Friday, May 11, 2007

Tottenham vs Blackburn: The Player Ratings

Robinson ~ The goal was pretty unstoppable, quiet otherwise 6.5

Dawson ~ Staunch is a good word. So,yes, staunch. 7.0

Chimbonda ~ Much more lively this time and that header nearly worked 7.0

King ~ Should he have picked up the man who scored? Fab otherwise 7.0

Gardner ~ Best I've seen him. Honestly, really good job 8.0 Nice one Tone!

Lennon ~ Had his moments but I guess we want him beating six and scoring every week 6.5

Malbranque ~ Crocked very early on ~ a mark would be unfair...

Ghaly ~ Hopefully sat in a Departures Lounge at Theifrow, the arrogant pup. -10

Tainio ~ Not up to his recent standards, unfortunately 6.0

Zokora ~ Beginning to show real command and focus. 7.5

Keane ~ Really got stuck in and lifted proceedings 7.5

Berbatov ~ Heavily guarded but some sublime touches 7.0

Defoe ~ The Anti Defoe Brigade will deride what was a vital goal. Let them 7.0

21 comments:

Anonymous said...

This was two points dropped - but with just 1 now required for UEFA cup football I think we are alll allowed to ask Jol the one key question he has been avoiding all season - which way do the stripes on your pyjamas go - up and down or side to side?

Anonymous said...

idiot

Anonymous said...

Do you think Ghaly is angling for a transfer, maybe he can go to Man city with Mido?
What was with the looping through ball into the box all night???
Keane to Berbatovs' feet, turn, low shot,save, defoe - GOAL.
Nearly did it again with keane at the end.
My god if zokora could pass, he'd be awesome.
I suggested it before, get keane to play midfield! It changed the game last night. Then Berbatov can push up..... some of chimbondas' crosses deserved something but there was no-one in the box!!!
Spurs at home to man city, everton away at chelsea - 5TH PLACE cmon!

Anonymous said...

The most negative Spurs manager since GGG and yesterday DESPITE Jols best efforts to lose this one we have managed a point.

His substitution of Ghaly stank when he had to put Huddlestone on instead of Malbranque and attack instead of playing defensive game in the first half.

For a while i thought Blackburn were the home team.We had to win this one and instead of playing his most creative players who like passing the ball Mr Jol decided to go with Tainio and Zokora in the middle and guess what we played like a bunch of donkeys in Blackburn,Everton,Bolton or even Reading shirt.

Usualy his only tactical knowhow seems to be switching Lennon from right to left but for a change he took a chance and in a way admitted his mistake in the first sub and Keane coming on changed the game he linked Berbatov with our midfield and we stopped playing in 60 yards up in the air and passed the ball on the floor Blackburn caved in.

Too difficult for Jol to be brave wasnt it?

And GHALY just get the hell out this club...get lost...

Anonymous said...

They say Keane/Berba is a great combo & they say the same of Defoe/Berba when JD gets a run. Very simply, Berba is the key - he's big, strong, sublime & special. He's the only shoe-in & ANY strike partner will prosper alongside him - a bit like Sheringham .

That leaves us with who's best to play off him - Keane or Defoe(?).
Keane - Scores a lot, busy, intelligent, gives a lot in general play. Not fast, will rarely beat marker for pace, only by trickery. Noticeably one-footed, therefore movement can be predictable.
Defoe - Scores a lot, very fast, very tricky, 2-footed, presence always unsettling to ANY defence. Great shooter, great finisher. Unlike Keane, can 'disappear' from a game for periods & less effective chasing back.

I think this means that Keane will always bag goals against the mid-tablers & strugglers. BUT his lack of pace & relative predictability means that he doesn't make much general impact over 90 mins against the top teams, despite his work-rate [yes I know he scored agin the Arse]. Defoe can & will score agin ANYONE. Tellingly though, he seems to worry the top defenders more than Keane. In a nutshell Keane will do the biz against the Villas & M'broughs, but Defoe at least puts you in with a chance against the Mancs, Chelskis, Pool & the Arse. This not about goals scored, it's about worrying & testing the opposition over 90 mins - goals will follow from this.

I want to keep them both, but if a choice must be made, we must ask where we want our club to be. If we're content with the odd UEFA placing, then Keane's absolutely fine. If we want to break into the magic quartet, you've got to risk using Defoe.

Peace Y'all

I-saw-Hendrix-play-Yid

Anonymous said...

just out of interest how can you rate taino any higher than a bloody 3. He was awfuland the best thing he didn in the first half was walk off down the tunnel. Everyoine 3 months ago was singing the praises of Huddlestone who i feel would have had a better inpact on the game, spesh with Jenas out injured. Tainio i feel has given us all he can and i think we look to replace him

COYS!

Anonymous said...

Anonymous 10:05....I completely agree. Tainio did nothing apart from one useful tackle. If he and Zokora are there to break up play, it didn't work. Also, the standard of passing (long and short) was woeful (from Zokora, Taino and Ghaly). If Sevilla were serious about interest in Zokora, let them have him. We need more than donkey workhorses to step up to the next level.

Anonymous said...

What are peoples thoughts on Keane's position last night? Was he attacking mid or support striker?

Whatever he was he should stay there with Berba and Defoe up front. 4-3-3 could be very strong i think.. especially if we have Huddlestone playing defensive mid for balance and then bringing that rocket launcher of a right foot up for knocked back corners/free kicks.

Anonymous said...

I-saw-Hendrix-play-Yid;
Great analysis. Big question is what happens when Berbatov is injured? Or leaves which seems inevitable? Irreplacable I fear at present. I am a big fan of both Keano and JD and just hope they can continue at the club next year. I enjoyed JD's run in the team up until the Emirates disaster (still don't know why he picked Keano over JD and dropped Hudd) and have enjoyed Keano's partnership recently. I agree with BMJ that we have 3 class strikers (Mido conspicuous by absence) to be used how he sees fit. However, I just don't think he always gets the best out of his resources.

Wendell;
Bring on the Hudd! Play him anywhere for now.....

And finally a propos Hossam Ghaly; Not really an EPL player who should move on. However, he has helped the cause (up until last night) with blood and guts and a few goals and assists. What he did with his shirt is unforgiveable but he was goaded by his own fans which must be puzzling for a player who gives his best. I'm not happy about the whole incident and people need to have a look at themselves on both sides. We want players to come to WHL because they hear it's a good place to play, this won't help. Saying that, he really had one last night but blame should ultimately go to BMJ. Maybe on Sunday the Hudd might get a run out. Overall, I don't care as long as we get at least a point for UEFA Cup. Fingers crossed......

Anonymous said...

Just seen the photo of the new kits (4 of them!) on Topspurs site. Good news for me is we have an all white strip and an all yellow strip! Yellow socks are back! Also a very navy blue strip and the crappy Rovers kit that Keano is modelling. Let's hope the all white is not just a European kit but our home kit and the Rovers shirt is a commemorative shirt....

Anonymous said...

9.09

Some good points but I have to disagree with the comment that JD is very fast. He creates that illusion just as much as Berbatov looks slow on the ball..but isn't.

JD had too many blind runs towards the corner flag last night and couldn't break through the (admittly gritty) Blackburn defence.

I feel that Berbatov has a better game up front with Keane than JD as there pair seem to have more of an awareness for each other, where as JD is more of selfish player (which is more of a trait of a poacher type striker)

Ghaly shouldn't have chucked the shirt but those their last should NEVER boo their own player whilst on the pitch, it shows the so called fickleness that we are tarred with and also demoralises the rest of the players.

Anonymous said...

http://www.topspurs.com/newsnow/spurskit0708.htm

Are we allowed to post links?

Anyway is that "very Navy Blue" or Black? Poor lighting if that´s a shade of Blue!!! I´m hoping it´s Blue... just looks too Black in that pic.

Anonymous said...

check out the official new kit

http://www.topspurs.com/spurskit0708.htm

COYS

Anonymous said...

It's the Wikipeadia folks:

"Berbatov admitted to be drawn to a life of crime at an early age, and admitted if it wasn't for football it is possible he may have been sucked into Bulgaria's dark underworld".

Well, can he confirm that? I'm going to get my gun...

Anonymous said...

On the striker debate, agree we are lucky to have the luxury of 3 top quality strikers. However it is plain to see that Keane sacrifices a bit of glory to drop back and get his team mates involved and still scores goals and although slower in pace, is intelligent enough to read Berba's one touch link up passes.

Berba is definately a top 4 "champions league" class forward. To really put us up with the top 4 I feel we would need to sign a striker on par with him who could paly alongside him. I have mentioned Jan Klaas Huntelaar (loads of goals). But if that is not possible, then the Darren Bent rumours being touted could be a great compromise. Bent seems to have a more of a powerful presence too and feel he could link well with Keane and possible Defoe if Berba was injured. However if he did come in and do well, may create a situation where Defoe would become 4th choice striker and that may finally push defoe to leave, so we may be left with 3 strikers again anyway!...tricky situation. However you could say what's not broken don't need fixing.

EL said...

Some interesting posts, good stuff.

I reckon Keane does a better job than anyone at the club in the playmaker roll. He's the only player I see that can put a short, incisive ball through a defence, to the feet of one of our strikers in the box. Huddlestone has the ability except that he's best deployed at the back of midfield. Lennon's capable of it but is clearly best of the right. Why can't Jenas regularly do that? It's supposed to be his job isn't it? I think we are in dire need of a playmaker of quality and consistancy. about 10 to 15 mils worth. Can't see how we're going to take a step forward next season without one unless Taraabt steps up or we get a great left winger and all our penetration goes through either wing.

Just a thought.

5th place please.

Go on the Spurs!

Anonymous said...

El,
Instead of fixing things that ain't broken, definately agree we need more playmaker/flair type players both in midfield and the wings. As when either of Berba, Keane or Lennon is missing, we seem to suffer as there is little other options who provide creativity as consistently as these 3 players. My feeling is we need at least 2 more of these type of players in the squad before we're able to consistently be a top 4 team. Sadly thats the difference between us and the Arse as they have at least 5 or 6 flair players that link up play well on a consistent basis. The question is who would come in and do this. Midfield - Schneider? Van Der Vaart? Wings - Petrov? Ribery? Nasri? Quaresma? Robben?, depends on who would join us and take a chance that we'll be a champions league team soon like Berba has done.

Anonymous said...

Berba Vader strikes again! Uau, the dark side in Bulgaria. That is news!


This isn't:
if he's a top 4 striker, what's he doing in Spurs? dddaaahhhhh!!!!

Anonymous said...

Personally, I dont want too many signings in the summer. Would rather consolidate. Mido is off, so a 4th striker is needed - Bent seems a likely option. Centre half is touted, as is left wing. I would rather see the players we do have perform to their full potential, rather than 20 in 20 out which we seem to have done over the past few seasons. And, being controversial, Lennon is in the team on reputation alone - performing well below par at the moment. I'd love him to make me eat my words come Sunday. COYS. 5th is for the taking.

EL said...

No offence dannyboy but I reckon we've seen most of our midfields' full potential aside from Taraaaabt, THUD & Lennon.

What's Berby doing at Spurs if he's a top 4 player? Presumably taking on the challenge most top players don't have the character for ie: trying to gain the satisfaction of helping to create a top 4 side, as opposed to simply walking into one. He wants to try to make greatness rather than having it handed to him ready-made. A true GOD among men.

Sorry fellas, one too many Marston's.

Anonymous said...

Dannyboy, no one mentioned 20 in and 20 out son!

1 x a midfielder with creativity and 1 x a left winger with flair will do for me.

If we are being really picky you gotta swap Mido for some decent backup. We cant forget left back, either of Bale/Baines/Taylor.

And looks like we are about to sign this Kaboul as centre back cover.

Leaves just one top class midfield general/leader to top it off and we would be sorted.

See thats 6 not 20!

In: Huntelaar or Bent (striker),
Petrov (winger),
Scneider (mid playmaker),
Kaboul (CB),
Bale or Baines or Taylor (LB),
and a new Gerrard/Roy Keane type midfield player that commoli will find...:)

Bit of squad trimming too in the shape of Mido, Ghaly, Murphy, Gardner and I am afraid maybe Tainio (injury prone)too. That would be 5 out leaving a total squad increase of 1 player which is fair enough imo.

Lets face it, we are not a top 4 side yet and not far off. But it's imperative we continue to improve. Who ever we got to bring in has to be top quality only. And the 5 I mentioned that could leave would not be missed tooooo much.

Im not asking for tooooo much am I?