Walker had a far better game, good goal but his (no matter how it happened, it was an error and costly) mistake was one in ongoing series of cock ups. His final pass, touch at times can be Championship level a lot of the time. I understand from Spurf's praising over time he must be a great fan of Lennon. Blistering pace backed up with poor delivery , I think this is why nobody has made a serious offer for him. I agree he did make things happen compared to others but not enough to be a constant match winner. The team in my eyes played with verve but pretty disjointed at times . They lacked sophistication and looked poor compared to last years Bale one man team or Harry's cavaliers . Cromwellian football but a decent improvement from the mess of the last few weeks.
Better is the word for that, though an understatement in itself in that any performance would have been better than last week, but even I wasn't expecting such a Jeckyll and Hyde difference. Some were surprised at the lineup, it looked more balanced to me and so it showed, having the better of an apparently resurgent and more dangerous looking United for long periods. The result of that means me back tracking on Dembele's and Lennons worth to the team. In those two we have the probably the best ball retriever and move starter if you like in MD, instead of expecting more from him, he just needs the right outlets to take his simple pass and press on with the creativity. We also have one of the best chance providers in Lennon, if only we could sign a striker that could form one of those telepathy things with him. His much maligned final ball that roll across the 6yd box or cut back to know one, I think its as much the players in the box fault for not reading the possibilities he provides, its not like yesterdays examples are the first, and anyone who watched MOTD2 would have seen Soldado shown as a culprit of admiring his own pass to put Lennon through, then watch the return begging for a tap in roll harmlessly along to a united player, while he was static near the pen spot. Lennons play also gets us plenty of corners and free-kicks, but with the names we have on board is Kyle Walker our best option, great one yesterday but I can't see him as the regular taker surely. I also see he takes stick for their second goal, no one mentions Lloris though, for me once again a loony decision from him costs us points...why did he come out??? Welbeck was going nowhere with one of our defenders up his arse, crazy decision. I also have a different view of the first, my first thought was Kyle tried to play a fancy flick pass to Daws who had no-one near him, as if to tee him up to clear it, and it went horribly wrong to Rooney, why not hook it away with his left in the direction it was going? other than that he was one of our best players. Move of the match for me was that breakout where Soldado was put through to make it 2-0 but sadly shot over. At speed, and it showed Paulinho at his best, his surge forward and perfectly weighted pass is what he's about, not tippy tapping round the 18yd box looking for the eye of a needle. He had a better game in himself the Brazilian but he's not our long term answer at no.10. The Lennon sub looked wrong but I can't help thinking it was right on a fitness level, we got loadsa games coming and I'd rather Lennon brought gradually up to speed, we've rushed him back into 90 miutes too soon or given him too many in the past. In summary, once again we had a great chance to beat a top side not their best, but two bits of stupid gift them goals. My predictions tell you it was a result I'd have bit your arm for before the game, but I've ended up slightly disappointed with the draw.
It was a good game - just a shame Spurs capitulated so easily against City only the week before. When people look at fixture lists and predict results, they often forget how different opponents can be from one week to the next. Look at Chelsea v Soton too. When did Soton last defend so poorly in a half? Not at OT, Anfield or The Emirates.
I totally agree. When you play teams is a vital ingredient, but totally unpredictable. The teams that have beaten City away have bonus points imo. I can't see them being beaten so much in the second half of the season.
"Whilst on the subject can I just mention Walker who I thought was tremendous yesterday" The second goal summed up the worst of him. A headless sliding tackle at the Man Utd defender that if evaded would leave miles of space on the left. And if caught the player and not the ball could have been a red. Well the player evaded the tackle and got the ball away and they steamed down the left for the eventual penalty.
Was the commentator buffOwen by any chance? all 3 are crackers, his first against Chelsea was a belter...the Beast doesn't do **** goals! http://www.3news.co.nz/VIDEO-Sandro...-2011/tabid/415/articleID/209232/Default.aspx How could any one forget the goal cele...he was so desperate for a hug from Harry, ran all the way over and got the bollocking Harry had been trying to dish out to him for the last 5 minutes for getting forward too much.
...whilst the Grauniad went with: Szczesny; Coleman, Davies, Mertesacker, Oviedo; Deulofeu, Ramsey, Barry, Nasri; Rooney, Sagbo Anything to avoid giving us credit, as per usual.
Allardyce has chimed in on Villas-Boas' reaction to the criticism he's received from the press and I'm surprised to say that I agree with him completely: [video=youtube;-ZI_8vNktyQ]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ZI_8vNktyQ[/video] Apparently he also said that it was a little immature and he let them get under his skin, which is the section that some reports have run with, but I can't argue with his assessment.
This is the same Sam Allardyce who had several people with laptops watching the game so he could rant about a referee mistake in his post-match press conference to avoid taking any responsibility for any and all losses, as well as getting out of accepting the fact they were 3-0 down before the contentious call was entirely his responsibility? Or maybe the same Sam Allardyce who has a column in the Standard to air his grievances?
It is actually the same Sam Allaradyce who was so tactically superior to Villas-Boas a few weeks ago, that many of us remain embarrassed about it even now. Forget what Sam has said and concentrate more about how AVB has yet again made himself look a right berk with his silly outburst.
Given how Allardyce uses a column in the Standard to rant and rave, that makes him look far more stupid - because his column is several days after the fact, rather than the immediate aftermath.
I give AVB a lot of credit for that lineup, especially pulling Chadli out of mothballs. The thing is, if you start Sandro, Dembele and Paulinho, you may not have exactly the players you want to perform the roles you think are necessary (#10, deep-lying playmaker), but you do have three players who will make it very unlikely we get outplayed in the center of the park. I've been a Holtby fan, and hope Eriksen eventually fills VDV's shoes, but those three on the field at once give me some confidence. The draw was disappointing after such a good effort (15 fouls to nine--they were constantly grabbing our players to stop good chances). Telling, I think, that we let them come right back and score as soon as we took the lead: fragility, lack of confidence, pick your explanation. We've got to somehow learn to put the hammer down on teams that are takeable, instead of rolling out the red carpet to let them back in the game. As for AVB's mouth: my memory is that he was Mr. Nice Guy last year, and while good on a human level, I'm not sure I want it in a manager, not quite to that degree, anyway. There's something timid about it, as if you want to say, well, we may not have won, but we're nicer people. Many if not most managers will use unreasonable comment to build an us-against-the-world team mentality, or to pressure refs. This year he's decided not to be so diplomatic (and I think it was a conscious decision). Nothing he's said so far struck me as OTT, but then I didn't read it! In any case, the way a manager talks in interviews is judged mostly not on how nice he was, or even how much sense he showed, but on his overall record. "Prickly, ill humoured and contentious" worked fine for Sir Alex Ferguson, but it probably helped get Holloway sacked.
Has that really got anything to do with him in PNP's vid? no, but its the same Sam who acted accordingly during worse abuse at Newcastle.
I do not see the Standard, so I have no idea what Sam says. However, I do think he is a better manager than he is ever given credit for. I wouldn't want him at Spurs, but I recognise he has more about him than the clueless AVB.
It's called double standards, notso. It's pretty rich someone who has people scour the match for the sole purpose of having something he can complain about rather than accept responsibility for the other 89:59 of the match telling anyone how to act in front of the media. Doubly so because it;s obviously putting pressure on officials, yet he has a pop at other managers for doing the same thing.
