Our defending wasn't great yesterday, but I thought City's goal was mainly down to that flash of brilliance from Tevez.
I think Walker was right there. Like PNP said, at the time he left Nasri it was Dzeko who was the one that looked the most dangerous. We had been totally opened up and the best chance he had of stopping a goal was on the line. Not to mention that instead of crossing the City player could have slid it near post/across the goal line at which point Walker would have been there. He could have shot himself with Lloris getting something on it but it bobbling free in the 6 yd box. If he was just a foot to his right he would also have stopped the actual goal too. The ball to Nasri was actually piss poor considering the position they were in. It was a decent finish, from an utter C
From that vid, all of our players in the box have a man each, Dzeko I now agree does slip Daws with some movement but checks. Thats a tough one, and although the rule is you don't leave the man you're marking, Kyle did have an awkward decision, so I think I'll retract a bit of criticism.
As it was scored in the 5th minute, it seems a bit silly to say this, but it was actually against the run of play !! I thought Tevez was their best player yesterday.
I agree with pretty much all of this, although I think Hart was there for the taking yesterday so unsettling him had it's benefits and Bale was good at that too on a couple of occasions but where we struggled was when none of our midfield other than Parker seemed all that keen on pressing for the first half at least. Ultimately Ade wastes too much energy on lost causes and that again comes down to his decisions. I didn't hear what Neville said but I'll look out for it, he certainly goes missing at times. I agree with PNP on the goal, Dawson let Dzeko go to mark "space" and W**ker had the choice of staying with Nasri and leaving Dzeko free or getting on the line in the hope of blocking the shot. It can only be with hindsight that his decision to go on the line looks like the wrong one, I think. If I was AVB I'd fuming with Vertonghen individually and Benny, Sigurdsson and Parker as a group, it took one 6 yard pass(a great pass admittedly) to bypass 4 of our players and whilst Vertonghen was being an idiot trying to foul and tackle Tevez, one of them should notice that he's a centreback and needs covering. Elsewhere Dembele did pretty much what some are saying Walker should've done and looked after his own first by keeping his position to keep Toure out of the move but for me he should be the one that bites the bullet and closes down Milner but he covers his own ass whilst Dawson and Walker in turn gamble to try and rectify what is by that point a fairly impossible situation. That said once again Walker gave the ball away a few times in our half and continues to look for risky back passes to the 'keeper and cross balls to Benny over the top of opposition players. Once again he caused us more problems than he did the opposition.
I agree with your take on Vertonghen in this mess. I don't really want to single him out because as the replay shows, clearly several players go missing here, but as a goalkeeper, the last thing I want is to see my centre half fannying around by the corner flag.
Totally agree with this comment and having reviewed some of the earlier comments disagree with some of the negativity around Benny generally. He started slowly yesterday - as did others defensively - but bearing in mind his lack of 1st team match time that was only to be expected. As the game went on he got better and there can certainly be no doubts as to his commitment with some crunching tackles put in and his celebration of the goals etc. He also gave us the width on the left in the 2nd half that we eventually profited from. Some may want to write the guy off - maybe even AVB - but he showed for much of the game yesterday why he has been such an important player for us over the past 4 years. Ade on the other hand....... However, whilst my days of defending him are fast disappearing, I do think that our initial set up was almost setting him up to fail, as he was left isolated far too much. From what I saw he put in the effort but was lacking any sort of spark - poor first touch (again), no runs on the ball and no shots of note - if any?? The system changed and improved immeasurably when the subs were made and this helped all the remaining players as far as I could see.
Re Benny, I thought he had a good game yesterday. He was isolated for a lot of the 1st half as we had no left midfielder for long periods. I don't recall him getting roasted and he made some excellent tackles & interceptions. Adebayor continues to have a mare though. Plenty of running chasing lost causes but no movement when it was needed. He looks uninterested at times and offers very little. The game changed when Dembele was pushed forward and thud & holtby took central midfield. When they came on there seemed to be more urgency in the team and this in turn lifted the crowd. Up till then it had been muted in the stands apart from the usual Park Lane and that corner of the shelf singing. I thought City scored early and thought that would be enough. I was disappointed with them to be honest. All in all, I thought we were the better team and deserved to take the 3 points. You wait, do the hard thing and beat City and we'll drop points at Wigan on Saturday!!
I am glad to see the critsism of Ade has moved from 'can't be arsed' to poor decision making. That's actually worse in some ways, but I'm not sure who is to blame, Ade or the coaching staff. He spends far too much time out on the wings when he should surely be in the centre working a position to recieve the ball. Watching Defoe makes me think this is a coaching decision because he is also working all over the place. The difference, I think, is Defoe is more mobile and much more confident in his shot taking.
The first half we fell into the trap of letting a very good team hit us on the counter. To make it worse, we created very little ourselves, thanks to an attack that tended to come very slowly and right down the middle. We've actually had some success doing that this year by following it up with potshots from distance, but it's not a great way to play, or an effective one against decent defending. We did a little better as the half went on by getting the ball wide and switching it from one side to the other, but too slowly overall and not well enough. Everyone worked hard, but nobody looked very good the first half, I'd say, though Dempsey did more than anyone else, and Parker and Dembele did a decent job. Gylfi was anonomyous (but so was Bale, along with Ade), and misplayed a promising ball. But once again he came near creating a goal (seems to do it every game) on the corner that Dempsey mishit. The second half, Huddlestone's long, accurate passing sliced through Man City, and Holtby added energy, and made a good pass himself for Defoe's goal. We were getting the ball downfiled in a second or two instead of thirty or forty seconds (if then), and it made all the difference in providing open routes to the goal. I have to say Man City seemed to have eased off the pressure somewhat as well. They were pressing somewhat erratically, but effectively, in the first half, and were more passive the second. I'd like to see us stick to the same setup we played in the second half, especially as we'll clearly be needing goals. But I won't write off non-starters, especially Gylfi.
Although I've been harsh on Adebayor, I would agree that he was severely isolated yesterday. But to be fair, he's been kind of isolated at times in other games until now. So why not get drop slightly and get more involved if it's not working? He's not exactly a good target man anyway! Sometimes you've got to adapt to the game if things aren't going your way. I think notso has made a very good point. - Loads of running and chasing, but pointless running and chasing.
Good or not Roo he IS the target man isn't he? His role is a striker! that's what we pay him for, not to put in crosses to midfielders.
Literally speaking, yes Spurf. I'm not suggesting he crosses or acts as a midfielder, but he could drop off another 5 yards or so to get more involved if things aren't working out. Then he could wait for support and lay it off. At the moment, he gets the ball, his marker is too tight and he loses it a lot of the time.
I am in danger of confusing this argument. I take your point about dropping off but my real point is that he is already putting effort into laying off and losing sight of what should be his main role that is scoring goals. Anyway, like others I hope this discussion is academic as Defoe steps up with a successful run.
I'm going to be the first to disagree with this lets excuse him again because 'he was isolated', I keep reading it. As I've already alluded to, he isolates himself half the time, what does every other lone striker do...go looking for it. Neville exposed this again tonight as I suggested he would this afternoon, when we break out say down the left side, the lone strikers job is to make himself available that side, not Ade, he stayed the complete opposite side a few paces from a defender, making any pass to him impossible.
Exactly! It's happened over and over, not just once or twice. He's actually got to adjust himself and get involved if things aren't working.
The whole game in HD. Enjoy. 2013.04.21 - Tottenham vs Man City (720p).mkv (3.65 GB) https://mega.co.nz/#!vZMVTZ7L!PwJpuQCI2E0T-QLXBtAsDR5wx4ZNpytrW9FzaUlbYFw
I'm just delighted JD's back, I felt he looked sharp yesterday even excluding the goal, actually NEARLY got an assist (I know crazy right? Defoe and assist in the same sentence!) where he played the through ball to Dempsey who was then arguably fouled in the penalty area by Hart (hard to call though so won't say stone wall pen). Like I mentioned in my previous comment the other day, the crowd are starting to turn on Ade now, I don't agree with booing your own players but I do understand where these people are coming from. He's probably the highest paid player at the club (not sure if Bale's deal is on parity?) and yet he performs like a League 2 player well out of his depth. I appreciate some say he's been trying hard (I'd personally disagree) but fact is strikers are judged on goals (and then assists), especially ones on the sort of money Adebayor earns and quite frankly his return of goals is poor and he hasn't even managed one assist either. The guy from last season is nowhere to be seen.
We had three real penalty claims in the game and they were all ignored by the TV mob. The ball hit Barry's arm in the box in the first half. It looked to me like he tried to control it after it bounced uncomfortably for him, but there was no analysis. Dempsey being taken out by Hart was the second, as you pointed out, but it was hard to see whether the keeper got to the ball first. Again, no chance to have another look. The third was another handball claim, but that seemed to be the crowd behind the goal more than anything. Much like Man Utd's offsides last night, it doesn't seem like such things are of interest to the media, unless they negatively impact upon certain sides. 39 league games since we've had a pen at WHL now.
Considering some of the players we have had playing in that time that is unbelievable. Didn't we also go a year without a penalty when we had Ginola in the team too?
