Found this article from the Mirror columnist Darren Lewis. http://www.mirrorfootball.co.uk/opi...-Cup-penalty-against-Stoke-article802339.html Sounds like he talking sense and B-----ks at the same time. While Pav is playing his way into the Spurs XI, we have 1 less cup to worry about. Thoughts?
i don't really know what the point of darren lewis' article is to be honest mate. he's sort of stated the obvious. My first reaction was "****ing hell Pav, you're ****e, but at least that's a few more games we don't have to worry about". - and that's what he appears to have typed up, as well as reminding us of how bad we were against teams below us last season.
Agreed it has done us a favour in getting into the top four but i think i speak for most spurs fans we still would like a bit of silverware. Currently we are now in the Europa (which in my opinion would have been more happy to be knocked out of than the Carling cup), FA cup which Arry needs to make one of his top priorities and the premier league which we have no chance of winning!
I don't think that it's done us a favour at all. With a number of players apparently on the verge of returning from injury, it would have been an excellent opportunity to continue to give them games, as well as blood some youngsters. Add to that the loss of one realistic chance of winning silverware and it's a very disappointing exit at the first hurdle, in my opinion. We still have the Europa League and the FA Cup to go for and I hope that Redknapp can get the players up for them, as the performance at the Britannia seemed very flat. If players like Pavlyuchenko and Dos Santos aren't motivated to push for a place in the first XI, then move them on in January and either replace them or use the likes of Kane and Townsend.
Going out of a cup is never a good thing in my opinion, whether that be from the Carling Cup to the Champions League, silverware is always fantastic to win. The Carling Cup, like PNP said was an ideal platform for players returning from injury to get a run out and gain match fitness. Would also have been good for the likes of Carroll, Townsend, Livermore and others to gain more first team experience, therefore going out has now hindered their progression in my eyes.
No Pav didn't do us a favour, I want us to win a trophy. Pav also hasn't done himself a favour by being piss poor all season, and the sooner he's out the club the better if he's going to continue to play like this. Also as Harry pointed out, Pav's miss put the pressure on our youngsters and poor old Luongo had to suffer being the last failed kick. I'm sure he'll recover, but still not nice for the kid on his debut.
OK you could say he is putting a positive spin on a defeat but apart from that it is well constructed nonsense. As others have said we have a large number of players who we pay to play, many of them will not now get the game time they need to progress themselves or the club. This also happened just at the time when Harry was rotating the team for the first time and this means that Harry himself is losing valuable experience in the art of doing it.
I hear what you are saying, PNP, and I am not going to pretend that I was disappointed we didn't win at Stoke. Having said that, I have every sympathy and empathy for and with Harry. His first priority has got to be the league, and he's got to plan his squads around that priority. I think he did that correctly when setting up the team he put out against Stoke. I don't blame him for our loss (and you probably don't, either, given the players we had out injured, or were resting). What annoyed me about that match is the fact that the senior players, who had a chance to really make a point, screwed things up for us: Pav by being his usual lazy and disinterested self, and Gomes for being next to useless. Even players like GDS couldn't raise their game enough to convince me they are worthy of wearing the shirt. Yes, I know that Stoke is probably one of the hardest grounds to play, and that it was always going to be an uphill task for what ever team Harry put out; but it's not the losing that bothers so much, as opposed to the apparently lack of effort on some of the players' part. I do feel sorry for the youngsters, who have now lost a potentially valuable avenue for working their way into Harry's future plans.
You can't say its a good idea to play the youngsters then say we didn't take it seriously enough if we lose (because of which we won't have the opportunity to play youngsters). Its a logically flawed argument! NB the article made a lot of sense and he also wrote another about why we need to keep the manager that is linked to on the left hand side, worth a read.
I suspect Pav doesn't feel motivated to 'prove a point' because Harry always tends to select Defoe ahead of him whatever form they are in. Does anyone believe that if we had won 5-0 with a hat trick from Pav and two goals from Dos Santos - then either would have been in the team on Saturday.
Given that Defoe and Adebayor have both scored in each of the last two games, then probably not. Had Pavlyuchenko and Dos Santos continued to play well in Carling Cup and Europa League games, then they would have got a chance at some point and they definitely would get time from the bench. Failing to put in a shift merely proved Redknapp is right not to pick him.
The only thing Pav has proved, is that the sooner we get rid of him, the better. Even if I rated him as a player, which I don't, I would still feel the same - his attitude stinks.
My experience as a manager (both with my own staff and watching how other managers interact with theirs) is that most 'attitude' problems stem from the management, not the staff. Harry is paying Pav a massive salary, its Harry's job to get more than that value out of him. I've often managed groups of 30-40 people and sometimes there are one or two of them that are basicaly switched off and hard to motivate, but the vast majority will work hard for you if they understand that you will look after them. Spurs (and to be fair most teams) always seem to have a third of the squad under-performing for one reason or another and the managers simply seem to think it is not their problem.
That's quite true, PS. The problem is, if it's impossible to motivate some of these players without giving them a starting place, then who do we blame? Is Redknapp at fault for either not being able to reach them or not giving them enough time on the pitch? Is Levy to blame for bringing in the wrong targets or failing to replace them when it's clear that they're not right for us? Probably a mixture of the two, but I'd happily see Pavlyuchenko replaced in January.
