Call me what you like, Skylarker. I've done enough complaining in the past about the likes of stoke being "Anti-Football", that I'm certainly not going to be a hypocrite. Oh,and I'll remember my plastic coat, gloves and hat at the two away games I'm going to during the winter.
Krul only played well because we gave him the opportunity. Shooting straight at him, letting him get into position by taking too many touches and not following up on rebounds. Erikssen's miss in particular was woeful-I call it a miss and not a save as most players would have just smashed it first time ( just like Ramsey has been doing). Similarly the follow up to the free kick-we had three players onto it and not one could put it away. And I am always on about our terrible record from corners-has anyone got stats for corners converted over the last few seasons? We must be bottom of all football leagues all over the world pro and amateur.
One positive for me outweighed many negatives. For the first time, we looked willing and skilled at breaking at pace. There were considerable stretches when we looked like Spurs of a couple of years ago. Whether we only do this when behind, or pick it judiciously to begin games, in order to win by (not to mention score) multiple goals remains to be seen. Our future this year, and AVB's, depends on it, IMO. Everyone said the high pressing style could be disastrous against a good, pacy striker and some skillful midfielders. Not only was this the case, Newcastle made it look like child's play. Couldn't have been worse for AVB's tactics and setup. Credit to Newcastle, who did exactly what they planned to get three points and therefore deserved them: catch us on the break, and hope our poor goal scoring would continue. We lost due to poor finishing as well. We in general and Soldado in particular had more chances in this game than in the three previous, but we just couldn't put them in, no matter how certain it seemed. Soldado's miss on an open header five minutes in proved deadly. He missed a few other chances as well. But: he was still one of our best players, and did a good job otherwise (!) creating chances and making decistions. It was both Krul's brilliance and our awful finishing. Did we ever try for the far post? It became pretty clear at some point that Krul had the near post covered. Defoe offers nothing against a PL quality team sitting back. Lamela or Kane would have been a better choice. Paulinho made a disastrous mistake that led to the goal, but was one of our best and most dangerous players after that. Chiriches also made a disastrous mistake, but was impressive other than that, including a great last ditch tackle. Eirksen had some big negatives: free kicks poor, missed a good chance (though not as good seeing it in replay). But he dribbled well and did a good job creating chances. I'm not sure I would have traded him for Holtby in the middle--but I would have had Gylfi taking the free kicks. (Edit) I see some of you have said Eiriksen was awful, period. I didn't see it. When he had the ball heading upfield I started expecting good things and thought for the most part I got them. (As opposed to Townsend.). The crowd continued its good run. We also played some good football at times to help. It's easy to say Lloris would have saved the goal. He would have, but probably would have let in one of the other two or three great chances our tactical naivete cost us early. Friedel did well not to let in more than one. Most of us preferred Lamela to Townsend before the game, and all of us, I think, during it. Townsend had the interesting gift of making the wrong decision 100% of the time. His speed and dribbling were still impressive at times, and may have a place on our so far fictional "break" team. But we desperately needed someone who could create good opportunities. Lamela did last time out and deserved a chance this time. No proper DM was a bad decision. We looked much better when Sandro came on. I couldn't decide between Holtby and Gylfi, and in hindsight (which is always 20/20), would have gone for Holtby. Gylfi is still our best shooter, and had his moments, but I'm guessing Holtby would have had more. Easy to say now, but I would have gone for Sandro Paulinho Holtby Eriksen Lamela Soldado
He decided he wanted to manage someone else (England). You can't keep someone who wants to be somewhere else more--not unless you're sure that job won't open up again. IMO.
Up until today, Newcastle had conceded 16 goals in 10 games. We couldn't even score one against them. Think that about says it all!...
Just got home from the Lane (via a pub lunch on the way). What a pile of **** again. It took 45 mins and going 1-0 down for us to FINALLY see Spurs attack in waves, yes Krul made some great saves but overall this just isn't good enough. I'm getting sick of AVB's football, it's **** and boring, there's no other way of explaining it. He wants to put his system/ tactics 1st and not a system that actually suits the players we have available. Our home form is an absolute disgrace for a team of our stature/ aspirations: Swansea - Penalty required to win. Norwich - Best performance of season. Chelsea - Good first half poor second. West Ham - Don't go there. Hull - Penalty required to win. Again. Newcastle - Awful first half, came alive second half but that should be the performance for 90 mins, not 45 and chasing a goal. I've always maintained no team has a divine right to win a match but needing penalties to beat Swansea and Hull and losing to West Ham and Newcastle are not what our team should be doing, especially when you consider the talent available. Players also need to take the blame don't get me wrong, I've been fighting Eriksen's corner yet today he was poor, especially set piece wise and Soldado actually had a few chances yet looked like a pub player when trying to take them. Dawson was woeful. Dembele even worse but ultimately the manager is the one who's tasked with getting the best out of these players and so far, with a few Europa games and Norwich aside, they look very bad. Sort it out quickly Andre.
Spain, I've been saying since the opening match of the season that we are not playing properly when we score fewer at home than away. Remember Tbilisi? Five away and a pathetic three at home. That told me even back then that things were not right and it's been happening since ie Sheriff, we scored by a wider margin away than at home. For goodness sake let's play two strikers. I also said that the way we played then would have a bearing on future results and notso said it was gibberish. Really?
I agree, more or less. I don't know if I'm being wildly optimistic to hope that this may (may) be the start of a team that attacks at pace on a regular basis. We were moving the ball quickly and creating opportunities before Newcastle could park the bus. You could certainly call us toothless today, and you could have called us toothless in the other PL games this year. But this game's toothlessness may have been importantly different (I hope!). We created lots of good chances. We just couldn't finish to save our lives. In the other games, we've let the other team park the bus and put the hand brake on, and therefore been unable to create good chances.
RedWhiteBlue - I see you originally were a Southampton fan, you starting to regret the decision to switch!? Those guys are playing so much better than us this year.
Well living in Newcastle is going to be fun for me for the next few weeks....me and my Spurs mates got a right few jibes in the pub, all good natured mind haha. Its annoying that one of our better attacking performances (not that that is saying all that much) coincided with a game that Krul has called, in his post-match interview, one of the "highlights of his career". A large part of that game for me was a tale of two keepers, the back 4 looked uncertain with Friedel behind them and Krul had the game he would have dreamed of the night before. Yanga M'Biwa had some great moments for them as well. That said a lot of our finishing was pretty woeful, Eriksen and Paulinho had chances that stand out in the second half for me that they really should have done a lot better with. Dembele was godawful, Paulinho and the rest of the team looked better with Sandro on in the second half. I was surprised not to see Lamela starting like many on here. We're still seemingly unable to find a professional footballer who can consistently put a corner in well but thats been a problem for years now. I would say that we elevated our attacking play from a 3/4 out of 10 to a 5/6 today - thats still solidly average though and further improvement is needed - purely down to chance creation and the fact that were it not for a couple of instances of (supposedly uncharacteristically) dire finishing and a great performance from Krul we would have got something out of the game. We created enough to win but didn't take those chances and/or were denied by the opposition performing to an excellent standard. Therefore we didn't deserve to win. We got a bit better than previous weeks but much more is needed, and soon now. I'm not as doom and gloom as many on here seem to be, I'm very disappointed we didn't win that one but theres only so much you can do with Krul having such a good game and Newcastle executing their game plan very well to make the most of our weaknesses. There are still selection issues and tactical issues that need sorting out and Soldado's performance was a bit worrying as he had a few more chances today and still didn't find a goal. City away will be a very different game as we'll set up to press and harry them, the big landmark game has to be United at home for me now. We need to find another level by then, maybe AVB will be able to drill something into the players in training but I'm not as confident that this will actually happen as I might have been a few weeks ago. I'm afraid that AVB will focus on Krul's performance and not change much as a result of it, whereas obviously in reality more improvement is needed.
We create chances as if by numbers. Real goals come from unexpected situations with the quick reactions of players. It's why you need top players to snap up half chances. We started this game at a higher pace, I thought good, but then NUFC scored on the break and we slowed down and became too deliberate again. Not a good or sensible reaction IMO.
Fair question, but I'm foreign soil, and Spurs "took" and Saints didn't. So I can't really conceive of being a Soton fan now, though I continue to wish them well. Your team picks you, not the other way around, I think. My first attempt at picking a team resulted in Newcastle/ postponed decision, TBH. I admired the way their players hit each other rather than trying to play the game.
When we have 31 shots, when the opposition keeper makes more saves than in any other PL game this year, when we've had the most number of shots on target without scoring of any PL game in years.... then we have got to be considered "a bit unlucky" with this result. And all this with some of our players not playing that well - so we must be doing something right! I wonder if you will find as many Chelsea "fans" so upset about yesterday's result in a game they deserved to lose - during which they had half the shots we did today. Anyway, with Man City losing (great result Sunderland) and one of Liverpool or Arsenal losing (or perhaps at best it being a draw), I don't think today has been so much of a disaster. There were also signs of quicker build up and an overall better attacking display. To read so much into the result itself is way too simplistic.
