Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

That dribble Lamela did before he was fouled for the penallty was pure class. Suggests good things for the future if he can establish himself in the team.

What I didn't like was both Erikson and Dembele both appearing to have caught Huddlestone's disease: casualness on the ball and making unnecessary passes in stupidly dangerous situations.

Good win though and Spurs deserved to go through but we do need to start making more chances. Defoe had only two or three fleeting chances during the whole game and the rest of the time he was getting no service at all.

Well done to him for beating Martin Chivers (my Spurs hero as a kid) European goal scoring record.

Also should mention there is a repeat today (Friday) of the very interesting Jermain Defoe Sports Life Stories documentary shown earlier this week. ITV4 11pm - 12.00am.


Sunday Edit:-

Today's loss against Newcastle was more than a bit disappointing. That sort of result could cost us in the long term.

[EJG1980]

Indeed, past couple of matches, two chances to go second passed up. Obviously we are still in a very good position but it's going to be very very tight this season and we can't afford too many days like this. Our home form has been the achillies heel that AVB hasn't been able to quite get right yet since he became manager.

Having said that, whatever Tim Krull had for breakfast, I want some of it! A truly world class performance from him today.

At least in the second half we attacked with a bit of pace and intensity for a change and ended up creating a lot of chances. It's baffling why we don't do it more often at home, right from the get go. More often than not performances like today's second half will get us goals.

[fallenangle]

Spurs were very lucky with the other results yesterday so the loss of points wasn't as bad as it might have been. But now we've got Man Utd, Liverpool and even Southampton (who have both better For and Against goal stats than Spurs) all up there vying for a top four place.

It is going to be very tight at the top this season.

As for yesterday's match; watching it on MotD it appeared we just dominated that second half and had so many chances it was ridiculous not one was put away. Erikson had a particularly clear cut chance if he had hit it first time. But instead he gave it an extra touch allowing their goalkeeper (great performance throughout) and defender to do their job. Soldado, again, ineffective and mostly anonymous - Defoe should start no question.

Also didn't like the criticism of Brad Freidal about the goal. He's never been fast off his feet but he was in as good position as any goalkeeper could have been to defend against the Newcastle attacker. The fact he didn't beat him to the ball just means he doesn't have the speed of Lloris but what other goalkeeper in the Premiership does either? It was the guys faffing around with the ball in the midfield who allowed the Newcastle interception in the first place who should be getting the criticism.

Sunday 24th Edit:-

Need some goals and a good win today, badly. A draw - OK but a lose and we're just going to get left behind in this season's fight for those now even more highly contested top four spots.

[EJG1980]

Good start! Hugo, Hugo, Hugo...

Bugger, good chance for Lamela then. Shame he didn't miss hit it into Soldado's path.

Stunning challenge by Sandro there but Man City are getting through a bit too easily on the counter. Man City not looking that great at the back either though, still all to play for.

We're looking okay going forward at the mo and keeping the ball well. If not for the early goal I'd have been very happy with the first 20 mins.

Bugger me.

[EJG1980]

Well I was gonna say it would be nice if we can at least keep a clean sheet in the second half... now I'll just be happy if we can keep it below 6 or 7! Christ.

We're going to get beaten worse than Norwich were at this rate!!!

[Mayhem]

Hoo deary me...

[EJG1980]

It's just in Spurs blood it seems, even if we're doing really well, we'll suddenly take a pasting out of nowhere. Even when we finished fourth a couple of seasons ago we let in five in a couple of matches.

Before the start of play we'd let in the least number of goals and kept the most clean sheets of any team this season!

Good to hear the Spurs fans still signing though, well done to them.

Edit: yes, we didn't lose as badly as Norwich! Result!!! Time to sit in a darkened room for a while.

[sj33]

AVB looked shell-shocked at the end of the game, probably moreso than any of the players.

[fallenangle]

Bizarre and hugely disappointing result.

We'll probably go on to win the FA and Europa Cup now.

[Plough Boy]

Edit: yes, we didn't lose as badly as Norwich! Result!!!

Exactly.

How that team lost to those mackem douches is beyond me.

[smouty]

?100m well spent.

[EJG1980]

They're all good signings on paper, but aside from the odd match here and there they haven't been able to translate potential on paper into performances on the pitch. We can only hope that today will act as a kick up the arse that will do us good in the long run.

Despite the often frustrating performances we're still not in a terrible position, we're only four points behind Liverpool in 2nd place and only two points off the CL places. I always try and look on the positive side of things and if we can start performing to our potential we're still right in the hunt for the top four, it's not like we've got a massive points gap to overcome (yet).

We have to step up the level of performances pretty sharpish though as we can't keep on grinding points out of sub-par performances for the whole season, the last couple of results have shown that it will catch up with us eventually and the gap will start to grow.

We actually had a worse start last season and managed to turn it around and have a really consistent level of good performances from December onwards. The players and manager need to step up and show we can do the same again this season.

[fallenangle]

Our GA stats are still as good or better than many of the teams above us and actually equal to Man.City. So not totally disasterous but when you factor in the significance of Spurs' lack of goals (only Sunderland and Crystal Palace have scored less and Man.City have score over three times more) such a heavy loss badly affects our GD.

Spurs need to start scoring goals that is for sure.

[EJG1980]

Yup, despite the horror of yesterday's result the state of our defence doesn't concern me too much. Before yesterday we'd conceded less goals and kept more clean sheets than any other team in the league. Even the best teams can suffer a one off thrashing (Man Utd letting in six to Man City a couple of years ago, Arsenal shipping eight to Man Utd, etc) so I'm pretty confident that our defence should be solid in the majority of matches.

As you say, scoring goals is where the biggest problem is. We not only need to create more chances in matches but we need to create much better chances too. Even in matches this season where we've registered a lot of shots they tend to be long range shots or difficult half chances. I agree with the comment Glenn Hoddle made where he said the pace of our approach play is usually far too slow.

Getting the undoubtedly talented individuals we have to click as an attacking team is where AVB will earn (or fail to earn) his money over the coming months.

[Team Andromeda]

AVB looked shell-shocked at the end of the game, probably moreso than any of the players.

Yeah I was quite shocked at that myself .