Yeah, Gallas' attempt at a clearance was clearly the biggest fault. The only reason I brought up Vertonghen is that Huddlestone was being criticised for not very much when the current golden boy for most fans these days was guilty of worse in the same move.
Yep, Smith at RB for Maribor is a good shout I think, and then see how he goes, but can see the preference for Naughton. I said before the Chelsea game that we should consider playing Ade and JD together and resting Deuce (stands for his favoured number 2 shirt I believe) who I suspected would be tired after his travels. I think Ade should start v Maribor and Dempsey should stay at home and get rested up
You say it like you were proven right. Dempsey looked off the pace at times but when Adebayor and Defoe were playing it left us very open and it would've been even worse had Defoe not have dropped off to the left to allow us to keep some resemblance of the formation we like to play. It's also worth remembering that Adebayor wasn't at the races when he came on either. Definitely play Ade on Thursday he needs some game time but I'd leave Defoe out.
Lloris Naughton Kaboul Dawson Assou-Ekotto Townsend Parker Livermore Bale Dembele Adebayor That's a side that didn't start against Chelsea. Quite a lot of talent, but it also shows our main area of weakness, for me. Missing out on Moutinho's left us a little short in the middle.
This is one area of Defoes game which is under rated, as you may remember when Jol was manager, he used to use Defoe on the left, as an inside type forward, especially in the second half and he caused mayhem, with his direct running. So if Ade gets in the team and Bale is injured, Defoe should be shifted to the left, to keep the shape as imo 4-4-2 leaves us too open, especially if Dembele is missing.
I say it like that because I think I was proved right about Dempsey, and that he shouldn't have started. Not so sure about Ade, I really can't work this one out, but if he wasn't ready - why wasn't he? Anyway we could have played Townsend instead of Sempsey when Bale dropped out, so that was another trick that I think AVB missed. In essence I thought that Dempsey would be tired and shouldn't have started, and I think my analysis was correct. I can't prove it of course, but I'm happy that on the evidence of Dempsey's performance that my call was correct, and indeed that AVB was wrong on this one. But I'm not being massively critical of this call, I can see the reasons for AVb#s choice.
Seem to remember you had them all available in the semi. Didn't fare much better then as I recall. Welcome to the world of AVB. Average at best but we did try to tell you.
Kaboul was injured and Dembele was at Fulham, so no, we didn't have them available. Welcome to the world of reality, where people correct your gibberish.
My point is that you had Bale, Modric and Van der Vart. All better players than you had on Saturday and so your team was stronger.
We also had a manager who had totally lost the plot at that point, only winning one game in the previous two months and Martin Atkinson giving a goal that never was at a key point in the tie. Redknapp was forced to chase the game and we conceded 3 additional goals after switching to 4-4-2, as we lost the midfield battle.
Without 2/3 best players, maybe 2/2, we scored two goals against the top team in the Prem, led (briefly) and outshot them, both total and on-goals. Defoe, Lennon and Vertonghen were outstanding. We look like we can score against anyone. Huddlestone's passing and free kicks were good. Adebayor played a little. So far we've had exactly one critical problem this year (a positive in the sense that having more than one is worse): we forget how to defend all too often after scoring critical goals (happened against Man U, Chelsea, Newcastle, West Brom, and Norwich)). If we can't defend, why not keep pressing for more goals? If we hadn't had this problem, we'd top the league. And, of course, the big ones. We're still fifth, Arsenal had a worse result, and sit in ninth place, two points behind us.
