You're on the right lines, but i wouldn't have gone as far as saying "inept", not by a long way. I love 'Arry! But, in all honesty, how many times can he have seen PAOK play? Obviously he saw the 1st game, but has he seen any others? I'm sure we sent scouts, but 'Arry is the main man and he's got better things to do than go watch PAOK. Sorting out his health for 1, and turning us awesome for 2. Agree with other comments that the players were experienced enough to not need to be told about such basic defending, but i highly doubt the coaching staff were as prepared for PAOK as they were for WBA or are for Bolton. Hopefully that clarifies what i meant.
Yeh I know what you mean....although I guess that would go for most coaching staff...obviously we know a lot more about PL teams than those in the EL...plus to be honest, I don't really think we took the competition seriously enough to warrant too much preparation. So in the end, we got what we deserved to be fair!
Why do people persist in rating Defoe as anything other than a squad player - and a poor one at that. He barely did anything last night. Even Pav occasionally wins us important games with a goal out of nothing.
I would not be disappointed if we sold Defoe. I haven't forgotten the fact that he was useless for a season and a half, before the start of this season, and he hasn't exactly set this season alight, so far. He's a great goal-scorer, on his day. The trouble is, it's not his day very often.
For me, Defoe is a great guy to have as a sub. If he's having a good day then not many hit a sweeter shot from 18-20yds. Hard, accurate, low. Very useful if trailing and looking like we need a goal from nothing. He hit a decent one last night, but the keeper was equal to it. The problem is, that in all round play Ade has shown him up this year. He's also not consistent enough to start every week. When Ade wasn't scoring he was still setting up and contributing all over the park.
Good comments guys, we're all pretty much saying the same thing. The goals scored is my bug bear, averaging 1 per match in a cup comp is dismal for a club like ours in all honesty. We've had Internationals up front be it Pav or JD against mediocre opposition, and its not like we haven't created chances, I mean how were cleared off the line last night! I think the squad is good enough to contest the PL (no, not the title!), so only a small amount of business for Jan, but if qualify for the CL, the summer will need to busy.
Pav couldn't git a flying rats arse though. I felt sorry for Kane being made to play with him. Yeah he scored a free-kick, but other than that he was a chocolate teapot.
If git was meant to say hit, then I would say a flying rats arse would be a good hit for Jimmy Greaves, let alone Pav.
Livermore looked good in every game, whilst Carroll looks promising and Townsend had a good game against Shamrock. Whilst we can speculate on things being better with Dawson, Huddlestone and Kranjcar playing, it's the squad players that largely let the side down - some can be excused as they were coming back from injury with little to no playing time (i.e. Gallas and Corluka), whilst Cudicini is blameless and Sandro wasn't utilised when he should have been. The opportunity was there for the likes of Pav and Bassong to justify their places in the squad, and they didn't - whilst the Pienaar hate found a new reason to exist.
Defoe needs another striker with him(Kane not up to it atm)that much is obvious.Livermore had a bad game.Corluka was awful at the start but got better.Rose was rusty as f***.Pienaar never really knew why we bought him.Gomes leave pls.Gallas another who was just plain rusty. We deserved no more than we got.If we had taken it seriously we would have been through before this game had started,but at what cost to the EPL.Harry made it quite clear where his priorities lay this season.The 1st teamers also made their stance quite clear,so we were never going to progress without the risk of damaging the quest for top 4.SIMPLE.
What's more worrying is how so many 'fringe' players have apparently completely given up on ever earning a place in the 1st XI. Pienaar, Gomes, Charlie, Pav. On the one hand, this is an indication of just how good the 1st XI now is if even experienced and admittedly capable players have given up all hope of breaking in. On the other hand, it highlights a problem faced by every big club- how to keep everyone happy, all the time. Although tbh if Charlie's thrown the towel in I'd be really upset b/c on his day he's one of the best RB's in the country...
Trying to beat teams the level of PAOK and Rubin with reserves was always going to be dicey. While you could say the reserves matched have as a group at least as much talent, they're patched together and looked it. When you've got a back four that aren't used to each other, and no one with any history of scoring goals (until Defoe came on), you're likely to lose. With a little luck, it's true, Spurs could have made it through, but they didn't have much. Particularly bad time to have both Pav and Gio hurt. They both have their critics (I'm a big one of Pav's), but they've both scored in the competition, and were liable to score one yesterday. Anyway, I supported Redknapp discounting this competition and I still do. Whether we get fourth or higher or not, I'd rather it be after making every effort in the Prem, not with players tired and distracted from flying across Europe.
Isn't it great to see a team actually trying to get on in a competition.Well done Stoke! Love to see you win it....and why not? Even little Fulham have a chance........
If we are aiming to be regularly in the top four and CL then we need to stop thinking of our squad as a first XI plus some fringe players. We need about 20 outfield players of top 4 standard so that rotation doesn't weaken the team and all 20 get regular playing time. We ought to be playing 55+ matches a year so that would give an average of more than 35 appearances for each player (including subs). I think we've got about 14 but it seems to me that Corluka, Bassong, Pav, Defoe and Pienaar are not up to the right standard. Rose, Townsend, Livermore, Carroll, Dos Santos, Kane plus Naughton, Caulker, and Smith may be good enough in the future but are still young and learning their trade so three or four of those could make it as could some others in the youth set up. So I would try to sell some of Corluka, Bassong, Pav, Defoe and Pienaar in the window and make a new striker and a left back the priority.
