Was doing some thinking this morning, and found that there were a few positives to be take from last night: Hull showed that if you come at us, you can get something from the game. Now this may not sound good, but everyone has been saying we are struggling to open teams up. If they feel we can be got at, we can use our superior players, passing, movement etc. to win....theoretically. Harry Kane scores Would have prefered his rocket in the 90mins to have gone in, but this was still a nice finish. I've been very critical of his potential, as i've just never seen anything from him that made me think he would cut it at PL level. Perhaps he can set himself as more of a lump than Defoe, and more willing to have a shot than Soldado. We win a Penalty shootout This will no doubt be good for confidence should this arrise again. Last seasons vs Basle weren't great (and wtf was Ade's about?) so hopefully this was something that has been worked on, because many of them looked very good indeed. Especially Paulinho's who looked dead on his feet in extra time. We get WHAM in the next round at home AVB gets a chance for an immediate repreave. He can show he has learnt from the last game, and get revenge without having to wait a year, or untill the away game. Could be risky, but then so was having a pop at the fans and that seems to have come off judging by the atmosphere last night. (next sunday game could be different though) "AVB give us a song" Fans were in good voice, especially into extra time and during the pens. Lamela's best game Not one to savour i'll give you that, but he looked more determined in the second half, especially in the middle, had a good free kick, was getting at people and bouncing off them like you can see in the Roma vids. Should never have been given 4th peno but fair play to him for having the balls to go for it. Kaboul, Andros and Capoue all fit Goes without saying Downsides are that Naughton and Chadli were injured, and Walker and Verts played 120mins and will most probably have to play this weekend due to a lack of cover.
Kane was definitely the shining light for me. I'd like to think "I've stuck by the lad" when few others have doubted him and I thought last night he made the difference, not just by scoring but I felt we looked better when he was on the pitch. With Defoe being 31 and Ade doing jack ****, Kane could really try and push himself up the rankings if he can continue performances like that. Lamela did look better but still nothing special. Good to get West Ham, hopefully we'll get some revenge. Kaboul playing 120 mins is great, my favourite CB so hopefully I'll see him start in the league soon.
I'm guessing they practise them generally though no? If I was a player i'd be practising pens and free kicks after training all the time, as it seems like a great way to improve your goals ratio. Imagine if Soldado was poor at them for instance.
We had 9 players called into action last night, I'm thinking only 3 or 4 would be recognised as potential penalty takers in league games, so it's practice for the likes of Walker and Kaboul that would be unlikely unless preparing for last night's scenario.
I know we have a big squad, but i'd love to see us giving game time to Livermore, Kane and Carroll next year. At the moment there is alot of uncertainty as players find there rhythm and place in the squad, but next year I think (hope) players can be rotated a bit more to allow the young ones more time in the team. I see no reason for instance why against some teams we couldn't have Carrol and Eriksen ahead of say Sandro or Capue in more of a 4-3-3. Those three, with Townsend would be a great asset to the club and give great encouragement to the likes of pritchard and any others that dream of making it with us.
I'd like to see Kane given a start against Sheriff alongside Defoe. He did well enough to earn another go in the side and I think they complement each other.
You forgot this: please log in to view this image If you look carefully you can actually see Defoe in an ONSIDE position very briefly I though Lamela looked better against Villa in the earlier round. He certainly looks a long way off the pace at the moment.
The main positive is obviously progression with a winnable QF. I think it will be a cracking tie between you and West Ham and wouldn't be surprised to see it go all the way. Easily the tie of the round.
As much as I'd love for Jake to succeed, with Sandro AND Capoue here as the main DM's plus the fact Paulinho and Dembele can sit back if needed, I think his chances are bleak. Carroll too, is someone who I've wanted in the first team picture for about 12/18 months but with the amount of CM's/ CAM's we have, similar to Jake, his chances look bleak. An incredible shame as I think Carroll has the potential to become an England player, let alone a Spurs one, it's just the players we have here makes it so hard for any young CM looking to get into the team. When Carroll returns from loan, if he chooses to fight for his place, I'd put him above Holtby and possibly even Sig but then he'd still have Eriksen for the CAM role to fight with plus all the CM's, it's a tough ask. Kane is the one with the best chance. Defoe will be nearing 32 by then, Ade will likely be gone and Soldado isn't a youngster either. He can definitely stake a claim to at least make the bench in the 14/15 season, arguably even now if he maintains the sort of performance we saw when he came on against Hull.
Well the AVB in my Fifa game saw fit to make him a first team regular, and captain! So shows how much you know! -note- he also bought rooney & Pato and sold Lloris, replaced him with ****ing Archer!!!
I've only played FIFA for about 2 hours since buying it (which was when it pretty much came out), only been Spurs on manager mode and most of the transfers have been pretty viable to be fair, you didn't buy your version from a market stall trader did you? Just literally grabbed FM 2014 on my lunch break today so it'll be about another 2 months or so before I pick my PS3 controller up and play FIFA
Don't, it's the buggiest game i've ever had the displeasure of spending money on. I bought it for my Xbox so I could play manager mode, but it kept freezing whenever I went to sort my squad out. Took the game back and got a new one and it did the same thing, so must be a software error. Returned that and bought it for my pc, and it still did the same ****ing thing. So now i play pro career as a striker that gets 60 odd goals, but AVB saw it to sell our keeper and keep Rooney, Soldado and Pato on the bench. Then throw in the fact that they only released half a game once the realised they could cash in by selling 2013 with a new menu, and then the real 2014 game once the next gen consoles come out, which would be fine except my PC could handle the next gen one now, so I will have to buy it again. I've not played FM since 2010, which I played for about 8 seasons. Not sure I like the new skins, and really think they are taking the piss with the "3d" match engine. It looks ****e. I love the game, but I won't invest as much time as I did untill the sort out the fundamental errors in setting your formation, making training purposefull, getting rid of those stupid pre-game/post game press conferences and make it look half decent in match. Would it really be so difficult to make something look vaguely realistic rather than litle vaguely animated lemmings? Look at the kind of graphics you can get on your phone for football games and racing games and then compare that to this database with some animation and you can see they are not really giving it there all.
Yeah I noticed the squad management thing on FIFA takes an age. I thought it was my copy at first but after speaking to my cousin thinking I had a faulty version, he said he had the same problem so I assumed that it was a problem with the game itself. I can play FM all day long. The 3-D Match engine doesn't bother me as I usually play just commentary anyway until I get to the big games, I'm not fussed at actually watching the match most of the time. There are even times I'll play the '05 or '06 versions for a crack, to make it feel like I can re-write history . Formation settings I thought have been decent lately, setting the rigid to fluid settings plus all the team instructions and then finding the right players for those systems/ formations can be interesting. The scary thing for me with FM is that time just flies by. If I play the PS3, after about 45 mins I get a headache and turn off, yet with FM, I'll switch it on thinking I'll play for an hour or so and then put the laptop down to take a piss and it's been like 2 and half/ 3 hours!
Yes there were some positives from last night, certainly Harry Kane's display was one of them. But there was also some worrying negative points, not least the goals we conceded with defenders acting like statues and falling asleep. Frankly, I thought there were spells in the game when I couldn't see us winning and there was at least one senior player completely out of form. As for the improved atmosphere, well the 1882 group did their best, but it still fell short of what it could be and should be and in fact there was booing in the extra time period.
I raise you the PS3 port of Bayonetta. It would require less patches to make the Costa Concordia seaworthy.
I'm very pleased we won, but it certainly was not a good game for us style-wise. The most disturbing thing was that when Hull actually decided to have a go, we looked very ordinary, and remarkably inept at countering. I hope we practice getting the ball down the field fast soon, because it doesn't look like we know how to. However, the positives We're still in the League Cup. We avoided a really disheartening failure, if only by the skin of our teeth. Squad continues to show toughness, unity, and the ability to grind out wins in tough games. We look ready to take on Germany in penalty shots. AVB's foray into crowd relations was a success on balance, and not the epic failure some of us (like me) had feared. Kane is off the mark. I've certainly had my doubts about his ability to score, but he's already been a useful player, and now he's a viable option as striker. Gylfi hit one very much of Bale quality. Maybe he can hit more (On the downside: maybe he or someone, will have to to reach our goals) It's great to think Soldado, Townsend, Lennon, Holtby, Walker, Capoue and Sandro are fresh for Sunday.
