When Spurs beat Rubin Kazan at home the club was installed as one of the favourites to win the Europa League but after last night’s home defeat to PAOK, the competition is all but over for this year.
Tottenham need PAOK to beat Rubin later this month and hope that they can put enough goals past Shamrock Rovers to overtake the Russians on goal difference.
As far as last night’s game was concerned, there was plenty of controversy throughout but Harry Redknapp focused on the poor start that left Spurs chasing the match,
“We have no-one to blame,” said Harry. “We gave two terrible goals away early on, look at the defending for the two goals and it was poor.
“We started sloppy, gave the ball away, turned the ball over and at 2-0 down, it’s uphill from there, it’s difficult.
“Once we scored the penalty I thought we would get at them and we did, we battered away, but they got lots of bodies in the way and we just couldn’t break them down.”
When Harry joined the club in 2008 he said that the Europa League was harder to get out of than it was to get in. This season however, it may not be quite so tough.
Spurs News 24/7
{ 44 comments… read them below or add one }
very disappointing result last night. It’s worrying that without adebayor we just cannot score. i hope harry is bluffing when he says we’ll make no signings in january because one injury to adebayor and our title/top 4 dreams are over!
You say without Ady we cant score i think you need to look at the game again and look at the Greeks work rate. Also look at these other shocks and you will see the same work rate in evidence Getafe v Barcelona Kilmanock v Rangers Utd v Palace too name a few. There you will see unbelievable blocks snappy quick tackles and just has many players in attack and defence for lung busting periods of these shock football games. This is why i cant watch Spurs games live and dread playing teams in trouble or massive underdogs because you will see the above work rate in abundance and the possibility of a shock. You are right too say without Ady we failed too score but unlike the West Brom game we never conceded two goals and they had eleven men we faced ten men with the high work rate of twelve men even before the sending off. This we had to make five or more passes just too keep the ball and we never gained ten yards forward when we did we lost it. We faced the ten man wall in the second half and also some desperate blocks and saves by a team with the energy levels of 12 men . The problem with Harry playing first teamer’s Lennon Modric and Defoe followed by Bale and Walker is you have players who shy away from snappy tackles and the Greeks where very snappy and you had the feeling if players stayed on the ball long enough they would be badly injured. Harry should have left the kids like Carrol and Townsend who would have took the bad tackles flying in. This defeat hurts a little but it hurts a lot more because of the Gereks work rate is now becoming the new shock way of winning games and his a new word banishing the old word raising there game to win. We are facing Bolton who have all the ingredients for high work rate they are desperate for points and like Palace Getafe Kilmarnock and the Greeks will raise there Work rate to a high snappy tackling defending in high numbers attacking in high numbers all High on energy . To win we will need Ady on form luck Defoe special and Van too Win against desperate Boltons high work rate.
What?
Davs, next you’ll be telling us the PAOK players were high on ephedrine or something…
That is what he is saying.
defoe was the biggest disappoint for me. The main reason being that, just as i seem to forget the memories of him flattering to deceive on a frighteningly regular basis, that i had almost expected him to shine yesterday.. well the real defoe turned up and i have to say, the occasional graded finish aside, the guy is shite…
get him a cab to qpr and maybe with a striker who has some knowledge of brain power can take his place…rafa all day and night for me.
coys
You mate need too watch the game again because if Defoe or Modric had stayed on the ball fo a second broken bones would have followed
you mate need to watch the game. Not too.
he only performs at the required level , when he is benched and the reason for that, is that at our current level, the intelligence and ability acquired surpasses that of his ilk ..we’ve moved on and livermore could do with a few coaching lessons, cannot be paired with the quality of mods
my thoughts exactly, out of his depth, needs to focus.
The back 4 were dire in the first half. I know Gallas and Bassong haven’t really had a chance to form a proper partnership but the first goal was amateur in the extreme and the second wasn’t much better. Corluka seemed to think he was a winger – when he lost the ball by the PAOK penalty area and they broke, he jogged back with no urgency whatsoever – and Rose just doesn’t have the experience.
Peripheral players like Pienaar (who was woeful; lazy and sloppy in possession) and Corluka were clearly trying to impress and gave the ball away needlessly taking on Hollywood shots or trying to run through the defence when a simple pass backwards would have been much better for the team… and in keeping with how Spurs are playing at the moment. Defoe had one great attempt and he’s obviously still a classy finisher (see WBA too) but that appears to be all he does at the moment.
Modric was outstanding, at least. His distribution and possession play were first-class and he was the one in front of the defenders taking the ball out and building up attacks because nobody else was taking the responsibility. If only he’d shoot occasionally!
Credit to PAOK for keeping us out with 10 men, they defended really well, but we should have been able to salvage a point at least. And we were out-shouted by the travelling fans all the way through as well. An embarrassing performance.
Wake up the Greeks are just another team with endless energy winning shockball games. Getafe Kilmarnock Palace all played the same high tempo games .If you knew what i found out you would not be so complementarity high work rate is false and the new 12th man and its bean happening for a very long time 1966 two Germans in the World Cup Ephedrine Maradona World Cup ephedrine Paddy Kenny 2009 Ephedrine Kolo Toure Waistline 2010. So applaud the skill but don’t applaud work rate because no amount of training can make you run till you risk dropping dead because this is what is happening in Footballs hidden shame energy supplements are being swallowed. We have not dominated any game we have won except Villa who played normal tempo and Nine man Liverpool who we waited a long time before we scored the other goals.
Tell me greeknightmare, what did you find out?
been, not bean
By energy supplements, do you mean Lucozade?
What about Scotty Parker? Hardest-working player in the Premiership
Davs, where’s your proof PAOK were in energy-enhancing drugs ? There’s no proof. Maybe you want all 22 players p*ss-tested before and after every match ???
look, none of us like losing any game but we have to look at the biiger picture. The next round of the europa means 4 games covering 4 weeks in february/march time. This is also the time we have to play chelsea, liverpool, arsenal and united in the league.
We have got to get realistic, yes we are on a great run but it wont go on forever and top 4 has to be our target, not this nonsense talk of the title. As for the previous comment, who exactly would be a better 3rd striker than defoe ?? Some people live in a fantasy world if they think we could get better.
Great thinking mate, lets sell defoe and have a much weaker squad, thank christ you’re not in charge. Moron.
Well said Jim Defoe must have the patients of a saint he turns out with a weakened team risking injury.. Harry then rewards Defoe with the bench and plays VAN what other striker would put up with that i will tell you no fucker.
patience
Hary then rewards Defoe with the bench, and plays VAN. What other striker would put up with that?
I will tell you… no-one.
Is this what you were trying to say mate?
So he should be on the bench. Why do so many spurs fans think defoe should start ahead of VDV. Ask any other club who they would have playing. VDV no brainer finishing, delivery and set pieces + very intelligent player.
Steve, are you a teacher by any chance, you keep on correcting everyone ?
I know where you are coming from, but for me we needed the Europa to keep the fringe players happy.
We should have played our srongest fringe players for this game, surely Sandro should have started, and Andros instead of peiner, who was useless.
And the main point is, if we can not deal with the Europa, are we going to fail 4th spot again, if we are in champions league again.
I was surprised that Sandro wasn’t picked for the team. He needs games, and would have protected the back four, far more than Livermore. Very strange decision to leave him out. Also would have been good for Carroll to pick up more experience. Carroll would have done so much better than Pienaar. It is clear that Spurs would be better off in January shipping out: Pienaar, Dos Santos, Bassong, Livermore and Pavluchenko. Hopefully Spurs can buy a class central defender, a goal scorer and another winger in January. It would be good to find experience for the talented youngsters like Carroll, Pritchard, Mason by loaning them out.
I was surprised Sandro wasn’t on the field too. He seemed to be the obvious choice; a very good player who can’t break into the first team and who needs to be kept happy/match fit. It’s not like he needs his rest at the moment.
Jim, I definitely wouldn’t sell Defoe because he’s a great impact player and scores some cracking goals but another tall, strong striker in the vein of Adebayor who can hold the ball up and compete in the air would be much better. He’s been excellent in that role and it’s really helping our play. Drogba is the kind of player who’d be perfect but he’d never come to Spurs, talk seems to be that he’s going to Anzhi Macashkala or someone else who can give him superstar wages (and fair play to him). Yakubu could be a great shout and we could almost certainly poach him from Blackburn.
‘The ‘irritating’ Europa League is all but over’…..Thank fuck for that!
Livermore was pathetic last night, clearly not good enough.
Bassong, Livermore, Pienaar and possibly Corluka were the worst Spurs players I have seen in a long, long time…
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AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!
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Wait till FIFA Financial Fair Play next season, then we’ll see who’s laughing…
You genuinely think FFP will be enforced? Are you having a laugh!?
Besides, £400m stadium sponsorship enables room for manoevre – and certainly puts the £197m losses for the last financial year in perspective, no?
Look up tots. The sky’s blue!
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What Bristol City? Twat!
No mate. Manchester City.
You know, the team that beat you 5-1 (in your own back yard). AHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
Tiny Twats!
Sorry, tiny tots!
AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!
i thought certain players were not up to it at this intense level, so for us to keep our place in top four we require a blessing to keep injuries to a mimunium as Harry is right we do not have a quality squad to go for trophies on more than one front.
bassong, Livermore ,Rose and Kane are pratically unsellable to another premier club after last nights performance.
It aslo shows who makes our team tick, Bale,adebayor and parker
I would have gone for:
Cudicini
Corluka Gallas Livermore Rose
Walker Sandro Carroll Bale
Falque Defoe
But hindsight is a wonderful thing isnt’ it…!
Cudicini (shit)
Corluka (shit) Gallas (old, and shit) Livermore (who?) Rose (shit)
Walker (average) Sandro (shit) Carroll (who?) Bale (overrated)
Falque (who?) Defoe (shit)
Where’s this fabled depth I’ve heard so much about?
I don’t know about anyone else but I wouldn’t call strength in depth Spurs’ strong point. We don’t all have the money to buy in two world-class XIs. We’re playing excellently as a unit in the league at the moment, definitely overachieving considering the funds we have available, and I’m happy with that.
Fair play though, City are untouchable at the moment. You can’t have been this happy since you were a Chelsea fan. Come on the team at the top of the league!
Hell, maybe if things go well you’ll be supporting Spurs in a couple of years
Benji is a Chelski boy….go on admit it you tit,
BENJI IS A BATTY BOI!