Much of the media attention was elsewhere yesterday but on the pitch, the team slipped to a disappointing defeat against Arsenal by the narrowest of 1-0 margins. A positive result would have been welcome ahead of the international break but despite the reverse, head coach Andre Villas-Boas had some praise for his side.
“We had some problems in the first 25 minutes, they played with great pace and gained momentum from a couple of early free-kicks,” said Andre.
“As soon as we settled into the game we did well. We created chances in the first half, but not clear-cut chances.”
AVB conceded that a more clinical approach in the box could have seen us come away with a share of the points.
“We had a couple of good chances, not clear-cut, but if we were a little more clinical or one of those balls finished at the feet of our player instead of theirs, it would have been a goal,” he added.
“It’s very fine margins. Arsenal did well because they closed the spaces down and in the end, it was difficult for us to break through.”
Naturally, there was some predictable crowing after the game comparing our spend to theirs, even if three of our new signings didn’t start the game. However, it does suggest that this new look team will take some time to bed in – it’s just a shame that this fixture didn’t come later in the campaign.
That was the worst team selection I have ever seen at Spurs. Not a single creative player in midfield. Not a single goal from open play in 3 premier league games. Not playing our creative players (Tom Carroll and Holtby) is the poorest management decision ever.
Spurs should be playing entertaining football. This has been totally ruined by having 4 defense minded midfielders in the team, who offer no creativity – Capoue, Sandro, Dembele, Paulinho. Spurs only needs to play one of these players in a game. Yesterday they played 3 of them at the same time. Very boring to watch and ineffective against a skilful team like Arsenal.
Against most teams the best Spurs midfield would be:
Holtby Carroll
Lamela Eriksen Townsend
If they need to kill a game off, then bring in Sandro for Holtby.
AVB fails to see this and thinks that playing 3 defensive midfielders would overpower teams. Unfortunately Arsenal ran rings around us.
If Tom Carroll gets loaned out to a championship team, it will be a disgrace. He should be playing for Spurs now.
F.I.O.S.
Forever in our shadow.
It seems that Lloris haa taken Bale place to become another “Tottenham Hotspur.” If he didn’t save Giroud-Walcott-Cazorla-Rosicky-Ramsey-Gibbs combo attack, I think we would finish with a high 4-0.
In the past, Bale would easily sneak in that 1-0, close 2-1 and left Emirates with a win, but hey guess what, you have sold “Tottenham Hotspur” to Real Madrid.
Hail to the Frenchman, too bad you didn’t play under Le Prof.
COYG!
Love Lloris. Heard he wanted to come to Arsenal, but Wenger didn’t want to pay 11m for his services. Oh well. We’ll gladly take the best keeper in England. He was our best player and thats why we’re still talking like this was a close game. We had control, but Arsenal looked dangerous the whole game. Could have easily won 3-0 if not for his heroics.
Townsend looked good, Loris was excellent as usual.
Pace was way too slow til Sandro and Defoe came on.
Capoue looked ponderous, balls played around the back at snail’s pace and no penetration especially from Chadli was all very disappointing
other than townsend, i agree. he was excellent at attacking, but his final balls were atrocious. soldado will continue to be isolated until these guys pick their spots. can’t wait for lennon to come back personally, but i feel lennon may just be too small and fragile to play in this league for too long.
Someone whisper to AVB that the offense shouldn’t be going through Kyle Walker.
then somebody do something other kyle! i do not fault him for his efforts, but honestly, thats what you get when nobody knows what to do out there.
£100 million doesn’t buy a team, it buys individuals who may, in time, gel into a team. Half of your team on display yesterday wouldn’t recognise each other if they met in Sainsburys. Give them a bit of time and they will be OK, not good, just OK.
AVB needs to adjust his tactice, Soldado needs help, he is not a centre forward, he could be a fair second striker, you just have to hope that little Jermaine doesn’t bale out and go to QPR.
It’s just unbelievable that your club has sold the best player it’s had since Danny Blanchflower. Nothing you have bought so far comes close to replacing the monkey boy.
Fabregas, Nasri, Van Persie… now we know how you feel like.
While I admit, the jury is still out on this squad. I am very excited we are going in a new direction, and not the one we have been banging our heads over for the last few years. That obviously didn’t work, so here we are again.
Thanks for being a respectful goonie. Most Arse fans are assholes.
To all the gooners and spurs fans alike that are posting shit about why we lost, have a look at the actual tactics at play in the match. http://www.zonalmarking.net/2013/09/01/arsenal-1-0-tottenham-cazorla-provides-the-overloads-in-midfield-and-the-through-balls-for-giroud-and-walcott/
AVB relied too much on Walker and Townsend overloading Gibbs and gaining either penalties or decisive crossing, at the expense of Cazorla being allowed to overload the midfield. The combative, strong and defensively minded midfield perfectly complimented this tactic as it would help defend against a dangerous Arsenal midfield. This actually pulled off quite well with attempting a remarkable 26 crosses into the box, however Tottenham simply doesn’t have the players to play this strong fast counter-attacking football a la Mourinho. Soldado is a master of movement with a great finish, he does not function as an individual in the same way Defoe is, with some creativity and incisive passing he can a fantastic striker. Eriksen and Lamela are both outstanding attacking midfielders and after this much needed international break I believe the Spurs we’ll be seeing will be far more dangerous, with the creativity of these two players providing extremely dangerous attacking threat with Soldado instead of relying on pure speed and dribbling in players like Lennon, Townsend and Dembele. Arsenal may buy a fantastic player in Ozil, but I think will struggle to maintain a defensively able team when fielding both Cazorla and Ozil, a combination I think Arsene will find very difficult to pull off. Tottenham on the other hand now have a deep squad with a balanced team.
While I am happy with Eriksen and Lamela, you have to be kidding yourself if you would rather have those two than Cazorla and Ozil. World class players will find a way. btw, Cazorla is also a left winger.
Anyway, I am not a disallusional spurs fan, but I know our squad is better than last year. It may not have super high quality, but we have the quantity of decent players to mount a challenge on top 4 and a deep run in all the cups possible. Something I am not so sure Arsenal have. I still think they are missing a decent defensive mid and back up striker.
Of course I would rather those two than Lamela and Eriksen, though I don’t think Ozil would have a place in the Tottenham team whatsoever. However, Lamela and Eriksen are both only 21 and can become absolute legends, particularly Eriksen. My point more was is fielding Cazorla on the wing is dangerous for Arsenal as it leaves a major defensive fault down the wing, added to this fielding Ozil will leave Arsenal far weaker defensively albeit far stronger offensively, though I don’t think they quite have the clinical finisher they need to guarantee themselves a top 4 spot. I think the Tottenham squad as a whole is better than Arsenal’s, with more potential in the future, and it is not the 1st team that succeeds overall in a league but the squad as a whole. Tottenham to get 4th place, with Arsenal competing with Liverpool for 5th. Although Ozil is very technically able and has the rare ability to pull off the wonder pass he lacks consistency and often switches off in games, as well as leaving tactical holes in whichever team he plays in due to his very inflexible play style. Not to say AVB won’t have his own troubles in fielding Sandro/Capoue, Paulinho, Dembele, Lamela and Eriksen, the best answer I can see is placing Eriksen on the left wing to come inside much like Cazorla but just as with l’arse this leaves a defensive failing and Danny Rose certainly isn’t capable of dealing with that being the weakest player in the squad, unless Dembele can provide sufficient support as a left central midfielder.
I’m just suprised how respectful some totthenham fans can be. Only wish the respect could be more like this in many blogs, sadly that’s not the case.
Anyway from the way I saw the game, spurs have stars, but they need time to gel offensively and defensively. Then who knows they could compete even for the league, provided AVB plays the right tactics and formations.
trust me, there are some of us. there are asses on both sides. to be fair, my family is brit and i love one uncle, but the other is a drunken bastard.