Points of note from today, Naughton is not good enough for Spurs at LB, Siggy is largely ineffectual on the left, Dawson is a liability, set piece defending is still a problem and taking almost a full squad to Russia was a massive mistake. AVB was out thought tactically by Allardyce today. Still, one dreadful performance does not mean we are all of a sudden a bad team, we have injured players to return and will be back.
Ali lost fights because there were a lot of good heavyweights around at the time. I'm sure you get the analogy. The overall quality of the league is continually improving because every club is using the increasing funds they have to buy better players. All the leading PL clubs have been improving their teams/squads yet so are the likes of Soton, WBA, Swansea etc. There is no stand out English team at present. Utd are stuttering and everyone else is a work in progress. But the overall standard of the PL is getting better. The leading two German and two Spanish clubs have few other teams to test them. Most PL teams pose a test for our top teams.
That was an embarrassment, plain and simple!! Walker was clearly unfit but AVB insisted on playing him. Paulinho strolled about, occasionally complaining for non-existent fouls and ****ing up every time he had a chance. Eriksen and Siguredsson were largely anaonymous. Defoe showed a lack of sharpness and Lamela looked like a rabbit trapped in the headlights when he came on. Easy to say after the event, but the 2nd half was crying out for Holtby and Sandro to get amongst it. Naughton provides nothing on the left and the play was so compressed at times that they could have narrowed the pitch to the width of the penalty boxes and there still wouldn't have been a throw-in!! Hopefully, the lessons will be learned and Lennon and Capoe will be back after the break.
Sandro needs to start. Paulinho step aside. A moment in the first half summed up my frustrations with either Paulinho or AVB (not sure who's to blame). Walker (?) was bringing the ball down the right and Paulinho was ahead of one West Ham player and level with another (I think). If he'd kept running forward he could have received the ball behind them both. Instead he checked back to receive an easy ball. But now had both the players right in front of him. If Sandro plays you know you can basically let him own the DM area thereby giving Dembele more licence to make runs forward and in behind. I'd rather someone else probably but can't think of anyone. Is it madness to suggest Eriksen play in AM like Modric and Holtby in the no 10 like VDV? And let's hope Adebayor is in the mood for it when he comes back. He could provide a massive difference for us right now. And I used to love having wingers. And strikers who could benefit from wingers. And goals. And having
Just said well done to The Bubbles on their board, we can still prove that in defeat we are sportsmen.
It will be interesting to hear JPG's assessment of Paulinho and Dawson's performances today, having previously lauded them as the best players in our squad.
Hes probably sat at home embarrassed to comment. The sad thing is we all like Dawson and Paulinho but he wants to create some divide. Hopefully now Sandro will start and we can address issues within our midfield, Sandro will actually benefit Paulinho and they could work well together.
What an awful day. The M25 was crap, the North Circular was crap, AVB was crap, the players were crap and we conceded 3 crap goals to a crap side with crap fans. The weather was nice though.
Let me cheer you all up. First we have a fire in the kitchen.Dish washer on fire.Fire put out.Call fire brigade.They find kitchen counter still smoulding.They put that out.They disconnect dish washer.I take it out.I go downstairs.Water coming through ceiling of basement.Light go out.Call plumber and electrician.Ask plumber to look at sewer pump.Not working.Call another plumber for replacement or repair.Plumber call by.Take old pump away with a couple of parts.Wait two weeks.Nothing heard.Call another plumber.He gets a pump next day.Can't put it in.Parts missing.Call original plumber.He tells us parts taken away by scrap man by mistake.Has to drive miles to buy new parts and deliver them (Wife really pissed off!).Second plumber puts parts in and new pump.Hooray!Can now take a crap!!!!!!Can't start my truck next day.Finally it starts.Take 4 bags of clothes to Salvation Army.On way back,drivers side window collapses.Take truck to garage.Got to wait a week for work to be done.Call the wife (she's really pissed now!).She arrives at the garage in her new Jeep.Doubly pissed!!Her lights on dash board on but no speed ometer.Now she has to wait two weeks for a part for a 2014 Jeep.She's only had it a month!!!!So they give us a poxed up Toyota to see us through........and now....Spurs 0 West Ham 3. Holy Christ!!!!!! The end!!!!!!?
Let me cheer you all up. First we have a fire in the kitchen.Dish washer on fire.Fire put out.Call fire brigade.They find kitchen counter still smoulding.They put that out.They disconnect dish washer.I take it out.I go downstairs.Water coming through ceiling of basement.Light go out.Call plumber and electrician.Ask plumber to look at sewer pump.Not working.Call another plumber for replacement or repair.Plumber call by.Take old pump away with a couple of parts.Wait two weeks.Nothing heard.Call another plumber.He gets a pump next day.Can't put it in.Parts missing.Call original plumber.He tells us parts taken away by scrap man by mistake.Has to drive miles to buy new parts and deliver them (Wife really pissed off!).Second plumber puts parts in and new pump.Hooray!Can now take a crap!!!!!!Can't start my truck next day.Finally it starts.Take 4 bags of clothes to Salvation Army.On way back,drivers side window collapses.Take truck to garage.Got to wait a week for work to be done.Call the wife (she's really pissed now!).She arrives at the garage in her new Jeep.Doubly pissed!!Her lights on dash board on but no speed ometer.Now she has to wait two weeks for a part for a 2014 Jeep.She's only had it a month!!!!So they give us a poxed up Toyota to see us through........and now....Spurs 0 West Ham 3. Holy Christ!!!!!! The end!!!!!!?
Pretty much sums it all up. Probably the worst performance I've seen in... Well... A very long time. There's not one single player that left the pitch with any credibility in a Spurs shirt today with the exception of Holtby, who, in 10 mins of football looked the liveliest of all players. Townsend in fairness was full of running but - and how many times have we said this about a winger - had no end product!. Dawson was painful to watch on their goals after the one from the set piece (couldn't see who was at fault for their first, my view was blocked). Paulinho was shocking, his passing couldn't have been any worse. Walker was out of position a thousand times. Sigurdsson, did he touch the ball? Eriksen had no effect on the game. Defoe had one chance and fluffed it... We brought on £56m worth of talent and guess what, they done nothing either. AVB needs to make changes quicker, even at 0-0 we were looking flat, I'd have wanted a sub at 45 or 50 mins. AVB also needs to realise the inside wingers aren't always working and needs to address it, at the start of the season I said Lennon may find it hard to get into the team, at this rate, I can't wait for him to get fit and start straight away, we miss someone who isn't greedy and looks to pass/ cross instead of come inside and shoot. This is 3 big games now that we've unimpressed in, all of them London derbies too which makes it worse, today though was by far the most painful, losing 3-0 at Upton Park would've been bad but at WHL?! The players and AVB have a lot to make up for.
Haven't seen it - no intention of watching it. To paraphrase Masterchef. "It doesn't get any more embarrassing than this"
Expect more of this, if AVB does not realise he is playing HOME games. Bus parking against our MF + "inverted wingers" means a melee in the middle, and the opposition frustrating play hoping they get an opportunity (of course they still have to be clinical when they come - but the Spanners were today) .
finally someone else has said it. thank you. he is a ****ing **** footballer. he cant pass, his touch is crap, his decision making is useless and he cant shoot for ****. his last 3 starts he has been absolutely shocking.
Yeah he was awful today and bad against Chelsea. Think he's been good/ great for the most part though.
