Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[Can Gana Be Bettered!?!?]

Also, what has Dunne done to deserve to be brought back in ahead of Cuellar?

[Monty]

Carew was dire. Even when he did something good, he ballsed it up. I'd have rather played no striker than him.

[Michel Sibble]

Our attack really needs to be FISHY:

Fab/Fonz
Ireland
Stewie
Heskey
Young (A)

Carew has been carp and needs filleting off. His performance sticks in yer throat.

[Olneythelonely]

Also, what has Dunne done to deserve to be brought back in ahead of Cuellar?

Worst decision he's made since joining us.

[PaulMcGrathsNo5Shirt]

A spine of:

Overweight Dunne
Over the hill Petrov
Overrated Carew.

Are we really surprised that we got beat by a very enterprising Spurs team?

Houllier should never have dropped Cuellar for Dunne, Petrov needs dropping, Carew is just shite.

rant over

[alan_clarke]

Carew and Heskey both need replacing as far as I'm concerned. They're both far too injury prone so even when one of them hits a little bit of form, it rarely lasts 3 games.

[Olneythelonely]

A spine of:

Overweight Dunne
Over the hill Petrov
Overrated Carew.

Are we really surprised that we got beat by a very enterprising Spurs team?

Houllier should never have dropped Cuellar for Dunne, Petrov needs dropping, Carew is just shite.

rant over

A very enterprising Spurs side? They play more long balls than we do.

The difference was Van Der Vaart, that's it.

[Jimbo]

Just like Stoke's equaliser and winner, and just like Wolves' equaliser, their winner was inevitable. We could have done something to stop it, by shoring up the midfield or adding Cuellar, but we didn't.

We simply can't keep the ball, so we're always going to invite pressure. And because our defence is frequently at fault, as it was today, we're always going to concede.

Big changes needed on the personnel side, which really isn't going to happen until next season. This one is all but wrecked already.   

[Risso]

I'd never claim to know more than a highly respected manager, but honestly, can anybody explain the rationale behind dropping Cuellar who was great against Wolves, for an overweight and under performing Dunne?

[Shrek]

From what i can gather, Houllier swapped Cuellur who was immence last week for Dunne.

Then Dunne was at fault for both goals, is this right?

Carew is finished.

[olaftab]

Bye everyone. Off to sulk ...a miserable rest of weekend.

[petegoldring]

Have to say - I was no fan of Heskey, but he is a different player under GH. We were good when he was on the pitch - he was chasing back and challenging for balls - like having an extra midfielder when we needed it and was a superb outlet. Carew came on and did his usual sack of shit lumbering around and we lost the battle and quality. Petrov looked half a yard off the pace - but better than recent performances I thought. Perhaps taking him and Albrighton off 10 minutes earlier may have been a bit more beneficial - but hindsights a bitch.

All in all we deserved to get nothing out of the game based on the second half.

[gti2win]

Why not start with Ireland, if we are trying to move into an era of possession football seems strange to me leave our most creative player on the bench, me i would like to see him starting in midfield with RC and Petrov holding, ash back out on wing, downing or albrighton on other wing, heskey or gabby up front, with ireland pulling strings in midfield and linking up with the striker

[BannedUserIAT]

A really excellent first 30 mins. We had some nasty, we had some pace, we had no shortage of skill and an ability to play the ball on the deck. That Spurs were still running hard at the end of the game says to me that this first 30 mins wasn't a result of them being knackered from their midweek CL match, but that we were playing really really well! Heskey was, once again, bloody marvelous! Great running from Albrighton to sense the opportunity.

Spurs only seemed to really come into it just after the half-hour mark when we seemed to concede an easy 15-20 yards of the pitch. Coincidence that that was the time Heskey went off?

NRC did an excellent job on Spurs midfield, especially Modric who only dared to venture into the Villa half on (I think) 2 or 3 occasions. But, as usual, Petrov's fading on the hour meant NRC had twice the work to do and Spurs really had the best of the 2nd half.

Disappointed to see Carlos not in the starting line-up. Dunne left VDV for the first goal and for their winner. His distribution was ok but no way should he have been in there ahead of Cuellar.

What the fuck was going on in Carew's head today, I'll never know. His lack of any decent decision making and poor efforts on goal cost us 3 points today. Literally undoing all of the good work that went before he came on.
If he can be arsed to fucking well switch on, then he can fuck right off! I'm totally pissed off with him. I hope I never hear that "Bigger than me and you" song again. He no longer deserves it.

[Risso]

As good as Heskey has been recently, he's never far away from a niggley injury.