To be fair Chirpy, both Arsenal and Utd use both ways of playing. Arsenal were the best at it during there early days, but utd have shown you can play good and attractive football. City less so as they rely on individual brilliance a bit more, and then Chelsea have only been good to watch under benitez. However all the best teams have a second plan, whether it's lumping it to drogba, or passing through them with Hazard and Mata, You cannot be as one dimensional as we are now.
Like yourself, I was in the positive camp regarding AVB. But I'm fast going to the meh camp! The football at home is dire, worse than the Gerry Francis days. Away games it's better but not by much. This is the best squad I can remember seeing at Spurs, not team but squad, but AVB doesn't seem to know how to get the best out of them which is very concerning
City fan in peace here. I think some of you are being a bit harsh on us today. We don't usually park the bus, and this was the first time we've put out a defensive formation all season, but we didn't have much choice. We don't have true Premier League quality throughout our squad, and we were missing some of those who are, so we really had to pick a team that would give us the best chance of a result. We were shorn of some of the players who might've been able to create chances, so Steve Bruce obviously decided to defend and try to grab something on the break. Nowt wrong with that. I also think some of you lot are coming across as being a bit spoilt, too. You've got too used to seeing great football being played by great players. It was the first time I've seen Spurs for a full 90 this season, and - despite struggling to break us down - the time and space on the ball that your players had, and the speed with which they knocked it about was very impressive. Take a step back for some perspective, boys. Good luck for the rest of the season.
City fan in peace here. I think some of you are being a bit harsh on us today. We don't usually park the bus, and this was the first time we've put out a defensive formation all season, but we didn't have much choice. We don't have true Premier League quality throughout our squad, and we were missing some of those who are, so we really had to pick a team that would give us the best chance of a result. We were shorn of some of the players who might've been able to create chances, so Steve Bruce obviously decided to defend and try to grab something on the break. Nowt wrong with that. I also think some of you lot are coming across as being a bit spoilt, too. You've got too used to seeing great football being played by great players. It was the first time I've seen Spurs for a full 90 this season, and - despite struggling to break us down - the time and space on the ball that your players had, and the speed with which they knocked it about was very impressive. Take a step back for some perspective, boys. Good luck for the rest of the season.
Fair enough and maybe you're right. For what it's worth, I thought you looked ok in the first half, but in the second it was clear you intended to keep it at 0-0 and take the point. When a player like Huddlestone doesn't cross the halfway line in the second half until we scored, then it's obvious what your aims are. But needs must and if a team has key players missing them it's a reasonable approach to take. I thought you were hard done by on the penalty. I hope you stay in the PL.
Don't you mean tigers fan....thought you were a manc at first. This isn't just based on one game, every game we are struggling to break teams down because of our slow build up play, and the fact our wingers invert so as to minimise the risk of a quick break away by the opposition. so add in that neither wingers nor full backs are going past the opponents, and Soldado is not about to sprint past anyone, or muscle them we are just not scoring goals in the prem from open play. Everyone agrees its weird having a pop when we are keeping clean sheets, but it really is tedious football, and that is something none us want to see....not least those that pay for the privilege. Think you guys will be alright though this year, Jake and Thud will see you through imo.
Theres nothing all that wrong with parking the bus when you're a team in Hull's situation today - somewhat up against it away from home and without key players through injury/ineligibility. Although its frustrating for us and the neutrals to see I don't think anyone on here is too hacked off at you guys for coming and playing like you did. It would be nice to see everyone come and have a proper go, both in terms of entertainment and because that would probably play into our hands, but thats never going to happen. There is more than one way to play football anyway, not everyone has to try and play the most attractive style of football all the time if its not appropriate. Good luck for the rest of this year too.
I have no real issue with you guys at all, although the ref was poor and allowed ridiculous time wasting by feigned injury. I don't think that it is a case of being 'spoilt', we just don't seem to have the same spark with the current assortment of riches that we had withal supposed lesser group of players. The atmosphere at the Lane is generally excellent so for AVB to criticise the fans after one tepid response to a tepid performance is premature: he should maybe take a closer look at the performance before alienating the supporters. For what it's worth I hope Hull survive ok in the PL, because from what I have seen of you this season there is enough strength and creativity to warrant your place at the supposed 'top table'
To be honest, I've been surprised at how deep Huddlestone has played all season. He pings it about and rarely gets near the opposing 18 yard box. Livermore has got forward a lot more, which susrprises me, because I thought he was supposed to be more of a defensive/holding player. Funny old game.
Nah - it's "City" when you're from 'Ull. I think you're getting mixed up with that "Citeh" lot! Don't get me started on the Hull Tigers bollox either....
Apologies if some of us have come off a bit snobby and belittled you guys, we haven't meant it in a degrading way, it's just with the amount we've spent we expect certain standards, especially at home. The players we have at our disposal should be capable of putting in better performances than we've seen of late. Defensively we're looking good but as today and other matches have shown, we seem to be struggling to break teams down and at times we look very flat and boring. Our best attacking player today ended up being our CB in Chiriches and so it gets frustrating having seen the club bring in so much talent to what is already a talented squad and yet somehow look average. All the best to you guys too, hopefully Hudd can re-discover his pre-injury form (looks like he's doing pretty good at the mo?). Hopefully Jake is doing the business too, we all want him to do well as he's a local lad.
You do seem to be playing better away from home, for some reason. However, try to enjoy being in the running for top end honours - some of us might never experience such a thing! Yeah, Hudd's doing great - we all knew he was a skillful player, but he seems even better now he's wearing our shirt. Starting week-in, week-out and being the kingpin obviously doesn't do any harm either. Livermore's been great too. He's added real steel and I can't believe he hasn't scored yet, as he's always popping up at the business end of moves. We've got some other good players in the squad too, plus a manager who went away after his Sunderland dismissal and had a reappraisal of himself. He's proved himself to be incredibly astute tactically and in the transfer market and we love him!
I think you are correct.We are Spurs and,yes,we Spurs fans are spoilt when it comes to football teams and I hope we will always be spoilt. We are so spoilt we are having a go at a winning team!But then it's never been a win at all costs (like Arsenal) with Tottenham.We love our teams playing good football....and the opposition too come to that. Remember.Boring football will keep fans away and we don't want that at Tottenham.
Good point about Bruce, because after leaving Sunderland, I wasn't sure which way his career was heading. What I like about him is that he never pretends to be something he isn't, plus he does know the game inside out. I always liked him as a player but I had a spell when I wasn't too keen on him as a manager, but since he's been at Hull, I have come to like him again.
Yeah you're right, it's just a case that we've been so close for so long now that with the current squad, we just hope/ expect to see something special more so than being somewhat lucky. Good to see Hudd's doing well, as I'm sure you saw today he got a great reception from us, always highly thought of here. Haha there's a good chance Jake won't score mate, he's only got one for us a few seasons back and that was in a 5-0 drubbing of Hearts on their own turf, they looked like a pub side, so scoring in that match was pretty much a given!
I too like Steve Bruce, down to earth guy and glad he's doing well with Hull. Sunderland just seems to be a poisoned chalice for any manager so I'm not surprised he "failed" there.
On 5 Live on Saturday they were talking about which manager the bookies had down as being favourite to lose his job next, and it was Gus Poyet. The next favourite was whoever succeeded Poyet!
Exactly. - we're winning games, but the improvements are obvious. - it's just frustrating as a spurs fan, as we know how good our football has been/ can be. The biggest concern for me, is the fact that we have no answers when a team parks the bus. We solely rely on solo efforts or penalties to win games. - that will run out as we see more and more teams parking the bus against us at WHL. I can't help but feel that good luck is with us at the moment, making up for the last 2 years. - but when will it run out? When it does, we've gotta be far better on that pitch. West ham showed us exactly what is capable of happening to us.
