We're doing great this season, I've no complaints whatsoever, except maybe AVB playing some people twice in three days, despite him saying we wouldn't. I'll wait till Saturday to judge that one properly. Paulinho has transformed our mid and our team. With him we can play two 'holding' mids, because he's two players rolled into one. Defender and attacker. We're creating stacks of chances despite many people complaining about it, we're scoring stacks of goals despite many people complaining about it, but these are often Spurs fans so no change there. We're one of the leading chance creators in the Prem with the best defensive record. Overall we've scored a very acceptable 20 goals in 8 matches, IIRC, while unbelievably and magnificently we've only conceded 1. And that's with 'liabilities' like Dawson, Rose, Walker, Fryers, Vlad, Naughton, Friedel, Lloris, insert your favourite liability here, in the team.
I do like a bit of positivity once in a while. I agree, i'm pretty damn happy right now. People mention only scoring 1 vs Palace/Cardiff/Swansea but if you had offered me three 1-0 wins in those fixtures with basically and entire new attacking team then i would have bitten your hand off. The hat full of goals we have scored in the cups show that the goals will come eventually in the league with a bit of fine tuning and familiarity. 1 goal in 8 games is just astonishing for Spurs.
My take on form so far is that we are doing much better than could have been expected. The defence is looking good, although we have rode our luck a little in a few games (Verts foul, Hugo's handball, crap finishing from our oppos) but the defence has looked very good. Biggest surprise for me is how good Rose has looked and Dawson/Vertonghen looks a good partnership. Have to say I am a big fan of Kaboul, so Dawson can expect some down time when (if?) he is fully fit, but all of them are top notch and will get many games. Walker, although shaky still, is better than last year so far. Big plus is midfield. Paulinho, top class - and scoring now, Eriksen and Holtby full of skill and invention and Sandro/Capoue/Dembele worthy of a place in most teams. We are blessed in this position. Chadli/Lamela are not great so far, but have high hopes they will reach the heights later in the season. This is probably a position (wing/CAM) that needs to be fully integrated in the team before a player can play at his peak and Townsend/Siggy look good in patches, but anonymous/frustrating at other times. Soldado hasn't been brilliant so far, but JD is an effective sub, so if Soldado needs a bit more time, then JD can fill in. In summary, I expected us to drop quite a few points early in the season and then come good later. The fact that we are picking up points already and ahead of my expectations in quality is very exciting and we may be in for a great ride this year. Our lack of goals in the league is of concern, once Lamela/Soldado really fire we will be a problem for all teams.
Arsenal aside, our opponents haven't exactly been the best, or at their best, so this Saturday as far as I'm concerned is the barometer I'll be using to assess how far we've come. Encouraging is as far as I'll go atm.
I don't know why people keep mentioning our opponents failing to take their chances. It's hardly surprising when they're getting so few. Arsenal had 12 shots to our 14, but the other 8 games only mustered a total of 42 shots, according to the BBC, with on 17 of those being on target. That's an average of 6 shots per game with all 9 included, slightly less than two of which will have troubled the keeper. The poor quality of our cup opponents will have skewed those figures somewhat, but even our Premier League opposition aren't exactly beating down our door. If we can maintain the overall high standard, then we'll stand a good chance of winning in virtually any game.
Just finished watching the game. Holtby. Wow. Step aside Eriksen, you're now number two on the list. Holtby is now my favourite player. He's got a bit of fire in his belly too. I like it. Dutch commentary, which is relaxing and soothing. 2013.09.24 - Aston Villa vs Tottenham (576p).mkv (1.12 GB) https://mega.co.nz/#!XVUHyBBS!DTWdsH7Jc3UZsdWM0XS0nEWbtPskN68udBsfJ7jRbxc
This "fire in his belly" is the reason why I said last year that I think he could play slightly deeper. I'd love to see him and eriksen in the same line up inter-changing with one another. They're both so clever. We've gone from a squad with next to no creativity, to one which has the potential to be sensational.
I suppose we could go 4-1-2-3 like Barca play with Sandro holding but it would be nice to fit Paulinho in too. Not sure how to do that....
Only way of getting Holtby and Eriksen in is to have one of them as one of the top 3 in a 4-3-3. Holtby probably.
Just take the last league game and replace sig with holtby, job done I'd like to see that tried. They could interchange if they got an understanding
I'm not sure if that shorts removal was dirty deliberate but one will try and grab something when falling over.It's not that Vert grabbed his balls for goodness sake!!!!?
I've seen both Holtby and Eriksen cut in a lot from the left in their highlight reels. Letting them interchange left/center roles has a lot of potential. I think we need Rose back to do it, but he's supposedly a possibility for Saturday. If Naughton plays I'd rather have Gylfi to track back. Holtby may have been undervalued because we got him so cheaply. But the starter for Germany under-21s should be a serious contender for the next great playmaker, and Holtby is looking like he just may be exactly that.
btw, just saw this posted on ja : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wqoJ4LzK-PE i was in there (briefly) supping on my pint in the corner !
i'm guessing the big black guy in the corner was supposed to be a doorman. think he'd disappeared by the time one of the guys there started kicking the pool table, and everyone else was banging the wooden cover on the table
Posted it in the not very successful chants thread mate. Looks like it was good fun, you lot outsung the Villa fans all game. FYI, I edited your post to the original link which was uploaded by a Spurs fan. The other one seems to be some guy that nicks other peoples' videos and puts adverts at the start to get a bit of money.
