We're playing brilliant football, the best to watch in the country ATM, and for me, in absolute terms, this is the best Spurs team ever. Relative to their era, the early 60s team was better, etc. However, we do have weak spots, and headers, set pieces and crosses from the oppo have caused us a lot of problems this season. Now who tends to excel in these areas? Yep, it's Stoke at the Britannia. They're very hard to stop at source too, as any throw in or free kick from 40 yards (or more) can be used by the Potters to lump one in, usually more breeze block than Wedgwood. Now there's a very strong argument we should play to our strengths, as we are excellent in open play, brandishing skill, artistry, pace and endeavour like a mix of weapons and paint brushes. But will Harry be tempted to beef up our set piece defending with the inclusion of a Livermore or Sandro at the expense of one of our smaller, more skilful players? I suspect not, and would support that decision all day long. However, if we do keep to our principles, especially if King is out, we will look fragile I fear at times, and will almost certainly crack. Friedel keeps to his line, and only Kaboul is truly outstanding in the air. Gallas will help, as will Adebayor, and we'll need some top aerial/fight ball defending from Walker and Bale. Will that be enough, tough to call this one.
One thing we have going for us is Friedel is better at dealing with high balls than Gomes ever was, which means the back four will be less nervy when the high balls start being flung into the box. Kaboul is a must, and I agree Gallas is more adept to Stoke's more physical approach - also because we need to rest Ledders given the glut of fixtures coming up, so Gallas will need to play against Sunderland and Norwich and needs to be match fit.
Hi HBIC, I get what you're saying re Gomes, as he did give us panic attacks, however he did at least compete for high balls, Friedel stands on his line, which is often high risk in itself. It's almost impossible to stop a header from two yards unless it's straight at you, so attempts at prevention can often be better than the 'cure' which doesn't happen. Re King, I actually meant that King is better defensively in the air than Gallas and we'll miss him badly if he's not there. Although maybe Led's knees these days make it questionable whether he is superior in the air, defensively speaking, to Gallas.
People say that, but if you look at Spurs's record against Stoke away, we have won the last two 2-1 and lost the other. Whilst we do struggle in those games, we have shown enough quality to take the 3 points. We don't struggle as much as people think we do against Stoke! We have won 4 of the 6 games against them. Given the extra quality we have in midfield and attack, and the improvement of our defence, we should be able to contain the Stoke attack.
Never like this game, but we should carry on with our attacking policy,if need be Sandro could come in and help.Can just see a certain beanpole popping up and scoring one. Although in all honesty i think we'll have to much pace for them.Always play to your strengths not theirs.
I think that we should bring van der Vaart back in, assuming that he's fit, but other than that I don't think that we need to change the side. We should dedicate some time to set-pieces in training this week and emphasise how important it will be to win the second ball, but I'm sure Redknapp will have that covered. We need to avoid giving away stupid and sloppy free-kicks. There's been the odd game recently where we've got ahead, been strolling and made some silly mistakes in relatively harmless areas. Stoke will be looking to make us pay from any similar behaviour.
We've got to aim to keep the ball, which we can do if we resist the temptation to keep lumping it forward, especially from goal-kicks. Plus, we have to be extremely disciplined, and not give away silly free-kicks close to our goal. If we can follow these two rules, our pace and attacking-play should be more than sufficient to give us three points. Only £ity, and (as much as I hate to say it) Arsenal offer the same threat as us, going forward. All the other top clubs seem to be very hit-and-miss, at the moment.
We should play our own game. It has stood us in good stead against a number of different threats already. Gallas is OK and Kaboul outstanding in the air. If we protect our own flanks and minimise the football we play there (surely we have too much for them in the middle of the park and should be able to keep the ball effectively?) I can see this being a positive (and bruising) encounter..
The best way to protect the flanks is to take the initiative, which is what we can do with Lennon, Bale and Walker. If they're having to drop back they won't be able to hurt us anywhere near as often as they would if we sat back. Anyway, back to Napoleon: Total War...
Agreed, but the attacks should come through the middle of the park if possible and be spread wide. That way if we lose possession the throw-ins won't be anywhere near our box. Honestly: I think this is the type of game we can win now.
With the form you are in you should just go and batter them with the pace you have. They will not cope. It sounds simple but sometimes football is that simple. As for set pieces, you have a keeper that can deal with that stuff a lot better then Gomes did against Stoke in the past. Also Ade, is very good at defending set pieces. I can't see anything other then a Spurs win despite me hoping for Stoke to take some points of you.
Thanks for all the comments, going to be very interesting. While discipline is very important, it's still going to be difficult, because even an offside just inside Stoke's half can give them a chance to lump it forward. I can almost guarantee that however carefully we defend, we're going to receive stacks of aerial threats. As has been said we have shown we can cope before, so let's hope we do again. I also agree we have to play our own game as best as possible, and I expect Harry will think the same, and play our 'normal team'.
Bale is over 6ft. If we went with Sandro instead of Lennon that would also help. I think we could field a plausible team of 6-footers if everyone was fit...but our smaller, skillful players will tear them to shreds
I agree with that GH10 - despite Friedel making many fewer mistakes than Gomes there seems precious little evidence that he concedes fewer goals. He is very 'safety first' - I think Gomes would have stopped two or three goals that Friedel has conceded but it would look like he had made two or three more mistakes as well as he would have come and missed balls that Friedel never tried to get. Our defensive stats are quite similar to last year's despite Walker, King and Friedel playing almost every match and Parker giving more protection.
Fair comments PS. I think some people may be being over-optimistic that Friedel will deal better with the Stoke bombardment than Gomes did. I can see why they think that, but I also like a goalie that comes and attacks the ball against teams like Stoke. I only saw MOTD highlights of Stoke today, but they only created 3 decent chances on those highlights, scoring from one. Guess where each chance came from, yep a set-piece. They looked just like the 'old Stoke today' and were very physical, very big, and very combative. I do fear for us up there, but as been said, it seems we just have to go up there and play our game. As usual, much will depend on the ref. I remember Stoke kicking us to bits in an appalling display of fouls, time-wasting, cynicism, and complete and utter anti-football a few years back, when they won 1-0 at the Lane. The ref let them get away with 'red and white murder', and I thought our crowd was poor, as they just seemed to register very little protest, considering Stoke's antics. We'll have the crowd against us on Sunday, and I just hope the ref stays strong and clamps down on Stoke's 'over-robust' approach.
Agreed PS, you make some good points about Freidel. However, i think we're all in agreement that the team as a whole- and especially the back 4- seem less nervous and edgy every time the opposition gets within 40 yrds of our goal. There were times last season, following a Gomes-esque clanger, that our creative, dynamic team would seem to shrink into itself, completely shot of confidence to try anything to risky out of fear that opening up too much would lead to Gomes having to deal with a 1 on 1, after which we'd either be another goal down or- as was more often the case- down to 10 men and facing a penalty. This year, we honestly don't seemed too bothered when we concede a goal: the shoulders don't slump, the play doesnt become narrow and hyper-conservative. We continue playing the flowing, exciting football that we're best at, and (usually) go on to win the game. Incidentally, does anyone know what Ledley's situation is? Is he injured or are they just waiting for his knees to deflate? (I can swear I saw him hovering above Marble Arch the other day).
Stoke put out yesterday, 6 big sixfooters till Woody went off, (and we put out 5 the day before) not including Jones Fuller or Jerome. If Pulis swapped one those for Walters they'd outnumber us by 2 on the sides put out this weekend. Thats if they send them all into the penalty box, I haven't noticed who they leave in defence at set pieces. My point being, there is only one, maybe two height mis-matches for us. As long as we concentrate I see little to worry us, and if our defenders don't know Crouchie's every little weakness...who does!
Interesting - you seem to be agreeing that a more conservative goalkeeper who makes fewer noticeable errors doesn't necessarily mean fewer goals conceded but rather it improves the confidence of the team and so means we score more. I never thought of that - you might be on to something....
It's not just height it's aerial ability that is the problem. Bale is tall, but is he any good at defensive headers, I'm really not sure, but I think he isn't, but if people tell me I'm wrong, I wouldn't argue. Walker is tall, but is he that good at defensive headers, I'm not sure on that one. What I am sure about is that we have only conceded four goals in the last six Prem games, which is very good, BUT three were from set pieces, and all four came from high balls into our area. We looked shaky v Fulham, QPR and Blackburn when they started pumping in the set pieces, and Stoke are better than some/all of them at that feature. We seem fine defending against open play on the ground, a great deal of that being it's an area we dominate in, so are attacking not defending for the most part. Spurs will know all about Stoke's strengths, but can we withstand them regardless? Hopefully we will, but as LDL says I wouldn't put money on it. I won't predict till I see the team sheets, but if I was to predict now, I'd go for a draw.
The first two games didn't feature Parker (or, for that matter, a central midfield) and that's where half the goals we conceded this season occurred. Quantitative data is for Gooners, qualitative data is for people who understand football.
