Official Match Thread Stoke vs Tottenham Hotspur

[Spurs_Bear]

Anyone bashing Redknapps tactics here I think are just doing it for Redknapp bashings sake. As you know I have criticised him a bit this season so far, but today he got nothing really wrong, the change at H/T was excellent and proactive and I don't think our tactics in the first half were wrong either.

The only thing he may have done, and I know you'll disagree with this (and no I didn't ask this before the game so I'm no visionary) is play Gomes who would have kept goal more proactively by coming out and dealing with the crosses/throw ins. Being able to punch the ball is the best counter to the high ball into the box, I'm sure of that.

Couldn't agree more with the first paragraph, not so much the second :lol:

The thing is, even though we struggled with the set-pieces/throw ins, you could see that we had worked on a strategy (sort of) in trying to deal with them, with the 'V' like positioning we employed. You throw Gomes into that equation it all goes to a lottery. Plus, and I don't mean this to sound patronising, I really, REALLY don't think Gomes is as good at dealing with things like that as you and BC like to make out mate.

 

[sim0n]

I must say, it is true that Spurs did not play well enough to win today. However, if shawcross hauling down Kaboul down in the box jumping for that corner isn't a stone cold penalty, then frankly at that point stoke were on notice that anything goes... and they hacked/mauled/grabbed their way to a 2-1 victory.

$HITE -- wasn't really the "beautiful game" today now was it?.... :bang:

Regroup and pray Ledders can play next week end ray:

Looked like the more $HIT that Spurs gave foy, the $HITTIER the calls became,.... having started at just the rubbish level...

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

Anyone bashing Redknapps tactics here I think are just doing it for Redknapp bashings sake. As you know I have criticised him a bit this season so far, but today he got nothing really wrong, the change at H/T was excellent and proactive and I don't think our tactics in the first half were wrong either.

The only thing he may have done, and I know you'll disagree with this (and no I didn't ask this before the game so I'm no visionary) is play Gomes who would have kept goal more proactively by coming out and dealing with the crosses/throw ins. Being able to punch the ball is the best counter to the high ball into the box, I'm sure of that.

Spot on, we dealt with stoke the last few seasons because we had a GK who came off his line, you simply can't play Stoke with a GK who is rooted to his line.

My only tactical criticism would be with hindsight he should have taken off VdV and kept on Lennon in the hole. VdV was non-existent today.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Awful from the Ref.

On the plus side I loved the tactical switch to the 3-5-2 from Harry. I think it really suits a lot of our players and also gives us another option.

I just hope this gives Harry some food for thought regarding his team selection. Long gone are the days when you can just put out your best perceived eleven, against certain teams you had to adjust your style to suit. We have one of the smaller teams in the prem and it showed with the way we dealt with throw ins and corners.

This is especially crucial away from home.

One more thing, I wish Crouch held up the ball like that when he was at Spurs

He did, he just had wankers in the crowd shouting for the Russian twat :lol:

 

[haxman]

He did, he just had wankers in the crowd shouting for the Russian twat :lol:

Did he fuck, Crouch couldn't trap a bag of cement when he was with us.

MOTM, that fits right in with the kind of day today was.

 

[Kingellesar]

Worst thing about today, Crouch got MoMEek

 

[Chimbo!]

I can't complain about our performance. We reacted well to going behind, we dominated the game, we created chances, we scored goals and we never stopped trying.

Unfortunately, every so often a referee will make poor decisions. In this instance it was an uncountable amount. Two clear handballs, a legitimate goal disallowed, an illegal goal given, a clear red card given, a harsh red card given, bizarre corner decisions and just a general lack of control. It was shocking.

 

[Jaydog]

He did, he just had wankers in the crowd shouting for the Russian twat :lol:

:clap:

I was never a big Crouch hater but today he was up for it like I never really saw before for us.

 

[kaz Hirai]

He did, he just had wankers in the crowd shouting for the Russian twat :lol:

the russian twat as you call him who scored us vital goals to get us to 4th. the russian twat who scored vital goals in the champions league itself

and the Russian twat who is still a spurs player, nice fan you are

 

[Abdoujaparov]

Foy ref'd that like a piece of sh*t, but I was proud of the lads in the second half.

Stoke were f*cking difficult today - they'd probably have beaten everyone in the prem playing like that (and with those ref decisions). But we were outstanding in the second half and deserved to win.

 

[spur_souljah]

I wonder what the criteria is to get into stokes team, it seems to me: who can throw the farthest and the only other one must be pulling out annual reports from primary and secondary school and seeing who had a record as a bully..

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

As Sky subscribers I think we have a right to expect a better quality commentating team than Peter Reid and Dwight Yorke and Davie Provan. The worst commentators for a long time.

 

[StartingPrice]

i wasnt too fussed with that as maybe it was just the universe balancing itself out since the mutant denied stoke a goal last year with the same mutant limb

but what followed after...well what the fuck was that:shrug:

But that's the point, ain't it...it we had even been allowed our truly legitimate goal, or one of the three other penalties we should have had, and come away with a draw, that one would be classed a difficult decision that went against us. But when you catalogue it with the rest of absolute shite that Mr Foy seemed to be seeing in an alternate Universe, today, it is just truly shocking.

Illigitimate goal for Stoke.
Three clear penatlies denied (I actually thought that Defoe was nmauled down for another one that we may have got on another day).
Legitimate goal denied for no clear reason.
Player booked for complaining about being assaulted in area (one fo the aforementioned penalty decisions), and then given a second for a foul but certianly not a yellow card offence.
Constant haulings, malings, pushing downs and pulling downs against our players ignored.
Even clear dead ball decisions in our favour totally ignored.
The inexplicable ignoring of Stoke taking upwards of 15 seconds per throw.

 

[Marty]

To summarise this game: We were poor, definitely didn't play well and really didn't deserve better than a draw from the game ... but Foy was worse. The amount of mistakes he made in the last half hour in particular was astonishing.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Spot on, we dealt with stoke the last few seasons because we had a GK who came off his line, you simply can't play Stoke with a GK who is rooted to his line.

My only tactical criticism would be with hindsight he should have taken off VdV and kept on Lennon in the hole. VdV was non-existent today.

What is this myth that keeps being repeated?? Has everyone forgotten Gomes' first game at Stoke??

We dealt with them last year because Crouch headed everything away. Bugger all to do with Gomes.

It's anti-football at it's worst, and the biggest gripe of all is that you could see all the white lines where Stoke had made their pitch so much smaller for today, probably had to be bigger for EL game 10 days or so ago. I know you play to your strengths blah blah but it's a nonsense when you have to sit through that shite, probably helps that all Stokies are in-breds and think they are watching rugby anyway.

** apologies if we have any stokies that support us and visit SC....it was a generalist comment meant only for banter. Unless BorisTM is from Stoke, it would explain things.

 

[Hot-Spur]

Worst thing about today, Crouch got MoMEek

Parker should have kicked him in the balls, that would have got that stupid grin of his face!

 

[jurgen]

Stoke boss Tony Pulis: "Let's not talk about the referee, let's talk about the football. We got a little bit of luck but you can't fault our players, they really deserved their luck. It was a cracking game for everyone to watch."

.....

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Did he fuck, Crouch couldn't trap a bag of cement when he was with us.

MOTM, that fits right in with the kind of day today was.

Yeah you must be right. :roll:

 

[ShelfSide18]

Couldn't agree more with the first paragraph, not so much the second :lol:

The thing is, even though we struggled with the set-pieces/throw ins, you could see that we had worked on a strategy (sort of) in trying to deal with them, with the 'V' like positioning we employed. You throw Gomes into that equation it all goes to a lottery. Plus, and I don't mean this to sound patronising, I really, REALLY don't think Gomes is as good at dealing with things like that as you and BC like to make out mate.

:grin: Well we could argue about this til kingdom some, I just think bringing a pair of fists into the occasion (and keepers always get extra protection, maybe not from todays utter catastrophe with the whistle) is the best weapon at dealing with the high ball, however messy it looks. But we knew Friedel was going to stay on his line and give responsibility to his defenders, and we didn't deal with it twice, that's what fucked us. It was nothing that Redknapp did at all.

I've banged the Sandro/Parker drum as much as any, but that would have given us nothing at all, Stoke don't play in the middle of the park and even Sandro can't deal with a ball 20ft above him! We just got Stoked, then Foyed - we'll be fine, beat Sunderland and we're all good again. Stoke are a very exceptional circumstance, and so is a refereeing performance as shit as that.

 

[haxman]

Parker should have kicked him in the balls, that would have got that stupid grin of his face!

Headbutt in the balls you mean.