*** Tottenham Hotspur vs Swansea City ***

[ringo]

They should have stopped the game.


To be honest if i was the Swansea physio i would have just said fudge it and run onto the pitch.

They did. Play was down the other end and the ref hadn't blown but two blokes - presumably from Swansea - ran on the pitch to treat him regardless. All the fans behind the goal were shouting for the ref to blow up, and Lloris and a group of other players had stopped playing and gone over. I'm not sure if Michu was actually out though, or just recovering.

 

[Hotshot-Tottenham]

missed the game but judging by the highlights JD could have easily got a brace, Dembele looked pretty much back and Walker almost pulverised their keeper!

be good to have Bale back, good to see Parker back in - might need him over Xmas.

great result, taken advantage of chelsea being overseas and hopefully Reading can get a draw tonight. that would be brilliant.

roll on the Xmas fixtures - a long holiday, loads of football and we're live on Boxing Day i believe??

COYS.

 

[Jordinho]

missed the game but judging by the highlights JD could have easily got a brace, Dembele looked pretty much back and Walker almost pulverised their keeper!

be good to have Bale back, good to see Parker back in - might need him over Xmas.

great result, taken advantage of chelsea being overseas and hopefully Reading can get a draw tonight. that would be brilliant.

roll on the Xmas fixtures - a long holiday, loads of football and we're live on Boxing Day i believe??

COYS.

We're live on tv both the 26th and 29th. After the Reading game we might not have another Saturday game in the league until March some time, all depends on the European draws and future selections for tv. Our first two games in March are Arsenal and Liverpool.

 

[Mosquito_Coasting]

Really enjoyed Townsend's cameo yesterday. Played with that direct fearlessness wingers usually end up losing.

 

[a spur from swansea]

We were like dads army at the end in defending,why did we run all out in drips and drabs to catch them offside when Lloris accidently smashed Mitchu,very poor and in trying to clear the ball as well,very amateurish.

totally different game next week against stoke.

 

[JPG_357]

Good performance and a fantastic result - we dominated a defensive Swansea team, and 2-0 would have been a fairer scoreline. A morally correct result for football against negativity.

So happy we have Lloris in goal, quite soon I think he will be challenging for the accolade of best keeper in the country.

I hope Dawson plays against Stoke but Gallas played excellently yesterday.

I'd say Naughton JV Daws BAE is the back four I'd like to see v Stoke - wouldn't mind Caulker back though for this one either, and if Walker plays then fair enough.

Stoke don't seem to be doing the long throw stuff so much these days, but they're still very tough to play against.

If Bale is back and firing I think we'll win.

Well done to Townsend though, and hope to see more of him over the next month or so.

 

[nelto]

This was a moral boosting win. After the disappointing loss to Everton, we simply had to win this match. We could have won this match more comfortably but a win is a win. And keeping a clean sheet makes it all the more sweet. It has been a long long time since we won a match 1-0 like this ! Won't mind if we get more of these 1-0 wins if it means we get to keep a clean sheet !

Apart from the win, was really satisfied by our performance. We completely dominated the match from start to finish. The fact we had 29 shots on goal, compared to only 3 by Swansea shows how much we outplayed Swansea. It would have been nice if we had scored more goals but we were not clinical in front of goal. We should be more ruthless and clinical in front of goal. Fortunately for us, Vertonghen came up with the winning goal. Vertonghen really needed the goal and he came up with it at the right moment for us.

Was really disappointed with Defoe. He wasted 3 one-on-one chances and should have scored atleast one of them. It was like watching the old Defoe who used to waste those one-on-one chances at will. Thought Defoe has overcome that problem and looked sharper this season until this match. Whatever happened to Defoe in this match. Did he loss his goal scoring boot or something ? Or did Adebayor unsettle Defoe ? Hope Defoe gets back his goal scoring ways. Not impressed with Adebayor as well. Despite his dribbling skills, he didn't threathen the Swansea goal at all.

You have to be happy with the contribution with our midfield especially without Bale. I think we won this match due to the domination of our midfield combination of Dembele and Sandro. But wish Dembele and Lennon can score goals. We really need more goals from midfield. It was nice to see Parker returning from injury. Hopefully Parker can help us to keep more clean sheets.

Nice to see us returning to top 4 in the league. It always gives you a great feeling whenever we win matches. Hopefully we will go on a longer winning run now.

I get over to the Lane between 4 and 6 times a season. I've been going since 1985 whenever possible. It's the first time I've seen us win 1-0 at home. Loved it yesterday.

 

[chicken_badge]

We were like dads army at the end in defending,why did we run all out in drips and drabs to catch them offside when Lloris accidently smashed Mitchu,very poor and in trying to clear the ball as well,very amateurish.

totally different game next week against stoke.

3-0 up by half time, game over and none of this digging in gonad*s.
This is Stoke, we should be doing them on our home ground and we owe them a right smashing.

 

[Rorschach]

I thought we were absolutely great against Swansea. Contrary to some of the possession stats I've seen, I thought we controlled the entire match pretty much and restricted them to zero meaningful shots on target. Their much vaunted passing game never got going which I put down to our exceptional pressing.

If there was a moan to be had it would be that we should have scored more. You could feel the frustration rising the further the game wore on, but we stuck to our game plan and it paid off.

I also saw very little of the panic in possession after we scored. There were a few aimless punts up field again (Gallas was one I can remember) but nothing like the nonsense we have been witnessing of late. To me it looked like this was the focus of the previous weeks training sessions.

A few other positives were Walker's continued run of improving form, Lloris Le Brave and confidence building cameos from Siggy and Townsend. Parker back too.

What's not to like about all that?

 

[glorygloryeze]

What did people generally think of Townend's contribution? The little I saw on MOTD, he looked scary on the break, much more direct than Lennon even

He doesn't seem to have been used much by AVB compared to say Carroll; what do people think about this? Is AVB being patient with him or does he not fancy hum much?

 

[JPG_357]

What did people generally think of Townend's contribution? The little I saw on MOTD, he looked scary on the break, much more direct than Lennon even

He doesn't seem to have been used much by AVB compared to say Carroll; what do people think about this? Is AVB being patient with him or does he not fancy hum much?

I thought Townsend did well, and won the vital free kick that led to our goal. But I'm a big fan of Lennon and Bale, so can see it's difficult for him to play instead of them. But he should get plenty of chances, especially if we at to win a trophy and finish top 4.

 

[Spursalot]

What did people generally think of Townend's contribution? The little I saw on MOTD, he looked scary on the break, much more direct than Lennon even

He doesn't seem to have been used much by AVB compared to say Carroll; what do people think about this? Is AVB being patient with him or does he not fancy hum much?

was exactly what we needed at the time. Someone to try the direct approach rather than sit back and pass it around.

 

[onlyme]

What is our next game?

 

[glorygloryeze]

What is our next game?

Home to Stoke - as I think you very well know: http://www.glory-glory.co.uk/showthread.php?260-Jermain-Defoe&p=270497&viewfull=1#post270497

 

[THFC6061]

Hugo Lloris makes Garth Crooks' Team of the Week

GOALKEEPER - HUGO LLORIS (Spurs)

Hugo Lloris makes my team of the week for the first time after a clean sheet against Swansea that is worthy of recognition.

It's not been an easy transition for the Spurs keeper since his arrival from France, especially with Brad Friedel breathing down his neck.

Did you know? Lloris (63%) has managed a better saves-to-shots percentage than club rival Friedel (60%) this season in the Premier League.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20748070

 

[JPG_357]

Well done to Garth for picking Hugo, hopefully we'll see Lloris getting a lot more praise from the media in the forthcoming weeks, months and years

 

[braineclipse]

Hugo Lloris makes Garth Crooks' Team of the Week

GOALKEEPER - HUGO LLORIS (Spurs)

Hugo Lloris makes my team of the week for the first time after a clean sheet against Swansea that is worthy of recognition.

It's not been an easy transition for the Spurs keeper since his arrival from France, especially with Brad Friedel breathing down his neck.

Did you know? Lloris (63%) has managed a better saves-to-shots percentage than club rival Friedel (60%) this season in the Premier League.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/0/football/20748070

A bit surprising, not saying he doesn't deserve it, but wouldn't they normally pick a goalkeeper who actually had shots at his goal to deal with?

He did really well for the cross and lumped ball, could easily have been massive chances with a less active goalie.

 

[JPG_357]

A bit surprising, not saying he doesn't deserve it, but wouldn't they normally pick a goalkeeper who actually had shots at his goal to deal with?

He did really well for the cross and lumped ball, could easily have been massive chances with a less active goalie.

That's a major point about Hugo though, and well done Garth for spotting it, I assume he has. By dominating his box, he stops a lot of chances at source, cutting out the need for saves.

Brad would have had a far busier afternoon, I'm sure about that.

 

[THFC6061]

That's a major point about Hugo though, and well done Garth for spotting it, I assume he has. By dominating his box, he stops a lot of chances at source, cutting out the need for saves.

Brad would have had a far busier afternoon, I'm sure about that.

Yes, I think Lloris commands his area in a way we've not seen from a Spurs goalkeeper for many a long year.

It's now just a matter of our defenders trusting him when he shouts for the ball - we've given a couple of goals away recently when they haven't.

The really top class goalkeepers rarely have to make spectacular saves, as they make the job easier for themselves by dealing with most threats before drastic action is needed.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Yes, I think Lloris commands his area in a way we've not seen from a Spurs goalkeeper for many a long year.

It's now just a matter of our defenders trusting him when he shouts for the ball - we've given a couple of goals away recently when they haven't.

The really top class goalkeepers rarely have to make spectacular saves, as they make the job easier for themselves by dealing with most threats before drastic action is needed.

Agreed. It's one reason why Friedel has been so under appreciated by the casual fan for so long. His positioning is some of the best I've seen from a keeper and the amount of easy saves he has to make or shots that are straight at him is not down to luck.