Getting sick of these games at home where we create bundles and bottle the finishing.

 

[brett.spurs]

Should've brought Gio on.

 

[ShelfSide18]

Well after loaning out our good movement to Celtic, and leaving our newly acquired good movement on the bench all game, surprise surprise... we lacked movement. We lacked the intelligent movement to enable us to go through Villa and create good chances opting instead for the ball out wide and putting the ball in the box as much as we could hoping for something to drop for us - sometimes it works but once more it didn't.

Our defence was excellent, as ever, King once again defying science to play a perfect game. Our midfield was very good I thought, but when we got into the final third we had nothing to play with as Defoe and Crouch just aren't blessed with good, intelligent movement but Redknapp refused to react to this and kept faith in our put the ball in the box philososphy rather than go through the defence. Villa defended excellently, and snuffed out Defoe's predatory instincts even though Crouchy was doing what he does best - creating havoc, working hard and flicking the ball on and laying it off. We needed a Gudjohnsen/Keane to work in the gaps and help Modric/Hudd/Palacios/Bentley find a killer pass because as much as I love Crouchy, that's not his game, and as much as Defoe is a lethal predator it's not his game either. The amount of times Modders worked an angle, or found some space he was starved of any intelligent thinking ahead of him and it is becoming an all too regular sight at the moment. The only time we actually worked a really nice move together recently to split a defence open was Pavs goal against Leeds, and if he can actually motivate himself to play for us I am all for him to be given more of a chance in the coming weeks.

 

[Flatters]

Should've brought Gio on.

I wonder why we didn't.

 

[spurs_viola]

90 minutes of hoiking it up to Crouchy over, and over, and over, and over again...

Spurs got some chances off the second ball, but never a hint of plan B keeping it on the ground. Might have liked to see Kranjcar on for Bentley as he looked a bit more pedestrian against Villa. Dunne even out paced him in the corner for that 50-50 ball towards the end. 2 points dropped -- Spurs really should've won today with just a little variation in attack.
:bang::bang::bang::bang:

Agree with these points - although of course it wasn't the full 90 minutes, it seemed like the main attacking tactics again. And again it failed against a well organised, determined team.

Bentley was quite anonymous. It is not the same as playing against toothless Fulham with their first choice full backs missing or against one of the slowest RBs at Leeds. His lack of pace lead to many moves slowing down and ending with the predictable hopeful long crosses into the area which Villa defenders promptly negated. Although he did put 2-3 good (and one very good) crosses in.

Against better teams Bentley is not the answer.

 

[3Dnata]

I experienced streaming issues and had to listen to the 2nd half on the radio.
They said the Defoe thing was not a pen, seeing it om MOTD it clearly was.
We're a good side for refs to give these sort of decisions against I don't know whether Harry should really go into one about it, I don't know what the answer is but after Defoe against Liverpool and the non-pen today it's becoming a very serious problem and it is showing no sign of evening itself out of the season which is the normal gash excuse for this.

 

[Sputic]

Watched the game with a Villa fan. Nice guy. I kept making jokes before kick off and for the first ten minutes about Wenger's comments re. them playing long ball. After which I shut up on that subject til ten minutes to go when I told him, 'If anyone plays long ball, it's us.' And I wasn't wrong. Jesus, they may have been more defensive, but they were away from home, so at least they have an excuse. We played long ball, after long ball, after long ball. It didn't work, but even if it did, would it be worth it?

It was like under Graham, they have the Spurs shirts on, but they're not playing like Spurs.

I feel thoroughly disillusioned.

 

[richardyoon]

Agree with these points - although of course it wasn't the full 90 minutes, it seemed like the main attacking tactics again. And again it failed against a well organised, determined team.

Bentley was quite anonymous. It is not the same as playing against tootless Fulham with their first choice full backs missing or against one of the slowest RBs at Leeds. His lack of pace lead to many moves slowing down and ending with the predictable hopeful long crosses into the area which Villa defenders promptly negated. Although he did put 2-3 good (and one very good) cross in.

Against better teams Bentley is not the answer.

Have to disagree with you here, mate. i thought Bentley had a quality game. If only, Crouch could head the ball - Bentley would have had a definite MOTM performance.

 

[Sputic]

Have to disagree with you here, mate. i thought Bentley had a quality game. If only, Crouch could head the ball - Bentley would have had a definite MOTM performance.

I don't think Crouch is great at making attempts on goal from crosses, but he didn't get anything from either wing which was better than 50/50 today. Bentley wasn't great today, he was average.

I know that Keane has gone, JJ didn't get on, Bale's no longer shit, and Bent has been playing for Sunderland, but lets all hold off finding another scapegoat please. It's all kinda boring.

 

[leffe186]

Well after loaning out our good movement to Celtic, and leaving our newly acquired good movement on the bench all game, surprise surprise... we lacked movement. We lacked the intelligent movement to enable us to go through Villa and create good chances opting instead for the ball out wide and putting the ball in the box as much as we could hoping for something to drop for us - sometimes it works but once more it didn't.

Our defence was excellent, as ever, King once again defying science to play a perfect game. Our midfield was very good I thought, but when we got into the final third we had nothing to play with as Defoe and Crouch just aren't blessed with good, intelligent movement but Redknapp refused to react to this and kept faith in our put the ball in the box philososphy rather than go through the defence. Villa defended excellently, and snuffed out Defoe's predatory instincts even though Crouchy was doing what he does best - creating havoc, working hard and flicking the ball on and laying it off. We needed a Gudjohnsen/Keane to work in the gaps and help Modric/Hudd/Palacios/Bentley find a killer pass because as much as I love Crouchy, that's not his game, and as much as Defoe is a lethal predator it's not his game either. The amount of times Modders worked an angle, or found some space he was starved of any intelligent thinking ahead of him and it is becoming an all too regular sight at the moment. The only time we actually worked a really nice move together recently to split a defence open was Pavs goal against Leeds, and if he can actually motivate himself to play for us I am all for him to be given more of a chance in the coming weeks.

Not seen the game yet (recorded it) but this makes perfect sense. Pav and Defoe had already shown signs of putting together a real understanding months ago, although I presume Pav missed out yesterday because of his groin. Despite many misgivings about his workrate and strength, I would love to see him given a proper run of games alongside Defoe.

 

[piedpiper]

Like many on here i was also frustrated by the draw. This game also proved to me that long term Harry is not the one to lead us into the promised land. Now i may get shot for this statement and am in no way calling for a change of manager. For the life of me i cannot understand why HR does not use his subs bench. I found Modric ineffective and some one like Kranjcar could have injected some creativity into the game, he could of brought Eidur for Defoe with 15 minutes to go. Yet Harry sits there with that droopy face and makes no changes. the long ball game has been discussed and i wondered how many more were we going to lob to Crouch. we should be looking at Capello for after the 2012 Euro games, by then HR contract should be up, long term he is not he answer.

 

[karennina]

Well, gotta say I agree with the 'good up to the box / not enough in the final third / not enough movement and intelligence up front' argurments. Crouch is playing well, and he's a good player, but that isn't mutually exclusive with him being our weakest player.

Berbatov (yes, I know such players are rare like diamonds) used to say near the start of his time at spurs that he really enjoyed playing with Defoe, and I think this points to the kind of abilities we're missing up front. That 'Fulcrum' role in which strikers like Berbs and Kanoute with

great technique,
unpredictable movement,
creativity,
poise and
an eye for a pass,

are able to hold possession up front, can work well with someone like Defoe. My hope is that Eidur, once he gts up to speed, can provide that stickability and guile up front, because with the best will in the world it doesn't look like Crouch can cut (or even arially batter) through packed defenses at the moment, and our play is hitting a wall on the edge of the opponents box just like they want it to.

Also, decent though Bentley's performances are, we're missing the chaos that Lennon creates when he stretches games, and maybe this is the crux of why AL is ultimately capable of playing on a higher level than DB. I wonder if the bookies would have shortened our odds if, all other things being completely equal, a fit AL was swapped in for a fit DB, because I reckon he'd have increased our chances for a win by around 5%.

And, Modric really, really needs to learn to shoot, because if he could do that we'd have won not just yesterday but quite afew other games. Didn't think he was mentally all there yesterday - maybe a little unhappy or daydreaming.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

On another day we'd have murdered them. We were by far the better side, created a fair few good chances and played much better football. Yes, there were too many long balls to Crouch again, but that doesn't take away from the levels of good play we displayed as well. Bentley put a number of good crosses into the box, Modric ran at them and put the ball at our strikers feet plenty of times and Bale brought the ball forward superbly, and sometimes when he had no right to, all game long.

Unfortunately, our best couple of chances fell to the wrong people. Modric is many good things, but not a good shooter. Crouch has his plus points, but controlling the ball to shoot from point blank range seemingly isn't one of them.

When Defoe and Huddlestone did hit good shots, their goalkeeper, as he has done many times in the past, was superb.

Chris Foy, who I previously liked as a ref, had an absolute mare in my opinion, as did his linesman. Every 50/50 went Villa's way, we were denied when our players were clearly fouled and we were penalised for pefectly good tackles.

I question our manager slightly. There was a period, frmo about the 55th till the 70th, when Villa were on top and we were looking like going to pieces. Ok, Villa didn't create much of note, but they were on top and we needed to take control of the bloody game again. What the F is the point of Kranjcar or Gudjohnsen on the bench exactly? I couldn't believe Harry made no changes, and no, this isn't made up for by the fact that we finished strongly. We might have resurged earlier had we had a target man who could control the ball in fewer than 39 touches, or someone on the left who wasn't absolutely shattered.

I'm beginning to place far more value on the FA cup, but all is not lost. We're a point further ahead of Citeh, and Liverpool are away to Goonscum next I believe. We do qutie badly need to get 9 points from the next 3 games though to make sure that when we go up to wastelands to play Citeh we're still ahead of them in the league.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Oh, a few things I forgot.

I thought our support was the best it has been all season.

I thought Ledley King looked like the old Ledley and I'm delighted that he's just managed 3 games in 11 days, having played full matches against both Fulham and Brum.

I was again impressed with Bentley, I felt he was our best outlet, but I think that without Lennon's ability to get to the byline/ lead a counter attack we are far less threatening, and that is being shown by our results since he got injured, just unable to kill teams off.

 

[Little Squatman]

I guess I shouldn't be surprised about the amount of negativity on here. I came away from that match thinking we absolutely battered Villa, one of our main rivals, for the 2nd time this season, and were unlucky not to win. Yes, its frustrating, but we are playing very well at the moment and just outplayed one of the best teams in the country. I reckon we'll be 4th again by Wednesday.
I think the long ball thing is being overstated as well, we played some good stuff. At least we don't play like Liverpool - they're just a posh Stoke.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

gaz, I haven't read through the thread so I'm not fit to comment on peoples reactions, but at least in my case I think the hint of negativity is very much down to the fact that we are clearly better than these guys and should have taken them to the cleaners, twice, but came out with 2 points from the 2 games.

 

[TwoSaintsComeMarching]

I was so pissed off at Harry after the game. He needs to grow some balls, take risks, and be prepared to change things! How the hell can you go through a game without making a single change, when it was so clear we were heading towards another stalemate. In so many games this season, for all our possession and so called chances we walk away with nothing. There's something blatantly wrong with that; we cant keep claiming "we were unlucky". I thought with the purchase of Gudjohnsen Harry had spotted what was wrong. Why the fuck didnt he bring him on then?

60th minute onwards it was so blatantly clear we were going to struggle for a goal, even with all our possession and so called attacking intent. Its so easy for defenders to defend against crouch - they just let him win the header and then be the first to pounce on the second ball. We kept trying the same tactic - shift the ball wide to Bentley, cross into the box and hope Crouch knocks it down to someone. You cant rely on such a one dimensional tactic for 90 flippin minutes! Mix it up Harry!! Our attack is so devoid of ideas its unreal.

We need a quality striker up top with Defoe. This is not a Crouch bashing. I just feel he's more effective off the bench to shake things up when we need to go more direct. He should not start because then its like playing with ten footballers and a tall man whos head you can aim at..

 

[Tonio]

i was so pissed off at harry after the game. He needs to grow some balls, take risks, and be prepared to change things! How the hell can you go through a game without making a single change, when it was so clear we were heading towards another stalemate. In so many games this season, for all our possession and so called chances we walk away with nothing. There's something blatantly wrong with that; we cant keep claiming "we were unlucky". I thought with the purchase of gudjohnsen harry had spotted what was wrong. Why the fuck didnt he bring him on then?

60th minute onwards it was so blatantly clear we were going to struggle for a goal, even with all our possession and so called attacking intent. Its so easy for defenders to defend against crouch - they just let him win the header and then be the first to pounce on the second ball. We kept trying the same tactic - shift the ball wide to bentley, cross into the box and hope crouch knocks it down to someone. You cant rely on such a one dimensional tactic for 90 flippin minutes! Mix it up harry!! Our attack is so devoid of ideas its unreal.

We need a quality striker up top with defoe. This is not a crouch bashing. I just feel he's more effective off the bench to shake things up when we need to go more direct. He should not start because then its like playing with ten footballers and a tall man whos head you can aim at..

absolutely spot on mate!!

 

[BringBack_leGin]

well said tscm