Though we currently sit in fourth place, it’ll be hard to imagine us keeping that position unless we beat Fulham tonight.
With Manchester City and Aston Villa able to leapfrog us due to their games in hand and Liverpool breathing down our necks, we need to get back to winning ways and fast. Especially considering that we’ve got tough fixtures against Birmingham and Villa to come.
What’s caused me the most concern is that Fulham have injury doubts over their attacking players. If they don’t think that they’ve got much going forward, then they’ll sit back and try to soak up our pressure and play on the break. We saw against Hull and Liverpool how well we were able to cope with that.
Where do we go in terms of our line up? Including Rose and Hutton against Leeds gave us more pace and attacking intent. I can’t see Rose starting again and wouldn’t be surprised if Corluka is preferred to Hutton, so once again we’ll be back to trying to pass our way through Fulham, with only Bale really possessing the ability to beat a full back.
Huddlestone could possibly return after injury, which I would welcome primarily so I don’t have to read everyone moaning about Jenas tomorrow. I could also do with a day off from writing about his failings and if the Hudd can’t make it, then I hope that O’Hara gets a start alongside Wilson.
Up front, Pavlyuchenko is an injury doubt, but I don’t expect that he would have started anyway, even though he deserves a chance. Will Crouch drop to the bench considering that Hangeland is one of the few players big enough to cope with him? It would make sense, but for the fact that Keane is in such shocking form.
As I write this I realise that I have a huge sense of foreboding about this match and am struggling to be positive about things. To put things into perspective, Fulham haven’t won a Premier League away match since the start of the season, so this is a team that we should be beating at home.
Do we have the character though? It’s a big night for a lot of players. We need Dawson to be back to his dominant best at the back, Palacios to make the midfield his own and Modric to start dictating the play. In attack, we need Defoe ferreting around the goal and staying clear of spot kicks.
Are we up for it? Do we have the bottle? We’ll know by the end of this evening. Come on you Spurs!
With Pav out injured, Harry’s sure to start Defoe/Crouch and bring on the hopeless Keane as a default first sub – as he feels like he owes him something. Meanwhile I read we’re shipping the ‘disappointing’ Dos Santos out to Galatasaray. He’s not been given a single chance! This boy was amazing for Mexico last summer. Two feet, pace, skill, shooting and nerve. (He scored a dramatic penalty at the Aztec Stadium in front of 100,000 versus USA: unlike, er,…).
This is when we need something extra to open up a defence: why doesn’t Redknapp give our young players a chance instead of slagging them off in the press and loaning them out. It’s appalling. We did so well to get Giovani, and it’s been a shambles.
Arsene may be a snivelling Whinger but at least he backs the young players to develop. We’re about to lose Dos Santos and now Bostock comes back, and gets pasted by Harry in the newspapers. How’s that going to help his confidence? Harry said, “maybe I should put him in the squad and see what he can do”. Er, yes, maybe you should.
Meanwhile O’Hara will probably get his chance because Harry likes him – but we’ve seen what he can do: he’s honest, he’s a tryer, but he is very average and doesn’t have anything especially good to his game. Danny Rose on the other hand is pacy and direct and is left-footed. But Harry is too conservative to try him. He scored goals for England U-21s this season already, so let’s start him on the left.
A lot depends on tonight: does Harry have the nouse to beat Woy Hodgson? I hope I’m wrong, but I doubt it… hoping for a good atmosphere and let’s not get on the players’ backs. COYS>
Ship arry off to relegation battling club, ideally portsmouth. He lacks the ambition, tactical awareness, all round man management skills(except the players he has invited into his unbreakable circle) and mental strength. Pavlyachenko doesn’t want to leave the spurs fans or our great club, he wants to leave the lying, two faced, back stabber Redknapp. In the end he’ll take our club backwards and please don’t say, but, we’re in 4th place, because it’s about where you end up, not where you are now.
I dread to think what abuse Harry is going to get if we slip further back.
I was never a Harry fan but you can’t argue with the mans achievements. With all his limitations he has been good for the club and if we make the Europa as a minimum he will get at least another season.
Cavilier and adventurous he is not but changing managers even at the end of the season will once again destabilise the club.
So ‘Shinyshoes’ learn to live with it, he ain’t going nowhere.
Harry’s from the old school. He likes his players to be hard grafters, and doesn’t stand for prima donnas who shirk from training and tracking back during games, no matter how young, promising or Mexican they are.
I’m not sure if I share his sentiments – some of the best players have been what some might describe as a tad lazy – but I understand where he is coming from. What is unfortunate is that he suffers from verbal diarreah and doesn’t suffer fools gladly, so will spurt out diatribes on certain players. This is utterly stupid and anti-productive.