*** UDINESE v SPURS *** Official Match Thread

[johnny two saints]

To be honest I wasn't expecting a win tonight anyway. Thats not the problem its the manner of our latest defeat and the lack of goalscoring opportunities that worries me most. Bent (nice enough bloke) will have to score from every touch for us to win a game at this rate...oh and please can we keep 11 men on the field soon if thats not too much to ask?

 

[liam17oi]

That would make me sad, so please don't do it. I'm sad about how badly we're doing, but that will never stop me from positively thinking about my beloved Tottenham Hotspur.

And Liam, I think we'll win because we're awesomer. :up:

I wish I could share the same optimism mate

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

OK, just got in from the game, my impressions on instinct and maybe I will change my mind on reflection tomorrow:

Poor game, Udinese played badly, we played worse.

Before going into it I have to say the pitch surface may have loked good but it was cutting up and looked really soft underfoot. Divets were being replaced every minute and for the Gomes 'error' to be fair the ground did disappear under his feet. I was right in line with it and I was stunned.

We played OK up until that point, some decent play. The defence, minus BAE, looked solid and confident. After the goal we reverted to playing to deep, with Bent horribly isolated. Lennon was fantastic in bursts. He terrorised the defence and if he hadn't have been running on an ice rink he surely would have scored. There was one moment of inspiration from Ledders that even had the Udinese fans clapping, was great. Other than that the only other bright spot was Modric who was absolutely fantastic when he came on. He seemed to be the only player on the entire pitch who could find time on the ball and looked comfortable with it.

We were very static in midfield, and I don't mean people weren't running with the ball ala Zokora, I mean that the off the ball movement was bad. Jenas was playing an in between position that he never seemed to get a grasp of. He wasn't playing centrally, but neither was he supporting the striker. Dos Santos got squeezed off the ball almost every time he had it but was at least trying to make things happen. The rest of the midfield was poor. Bent had no hope again tonight due to the crazy system and the master plan of lumping it forward to him.

A better team would have anhailated us when we went to 10 men. We were absolutely shocking (minus Modric) from that point, and could have got back into it bar a decent save (the only one he made all night) from Handanovic. Udinese didn't play well but we allowed them so much time and space between our defence and midfield it was scary. Fortunately they don't have an out and out striker otherwise it could have been ugly.

Just very disappointing. Ramos has to make big changes to the playing style/formation/mentality otherwise I fear for his position.

 

[lily_lane]

Thank you for the excellent live report IOMLS, really appreciate it. :up:

 

[Michey]

Michey......


.....sod it. I can't be arsed.

Since you obviously know shit about football the post weren't to you.

Continue to cry among the babies.....bye bye then :hello:

 

[sunnydelight786]

Just got in to work with a few hours sleep from watching that shower last night in Italy. First and foremost the people of Udine were very welcoming and made for the day to be a pleasant one. Thank you Udine for that.

On to the game. Udinese maywell be around the top 4 in th Italian league but it dont change the fact that they were/are a poor team who were there for the taking. B.Dortmund beat them 2-0 just a few weeks back in Udine.... We started the game very well and were controlling it. Udinese had showed us nothing till Gomes done his best impression of being a clown. After that it went all tits up like usual. I'm so pissed of that I cannot even get the words out to express myself. We are in a sorry, SORRY mess at the moment and just cannot see any light at the end of the tunnel.

We have a manager who is increasingly sounding like Gerry Francis in his last few weks as our manager. He keeps on saying the same things but I just dont see any change.

Did we really pay £12-16.5m for Bent? Which numbskull at the club was thgat genius idea? Some senior members, who only ever push there own agenda hence are always right according to them and there fan club, claim that he was a upgrade/replacement on Defoe as he was meant to be sold in the summer of 07. I'm no flippin football genius but I can sure as hell see that Bent is/was a huge step down from Defoe. I aint Bent bashing here, read my previos posts and you'll see that I've been backing him, but the simple fact is that for the money we paid for him aswell as the person he was meant to replace he is a absolute huge blunder/flop. I'm gonna go with what my own eyes are seeing/telling me rather than some senior turbo boost posting members are posting who seldom go to the games now.

The most depressing thing is all the bickering that is going on in the stands. People were arguing left, right and centre last night and this is all down to the heartbreaking performances we are putting on. The fans need/want someone to blame but all have there own ideas as truth is we dont really know whats going on. I felt so much for us suffering fans last night and the players it seems just dont give a toss.

Guys I just cannot express myself right now, I'm gonna get myself a large black coffee and will try again in a little while.

 

[Chris12345]

Did we really pay £12-16.5m for Bent? Which numbskull at the club was thgat genius idea? Some senior members, who only ever push there own agenda hence are always right according to them and there fan club, claim that he was a upgrade/replacement on Defoe as he was meant to be sold in the summer of 07. I'm no flippin football genius but I can sure as hell see that Bent is/was a huge step down from Defoe. I aint Bent bashing here, read my previos posts and you'll see that I've been backing him, but the simple fact is that for the money we paid for him aswell as the person he was meant to replace he is a absolute huge blunder/flop.

He was bought as a replacement/upgrade on Defoe tho... it's just that as events have transpired he's now our first choice striker... it's not his fault! And when we bought him, he had been hammering them in for Charlton... I don't think it's thru a lack of trying that he's not hit that form for us, we play a completely different system! (another problem, with only one recognized striker available, who is seemingly only good at playing in one system, do we not tailor the system to fit him?)

Anyway, before I get angry and rambly... yes, with hindsight, he's not been great, but I don't think it's gonna help anyone if we get on his back!

 

[robin09]

How many chances does he get per game tho?

He had two headers last night, one he should have done better with for sure.

But he barely averages one clear chance per game. And thats not his fault, its our 5 ´creative´ midfielders who are to blame.