Prem weekend games

kinaldo

therecklessone wrote:

Two? Defoe was fractionally off, who was the other?

On the replay it looked like Malbranque was in an offside position before he went on to pick out Defoe. The ESPN guys called it offside albeit marginally.

therecklessone wrote:

Thought the game was a tale of two keepers, if Newcastle had Robbo in goals Spurs would have been 4-0 up after 10 minutes.

I was reading some of the threads on the Spurs forum, Glory-Glory, and the thing that struck me most (apart from their Newcastle hatred) was the abuse Robinson was coming in for. I don't see what he could have done about any of the goals, Given probably wouldn't have saved them either. Also, I think Given's performance is being exaggerated a lot. I mean he made a lot of saves but most of them were standard saves he'd expect to make.

I sure hope we meet again at some stage this season in the cups. Even though we got our asses kicked for the most part yesterday it was good stuff to watch.

therecklessone

kinaldo wrote:

On the replay it looked like Malbranque was in an offside position before he went on to pick out Defoe. The ESPN guys called it offside albeit marginally.

I watched a youtube of the BBC highlights, my recollection and what I saw on youtube was that Malbranque was played onside by a number of Toon defenders.

kinaldo wrote:

I was reading some of the threads on the Spurs forum, Glory-Glory, and the thing that struck me most (apart from their Newcastle hatred) was the abuse Robinson was coming in for.

Robbo's positioning is poor, and he doesn't command his box. I have him at fault for the first goal, 2nd was unstoppable and 3rd was Tainio's fault for not tracking Butt's run. Regardless, if he'd been down the other end he'd never have kept you in it for the first ten minutes.

Blame lies with the goalkeeping coaching at Spurs IMO, Hans Segers is the head man and I have no faith in his abilities. Robinson has gone backwards in the last two years.

WhiteWashMan

id agree
i think in the premiership that robbo is probably one of the best reaction save keepers there is. in fact, in reaction saves, id consider him better than any other keeper. he does it game in and game out.

however, you put him in a situation where he has time to think, and he has serious lapses.

i dont think he is good on crosses, but ive seena lot worse.
however, where he really falls down are the long range shots. we seem to have at least one a game these days. if there are more than 6 people inthe box, any attacker should take a shot. i dont know if he is looking at defenders or something, but he just seems to be left rooted on so many occassions.

he is great on one on one situations as wel lthough.
so he really has some fantastic abilities, but he is let down badly by some basic positioning when the ball is played around by the opposition.

still, could be worse.

as for butts goal, while i think tainio should have had it coevered, it was a fantastic run by butt. it was timed to perfection, and it was a really well taken goal.
nuff said on the second one, just awesome.
the first was awful. huddlestone was too busy trying to throw someone on the ground, and dawson was ball watching. no excuses there, just plain bad defending. i just hope the lads take a good lesson from this. its a long time since weve had 3 goals scored against us at home.

overall though, i think we are improving. our form hasnt been great, but you can see in the overall play how far we have come on.
while i can understand a few peoples comments here about how they feel that jol is over-rated, i dont see it myself. personally i like the way the club is going. its building for a future and that future is very near. i think in the next 2 years we will be top 4. this year, i will be happy to get back into europe. within 3 years, i think there will be 4 or 5 teams pushing for the top spot, not just for the top 4 positions.

astrofool

Who do you see replacing in the current top 4?

WhiteWashMan

to be honest, it could be anyone. like i said, i expect it to get a lot closer for a lot of teams, and less of the 2 horse race.
but i think the team that will be the weakest will be liverpool.

Pepe LeFrits

Limerick Dude wrote:

chimbonda should be sent off, slapping butt right in the face, line

This sort of attitude annoys me. What happened between Butt and Chimbonda should have resulted in a telling off for both from the ref, nothing more. Instead you have them booked and people waving the rulebook around calling for people to be sent off. Meanwhile you get players sent off (2 yellows) for taking their shirt off or 'over-celebrating'.

The focus for carding players should be on dangerous tackles, genuine violent misconduct, professional fouling and cheating (time-wasting, diving etc). The instances of players being sent off for hand-bags are becoming more numerous and more ridiculous by the day.