AR5ENA1 5 SPURS 2 nov12 SOM + RATINGS

[double0]

I take some comfort from our second half performance thought we tried to go forward in a traditional glorious way I rather that then sitting back waiting to die.

Carroll ahead of Huddlestone NOW...today I totally lost my hope in Huddlestone chance has come and gone.
Stick with Lloris
Drop Gallas he makes far to much mistakes IMO, personally I rather Dawson.
Vertonghen is far better at CB.
Bale going forward is a joy to watch defensively though words need to be said.
Lennon hmm until we get competition is a must to start but going forward he's not the same, defensively great.
Dempsey I thought played better today.
Adebayor let us down but we forgive and forget.

Special mention to AVB ok we got taught a lesson but I was encouraged by his positive selection and the subsitutions were correct (especially Tom Carroll for Huddlestone who should be a must ahead of Huddlestone from now on) and it was positive us going forward.

 

[StockSpur]

i watched hudd play during the week in stockholm, he's actually slower in the flesh than he seems on tv..

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Lloris can't be blanked for the goals, made one save he had no right to make, was off his line quickly on many occasions and met crosses well.

Walker continues his theme off great pass completion to the opposition.

Gallas let them have a free header for their first, was turned easily due their second, lost his man for their third and whored out the flank so they cross for their fourth. We should not be playing a short weak arthritic geriatric.

Vertonghen was not great barring his pass for the goal. He was pretty sloppy and he was beaten too often.

Naughton seemed very happy to let the cross whenever they wanted

Lennon, was he on the pitch?

Huddlestone is in the wrong sport. Terrible at everything today.

Sandro fought and fought but was on his own out there.

Bale wasn't in the game enough first half aside from one great run. He was better second half, scored a great goal, and at least caused them trouble. Him I'll pay to watch, only him really.

Defoe was Fine until Ade went, lost afterwards.

Adebayor was our best player till the red. Silly tackle, but from where I was sat I saw no studs showing, only one foot in the challenge, and a slightly high boot which tapped Carzola. Sagan committed at least two worse fouls without even a booking.

Dawson came on and actually headed the ball, made tackles, and defended. Take notes grandpa Gallas.

Dempsey attempted a few nice passes but was generally his usual static self. Loses possession too easily.

Carroll didn't really impact things. He tried, but what a hard situation to throw the kid into. Should've started instead of Hudd.

Avb picked the right formation but he persisted with two footballers who serve little to no purpose in Hudd and Gallas, and this cost us more than the loss of Ade

 

[OmarsComing]

but Defoe was also poor, difference is Ade was all good apart from Red card, Defoe also should have done better with Adebayor goal at first place.

what are you on about? his shot was perfect as it made the keeper push it out into ade's path

 

[sloth]

Forget the individual marks, forget ade's moment of madness, forget even we lost to Arsenal, today i feel so relieved... today I felt I got my spurs back.

All week I was ready to resign, I'd written my letter to Daniel explaining my reasons, how I felt we'd just lost that special bond, how we'd moved apart, and I approached this match with the fatalistic mood of a condemned man, i knew how we were going to play, I knew the players AVB would pick, and I knew the result...

Well I got the result right

Well done AVB, my faith is restored, I don't care if we have bad luck, I don't care if we don't have the players, because if we have the philosophy right then we'll come good in the end. This season is going to be tough, it's a cliche I know, but this is a transition season for us, what we need to see if we have the right leadership so that if/when we've regrouped and reinforced the team we'll be able to take advantage, today, for the first time since Newcastle away, I thought we might. Time will tell and all that, but I for one am happy... gutted, but happy

 

[punky]

Sandro through his heart, soul and body into every tackle and covered every inch of the pitch. Sometimes when this shit happens I really think he deserves better than us.

 

[punky]

but Defoe was also poor, difference is Ade was all good apart from Red card, Defoe also should have done better with Adebayor goal at first place.

Don't agree about the goal but his selfishness is really starting to fuck me off.

 

[DJS]

Adebayor for scoring our first and then trying to take out one of their players FINISH HIM!!!

 

[EnfieldYiddo]

sums it up lads

 

[jamesc0le]

bale was ridiculous in shooting across goal instead of finding defoe but i had to shout at the tele/defoe aswell, if he played people in ALOT more often then they would feel bad if they didn't find him with the obvious balls more often. bale and defoe have been particularly stupid this season at times in not finding/looking for eachother. sort it out you pair of ****s

 

[hughy]

I thought Carroll was really good in the last 10 minutes, considering his size, age, and inexperience, he really isn't afraid to throw himself in to a challenge. I'd 100% start him ahead of Huddlestone next weekend. He was awful.

 

[fortworthspur]

stopped watching after Ade's card and they equalized. Ade is a disgrace. Holds out, comes back in absolute shit condition, and now this. the damage he's done to the first 1/3 of our season is huge.

 

[The Apprentice]

We would have won that game if Ade would have stayed on the pitch. Football.

Actually thought we did alright apart from a few clusterfuck moments defensively. Second half we played well and showed heart.

There are decent signs here just hope people can show some patience. This team will be transformed when we can actually field a Premiership standard central midfielder alongside Sandro. Put Parker and Dembele in this team along with Kaboul and we'll be fine. Having Huddlestone in your starting XI is such a handicap its untrue. If we're not careful Sandro is going to be completely fucked by Xmas, he's doing two or possibly three men's work at present.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Well, the knockers were insistent that the least AVB had to do was emulate Redknapp's achievements. So far, I have to say, I think he is.

It is genuinely hard to know whether there are too many positives to extract from that. It's easy to play Ok for the first 15 minutes of a game, it's the last 75 we've been struggling with, and I'm not convinced that having 11 would have saved us but going down to ten certainly sounded, if not a a death knell, a very ill knell.

You knew it would cause problems because we have lazy inept wankers who struggle to contribute what they should, and when stretched instead of rolling up their sleeves and doubling their efforts tend to just carry on taking the piss.

AVB's initial 11 was naive IMO, his changes at half time were brave and he did get us huffing a little, but we had fuck all to loose and Arsenal were clearly playing it safe. So whilst there was some positive to pull from the second half, I'm honestly not sure how much is down to us and how much was just down to circumstances.

AVB tried to succeed with a slightly more inept striker pairing and midfield pairing where Redknapp had failed. I really don't think it would have taken long for Arsenal's trio of passing moving ball playing CM's to start exerting some control on that game. Huddelstone usually pulls up his deck chair after about the thirtieth minute, lately though he just seems to spend the whole time fumbling with it, like your fat uncle on Brighton beach in a hurricane. He was once again atrocious. We needed to be fucking lively in the cm area to cope with being outnumbered, the selection of Hudd was a poor one on that basis, and I blame AVB more than Hudd, but that cannot excuse some of the crap Hudd does. The first goal he's just ambling around, drops 4 yards off his man, leaving him a free header. Time and time again people have the ball looking for an out and Hudd just stands there, or worse gets himself out of harms way. I hope he scores soon because his hair is starting to look (and work) like one of those parachutes that dangle behind space shuttles when landing. Come on AVB, Carroll may not be the ultimate answer but he's a fuck of a lot viable than Hudd. In fact right now, I'd take any one of our young cm's over him. You know something is wrong when your busy **** is seeing more ball in games than your supposed "metronome". He's killing us.

When you go down to ten you have to work doubly hard. Players have to really dig in for the team and give that bit extra. Defoe was fucking disgraceful. It seems to me if he isn't scoring he really doesn't give a fuck. Two great examples are on 37 min when he just jogs up to their player on the ball and then almost shrug as if to say "fuck it, I can't be arsed". 43 minutes he completely bottles a challenge for the ball. In our situation today you must, must, must press hard from the front, Defoe must drop and put in a shift. Protecting what we have is vital, get to half time, and we also have Lennon and Bale who are quick and can counter. Defoe didn't put a single challenge in all day and barely pressed properly once. He only saw the ball 6 more times in 94 minutes than Adebayor in 16.

Bale needs a fucking rocket up his arse too. Lazy and selfish, leaves his LB exposed without a second thought and when he does close down it is done in a half hearted, virtually meaningless fashion.

Lennon isn't much better. There was a moment in the second half where he just stood and watched as Sagna jogged past him. And he offered very little all game in either direction.

Of the three, Bale is the only one you can mitigate for in any way, as he does carry some genuine and meaningful threat. But that threat is tempered by a really poor decision/execution process at times. At 2-4 he goes through, I can forgive him shooting if he hits the target, because Defoe never really makes an easy ball for him, but to waste it by not doing either was a travesty.

Adebayor's tackle was idiotic. We might have lost anyway, but with ten (well 6 and 4 halves) men our cause became incredibly hard.

There was some improved pressing at times second half and we at least went out with, not exactly a fight, but at least a ferocious whimper.

Ratings:

Lloris 6.5 - his speed off his line saved a couple of nasty moments and made a great save. Don't punch when you have time to catch.

Walker 4 - He's like a fish that isn't in water.

Gallas 6 - Couple of great tackles/reads. Some good and bad.

Dawson 5 - I can understand him being sucked out to challenge, but not winning the challenge meant he'd left a hole which lead to the fourth and game killing goal. Couple of minutes later got himself all wrong and let them through but was let off. Apart from that was OK.

Vertonghen 6 - Nice to have someone comfortable on the ball. Did OK.

Naughton 5 - Continues to look like a rb playing LB. Defended Walcot badly for the first goal. At one point tried to tackle him with the wrong foot.

Lennon 4 - what can I say. Didn't work hard enough, didn't contribute enough in either direction.

Sandro 7 - In our bag of revels which is orange cream and coconut centre biased, he is our toffee. Not the best one (the chocolate counter or malteser) but the toughest bastard.

Hudd 4 - Just abysmal. He shouldn't be out there, AVB's fault. He is offering nothing but downside. Saw less ball than Sandro and gave it away more.

Bale 5 - See above. Must help his full back. Must work harder in defensive situations. Scored a good goal and wasted a couple of other positions, one great. Same shit different day.

Adebayor 3 - Wreckless and stupid tackle after making a bright start. Cost us big time.

Defoe 4 - The irony of Defoe moaning at not getting a pass. He may have a case but if anyone should understand Bale not passing it should be him. Once his chances of scoring diminished his contribution was pitiful.

Dempsey 5 - marks for effort.

That was the least impressive Arsenal team I've watched for a few years, trouble is, it was the least impressive Spurs team for a few years too. We might have won with 11 men, who fucking knows ?

 

[mpickard2087]

Yes people will say Adebayor's idiocy is what cost us. Up to a point this may well be true, but you can't ignore that we conceded some bad goals today and didn't put up the fight that we could have. A 4-4-1 can still be compact and hard to break down, it just requires players to put in a real shift for the cause. Unfortunately the likes of Bale and Defoe can't be bothered, Lennon tries harder than the other two but isn't really up to it and the likes of Hudd and Dempsey lumber around offering fuck all. We made it too easy for them.

It doesn't matter if we have 10 men, you still have to do the basics such as close down your man, track runners and mark tightly from setpieces. All things that we seemed incapable of at times. I posted in the match thread how I thought all five goals could have been prevented, but time and again its these simple parts of defending that we do not do and make things all too easy for the opposition. Defensively we really do need to work on how we work as a unit and stuff such as pressing the ball, I lost count of the number of times two men went to the same ball and so left a simple pass on, such bad shape. Also the amount of time they had to take it and pick an option was hard to watch. Its not just the usual suspects either, even guys like Vertonghen seemed unwilling to get close or put a challenge in. As a unit things need sorting out.

Lloris 6 - The guy must be wondering what he has let himself in for. I dont blame him for any of the goals and he made one fantastic save and raced off his line to save us a few times.

Walker 5 - Pretty poor again.

Gallas 5 - Couple of good tackles. Partly culpable for goals three and four though I felt.

Vertonghen 5 - Went downhill second half. Seems unable to get close to his man, and instead gives them all the time in the world to choose what to do with the ball. Had a role in goals three, four and five. I thought it was a bad day for him.

Naughton 5 - Struggled against Walcott, got a lot of help though I must say...

Sandro 7 - A warrior as usual.

Hundredstone 4 - Useless. Offered nothing in midfield. I think it was him who lost Mertesacker for the equaliser, and then was out of position and didnt cut out the second goal. His continued selection is puzzling and AVB is squarely to blame for this.

Lennon 5 - Didn't do much after the sending off. Tried a bit harder than the guy on the other wing.

Bale 5 - A good goal doesn't save him. Abysmal effort, barely helped out his fullback (yet again) when he is crying out for some help. Wasted the chance to make it 4-3. Needs a kick up the backside.

Adebayor - Stupid.

Defoe 4 - You could predict how he would perform as soon as we went down to 10 men. Useless and lazy.

Dawson 5 - Some fault for the fourth goal. Didn't seem comfortable with the three man defence, charged out a couple of times. Reasonable game though.

Dempsey 5 - I guess that was maybe a slight improvement, still pretty poor though.

Carroll - Tried, what was he meant to do though. He did make one tackle though, which was more than I saw from Hudd. Surely has to get an opportunity now.

 

[Pete Spur]

naughton - 0
Lacking common sense again. LONG THROW In, an Arse picked it up and equalized from it.
WHen will these fuckers ever learn to throw it short to their teammate.

DO you ever see Barcelona waste a throw in? NO! that's why they are NUmber 1, IDIOTS! fucking idiot!

yep Barcelona are number 1 because of their throw ins but Rory Delap is champion of the universe

 

[Mr Pink]

Lloris 6 one good save, got off his line well and nice distribution for the most part

Walker 4 his pass completion was 43%

Gallas 5.5 couple of decent tackles but he's starting to look like a spent force, once Kaboul is back he's on the bench

Vertonghen 6 at least offered some composure on the ball, something we seriously lack at times, but gave it away for the fifth albeit he was taking a risky pass on given that we were chasing the game with so little time left

Naughton 5 couldn't live with Walnut and Sagna - looked totally out of his depth albeit its an unnatural position for him, but got nowhere near enough help from Bale

Sandro 6.5 the only constant presence we had out there, worked hard to the end

Huddlestone 4 embarrassing really, you cant defend a performance like that - pretty much responsible for there first two goals but as most pointed out prior to the game - this was never going to be his scene

Lennon 5 good movement first 15 mins and unlucky not to double our lead - his involvement rapidly became non existent thereafter

Bale 6 was our most dangerous player without doubt, why he doesn't square that for Defoe I don't know. Great finish for his goal and a couple of lung busting runs - but these shouldn't be an excuse for his poor defensive contribution - its just not good enough

Adebayor 3 could well of ended up MOM had he stayed on - needs to channel his enthusiasm in the right way, poor for somebody with so much experience. We'll never know what would of happened thanks to that moment of madness

Defoe 4 thought his contribution was woeful, didn't press from the front and just didn't do anything of note after we went down to ten.

Dawson/Dempsey/Carroll 6 I actually thought Dempsey was doing quite well up until he gave the ball away when we were trying to build an attack - just seems slow with his decision making.


AVB - Not his fault, although I don't think he should of picked Hudd even though our options are limited. Great to see him make those changes and that's restored a lot of my faith in him. He's showing he can adapt and you simply have to if you want to succeed long term.

Gutted, but I take heart from that second half performance. BC was saying some of that could be down to circumstances - Arsenal cruising etc I don't agree, they looked nervous and their fans sensed it to. We were still in it right up to the 80 min mark, that's when they started to knock it about relatively comfortably as the sting had been taken out of our drive due to us tiring. Had Bale of squared that for Defoe they could really of wobbled given their problems at the back - they lack confidence defensively, hugely.

 

[beats1]

Walker 4 his pass completion was 43%

His passing is terrible at the moment he seems to be getting everything wrong, he can never find lennon

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Forget the individual marks, forget ade's moment of madness, forget even we lost to Arsenal, today i feel so relieved... today I felt I got my spurs back.

All week I was ready to resign, I'd written my letter to Daniel explaining my reasons, how I felt we'd just lost that special bond, how we'd moved apart, and I approached this match with the fatalistic mood of a condemned man, i knew how we were going to play, I knew the players AVB would pick, and I knew the result...

Well I got the result right

Well done AVB, my faith is restored, I don't care if we have bad luck, I don't care if we don't have the players, because if we have the philosophy right then we'll come good in the end. This season is going to be tough, it's a cliche I know, but this is a transition season for us, what we need to see if we have the right leadership so that if/when we've regrouped and reinforced the team we'll be able to take advantage, today, for the first time since Newcastle away, I thought we might. Time will tell and all that, but I for one am happy... gutted, but happy

Got to be honest mate, I'm very surprised by this reaction.

Playing with heart and desire in a NLD is a given, defending like a bunch of 5 year old ****s was unforgivable, and it's not like it was the first time it has happened yesterday.

 

[Spurs_Bear]

Lloris 6 one good save, got off his line well and nice distribution for the most part

Walker 4 his pass completion was 43%

Gallas 5.5 couple of decent tackles but he's starting to look like a spent force, once Kaboul is back he's on the bench

Vertonghen 6 at least offered some composure on the ball, something we seriously lack at times, but gave it away for the fifth albeit he was taking a risky pass on given that we were chasing the game with so little time left

Naughton 5 couldn't live with Walnut and Sagna - looked totally out of his depth albeit its an unnatural position for him, but got nowhere near enough help from Bale

Sandro 6.5 the only constant presence we had out there, worked hard to the end

Huddlestone 4 embarrassing really, you cant defend a performance like that - pretty much responsible for there first two goals but as most pointed out prior to the game - this was never going to be his scene

Lennon 5 good movement first 15 mins and unlucky not to double our lead - his involvement rapidly became non existent thereafter

Bale 6 was our most dangerous player without doubt, why he doesn't square that for Defoe I don't know. Great finish for his goal and a couple of lung busting runs - but these shouldn't be an excuse for his poor defensive contribution - its just not good enough

Adebayor 3 could well of ended up MOM had he stayed on - needs to channel his enthusiasm in the right way, poor for somebody with so much experience. We'll never know what would of happened thanks to that moment of madness

Defoe 4 thought his contribution was woeful, didn't press from the front and just didn't do anything of note after we went down to ten.

Dawson/Dempsey/Carroll 6 I actually thought Dempsey was doing quite well up until he gave the ball away when we were trying to build an attack - just seems slow with his decision making.


AVB - Not his fault, although I don't think he should of picked Hudd even though our options are limited. Great to see him make those changes and that's restored a lot of my faith in him. He's showing he can adapt and you simply have to if you want to succeed long term.

Gutted, but I take heart from that second half performance. BC was saying some of that could be down to circumstances - Arsenal cruising etc I don't agree, they looked nervous and their fans sensed it to. We were still in it right up to the 80 min mark, that's when they started to knock it about relatively comfortably as the sting had been taken out of our drive due to us tiring. Had Bale of squared that for Defoe they could really of wobbled given their problems at the back - they lack confidence defensively, hugely.

This is the closest account to what I saw yesterday, barring the 'taking heart from the second half'.

Hudd was an absolute embarrassment, I would also have marked Gallas lower, he was a big part of the first 3 goals in my opinion, along with Hudd. Although like Mr P said he may be becoming a bit of a spent force, he is playing a lot and his fitness is a worry.

I cant be as positive as most on this subject, and I certainly laughed out loud with the number of threads praising AVB and how 'proud people were of him for giving it a go' etc. For fuck sake boys, it was the NLD what did you expect him to do in the second half? See it out for damage limitation when we were 3-1 down??

The changes just replaced our weakest players with on the day with ones that couldn't have done any worse if they tried. To all those saying 'we would have won with 11 men', I'm yet to see us go 1-0 in any game and keep attacking rather than sitting back, and this is where I cant jump on the bandwagon of the unrealistic credit of AVB. Our defending, is in my opinion, worse than it has been for years. To get carved open like we did in the first half was a disgrace, 10 men or not, you need to set up to defend properly. And we had Lloris to thank for that scoreline not being 8 or 9. Sorry but that's the realism of it. I'm prepared for all the negs and dumbs coming my way for saying this, but at the moment I am genuinely concerned about us, really fucking concerned that we are pissing away all the work that we have done in the last 4 years. Levy/AVB/Redknapp are all to blame.

Ratings:

Lloris - 7 Without him in the first half and coming off his line as quick as he did in the second, we would have been buried, Wigan style.

Walker - 3 Just piss poor, taking far too long on the ball.
Gallas - 4 Trying to marshall the defence, looks spent, needs to sit out.
Verts - 6 Good ball through to Defoe for the opener, comfortable on the ball, lazy fucker without it though.
Naughton - 3 Please stop, please stop trying to see something that isn't there with this lad, at left back he honestly looks like someone swapped his legs round while he was asleep.

Hudd - N/A Fuck off.
Sandro - 6 Tried hard, thank god.

Lennon - 3 Absolutely invisible.
Adebayor - N/A
Bale - 6 Fits and starts, well taken goal but has to better with the chance later on.

Defoe - 4 Thanks Ade, we now have to watch Defoe meandering about as the lone striker for the next 3 games.

AVB - 4 Subs gave it a go but should never have started Huddlestone, I'm concerned about all the comments he's making in the press, stop apologising to everyone, back yourself and tell it like it is, fuck that 'proudness of the effort' from the players in the biggest game of the season, start cracking some heads and getting the fuckers to work harder.

Subs - All of them had a more positive affect on the side than those they replaced, which wasn't fucking difficult.

Lastly, The Emirates - really superb stadium to watch football, atmosphere is shite though, as are the Hotdogs, and there are loads of genuine ****s that sit up in the Club Level bit.