Friday, July 13, 2007

Tottenham New Boys Done Good



St Pat's Away.

Kaboul was awesome.

As was, naturally enough, awesome Dawson.

But first things first.
Kaboul looks like an exciting purchase. He has height, power and talent a plenty. I honestly didn't see him put a foot wrong. His heading and passing were spot on and the quality of his tackling stood out.

Gardner had a good game but it was the second half combination of Dawson and Kaboul that gave real food for thought.


Elsewhere.... Murphy was awful. I don't particularly like jumping on the 'Let's gett'im!' bandwagon when players start to slide, but Murphy was notable only for his poor passing and looking decidedly sweatier than everyone else. St Pat's weren't brilliant but they were too much for him and he has to go.

Tarabt I see looking around on gets favourable mentions, the Irish Sun made him MOTM. Sorry folks, but not on my shift. His selfish play deprived Bent & Keane endlessly. And his laboured stepover routines would've been more at home on The Benny Hill Show. Even Joe Cole looks smoother than our lad.


Bale had an okay first half but really began to shine in the second. Up and down the wing all night. One spot kick chance which sadly didn't live up to his you tube displays, but an endearing performance marked by intelligent play and excellent tackling.
Zokora too had a better second half once we were shed of Murphy and I can report I am still a huge Zokora fan wanting more.

Steed Malbranque was fantastic from start to finish. Quality play.

Bent and Keane looked alright. Nothing more. Keane held the ball up well enough but St Pat's had about three men on Bent and nothing clear cut really evolved for him. Robbie's goal was soft enough and more a credit to green defending.

Berbatov made a clean run off the Spurs coach with his walkman on and followed this up with few well placed text messages on his mobile. Jenas looked comfortable playing a little deeper to his left exercising close control over his iPod.

33 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't give Taarabt too much stick for step overs Harry, it was a warm up game. And remember how much everyone moaned at Ronaldo for that when he 1st came to England ...

Unknown said...

I was at the match too. I agree with almost all your comments - particularly about the dissappoitning Tarrabt, cant believe he was MOTM!! Maybe I expected too much from him, but he looked like Oldhams answer to Ronaldo. I thought Keane was the best attacking player on the pitch by a country mile. Bent was ok, but his off the ball movement and the space it creates was excellent. Thought Malbranque held onto the ball a bit too much. Kaboul could be the best purchase of the summer. Looked assured strong and composed

Anonymous said...

Great news about Kaboul, especially given that him and Dawson will likely be playing 75% of the matches together.

Your comment on Taarabt is so far away from any others I have read that I would like its negativity confirmed by a second opinion.

Even if you are right how dare you spoil our dreams of having unearthed a major talent.

COYS said...

Just read on antother blog -

Sagna - Le Arse have signed Serena Williams

Had to share this one, although I wish I had thought of it first

COYS

Anonymous said...

tosh! were u watching a different game?? have you ever played football and understand watch a PRE yes PRE season friendly is all about.
Nothing but a waste of my time reading a drivvle stained match review!!

Harry Hotspur said...

3.08

Calm down, I wasn't calling for him to be deported.

Anonymous said...

harry, you alrite treacle elmo here.

the last paragraph about berbatov and jenas made me chuckle! hehe

Anonymous said...

i was at the stevenage game on saturday and thought taarabts play was very selfish he needs to let go of the ball much earlier if he is to feed the strikers with plenty of chances but he did look hungry and dangerous at times but he sometimes goes to wide and ends up losing the ball

DBsKnees said...

Calm down dear - it's only a commercial.

I think placing emphasis on Taarabt to be finished product and to be this all-singing, all-dancing player at the age of 17 is a tad unfair..

As others say - Ronaldo was raw around the edges at that age - and let us hope that Jol gives Taarabt enough of a sniff (a la Lennon) to develop and move (hopefully quickly) up the learning curve.

Anonymous said...

Not too convinced on your assessments of Taraabt and Bale.
Taraabt is still very young and though it's true that he's very selfish, he's also extremely gifted, pacey and quite strong for his age. He could turn out to be a big player for the future - and could end up worse than Joe Cole...Bale had a terrible first half. He gave away possession and looked quite shaky before getting injured

Anonymous said...

I was also at the match last night and share your praise/awe of Kabouls performance-he looks like a real prospect.

I disagree with your comments about Bent and particularily robbie Keane. The latter looked really sharp-the rest he had not playing international games has stood to him and i thought everything went through Keane.

Bent had a few decent chances and linked up well with robbie on a few occasions.

Taarabt is very raw-but has incredible potential! Forget the comparisons with CR i believe he could devlop into the type of Player Zidane was. He's a real prospect that will like it or not see a lot of Game time this season. Definitely not man of the match last night though!

One things for certain we will not concede anything like the amount of Goals in 07/08 as we did last year! Younes one every header he competed for and that will be a real asset particularily at set pieces!!!

Unknown said...

Harry, Thanks for the report. Take no notice of the negative posts, it's your opinion on the match. It's great to hear your concerns regarding our rising stars.

Kepp uo the good work fella. Like I say, if the other tossers don;t like what you write, they can always fuck off elsewhere. They say you waste their time.....so why waste more time writing about it!

Harry Hotspur said...

elmo mate!

get off this site at once... it's only for front pagers convinced we're goona do the treble..

;)

Harry Hotspur said...

4.15 - Bale's 1st haolf was iffy enough, 9And I was sat feckin miles away)

But 2nd half he was very good. And I was within spitting distance.

I refrained of course.

Anonymous said...

good point made about ronaldo there (as a comparisson with Taarabt). When he first came to prem, he was a one-trick pony with his stepovers. Taarabt is at the same kind of age as Crissy was then, and i see a lot of similarity in the way they play from the 35minutes ha appeared for us last year. Hopefully he'll come good with some first team appearences this season!

The signing of Kaboul is just amazing. I saw a bit of him on late night channel 5 french league last season. At the time he reminded me of a French Thudd - but its great to hear he's started well for us.

Nice to hear Steed had a good game aswell - i think he's quite an undervalued member of our team to a lot of spurs fans - and undeservedly so.

Danny Murphy.... you said enough!

keep up the good work lads!

Anonymous said...

I went to the game and the players that shone were:-
Kaboul - excellent mountain of a player you have to be very quick to get past him. he looks as if he should be playing rubgy.
Taarabt - most creative player on the pitch, yes he was selfish when you have no-one moving into space or catching upto you what else do you do. Very exciting player looks very heavy for 17!!
Keane - played well but lacked speed in the game.
Malbranque was awful lacked pace and any sign of invention on the right hand side. Murphy apart from his pass to Keane to score the goal was awful. He lacked vision, passing overall was poor and we have better players who can play in the mifield centre role. Jenas!!
Bent - Tried to hard and missed a couple of good goal scoring opportunitys with poor shots. Only Bale tried to use his pace as an offensive which in time will give as another option. Gardner - played well but as usual up for corners but he targets people in the stand rather than the goal.
Rocha played well enough but can never replace Chimbonda. The first players that came on in the second half killed the game as we dominated the first half. Tarrabt is awesome lose some weight and he will be our Henry in time.

Anonymous said...

taarabt is young hungry eager to impress,he had a couple of good shots saved a great dribble to the by line and cutback which should have been tapped in.def best player 1st half..also murphys ball to keane for the goal was class,kaboul looks like an animal,excellent purchase i thought malbrange was ok gives the ball away too much for me..anyway 2 unbeaten bring on the kaisers cant wait...YID ARMY

Anonymous said...

Latest from the horse's mouth...

Westham will retain Teves...confirmed!.
Man U will comeback for Berbatov with a significant cash (one single payment!)offer...much higher than the proposed cash for Teves

Anonymous said...

I think Jol should go, he obviousl hasnt got the best out of taarabt if what you say is true, bent is a waste of money, not being able to score against a very poor team on reputation. murphy must go, as must jeans for not getting on the pitch. taarabt being motm, we must play him every game now as he is 19 and old enough

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLQ8rEeCbR4 View last nights goal in st.pat

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLQ8rEeCbR4 last night's goal at st.pat

Anonymous said...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BLQ8rEeCbR4

Anonymous said...

Was at the game...that kaboul really looks the part granted it was poor opposition but he never put a foot wrong and looks a right prospect. Tarrabt does hold the ball a bit too long but is young and hopefully will mature into a real star, that said I still think we need a quality left side player,aka pederson.Was sitting beside spurs dugout and berbatov looked totally disintersested probably due to unimportance of game. Downside- murphy was poor despite setting up goal, wasnt too impressed by malbranque either despite plenty of effort and although bale had poor first half he improved significantly in 2nd half.Zokora had solid game, rocha was impressive too and could turn out to be great utility signing as he looks like he could play across the whole back 4. Roll on the premiership with hopefully this boteng and a left winger leaving us in a strong position to push for top 4 finish

Anonymous said...

I thought Taarabt was the only good thing in a boring game to be honest. Yes he was greedy but the game needed it the opposiston was average he got the ball and ran through them trying to please the crowd which is fair enough. Iam gonna wait to watch the SA games wen he plays left wiv the big boys then place judgement on him properly but looked better than everyone except Kaboul who is very strong and wat a great sliding tackles perfect timing. Tarrabt for Jenas lol

Anonymous said...

Looks like Harry is a Taarabt hater. But remember the West Ham game last season when it counted ???
Also I ain't no fan of Murphy but HH said he's passing was awful yet he managed to assist Keane with the goal???

I think HH and many Spurs fans are bored this summer(and the last 10)and all this over analysis about buying a leftie is getting boring. I hope Jol doesn't buy a leftie to piss all the premature ejaculation fans off.

Harry Hotspur said...

2.36
Still maintain he was class against Cheatski...

But I insist when he meets them again in a 1st team shirt (as he ought to) he shows brains as well as courage.

8.03
Pick a name mate, good review. Put your name to it... This is HH. Quality is always welcome.

10.17
That's right. I hate Taarabt. I want him dead.

10.13
Jenas replaced? Dannyboy!!!!!!!!!

Anonymous said...

Taarabt has the potential to be our Fabregas.A big ask ? Time will tell.

The 10 mins he played against West Ham, you can run througn Youtube time again, the movement the vision,the dynamism, the skills it's nothing we have seen before.

Even Berbatov couldn't do some of the things this boy can do.Watch my words, nurtured properly,the boy is unstoppable.

Remeber both Chelsea and Arsenal were interested in him before, maybe they are so distracted that let go obe of these gems through their net.Just as was for Berbatov.

Anonymous said...

6:14
Please, stop it, it's enough. Or explain to us why he didn't go before. If Man U were willing to pay 30 m for Tevez and the same for Berba , why didn't Berba go?

s70boj said...

Morning all!! Ive just watched Taarabts highlights from the St. pats game on YouTube. I think it could go either way with him. He is obviously a very talent kid, but I think the important factor is how Jol and his staff manage him.

On a different issue, is there anyone out there who is worried by this splurge of spending by the Spurs board? This, potentially, could be one of Spurs' most important seasons in recent history, but I am a bit worried where all this money has come from. We've spent around £30m, this summer, not includind the proposed £5m for KP Boateng. Where has it all come from. It cant all be from the sale of Carrick, as £8m was immediatly spend on Zakora.

Im worried that the board may be using the club as collateral against heavy borrowing, in pursuit of Champions' League football. If that was the case, Spurs would need a consistent presence in the competition over 4 or 5 years, not just a one-off. Look what happened to Leeds, and they reached the semi's!!

Personally, I would rather us get there on merit, rather than via the cash point, particularly if failure to reache the competition means that, financially, the club is set back 5 years. I could give you a list as long as my arm of the players that would need to be sold to pay for the debts that the CL would cater for!

What do you guys think?? It would be nice to hear from some other Yids! COYS!!

Anonymous said...

how very dare anyone suggesting taarabt replacing jenas! how dare anyone suggest jenas be replaced, full stop. big big season for him coming, just you watch.
i reckon jol wants to play taarabt and lennon on the wings, hence no left wing bids yet. well, thats my opinion.

roll on the start of the season; kaboul v drogba - mouth watering!!!

COYS

Anonymous said...

im not sure you got it right about taarabt Harry he seemed to be involved in most of our good play at stevenage and again in Dublin and although i agree that Murphy should go he DID set up our only goal so not all of his passing can be as bad as you seem to be making out

Harry Hotspur said...

Perhaps I should clarify...

I thought Taarbet executed some naff stepovers and fluffed the timing on passes to Bent etc in the game against St Pat's...


It was afterall a friendly and a friendly friendly at that.


I wasn't suggesting he gave up playing football.

EL said...

An early doors friendly in Ireland and people are guaging the pros & cons of players for the coming season??!!!

Oh please, is this your first season?

The S. Africa tour and Torino game might tell you something but even that's doubtful.

Prediction for all the Jenas fans out there: He'll be a bench player by the 2008/2009 season if he's at Spurs at all.

Nice work Harry.