2nd time that Olson has clashed with our defenders - there was an off the ball incident with Verts 10 mins ago
Sign of a club and manager under pressure? Early season form out the window so revert to neanderthal tactics to try and rock the opposition? When you have a limited squad with limited players that's about the only tactic limited managers can think if.
I hope AVB mentions go dirty West Brom have been. Funny how one match can change your opinion of a club so much! They better not score here!
They were putting in plenty of little niggly fouls from the start and you could see in the first half Dorrans was keen to use any opportunity he had to get the ball of Bale as an opportunity to go in as hard as possible. I wouldn't say West Brom have been much worse than several other sides in that respect if you ignore the spitting. You can even see when he scores, Morrison tries to push him off balance before he takes the shot. Everyone tries to hack Bale in particular and the get away with it because the refs are just looking for an opportunity to book him for diving. Clattenburg has become yet another ref not to book the opposition players for persisitent fouling and hiding behind signaling for play on whilst giving the opposition several fouls for nothing. Anyway, back to our performance, it was well off the standard we should be aiming for again. It doesn't matter whether it's Ade, Defoe or Dempsey playing the main striker role, AVB needs to tell them to stay in the middle and on the defenders shoulder, Bale and Lennon put good balls across the 6 yard box every game and everytime there's no one near them. In midfield Dembele simply has to sort out whatever's going wrong with him, he's not looking so keen to take on players, he's not demanding the ball and is just generally shying away too much, the more Parker gets left to do the more he's going to make mistakes. At the back Vertonghen was the only one that played well enough to deserve a cleansheet, Benny looked sleepy again, Dawson always has a few errors in him and Walker... well I don't know where to start with him, it's like Chimbonda all over again, he had a great first season and we all excused his poor start to the second season expecting him to get back to form but I think he needs to be dropped even if it means putting up with Naughton for a little while.
But equalled our ability at not scoring from them. Time and again yesterday I was listening to how many teams were scoring from corners. FRUSTRATING!! It was supposed to be one of Vertonghens strong points.
On a positive note, we got 3 points playing no better than average. Apparently that's the hallmark of a top team! As well, Lloris looked calm and composed and his decision making and reactions were excellent! Was very commanding and played very well. Looks like he's almost completely settled in. I might be clutching at straws here, because we didn't play well, however at the end of the day, 3 points is 3 points; extra essential considering the results from the sides challenging us for a top 3/4 finish!
Holtby looked bright again. What I like about him is that while he is clearly a technical, attacking mid he also puts himself about a bit, he won a couple of tackles and always made a nuisance of himself. If we transition to 4-3-3 then a midfield of Sandro, Dembele and Parker would look very tasty. Our defence looks shaky and unlike earlier in the season when our fullbacks looked dodgy but our centre-backs were solid now the entire back 4 looks uncertain and error prone. Lloris still looks like a wall and was excellent but the degradation of our defence is worrying.
