That game also was a good example of the frustration I have with Paulinho. So many times I saw him making runs beyond defenders and not getting the ball. But then when he offers himself for a simple ball he just plays it one touch to a colleague about ten yards away from him and moves it backwards even though he had time to take a touch. I keep finding myself thinking with him "Pauli - after all those runs you've finally got the ball! Don't you want it?!". It seems like he really does just want one touch much of the time and to be fair some of his best moments and games for Spurs have been when little flicks etc have come off. I really think there's some quality there (similar to Soldado) but a coach needs to really earn their money to try and work out how to make that quality count for something in this team. One thing I'm sure of - he's better further up the pitch. It's also interesting how Chadli has quietly found a use for himself more centrally. For me he never looked capable of beating a full-back and his crossing and touch looked wonky. Decent enough shot, though. And playing down the middle he seems more confident using his primary abilities - power and a little bit of pace. I even saw him make a couple of tasty passes this evening. Not one to really trouble a strongest Spurs 11 yet but another one who clearly has attributes that a decent manager could make use of (and to be fair to Sherwood he's obviously trying, with some small success, to do that).
I will always remember,even 5-1 down,the Sunderland fans on their feet clapping and cheering their team.Their fans deserve better......!
Credit to Sunderland fans. Credit also to Sherwood from one of his frequent critics. His overuse of the high line has been very costly IMO, and surely he should have been getting our defenders to put their foot through the ball when appropriate (credit to Naughton for doing so four times, I think--maybe he could teach the others; not only did he kick it hard, he kicked it forward, sideways or both). But his PL record is decent, and considering how much criticism was leveled about not playing attacking, exciting football under AVB, he deserves great praise for getting the team doing that for the most part. It's been erratic, but given he had an unsettled squad and needed to change the style of play, that was inevitable. But he got the team scoring goals and playing exciting games more often than not. Few of us would have guessed Ade and Eiriksen would be looking superb at this point, and he deserves a share of the credit for that--not to mention Kane doing well. Of course Sunderland were very poor and dispirited, but seeing him dying a thousand deaths on the sideline with us down 1-0 after a 4-0 loss, and all the rumors swirling round, I couldn't help but feel very good for him, and how much he has raised his stock with what was probably our best game this year. I pretty much agree with lennypops about Paulinho and Chadli--a bit more positive about Chadli though. When he got the ball you could feel everyone thinking, "something good's going to happen now," the way they do when Lennon gets it, and that's a very good sign. But I think his crossing is good; he has three assists in very limited playing time. As to Paulinho--he can do a few things well--win the ball, time runs into the box and score, and do flicks and tricks. But how you can translate that into one of our best eleven players I'm still not sure. Adebayor took over the role which Paulinho ideally would have taken, dribbling out of trouble, and picking the right pass to get us going forward. Also, the Beeb: Eriksen, arguably the best player on the pitch, delivered a teasing cross from the left that Wes Brown tried to clear only to see it ricochet in off Adebayor. [Actually, though an excellent cross, it came in at just the wrong height. Adebayor brilliantly and quite intentionally knocked it in with his right hip. I doubt many strikers could have done that.] Kane scored Spurs' third and his first in the league after the break. Eriksen was again the supply line, finding the 20-year-old Englishman with an in-swinging ball that was tucked away from close range. [Actually, it was a double deflection. The defender grazed the cross with his toe. Then Kane grazed it with his toe to send it into the net. Also, it was Spurs' second, not Spurs' third. And it wasn't from particularly close range.] The Dane was pulling the strings in attack and moments later demonstrated his own ability in front of goal with well-placed sidefoot effort past Mannone. [Actually, Eiriksen's shot in all likelihood would have been a comfortable save for the keeper, but took a lucky deflection off a defender, which sent it into the corner of the goal before the keeper could react.]
Was nice to go to the Lane last night and be on the right side of a high score line for a change. Eriksen was magnificent, (I'm going to gloat and say "I told you so" in regards to him becoming a quality player here ), Ade and Kane worked well both together and for the team itself and for the most part the rest of the team done OK, stupid goal on our part to concede though, very sloppy pass from Vlad. Always nice to see a youngster given a run out too, so well done to Milos Bring on West Brom, my first away game of the season, usually go to about 6 a season, slacked off big time this year.
I thought he got to the left flank much better than I've seen for awhile. Cutting back on to his left for the opener was brilliant, everyone was expecting him to cross it in on his right. It also worked with Kane and Adebayor going out to the left at times too and Rose overlaping, even if his crosses were poor.
Was the atmosphere as bad as it sounded on TV? You could hear some trying to get some chants going but apart from when we scored and the last few minutes the sighs when we lost the ball were louder than any chant I heard. Yes, Eriksen was brilliant but we need to see more of him in the big games. He can definitely become a star for us and I think next season we'll see an even better Eriksen. I really like Chiches but he was a joke last night, the throw to Lloris was poor and compounded by a woeful pass that was nowhere near Kaboul and he'd had a let off from the freekick earlier when he failed to pick up Wes Brown who should've scored. Don't want to dwell on the negatives though, it was a positive attacking display with much better passing than we've had in the past. On that note I was really pleased with Paulinho and Chadli in the centre, I've never seen Chadli play as a centre mid before and Paulinho's defensive game isn't the best so whilst they weren't the stand out performers I thought they did very well up against a 3 man midfield.
Worse mate. Atmosphere at the Lane has been poor all season though. There was kind of a reluctant vibe last night, it felt as though many Spurs fans didn't want to be there but naturally went because they'd paid for the ticket weeks back. I think with more time and confidence in him, Eriksen will shine, in fairness for the most part when he hasn't performed it's mainly when the team as a whole hasn't. Also need to take into account the guy's still 22, it's crazy how good he is already with plenty of time for improvement. I'm hoping Vlad was just rusty, he'd been out for a couple of months so I suppose there was always going to be a mistake or two in him. I think Chadli is really starting to settle in now, still has a long way to go but it seems he's finding a rhythm - helped by the fact he's getting a run of games - and so I hope he can begin to build on this and push on, hopefully reach the form he had at Twente, because that guy was a beast. Paulinho I'm still not totally convinced by. I expected a great deal from him in the Summer after an impressive Confeds Cup but he's looked average at best.
He did well on both flanks and in the middle offensively, but he's just not any good at getting back or providing cover for his fullback. I don't see that as a massive issue though, as he shouldn't be playing out on the wing, but in a virtual free role behind the striker. He can easily fill that van der Vaart shaped hole, in my opinion. Now, how about filling the Modric shaped one behind it?
John O'Shea doesn't appear to have enjoyed Adebayor's goal and the subsequent salute with the coaching staff: https://vine.co/v/M5zMAtDpbhZ
I loved the respect it showed but I thought it was cringe worthy at the same time. I think Adebayor took the piss out of Sherwood seconds later... please log in to view this image please log in to view this image Judging from the Google search I've just done, I'm not the only one to have seen the similarity.
"Blast - dream over!" To still be mathematically in with a shout at the start of April, is still a Spurs first though.
[video=youtube;iRDNtU4fIE4]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iRDNtU4fIE4[/video] Nice ending, but the rest was a little scripted.
We're going back further than that. We have a winger at left back(Bale/Rose), a creative midfielder cutting inside from the left(Modric/Eriksen) and 2 up top. It's 09/10 CL qualifying stuff
I'd been saying Eiriksen should play in the middle but now I think he does better on the left--which is where I saw him in the Ajax highlights. He doesn't have the clever, short diagonal passes of VDV or for that matter Holtby. What he does have is a terrific cross and shot from either foot, and seems to prefer to launch both near the left corner of the box. So maybe keep him on the left but get someone to help him track back. I've been reasonably happy with playing Chadli and either Lennon or Townsend. None of them did anything spectacular yesterday, but they all distract and worry defenders with their dribbling while they get it up the pitch, and created the openings Eiriksen, Ade and Kane used. I wish I could say I was also impressed with Paulinho, but I wasn't. I'm not sure he knew what he was supposed to be doing. It was such a problem that Ade came back and did what we wanted a deep lying player to do. Having said that: this was Paulinho's first start in a while, and his first experience as the only deep lying player. He wasn't awful, and would probably benefit from a few games and practices to help him slot into the team. I wonder if Sherwood is still trying to make the most of our signings. Eiriksen has worked, Chiriches started, expect Soldado to take Kane's place when he returns, Chadli is doing okay. If he can fit Paulinho into the team, then it's only Lamela and Capoue, who was the cheapest of the bunch, who are out in the cold--and who knows, maybe Lamela could work out next year. As it stands, if we played that formation again I'd pick Bentaleb and Gylfi over Paulinho in the deep lying role. Bentaleb distributes the ball and tackles well, and while Gylfi doesn't do either one as well, he works hard, is big, hard-nosed and scores at an impressive clip. Five goals in twelve starts, or something like that. Though his last two were as a sub, I'm sure he's our likeliest scorer this year outside of Ade.
