Rankings in the press today suggest that this is a close decision between Gareth Bale and Emmanuel Adebayor. The Togolese ultimately scored the two goals that won the game but Bale was behind much of Spurs best play and earned the praise of his manager after the match.
“He’s just an amazing talent. He’s an amazing player,” Harry told Sky Sports.
“He’s got the ability to run all day, to beat people, to dribble, to shoot, to head it – he can do everything. He’s a unique player really, he’s a special talent.”
Other suggestions included Younes Kaboul who was largely solid in defence and Rafael van der Vaart who scored the first and set up the second.
So is it a straight fight between Bale and Ade or is someone else more deserving of the Man of the Match accolade?
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How anyone can say Assou-Ekotto played well is beyond me. He was careless with the ball early on and also caught out of position enough times to force our centre backs to do his job, yet again. Hopefully there’s some truth in us signing this Christian Ramirez kid and he’s good enough to replace him immediately.
BAE is awful
BAE is ok as an attacker but is then [as a result?] sometimes woefully out of position – I recall one moment possibly just before the goal where he was no one where to be seen – a la the game against Arsenal.
Yeah, that’s exactly what I mean. He may not be an absolute joke of a defender, but he’s definitely one of the weak links in our team. In his first season for us, Kyle Walker is managing to get up for attacks and get back when we need him to defend as well.
Anyway, I’ve been saying for two whole seasons that we needed rid and I’m still waiting. It’s not all bad for me, though. We did manage to sell Roman Pav and Wilson Palacios on.
And while I think about it can someone who knows much more than me about football and tactics explain to me why Lennon didn’t start? Surely having two pacey wingers is better than one and doesn’t it heap all the responsibility onto Bale? The commentators kept saying that all Spurs need to do is to give it to Bale – but why not have another outlet? But it cant be as simple as this and i guess that there are solid and meaningful reasons why the manager doesn’t do this? So you tactical thinking types out there – explain to me the thinking!
Only explanation I can think of is that Lennon has just returned from injury. Maybe he knew he wouldn’t last the full ninety minutes.
The reason is because Harry has learnt that after the chelsea game that playing 3 in central midfield is working and doesnt want to change the system in case we get outnumbered and overrun (like arsenal did to us)by swanseas 3 man midfield. We went with the same formation as them and it worked as we won the midfield battle. Lennon is a great impact player to bring on if we need to get another goal as later on in the game their defenders will be tired and struggle to cope with him. Also he has just come back form being out for a while so probably didnt want to risk him playing 90 minutes and tweaking his hamstring, yet again!
Disco Benny is amazing!
Is there anyone who is any better in the league?
Yeah he makes mistakes, all players do. And of course he’s at fault for some goals, he’s a defender, shit happens.
His deceptive passes are top drawer and he has the skills to get away when he’s pressed and under pressue. Walker’s a great athlete but he doesn’t have BAE’s subtelty
I’m a fan of BAE. He’s not the best LB in the league and he makes his share of mistakes but I think people ignore how much he does well and focus only on his occasional blunders.
My favorite thing about him — and surprisingly an area he rarely makes big mistakes — is how he plays out of the back. Most defenders first thought it to boot the ball up field, which seems to just hand possession back to the opposing team, more often than not.
Instead, BAE always seems calm on the ball, VERY willing and capable of stepping around tackles before sending a direct pass to our midfield.
Everyone seems impressed with Spurs passing game, and this starts with the defense (and keeper) thoughtfully passing the ball to our playmaker mids. BAE is probably our best defender in this regard.
Hopefully we do get Ramirez (only 17 and he sounds like a real talent) and that he can learn from BAE before he becomes a starting player for us.
come on guys give d boy some air , BAE is d best left back in England , no one does d overlaping like him , nerver stops running , cous
definatley agree. I think BAE is a fantastic LB. always calm, collected when under pressure very fast, always commited and can drop a ball on a sixpence.
Good on ya Benny!
I was at the game, and I can tell you BAE bashers, you do not know your football. He had a couple of errors, but the rest of his play was 1st class. Kabul and Walker also had errors in their game and so did Modric and Parker, so shit does happen now and again.
But for me the best part of our game was seeing Bale and Lennon on the wings.. they were awsome.. back to our best COYS 😉