result, if true. to think that sandro, parker and dembele could play, is just a massive weight off of our shoulders. particularly AVB's i'd imagine.
Think it's fair to say how much we appreciate Benny now. I've always been a big fan of Benny's though I appreciate he has his faults. I do think Jan has covered more than adequately but Benny's return will be a massive boost to the team. BEEEENNOIT ASSOUU-EKOOOOOOOOTOO!
Yes, that was an almighty cock-up for which Naughton bears most of the blame. However, in our current predicament, is it any worse than persisting with a too slow Gallas?
I don't like Naughton at LB, but yes, it is the lesser of the two evils having him there and Verts back in the centre in place of Gallas.
Me neither and I agree with you that I'd have rathered he started there so Vertonghen could play centrally. It's a tough call though because on the one hand you've got a young full back who's looked a bit shaky when teams have closed him down on the ball, or you can move a centre back out there and pick 2 of our other 3 quality centre backs in the middle. Had Naughton started and played another suicidal backpass or made a different mistake I suspect some of the same fans calling for him to start would be saying Vertonghen should've played out there.
He could always play Dawson instead of Gallas. But, I'm pretty sure he won't do that. So, looks like we're stuck with Capt Slow until Kaboul is first again
Dawson's slower than Gallas, the biggest problem with Gallas is that he tires and picks up small injuries as the game wears on. If AVB actually subbed him when he started holding limping a bit and turning slower then it would help a lot.
My daughter bought me a t shirt at the lane with a picture of Benny and the words "Dontcha wish yer left back was BAE" I think we have really missed him and Dembele. As for the Learning from his mistakes AVB doesn't seem as stubborn as Redknapp. I was never a fan of his to begin with but I hope he makes a success of it but to do so he needs to stop screwing up our substitutions
I still think AVB is doing reasonably well. After a predictably slow start due to all sorts of transtions, he got the club winning. Then we lost 4/4 (or 4/5) of our best defensive mids/playmakers. Predictably bad results have ensued. Criticism of AVB for not starting the correct fourth or fifth choices strikes me as unfair. Neither Carroll nor Huddelestone are adequate to play against Man City or Chelsea. The biggest problem has not been AVB's defensiveness, but our total inability to defend a lead. While I agree we're so awful at it we should just keep attacking, who does that? Even last year, we just about parked the bus at Liverpool away, and played defensively at other times, generally with good results. I can only hope Kaboul and Beni coming back can solve this problem. I can see blaming AVB both for playing too defensively, and for our inability to defend effectively, but I'm inclined to give him and team more time. I also feel the key mistake this year was not anything AVB did, but not getting Moutinho. It really looks like that could be the difference for fourth.
Modric played against City alongside Kranjcar in a 442. Thudd replaced Kranjcar at half time. And people say AVB makes ridiculous selections. Dawson played as well......
I had a disagreement with my housemate (a Spurs fan) on this. I claimed that the match was easily winnable for Spurs had they done what they do best (attack). I thought City were a bit jaded in the first half and there for the taking. I thought the decision not to start Defoe was borderline criminal. I bet Kompany and Nastastic were relieved they were up against Adebayor as opposed to a quick mobile centre forward with a low centre of gravity good at running between the lines. The moment I saw the line up I did something I never normally do, changed my prediction on ITKS from a 1-1 draw to a 2-1 City win. I knew AVB had no desire to take the game to City and win which was disappointing given his courageousness against United at Old Trafford. I can only think he was worried about Yaya Toure's pace and ability to burst through the middle, being honest City's midfield is so much better than United's it's laughable. I said to my housemate at 0-1 there was no way City wouldn't score. City (and Chelsea to a lesser extent) are the type of team that can find a way through anybody determined to just defend. United are the opposite, they play around teams by counterattacking, that is partly why Arsenal never beat them nowadays.
Modric missed the first United game, first because Everton was postponed, the other game was W.Brom away. Don't know what you're thinking of Power but PNP's right, Sandro and Parker together were toilet.
According to http://www.myfootballfacts.com/Tottenham_Hotspur_Results_2011-12.html they started against Wigan W WBA W Sunderland W Chelsea D Norwich W Swansea D Everton L Chelsea D Swansea W Sunderland D QPR L 19 points from 11 games
16 points from 30, followed by a more familiar MF of Sandro and Modric with 10 points from the last 4 games. Your post proves that we only won 50% of games with Parker Sandro holding, not sure where you're going with it. That said, I'm sure none of us need stats to remind us that when Harry went pissing around trying to make 5 in our MF, using the players mentioned as a holding MF pair, things went horribly wrong.
When we were playing well at the end of 2011 we won just as well with Sandro and Parker as we did with the more normal formation. Thats the first six games - 14 points. When we were playing badly in early 2012 it was equally bad whoever was playing by the look of it, until the last four games. I missed the Swansea home game in my original post. It just isn't true to say that two holding midfielders didn't work, even under Harry
Check your link, Parker didn't play the last 4 games. It just is true we generally had worse results with them and I'm not arguing this case on an individual basis anymore. You;re arguing with your own evidence, lets leave it there, well I am anyway.
