Tottenham Hotspur v Aston Villa Post-Match Thread

[UsualSuspect]

Last night was on par with performances from our relegation season

No tactics, no hunger, no leadership, no anything

That wanker AM was urging the players on at 86 mins, do do what exactly?

We will be in the bottom 6 come January and Swansea is going to be tough, they like to play football and knock the ball around so I fully expect us to have darren bent in right midfield and bannan at right back

[Clampy]

His game plan last night was fine, but he got his team selection very very wrong. He could have gone with the same back four, gone with a 5 man midfield with Petrov, Bannan and Herd (on the right hand side of the three to help protect the full back when needed). Gabby and N'Zogbia out wide and Bent up top. We might have still lost the game. but we might have created a few more chances.

Instead it was defend and give the ball to Gabby to run at them. Not good.

[Legion]

Match Report (Auntie)

[Legion]

Match Report (Pravda)

[Legion]

The view from McLeish

[oldtimernow]

Given Herd Cuellar and Dunne were the only ones to have put in a reasonable shift last night...

the number of times the ball was passed back to cleared upfield for King to win it in the air was mind numbing

No thought of playing it from the back and building up a patient move through a midfield where admittedly it will be lost most likely but at least it might have improved our possession statistics.

Or is the mentality just hoof it clear and its not my fault....utter rubbish..

Gabby was most frustrated and when we had three forwards all within 3 feet of each other , that was on the touch line, well that summed it up for me ......headless chickens have more brains

[oldtimernow]

Last night was on par with performances from our relegation season

No tactics, no hunger, no leadership, no anything

That wanker AM was urging the players on at 86 mins, do do what exactly?

We will be in the bottom 6 come January and Swansea is going to be tough, they like to play football and knock the ball around so I fully expect us to have darren bent in right midfield and bannan at right back

Surely you mean Bannan upfront and Bent at right back?

[VillaAlways]

If the likes of Norwich and Swansea believe they can compete with Man U Why the hell can't we compete with Spurs.Dark,dark days.

[nick harper]

Given Herd Cuellar and Dunne were the only ones to have put in a reasonable shift last night...

the number of times the ball was passed back to cleared upfield for King to win it in the air was mind numbing

No thought of playing it from the back and building up a patient move through a midfield where admittedly it will be lost most likely but at least it might have improved our possession statistics.

Or is the mentality just hoof it clear and its not my fault....utter rubbish..

Gabby was most frustrated and when we had three forwards all within 3 feet of each other , that was on the touch line, well that summed it up for me ......headless chickens have more brains

Spurs had a hunger to win the ball back that we failed to show throughout the game. That was clearly their game plan as they knew it would just get knocked long.

Lack of ability to retain the ball from the back is a weakness other teams have picked up on.

Despite some of the disasters last season, I'm beginning to pine for Houllier's brand of football. At least he tried to ensure the team passed to each other and picked players to do that.

[UsualSuspect]

Last night was on par with performances from our relegation season

No tactics, no hunger, no leadership, no anything

That wanker AM was urging the players on at 86 mins, do do what exactly?

We will be in the bottom 6 come January and Swansea is going to be tough, they like to play football and knock the ball around so I fully expect us to have darren bent in right midfield and bannan at right back

Surely you mean Bannan upfront and Bent at right back?

of course what was i thinking!

I mean playing a player in midfield who isn't a midfielder and leaving your recognised midfielders at home or on the bench would just be stupid....

[lordmcgrath5]

Didn't see it, just listened to it. Like the Man City game, it all sounded grimly predictable.

One thing that did occur to me: we didn't play like that at Spurs under MON. They always knew they had a game on against his teams. Just a thought.

[UsualSuspect]

Quote from AM:

"We played Carlos and Alan on the right. I just wanted to tighten things up a bit and I still think that was the right thing to do"


It's going to be a long long season

[Small Rodent]

So, McLeish has his "Moscow" 2 months ahead of Houllier's? Not good.

As I said earlier, looking above us in the league, the only team that is a surprise is Newcastle, so we're sort of where I expected. Just crapper.

If this continues through the season, bye bye crowds, bye bye Bent and Gabby.

[john e]

turning points -

MON - Signing of Harewood

Houllier - Liverpool love in

A Mcliesh - Away at Spurs

we saw the future of football under AM last night, i've been hoping with better players that he had at Blues he might be a bit more positive, but it was all blown away for me last night

 that was the nightmare sinario all in one match, i  cant even be bothered to call for his head as i know it would be totaly futile.

[Concrete John]

I'm as dismayed as everyone, but the anger on here seems to be in regards to the performance/team selection and not the result, so it's hardly the usual H&V over-reaction at a loss.

To me, the Hutton thing just sent the wrong message out to both our team and theirs.  It said "Spurs will attack and we'll be defending", so is it any surprise that's what happened?  The annoying thing is that this was a measure to negate Bale, yet VDV is their main threat, so if we're going to play a defender in midfield then why not Clark?

The manager got it tactically wrong, as he did against WBA, so lets hope for a similar response that what we saw after that at Sunderland and home to Norwich.