Spurs CAN be beaten

I totally understand the negativity after yesterday, I'll be honest I thought throughout 36 points would be enough and I didn't give Wigan a cat's chance in hell of getting anything from Liverpool, us, Arsenal and United. But fair play to Martinez and the players there they have turned it around and can consider themselves extremely unfortunate not to have at least a point more than they do after the officiating at Stamford Bridge.

I think Wigan's win should be an inspiration to the teams battling to beat the drop.

I've been saying before that a "run-in" at this stage of the season is irrelevant. It was a discussion Robbie Earle had on ESPN and I totally agreed with him. It is far better to be the team with confidence and momentum and have the "harder" run-in i.e QPR (home), Wigan, Newcastle than be a team out of form with the so called "easier run-in" i.e Spurs, Blackburn etc.

At home QPR have momentum and a style of play that seems effective in stopping the so called "bigger" teams play. United are the only team that have been to Loftus Road having outplayed you guys and got a result and they are 1st and going to win the league. Even City you comfortably outplayed and were unlucky to lose.

I've had many arguments with Spurs fans and even when 13 points clear of us and Arsenal I insisted they were not as good as United or City and were more on par with Chelsea and Arsenal. Spurs are rocking at the moment there is no doubt about that, and their style of play has been proven to be less effective away from White Hart Lane and less effective against the better teams. They possess genuine quality but I feel the players are mentally and physically exhausted, they have hit their peak.

Having seen us play them twice this season heres my view

Strengths:

Retention of the ball - Something they do very well, Parker in particular barely ever loses the ball, same with VDV. Their midfield is as good as any IMO at doing this.

Wings - Bale and Lennon on their day are absolutely devastating, the key to stopping them will be to deploy two quick players to play down the flanks. We did this with Ramires and Kalou who are also dogged defensively and they couldn't cope. Arsenal and United did the same. You need people willing to track back as well as bomb forward.

Adebayor and VDV combo - Extremely effective, these two link up very well and it will be important to get someone like Derry who is experienced and disciplined who will keep tight. Adebayor holds the ball up very well and their game plan is based almost entirely around him.

Kyle Walker - Quick and excellent at recovering lost ground

Weaknesses


Benoit Assou Ekotto - Get at him, I know SWP is unpopular here but I couldn't think of a better player to play against him. BAE is positionally poor and has poor awareness, he is their main weak link. Sturridge isn't the best player by all means but at WHL he took Assou Ekotto apart

Ledley King - Saddens me to say this as I like the guy and rated him as England's best natural CB but he is not the player he once was. Kaboul is their best defender now. Grant Holt absolutely terrorised King and if it were me I'd have Zamora trying to harrass him at every opportunity with Cisse supporting. I don't believe Spurs have good enough defenders to be able to cope with the attacking threat you will provide.

Wings - Yes, also their weakness. Spurs often leave huge gaps when attacking and whilst Bale is more committed to tracking back and defending, Lennon isn't so much which often leaves Walker isolated.

Away Form - 1 away win for Spurs in all competitions in 2012 and that was at Watford who comfortably outplayed them, even Stevenage held their own against them. Since the 5-2 loss at Arsenal, Spurs and Harry's confidence in the 4-4-2 system has been totally shot and ironically that is where they are at their most devastating.

Good luck on Saturday, I'm confident you will win. Spurs are a good side but they are no United or even City.

 

Come to think of it we are ****ed ... Frank Jesus is back

 

i wish we could play them now, instead when they were flying and had 2 goalies that day, kyle walker as well, if the worse cfc i have seen since we came up, surely rangers who have 3 in a row could beat them easily

 

I don't know about that DL, he got in the right place to keep that goal out the other oh no wait a minute.....

 

He's Spurs standard

 

To this day I do not know how they won that game, never mind win it by 2 clear goals.

The funny thing is Fulham IMO played better against Spurs than they did at home to all of City, Liverpool, Newcastle, Arsenal and Chelsea but it was the only one of the 6 you lost