As others have said it is not the one result it is the acumulation of games that we have seen. We are looking for progress and inreased understanding of which player should play with who and where.
They interviewed a para Olympics champion at half time. Can't recall his name but he has most recently completed 40 marathons in 40 days. He was asked how it was, doing all these marathons. He replied "long and boring, just like that first half". .
After the international break there is a high chance we will be 9th, unless we somehow manage to avoid defeat agaisnt city and norwich somehow manage to win agaisnt newcastle. The AVB fans where hiding behind "we're 4th" so everything must be OK. Well if in two weeks we're in 9th place, what then, work in progress and things will get better, honest mate.
"Well if in two weeks we're in 9th place, what then, work in progress and things will get better, honest mate." The table placing is irrelevant at the moment, if the points gap to the leaders has not become vast. Spurs have lost this weekend but other results have made the material effect nominal. The way things are going this season, it could be the same even with two losses to the Mancs.
I know, which was why I was poking fun at the table placement being used to say everythings ok BUT after 10 games you generally see a pattern forming and after 10 games or even 15 games the same mistakes will be made.
No, not all of it. But if Defoe was the quality of striker that you and others think he is, we would not have needed to go and blow £30 million on another Pav. Here we are, £100 million later, and we are no better when we had Defoe+Crouch+Pav barely managing to stagger into double-figures between them. It's utterly dreadful, which ever way you try to justify it or dress it up. I'd happily take £60k a week to go on the field and not score goals.
Al thats really been said is that hes a great squad player, not really anything to argue agaisnt as we know he isn't good enough to start every week. Plus he doesn't have the staminia anyway, mainly due to shagging a different WAG each week.
I appreciate you humour, my friend. Laughing, crying... **** me! I've done enough of both with Spurs. And that's just this season!
And now it's Defoe's fault that we pissed 30 million pounds up the proverbial wall. Do you know what ?.It's becoming obvious that it's all Defoe's fault that the World has been in recession for the pass 5 years. Furthermore, we shouldn't play anybody that shows us any real desire to win. It is now clear, having read your post that the Spurs predicament has nothing to do with management. Maybe AVB's right, a significant amount of Premiership experience counts for nothing. Look,. I'm not saying he (Defoe) is the best striker in the world, far from it, and if I'd paid near 30 million for him I'd be entitled to feel mugged. There-in lies the difference. Frankly, at the moment, I'm surprised Villas Bois play's any sort of striker at all., let alone anyone with an inclination to score goals.
Hands up who'd want Pav in this team right now? **** I hated Pav but one thing he could do was score a goal out of nothing. And in this team that's exactly what's required of the striker. But blaming Defoe for the purchase of Soldado is a bit insane. Defoe's a fine option to have. We just didn't need an unacclimatised, 30m Spanish version of him who's only three years younger and costs 30m (Van Persie was 20m, Suarez 20m, Sturridge 12m, Berbatov, in his prime and well at home in the EPL was 30m...and Suarez aside, perhaps, these were all very predictable players that were getting picked up). Question has to be why the manager is squandering the club's highest wage-earner, the only striker who looks suitable to playing on his own up top. I think it's actually more likely that Ade will turn into a footballer again than this system will suddenly start working for Soldado/Defoe. And that's saying something. To be honest I expect neither thing to happen. I expect enough 1-0s this season to keep AVB in his job and then for the strain to really start showing next year. I then expect a new man to come in and do a bunch of obvious stuff and sign one or two dependable EPL-based players. And it to work. Now who does that sound like?
I just looked on Wiki and Mr Pav has got 6 goals in 25 appearances - in the Russian League. I think any one of us could go into that league and get 6 goals in that time frame. So no, I wouldn't want Pav in this team right now. We should've gone all out for a striker who works hard. Soldado is a fantastic poacher (like Defoe) but I just can't see him ever fitting into our current system. [BATMAN]Soldado is the striker we deserve, but not the one we need right now.[/BATMAN]
When Lenny said Pav, I did think WTF.... Yet it's not that Pav was great or the answer, more we need someone who can just score out of nothing, like Siggy started doing. A striker who can just lash the ball in and create some excitement. Everything about our play means Soldado has to probably score a sitter or a penalty. Today's game was made for Lamela to make a difference, not even used from the Bench. Crazy.
To be honest, I think laying the blame on a lack of goals on Soldado might be a tad unfair. He's not had anywhere near decent enough service. Our build up play is slow, pedestrian, predictable and easy to defend against. Is it any wonder Bobby looks isolated? A player of his quality is asking for us just to do the basics. Gets crosses into the box. Put the corners into the mix. Put the ball through early… not take seven touches and leave it too late when the gaps have closed and he's then in an offside position. And please, just get our bloody wingers to work! Right now we constantly cut in and most crosses or corners hardly beat the first man. It's painful to watch at times. The most basic stuff is not even being executed correctly. So if we want to have a pop at anyone, it has to be the gaffer and his insistence on setting up a negative and overlay cautious midfield that bares no imagination whatsoever!
Being a Spurs fan longer than most,I admit to expecting 3 points v Newcastle.I mean,the West Ham game obviously a one off (I thought at the time) but it's something our old Spurs have been doing for many seasons.To win leagues one has to pummel the poor opposition on a regular basis not let them sit back,soak it all up and score on the rebound. But we've seen it so often at Spurs,I'm surprised we are so shocked.We should know better.Playing tappy,tappy football and getting nowhere is pretty terrible and if we carry on like this we will chasing Palace for a relegation spot. Without those penalties we would be in the doghouse visiting the vet with our manager. Buying the league titles like United and City is all very well but you need a couple of players who hate to lose not let the team worry about the interest mounting up on their wage savings!
Doesn't matter who is on the pitch or not or where, they are being asked to play in a cramped space and not going to be able show their best play. We do not get defences turned toward their goal anymore, only the defenders get the chance to play a 25/30yd pass, the MF generally get less opportunity to do this, which is more Eriksens game I'm told to thread a pass. He and the others I should add are way off the size and strength needed for this league, its a physical battle in the middle in every game and imo its the intensity of the phyisicality that catches players from other leagues out, as they often admit. But its a tragic error of judgement to choose a player like Eriksen and expect him to run a game that requires strength and quick, neat, precise, one touch passing, he only looks capable of running a bath at the moment. We have to give our flair players room to work in, space to drop a pass into, space for our forwards to make a run away from a marker and not run straight into another. All that starts at the back, and until we drop 10yds, stay there and bring teams onto us a bit more it won't work, plus we do not have enough players capable of quick one-touch football to pull opponents out of position, and every PL manager knows that now....except one!
The problem is not Soldado.His goal record speaks for itself. The main problem is that the balance between keeping posession and taking risks is not right. We lack penetration. It is not that we don't have players with the skills to unlock defences, we do. We're just not making runs or passes that hurt the opposition. Thats why opposition goalies can make worldies; because most of the time the time the shots are from outside the box and they have plenty of time. We also lack any width whatsoever, which means that the chance of finding the perfect pass through a congested final third is slim.
I listened to the game on talksport,and to my Suprise Stan the dogger talked a lot of sense about Spurs problems,one of the things he said was you ca,'t blame Soldado as he's not getting any service,he said the wingers need to get chalk on their boots by staying wide and crossing,he also said Townsend should be on the left and Lennon on the right.if Soldado was getting the service then not scoring then you can blame him.And some of his other observations,i found myself agreeing with,much to my suprise
Up until yesterday I might have agreed about Soldado not getting service but I watched him in particular yesterday and he got the service. He was not making the right moves (maybe a lack of 'gel' between the players) but the ball was played to him enough. He wasn't switched on: Poor header from corner over the bar, not getting on to the end of a great ball in, running past the ball that is laid into him, heading into the arms of Krul ; just a few examples of where an in form striker would have put it away.
Soldado looks a good player to me but struggling to come to terms with the pace and physicality of the PL. I really don't understand how he is going to get better service by a system where the wingers are further away from him, or worse still by playing Defoe alongside him which implies dropping a better player elsewhere. We actually played well yesterday, except in front of goal but even then we needed a world class performance by Krul to stop us.
