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Tottenham Vs Reading: Match Thread

Cruyff

Active Member
Jan 28, 2005
575
358
Team unbalanced. Can you really play two right footed players on the left neither of whom are going to go on the outside/overlap? Luckily Sandro has only given the ball away twice but his passing is pretty unimaginative and slow. Walker is still a liability and Loris still looks dodgy sometimes when kicking it out. Lennon should be on the left if we really have no other left footed players at the club! Maybe Parker should come on and we should push Dembele or Sig/Dempsey further forward. So many shots from outside the box as opposed to imaginative play is a bad sign. I know we're not Barcelona but we should be much cleverer in and around the box when sides sit back against us at home. What's the point of Ade & Defoe both playing if they don't link up?
 

formlesswater

Member
Jun 22, 2012
117
186
Lennon needs to get the ball more in the second half. He looks our most dangerous player in the final third. I wish he would be given free license to roam across the pitch. I think he could cause some havoc dribbling at the defense in the middle. It would at least get him involved more.
 

sim0n

King of Prussia
Jan 29, 2005
7,947
2,151
Spurs 1 ReadingWebb 1
indeed,.... and 2 additional elements:
1- no locksmith (VDV) means Spurs are not killing this team. (Holtby the answer in future?)
2- going forward on the left is a cul-de-sac without Bale. Right footed naughton stops all attacking play there and so does siggi -- to be fair they are both playing out of position.

HT shows possession 64% to 36% in favour of Spurs with 8 shots on target to only 1 for reading,... and it is 1-1 :mad:

Spurs will win, but will make hard work of it yet again... COYFS!!!!
 

idontgetit

Well-Known Member
Aug 21, 2011
14,404
30,804
Get Lennon running at them straight down the middle. Will cause chaos. Wasted doing it out wide because they are so deep we will never get behind them.
 

DFF

YOLO, Daniel
May 17, 2005
14,225
6,090
Our shiftless strikers just don't have the nous to unlock a team playing like this. We are heavily relying on Dembele's jinking runs to create something.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
I know this possibly won't be a popular view, but I think we need to decongest the final third and add a bit more craft. I'd take Defoe off, put Falque left, move sigurdsson inside:

-------Sandro-----Dembele
Lennon------Sig----------Falque
-----------Adebayor

Too often when we have the ball in their half, the play is too condensed, Everyone is drifting centrally and making Reading's job easier. Sigurdsson isn't as effective out left anyway. He's more likely to thread a ball through from a central position. Defoe is useless in these congested games, he's weak when pressured, his first touch goes to pish and even his shooting gets erratic. Adebayor's struggling to find space but a couple of times he's been in good positions and Defoe's tried to shoot through three players instead of just laying it in.

We need more craft out there, not more brainless directness. If we get desperate he could always throw Dempsey in later on.
 

CosmicHotspur

Better a wag than a WAG
Aug 14, 2006
51,069
22,383
Ok, reading will come out and do the same so AVB needs to put a plan in place to move this yellow bus.

Absolute silence at the lane, like a ghost town. Too much expectation and not enough singing, we need to address this, it's not on by home fans.

I had to take your cue...

 
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