Monday, November 20, 2006

What a Kerfuffle - Blackburn Vs Tottenham

It's all over bar the shouting. Which at this rate should be Boxing Day. 2008.

First up, Tugay's goal was a massive strike and aside from how it was struck, it was travelling a little under 70mph, so Robinson is one of the few to walk away with his chin up tonight.

Then there was the first (eventual) sending off and penalty. It was absobleedinlutely a penalty, but the red card was really excessive.

Ghaly Part I : The second of the teatime reds was generated largely from Phil Dowd seeking to make amends for his first. Sure, when Ghaly jumps up there's plenty of elbow on show, but the slo mo reveals that Ghaly twists and ultimately peaks with his back to Gray and the killer blow wasn't delivered.

Ghaly Part II : More sloppy passing. He was the weakest link against the champions two weeks ago and the pace of the Premiership demands more than he delivered again today.

The Defoe critics will emphasise it was a penalty. It was against a goalie who's already stopped 3 this season! Defoe's subbing was daft. He was chasing back well for once and his blood was up after beating Friedel.

Jol used his subs too late AGAIN and I would have preferred Keane for Mido and Murphy for Ghaly. Keane's hatrick midweek was pretty shambolic, but he ought to have started while he still had the flavour.

Phil Dowd will now be in for a kicking only marginally smaller than the one Graham Poll received. And Tottenham skulk away after another volatile display of refereeing. Come on you Spurs, let's get some goals in and distance ourselves from the 'lucky dip' of Premiership referees.

9 comments:

Anonymous said...

we mising chimbonda e lot. lee is cofrap in right.ecoto not good in of.so we nead e left back

Anonymous said...

The two penalties in the last two games have come from very well timed runs from Ghaly. Yes he is giving the ball away at the moment but he needs to be persevered with. Zokora needs a long rest. He does not look over his malaria problem and Jol is wrong to keep playing him. Malbranque needs a run in the team whilst Jenas is out.

Biggest worry for me is the continued failure to close people down. Yes great strike by Tugay but nobody near him (same for Barry, Makele, Risse, Campo, the list is endless.

Also all this hype about how well off we are for strikers but the stats do not show it. None of the permutations seem to gel properly. Maybe try Mido and Berbatov with Keane dropping off wide left a la Chelsea? Defoe needs a fresh challenge.

Anonymous said...

crisis? what crisis?

Anonymous said...

anon 7.45
"Defoe needs a fresh challenge"

Don't we all, I plan to make mine a 6' blonde sort with big brown eyes.

bob said...

agree with a lot you said, and am getting really frustrated with Jols team selection but especially poor use of substitutions when they are clearly required.

Davids was actually playing pretty well for once certainly much better than ghaly who was pretty awful (despite his penalty winning contribution) ?malbranque/murphy for ghaly = sub no1.

Sub 2 =berbatov for mido. Mido was awful missing couple great chances late first half + lucky not to b sent off. should not have come out for the second half.

we were lucky to come away with point and im getting increasingly worried about our away form. We need a win- its nearly december for gods sake. Intertoto cup here we come (if we're lucky)!

bob said...

Ps cusop: huddlestone was pretty good, still has a lot to learn but some absolutely sublime passing including superb freekick (with offside goal), but also cut open the defence with couple superb passes. Also some good defensive work. But for him i think we would have looked even less devoid of quality than we did. ghaly on the other hand does the occasional good thing but is extremely wasteful of possession and should not be in squad in my opinion

jan said...

cusop, you're off your head. judging by the time of your post i can only assume you were under the influence of some form of 'stimulant'? huddlestone & zokora (baring last week) get better and better. that was a good point against a side that battled for everything.

Anonymous said...

Being objective I think we were the better side if you consider that Blackburn did not have one chance - NOT ONE. Tugay hit the goal of the season (standard against Spurs) and Mido missed a number of half chances. I like Martin Jol but I have to say my biggest complaint is his tactical naivety. Defoe played well and was our biggest threat and he takes him off leaving the out of sorts Mido on!! Same goes for Davids...Amazing. MJ didn't really know what to do once we had a numerical advantage and he made that even more clear post match with comments like "well we had a spare player who was the left back -we could have taken him off for Murphy but felt it would make no difference" - he then also said "B'Burn didn't help with the way they played by taking off a striker so it was difficult"... Err hello isn't that what all teams that go down to 10 men do... take off one of their attacking players?? I am more than a little concerned about MJ and his late substitutions too - I agree with others that Keane should have (if not started) come on for Mido and Murphy for Lee.

Anonymous said...

BMJ's subs WERE to late & wrong.