Spurs missed the chance to take third place in the Premiership and to secure a top four finish with a 1-1 draw at Villa Park yesterday. After going a goal behind and then down to ten men after Danny Rose was sent off, Emmanuel Adebayor scored from the spot but Tottenham couldn’t find the winner.
“It was always going to be difficult, Villa were scrapping for a point to keep them in the division,” said Harry after the match.
“They scored with a shot that took a wicked deflection and you think ‘how’s your luck?’.
“We then got Danny Rose sent off and we’re down to 10 men, 1-0 down, five minutes into the second half.
“At that point, you’re in trouble – but we responded magnificently.”
The point means that a win at Fulham next week will finally secure top four at least and if we fail to claim third, it will lead to a nervous night in Munich later this month.
Harry
Some are saying we can’t go any further with Harry as the team is better than he is. Be careful, that thinking got us Ramos. Also we are at home not at Fulham – against Jol!
Once the opposition have worked you out it is time for plan B. This does not include bringing on Scott Parker in the 89th minute, pushing Gallas up front and leaving Defoe on the bench. We have bossed other teams game after game but can’t get 3 points. They pack their defence around one striker. There is no one there to pick up the crumbs. Defoe is quick and nimble around the box, and always a threat. The FA didn’t want HR and he showed them they were right at Villa. Bill Nick said that “to fail aiming high was better than to succeed aiming low”. Bringing on Scott at the 89 min. mark showed he was there for a draw. Bring on Defoe after the Ade. penalty and show Villa you meant business would have given the Villa defence something to think about. This is the best Spurs squad since I don’t know when. Aim high HR aim very high, and we can accept failure. You won’t win anything looking for a draw. Keep the squad and sell HR.
Agree completely. I haven’t done the math but it would be interesting to know if Newcastle were behind when Adebayor scored the penalty. Just before that Defoe was on the touchline ready to come on but after the score went to one all, Harry changed his mind. I wonder if he calculated that since Newcastle were no longer a threat he could afford to play for a draw knowing that meant fourth place and he had kept his beginning-of-season promise to Levy & Co.. If so, it shows how limited his ambition is and how little he knows about Spurs’ fans hatred of the Gooners. Here was a chance to put them in fourth, make them sweat during the Munich game and Harry ducked. It showed him to be selfish, limited, faint-hearted and out of touch with his fan base. A determined attempt to win, even if it failed would have won him praise and plaudits from the fans but he preferred caution and security. Come to think of it, with those qualities he would have made an ideal England manager! Time for a change, methinks.
Am I the only one here who actually think Harry is doing well to being level headed with the press?
Yes
I could not agree more with the article above. I cannot understand why Harry, with his intelligence and coaching experience, did not bring in a striker like Defoe when we badly needed a goal. He seemed to want to settle for a draw by bringing in a defensive midfielder but a draw was not good enough for us. Winning against a good and well organised team like Fulham will not be easy.
Defoe was sorely missing in that second half. He is the one who could have won the match for us as he is quick on the ball and shoots hard towards goal. Adebayor, though a very good player, is a little too slow at times for my liking and loses the ball too easily. His shots in goal are often too weak but full credit to him for having scored a great penalty.
Ade is more clinical in his finishing. Really pro at it, however I agree with you. Jermain has the initiative and right make up to make a desperate chance in nervy games.
I think Harry didn’t show enough ambition he settled for the point after finding out Newcastle were losing to Man City. We wont know till next week if yesterday’s point was a good or bad point. Ourselves, the scum and Newcastle equally have hard games to win to secure 3rd and 4th.
Danny Rose is not good enough for this Spurs team. Adam Smith is a right back. It would be better to try Smith as cover for B.A.E. He is a much better player. The biggest tragedy is the fact that most of Spurs young players have been neglected and forgotten by Redknapp.
Martin Jol would have done much better with this Spurs squad. Harry picked alot of players himself. Jol never had that luxury under Santini and then Comolli.
Get a grip! Defoe? – Mr Selfish, Off-side, Clueless, Just shoot-on-sight-one-trick-pony??
Jammy deflected goal aside and we would’ve won 1-0.
Walker and Rose – not ready, if ever. Bring back Charlie and Benny.
Martin Jol who openly admitted shitting himself whenever we had a corner against us – what a plan!
Alan is so right. Just look at the Bolton game . They didnt park the bus and look what happened. When teams park the bus we play pretty football in two thirds of the pitch but cant get through.
Regarding the substitution – I dont think it could have been playing for the draw surely. If that was the case wouldnt he have come on earlier?
I was thinking that unless we score from wingers tearing down the flank or from a wonder free kick or Modric/BAE once in a bluemoon longer shot – we rarely score from other plays in and round the box.
Just look at what RVP does but he possibly is almost a one off in the PL.
And dont get me started on corners. As someone else says what happens at the training ground! ADE must be one of the tallest, Bale is 6 2 isnt he and Kabal can header plus the VDV Stoke haeder. With 19 or so corners we needed to be more of a threat.
Agree with comments on Rose. Under cooked at the moment.
We have still really got to beat Fulham. Likely? I presume BM are favs to beat Chelsea but as others have said – in a one off game anything can happen. And to think that beating Norwich or QPR would have seen us home. As I posted here or on another excellent spurs blog site – turning points from that great run were Defoe missing at man City then BAE giving ball away and King making a stupidly rash tackle. Switching off one minute before half time in Man U game.Then of course team and manager completely falling away after 2-0 agaisnt you know who. Anyway exciting season.
u forget jol was a new manager an unknown at a very big club,but he got us FIFTH TWICE with a far far inferior side
THIS totenham side is UNDERACHIVING and yet again the main instigator is REDSCHNAPPS unless u ar blind as a bat
got back from the game and low and behold dear arry on telly saying basically i settled for a draw against a team that at best were garbage once we got the goal we settled for the draw ,if u saw the game u would have seen us takin corners and we had 4 on the half way line againest 1 av 4 for christ sake then he brings on bloody parker not for the first time he has done this negative thinking
.if we are to get anywhere it has to be without him ,wake up he is holding this team back 1bloody trophy in 20yrs,more interested in himself ,scared to rotate or wont
And as for their goal the deflection was outside the box
plenty of time for him to adjust and get across instead rooted!! against QPR that was a joke goal but twitchy says nothing because the goalkeeper he picked has made loads of cock-ups but a lot of u blamed gomas for our ills
forgetting our lowest total at home EVER and one of the reasons we got in the champions league but never mind arrys always right for 3 seasons i have been sick to death of him and his crap ,as long u people see nothing wrong
WE WILL KEEP DROPPING BELOW OUR EXSPECTATIONS
AND ARRY WILL KEEP PLODDING ALONG
We should have been 3rd by right now but 3mths of crap
same as last season or have you forgotton.
I agree that had that been Gomes in goal, he would have been crucified for letting them goals in.
Jol was/is average at best.
Harry has earnt the right to stick around for another season to see what he can do.
Friedel errors perhaps but as bad as Gomes’ screw-ups? – seriously?
We’ve been plodding along for decades but the fact is Jol NEVER got CL even though he ended up (via bad results) just having to beat West bloody Ham but couldn’t- Harry would’ve somehow, lasagne or no lasagne.
Unless Mourhino turns up, who could do better and might be available?
When you make a mistake as a keeper the end results all the same. Brad gave up on the ball and it cost us. He has not been in Champion league form for the last 3 months or so and their been about 3 or 5 games were he’s let us down.
We had close to 20 corners and yet could not capitalise on any one of them? Is it because we lack aerial skills.? Yet,we have tall players like Adebayor and Kaboul.
There is no doubt that Friedel is a good goalkeeper but several times this season he has shown a lack of agility in leaping for the ball from long distance shots. Since Clark’s shot came from such a long distance, he had time with a mighty leap to save that deflected shot but unfortunately he remained rooted on the goal line.
Gomes would have saved that, that is his strengh.
JUXTA ever played in goal mate .at villa they called freidel JESUS becacause he wouldnt come out for crosses
Our lowest all time record at home was not done by friedel
take a goalkeeping coarse and find out yea he made errors
but i doubt if he would have let those last 2 in ,we should be looking at younger beter keepers than im
This is wat i seem to get from people defending arry slag ging u of read the fact and more if u like
As i said JOL had a far far inferior side and still got us to 5th redknapp with a team that SHOULD be in the top 4
25yrs and 1 fa cup ,earned the right ,have you been a monk for last 3mths harry has flogging him self to death over england
Here here.. bang on the money 🙂
Sorry about Spur1950, he is illiterate. I can just about make sense of what he has just said
i joke
Juxta, your an idiot. That Is all.
That’s an ironic way to say it…
You’re also an idiot.
idiot
Haha, the ref totally missed RvP penalty that would have brought Arsenal ahead. LOL. How does that feel?
I still can’t believe were all fools to think that Mourhino would at all consider coming to Spurs. Hazard, Verthongen, etc… Lets focus on the now. Honestly, we can’t even begin to negotiate properly until the Chelsea/Bayern game if we get 4th. What will that get us? We’re already a month behind Chelsea, Arsenal, and the Manchesters when it comes to the Summer transfer. No doubt, they are getting ready to make their announcements and transfers official, and were still clueless where we are headed and who would consider, not to mention the possible exodus of player if we fail to meet their CL aspirations. That would be disastrous.
3rd should have been ours. Should have. Now we are left to rue talk of nervy nights in May, it’s already nervy now. The Gods are still with us. I thought for surely that was a foul on RvP in front of the goal, but none of the refs remembered what fouls looked like that day at Emirates, however we couldn’t take that good fortune and turn it into anything. I am so bloody pissed right now, I am even resigned to thinking we completely deserve what we get if we drop to 5th and miss everything. Atleast that way, all the bums who want out will go, and we can concentrate on the season next year properly.
it not the keeper that the problem, it up front that the problem. we are not scoring goals. ade work hard but not in the right place. he go left/right but not in the centre where he need to be. we have 5 in the mid, 2 very good wingers, but when they get down the wing or cross the ball where is he? not where he should be. why did we not buy a goal scorer why did we get saha for.
i think the top 4 is to much for HR so he need to go. u tell me what top 4 team would play for a draw when they need a win to be 3rd
Agreed, but I have come to senses that we are not there yet. My biggest fear is that after all this progress, the big players are already thinking about leaving for other things. Modric is almost certain to leave this summer, and I fear if a big club come, they will force a Bale move as well, however, I still have confidence he still may stay. At this current state, I fear next year we will be fighting with a few clubs for 1 spot as I think City, United and Arsenal will sow up 1-3 with the players they have and ambition to sow up replacements. We will be battling almost certainly Chelsea and Liverpool for the 4th spot. I do not think Newcastle can repeat unless they strengthen their squad.
Our problem is that we are far to predictable offensively. teams know our only threat is our wingers.So they defend the flanks well and their goes all of our creativity. We need a striker who can create in the middle to compliment our width because we have no natural goal scorers in the center.
Quite right about being too predictable. Still, we have 64 goals to prove its still a good strategy. I can’t believe Arsenal have 71 in an off year!!! But then I think about it, and Song and Arteta have been delivering balls over the top all year long. ManU and City have 88 and 90! Thats what we need as well.
well said Blake. Lets hope we sign some one good enough to continue building.
And who is this player that we could sign? Perhaps somebody like Juan Mata or a Luis Saurez… That would be about perfect.