** spoilers ** English League Football [27th - 28th November 2010]

Tbh im still shocked at the utterly woeful defending job done on Lennon which resulted in the winning goal...i mean that was pretty shoddy defending :/

I was really hoping Liverpool would have beaten the Spurs but sadly it didnt happen.

Tbf Liverpool should have buried this game with at least 2 more goals ie Maxi and Torres fluffing up their chances.
 
Alpherah said:
I should also add this is with players out of form, out of fitness and a useless manager.
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Could we not say that we were without 4 of our top 5 CBs? (Dawson, King, Woodgate, and Kaboul (after 20mins). Gallas being our 4th best, Kaboul our 5th IMO.
Also without Huddlestone, Jenas, and VDV (after about 10mins).

That's 7 first team players.


Also, we had 2 chances cleared off of the line, a missed penalty and 2 penalties turned down.
So, although we had all of this against us to go along with a sub-par performance, we still managed to scrape a win from 1-0 down.

I think this is why there is belief that this squad can do well. After all, in the past we have collapsed after going behind and/or getting 1 of our 1st team players injured.

Hopefully we an get 4th spot again and get in a decent CB, DM and maybe a ST.
 
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BaZ87 said:
We had the chances to have been a couple of goals up at HT and then the defending by Carra for their first and in particularly Konchesky for their 2nd was shocking.
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But Carragher saved you from going 1-0 down when your keeper made the 1st of his many spillages. I thought it was Gomes who was king at those.
 
drunkenmaster said:
Either way, if Torres or Maxi actually remembered to kick the ball at the end of a run, they could and really should have been 3-0 up in the first half, Maxi was woeful throughout, Torres was poor, great pass for Maxi was the best contribution to the game, no idea what Maxi was doing. Same goes for Torres, he was clean through, then just took it way past the optimum shooting angle, was he waiting and praying for a penalty and red card, I really don't know, not shooting was criminal though.
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They could have been 3-0 up yes, but aren't you forgetting Spurs having 1 cleared off the line long before Liverpool scored? Had that gone in game could have been completely different. More one sided comments being made against Spurs. Liverpool probably should have been in front based on the chances, but if the players are confident enough to take a chance then thats their problem, not Spurs'.

As for Spurs closing the gap on Arsenal, I really don't think so, Arsenal closing the gap on Spurs, maybe :p Arsenal are worse, as we are every year, Spurs aren't improving, infact they are less consistant than last year.
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I don't think Spurs are less consistent than last year as for closing the gap, Spurs are quite clearly doing so, a win at the Emirates/Highbury has been unheard of in the last 17 years.

The ultimate difference for me is, Spurs wanted to go out of the champions league early, loads of teams who break into Europe can do well, but league form almost always suffers. Fulham last year, great cup run, huge drop in quality in the league to go with it, happens to teams all the time. City have a bigger squad and less pressure to do well in Europa.
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Did they? Spurs like all the other sides in the PL wanted to qualify for the CL, why would they "want" to go out early? As for league form suffering, Spurs have the 2nd best record out of the 4 CL teams in games following CL matches I believe. (United 13 points, Chelsea 10 points, Arsenal 7 points and Spurs 10 points - whereas City have 12 points although have played more games.) After the game against Twente, which from Spurs perspective is meaningless having already qualified the CL ends until February so plenty of time to focus on the league campaign.

City do indeed have a bigger squad for the EL, but they are still only allowed to use the same number of players in it that Spurs/Utd/Chelsea/Arsenal are in the CL, also, they probably have more expectation on them to go and win the EL than Spurs do in the CL. Not to mention also having to play on a Thursday.

As the season drags on and those tough away CL fixtures happen in cold and bad weather, City can send out a ridiculously good reserve team while Spurs either give up, or have more tired first teamers when they come back from such games.
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As I said, the CL closes until February, unlikely to be many cold games then, especially if Spurs as expected field a weakened side in Twente and finish 2nd thus playing one of the group winners, who play in warmer countries than England.

Spurs are probably the team who will be hurting most from European and other cup competitions, still in FA cup, I'd be sending out a stupid team and hoping to go out asap to have a good chance at 4th.
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As said above, better league performances than Arsenal following CL games (and tougher opponents in Europe) and equal with Chelsea. Also, in comparison only 2 points less than City (who have played 6 games following European games rather than the others 5) yet City have been able to rest all their so called starting XI.

Spurs are more than capable to putting out a 2nd string XI if everyone is fit and still competing in both the league and FA Cup.

Gomes - Assou-Ekotto, Gallas, Kaboul, Hutton - Bale, Palacios, Modric, Lennon - Van der Vaart, Crouch could be argued as the best XI based on todays starting team. Now for a 2nd string if players are fit:

Cudicini - Naughton, Dawson, King (Bassong as more likely), Corluka - Kranjcar, Huddlestone, Jenas, Bentley - Defoe, Pavlyuchenko

Although some of those 2nd XI are likely to be in the 1st XI when fully fit (Dawson/Huddlestone) I think you can clearly see 2 very strong possible lineups there - not many sides can offer that.
 
One thing was clear for Liverpool today, Carra is a liability now, granted Lucas didnt offer much mettle in the middle of the park, but the way the Spurs cut through a few times was scary.

The quicker Agger and Skrtel are paired up the better, and dont even get me started on Konchesky.

All in all we shouldnt be too disheartened at that loss, that team is clearly in transition and there were many positives, meireles was excellent, Johnson looked ok aswell.One question tho, why is the serb not getting a look in, i reckon he'd do a job uptop with Toress.I think we should crack into the top 6 with the current squad.
 
Today IMO was confirmation that Spurs now need to be taken seriously, going into the match I was sure they would win and not only because they've beaten Liverpool on their last 3? visits to the Lane, when Liverpool went ahead I felt it was a genuine shock kind of the equivalent of Newcastle going ahead at Arsenal but Spurs pulled it round and won late just like the likes of United and Chelsea do on a regular basis.

Arry has done a great job at Spurs but please sell United Bale in the summer ;)
 
Pigeon_Killer said:
Lucas was one of our better players today and put in plenty of tackles :confused:
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Yes, but I guess it was more of a case that we werent solid enough in the middle and they cust through us easily at times, overall both the central midfielders had pretty decent games.Im guessing after being spoilt with the likes of Didi Hamann and Masch breaking things up, i'd like to have the same kind of setup again.But that aint gonna happen.
 
Well all MOTD2 did was confirm what I thought from watching the game live. Spurs deserved to win, Liverpool had quite a few close calls and the penalty was a no brainer.

This so called penalty they should have had (like I said, Benny clearly won the ball) wasn't even deemed worthy of a mention of any kind, go figure :rolleyes:
 
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