The Hidden Truth - Tottenham vs. Manchester City
Article by Sean WalshFollow e-Spurs on Twitter!
Anyone else getting sick and tired of these God awful spankings? I know I am. Yes, Danny Rose didn’t deserve a red card and it changed the course of the game, but I doubt we would’ve won anyway. In all honesty, the events will be able to cover up Sherwood’s poor selection.
I get that Tim doesn’t want to rush players back too quickly, but we needed some of those injured players more vs. Man City than against Hull. Dawson and Chiriches always look suspect together (personal opinion), and going up against the most ruthless team in the league certainly wasn’t a match made in heaven. I’ll cut them some slack; the staff’s decision to insist we didn’t need a holding midfielder backfired like Wile E. Coyote’s futile attempts to catch Roadrunner.
Neither Dembele nor Bentaleb are defensive midfielders- don’t give me that ‘but they can do the job’ crap. Physically they could play DM, but their positioning and decision making would be way off. Sandro admitted he wasn’t fit, but Capoue is more than capable of doing that job. Every time City went forward there were so many holes and gaps just waiting to be filled by a man in blue.
Against the small teams, okay, we probably don’t need a holding midfielder against bottom half teams, but City beat the European champions in their back yard for Christ’s sake. We needed a holding midfielder.
Whilst we’re on the subject, Bentaleb was out of his depth. He never should have been played in a match of this magnitude. Toure and Fernandinho weren’t brilliant, but his and Dembele’s pub-player performances hid that.
I love both Gylfi Sigurdsson and Christian Eriksen, but both were very, very poor. In my opinion, they should’ve swapped positions- Siggy as the no. 10, Eriksen in a free role. The Dane has been showing his potential coming in from the left recently, and that really didn’t need changing. Gylfi is pretty useless on the left (Sorry Thor). Anyone remember how good he was at Swansea as an attacking midfielder? Why not utilise that ability? When he gets going, he’s a top passer and has a killer strike, but his ability to be outpaced by a tree means playing him on the left is a big no-no.
I didn’t even think Lennon was playing, but no one else would’ve been better on the right, so…
Adebayor looked really eager in the first half to get one over his old team, but when we were reduced to 10 men, frustration kicked in, resulting in spats with Pablo Zabaleta, Yaya Toure and Vincent Kompany.
It wasn’t a good night by any means, but we have plenty of key players coming back. Vertonghen, Kaboul, Sandro, Paulinho, Townsend and Lamela should all be back soon, but we have to improve if any of them will stay. Plenty of our players are of Champions League standard, so if we aren’t there, they could easily jump ship. Tim’s got to realise we have a fight on our hands.
I realise it’s one defeat, and was against the best team in the league with 10 men, but our attitude looked very wrong. We need winners again.
We’re not out of the race for the top 4 yet, but we need those key players back if we’re going to be serious challengers.
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I AGREE WITH EVERY WORD YOU HAVE SPOKEN BUT IF ALL THIS STATEMENT MAKES PURE COMMON SENSE TO A MERE MORTAL FAN OF SPURS LIKE ME WHY OH WHY CAN`T SHERWOOD TAKE IT IN , YOU HAVE BEEN TO KIND TO MOST OF THESE PLAYERS ESPECIALLY THE SUMMER SIGNINGS WHAT A POOR LOT THEY ARE NONE OF THEM WITH THE EXCEPTION OF LLORIS AND PAULHINO ARE WORTH THEIR SALT .
ReplyDeleteI agree with this article - I never criticise a manager's initial selection because you don't know how it will pan out, but he should have put Capoue on after 20 minutes, Mourinho-style, because it was so obvious that we had to fill the gaps. Eriksen, Ade, Lennon can't play unless we have more bite in midfield. Still, TS is learning at this level so we'll cut him some slack. It's funny to think that despite the change of manager nothing really has changed - we beat most teams below us and lose heavily to the best teams, albeit with the partial excuse of unjust red cards. We've been excellent away... but I'm still fearful about today's game at Hull - the City defeat could damage our mindset.
ReplyDeleteI basically agree with this article. However i'm tired with the comments saying we have a world class squad. The players bought in the summer might look good in other leagues but seem to be out of their depth in ours(except Paulinho). Who made the decision on these players. We don't know and have not been told. Why. Why do good teams buy players different to the ones we seem to fine attractive. We don't seem to think smaller, faster stature players who want the ball and can TACKLE or hassle other midfielders and compete with them will actually benefit the club. Come on Sherwood blend your youngsters with our best.
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