Michael Dawson

[Gassin's finest]

The current scapegoat, i see? Well, all those bleating on about how he's past it, a carthorse, a donkey, needs to be dropped for a very long time - f*ck you. Wake up.

Michael Dawson is a genuine warrior who has given years of great service in our colours. He's been backed by every Spurs manager he has played under and has contributed to some of the most superb defending i've seen, on his day. Lloris stuffed two very easy clearances and cost us two goals today but Dawson being tricked past by a massively confident and on form Negredo is FAR worse a sin and proves he should be sold to a glue factory? Walker screws up regularly, is caught out of position, doesn't appear to link up well with any of our midfield except Lennon and, even then, it can be scary, yet i say that and i have a ton of you defending him.

He is Captain for a reason, he would shed blood for our shirt, yet theres a small pocket of you apparently with memories short enough to not even remember that, until this afternoon, we had one of the meanest defences in the league. Not long enough to remember an entire team of shit-outs losing to Basel back in April, in the middle of which stood Dawson, like a f*cking barbarian, taking on all comers and saving us from what would've likely been several more goals conceded. Before we'd barely even got warmed up this season many of you were crying out for him to be dropped for Kaboul - a man who hadn't kicked a ball in anger in a year - are you all on crack?

Not sure what i expect though, the second we got Lloris, the prospect of Brad coming on, formerly respected and lauded for some great displays last year, has become a catastrophe that causes you to place your head in your hands and cry like the world has ended. YOU do not know better than premier league managers, coaches and other pros. ACCEPT THAT and stop picking on one player to abuse, it's f*cking pathetic and unwarranted. Just give it a rest.

Apologies for the language, these little snidey snipes at our Captain in virtually every thread on this forum are getting ridiculous and right on my nerves.

 

[Bobbins]

My question is why are we persisting with the high line, when it isnt really working for us.

Ok until yesterday, not so many conceded, but it clearley doesnt suit our overall game as it squashes the midfield and puts more defenders in thier half, which kills our attack.

I've been thinking this for a few weeks now. The high line is all about the possession game which is all well and good, but it's not been working for us so far this season.

I'd like to see us sit a little further back and (God forbid!) possibly have a little less of the ball, perhaps not win it quite so high up the pitch every time. It keeps the opposition pressed into their final third which sounds good in theory, but when you get teams who have worked this simple fact out and set up to absorb our sideways passing and hit us on the counter, a-la City, we look incredibly vulnerable.

It also means our forward players have literally no room as the opposition rarely leaves their half in any numbers, leaving no space to get in behind or in between defenders.

I love counter-attacking football at pace, and whilst I'm not advocating surrendering possession of the football, I would like to see a deeper setup and deeper defensive line, as frankly I think it would help us in every area of the pitch. It'd also be nice if we could maybe have one or two counter-attacks of our own once or twice...