As in life pal, the teams that consistently work the hardest seem to be the "luckiest." Since parker and Aebayor arrived we have dropped 2 points out of 24. Is that luck? You were at home in a derby match and your return for 26 shots was one goal from a set piece. It is pointless "outplaying" sides if you can't put the ball away. Your strikers are woeful and we wanted it more than you. Like Jol so I want to see you do well, but finishing like today will see you in trouble.
Have to say I thought Joe Jordan's post-match interview was superb, he should get more time in front of the cameras.
His demeanor in front of the camera is certainly far better than his grasp of in-play tactics. Actually, he seems like a very nice bloke.
There is a distinction between being outplayed and outfought. Fulham outfought us for sure and their efforts deserved something from the game, but the different skill levels were plain to see. Fulham harried and worked their socks not allowing us the freedom to play our passing game but the few opportunities we had were converted with silky skills. We have suffered this ourselves particularly against Man U. and still do, this is why in football the better side does not always win, effort and luck also play a part. Having said that, on most days Fulham would have won that game but the luck wasn't with them.
He seems a nice bloke to have as your friend, not someone you would want as your enemy. What Gattuso thought he would achieve by confronting him shows just how mental he was! I mean, generally speaking, you wouldn't want to put a modern day "hard man" against an old school hard man would you!
Um, did you read any of my post? I came on here and congratulated you on your win. I didn't say anything about you being lucky, more to the point I intimated that we were unlucky, pal. Nothing wrong with our finishing, Friedel and your other keeper, Walker were top and kept you in it. Admittedly we should've stuck a couple away, but you can't win them all. Since when was this a derby? Oh, a London derby. As if there isn't one of those every other week. All I said was that we did outplay you in the second half when someone else said we didn't. You admitted this yourself.
I always had respect for Spurs fans 'til this post. You have disappeared up your own arses if you think like this guy.
Hi Bidley I didn't say that, please read what I said, nowhere have I said what you have implied. For the record I'll repeat myself, we were NOT completely outplayed, that's number 1. 2 - as Spurf has said we were outharried and outmuscled, but if you look at the line ups it's no surprise, especially after our 'chief harrier', Parker, took a nasty knock, which may or may not have been deliberate. All our goals were good goals which involved skill and/or speed, attributes you can expect from us given our line up. Our games are almost always a credit to football, and make for great viewing - the TV companies all around the world must love us because we put the emphasis on playing football and winning by attacking football. Obviously at times we fail in our atttempts to play quality football, but you only have to look at our line ups to see where the emphasis lies. I love Harry for that commitment to flair, skill and speed, though sometimes as with yesterday, we need an extra enforcer in there like Sandro, who isn't just a muscleman BTW, he can play as well. Finally, here's word for word my first reply to you, again I stand by it. 'Cheers Bidley , we got lucky today, but it was another cracking game to watch, and as you rightly imply, we deserve to finish top four.'
I've been a proper crap fan lately and have only seen MOTD2 highlights of our last two matches. How's Lennon doing? He seems to have had a hand in a number of our goals since returning to the side after I for one had written him off as unproductive.
Hi SF, the fact that Sandro can't get into the side is a good indicator of how well Lennon is doing. I would have liked Sandro to start this one, but Lennon completely justified his inclusion by a goal and a vital part in our opener. We have 8 great options for our 'front 6' ATM, so to keep your place indicates you're doing plenty right.
Fair observation Lidls, but we've never struggled to score goals. I think that we've now got two things that we've lacked in the past, at times: self belief and real heart. Both run throughout the side and even onto the bench. Even when we're not getting things our own way, you can tell that the players still think that we're going to win. Nobody's head goes down, no one gives up. In answer to SF's question, I'd say that Lennon's getting there. He seems to be building up a bit of an understanding with Bale and Walker. The wingers are starting to work out when to cut in, swap sides, go outside or allow the overlap from the full-back. Once they nail it, it'll be exceptionally hard to defend against. Lennon's goal typified it, with both of them going down the same side and totally confusing the defence. Bale's run to the centre drew defenders with him and left Baird isolated against Lennon in full flow.
Yeah, I was impressed with the two of them for Lennon's goal. Too often they get dismissed for being too predictable, relying on pace and not having much footballing ability but between that goal and Bale's second last week(again when they were both in the middle) they've shown they can do more than that. Bale's already showing that he's an improved player this season, he has had a couple of quieter games but he is having more influence on the pitch and developing a footballing brain to match.
I think that people are using different interpretations of what outplayed means. In the second half of the game Fulham created more chances than us, created better chances than us and had more possession. I don't think that anyone would really argue with that, would they?
That's what I mean, Ensil. Some people would say that my statement would mean that we were outplayed, whereas others wouldn't. It's not a disagreement about the facts of the match, but of the conclusion formed from them. I'd rather that we won games that we might not have deserved to than the opposite. We did that far too often last season, for me.
The comment I picked up on was by Spurs Legend where he said 'pretty much all Spurs fans .... thought Fulham completely outplayed us'. He may be right in his claim that 's how pretty much all Spurs fans felt, though obviously he can't prove it, but he's perfectly entitled to his opinion, which may well be correct. But for me it's a wrong assessment of the match, Fulham didn't completely outplay us, in fact it's almost impossible for a team to lose 3-1 at home and claim that, but it certainly didn't happen on Sunday. We scored three good goals, all involving a quality moment or more, Fulham got a lucky own goal, which their pressure deserved, but wasn't a patch on any of the goals we scored. If someone said they outplayed us, I might agree or I might argue, but 'completely outplayed' us, no way Pedro.
I believe we were what a 'man in the street' would say was outplayed. I say this with the same meaning as all those matches in recent seasons where we have outplayed the opposition without getting a win from the game. It seems to me we can't claim this of our own team without conceding this happened to us on Sunday. This is not to deny the very valid points that others have made pointing to the scoreline and the quality of our goals etc. For my subjective part, I would simply have said we were "outplayed" and avoided saying "completely outplayed" as I agree you can't be completely outplayed and win!
Our attack players are all chipping in with goals, proving what we all knew that they can all finish. We've watched the old top4 play this way for years, defend your last 35yds like a fortress and hit on counter, but with potentially fewer chances you need to be clinical. Seems to be happening before our eyes, lets just enjoy the ride!
