Poor till last game. He missed an unmarked header early on that I thought was crucial. It's about what you might expect: service poor at first, then when he gets some decent chances, his confidence has been dinged and he doesn't convert them. I'm not that worried about him in one sense, because you can make a case he's been our best PL playmaker. I am worried because I think he's a striker who needs a fast buildup, and whether the faster tempo we played against Newcastle is a sign of things to come (good) or a desperation measure remains to be seen. We've been fine away, though, and a repeat with a few tweaks of how we played against Everton is probably in the works: lots of pressing. The Everton game seemed like it could have stayed 0-0 for weeks. Not to say you don't have a lot more threats than Everton. Your GD is frightening. But everyone else has had trouble scoring against us. A better comparison than Everton may be Arsenal (away), who've also been scoring a lot. We had most of the ball, but let Arsenal hit us on the break. They had 2-3 good chances, we hardly had any, and they won 1-0. The thing about this game is that both teams are coming off disappointing games, and both desperately need a good result, so it should be very hard fought. Good luck when you aren't playing us.
I don't agree totally with "Service" to the forward, if a forward isn't getting the service then what's wrong with him fighting to get the ball himself? I've seen forwards run all over the place to get the ball and score. This match result will tell us a lot about the future of both teams after the break and the way they'll go forward. A good attack against a good defence is a potent measure. If City don't win it and considering their away form they'll struggle against the top teams and even mid table who are up and coming ie West Brom. If we lose but only by a narrow margin then I say the future looks bright for us. A heavy defeat will be bad news and a draw will not be good for City but not bad for us. As we all know often a certain match is a season catalyst and this just might be it.
I would like to see the following. Lloris Walker Verts, Kaboul, Rose Sandro Capoue Lennon Paulinho Lamela Soldado Townsend needs a rest, he has not looked anything his best for a few games. Lamela deserves a chance after the Europa performance, you could tell that the goal took a lot of weight off his mind. Capoue looked very good at the start of the season, with a few more training sessions under his belt now I hope he can pick up where he left off. If we can take it to 0-0 and create chances until 75 minutes, I fancy siggy and Defoe to come on and either one will snatch the winner.
My biggest fear playing any team is that if we go 1-0 down we won't come back with our goal scoring record. I shook my head when Newcastle went ahead and thought"That's it."
Me too. The newcastle game was the first time i got a bit concerned tbh. Despite the chances we did have you just got the feeling we wouldn't score.
Not alone on that thought Thunder God. I knew we weren't scoring enough but I've only recently clocked on that in 11 league games, we've scored just 9 goals and only 6 of those have been from open play. That's piss poor for us, especially considering the attacking talent available.
I had my concerns from the first two matches of the season which were both poor penalties. Yes SoS, it is poor considering what we've spent AND we are scoring less in the Capital and EL in which we were scoring freely at first. WE NEED TO PLAY TWO STRIKERS ANDRE.
that won't help unless one is an on-form Ade. Wide wingers would help immensely. Or someone like Holtby/Carroll as one of the deeper CMs
Ade is gone, he only plays one good season for a club then can't repeat. If we sold him in January he would play great until the end of the season, sign for that club then be crap the following year. Defoe and Soldado can't play together. Harry Kane isn't a realistic option. So it's one up top, unless Lamela plays as a free roaming forward behind Soldado or Defoe.
he wouldn't go with either of the ones we had either. Great replacement for Defoe if thats what we're planning though.
Like mentioned on another thread, we need a Teddy Sheringham or Robbie Keane. These type of players aren't easily found.
And Keane on loan! Reunite Berba and Keane for 6 months, sell Soldado to some Russian club for 40 million and sack Avb in the summer along with Ade.
I actually think that Harry Kane is that kind of player, from what I've seen of him. He links up well with a more predatory striker and does better when he's allowed to drop a little deeper than his partner. I don't think that he's ready to start regularly for us, by any means, but a run in the Europa and League cups alongside Defoe would be good for both of them, in my opinion. If it did work out, then it'd also give us a useful weapon from the bench and allow us to switch to an effective 4-4-2 if we need to, which we currently can't do. With the injury to Eriksen I think that we need to try out something a little different against Tromso. I'd like to see us use Defoe and Kane from the off and bring on Adebayor at some point. It'd be nice to have a left-back of some description to call upon too, so I'm hoping that at least one of Rose or Fryers is back, as Vertonghen can't play every game and I don't want to see Naughton in that role again.
left back was a huge balls up over the summer. I can only think they thought Coentrao was a done deal. BAE might have had issues with AVB but we've cut off our nose despite our face with the injury to Rose.
I'll be honest and say I don't rate Kane or think he has any future at premier league level but as like last year I backed Townsend and believe Carroll will make it, then I won't knock anyone for talking up Kane if they see things I can't see in a player. But I hope Kane can be that player, as I always prefer our homegrown talent to be given a chance.
Wow., must have had an extraordinarily sharp toe-nail., and I for one, will be more careful in the future.
