Jenas coming on to 'sure it up' is NEVER a sensible move! Oh how we miss Parker and Modric in the middle. We have reverted back to the soft middle type, pre Palacios, concede a goal at the last minute of the match, days. I am losing patience already and I'm not prepared to watch AVB learn all of the lessons that we, the fans, and Harry learnt a long, long time ago. Jenas and Livermore as CMs?!!!!? WTF?? It's 2012 FFS!!!! Steve Clarke must have been laughing to himself. I can see why Modric wants out to be honest. Who is the alternative, or cover, for him?!? Our depth doesn't stretch to his position it seems.
I think that's just the price of trying to do business with teams with vastly bigger budgets than us, Roo. I just hope that Levy knows what he's doing this time or it's going to be a long season. We literally don't have a playmaker in the match squad, which is crazy.
Excuse my double post peeps. Not sure what happened there!! Lukaku was very, very good. Gave Gallas and Vertonghen all kinds of problems when he came on.
Like a young Drogba, frankly. He repeatedly bullied our centre-halves physically, though he didn't quite have the edge to take full advantage of it. If he can keep improving, then he'll be very, very hard to deal with in the future.
Maybe PNP, but we've held our ground over modric all summer like its the be all and end all. The 5 points dropped will be like de javu at the end of this season as well. Time and time again we've played matches with Defoe up front by himself. It just doesn't work. Nor does 2 holding midfielders. we're completely see through and too easy to deal with. Why keep making the same mistakes?! Ahhhhh!!!
Jenas & Gallas shouldn't be near the squad, they are either past it in Gallas's case or simply not good enough regardless of age In Jenas's case, plus 4-2-3-1 is too negative and Defoe can't play as a lone striker, if already avb is making these strange decisions then its a concern.
Er...I don't buy that as an excuse when both Everton and Swansea both have fuller squads and smaller budgets, and aren't doing too bad by their or anyone's standards. I wouldn't mind if I wasn't watching old mistakes come again to haunt. It's like groundhog day.
Great reception for King, particularly on the 26th minute and halftime. Right that's the positives out of the way.... Same old problems left us needing Bale to put in match winning performances over the last couple of games, or maybe even a bit of luck. Was Defoe offside, by the way? Without doubt we need to do some spending over the next week. Might as well get Defoe sold, he's little use to us playing like he did today.
Is anybody in for him? We definitely need another striker. Torres and Sturridge ain't enough for 60 games.
Yes, thank you for your "intelligently disguised" Wum attempt. Be assured that if we do decide to sell, we will notify your ridiculous " rich uncle" of whatever extortionate price we can come up with!..
Defoe's been on the slide since his 5 goal haul against Wigan and I don't think about him for the future of Spurs. I'm thinking like everybody else that we need a striker. I'm also thinking that we need a win to settle nerves.
Having played 75 mins with two DM's only to take one off to 'sure it up' after taking the lead would appear to be strange unless Sandro was injured. Verts looks good but couldn't cover for Gallas when Lukaku came on. Surely Caulker for Gallas would have made more sense - but instead we get Jenas! FFS!! Defoe is just too blinkered and greedy. Never looks up - always shoots regardless! Yes, I do accept his goal was prob legit) Got to give some time but less hopeful than after the Newcastle loss.
I'm personally tired of us needing to give time. Especially when we all know what won't work. It makes me wonder if the powers that be have been paying attention for the past few seasons. Feels like unnecessary regression. I'd have even preferred Caulker on for Defoe with Verts playing in the DM role as he plays there too. Defoe is a powerful player but we need a striker who does what Jelavic does for Everton and what Michu does for Swansea. We miss a Berbatov type intelligent and cunning striker. Someone who finds space in unpredictable ways and strikes without aiming for the keeper. (I don't think Adebayor is the complete answer either.) Also, as far as powerful strikers go, Lukaku would do a better job than Defoe as a player of that type in our single striker system. I'm not hating on Defoe (I know that it probably looks like it) but his goal was off side too.
I would've brought on Sigurdsson for Defoe and, if Sandro was injured, moved Vertonghen into midfield and introduced Caulker at the back. It makes a certain amount of sense, and wouldn't have surrendered the midfield in the way that Jenas' introduction did.
All good points LS - and on seeing Defoes effort this morning it was clearly offside. Didn't look that way live. As HBIC says as well - might have been better to have brought on Caulker and pushed Verts into the middle of the park as he looks comfortable there. But my only reservation is that Gallas was all over the place by that stage and to have further disrupted the back four may have been counter productive.
