Europa League Match Thread - Tottenham V Lyon

Agree with all of that SOS, and I have noticed the Parker/dembele concerns that you mentioned recently.

However in this game in particular, I actually thought the pair of them dealt with the Lyon midfielders very well. For the entire 90 mins, both players had 2 Lyon players closing them down at once and had no time on the ball. Credit to Lyon and Remi Garde, it's the first team I've seen us play all season who have given out central midfielders such a tough time. Lyon got their tactics spot on and suffocated us.

We just need to take note of this for the next game and get holtby in there too for support.

 

I'll also say I didn't think we played poorly. I continue to think we're the victims of our own success. With teams mostly unwilling to let their defenders budge, it negates our single best attribute, pace. It's not surprising that we've been at a bit of a loss to come up with alternatives, and certainly lucky that Bale has gotten hot. It's one thing to split defenses that are half absent and in the act of running back towards their goal. It's another (and one even Barca struggles with at times) to split defenders camped exactly where they want to be in the box. While the team looks less exciting than it did, and struggles for goals, it's also giving up fewer, working hard, and making teams react to what it does.

I also think Lyon is a very good team, young, talented and hardworking, even if they don't have big names. Second place in Ligue 1, 6 points off PSG is a fair summing up of them.

I hope we start Holtby not just because he looked the best of the three choices, but because one of the other two has lost confidence by not starting regularly. We paid to bring Holtby in early. Surely it would be sensible to make it his job to lose.

Walker and Beni were excellent. I agree Beni's an entertainer, Spurf. I'll never forget him using an exhibition game to show off all the ways he could take the ball off Scousers, not so much in the spirit of sport as of showbiz. It was 98 degrees and I appreciated the entertainment.

Interesting bit about the white kits, THFC. It jibes with my own studies, in which Spurs always win when I wear predominantly white clothes on Saturday with no red in them.

 

Yeah they dealt with the Lyon midfield well but then at home, it should have been the other way round, the Lyon midfield should've been the ones dealing (or trying to) with them. Neither player offered much going forward in my opinion bar one or two runs and at the moment, we really need some drive in the centre as teams are naturally doubling up on Bale and Lennon which makes it harder to create chances. The worse thing for us is we don't have any other options to call upon to do a better job, unless you risk playing Holtby/ Sigurdsson deeper than what they're used to. Holtby probably could play there, he has the creativity to play from deep and as he's shown, he has the work rate, desire and tenacity to get stuck into challenges. I think he may have played a bit deeper for Schalke at times but it's still a risk to stick him there I reckon. Typical that Sandro (and Defoe) had to get injured just when things were falling into place nicely!

 

That would be fun if they did that all the time! Imagine 30'000 voices '****er!' when the commentators make their usual daft comments.

 

it'd make match day ten times better!

 

All the things we shout at the TV only multiplied by 30'000 voices and live on the box.

 

[video=youtube_share;c7lgo9JKr_Y]http://youtu.be/c7lgo9JKr_Y[/video]

I hope this works. YouTube say they've banned it but I dunno, it seems to play.


I love this. Benny lazily gives it away, catches up with the ball, a tackle, some smooth moves and then a chance on goal.


backup video link: https://www.dropbox.com/s/lroqvfcsl...Entertainer - Tottenham v Lyon 2013-02-14.mpg

 

Thanks for posting that Inda - mistake, followed by huge effort to recover, strength against big striker and then a brilliant bit of skill followed by a pass that frankly Ade could have made more of!!

 

should of made more of,and that's why i don't rate him

 

'Could' is closer - in his defence it was a very quick switch from deep defence and the defender shielded him well. Not sure, but at the game it wasn't clear whether he was called for offside or for a foul anyway.

 

Adebayor got flagged for offside. Clearly wasn't and it wasn't a foul, either. They got away with that one, I think.

 

the two times i thought ade should have done better was

a) when dembele played a rare risky pass and set Ade through but ade had zero composure and just lashed the ball wde.

b) near the end Bale sent in a great cross yet as usual no one read it and Ade ran ahead of the ball when if he delayed his run then he could have scored.

Just a quick mention of Walker who also put in some great crosses but again no one to read the cross.

 

Just a couple of things....
1. This board has been awash with criticism of our forwards not getting into the box to get on the end of a Bale cross - so rather harsh to criticise Ade for doing exactly that. Not his fault if that particular cross was played behind him.
2. Walker had a much better game, but most that was in the first half when he and Lennon combined so well. The 2nd half was a different story.....

 

the cross was behind him as ade was virtually standing on the goal line which was because he cant read bales cross.

ok you may think thats harsh but bale tends to put whip on the cross which often curves away so common sense would say to delay the run.

however just to offer some praise, ade did try and work hard off the ball and track back.

 

We didn't play poorly, we performed reasonably well against a good team ranked 12 places above us in the UEFA table.

To beat a team of that level is a good result. How good next week will tell

Re Dembele and Parker - their ppg is BETTER than what we had when Sandro was playing. I think Sandro is great, but our results have marginally improved in the Prem without him.

and on Thursday Parker and Dembele helped us beat a good/very good European team.

PS I hope Holtby starts on Thursday with Paarker and Dembele. Don't mind whether Dempsey or Ade gets dropped.

 

A word in our defence. Lyon beat teams like Sparta and Athletic Bilbao on their way to the last 32 and only drew two of their matches so our win must mean something surely. Many in the team admitted our football wasn't great but still good enough to beat an unbeaten team. They have to score which puts the pressure on them.

 

A good manager wlll always look beyond the result and at the wider picture. Assuming AVB does do this, then he will see we were poor for an unacceptable period of the game. He will have noticed that Steeeeeed Malbranque was far more creative than Parker and Moussa " I flatter to deceive" Dembele put together and he will have noticed that yet again, Adebayor was anonymous and failed to read any of Bale's crosses even though Bale has been feeding him with the same crosses since the day he arrived at our club.

I don't give a toss what Lyon's current ranking is and I don't give a toss what their European pedigree is this season. What I do know is that AVB is a lucky manager to be going into this 2nd leg one goal ahead, because Bale has bailed him out again. Anyone who was at the game, or who watched it on TV or on an internet stream could see we were average and at times very predictable.

 

They're a decent team, nothing special but still a decent team and we should go through as Lyon will have to attack.yet we can't keep counting on Bale, we need other players to show greater intent in attack.

 

The football in the group stages wasn't particularly good was it? However we are still in it and yes we are lucky to be going into the second leg one goal ahead. Hopefully things will improve on the pitch.