True, I was just making the point that I'd like to see it. If AVB rigidly sticks to the current style then it's all on his head to get it working sooner rather than later, if he's prepared to box smart at times the scrutiny should ease off him a bit and more on to the players. I too would like to see Holtby and Eriksen both start a game soon though.
Lawro has us down for a 2-1 defeat saying that there's not enough goals in the team at the moment and I couldn't put it better. I'm hoping that Bobby scoring against Villa will kick start him. I'd be happy with a draw. Their goalkeeper kept them in the game against Villa which means that their defence is leaky which we may be able to exploit but Lukaku is very much a threat. Tough for us to win this one. I don't know why some of you are just happy with a win and not the manner of the win. What's the point of a lucky penalty win which we've had twice now? Where's the form in that? What's so good against scraping wins against lower teams with most of their top men out? What's so good about not scoring in the second half when we are cruising? What's so good about scoring 5 away from home and scoring less and not more when we are at home ie Tbilisi? All these points say to me that we are not a team showing good form.
Lucky or not a win keeps us in touch with the other teams,who have to do the same thing at some point during the season,at least we have something to forward to when the team click!
Thor, You can't judge an away performace against a team that may have tried to come at us, against the same team playing away from home having already been thrashed. Football doesn't work like that. Nobody is saying all these poor performances are good, hence the high levels of frustration, but what most people are saying is that untill we do click, we could be doing alot worse given the high player turnover we inflicted upon ourselves this summer.
Do we think eriksen is likely to play tomorrow? Putting spurs players in my fantasy team is causing me havoc. It's too hard to tell who's gonna be involved. Do I keep him or swap him? If I swap, I'll have £7.8m to spend. I'm getting the feeling that holtby will start tomorrow....
Eriksen is too inconsistent to start games, he's lost his place to Holtby and Eriksen has to work harder to get back into the team as he's used to fairy defenders in Holland. No doubt he has ability but he could be joining Chadli and bony and altidore in the yearly flop club from Holland! ..... Or he could be the suarez type signing, you and SOS better hope he is a suarez type signing, and not a flop!
A general rule of thumb is that defenders and midfielders from Holland adjust well, it's strikers that flop (i.e. Mateja Kezman, Alfonso Alves etc)
I'm very cynical over any attacking player from Holland, as the league is possibly the worst premier league in Europe when it comes to defending, or on par with the Scottish league. That's why it's tricky knowing who will turn out to be a Vdv or a Alves. Anyways I like Eriksen but he won't be used to the defending over here, definitely has to toughen more in games.
If a team with seven new players peaks after two months, something is terribly wrong. No doubt Lukaku is excellent, but we need to win some games against good teams. It would make sense for Holtby, Lennon, Townsend, Lloris, Sandro, and Townsend to start after their rests, probably along with Paulinho, Walker, Chiriches and Vertonghen. It would be great if Rose could come on late.
Boss, I agree we should be playing at least two gifted passers (Holtby, Eriksen, Lamela, maybe) against teams that sit back. We need Lennon and Townsend against teams that press, and maybe Gylfi in general, as he seems our only player likely to score from open play.
Good points, although at the moment I think Lamela's struggling too much with the time you get and strength of defenders and that would be exacerbated playing against a team set up to defend deep. It's definitely got to be Townsend and Lennon for tomorrow though, they've got 2 quality, attacking fullbacks and we need to make sure we have players getting back as well as forward. Sandro and Dembele/Paulinho should also be looking to help out when Everton are attacking down their side too.
Which is why if we play deep and invite them on we might be in trouble, you need to be on the front foot and 2 wingers keeping the FB's busy in their own half ideally, but with caution there as Martinez has them counterattacking very well. There's an invitation to make some ground on some and go 2nd, yet if we lose the Toffees leapfrog us and we go 7th, massive game in terms of league position. Over to you AVB.
Not for me thanks, I am still fuming at being let down by one team in a 7 team accumulator yesterday and so missing out on a £180 return. Thanks Glasgow Celtic .
Like in all matches like this I hope we score first which would give us a good momentum. I don't know why I feel AVB should bring Lamela on in the second half, he has something to prove and this would be a good time to prove it. Spurcat, how can your knowledge of football stretch as far north as Celtic for goodness sake? All I know about them is that they play in Glasgow and I never look at Scottish results. Wow, that's commitment to football that is Spurcat.
The spl is one of Europe's most exciting leagues, Terry Butcher is guiding Inverness Caley Thistle to the champions league and cup double while Billy mackay is as potent as they get. Samaras is to Celtic, what Bale was to us, a genius on the left wing. Don't deny yourself the entertainment factor that Spl brings, watch out for Cowdenbeath, will be in Europe in the next few years.
