Ratings v Villa

[DarT]

Gomes 7 - Good game.
Hutton 6 - As per game against twente, in a s much as he looked good going forward but had the odd shaky moment defensively.
Huddlestone 7 - Though he had a good game back in defence.
Bassong 6 - Had a moment for the villa goal, but all in all had a good game.
Ekotto 6 - Again a very similar game to hutton, but very slightly better defensively.
Modric 7 - We impressed that he offered himself for the ball more and went looking to dictate the tempo of the game, but passing was much too sloppy.
Jenas 8 - Not really a JJ fan, because he just doesn't deliver what he is actually capable of. In this game i thought he did actually deliver, a full energetic performance, driving from midfield.
Bale 8 - Good driving game as usual.
VDV 9 - Fantastic performance, that actually fully delivered the goods when the tactical changes were made, to compliment his style of play.
Crouch 7 - Take out the 2 assists to VDV and actually thought he was fairly poor, yes he is good at providing knockdowns, and causing trouble due to his size, but if we are to be sucessfull then we are going to need a lone striker who provides more individual goal threat.
Pavlyuchnko 6 - Performance was very similar to crouch without the knockdowns, disappointing that he played better midweek as a lone striker, and we never got chance to see if this would again happen.

Lennon 7 - Tried very hard, but again the performances are simply not there yet. Did however bring better stability and balance to the team and set up crouch for the knock down.
Palacios 6 - Not much time to earn praise, but did what was required to again stabalise the team.
Sandro 6 - Similar comment to Wilson, and gave him a first look at the speed of the prem games.

 

[stemark44]

Crouch may have had 2 assists but neither header was aimed directly at VDV.
It was all down to VDV's anticipation,positioning and movement.
Same thing happened against FC Twente,Crouch may have got his head to the ball but it was VDV's anticipation that reached the knock down.

 

[Vedi]

Crouch may have had 2 assists but neither header was aimed directly at VDV.
It was all down to VDV's anticipation,positioning and movement.
Same thing happened against FC Twente,Crouch may have got his head to the ball but it was VDV's anticipation that reached the knock down.

Got to agree. And even if im happy with Crouch so far, a really good and tall striker would have netted thoses chances himself, maybe not the one for the 2-1 as that was really high and it was hard to put some strength and speed behind it with the head. Also the chance where he could have put VDV through with a simple pass was really frustrating.

Altough he has aerially the biggest advantages, he lacks the skill to be a good header, which is for me the most frustrating thing about crouch.

 

[gregga]

Gomes - 7 - Good handling and rarely looked troubled
Ekotto - 7 - Reliable as ever
Bassong - 5 - At fault for the goal, though there was more than a hint of a foul about it
Hudd - 6 - Exposed a couple of times but otherwise did a decent job
Hutton - 6 - Caught out a bit but drove forward well
Bale - 7 - Stretched their defence but lacked conviction at times
Jenas - 7 - Kept our midfield ticking over; a disciplined performance
Modric - 6 - Linked well with VdV a few times but a quiet performance by his standards
VdV - 9 - Outstanding, possibly the best performance by a Spurs player this season
Pav - 6 - Was looking ok 'til he got hauled off
Crouch - 8 - A tireless grafter who caused no end of problems for the opposition but lacked composure in front of goal. With 2 assists you can't complain though.

Subs

Lennon - 7 - Gained confidence as the half went on; good work for the second goal
Wilson - 6 - Little time to impress
Sandro - N/A - Even less time

Overall it was a pleasing performance, despite taking a while to get going, and an even more pleasing result. We had decent levels of penetration throughout the whole match, despite being on the back foot at times, and really should have scored another couple of goals.

VdV has been a revelation in the last couple of games and its great to see the pressure being taken off Bale. For a while our entire attacking gameplan consisted of giving the ball to him and letting him run.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Crouch may have had 2 assists but neither header was aimed directly at VDV.
It was all down to VDV's anticipation,positioning and movement.
Same thing happened against FC Twente,Crouch may have got his head to the ball but it was VDV's anticipation that reached the knock down.

Completely disagree. Watch the second header again, despite having two men challenging him Crouch keeps his cool under immense pressure and clearly guides the ball into the path of VDV. It was a superb piece of play by crouch.

 

[worcestersauce]

The last few posts sum up VDV for me, he anticipates where Crouch is likely to knock down, he attacks the space and the bonus of that is that Crouch begins to check his position and anticipate the run.
Now I know some people no longer rate Keane but that was always a quality of his which is why he's been successful playing with a big man, Quinn and even Berba & Mido as examples, and it is also why I can't understand the people who think Defoe plays well with Crouch, he doesn't, he always waits to see where the ball goes before moving rather than attacking the space, if he could just add that to his game he really would be special.

 

[youngyids]

Gomes-5 good handling but didn't look good at the goal
Hutton-6 not much to do, unlucky as he came a step too late to avoid conceding
Hudd-6 good passing
Seb-5 didn't look good at the goal either but won his headers
BAE-6 good partnership with Bale
VDV-10 nearly perfect
JJ-6 played OK
Modders-6 at least he tried
Bale-6 played a decent game
Crouch-8 won his headersand made 2 assists we really needed
Pav-7 looking OK
Lennon-6 at least he was better than in his last games
Sgt.-6 too short to rate
Sandro-6 same like Sgt., now has a 100% passing qoute in his prem career

 

[tRiKS]

its really no suprise that the players in our squad that are most used to playing domestic games soon after CL games are able to get up for it. When this team gets over the euphoria of playing CL they'll be able to switch from Inter in the san ciro to Wigan at home with far less of a dip in enthusiasm.