Article by Jack Cumming @jackcumming94Follow e-Spurs on Twitter
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So, last night was another semi-average display in the Europa League, however, there are some positives to be taken. Sadly there are also some negatives, some repetitive negatives that are starting to give my a**e a headache.
It was the usual setting, a Thursday evening, beer in one hand and dinner on the lap! Eager to enjoy the game with my father, I waited until 7pm before pressing play on the box! Sadly, just before I entered the recording I heard the presenters claim that there was plenty to do in the 2nd half, this didn’t bring me much faith for what I was about to watch. With this said I was still pleasantly surprised, I saw some good play and some good individual efforts, however we still lacked that killer edge. We looked like the school bully who had been called out by the quiet boy trained in MMA. We arrived confidently, we started confidently, but one smack in the face (in this case the very good home support!) and we were cowering in the corner praying for it to end. I think this comes down to lack of leaders on the pitch for this particular game. We had a great line up, however, when you're looking for someone to rally the troops I’m not too sure where you would look. Lloris perhaps? Vertonghen? You can't really expect the new boys to be the ones bossing the game.
I like the look of Fazio, excluding his miss-timing of one header, and Stambouli looks like the type of player we need. **I have noticed that auto-spell tries to turn his name to ‘Shambolic’, I hope not..** He wasn’t perfect, but what I liked was that if he lost the ball, you could bet your bottom dollar that he would run and run until he got it back, that’s the attitude I look for in a player. Fazio was strong, focused and looked like an intimidating player. I don’t know too much about him apart from he has 45 acceleration on the famous FIFA Franchises. I stuck him in my dream team in the hope he would deliver a nice performance and sure enough I got it. 13 points will do me nicely on my quest to win the 50+ league we have at work!
As I said, not a great game but not really any need to panic, I’m not a professional footballer for two reasons. 1, I’m not good enough. 2, I would not be able to play in a hostile environment like that and still perform. I take my hat off to the players that have to play in a game like that as it cannot be easy to keep your head. The opposition were dramatic and dirty and the referee was putty in their hands. All add to a tense atmosphere and performances drop at this point. I look forward to the next game and I am still enjoying the new lease of life in the players. I believe the Europa is our only real chance of securing Champions League football, so I want to see us go all out.
On to my negatives. Townsend, Naughton, Paulinho…also Lennon…..
How to describe my feelings towards Townsend as a player: I remember having £20 for doing well at school once and I decided I would buy a game for my Playstation. The game I purchased was called School Soccer and was a 5-a-side game of school football with funny characters. No matter how much I played this game to try and convince myself it was good, it was just awful. You could throw the ball into the goal from a throw-in and the keeper would also tip it in. Just shocking! No matter how much I tried to love that game it just never proved to be worth that £20. In a nutshell, I try so hard to like Townsend but the more I watch him the more I realise he is just Jermain Defoe on the Wing. Not bad if you score a lot, but he doesn’t.
Paulinho: He cost how much? He was supposed to be how good? OK, “he needs time to gel and get used to the game”. I’ve seen this guy at the Lane and he does have some special talents, I cant help but feel his mind is already at home on the sofa watching X-factor when I watch him.
Naughton: I look back to last year at the game against Benfica where we got hammered and remember shouting to Naughton from my relatively close seats “Do you even want to be here mate?!”. I cant say I’ve seen much change, but if he does want to be here I really would rather he leave. Yes, we had fun last night Kyle and you’re a great guy, but you just need to leave, its not you, actually yeah it is you, get out.
Lennon: I don’t want to get into the Lennon argument, but he wasn’t good enough. I remember thinking this guy was a world beater, and he was, so what the hell has happened. Answers on a postcard please.
Thoughts on the game? You worried yet? Who was your man of the match? Does Kane look like he knows what day it is? Where the hell was Vorm?!
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having left the captain and other vice captain at home it was clear that Lloris would be playing.Agree with most of what you say except for Naughton, I thought he had a pretty good game, and defensively a better option than Dier at the moment. I feel Kane will only be championship quality at best, certainly Soldado should be playing in front of him.
ReplyDeleteDidn't think we played too bad Thursday. Was the same old story tho, lack of fire power. And i agree, Kane is championship quality at best!..
ReplyDeleteTownsend and Naughton are just crap, lets face facts, as they are both not gonna get any better. As for Paulinho i had high hopes about the guy, but the more i see him play i`m sure he gets worse everytime,, the guy does absolutely nothing.
Prefer Lennon on the right wing.
given our lack of goals is there a case for playing Soldado as as part of an attacking three coming in from a flank.
ReplyDeleteObviously his goal return hasn't been what we wanted but I really think Soldado offers far more than Kane. His link up play has been excellent at times and towards the end of last season I could see him and Eriksen starting to combine well, and it looked promising. We should persevere with him.
ReplyDeleteNaughton didn't play bad but I think it was because Partizan attacked Davies constantly. Lennon and Townsend continue to frustrate me constantly......I can barely watch them. Paulinho just don't work hard enough and is not a natural athlete. Soldado definitely needs to be on the pitch for Europa matches, either as a 2nd striker or from the wing. He has talent!
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