- May 26, 2004
- 4,797
- 2,139
Good Week
Erik Lamela
First Premier League start, and he wasn’t one of the worst players on the pitch.
Jermain Defoe and Andros Townsend
For Andros, a couple more England caps and one of the better players in the Three Lions two defeats. For JD, he must surely be due a run of games now?
Emmanuel Adebayor
Back in a Spurs shirt. Was this the start of his rehabilitation, or the personification of the manager’s desperation?
Bad Week
Hugo Lloris
It has taken me 48 hours to get over those fourteen seconds. It was typical 2013 Tottenham – possession on the halfway line, two passes later and we are in our own penalty box, possession given away and a sloppy goal conceded.
At least he saved the first shot and kept Ledders’ PL fastest goal record in tact.
Andre Villas-Boas
Where to begin?
The single most alarming issue at Tottenham right now is that there is no hint, no whiff of anyone having a semblance of a clue of what they should be doing in any given situation.
We look open and exposed without the ball, totally insipid with it. We leave plenty of space at the back but don’t have a plan for pressing. We are not blocking zones nor marking men, we have wingers crossing to a lone striker, or inverted wingers running into team mates. Every single one of the back four was culpable for at least one goal. We can’t sit deep, we can’t stop counter attacks. We can’t create chances, we can’t deal with set pieces at either end of the pitch.
It is like AVB has taken the worse of every football system and put it all together in this Spurs team. It is the perfect anti-winning formula.
If you attack down the wings, it makes sense to have some aerial presence in the box. If you have a right winger who cuts inside, it makes sense to have someone on the left offering proper width. If you have a sole striker, it makes sense to have people running forward from midfield. If you don’t have a playmaker to open up opponents, then you look to maximise set plays and a more direct style (again, requiring a physical presence upfront, preferably with more than one player within sight of that weird thing with the netting).
If you have only one left back, not established at the club, it makes sense not to loan out the one established left back.
Sometimes tactics don’t work. Sometimes changes in personnel don’t bring changes in results. But if you make the wrong changes for the right reasons, there is at least some hope that you will learn and eventually do the right thing. With Villas-Boas I cannot see what he is trying to do, let alone if it is the right thing or not.
The system isn’t working, and if you take out Bale’s wonder goals it has not worked for nearly 12 months. If you have a wonder player then it makes sense to play to his strengths and hope he does the business, but we don’t and Andre’s attempts to force players to fit this system resembles a small child trying to force a square peg through a round hole. With the kid you wait for him to work it out, but after the 6-0 drubbing at the Etihad AVB is running out of time. One bad loss and the vultures will stop circling and start descending. Fortunately we don’t have to play the reigning champions....
The other players who started on Sunday
Want to hear something funny? Man City have had the most average possession in the Premier League this season. We had more of the ball on Sunday. Sandro put in the effort but unfortunately scored an own goal and throw up (not at the same time). No one else had that excuse for a truly shocking performance.
Let's get sharing the content on Spurscommunity on twitter and facebook and what not and get more hits (and hopefully money) for SC
Erik Lamela
First Premier League start, and he wasn’t one of the worst players on the pitch.
Jermain Defoe and Andros Townsend
For Andros, a couple more England caps and one of the better players in the Three Lions two defeats. For JD, he must surely be due a run of games now?
Emmanuel Adebayor
Back in a Spurs shirt. Was this the start of his rehabilitation, or the personification of the manager’s desperation?
Bad Week
Hugo Lloris
It has taken me 48 hours to get over those fourteen seconds. It was typical 2013 Tottenham – possession on the halfway line, two passes later and we are in our own penalty box, possession given away and a sloppy goal conceded.
At least he saved the first shot and kept Ledders’ PL fastest goal record in tact.
Andre Villas-Boas
Where to begin?
The single most alarming issue at Tottenham right now is that there is no hint, no whiff of anyone having a semblance of a clue of what they should be doing in any given situation.
We look open and exposed without the ball, totally insipid with it. We leave plenty of space at the back but don’t have a plan for pressing. We are not blocking zones nor marking men, we have wingers crossing to a lone striker, or inverted wingers running into team mates. Every single one of the back four was culpable for at least one goal. We can’t sit deep, we can’t stop counter attacks. We can’t create chances, we can’t deal with set pieces at either end of the pitch.
It is like AVB has taken the worse of every football system and put it all together in this Spurs team. It is the perfect anti-winning formula.
If you attack down the wings, it makes sense to have some aerial presence in the box. If you have a right winger who cuts inside, it makes sense to have someone on the left offering proper width. If you have a sole striker, it makes sense to have people running forward from midfield. If you don’t have a playmaker to open up opponents, then you look to maximise set plays and a more direct style (again, requiring a physical presence upfront, preferably with more than one player within sight of that weird thing with the netting).
If you have only one left back, not established at the club, it makes sense not to loan out the one established left back.
Sometimes tactics don’t work. Sometimes changes in personnel don’t bring changes in results. But if you make the wrong changes for the right reasons, there is at least some hope that you will learn and eventually do the right thing. With Villas-Boas I cannot see what he is trying to do, let alone if it is the right thing or not.
The system isn’t working, and if you take out Bale’s wonder goals it has not worked for nearly 12 months. If you have a wonder player then it makes sense to play to his strengths and hope he does the business, but we don’t and Andre’s attempts to force players to fit this system resembles a small child trying to force a square peg through a round hole. With the kid you wait for him to work it out, but after the 6-0 drubbing at the Etihad AVB is running out of time. One bad loss and the vultures will stop circling and start descending. Fortunately we don’t have to play the reigning champions....
The other players who started on Sunday
Want to hear something funny? Man City have had the most average possession in the Premier League this season. We had more of the ball on Sunday. Sandro put in the effort but unfortunately scored an own goal and throw up (not at the same time). No one else had that excuse for a truly shocking performance.
Let's get sharing the content on Spurscommunity on twitter and facebook and what not and get more hits (and hopefully money) for SC