Ratings vs Norwich

[stevenqoz]

Brad 8
Walker 4.5
Gallas 6
Verts - 6
Benny 4.5
Lennon 5
Livermore 4.5
Sandro 4.5
Bale 5
Glyfi 4.5
Defoe 5

Dembele 7
Ade 5
Hudd NET

Always interesting to how players adjust their behaviour when a new coach arrives.....it is worrying to see that both BAE and Walker seem to be under instruction not to push on wide and they are turning inside so often that our momentum is seriously curtailed. Gylfie looks out of place centrally and Lennon / Bale both look like they are on a course of valiam. Defoe is a very player but is made to look worse by Sandro and Livermore's limited passing range....Vinny Samways and Ray Wilkins would be visionary in comparison. The team selection was distorted by our annoying last minute 'window' tactics. Ade is not fit and should not start....that said this form of one up front will lose AVB his job if persisted with at home....probably needs to trust Dembely and Sandro in a two to allow the two strikers a go

 

[Bus-Conductor]

The Hudd sending off was fucking harsh as well. I do not get why what he did was worse than their player, neither got the ball, both collided and neither went two footed or studs up. Only difference was their wanker rolled around like he'd been shot in the kneecap.

He needs to sort that stupid barnet out though.

 

[hodsgod]

Brad was immense, I honestly don't think anyone else had a good game, Benny wasn't bad but should have lost us a penalty. I am struggling to be positive really.

Dembele livened things up, took his goal very well.

Did I miss any positives?

 

[ravo]

Friedel 8 - MOM. Outstanding saves and will give Lloris a run for the 1 jersey.

Defoe and Livermore 3.

Everyone else 5 or worse.

 

[JJetset]

Agree with BC and Sloth!

 

[DiamondLites]

Baffles me how gallas is not only numero uno centre back but captain after his, frankly, embarassing non performance in the cup semi final. He gets bullied week in week out, strikers beat him up, give him a bog wash and take his lunch money. It's time to usher in the caulker era

 

[ardiles]

- Defoe, a lone striker

- starting with two DMs at home against a mid-table (at best) team

- replacing Sandro instead of Jake

- replacing Siggy instead of Defoe

and I thought that AVB was a meticulous coach and would have expected him to
have done his homework on the strengths (and weaknesses) of our players.

For now, I will still back AVB, but if this trend continues as the season gets along,
my confidence in him will slowly diminish.

 

[lifeof...]

I hoped that AVB would at least get us playing a higher tempo, higher up, hard pressing game that would maybe negate the necessity for individuals to dig us out. I'm still hoping that over time this is the case. But today, more than anything, it was obvious once again that he is still struggling to get the same ****s to do this some of the time. If he is going to succeed, this is a minimum requirement IMO.

I was surprised with the lack of tempo, there just doesn't seem to be any urgency in our play whatsoever, we looked nervous and frightened to actually play some football. We wern't pressing either, it just seemed like a disjointed, fragile and unsure performance. T.

When all the itk discussion was on regarding AVB, My reservation was, during his time atv cfc, the tempo they played. at, they moved the ball slowly, and played at a slow tempo, And I couldn't see this as all cfc players fault...Of course, after this my reservation has incresaed to a concern.

Still,perhaps it is understandably with Levi wanting lots doing last minute, the players were not 100% prepared, and you would think that the game against Reading will show a few changes in personnel. With the Double Ds starting Plus Ade.

Mind you it is a bit of a wake up call, when Playing at home to Norwich and it is our goal keeper (well done brad) that was the outstanding player of the day by a country mile.

 

[EastLondonYid]

I was actually astonished when i heard the team news.

Dembele totally tore MU apart the week before, he is fit and ready to give us a much needed boost after a dodgy start to the season but we keep a CM pairing of Sandro and Livermore?

Norwich must have looked at the team sheet and got a massive boost, and it showed.

Wba i was gutted, but saw alot of really good things to make me not worry too much..

Yesterday i was really worried with what i saw, but as ever the optimist,i am hoping that when Ade gets match fit, and Dembele starts things will be different, because yesterday scared me a little.

 

[lifeof...]

When all the itk discussion was on regarding AVB, My reservation was, during his time atv cfc, the tempo they played. at, they moved the ball slowly, and played at a slow tempo, And I couldn't see this as all cfc players fault...Of course, after this my reservation has incresaed to a concern.

Still,perhaps it is understandably with Levi wanting lots doing last minute, the players were not 100% prepared, and you would think that the game against Reading will show a few changes in personnel. With the Double Ds starting Plus Ade.

Mind you it is a bit of a wake up call, when Playing at home to Norwich and it is our goal keeper (well done brad) that was the outstanding player of the day by a country mile.

Edit: Will also add my concerns for AVB quotes after the game,,,"the Call for" Patience. Is he panicking already?

 

[belsunz]

Our underlying lack of intelligence before we lost Modric and VDV worried me. Now it is positively scaring me shitless. We can't even call off the bench people like Kranjcar, Pienaar or GDS who might just be able to provide something different than the very predictable Lennon or below par Bale.

I was disappointed we didn't land Moutinho, but I'm devasted we didn't add a creative player like Affelay, Dzagoev, Willian

Exactly this. Fringe players of last season like Kranky or Pienaar would have been very useful yesterday, providing some much needed creative spark. I feel alot of that will now rest on the sole shoulders of Dembele, which is madness really, looking at last years playmakers wealth we had in Modric, VDV, Krankjcar and Pienaar.

Jury still massively out on Siggy, based on the 3 games he featured in. Livermore not good enough to be starter in top side in PL - fact.

 

[Legend10]

The Hudd sending off was fucking harsh as well. I do not get why what he did was worse than their player, neither got the ball, both collided and neither went two footed or studs up. Only difference was their wanker rolled around like he'd been shot in the kneecap.

He needs to sort that stupid barnet out though.

Was never a sending off, eas just a coming together of 2 players from different angles. Nothing in it at all aand we have to appeal it.

 

[Ledders Army]

Baffles me how gallas is not only numero uno centre back but captain after his, frankly, embarassing non performance in the cup semi final. He gets bullied week in week out, strikers beat him up, give him a bog wash and take his lunch money. It's time to usher in the caulker era

Got to agree with this. Gallas sums up our problem, we've lost 2 massive, influential leaders in King and Rafa who we could rely on in the big games, we're missing Parker and we just don't have any leaders. When things get tough the majority of our team hide, Gallas is a good player but not a leader and for a player with so much experience and success his composure under pressure when things start to go against us has been shocking.

If Ade, Dembele and Dempsey aren't able to step up we're gonna struggle.

 

[sloth]

Here's a good article from Goal.com: http://www.goal.com/en-gb/news/2865/comment/2012/09/02/3347645/-?

Andre Villas-Boas, the Football Manager apprentice, the Not So Special One, has already faced much scorn and ridicule on the Twittersphere. While one half of the support base are criticising an abject performance and hashtagging ‘#AVBout’ the other half are writing “fans” in inverted commas and calling for patience.

This was always likely to be a summer of transition for Tottenham, with Harry Redknapp replaced by Villas-Boas, Ledley King announcing his retirement and Luka Modric pushing for a long-awaited exit from White Hart Lane.

In a period of three months Spurs lost their manager, their captain and their midfield heartbeat, as well as, through the Spurs hierarchy’s own choosing, crowd favourite Rafael van der Vaart.

A Spurs side who picked up just 15 points from a possible 39 after imploding at the Emirates last season has been gutted, the spine ripped out (both voluntarily and involuntarily). Villas-Boas’ task is gargantuan.

Like a before shot in a shampoo advert, Tottenham were limp and lifeless in the first half against Norwich. The often gung-ho, ultra-attacking, slick passing style that Villas-Boas implemented at Porto was nowhere to be seen.

That is, of course, entirely understandable, given that Spurs have just lost their two best passers in the shape of Modric and Van der Vaart, while Villas-Boas has had very little time to work with an, until now, incomplete squad. Or is it still incomplete?

Tottenham missed out on signing Porto’s Joao Moutinho at the end of a frustrating transfer deadline day. While Jim White was being loaded back into his cryogenic chamber, ready to be wheeled out again on January 31, Villas-Boas was no doubt rueing Spurs’ inability to recruit the gatekeeper to his Tottenham vision.

What Spurs have lacked in all three of their Premier League games so far, and which was especially absent against Norwich, is a creator, a passer, someone who can dictate and control games, someone to provide metronomic, progressive passing in midfield.

Instead, Tottenham had Jake Livermore and Sandro. Two defensive midfielders, two destroyers. At home. Against Norwich. There was no creativity, no bravery on the ball. The pair passed horizontally, rarely, if ever, forwards and provided no precision or penetration in the final third.

For Villas-Boas, preparation and “the system” are King. The 4-3-3 he deployed at Chelsea may have been replaced by 4-2-3-1, but a strict adherence to a set style and structure remains. The team identity and system comes first.

Villas-Boas is moving away from the reliance Tottenham had on individual brilliance under Redknapp’s reign and moving towards turning Spurs into a team that is greater than the sum of its parts.

But a well-drilled system cannot compensate for an absence of creativity, and it needed the introduction of new signing Mousa Dembele to spark Tottenham into life and bring direction to a rudderless midfield.

The Belgian made an immediate impact on his debut. Now, at last, Tottenham had creativity from deep, a player who could drive forwards, supply team-mates, commit opposition players and gain yardage. There was, in short, a real threat.

It was Dembele who pounced on a dawdling Jonny Howson, offloaded quickly to Jermain Defoe and received the return pass before twisting and turning past a crowd of Norwich defenders to rifle a fizzing drive beyond John Ruddy. It was a truly uplifting moment.

But Dembele does not solve Spurs’ problems, not by a long shot. He’s more of an all-action box-to-box midfielder than a playmaker, more Yaya Toure than David Silva. And Tottenham need a string puller, a puppet master, a conductor.

Furthermore, Villas-Boas relied on Falcao at Porto – a player who married all-round approach play with clinical finishing. At Spurs, Defoe occasionally provides the latter but not the former, while the opposite is true of Emmanuel Adebayor.

There are positives for Spurs though. Against Newcastle they deserved to at least draw the match, and the high intensity pressing of the first half worked extremely well. Additionally, they remain unbeaten at home and have not failed to find the back of the net yet this season.

With more time on the training pitch, and more opportunity to acclimatise to new team-mates and a new system, Tottenham can begin to translate their methodical but so far largely non-threatening possession into something more fearsome, with Dembele the fulcrum, the catalyst, the spur.

 

[stov]

Bentley shouldn't even be an option on our right hand side, let alone in the middle!

exactly

 

[cookiemonster]

The trouble is we are missing Modric and Van Der Vaart terribly

These two will always make themselves available to receive the ball....pass and move and then are in position to receive the next ball

Jake Livermore is a nothing sort of player...the sort that can go through a whole game and you don't remember a single thing that he's done...similar to Obi-Mikel or David Hillier/Sean Thornton in the past

Sandro tackles and runs around a lot but is technically poor

Teams will find it very easy to shut us down now.....just cut out the ball to the wingers and let us play through the middle,nothing creative is going to come from there

 

[garyhopkins]

Friedel 7.5
Walker 5
BAE 5.5
Gallas 5.5
Vertonghen 6
Sandro 5
Livermore 4
Bale 5.5
Lennon 5
Sigurdsson 5
Defoe 4
subs
Dembele 7
Adebayor 5

 

[Mr Pink]

That article is bang on Sloth.

At this rate I wouldn't mind seeing young Tom Carroll in a three with Dembele and Sandro.

 

[Mr-T]

Looking forward to Dempsey coming into this side.

Lennon hasn't had competition since he arrived at the club.......7 season's ago.

Simon Davies, GDS, Bentley, Kranjcar etc. Lennon has seen off a fair few competitors for RW in his time, OK some are not out and out right wingers but neither is Dempsey

 

[mpickard2087]

That article is bang on Sloth.

At this rate I wouldn't mind seeing young Tom Carroll in a three with Dembele and Sandro.

Next game its what I would try.