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Ratings v WBA

Different people will have different expectations and perspectives.
If Verthongen's performance deserved a 5 today while the other defenders get a 7, what on earth do you expect from the guy? I can claim that Friedel deserved a 1/10 but I'm gonna be slated for it because it's a ridiciculous fudging claim and people are allowed to tell me just that.
 
I thought Verts looked incredibly uncomfortable when the tempo went up and he got closed down a lot quicker.

Long was making him work very hard, so I had the impression he still had a fair bit of adjusting to do.

He couldnt handle Lukaku at all (though I doubt he will be the last this season, Lukaku looked like a monster).

I loved his attitude, I loved his ability on the ball, I loved that he didnt hide - but I think it will be a while before we see the "real" Vertonghen for Spurs, he has a lot to get used to
 
I will never take offence at anything anyone on this forum says to me. As far as I'm concerned, none of you are real people, you're just bits of text on my screen, so you can tell me to fudge off all you like. if you disagree with my opinion. I will say that I agree with this:

I thought Verts looked incredibly uncomfortable when the tempo went up and he got closed down a lot quicker.

Long was making him work very hard, so I had the impression he still had a fair bit of adjusting to do.

He couldnt handle Lukaku at all (though I doubt he will be the last this season, Lukaku looked like a monster).

I loved his attitude, I loved his ability on the ball, I loved that he didnt hide - but I think it will be a while before we see the "real" Vertonghen for Spurs, he has a lot to get used to

He also had a moment in the first half where we were playing the high line and he dived in and missed the ball, allowing the West Brom player a run at goal. Nothing came of it, but Dawson used to get slaughtered for that sort of thing.
 
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Do you consider a point against one of the most dangerous teams in the league while still short of a creative midfielder, a pacy centre-back and a fully fit hold up striker insufficient? It's a transition, we are not going to play to our potential for some time yet. A point's decent. A win against Norwich should be the next step.
 
I thought Verts looked incredibly uncomfortable when the tempo went up and he got closed down a lot quicker.

Long was making him work very hard, so I had the impression he still had a fair bit of adjusting to do.

He couldnt handle Lukaku at all (though I doubt he will be the last this season, Lukaku looked like a monster).

I loved his attitude, I loved his ability on the ball, I loved that he didnt hide - but I think it will be a while before we see the "real" Vertonghen for Spurs, he has a lot to get used to

Out of interest would you start Verts over Dawson? I thought he did pretty well. Was a baptism of fire for sure. But with King gone, Gallas on last legs and Dawson potentially out we are going to rely on him I would think.
 
I thought Verts looked incredibly uncomfortable when the tempo went up and he got closed down a lot quicker.

Long was making him work very hard, so I had the impression he still had a fair bit of adjusting to do.

He couldnt handle Lukaku at all (though I doubt he will be the last this season, Lukaku looked like a monster).

I loved his attitude, I loved his ability on the ball, I loved that he didnt hide - but I think it will be a while before we see the "real" Vertonghen for Spurs, he has a lot to get used to

Yeah, but Agger and Skrtel, two experienced PL defenders, were absolutely slaughtered by the same Shane Long that didn't get a single look in today. He still did better than them, which is good in my book.
 
Out of interest would you start Verts over Dawson? I thought he did pretty well. Was a baptism of fire for sure. But with King gone, Gallas on last legs and Dawson potentially out we are going to rely on him I would think.

There was definite clear instructions to play the ball on the ground to feet or to set players running, long ball was at an absolute minimum. On this basis I would start Vertonghen ahead of Dawson because this is his game. Im very confident Vertonghen will come good (VERY Good!) Im just saying I think it will take a little while for him to fully excel.

Yeah, but Agger and Skrtel, two experienced PL defenders, were absolutely slaughtered by the same Shane Long that didn't get a single look in today. He still did better than them, which is good in my book.

Long is no mug, Im not saying he is - just that he is one of the smaller forwards in this league and Vertonghen will get some much sterner challenges...
 
I thought Verts looked incredibly uncomfortable when the tempo went up and he got closed down a lot quicker.

Long was making him work very hard, so I had the impression he still had a fair bit of adjusting to do.

He couldnt handle Lukaku at all (though I doubt he will be the last this season, Lukaku looked like a monster).

I loved his attitude, I loved his ability on the ball, I loved that he didnt hide - but I think it will be a while before we see the "real" Vertonghen for Spurs, he has a lot to get used to

This,, to say he was the best player on the pitch seems well over the top,, Its okay you like the guy and want the best for him like we all do,, but lets be for real. He looks very nervous at times, which is expected and he would take a while to get used to the pace and physical demands of the English Premier league,,
 
I don't think that's true as quite a few times last season we were in games like this and couldn't break teams down. We need a little more craft in the final third, not from CM where Modric played. We need a Mata or Cozorla type. From youtube clips Isco seems to be the kind of player. Lennon and Bale both need space to be at their best, so when we are struggling to find space, we need a different option. I'm unsure if Willian is that from his youtube clips. Dembele could easily be, even though he's been playing superbly in CM, despite his poor stats, he does make things happen in the final third. Basically what we need is a touch more craft and a little less reliance on athletic attacking players. Bale, Lennon, Defoe and Ade or great at stretching games, but VDV is the only attacking player that we have who is can "unlock" a defence. I'm unsure what to make of Sig at the moment.

But that was last season, when we always struggled to break teams down. I can see already that tactically we are much stronger and stable. I don't think we struggled to break them down today at all, we created many many chances, but didn't have the personnel to finish them off. I feel modric and a fit ade from the start would have done that.
 
But that was last season, when we always struggled to break teams down. I can see already that tactically we are much stronger and stable. I don't think we struggled to break them down today at all, we created many many chances, but didn't have the personnel to finish them off. I feel modric and a fit ade from the start would have done that.

:lol: Message board posters do have this uncanny knack of seeing exactly what they want to.
 
:lol: Message board posters do have this uncanny knack of seeing exactly what they want to.

Don't think that's exclusive to any particular group of people. Everyone is likely to give players they like benefit of the doubt and spot the faults with players they don't like.
 
This cost us at the end. The ball was begging to be caught in the lead up play, he stayed rooted to his line. Some good saves prior to that but times like this make me wonder if AvB will be forced to push for Lloris.

This is what I miss with Gomes, for all his mistakes he would try and dominate the box. Yeah he took risks but I think his play in this area was underrated because of the few fumbles he made when coming to claim the ball, when in reality he still came off his line and claimed the vast majority of things IMO.....
 
From what I saw we created a number of goal scoring opportunities in the first half unfortunately players not realising they had more time snatched at them. I hope that's because it is early in the season hopefully things will settle down. As for being more tactically I didn't see that I'm afraid - our biggest threat, as last season, came from the flanks and we pressed like we did in many home games last year. Still think there is a place for Dawson against teams with bullying CFs such as Lukaku. Didn't think Defoe was that bad. Getting the impression when AVB keeps picking Jenas over Hudd that he favours athletism and pressing over guile and creativity. Hope I'm wrong. We've always loved flair players down the lane.
 
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First half was fine. We dominated midfield and created a number of chances. However all the chances fell to the players standing foot Lennon (left), VDV (right) Verts (right) and Bale (right). Defoe shot at everthing on sight and a bit greedily imo None of his efforts looked threatening. I thought we lacked creativity though which is not surprising seeing we had two defensive CMs. I think we will struggle for goals if we continue with this formation. We desperately need a creative CM who can make things happen. I wasnt as impressed with VDV in this capacity as some others on this board - though his distribution was not always good and his corners and freekicks remain woeful.

Second half it all went a bit Pete Tong. Ade and Defoe didnt work together in the 442. We looked second best throughout the second half. We got ahead through a lucky deflection and AVB and the team tried to hold onto what we had. This let WBA back into the game and they dominated much of the second half. Lukaku bullied both our centre backs and Freidel had to make three great saves to keep us in it. Typical Spurs - we tried to throw it away and in the end we managed to do it.

A draw was a fair result in the end. A game of two halves. Need to do better against Norwich. Just one defensive CM please AVB. Hopefully we may have some more resources by then to chose from. Oh and btw DO NOT SELL DAWSON. We will need him before very much longer.
 
I wonder how many of these ratings are from people who were actually at the game?

The mob I was with in the park Lane pretty much all agreed........

Brad at fault for the goal......should have come off his line to claim.

Vertonghen had a superb first game.

Gallas looked old.....as stated in the Dawson thread this week.

Walker ok

Benny becoming more and more of a liability. goal excepted.

Livermore immense, hardly put a foot wrong, but him and Sandro together is too defensive, need some creativity.

Lennon and Bale both good, positive.

Defoe keen, but not what we need

Ade needs games

Sigurdson hard to judge

jenas..........would be unfair to comment as I don't think he should be near the team
 
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