Starting from the back, and contrary to popular opinion, I think Walker was poor. His forward play is, generally, excellent. But when a club such as ours, with aspirations of third spot, are playing an experienced Championship winning side, I felt we needed someone defensively stronger than young Kyle. He was not astute enough to deal with Unitedâs cunning, on the rare occasion it reared its head. This is something that needs attention specific to our opponents if we are to retain third position in the table! In the middle of the park we missed any kind of long range shooting! With a keeper as suspect as de Gea, we should have been testing him from all sorts of angles. Alas, not a bit of it. I think Harry is to be held accountable for this. If there is no such player on the bench after the injuries we have, then why not? (In support of this, from where did Defoe score his goal?) Modric is not going to bag too many from distance. Lennon? Sandro? Livermore? We needed efforts from range to test the nerves of an already nervous keeper. (Did you see the lack of command he had over his own area?!) Our front two were never likely to test de Gea from anywhere further out than the penalty spot! Both Phil Jones and David de Gea were there for the taking, and, for whatever reason, we did not exploit these apparent weaknesses. I question Harry over this, too. Rooney and (evidently) Young can shoot from distance; so too can Balotelli, Silva, and Aguero. Unfortunately RVP has this ability, also. For us...? Bale, perhaps rarely. The point is, when presented with such a fine opportunity of netting from distance, we should have taken it with both arms held wide open; we failed to do so. Essentially, with better tactical awareness, this game was there for the taking and it is frustrating that we had so much possession with so little nous! The big-time beckons only for those who can cater for it, and currently it seems that we lack the sharp edge required for such fine dining.
Welcome to the board I agree that De Gea needed testing more - although at the start Saha and Ade were taking pot shots from outside the area (just none on target really). Our big problem is that we're so terrible at delivery - whether it be free kicks, corners or just in-play crosses. We've got people like Kaboul and Adebayor in the side who are big 6ft+ guys and then either the corner doesn't clear the first man (Modric grr) or our tall players fail to get anywhere near it. Because of this, we lose a lot of options in terms of goal directions. We were always gonna struggle today without Bale, VdV and Parker (although to their credit, Sandro and Livermore did excellent - as did Lennon on his return). Modric played OK but alongside 2 DMs and a lack of creativity alongside him (which Bale and VdV provide) it was tough for him. Man Utd did what they always did though - they had 3 excellent chances and took all 3. That's how you win titles.
i agree with one thing......for a keepr prone to long shots..your spot on...someone forgot to relay that message to our team. better tactical awareness is the main point..and as ive said before it is Redknapp's achilles heel..... i agree with your analysis
And not putting Jones under extra pressure in the 2nd half was niaive to say the least. Could not believe that Ferguson kept him on..... And we didn't take advantage!!
i seriously cannot get my head around this...really this should have been a focal point and he should have been bombarded..it would have only taken 10 minutes max and he would have been off..but no we didnt do that...we dont do obvious things.....
Parker can hit them from distance, I remember him hitting a few screamers for West Ham. Huddlestone can hit long range shots as well, and Modric and BAE pull out the odd cracker. But apart from that we are sorely lacking in that department. Thats also one of the reasons why I found it so odd that we didn't see Defoe until the last 20 minutes, he's often worth a goal from nothing and I think he's still our most reliable finisher along with VdV. We were really pressing in the last 5 minutes after Rose came on, he looked pretty fired up and perhaps if we could have stepped up that intensity for the last 10/15 minutes rather than in injury time then we might have at least got 2 back rather than one. My major gripe with Spurs these days is that we are so poor at set pieces relative to other teams around us, mainly offensively but also defensively. Whoever takes free kicks, be it Bale, VdV, Modric etc. never seems to either be able to get a shot on target or get a decent ball in, and our corners are awful, half the time we don't even seem to clear the first man which is pathetic for a team challenging for a Champions League spot. I don't know if anyone else caught the stat in the commentary but apparently we've only scored something like 2 goals from corners this season, which is astonishing. I's hard to say why this even is, as Bale and VdV are both supposed to be free kick specialists, and the quality of passes and crosses by the likes of Modric and bale and the like is usually excellent. Even with Friedel in net I still feel we are vulnerable from corners and indirect free kicks, as well as attacking throw-ins like the one that lead to Young's first today. Our players just seem to switch off at vital points defensively and that a side with our aspirations cannot realistically expect to be able to do that, especially against a team like Man U. On the plus side I thought Lennon made a good return to the team, Livermore and Sandro did their first team chances no harm, and Ledley seemed to be running ok again (I thought he wasn't running right last week, it might have just been me). I'm worried now that the team will be seriously low on morale ahead of a tricky away trip to Everton next week. With Chelsea away coming up as well we need to sort things out quickly, and its now a big test of Redknapp's motivational skills (thats if the media will leave him alone for enough time to do the job he's actually being paid to do right now). This is make-or-break time for us now. We need to win the FA Cup game to get a good confidence boost back into the camp and then 4 points from the next two games is the absolute minimum - really we should be looking for 6 - considering the next game after that is Chelsea away. We need the big players and leaders to step up and show their mettle. If we collapse now after the great season (one or two individual results aside) that we've had so far then it will be a travesty.
" But when a club such as ours, with aspirations of third spot " feck me your aspirations are plummeting aint they ? A few weeks ago you were going to be PL champions .
When your first goal doesn't count, it hurts the team. That was down to the ref and even Gary Neville agrees it was wrong.
It doesn't help if they book your most defensive midfielder at the first opportunity and for no reason either. Did any decisions go against United? No.
OUR aspirations are plummeting? yours appears to be finishing above us and in the meantime creaming yourselves that you are now 'only 4 pts behind' us like its a great victory for you. Thsts one hell of a drop fron a side who was chasing 4 trophies a year ago!
Don't be a patronising **** all your life. Especially when you're a guest on our board. If you can tell me what law Adebayor broke, that'd be great. And I believe Sandro gave away two fouls all game so don't talk out of your arse.
I think I speak for most Spurs fans on here when I say that although we were definitely in the running a few weeks back it was never really a truly realistic aim - Spurs being Spurs were bound to slip up for one reason or another and so here we are. Would it have been a great thing for the club? Yes, clearly. A truly realistic ambition? It probably never was this year. But if you go into games looking to consolidate your current position, looking behind rather than looking ahead of you then I don't think you have the right attitude as a club that clearly wants to be challenging for the title in years to come. When you're in that position as a club and the media are jumping on the bandwagon, managers and players will say things to keep momentum rolling, because when you're closing in on the top 2 you don't say "Our aim is to finish 3rd." do you? You say you're aiming for the title. Realistically teams are always going to review their aspirations during a season when certain aims become mathematically impossible or just highly unlikely. Third has always been the most realistic ambition for us in the league I feel this year - we don't have the mental strength of United (as Sunday clearly showed) or the spending power of City. I always felt that we would be competing with the likes of Chelsea, Liverpool and Arsenal for 3rd/4th, despite the vast majority of the media and other fans writing us off as even top 4 contenders at the start of the season.
We certainly missed Bale and VDV. There seemed to be very little creative element to our attacking play. We didn't have anybody to really cause them problems, apart from the few times Lennon managed to get a run at their defence. Defensively, we were a shambles. We went to sleep for the first two goals, and Young should have been closed down long before he was allowed the time to place his shot. that's 8 goals in two games now! Pretty disturbing, really. I hate to say it, but once again, not good enough when it really mattered.
I don't. De Gea is a brilliant keeper on long shots, his weakness is crosses (like many keepers). He is just a puny Gomes.
The ref wasn't responsible for this one, in my opinion. We set up too negatively and went to sleep at the back. Atkinson made some mistakes and was far too generous to United in the second half in particular, but we didn't create enough chances and didn't deal well with the few that they had. Sandro and Livermore dominated possession, taking charge of the centre of the park for virtually the whole game, but we marginalised Modric by playing him out wide and didn't get Lennon free enough. Jones' early follow-through on Assou-Ekotto should've seen him go into the book, but when he finally did we didn't make enough of it. He was walking a tightrope and looked either unfit or just unfocused, so why wait so long to introduce Rose?
and you will be glad to get 4th you prick....how you can come on here and try to lambast is beyond an ameoba never mind us fans..thik twat fuk off..ohh i get it..it's banter yeh? idiot!
strange how we all see these things but HR doesnt or he does but dilly dallies about doing something about it as the clock is ticking away..why oh fuking why...the likes of Mourinhio had and still have no problem making a sub in the first half if he deems fit..and Mancini too to his credit..so you know what players think..if our level drops 10% then we are off...so we better stay alert....it feels as though it is a basic fundamental thought process that is consistently over the years,overlooked by Harry.
