Thought that Holtby - and Sig to be fair - put the corners into the right areas - but we don't often actually get in the end of them. Most of the time today, Dempsey was called for pushing...... On a positive note, I reckon Holtby and Bale will form a decent link up
I think it'll be interesting to see Holtby playing in behind Adebayor. Might be just what he needs to get back into form.
Other than the first few mins when they clearly had a problem picking up Long from Lukaku, the defence looked pretty solid to me and the weren't too many opportunities in the 2nd half to see how they were performing!! We were playing a back 2 for 40 mins.... As it was, I thought Walker was (again) the main cause of initial defensive problems and it is the recurring issue with his switching off and getting caught out of position. You would hope that this would be being addressed at the Lodge.
I thought Holtby was excellent today as well; settled in nicely, can pick out a pass and put in a shift. The one criticism I have of him is that he can be a bit reckless with his tackles. There was one towards the end of the game, at the corner where Popov got sent off, where the defender went to clear the ball forward and he jumped in for a tackle that was high and could have been dangerous if he made contact! Thankfully it didn't otherwise it would have almost certainly been a straight red.
I understand what you're saying Lotak, but I think that one was an attempt to block the clearance, rather than a tackle.
I see what you mean, but what was concerning to me was that Long was beating Dawson in the air, amongst other things. They seemed to get through our back line a few times, and although nothing came of it it was concerning to me. Walker is a massive issue for us though I agree, we all know how good he can be but he's been mostly poor this season with a couple of exceptions.
Completely agree PNP. Holtby looks like he's going to fill in a position that we're been struggling with since VDV left. The Defoe Ade partnership doesn't seem to be very productive, so hopefully holtby will get the best out of Ade. - we need that to happen pretty badly! To be fair to Dawson, hardly anyone beats him and I think the credit needs to go to long. He did really well and has a hell of a leap on him. It won't be as tough as that for Dawson every week I don't think.
I completely understand that and what Relayer posted, and I know he went for the block; I should have said "block" instead of "tackle" so I am rephrasing my statement. That being said, you see those going wrong where the blocker makes contact with the defender and he ends up getting sent off for a reckless challenge. I admire Holtby's persistance and energy to make that sort of challenge, but he should be wary as some referees might not take too kindly to it. Challenges no longer need to make contact for it to be deemed "reckless and dangerous". I hope that Holtby does not foul to to one of those. But its a minor point! He was excellent, the fans seemed to love him already (judging from the number of chants he got) and he looks like a player with the positive attacking midfielder ability combined with the persistant defensive midfielder mentality. Shame Germany bagged him first!
We've now won 7 away games in the league, which is what we managed throughout the whole of last season. Need to improve our home form somewhat, though.
Yeah of course credit to Long in beating someone who must have 4 or 5 inches on him in terms of height to an ariel ball. Hopefully we can gain momentum from this win (AVB speak here!) and push on, Defoe's injury is of course a concern but I understand we're waiting on a scan tomorrow to see how serious it is. With any luck we'll have him back asap. Is Ade out of ACON yet or has the match not been played yet?
Holtby appears to play with great energy and verve. I was also struck by his readiness to except responsibility, his positive attitude and style of play. We know he is still young, but he is an exciting prospect for the club. Obviously the best is yet to come from him. Like others on this board, I believe he is just the tonic Ade requires., Dembele should also benifit from his presence. All this for 1.5 million.,well done to the reconnaissance team and well done Levy.
The first half raised the usual concerns, so no need to dwell on them. Its not Demps game to lead the line, he likes to arrive late, pick up 2nd balls, which is fine until there's no-one in the middle to pick up a 2nd ball from!...but he's a quality option! . To help him, our wingers should think less of fizzing one across the 6yd line, and pull it back to the pen spot/18 yd line, where Demps is more likely to be. On Holtby, its been a long time since a new signing looked at home straight away like he's played in the team all season. My opinion here is not based on 20mins the other night and this afternoon, I watched him play a game for Schalke a couple of times too, and you get the same from him each game...100%. What I like is he's always on the move, wants the ball and uses it very well, an extremely accurate first time passer. You can see he's one of them that just likes playing, has a great appetite for a game, and that looks like it could be infectious on the others. The worry is that its a shot from outside the area that seems to be the main source of efforts on goal lately, not one I want to rely on but there you go. The game was handed to us with the red, I doubt the win 11 v 11, it had draw all over it till then.
Just to go back to a point I raised several times towards the end of 2012 and which caught my eye again today, which is our amatuerish pre-match warm up. I wasn't at the game, so unusually for me I had to watch on TV and during the pre-match warm up, I saw Bale standing around chatting, I saw Parker standing around chatting and I saw Holtby standing around chatting with Freund. In the background I saw players who were seemingly walking around. I sometimes think I am on my own on this one, but when I then witness yet another sub-standard first half performance, I really do start to think the two are connected. Thankfully it came good for us in the 2nd half, although I agree with Notso, it had draw written all over it until the red card.
I agree with nearly all of this NotSo., but I can't agree with you on the 11 v 11. You see, we had Dempsey on the pitch again, So it was them who had the extra man. That was of course, untill the ref balanced things up a bit, by sending Popoff........ off.
We play below par in virtually every first half, so I can't believe that it's a coincidence. Can't somebody have a word?
Yeah, I like the way that Holtby never seems to go slower than a jog when he doesn't have the ball, we have a few players that find a bit of space or don't feel like they're in the game so they stroll around or stop all together. I also like that he's an all rounder, he gives everything a go in attack which creates the kind of unpredictability we need to break down defences. One moment he's helping out a winger, the next he's playing deeper and then he's off testing the opposition's offside trap with some smart runs getting behind the opposition. You're right to say that Dempsey doesn't suit getting on the end of balls across the 6 yard box but so what? I'd tell him to do it anyway if that's what we need him to do. Defoe infuriates me more than anyone at times, he's well suited to attacking the 6 yard box yet how many times do we see Bale send the ball across the 6 yard box and Defoe is even near there to get on the end of it. It was summed up for me today when Bale had got through on the right side of the area and sent it across for someone to knock in, as usual. If they show a replay tonight, watch Defoe he starts off in a good position and runs towards goal but then stops sprinting and jogs allowing more players to get between him and the ball so that by the time he realises he's not going to get the cutback he wants it's too late for him to even get close to the cross. As you say though the same applies to our wingers too, they need to look up from time to time and see where people are, you can't always look to do what suits your game best.
Well if we're bad in the first half, and until recently everyone was certain that we were bad in the last 10 minutes, we must be the best team over 35 second half minutes in any league anywhere.
