Rate The Players - Spurs V Twente

[mpickard2087]

Too hard to choose a MoM tonight, no-one stood out enough for me.

Gomes 6.5 - No fault for any of the goals. Made a couple of decent saves.

Corluka 6.5 - Did ok on his return, Maybe could have closed down quicker on the 2nd goal. Solid otherwise.

Gallas 6.5 - Dependable, didnt really notice him have a lot to do during the game. Undoubted leader of the team.

Bassong 6 - Gave him a slightly lower rating as I felt he gave Janko a bit too much space at times, needed to get tighter to his man.

BAE 6 - Unfortunate to give away Pen, correct decision but dont blame him, it was instinctive. 2nd goal the Guy had a run on him but looked solid apart from that.

Lennon 7 - Lovely pass for Defoes goal boosts his rating. Lively at times.

Jenas 6 - Shame he went off early

Palacios 7 - Much better tonight, looked strong in the tackle and provided some dynamism. Pressing led to the 3rd goal.

Kranjcar 7 - Worked hard and had some nice touches. Played pretty well in unfamiliar central role. Again, shame he had to go off.

Bale 5.5 - Didnt happen for him tonight, agree that he seems to be a bit lazy at tracking back at times.

Pav 5.5 - Poor game for me, Needs to work harder and first touch was erratic at times. one good shot that forced the keeper into a decent save.

Defoe 7 - Didnt do a lot, scored two goals though. Job done in my eyes, was in position when it mattered.

Keane 6 - Not a lot of time to make an impression.

Crouch N/A.

 

[fortworthspur]

I saw a different game then most of you:

Gomes - 7 no chance with any goal

BAE - 7 took more responsibility with possession once Jenas left, could've done better on their second

Bassong - 6 should've done better on their second

Gallas - 7 strong throughout

Corluka - 6.5 slow (not deceptively slow, actually slow) and rusty, but first game in a while

Bale - 6.5 didnt do much

Jenas - 7 while he was on

Palacios - 7.5 most consistent player, held it together throughout

Kranjcar - 6.25 I didnt see the great passing others saw - maybe its there in the stats, but played out of position

Defoe - 7.5 took his chances well

Pav - 7 actually did a lot of work in possession

Lennon - 7 lovely assist

Keane and Crouch - NR

 

[buksida]

Gomes 6
Corluka 6
Gallas 6.5
Bassong 6
BAE 6
Bale 6
JJ 6
Lennon 6.5
Palacios 7.1
Kranjcar 7
Defoe 6.5
Pav 6

 

[EastLondonYid]

First off, I have to say that this game was largely irrelevant for me. I wouldn't have minded too much if we'd gone out of europe entirely - with dignity - at the group stage, and been able to concentrate on the league from here on in. The fact that we've qualified, and topped the group is, for me, a massive, but possibly counterproductive bonus. But at least we can forget it now for a couple of months and hopefully focus on the league.

Hard to weigh up this game as it lacked any kind of clear pattern or consistent quality. It was like every time a team scored, they took control of the game for a little spell. We did have a couple of periods where it looked like we were in total control, only for that to be punctured by the spanish refereeing equivalent of Basil Fawlty deciding to liven up a slightly dull game by making up his own rules.

Twente aren't a bad side to be fair, and they also had their share of the game, usually after each time they scored, then we'd score again and take control again until the ref decided they should have a goal and the flow of the game changed again.

There is a recurring theme running through our whole season, and that is our inability to press the ball with any genuine tenacity all over the pitch. We will never keep clean sheets when the opposition are allowed so much unchallenged time on the ball.

It has to start at the front, but unfortunately we possibly have the three worst exponents of this in world football in Pav, Defoe and Keane. Then you Bale and Lennon wide...no real pressing there either. Then, unless Palacios or Jenas (and even he's not as good at it as Palacios) plays you have poor/weak pressing in the centre. Most of our - now - regular back four are decent pressers - Gallas, Kaboul, Hutton, Ekotto - but often it's too late by the time it gets there.

It doesn't have to be about changing personnel necessarily, it's about coaching. I really don't think it's brain surgery either. It's about physical and mental conditioning. You can still play good attacking football, in fact it's conducive to it, and the best teams all master the duel discipline. And we must start to balance or we will never achieve any meaningful, sustainable success.

There were some really poor performances tonight, crowned by the largely inept offerings of Defoe and Pavlyuchenko. Defoe's two well poached goals will disguise his woeful inadequacies and almost complete inability to to retain possession of the football.
It's great being a decent poacher, but it is simply not enough for a side with serious ambitions at titles and regular CL football.

Pavlyuchenko is only marginally - very marginally - more able to retain possession. Both of these are blown off the ball by the slightest gust of wind.

Bale was poor tonight in all ways. Offensively he wasted some great positions with poor delivery, and - more importantly - defensively he was too lethargic too often. He gave the ball away several times unnecessarily and made the measily total of 14 passes the whole game. Lennon was on the pitch about 40 minutes less and made more passes (17), set up a goal.

Ekotto was pretty good, second (or was it third) goal aside. But I think almost by default I'd go with Palacios by a whisker over Kranjcar or Gomes. He was his usually busy self, just about held a bunch very graft averse pussies together and set up the goal that ultimately earned us the point that secured top spot.

When asked about spurs record goalscoring in the CL he laughed "yeah but we probably broke the record for conceding as well".

I took that as a "royal" "we". Ratings:

Gomes 8 - made a couple of outstanding saves.

Corluka 5.5 - An intelligent footballer but so slow, it scares me. Should have pressed Jansen much tighter as well for their goal. He should never get his place back. Sad, but true.

Gallas 6.5 - Decent enough game.

Bassong 6.5 - Decent enough game

Ekotto 7 - I'm undecided whether he could have done better for their second. I also think Bale has got to be tracking their RB.

Kranjcar 7 - A decent shift considering he was moved about and has not played much and certainly not CM.

Palacios 7.1 - It must be hard being the only **** north of the defence that actually has a tenacious instinct.

Jenas 6.5 - While he was on I thought he was looking like our liveliest player.

Bale 5.5 - I am one of his biggest fans, but I want him to be a complete player. He must improve his work off the ball and team awareness. He must help his LB and he must involve himself more in the simplicities of a game.

Lennon 7 - Put in a pretty decent shift and played a beautiful little ball for Defoe. One of the best passes I've seen him play.

Pavluchenko 4.5 - Weak.

Defoe 5 - Two goals put a very false gloss on what was by most standards an entirely insipid performance.

Keane 4 - According to the stats he pointed accurately 4 times out of 8 attempted points.

:bang:

stopped reading after that unbelievable comment.

 

[Gilzeanking]

I'm a BAE fan , but after I noticed him make another 40 yard pass out of defence which Spurs players had no chance of reaching , I then saw him do precisely the same thing every time he got the ball . Twente's good pressure periods when their crowd got going were facilitated by BAE sending every pass back to them for a period of 25 minutes in the second half .

He brought them straight back on to us each time . I was stunned to see him fuck up on that level
BAE 4

Pav was in focus ,his touch was surprisingly good..little passes here and there...no goal threat to speak of mind , Pav 5

AL...so now theres no Mod to dribble into oppo defences and slip the ball thru to VDV....so up steps AL to dribble into an oppo defence and slip a pass to Defoe....bloody marvellous that he's back with us at last MoM 7.5

WP better from the man ,good harassing for our goal 7

Winning the group, no mean feat well done everybody .

 

[WhiteHart4Ever]

Hmmm...weirdest of games, but so it goes. Top of the group. Job well done.

Gomes 6 Not at direct fault for any of the goals, had one brilliant save

Corluka 6 Not impressed with him today. Short of match fitness and some terrible passing. Guess overall ok but tempted to give him a 5
Bassong/Gallas 6 Average performances, gave the attackers too much space
BAE 6 Not at his best, but ok

Lennon 7 He's getting there. Slowly, but surely. Magnificent assist.
Palacios 7 Guess who's back Guess who's back Guess who's back? More to come but vastly improved
Kranjcar 7.5 the closest we get to tHudd in terms of passing. Good effort in unfamiliar position. MOM
Bale 6 He can't be bad, that kid, but very far from his best. Hope he was saving up his energy for Sunday

Defoe 7 Get's a 7 for two goals, but in fairness didnt do much more and struggled before the first goal I thought
Pav 6 Ok display, but not much more

Jenas 7 looked bright before he was forced off.
Crouch Not enough time

 

[double0]

The referee was a joke and our goals against record is a joke...even with Palacios in central midfield accompanied centrally at the back with Gallas Bassong something is WRONG tactically as to why we concede so much and again fail to win a game outside London.

Gomes- 6 Three goals conceded two from set pieces.

Corluka-6 positionally much better than Hutton thought he'd improve us defensively but still conceded three goals.

Gallas-6 good covering for Corluka when pace failed.

Bassong-6 Thought he should have done better aerially on 20's headed goal.

Assou-Ekotto-6 Has to learn quickly that the long ball is ill effective when Crouch isn't on the field did that way to much allowing 20 an easy change over possession.
Kranjcar-7 Looked lost on the right impressive centrally.

Jenas-6 Nothing spectacular, unfairly booked for being injured but could have played the injury better and needed Arry to tell him to go down so to give the sub time to warm up.

Palacios-7 improving.

Bale-7 People going on about Bale passing should balance that off with the amount of dribbles thought he carried the ball well and abaited pressure.

Pavluychenko-5 must be the weakest Russian around blown off the ball far to easily first touch control with back to goal weak and because of this allowed 20 to break through his lack of strength and control...has become a luxury player that should only be used as a super sub.

Defoe-7 Well taken goals pound for pound stronger than Pav, passing stats not part of his game needs good service and occasionally can score on own accord.

Subs:
Lennon-8 excellent assist -much better the Ashely Young (had to add that) need to score goals though.

Keane-5 times up dude.

Crouch- n/a

Redknapp 5/5 Open attacking football is good to watch but football is a game of two halves attack is as important as defence and we can defend so there's something fundamentally wrong Arry.

 

[sasa_moto]

Gomes 6 – some good saves, but looked like he wasn't 100 pct concetrated on game
Charlie 6 – solid, could stay tighter to his opponent sometimes
Gallas 7,5 – again our best defensive player. MOM
Bassong 6 – looked unsecure, decent enough
BAE 6,5 defensively 1 offensively – I don't know if I can post it, but I was wondering if he had any brains at all, WTF was that constant giving away of possesion?
Kranjcar 5 as RM, 7 as CM – if I was him, I would quit Spurs ASAP. He can play as LM, CM, off the striker, and when he plays (rarely) he gets played as RM, where even my mother knows he's shit. WTF?
Wilson 5 – it would be 6 but he made gap in the wall for their third.
Jenas 5,5 – average player in body made for football. Talent can't be teached.
Bale 6 – it seemed to me that he was thinking 90 pct of effort while dribbling would be enough to beat his man, but usually it wasn't. Glad that he wasn't the one who picked the injury in that cold night.
Lennon 7 – great assist
Pav 5,5 – he looks to me as someone who should come on the pitch as a substitute. The same apply to Crouch.
Defoe 7 for scoring, 5 for overall play. He is small, but Luka, Lennon and VDV are small to, and they don't get pushed from the ball so easily

 

[14/04/91]

Noone was outstanding but it was a strange 'dead rubber' of a match so wouldn't expect much else, especially with a massive game on Sunday.

Gallas looked calm & covered well. Corluka looked fitter and more mobile than the start of the season.
Kranjcar looked bright and inventive in midfield.
Pav held the ball up well and his movement was good, especially first half.

On the negative side, I thought Palacios lacked discipline although this could be seen as 'his game' - chasing the ball at every opportunity. I just feel (esp in Europe) he could do with sitting in front of the centre halves and not flying in 50 yards from goal. He seemed to do this at 3-3 and we didn't concede for 35 minutes!!
BAE was awful I'm afraid. No attempt to jump with his man for the 2nd goal, despite taking up a good position. He did this Saturday when he didn't even try to jump with Zigic. His passing (over 10 yards) was woeful and lazy.

 

[HertsYid]

i thought no one deserved better than a 6 today. Palacious has got a lot of praise here today. anyone got the stats on how many times the guy gave the ball away / how many successful tackles he put in? it was never a 7-7.5 perfomrance as most seem to give him (then again maybe im being harsh on the rankings). lennon did ok when he was on and jenas seemed to be tacking the game by its neck before he went off injured.

the ref was shocking.

only plus point for me is that by feburay and the next round, there will be 3 or 4 players who will be able to come back into our side and strengthen us considerably.

still, well done overall for winning the group boys

 

[BPR_U16]

Defoe scored two, can't ask for any more from him than that.

I can - yes we need someone to put the ball in the net, but he can't be invisible for the rest of the game.

I hope we get an upgrade in January.

 

[AngerManagement]

First off, I have to say that this game was largely irrelevant for me. I wouldn't have minded too much if we'd gone out of europe entirely - with dignity - at the group stage, and been able to concentrate on the league from here on in.

I know what you mean in terms of maintaining our CL status via the league being the most important thing for long term success and money etc (two seasons of CL group stage money is worth more to us than one extended run)

Having a second spell in the CL next year coupled with our high profile exploits this season would no doubt give us a great chance of signing some top notch players for next season too (also the budget to sign and pay their wages with the safety of CL money again)

BUT and this is a big but....

We have been striving and dreaming for soooo long of making the CL and showcasing ourselves on the biggest stage and after so many years of looking on enviously as other teams take on the elite of Europe we are finally in the position to do so ourselves. How can we be satisfied with going out with our heads held high when we have an excellent oppportunity to progress and have more nights like the one that saw Inter crumble at the Lane?

You have to be in it to win it, yea we all know we have little to no chance of actually winning the CL what with the likes of BArca and Real in our way but that doesn't mean we shouldn't want to.

The fact is we have a pretty big and well covered squad and frankly I am not so sure how much being in the CL has effected our league form thus far (injuries have had a bigger impact, has the extra CL games been the source of these injuires? I'd say not)

The confidence from progressing in the CL may even help us in our league campaign.

Thus far in the league we have only had a handful of truly poor results, Wigan at home, West Ham away and Bolton Away are the only games I can really single out as been poor results in terms of the effort we saw on the pitch and to be honest we saw as many if not more such performances last season when we were not even in Europe so I don't think the CL can be totally blamed for this.

PRogress in the CL does not have to hamper our league campaign and no spurs fan should be quite happy to see us go out because this is where we have always wanted to be and no we are there we should want to go as far as we can.

 

[The Apprentice]

Our defending as a team is fucking shit. Frustrates the hell out of me. Don't like how Redknapp laughs it all off.

Aside from that. this was the biggest non event 3-3 draw you will ever see. Felt like a friendly.

MoM was the ref - he was brilliant. Creative, insightful and novel. A star turn.

AC milan next round please. Their defence is older and slower than Inter's but without the attackign prowess of Eto'o and Sneijder. We'll give em the runarrrraaaand.

 

[saintlyspur]

thought palacios defoe lennon done ok but my gripe is with gomes i thought he was very poor should have done better with the penalty looked dodgy on some of the crosses but that free kick well ffs there were six of us screaming at the telly for him to stand in the middle of the goal before it was taken any decently hit shot and it would have been a goal when it went in he was nowhere near it not even close the useless f***** clown

 

[ShelfSide18]

First off, I have to say that this game was largely irrelevant for me. I wouldn't have minded too much if we'd gone out of europe entirely - with dignity - at the group stage, and been able to concentrate on the league from here on in. The fact that we've qualified, and topped the group is, for me, a massive, but possibly counterproductive bonus. But at least we can forget it now for a couple of months and hopefully focus on the league.

Hard to weigh up this game as it lacked any kind of clear pattern or consistent quality. It was like every time a team scored, they took control of the game for a little spell. We did have a couple of periods where it looked like we were in total control, only for that to be punctured by the spanish refereeing equivalent of Basil Fawlty deciding to liven up a slightly dull game by making up his own rules.

Twente aren't a bad side to be fair, and they also had their share of the game, usually after each time they scored, then we'd score again and take control again until the ref decided they should have a goal and the flow of the game changed again.

There is a recurring theme running through our whole season, and that is our inability to press the ball with any genuine tenacity all over the pitch. We will never keep clean sheets when the opposition are allowed so much unchallenged time on the ball.

It has to start at the front, but unfortunately we possibly have the three worst exponents of this in world football in Pav, Defoe and Keane. Then you Bale and Lennon wide...no real pressing there either. Then, unless Palacios or Jenas (and even he's not as good at it as Palacios) plays you have poor/weak pressing in the centre. Most of our - now - regular back four are decent pressers - Gallas, Kaboul, Hutton, Ekotto - but often it's too late by the time it gets there.

It doesn't have to be about changing personnel necessarily, it's about coaching. I really don't think it's brain surgery either. It's about physical and mental conditioning. You can still play good attacking football, in fact it's conducive to it, and the best teams all master the duel discipline. And we must start to balance or we will never achieve any meaningful, sustainable success.

There were some really poor performances tonight, crowned by the largely inept offerings of Defoe and Pavlyuchenko. Defoe's two well poached goals will disguise his woeful inadequacies and almost complete inability to to retain possession of the football.
It's great being a decent poacher, but it is simply not enough for a side with serious ambitions at titles and regular CL football.

Pavlyuchenko is only marginally - very marginally - more able to retain possession. Both of these are blown off the ball by the slightest gust of wind.

Bale was poor tonight in all ways. Offensively he wasted some great positions with poor delivery, and - more importantly - defensively he was too lethargic too often. He gave the ball away several times unnecessarily and made the measily total of 14 passes the whole game. Lennon was on the pitch about 40 minutes less and made more passes (17), set up a goal.

Ekotto was pretty good, second (or was it third) goal aside. But I think almost by default I'd go with Palacios by a whisker over Kranjcar or Gomes. He was his usually busy self, just about held a bunch very graft averse pussies together and set up the goal that ultimately earned us the point that secured top spot.

When asked about spurs record goalscoring in the CL he laughed "yeah but we probably broke the record for conceding as well".

I took that as a "royal" "we"

I understand and agree that we as team need to press well, be more tenacious and graft hard off the ball to complement the talents we have on the ball but I think you've multiplied a problem in your head a thousand times over - and have created one that is far bigger than what we see on the pitch. Not denying that we could be better, not at all, but as I have said a hundred times over, you don't finish 4th, or top of your Champs League group for that matter without doing most things well. It's almost like you paint the picture that we are great on the ball but when we lose it we do fuck all, which isn't the case - it's just sometimes we switch off and forget what we should be doing which is probably the difference between us being the title winning team we could be, and the team we are which is very close to being top drawer.

You seem to think it's Redknapp's coaching, I'm not so sure, I think it's more a mentality issue, that we can switch off and be too lethargic (understandable for a youngish side) and that's why I'm fucking chuffed with bringing Gallas too the club because he's a winner, he's always talking to the players, motivating them and hopefully telling them to switch on when we haven't got the ball. Redknapp can coach a pressing game all he wants, but it's up to the players to go out and do it, and do it for 90 minutes like we need to. I honestly don't think Harry doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to that, and I wouldn't listen to fuck all of what he says when Sky shove a microphone in his face, as I'm sure his jokey comments to interviewers are replaced with harsh words in the dressing room.

So yeah, lighten up you old bugger, even you are permitted a little smile when Spurs are top of our hard CL group first time of asking, and still well in the title race. :up:

 

[Mr Pink]

I know what you mean in terms of maintaining our CL status via the league being the most important thing for long term success and money etc (two seasons of CL group stage money is worth more to us than one extended run)

Having a second spell in the CL next year coupled with our high profile exploits this season would no doubt give us a great chance of signing some top notch players for next season too (also the budget to sign and pay their wages with the safety of CL money again)

BUT and this is a big but....

We have been striving and dreaming for soooo long of making the CL and showcasing ourselves on the biggest stage and after so many years of looking on enviously as other teams take on the elite of Europe we are finally in the position to do so ourselves. How can we be satisfied with going out with our heads held high when we have an excellent oppportunity to progress and have more nights like the one that saw Inter crumble at the Lane?

You have to be in it to win it, yea we all know we have little to no chance of actually winning the CL what with the likes of BArca and Real in our way but that doesn't mean we shouldn't want to.

The fact is we have a pretty big and well covered squad and frankly I am not so sure how much being in the CL has effected our league form thus far (injuries have had a bigger impact, has the extra CL games been the source of these injuires? I'd say not)

The confidence from progressing in the CL may even help us in our league campaign.

Thus far in the league we have only had a handful of truly poor results, Wigan at home, West Ham away and Bolton Away are the only games I can really single out as been poor results in terms of the effort we saw on the pitch and to be honest we saw as many if not more such performances last season when we were not even in Europe so I don't think the CL can be totally blamed for this.

PRogress in the CL does not have to hamper our league campaign and no spurs fan should be quite happy to see us go out because this is where we have always wanted to be and no we are there we should want to go as far as we can.

Excellent point.

 

[Mr Pink]

I understand and agree that we as team need to press well, be more tenacious and graft hard off the ball to complement the talents we have on the ball but I think you've multiplied a problem in your head a thousand times over - and have created one that is far bigger than what we see on the pitch. Not denying that we could be better, not at all, but as I have said a hundred times over, you don't finish 4th, or top of your Champs League group for that matter without doing most things well. It's almost like you paint the picture that we are great on the ball but when we lose it we do fuck all, which isn't the case - it's just sometimes we switch off and forget what we should be doing which is probably the difference between us being the title winning team we could be, and the team we are which is very close to being top drawer.

You seem to think it's Redknapp's coaching, I'm not so sure, I think it's more a mentality issue, that we can switch off and be too lethargic (understandable for a youngish side) and that's why I'm fucking chuffed with bringing Gallas too the club because he's a winner, he's always talking to the players, motivating them and hopefully telling them to switch on when we haven't got the ball. Redknapp can coach a pressing game all he wants, but it's up to the players to go out and do it, and do it for 90 minutes like we need to. I honestly don't think Harry doesn't know what he's doing when it comes to that, and I wouldn't listen to fuck all of what he says when Sky shove a microphone in his face, as I'm sure his jokey comments to interviewers are replaced with harsh words in the dressing room.

So yeah, lighten up you old bugger, even you are permitted a little smile when Spurs are top of our hard CL group first time of asking, and still well in the title race. :up:

That has got to be pretty close to the money I reckon.

 

[Damian99]

The only good thing palacios did was play a major part in Defoe's second goal, his passing was awful as usual and his touch at times was just as bad. Although i don't think it was a free kick he was part of a four man wall that he decided to break from and if you look at that goal again it the ball went past the end of the wall he really should have been stood.

Niko was probably the best player overall.

 

[Damian99]

But I think almost by default I'd go with Palacios by a whisker over Kranjcar or Gomes. He was his usually busy self, just about held a bunch very graft averse pussies together and set up the goal that ultimately earned us the point that secured top spot.

:rofl: Set up? He did well initially then totally ignored Defoe who was square of him. To be fair after winning the ball like he did and getting into the box he has every right to take a shot on.

He got lucky that Defoe was onto the rebound to slot home, credit to Defoe for that.

 

[degoose]

First off, I have to say that this game was largely irrelevant for me. I wouldn't have minded too much if we'd gone out of europe entirely - with dignity - at the group stage, and been able to concentrate on the league from here on in. The fact that we've qualified, and topped the group is, for me, a massive, but possibly counterproductive bonus. But at least we can forget it now for a couple of months and hopefully focus on the league.

Hard to weigh up this game as it lacked any kind of clear pattern or consistent quality. It was like every time a team scored, they took control of the game for a little spell. We did have a couple of periods where it looked like we were in total control, only for that to be punctured by the spanish refereeing equivalent of Basil Fawlty deciding to liven up a slightly dull game by making up his own rules.

Twente aren't a bad side to be fair, and they also had their share of the game, usually after each time they scored, then we'd score again and take control again until the ref decided they should have a goal and the flow of the game changed again.

There is a recurring theme running through our whole season, and that is our inability to press the ball with any genuine tenacity all over the pitch. We will never keep clean sheets when the opposition are allowed so much unchallenged time on the ball.

It has to start at the front, but unfortunately we possibly have the three worst exponents of this in world football in Pav, Defoe and Keane. Then you Bale and Lennon wide...no real pressing there either. Then, unless Palacios or Jenas (and even he's not as good at it as Palacios) plays you have poor/weak pressing in the centre. Most of our - now - regular back four are decent pressers - Gallas, Kaboul, Hutton, Ekotto - but often it's too late by the time it gets there.

It doesn't have to be about changing personnel necessarily, it's about coaching. I really don't think it's brain surgery either. It's about physical and mental conditioning. You can still play good attacking football, in fact it's conducive to it, and the best teams all master the duel discipline. And we must start to balance or we will never achieve any meaningful, sustainable success.

There were some really poor performances tonight, crowned by the largely inept offerings of Defoe and Pavlyuchenko. Defoe's two well poached goals will disguise his woeful inadequacies and almost complete inability to to retain possession of the football.
It's great being a decent poacher, but it is simply not enough for a side with serious ambitions at titles and regular CL football.

Pavlyuchenko is only marginally - very marginally - more able to retain possession. Both of these are blown off the ball by the slightest gust of wind.

Bale was poor tonight in all ways. Offensively he wasted some great positions with poor delivery, and - more importantly - defensively he was too lethargic too often. He gave the ball away several times unnecessarily and made the measily total of 14 passes the whole game. Lennon was on the pitch about 40 minutes less and made more passes (17), set up a goal.

Ekotto was pretty good, second (or was it third) goal aside. But I think almost by default I'd go with Palacios by a whisker over Kranjcar or Gomes. He was his usually busy self, just about held a bunch very graft averse pussies together and set up the goal that ultimately earned us the point that secured top spot.

When asked about spurs record goalscoring in the CL he laughed "yeah but we probably broke the record for conceding as well".

I took that as a "royal" "we". Ratings:

Gomes 8 - made a couple of outstanding saves.

Corluka 5.5 - An intelligent footballer but so slow, it scares me. Should have pressed Jansen much tighter as well for their goal. He should never get his place back. Sad, but true.

Gallas 6.5 - Decent enough game.

Bassong 6.5 - Decent enough game

Ekotto 7 - I'm undecided whether he could have done better for their second. I also think Bale has got to be tracking their RB.

Kranjcar 7 - A decent shift considering he was moved about and has not played much and certainly not CM.

Palacios 7.1 - It must be hard being the only **** north of the defence that actually has a tenacious instinct.

Jenas 6.5 - While he was on I thought he was looking like our liveliest player.

Bale 5.5 - I am one of his biggest fans, but I want him to be a complete player. He must improve his work off the ball and team awareness. He must help his LB and he must involve himself more in the simplicities of a game.

Lennon 7 - Put in a pretty decent shift and played a beautiful little ball for Defoe. One of the best passes I've seen him play.

Pavluchenko 4.5 - Weak.

Defoe 5 - Two goals put a very false gloss on what was by most standards an entirely insipid performance.

Keane 4 - According to the stats he pointed accurately 4 times out of 8 attempted points.

lol i was reading the ratings here but didnt see who had written it , after seeing the comments about palacios i suddenly thought is this perhaps BC, i was right .

I do agree about palacios being the only midfielder doing soem heavy defending , for me as well krancy was wandering all over the place although he did look better in the middle than on the right.