Back from the Game / Pub

[Royal & Ancient]

Yes it was a Lancaster. We could have used some of its firepower on the pitch yesterday.
Thoroughly outclassed by a team who were allowed to show off their skills which, even to the most biased of us, were a delight to watch up close. Was there even a yellow card? More an exhibition match for them methinks. B.McD. will really have to work to find some positives. Journeymen are just not good enough at this level. Perhaps he should start with the Captain who seemed completely disinterested in what was happening to his team! On this showing its going to be a long season.

[Royal Tezza]

Agree with all the people commentating on the formation. The team lacks leadership and belief, desperately need Jason Roberts back for the mentality he brings to the team if not his footballing qualities.

I was considering myself lucky to get a ticket for this one having got on the late release tickets up in the Gods of the West Upper/South corner. I'm not anymore, as I was surrounded by absolute oxf*rd. A Swindon fan (?) who continually took the piss, some shocking comments from people who obviously don't spend many afternoons at the football, several obvious Tottenham fans ( a good few of which celebrated the goals/FT) and worst of all, some monstrous uber-bellend (also a Spurs fan I suspect) who filmed every Tottenham setpiece and chance on an IPAD. I always enjoy fan footage from here, but who brings something like that to a football match honestly? I'd rather we got 18,000 every week than have to endure sitting next to such insufferable twats. But I guess that's the Premier League for you. Rant over.

[West Stand Man]

Lpots to learn.

The thing that stood out for me was how well Spurs used their wingers. We were setting McCleary and McAnuff up one on one with their full backs. Inevitably that resulted in a lot of tackls being made and defenders winning them.

Spurs, on the other hand used good interpassing to get their wide men in behind us before they needed to display on the ball skills. The Gyllfi pass for the buyild up to the first goal is a classic example but they did it constantly. The reason that Harte was exposed was becuase they didn't let him posiiton himslef to counter a running winger, he was trying to outpace Lennon when chasing into space to collect the ball. Any full back would have struggled.

[Dave the rave]

Clueless and sloppy were my overiding thoughts watching the first half.
I'm going to, optimistically, put that down to the long break.

Not sure what our gameplan was today. If it was to try and nullify Spurs then it failed because we were second best to everything.
And it can't have been to have a go because, well, you saw for yourselves. We didn't.
Nor could it have been to keep possession.

Worrying.

[melonhead]

worst home performance since early last season.

very sloppy, slow and lethargic. & gave too much respect and time to spurs.
1 up front tactics were wrong at home
dont think they were that good. if we had played like we did for the first half of the second half we'd have had a chance there imo.
as it was they could have scored 8, without getting out of 2nd gear. they were defensively shaky, and if we'd have got at them more, by using pace against their high line we would have created alot of chances.


mcarthy- 6 - ok, but no better than feds imo, infected by the sloppiness of the whole team, and a couple of horrific distribution errors.
harte- 3 - defensively all over the place, outpaced(understandably) time and again, and delivered nothing going forward, or from set plays
pearce 7- dealt well with what was thrown at him
gorkss- 6- pretty solid- but was somehow outmuscled by defoe(!) for the 3rd
gunter- 6 ok
mcanuff - 5 - poor, but was hampered by worrying about harte all game
mcleary- 6 - his worst game so far, poor delivery after some good approach play
karacan- 6 ran around alot, a few decent passes, was the only one in the first half who tried to harry the spurs midfield
leigertwood - 6 - good and bad- some great blocks and tackles, but often slow to get at them, and let too many peopl waltz past him
guthrie- 6 always wanting the ball, did some good things with it, but too often outmuscled, and some poor passing- i like his passion, but moaning and waving your arms alot is just annoying
pog- 6 - ok, but his head dropped, and he fell over way too easily

ALF - 8 best player for us when he came on, changed the game with his running the channels, and constant irritating of the spurs defence
kanu- 7 scored, worked hard with ALF to disrupt the spurs play and get at them
hunt - 7 as above

im blaming the break, and tactics.if we played as we did Vs stoke and chelsea, it would have been a different game

crowd were appalling, even before we started playing shit

[Compo's Hat]

Our crossing part of the game really needs to improve based on yesterday.

[Ian Royal]

Our crossing part of the game really needs to improve based on yesterday.

That certainly shows too many pointless passes amongst the back 5 or 6 getting us absolutely no space to move up the pitch with, followed by hopeful punts up the field once we gave up / got pressed back to McCarthy.

[Hoop Blah]

Is it my eyes or have Opta completely missed the cross for Robson-Kanu's goal as an assist?

I wouldn't say that those successful passes are a waste of time either. Keeping the ball when the opposition is outplaying you is very important and something we need desperately need to improve on if we want to compete more at this level.

[Ian Royal]

Is it my eyes or have Opta completely missed the cross for Robson-Kanu's goal as an assist?

I wouldn't say that those successful passes are a waste of time either. Keeping the ball when the opposition is outplaying you is very important and something we need desperately need to improve on if we want to compete more at this level.

It was more a comment on the passes between the back four that went nowhere, with them pressed back further until McCarthy picks it up, hoofing it forward and losing it.

I think there was very little retaining possession to take the sting out of Spurs, and much more just having no clue what to do with the ball

[Millsy]

Oh and we NEED a left back who can actually keep up with somebody. Harte got rinsed by the pass for the 1st goal. He will be a weak link this season coming up against Sinclair, Nani, Lennon etc

Agree 100%

[southbank1871]

Did anyone see Gary Neville’s analysis last night. Rather than blaming Harte as such, it was the midfield who he held more culpable, especially McAnuff and McClearly for Bale’s goal. It was pure laziness and ball watching.

[BR2]

Did anyone see Gary Neville’s analysis last night. Rather than blaming Harte as such, it was the midfield who he held more culpable, especially McAnuff and McClearly for Bale’s goal. It was pure laziness and ball watching.

Or is that because he is part of the old full-backs union?

[southbank1871]

Yeah fair point actually!

[pea]

The midfield really let us down, the first goal aside our defence kept a pretty good line and got back quickly when they needed to. As soon as we took Karacan off we had noone chasing back from midfield and so they got a lot of chances where they could pull the ball back to the edge of the area and we had noone challenging them. Midfield simply didn't perform their defensive role well enough second half.

[HoneyRoastHoax]

Bring back Obita

[E. Andrew]

im blaming the break, and tactics.if we played as we did Vs stoke and chelsea, it would have been a different game

Don't want to think I'm just coming up with excuses for them, but I have to agree. We put far too little pressure on the ball, and when spurs got the ball to the end line before crossing it, the back 4+ looked completely confused.

[Simon's Church]

Some class defending here:

[Maguire]

Some class defending here:

[cmonurz]

Some class defending here:

Midfield not covering themselves in glory.

And what is Ian Harte doing?

[Millsy]

Some class defending here:

at Reading