We knew it wasn’t going to end well when Sky’s Gary Neville prepared to deliver his verdict on Tottenham and their summer signings but the former Manchester United right back was damning in some surprising areas.
We would have expected Erik Lamela to get some stick after a slow start to his Tottenham career. Roberto Soldado wasn’t likely to be immune either but was the criticism of Christian Eriksen a step too far?
Starting with Soldado Neville said,
“He doesn’t make anywhere near enough runs.
“He’s got to adapt quickly. I’m not sure he wants to become alive until the ball reaches the 18-yard box.”
Turning to Lamela he added,
“I don’t think he can play on he left, he’s got a left foot but I don’t think he can play there.”
But the real surprise came with comments over Eriksen who didn’t even feature in the Etihad debacle. Neville questioned why bigger clubs hadn’t come in for the 21 year old without offering anything more specific.
We knew we were in for it but is any of this truly justified?
Neville should piss off and focus on his old team, let’s see what he says after we beat up man united next week!
why does anybody pay attention to RATBOY, only his beloved MU are perfect I thought everbody knew this!
Do you actually listen to Gary Neville when United play? He’s their biggest critic. In my opinion, he’s about as honest and unbiased as any of the pundits.
I look forward to his Monday night football every week as he gives good feedback regarding all teams, sure, he’s clearly a United fan, but he does criticize them all the time.
I think his points about our attack right now are valid, and the photo he pulled up of our back 5 at kick off on Sunday was embarrassing – have you seen it?
All 7 signings and mean all 7 are top top quality period Spurs supporters should not be concerned by his comments everybody from him and talksport pundits are getting the pound of flesh at the moment , the attention should soley fall on AVB to sort out his obession with this one up front slow playing style of game which does not suit english football , we have the players we are stronger team it up to AVB to sort it out or move on and let some else take over.
Agreed sooner the better in my book
I understand the criticism these new players are getting it’s a harsh league and people will be on their back right away.But it hard to except these talented (yes very talented foreign) Spurs signings getting trashed by two bang average ex footballers and even more bang average pundits.
I’m afraid to say it I’m English but I prefer, football commentary and analysis from USA! Theres’s none of this old boys network of miserable pricks, arkwardly mumbling away,because its US TV they a good at presenting the stats, the analysis is good ,they have more personality and the Englishmen they do have are more well travelled with less of this biased closed minded undertone that the British Golden boys seem to have.
PERFECT SINGING FOR SPURES BUT PLAYING STYLE WRONG this season spure will play positon 4-2-3-1 systeam but statics not match for squad now i think we back on 4-3-3 counter attaking style not in position but add on midfield one two and trick lamela soldado paulinho chadli is good counter attaking player he give more trikness in box to box
Just a question the vast bulk of tottenham supporters have been saying this all season playing style static and predicatable ………..question since the 6:0 drubbing the loss to west ham and Newcastle do you think AVB now get it ? ……..or we going to see AVB stubbon Driven ideology 4-2-3-1 system against Man U , if so get his P45 ready !!
He has the wonder plan for EPL and world domination,how can he possibly change it ? P45 tomorrow if poss.
i wish he must have think&comment on his old team epspecially his man u current team since1995 that yr onwords i am seeing premier league is the worst side with not even enterprising coach.hope he must think dat.Mr.Levy&co.will take care spurs he donot worry abt spurs.
After the debacle at the City, let’s remind all Spurs fans about our playing philosophy under AVB- our aim is mainly a defensive one and it is to deny our opponents the ball by having majority possession and slowing the pace of the game drastically. We flood the midfield to help us in this endeavour with 5 midfielders and 2 fullbacks with the aim of effectively stifling the game and even killing it with the hope that we’ll create a chance or two in 90 minutes to win the game and certainly not to lose it. Our intention isn’t to inject any pace or purpos
e into the game. This is what the Scouser and the Manx didn’t understand when they analysed our game last night. We don’t ever set out to overwhelm the opposition with pace, intent and verve, that is the opposite of what we want to do. We set out to kill the game by taking all the pace out of the game. It is a deliberate strategy. This has been AVB’s strategy ever since he’s been at the Lane. Whether such a defensive strategy can take us into the top four and even win us titles and cups remains to be seen. I personally think not. Our main competition for the top 4 places have too much quality and too many weapons as Man City and Chelsea (second half) have shown. In my opinion, if we don’t show a bit more attacking intent, we’ll be lucky to finish in the top 6. Sunday will be a very interesting day, especially if Man U score first.
Your obviously not a proper Spurs supporter, otherwise you will know that the Spurs way is to attack with pace and style, to outplay the opposition, not play the boring old Arse way, ABV has brought the players to play the Spurs way, so why are we so slow and boring, if we had wanted to play that way we would have got George Graham as manager. come on ABV re-invert those wingers and add some pace to the game
I do not necessarily agree with AVB’s strategy, which you should deduce if you read right to the end of my post. I’m just trying to explain his thinking as I see it.
You have to be kidding me when you say that we play with better style than Arsenal. Keep the rivalry aside, I don’t think any team in the league plays football as beautiful as Arse+anal.
We don’t need to play as pretty, but we need to be real about what we have, and just win with what we have. Right now, I am fearing that we think our squad depth is making up for our first eleven weakness. Honestly, I can’t think of another first eleven in the top 5 that is weaker than ours at the moment, especially based on form. We are more like Everton than Chelsea at the moment, and atleast Everton have good form at the moment. If we find ours, I have do doubt we are better than the Toffees. But there is no way we are catching Arsenal at this rate. Lose tomorrow, and we might as well eliminate ourselves from title contention. Arsenal doesn’t look like they are going to lose this year, and the way the rest of the league is playing musical chairs, they may have run away with it before the final third of the season. Let’s hope they drop their level, although that won’t matter to us. We just need to fight through this period we are in, and get back to beating who we need to before we start punching up.
His mate Carragher also said his peice being anti spurs anyway – but instead of commenting on the game he kept going back to how they did it at Liverpool !
Let me think. No can not think of a quote from Gary Neville about Man Utd signings or players being off the pace played in the wrong positions etc. Still what do you expect with “loyal” Man Utd (Gary Neville)and loyal Liverpool ( Jamie Carragher) ex players now on Sky Sports building up there teams in a covert manner.
Virtually all the pundits are ex Man U ,Liverpiddle so you are only gonna get very biased opinions,best pay no attention let em get on with it,we know best anyway.
my sinking feeling is though that… we spent too much on lamela. soldado doesn’t fit in our system. and ericksen is looking very overrated at the moment, even though other clubs have underrated him. he looks more like a project than a finished article at the moment. we needed to spend lamela money on Mata or Cazorla like players. Would have been nice to convince Kagawa to come. players like that would have been great. although we did have one a couple years back and decided to give him away to Real because of our special relationship.
do u really give a fuck….?? I mean cmon its Gary Neville…..
I’m with MarkyB on this one – this is totally down to AVB.
These bunch of players are quality – but they have been given little or no direction. Take Vertongen for instance – he is not a left back and although he has done a reasonably good job you can tell he is unhappy. Why have we not bought in a left back – we seem to have too many of the same type of player. And as for Soldado and Lamela they have the added handicap of not even being able to speak the language. We must play these boys in their true positions it’s like trying to put a square peg into a round hole otherwise. I still love you Spurs – always will regardless.
All seven players are top players, but perhaps some are the wrong buys at the wrong time. Two seasons ago, Soldado would have been the answer to our prayers when Modric and the Lennon/Bale factor were creating dozens of chances. But not now. We should have bought two high class playmakers too, but instead we’re top heavy in strong but cumbersome DMs.
Right on. Ericksen was a good pickup, but he seems a bit more like a project right now. We need somebody with experience to move the ball to Soldado. I don’t see him as a problem, but he is very isolated. Townsend makes fantastic runs, but he’s got the final touch of a duck, and lamela keeps running himself into isolated trouble, or doesn’t factor in well with his teammates. very dissappointing at the moment.
Continuing from my previous post about AVB’s strategy for this season, AVB is your archetypal modern clipboard manager, placing his faith in numbers and statistics. As we all remember, just about the first thing he said at the end of last season, after we had failed to qualify for the Champions League, was that we brought in a record number of points. He thinks in statistics and numbers.
My hunch, and this is pure speculation on my part, is that AVB will have started this season with the aim of conceding between 20-25 league goals, given our defence based play. That means if we score 35-45 league goals then we can produce a goal difference of +10 to +25 goals. Since we never set out to win league matches by a big margin, every increase in our goal difference represents points and the stated range of goal difference would probably get us into a Europa Cup position at the lower end of the goal difference range to the Champions League at the middle to upper range end in a normal year. Unfortunately, our two trouncings at the hands of West Ham and Man City have probably caused AVB to revise the goals against column upwards to around the 28 goal mark.Given the way we’re playing, we will struggle to score more than 45 goals this season unless there is a drastic change in strategy or some more expenditure in the January transfer window. I guess what I’m saying is that it’s going to be very tight-to-impossible to qualify for the Champions League in our current condition. I expect the top three to be any combination of Man City, Chelski and the Woolwich Wanderers. The rest of us are fighting for fourth place, make no mistake. Of the the 5 teams fighting for the last Champions League place, I make Liverpool favourites because of their devastating attack and especially because they have Suarez. Man United are second because they know how to produce results under pressure. Southampton are third because they have the best balanced side of the 5 teams and if they have the belief. TTottenham and Everton make up the final 2 with Spurs slightly ahead because we have a better squad. It’s going to be a long uphill and, hopefully, exciting climb. COYS!
45 goals!?! City and Arsenal look like they are going to score 75-80 goals!
AVB IS A CLUELESS CLOWN I AGREE WITH ALL THE PUNDITS ESPECIALLY SOUNESS WE ARE PLAYING BORING FOOTBALL TO SLOW IN THE BUILD UP FROM MIDFIELD AVB WILL BE OUT BY XMAS
i actually like AVB, but it’s getting harder and harder to defend the young chap week by week.
I’m an old Spurs supporter and have suffered since the sixties. The big thing has always been our style of play – attacking, entertaining football. The big downfall of this has been our soft centre and inconsistency. We now have a squad of players to take on the world, given the right management and a couple of gaps being filled. Why let BAE go on loan when you have no LB. Rose at best is a attacking midfield player. Lastly if AVB is obsessed with stats, why cannot he see that if a team has the most shots and possession, but still manage a pathetic goal/win tally. There must be something wrong with the tactics. The EPL is known around the world for it’s pace and attacking football, but this seems to have passed AVB by. I only hope AVB is not a one trick pony although I am getting concerned that without Bale to get us out of jail. he is now being found out. A win against the Mancs.would shut us all up for a while. Here’s hoping COYS.
a win over united will paper over the cracks. especially with them without vidic, van persie, carrick and jones. if there is a time to get them, this is it. if we don’t. the season could be lost. i have sat through many lost seasons before, but we have been spoiled for hope as of late. i still thank the administration for doing their part in getting us to where we have hope every season, but i do really wish they would just deliver now.