Bolton saturday

keane=cock

Kold wrote: »

He put in a couple of last ditch tackles too. He's really making that position his own.

I really think Gallas is the weakest link back there though, he's done nothing to convince me he was a good buy... except be a centre back when all of our other ones are injured. What's the status on any of the others?

BAE looked well except for the penalty.

totally agree with everything here. i used to really rate gallas. thought he did well tuesday but he was poor today. BAE is decent i think but is always likely to do something crazy.

therecklessone

mushykeogh wrote: »

I think conceding is more of a problem, we havent had a clean sheet in the league, we have a negative goal difference and we conceded 4 today!

I'd agree with that, and a large part of the problem is we constantly chop and change our CB partnership. The King situation needs sorting, he is either available every game or we get rid and get in a quality replacement.

I still don't know what Bassong did last season to deserve being dropped to 6th choice.

fabvinny

never a dull moment supporting the spurs!!!!

everdead.ie

We badly miss Dawson and king I say keep King for the league

mickman

dawson is a huge loss , massive in fact. if he was back then we should see our goals conceded dry up. i agree that bassong did nothing at all that deserved to see him dropped, he has played well and with gallas being so poor at the moment , he should get a game

for the future its prob kaboul and dawson

mickman

We must remember that we were missing 5 for sure starters. Daws, vdv, Defoe, Lennon and hudd. I know hudd came on but he was carrying a knock. That's almost half a team we were missing

If you took vidic, nani, berbatov, Rooney and Valencia out of united and sent off to Bolton, I'm not sure if they would fare any better

el diablo

Poor result today but not totally unexpected with bad mistakes from Sandro and Gallas among others . Six points from the next two games is absolutely essential.

RichMc70

Sh1te result today.

As I've said before Bolton is a 'bad hunting ground' for us. Didnt see the game but from all accounts we just didnt show up. Disappointing but also kinda of re-iterates the CL Hangover Theory once again.

Either we bring in a hypnotist or alternatively go out of the CL at the group stage and maybe we can resurrect some chance of finishing top four again, as I don't think we are capable of proceeding in the CL and maintaining a challenge for the top four PL.

therecklessone

I'll tell you another thing, Gareth Bale looked dead on his feet yesterday, I think he should be rested on Tuesday if we have Lennon or VDV available for selection. I'd also go 442 vs Blackburn next Saturday because Fat Sam will send them out to do a similar job to Bolton yesterday.

mickman

Agree on bale, he has to be given a break or he could get a nasty injury

Luca can move to the left and jj play centre. Jj is good in home games

Hatch99

therecklessone wrote: »

I'd agree with that, and a large part of the problem is we constantly chop and change our CB partnership. The King situation needs sorting, he is either available every game or we get rid and get in a quality replacement.

I still don't know what Bassong did last season to deserve being dropped to 6th choice.

Agree completely.
Couldn't believe Bassong didn't start yesterday, given that Gallas's fitness is a concern. It must really kill Bassongs confidence when he sees a half fit Gallas playing 90 mins and he is left picking splinters.

Defensively we are poor and have been all season. The king situation is a joke. I think it's time he was given a different role at the club as his playing days to a certain extent look numbered.

As I have said before, a top CH & CF should be our priorities.

Kold

Hatch99 wrote: »

The king situation is a joke. I think it's time he was given a different role at the club as his playing days to a certain extent look numbered.

And yet we always look like a far better side when he does play.

therecklessone

Hatch99 wrote: »

As I have said before, a top CH & CF should be our priorities.

Yet some people would have us believe that LB is the problem area John, we watch the same football methinks.

therecklessone

Kold wrote: »

And yet we always look like a far better side when he does play.

And then crumble in the following 3 or 4 games because we have to change things up at the back again. It's unsustainable mate, we need a consistent CB partnership if we hope to build on any relative success.

Hatch99

Kold wrote: »

And yet we always look like a far better side when he does play.

No point in looking a good side one day, and then changing things for the next 4, and as soon king is fit again, he comes back in. Crazy stuff. We need to build a team excluding king imo.

Hatch99

therecklessone wrote: »

Yet some people would have us believe that LB is the problem area John, we watch the same football methinks.

Decent left backs are hard to come by, and we have a good one. Are there many better than him in the league, maybe 2/3..so no it's not a priority at the minute, agreed.

Ormus

i think we need to remember that we are not chelsea and cant demand the same standards as them

its easy, when we lose a game, to point to anyone who played bad and say they arent good enough

of course we need to improve, as usual......the only area we are very strong is wingers

our full backs are not reliable, our midfield is lacking authority, our strikers are not champions league class, our centre backs are all either injury prone (king, dawson, woodgate), inexperienced (kaboul), not good enough (bassong) or william gallas (gallas)

it may or may not have been a champions league hangover.....would bolton away have been a formality if we hadnt been playing champions league in the week?

therecklessone

Ormus wrote: »

of course we need to improve, as usual......the only area we are very strong is wingers

Ormus, the problem for a lot of us is the priority that some people put on the required upgrades. You are right, we are not Chelsea (or Man City for that matter) and so have relatively limited funds to spend. Hatch is right, our priority should be CB and CF if we want to see real improvement.

Then and only then would I be happy to see us address other "problem" positions.

Ormus

therecklessone wrote: »

Ormus, the problem for a lot of us is the priority that some people put on the required upgrades. You are right, we are not Chelsea (or Man City for that matter) and so have relatively limited funds to spend. Hatch is right, our priority should be CB and CF if we want to see real improvement.

Then and only then would I be happy to see us address other "problem" positions.

hmm i dunno if its that straightforward though

we have 4 good strikers.....our problem is we dont have any world class strikers....do we have the pulling power to attract one here? i'd be surprised if any of the likes of benzema, fabiano, suarez, dzeko joined spurs

we got lucky with van der vaart.....thats not gonna happen on a regular basis unless we start getting regular champs league football and/or start offering man city/chelsea type wages

as for centre back, the problem is that we have 6 already.....its easy to say get rid of king but he is a great player, captain, servant.....i agree we should but can understand why we havent

keane=cock

therecklessone wrote: »

Yet some people would have us believe that LB is the problem area John, we watch the same football methinks.

i think BAE is good. very reckless at times and a time bomb but i think he is pretty usefull

Kold

Ormus wrote: »

our centre backs are all either injury prone (king, dawson, woodgate), inexperienced (kaboul), not good enough (bassong) or william gallas (gallas)

lol'd

Hatch99

Ormus wrote: »

our full backs are not reliable, our midfield is lacking authority, our strikers are not champions league class, our centre backs are all either injury prone (king, dawson, woodgate), inexperienced (kaboul), not good enough (bassong) or william gallas (gallas)

Judging by that summary, you must think we are pretty crap so...

Ormus

Hatch99 wrote: »

Judging by that summary, you must think we are pretty crap so...

i think this is the best team we have had in a long long time

but people seem to be judging us against the very top teams.....teams who can consistently beat the likes of inter and then go away to bolton and win even while rotating the squad

by that standard we are still crap

Eamo71

Typical feckin' Spurs. looking like world beater one day then can't do the business in the bread and butter of the league.
This, of course, isn't a current malaise. Spurs have been doing this for decades.
I was listening to Paolo Hewitt on The Spurs Show podcast and I think he was quoting from Hunter Davies' The Glory Game wherein one of the Spurs directors was scratching his head and saying something along the lines of "How is it we can beat real Madrid one day and lose to Barnet the next?"

Spurs have form here and it's not just from the past 20 years.
Bad weekend. City are another three clear and the Bin Dippers beat Chelsea. It will require a herculean effort to retain fourth spot. I think we've a better chance of winning the CL ;-)

RichMc70

Eamo71 wrote: »

It will require a herculean effort to retain fourth spot. I think we've a better chance of winning the CL ;-)

I think I'll second that Eamo.

All the players focus seems to be on the Champions League and our Premiership form is suffering as a result. If we're not careful we end looking like mid-table contenders soon.

We've got an excellent first team selection when all the players are fit but squad wise we still need 2 or 3 quality players. CB and CF have been mentioned already in previous posts and I'd also back up that view.

I said before that Bolton would a tough one as it's been bad hunting ground for us a long time now but more worrying for me is our performances just before and then directly after a CL match. Whether we have won, drawn or lost our performances have not been good.

Hope Harry and the staff can get some extra motivation going on soon.

mushykeogh

Ormus wrote: »

our midfield is lacking authority,

This is my number one issue, our back four have their moments but there not the worst, our strikers arent quite setting the world on fire just yet, but midfield, jesus h christ, im sick of saying it, we have no midfield! skill, yes, good passers, yes, attacking intent, yes, but lads were wide feicing open every week, how many midfield's have we bossed in the league?
Thudd, modric, bale, lennon, vdv even, cannot and do not close down the opposition or tackle with the authority required.
Palacios did great when he first arrived but has gone off the boil. We have no one in the engine room that close down space and win us the ball effectively, and without that we are always goin to be a liability.

If we had two world class strikers against bolton it might have been 4 all.
You can have the best back four in the world but if the midfield cover isnt there, they will get exposed sooner or later.

P.S. did i mention i think we need to sort out midfield.

mickman

mushykeogh wrote: »

This is my number one issue, our back four have their moments but there not the worst, our strikers arent quite setting the world on fire just yet, but midfield, jesus h christ, im sick of saying it, we have no midfield! skill, yes, good passers, yes, attacking intent, yes, but lads were wide feicing open every week, how many midfield's have we bossed in the league?
Thudd, modric, bale, lennon, vdv even, cannot and do not close down the opposition or tackle with the authority required.
Palacios did great when he first arrived but has gone off the boil. We have no one in the engine room that close down space and win us the ball effectively, and without that we are always goin to be a liability.

P.S. did i mention i think we need to sort out midfield.

i would agree that our midfield gets overrun from time to time but in my opinion when hudd is playing, that rarely happens. he brings composure to the side and balance and in the past few months he has added bite to his game.

playing sandro and modric in the middle away at bolton who have had their best start to the season in 15 yrs was a mistake i think. modric has to play obviously but sandro is too inexperienced to go up there and run the show. i know we need to blood him but that has to be done in home games firstly. jenas would have been a better choice

Cianan2

Has anything happened to Huddelstone regarding the stamp on Elmander? Surprised it hasn't been mentioned here yet. The stream I was watching it on had the commentators going mad, saying he should definitely have received a red card and that the FA were undoubtedly going to be looking into it but I have heard nothing since!

Hatch99

Ormus wrote: »

i think this is the best team we have had in a long long time

but people seem to be judging us against the very top teams.....teams who can consistently beat the likes of inter and then go away to bolton and win even while rotating the squad

by that standard we are still crap

This is our first time ever to play in the CL, did you expect us to challenge in the CL and contend for the title too, because I certainly didn't.

Yes we are still behind Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd, re consistency, that winning mentality and a little extra class.

But to say we are crap by that standard is a joke.

Ormus

Hatch99 wrote: »

This is our first time ever to play in the CL, did you expect us to challenge in the CL and contend for the title too, because I certainly didn't.

Yes we are still behind Arsenal, Chelsea and Man Utd, re consistency, that winning mentality and a little extra class.

But to say we are crap by that standard is a joke.

eh i don't think you understood what i said

personally i think we are doing great

other people seem to be judging us by the standard of a top team, which we are obviously not......so by that standard we are crap....there is no shame in it....we just aren't there yet....no joke