TOTTENHAM ARE STILL A BIG CLUB!

Don't think either Pav or Crouch (or Modric for that matter) have learned to play with VDV properly yet, they didn't seem to be getting in the right space for him. That'll come with time, but it was telling that most of our joy last night came from crosses pinged in from wide positions.

Just don't trust Bassong any more, hope he can pull it together but I think the Young Boys game has left in permanent "MUST NOT FUCK UP" ticker tape paralysis.

I'd like him removed from the firing line for a while, he's a good 'go straight for the tackle' defender in the Dawson mould, but right now yeah he's definitely suffering. Without King last night we'd have suffered too, but nobody else fit at the moment.

Pav/Crouch- I don't think it's a new problem that Crouch doesn't stay up front or hold the ball up properly (particularly for his height) but Pav would definitely want taking aside and a word had (I love football grammar) about running wide and also about hitting the deck so easily.

Thought most of our joy last night came from running down the wings directly at full backs, not through the actualy delivery (Bale put in some good early balls, but again Crouch and Pav weren't anywhere near the penalty spot (Crouch six yards to the right of the 6yd box for one cross, wtf)

bTottenham Hotspur
* Rafael Van der Vaart has had 17 shots in just four league games since joining Tottenham. Peter Crouch has had just nine in seven games.

* No Premier League player has created more chances (20) than Gareth Bale this season. But he is yet to be credited with an assist.

* Spurs have kept just two clean sheets in 12 games in all competition this season.

Bale stat is blowing my mind. CMON STRIKERS GET ON THE END OF IT FFS

Have assists actually become an official thing then? I thought they were strictly for fantasy footy.

nah they've been keeping official stats as far back as the utd team of late 90's at least.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U2HWUbFGHMU

I was watching this ridiculous George Best footage from 1981 last night. "One goal and THREE assists!" quoth the announcer.

Looks like we'll be getting rid of Kranjcar then. He's worth at least 10m imo, but I doubt we'll see anything like that amount.

I read that as "worth at least 1 onimo" - need to get over myself

^ fancies himself a bit of a player imo

http://imgur.com/NpH9h.jpg

modric absolutely aghast there.

obviously arry's indicating the number of midfield slots available for vdv and luka, so get yer finger out lad.

modders deserves that, he's looked complete pony the last few games i've seen of him

should make some FREE NIKO shirts really

Man management, Harry style. Almost as funny as when Gomes rolled his hands to indicate he needed to come off and 'Arry gave him a thumbs up and left him on the pitch.

And then he was injured for three weeks during which time we weren't much cop at the back.

i don't know if modric is just off-form or if he's struggling to find a role between VdV and Bale.

really hope it's the former

Might be a bit of both.

i'd love to inhabit your complicated world, tbh, but i'm just not that guy

well, i guess we'll be a big club when we get a pet ref like cuntyberg

This is presumably United's pet ref who didn't give United a penalty when Nani was pulled? You'd think if the referee was biased to United / against Spurs, the easy (and far less controversial) thing to do would have been to give the penalty, rather than give Spurs the advantage and then send misleading telepathic signals to Gomes that caused him to place the ball then stand and watch while Nani asked the referee if it was OK to score (and then scored).

here's a stat: not only have Spurs failed to win here since 1989, not counting the time they did thanks to Pedro Mendes but weren't allowed to, they've also failed to register a victory in any of their last 67 away games against the Traditional Big Four

Things you can guarantee will happen every season:
1 Spurs will roll over for Man U.

uh didn't Chelsea fans call it Three Point Lane for a while? They were undefeated there for years.

more worried about our recent form against wolves and wigan tbph

nb&s i'd rather he didn't give a soft peno for your famous diver, hadn't booked our two centre halves for nothing as early as possible, booked your famous diver for grabbing and holding the ball, listened to his linesman instead of overruling him, not booked our captain for repeated protests while not allowing your captain to hold a fucking conference with him and his assistant.

i'd rather all of that.

arry's wrong, handball is not a yellow card

deliberate, sustained handball on the ground after not getting a penalty isn't necessarily a yellow card, but should be though- right?

when did yellow cards for diving stop, on a not-unrelated subject

They haven't stopped, have just seen a Kilmarnock booked for it not fifteen minutes ago.

+ player

There was at least one classic "dive or penalty" moment in the Barnsley - Hull game last night, neither given of course, sick of chickenshit cop outs like that.

a handball is only ever a caution if it's "unsporting conduct". unless the ref thinks nani was diving, he has to assume nani handles because he thinks he's got a penalty. players handball after tackles all the time. to penalize nani would be inconsistent with how this is refereed.

tbf he had a pretty shitty view of the penalty claim

Nani wasn't seeking to gain advantage by handling it. It was hardly an Henry v Ireland type incident. He thought he'd got a penalty. Once he realised he hadn't, he let go of the ball (and threw himself on his back in a ridiculously over-the-top show of exasperation) while Gomes picked up the ball and walked off with it. He didn't gain anything from that.

I can understand your frustration, Darragh. Spurs worked hard, showed flashes of brilliance and, but for that bizarre incident, could well have left Old Trafford with just a 1-0 defeat.

ha fair point, and i've acknowledged that tbf also

would ask you why nani didn't play to the whistle tho :)

exactly...everyone is criticising gomes for not playing the whistle but neither did nani. the only diff is the ref didn't see nani's behaviour=bad refereeing. picking up the ball after a tackle before the whistle is petulant bullshit anyway, sort of thing someone does in the park when you're 9.

defoe's position troubles me. Doesnt play well pivoting off a big man, much better working predatorially against defenders rather than as part of an ttacking unit.

As well to discount him from tactics altogether when picking him treat him as joker in the pack rather than yr usual small, tricksy creative attacker.

― cant believe you sb'd me for that (darraghmac), Thursday, 4 November 2010 11:10 (35 minutes ago)

Carrying this on here but I think this is wrong fwiw. Defoe would be great as the tip of a 4-4-1-1 that's based on keeping it on the ground, as the current Spurs team is. If he had another foot of height he'd obviously be perfect but he can actually finish regularly, which helps, he gets himself into good positions and he's strong enough to hold defenders off. Could work well in front of VDV I'd say. Better than Keane at any rate.

well yeah, i would love to see him in exactly that position, my point was more that including him in your strategy (as harry clearly does crouch, for instance) isn't a goer- and going back to sheringham through keane and berbatov we've almost turned away from picking a player purely to get on the end of things (it's why defoe was sold before and why bent never got a fair crack, imo)

I think pav holds it up and passes better than any of our other strikers, but crouch vdv have hit it off, and with defoe back fit there's maybe a bit of tinkering to be done.

I would expect Redknapp to put Defoe straight back in the team when he's fit. The man fucking loves him.

central attacking unit of modric vdv and defoe in a 4411 would definitely merit a run of games.

noted on another thread, but modric's comments have made my day.

He's such a dude.

the obvious choice for Harry right now is to pick only one up front to accommodate VdV, Modric, Huddlestone, Lennon and Bale (or four from that lot and one destructive presence, as I said).

― i dont love everything, i love football (darraghmac), Thursday, September 30, 2010

visionary imo

are we running a book on which bolton player will break bale's leg? #steinsson

steinsson yeah

thugg

^ onimo said this in the pub today (and then said lol amirite). When real life and ILX collide.

Heh, very good. Didn't think he was, um, that kind of player. Has he lashed out before?

yep, he's got a very short fuse

yeah he elbowed someone in the twente game, i think. avoided a ban for that one.

he's had a few incidents. eng u-21's once or twice too. he's not actually that sort of player, but he reacts very badly, very quivckly if he thinks someone's had a go.

figured out the bale.gif btw. his balls are obv rattling about in there, that's a phantom dingus #PD

lollin @ #PD #balllols