Typical over reactions?

[Dougal]

Indeed. The only thing 'typical' about this thread is you can't please all of the people all of the time.

 

[liberty]

nice to see theres disagreements even after we completely dominate a game and run out winners.
was it our best perfomance of the season? no
is there things to improve on? yes
did we dominate a local rival?yes
did we keep a clean sheet for the first time in the league away from home? yes
can we not just be happy with the fact that yes we won dominating what is lets face it a poor side but that theres certainly still aspects harry needs to work on

Exactly the sort of thinking that makes us as football fans look like wankers. IMO of course. We didn't dominate. Stats may show we had slightly more possession, but the game could EASILY have gone either way. Neither team played well and it's worrying for both teams if they continue to play like that in future games.

If we played like that against United, we'll be dominated!

 

[Kendall]

We're usually terrible away so any win with a clean sheet and a decent performance should be celebrated. That was their cup final.

 

[liberty]

I thought the whole game was a typical Premier League affair. The first half was a little scruffy but the second half (well for 35 mins) we totally bossed it.

The entire defence was top drawer, BAE was very good, King and Woodgate were excellent and I thought Corluka had one of his best game I was very impressed with him last night. Gomes had a good solid game, with that great double save late on.

Zokora played very well (I thought he might have even scored for a minute, foolish I know!). Lennon and Jenas were good, Bentley was a little quiet. Modric did what he's supposed to do and did it well (should have scored in the first minute but I'm sure his goal will come). Pav and Bent did some very good work, thankless task up front on your own and a total belter from O'Hara!

All in all I thought it was one of our better all round performances this season. From the back right to the front. Never looked in any real danger and looked sharp going forward.

Thats my thoughts anyway!

Oh dear, where to start with this one!

BAE handled what was one of the most blatent handballs I've ever seen! He had a decent-ish game (not his best for us) but had the ref or lino picked up on that I'm sure people's opinion would have completely changed on BAE!!! plus he made a couple of really stupid attempts for the ball in the first half which gave their right winger a free reign down the right.

Corluka played well, but still a couple of times where he was caught out by the Behrami who skinned him and Corluka had to take him down.

Zokora did okay against another poor midfield to be honest. There were a few times he got stuck in well and also a few times where they cut us open like a hot knife through butter. He's our holding midfielder. His mazy runs are often pointless and leads us short when the team inevitably counters.

A little quiet!? He was fucking useless bar one shot which Green did well (not amazing) to save.

Pav... did some very good work!? I must have blinked. Can you highlight what Pav did well in particular please? He won very little in the air and should have scored.

No real danger? Not when BAE handled, not when Bellamy had a couple of good chances in the first half, not at the end where they had 3 players bearing down on Gomes only to whack it straight at him? Not when Bellamy was onside but given offside because of a lino fuck up?

 

[sidford]

Exactly the sort of thinking that makes us as football fans look like wankers. IMO of course. We didn't dominate. Stats may show we had slightly more possession, but the game could EASILY have gone either way. Neither team played well and it's worrying for both teams if they continue to play like that in future games.

If we played like that against United, we'll be dominated!

if the above statement marks me out a wanker then terry venables, craig burley, stevie macca & les ferdinand are all of the same opinion (they all did the setanta commentary) so i wont be the only wanker anyway which is always good news

 

[thetallaghttiger]

Looking back on last night, we were decent, no better or worse than that.

We lacked any fluidity and pattern to our game until Bent came on, which gave Modric a little bit more space.

We didn't retain possession of the ball long enough last night as we too often just hoofed it long and Pav (unfortunately) won very few headers and just couldn't retain possession or hold the ball up.

However the positives outweighed the negatives:

• We Won! :grin:
• The back 4 (5 if you include Gomes) worked as a unit very well
• Modric made his return and played well.
• Lennon was largely anonymous, but the few moments he produced created the goal and other goalscoring opportunities
• Gomes was great!
• Zokora produced one of, or possibly even his best performance for us

If we played like that against United, we'll be dominated!

Oh and the sad fact of the matter about this is we will play much better on Saturday. The lads consistently raise their games when the 'big games' come around!

 

[Sauniere]

Both teams were poor in the first half, slow, scrappy and constantly giving the ball away. We had more clear cut chances and as a result of that alone were the better team, I don't see how you can think WHam deserved to win even looking at the first half?

The second half was all about how we upped our game (we had to lets face it) and we should be pleased that we were able to. WHam couldn't up theirs until the last 5 minutes when they had defeat staring them in the face. Earlier in the season we didn't have a higher game to go to so let us take heart from this. We got a clean sheet, we defended well, higher up the pitch for most of the game and our goalkeeper was solid when called upon. We were positive in attack, we made a lot of chances and there were some good performances from several players. Probably even more key was that nobody had a "bad" performance.

Some people it seems will not praise the team until we play like Barcelona every single game and even then it would be grudgingly. It must be a very sad life living week to week with nothing to cheer you.

I thought it was a a fairly boring game for the most part but I take heart from the fighting spirit and our ability to change the game to our advantage. I thought there were some very enjoyable moments and most importantly we got another 3 points which was key with Man Utd looming at the weekend.

 

[Kendall]

you are typically overreacting libs. sometimes it's good to grind out results, Chelsea and United have played worse than this and gotten results on a number of occasions.

 

[jimmyh]

it was a good performance considering what has went on from the start of the season.The fact we are still trying to find our feet under a new manager and coaching staff should also be taken into consideration and the interview woodgate gave after the game when he said about winning the battles first then trying to play our football is exactly what we need to do to get out of this position. I never get carried away with my love for the club and whilst i think wew are doing ok i am not being into thinking that we have completely turned the corner.COYS

 

[Dougal]

West Ham didn't look like they were capable of getting a result yesterday. We did.

 

[montylynch]

Here's my ha'pennys worth !!

I thought we played well, a night game at Upton park is always a hard place to go to, the crowd try to whip them up but luckily for us last night, it didn't work. Our support was very vocal and apart from a couple of chants of 'Bubbles' and 'Redknapp you're a !!!!!!' the home crowd were very queit, oh yeah and the odd 10 minutes when they were all clapping and the camera panned round the whole ground.

We didn't need to go for it straight from the off, we played possesion football and saw what they had to offer, when we realised they didn't have anything we went for it. We had by far the better chances and i thought everyone did their job. Players go out with a job to do, with specific instructions on how to play, maybe we didn't see jenas steam forward because he was told not too. We had a plan to nullify Cole and Bellamy and it worked. Their wingers hardly got a sniff as Charlie and Benny closed them down, with both Bentley and Lennon tracking back too. Parker i hardly saw have two decent touches, can't control couldn't control a big of cement and bellamy was his usual arrogant self. It was a much needed win and we delivered. I'm over the moon with the result. We could have lost last night, lost on saturday and be stuck at the bottom again. We could play well on saturday and get stuffed, we could play awful and get a result.

Isn't that why we love spurs !! 3 points is 3 points and a win over west ham is what i pray for every season.

 

[spurs mental]

West Ham didn't look like they were capable of getting a result yesterday. We did.

:clap:
Well said Dougal

They had all the possession in the first half, but, what did they do with it? When we got the ball we made somethin happen.
Dont know why people are giving out about Pavlyuchenko. Yes he wasnt great last night, but if he had scored that chance from Lennon's ball in no one would be giving out. Give the guy a break. He speaks little English, and coming into a completely different league. Was Berbatov immediately top class when he arrived?

 

[nicdic]

We never looked in trouble from West Ham yesterday. It's happened a few times this season, I've just known we would win. We did dominate, West Ham didn't create a clear chance until the double save by Gomes. Yes we could have played better, and yes the first half was a scrappy game. That doesn't mean it was a poor performance though. Away from home, in a London derby and you're moaning about a 2-0 comfortable win.

:roll:

 

[nicdic]

Also Pavlyuchenko's chance was ridiculously hard. It was unbelievable that he actually got to the ball, he was stretching so much. He was unlucky, but to say he wasted that chance which in essence you are Liberty is a joke.

 

[TheBlueRooster]

No over reacton, We were away from home in a must win game, West Ham were above us in the league. We got the job done and got the points we needed. If we'd been higher up the league we'd have p[layed with more confidence and would have come away with a 4 or 5 nil scoreline.

 

[InOffMeLeftShin]

To be fair Lib, considering we were only out of the relegation zone on goal difference what we needed was a victory not a world class performance. Even then away from home that was a good performance, we created chances and while West Ham had some decent spells of possession they didn't get a shot on target until the 72nd minute and didn't actually make Gomes make a real save until the 88th minutes.

Yes West Ham are poor, but I don't care who we are playing, to go away from home and not allow the opposition a real chance for the majority of the game is a good effort.

We can definately improve, the first half was undoubtedly scrappy and too many times we turned the ball over needlessly. We didn't commit enough men forward, which left Pav isolated again. When Bent came on we had more men getting forward which helped him but we certainly need to get more men from midfield supporting the striker. It can easily be argued however that we competed well in midfield and away from home maybe that is the most important thing.

I didn't think Jenas played anywhere near as badly as people are making out. He over ran a couple of balls, but so did most. He made a few wreckless challenges that were sloppy. But his passing was decent and mostly forward. He probably made 90% of his passes, which in the role he had yesterday is a good solid performance. Of course I would have liked to have seen him get forward more and support Pav, as he can be a threat like this, but it seems he was playing a role and it was effective.

I think the performance has to be put into perspective, we defended well and did a job away from home. It is what Liverpool have been doing all season. If you saw them against a really poor Blackburn they didn't do anything. They kept the ball ok, but were boring and had absolutely zero invention and nothing going forward but they ground out a result again. It is where we have to start to get some results. Get a run together and the free flowing football will probably begin, especially as the other players start to get more on the wavelength of the again excellent Modric.

I was more than happy.

 

[Leachie]

Oh dear, where to start with this one!

BAE handled what was one of the most blatent handballs I've ever seen! He had a decent-ish game (not his best for us) but had the ref or lino picked up on that I'm sure people's opinion would have completely changed on BAE!!! plus he made a couple of really stupid attempts for the ball in the first half which gave their right winger a free reign down the right.

Corluka played well, but still a couple of times where he was caught out by the Behrami who skinned him and Corluka had to take him down.

Zokora did okay against another poor midfield to be honest. There were a few times he got stuck in well and also a few times where they cut us open like a hot knife through butter. He's our holding midfielder. His mazy runs are often pointless and leads us short when the team inevitably counters.

A little quiet!? He was fucking useless bar one shot which Green did well (not amazing) to save.

Pav... did some very good work!? I must have blinked. Can you highlight what Pav did well in particular please? He won very little in the air and should have scored.

No real danger? Not when BAE handled, not when Bellamy had a couple of good chances in the first half, not at the end where they had 3 players bearing down on Gomes only to whack it straight at him? Not when Bellamy was onside but given offside because of a lino fuck up?

You say that people on this site are too blinded to see what is really happening in a football match however you are clearly not seeing the match for what it was. This makes me think that you need to brush up on your football knowledge.

The points you make above have SOME validity but you are totally underestimating what Zokora contributed last night and the performances of Corluka and BAE.

You have made a couple of sweeping statements about "types" of fans and peoples opinions so I will make one. It is fans like yourself who want nothing but flowing football and total domination which probably stems from playing too much Pro Evo. It is just not possible. The reality is - every single chance created in football can be traced back to a mistake at some point by the opposition and nearly every game a team plays in will have chances to score. The Arse (in the past) and Man U are the closest you might have seen to total domination but I think that you seriously have to scale back your perception of what a good performance is.

 

[leetotty]

Sorry, but I disagree with a lot of that. Of course they deserved to beat us! We were shit. We offered fuck all up front and although I’m sure we had more possession than them, every time they attached we looked very vulnerable! They definitely deserved that win, no question about it. We were useless. We were passing sideways and backwards.

To compare us to the unbeaten Chelsea side is frankly laughable. I won’t even get into a debate about us beating West Ham and Chelsea under Mourinho.

We are NOT a top 8 side. We’re currently a bottom half side and in this league you aren’t guaranteed anything, especially not a position where we’re very far from lying in!

I’m also sorry to say that last night’s football match was TYPICAL of a bottom half table game. I think it’s unfair on the other Premiership teams to be making blasé comments like that about it being a typical Prem game.

No I wasn't comparing us to chavski I was saying that Chavski win without playing quality pure football, like most other teams in the premiership. They are obviously just better at it than other teams.

I wan't saying we are now a top 8 side as we are 15th in the league, which I said was due to our diabolical start. But in theory, given our resources, squad size, football abilities, our previous years form and first 16 on paper we are a top 8 side. I think this is difficult to disagree with as I would say like me 90%+ of pundits predicted top 8 finish for tottenham at the satrt of the season.

I saw your other comments about Everton v Villa game, taking away the drama of the game, the pure footballing quality of the game was average. I don't remember many flowing moves, much passing domination or quality attacking play.

The quality of the match as you say came from the commitment, the will to defend, the drive to get the ball forward quickly, the tempo of the game and the overall blood and thunder stuff.

This was a high quality game for these attributes and was better than last nights viewing, but then I think the game was more even on Sunday, so was going to be. But in essence these attributes are what is typical of a premiership game and as I said only Manu and Ar$e show pure footballing quality...

 

[Captain Spur]

Oh dear, where to start with this one!

BAE handled what was one of the most blatent handballs I've ever seen! He had a decent-ish game (not his best for us) but had the ref or lino picked up on that I'm sure people's opinion would have completely changed on BAE!!! plus he made a couple of really stupid attempts for the ball in the first half which gave their right winger a free reign down the right.

Corluka played well, but still a couple of times where he was caught out by the Behrami who skinned him and Corluka had to take him down.

Zokora did okay against another poor midfield to be honest. There were a few times he got stuck in well and also a few times where they cut us open like a hot knife through butter. He's our holding midfielder. His mazy runs are often pointless and leads us short when the team inevitably counters.

A little quiet!? He was fucking useless bar one shot which Green did well (not amazing) to save.

Pav... did some very good work!? I must have blinked. Can you highlight what Pav did well in particular please? He won very little in the air and should have scored.

No real danger? Not when BAE handled, not when Bellamy had a couple of good chances in the first half, not at the end where they had 3 players bearing down on Gomes only to whack it straight at him? Not when Bellamy was onside but given offside because of a lino fuck up?

I don't think anyone is going to play the perfect game, but clearly you seem to think everyone should.

BAE had a good game, end of. The handball was dodgy but we had a much more blatant one turned down.

Corluka made a couple of boobs in your opinion, as I said no one is going to be perfect. He got forward at will, defended well. That's his job and one he did well.

Yes Zokora does do that sometimes, but last night wasn't one of those nights. I'm not blinkered enough to slag him off just for the sake of it. If he has a good game it's fair and only right to say he has.

I agree Bentley was pretty poor, but he was always looking for the ball, which is pleasing to see. He could be a bit more committed in the tackle though.

Yes Pav did. Full of running and creating himself space. If other players don't find him or run up to support him it is hardly his fault.

Bellamy couldn't hit a cows arse with a banjo, every shot he had was from miles out and dragged hopelessly wide. The possible handball isn't really being under pressure, nor was Cole being incorrectly flagged offside. So yes I would say very little danger. The only real moment of panic was the couple of shots at the end which Gomes handled very well.

So yep you may think everyone should play the perfect game but I hate to tell you, it won't ever happen. All in all it was one of our better performances this season (not saying much I know!). The Spammers were toothless going forward and that obviously helped, but you can only beat what is put in front of you and we did that comfortably.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Sorry for being a bringer of doom and gloom, but did anyone actually WATCH the game last night? I thought it was mainly very dull bar a couple of moments. West Ham are terrible! They’ve only taken 1 point in the last 15 at home and they have no team cohesion. Who from West Ham would you have in your Spurs first team? 1 or 2 at a push? They have a squad worth sweet fuck all, a manager who has very little managerial experience and no club managerial experience and as a club, are a sinking ship. I know they got a good draw at Liverpool, but we all know how hot and cold (more hot than cold obviously!) Liverpool have run this season.

From a neutral POV that game was extremely boring, especially the first half. No one took the game by the scruff of the neck and we have players who are proving to be distinctly average (Jenas, Bentley, Zokora and Pavyluchenko to name just 4). We played similarly against Everton, despite having a change of system and Modric back. We have no ball winner we can rely on in the centre of the park who turns up week in week out with the right attitude!!! Sometimes you think Jenas has it and then goes missing for a run of 3-4 games, and the same goes with Huddlestone and IMO Zokora, although consistent, is consistently average!

I agree that I thought Modric did very well last night. He is good running with the ball and does stick it about a lot. However, even he still managed to over run the ball on 3-4 occasions when we were in very good positions.

There was such a fine line last night between drawing that game 1-1 and winning 2-0. How Di Michelle never stuck the ball in the net I’ll never know. Also, although we should have got a debateable handball (his arms were at least tucked in), BAE made Maradona’s ‘hand of God’ moment against England look legitimate.

Don’t get me wrong, there were positives, just to prove I’m not just full of negativity...

- Gomes looked commanding and proved why his shot stopping is one of the best in Europe, although his punching criticised, I think when you punch it 30 yards (as he did) it’s up to the midfielders and defenders to sort the ball out from then – not his fault the ball came back nearly as fast due to gross incompetence by our midfielders.
- King looked solid as rock and got his first goal in something like 3 years which is a delight to see.
- We look far better with Modric playing.
- Bent is IMO our best striker and should start ahead of Pav as he is more physical, quicker and appears to try harder.
- O’Hara came on and in the whole did well regardless of his cracker of a goal from 25 yards.
- Redknapp’s tactical substitutions paid dividends.
- Zokora got a decent shot on target.
- Lennon found some lovely crosses.
- Bentley’s hair looked good despite the rain.
- Our fans were very vocal.
- I’m scraping the barrel.

I think we have a long way to go to be matching the likes of Villa and Everton at the moment (who put on a great spectacle on Sunday afternoon) who are much better than us at the moment. Let alone trying to match the current top 4 which we were looking at doing when BMJ was here.

Up to 15th. We’ll get a nose bleed soon.

I don't think you'd accuse me of being a bipolar result rating lemming I hope. I have been very critical of the way we have played since Redknapp took over - to the point of being accused of being delusional. Have you atched Villa or Everton lately ? They are certainly no more entertaining to watch or play better football than us - even under Redknapp. What they have is managers who know how to organise and discipline, and get the best out of their players.

But West Ham aren't quite as bad as it would appear. They have a very competant back 5, as they have proved in recent weeks (three consecutive clean sheets including away at Lpool & Sund), in Cole and Bellamy they have a good striker pairing that compliment each other. The midfield isn't great but Faubert, Parker, Mulins, Noble are all decent pros.
And this was their cup final.

We had to earn the right to play last night, and for me we did that. We also, for the first time virtually in the league since Bolton, created far more chances and always looked more threatening than they ever did. In fact I can't think of a single scary moment we allowed them other than the one at the very end.

You know I'm not a great believer in Redknapp's coaching abilities, and I think we have in general passed the ball far worse, and looked far less coherent under Redknapp than Ramos (results aside) but last night in, what was a tough game, we actually did pass the ball really well at times, especially from about 55-58 minutes onwards.

If Huddlestone had been in there there is a good chance we wouldn't have won the midfield battle that needed winning first.

Finding players with Jenas & Zokora's energy, effort, allround ability and to a degree reliability (passing steady if not incisive) with that added super incisive intelligent capability is almost impossible for a team like us (and many above us) as those midfielders that have it all are the rarest of commodities. therefore our creativity must come from other areas. Bentley, Lennon, Modric, GDS and the strikers. We have lost three strikers who could create out of nothing so we are still lacking in this dept.
Lennon and Modric though are really starting to look thepart. Bentley is a bit hit and miss and GDS hasn't really got going yet.

I haven't been incouraged generally by the football we have played lately but last night I saw some solidity in defence/midfield, some creativity and decent passing.