"What the hell was the point of bringing Eriksen on ??" Same as the Tromso game (attacking creativity was zero) . And getting a third would have been useful as Spurs got really sloppy and Anzhi looked like they might score.
Difficult place to go, on what started out as a bad and turned into an awful pitch. Efficient is probably the best that can be said and there were more negatives than positives. Hopefully Kaboul was withdrawn rather than injured, but the lack of impact from Lamela is starting to be a concern and I don't think that we will get much effort out of Chadli defensively. Oh well, another clean sheet and Holtby again showed some real quality, so there are some good things to take away from a very dour evening.
Lamela is still adjusting, far too early to worry as he has also had personal issues and clearly hasn't found his role in the team yet. Baldini knew him from Roma so hopefully his judgement is right yet Lamela is widely regarded as one of Europe's best young stars, yet like Jovetic at Man city it will take time before they truly settle. Also roo remember last year alot of fans where saying Holtby wasnt anything to be excited about.Now he seems to be everyones second favourite player. This is why some foreign players dont have that immediate impact as they take time to adapt. I remember Robert Pires at Arsenal took a year to settle. Ramsey last year was viewed as a joke, now hes a star....ok Ramsey isn't foreign but another example of how players need time to find their game. Personally I believe Lamela will end up being a star, but will take longer to adapt.
Definitely his worst games but apart from Holtby most of our players struggled. In general though it's been a slow start and he's only really shown what I was expecting against Villa.
Patience my friend! Remember that Welsh player, Gareth Bale, a large section of our fans turned on him and said he was overated and some fans even said Redknapp should have been sacked if he carried on picking him. Who had the last Laugh and who was right? certainly not impatient fans. Lets allow Lamela a chance to adapt as Baldini has been lavished with praise and he believed Lamela was worthy of a club record fee.
I was one, firstly when he's been used its been on the right....he's not a winger, so he's being played out of position, ala Holtby in his first games, there was a jury out on him for a while, he prefers a more central role which is where his 15 Serie A goals came from. So now we have 4 players who's best position is No.10!!! and not so effective in specific roles, with the exception on evidence so far being Eriksen who is a player who can affect the play anywhere, I'm sure he would be comfortable at centre-back! He had a mare tonight agreed. Could be as simple as trying too hard on a **** pitch. I understand your questioning the player, but I'd rather question why our manager is obsessed with playing predominant left footers as right wingers, they're not all Arjen Robben!
I also failed to see the logic in risking Daws Sig and Eriksen with a pointless runout when the pitch was at its worst! sorry but AVB gets a from me for that.
For me, it is paramount we play in Europe every season. But, I watched that game today and I kept thinking, "what the ****ing hell are we doing playing in the back of beyond on crap potches and risking first team players ". The logic behind taking Lloris, Dawson, Wallker, Eriksen etc is frankly baffling.
I thought the positives completely overwhelmed the negatives. The only negative I could see was Kab not lasting the pace again. Apart from that players like Sandro and Vlad got in a valuable 90 mins, though neither is ready for the Prem yet. Someone said on here recently Sandro is our best mid, he is so not, Paulinho is way better than him, also Dembele is better than him ATM, as is Holtby. However Sandro and Vlad can provide good cover for UEFA and Lge Cup currently and that's very important. It's a shame in one way Walker played 90 mins, but he seems to be a superb athlete machine of a player, so hopefully will be fine for West Ham Overall an excellent result and performance, hopefully we have qualified before we go to Tromso and let the 'yoof' have a go there amidst the ice and snow - good for their moral fibre etc Oh and once again brilliance from Hugo - two goals conceded in 10 games this season IIRC, phenomenal - magnifique even
Especially as our manager had a temper tantrum about our players careers being risked by the FA, over playing too many games without rest.
I agree with you there Spurcat about Europe every season because it's better to be in than out. It's also better to win 0-2 in the EL than lose 1-3 in the CL because of morale and I'm certain that ours is better than City's at the moment. I too was surprised at Lloris being there but he's okay to face West Ham on Sunday, a match we should win. There's a question on the BBC live,"Do you think Spurs can go on to beat the big teams in their chase for trophies?" My answer is not yet. We had 66% possession compared to 34% and we didn't make it count enough in the net. Yes the defence is doing extremely well but overall we are still missing a beat and that will hopefully be rectified when Lamela and Soldado get down to business and that's all we need to do to beat the top teams.
Personally I blame AVB for taking us from 4th to 5th last season. Maybe after tonight's fiasco, those who were dancing in the streets at gaining a record points total, will realise he significance of missing out on CL and pissing around in a joke competition.
I wouldn't go as far as to say that's it's a joke because as it stands we won it when it was the Uefa cup and it was worth winning. Now I know what you mean Spurcat but let's be realistic, we stand more of a chance of winning this than winning the CL if we were in it don't we? Yes if you think about it we are MUCH better than when Harry was coach but not yet good enough to win the CL so we are okay where we are for this season but I'd expect us to be in the CL next season.
