Matchday 10-Tottenham Hotspur vs. Middlesbrough FC [R]

[The Double]

Sunday, the 26 of October


Tottenham Hotspur FC

vs.

Middlesbrough FC


Home Fixture-Boro@The Lane


As They Stand
Tottenham-Played 9, 11 points
Middlesbrough-Played 9, 7 Points


Official Spurs Website (www.spurs.co.uk)

TeamTalk-Spurs (http://www.teamtalk.com/teamtalk/News/Team_News/0,1562,46,00.html)

BBCSport-Spurs (http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/teams/t/tottenham_hotspur/default.stm)

SoccerNet-Spurs (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team?id=367&cc=5901)

SoccerNet-Live Scores (http://soccernet.espn.go.com/livescore/results?league=ALL&cc=5901)

Spurs Odyssey (www.spursodyssey.com)


Post all line-ups, play-by-plays, opinions etc.

[sendorange]

My lineup:

Keller

Carr Richards Gardner Tanno

Dalmat Anderton Mabizela Konchesky

Keane Zamora/Postiga

Boro are a good side, but they're not clinical in their finishing and they have given up a few soft goals. If we keep it tight then we should be able to finish them, I think Keano is long overdue for a goal and this could be his game.

[sendorange]

I've got to listen to this on Talksport, won't be able to watch it on TV, even though it is on there.

Starting lineup is:

Keller

Carr Richards Gardner Tanno

Dalmat Anderton Poyet Konchesky

Keane Zamora

I cannot believe Pleat started Poyet and Anderton again as a central midfield partnership.....
urghhh.

[The Double]

Line-ups: Spurs: Keller, Carr, Taricco, Gardner, Richards, Anderton, Dalmat, Poyet, Konchesky, Keane, Zamora. Subs: Burch, Postiga, Mabizela, King, Ricketts.

Middlesbrough: Schwarzer, Cooper, Southgate, Queudrue, Davies, Doriva, Zenden, Mendieta, Boateng, Nemeth, Christie. Subs: Nash, Juninho, Greening, Riggott, Maccarone.

[sendorange]

Our central midfield is being ineffective again.... what a surprise. They've slagging off Poyet and Anderton, I don't blame them.

Dalmat though is apparently looking very lively, should have had a penalty after having his shirt tugged by Zenden in the area. Every time he runs at the Boro defence he causes trouble. Konchesky is also doing well, working hard and a good strike on him.

Mendieta is the best player for Boro so far, apparently he's been man of the match 4 times in his first 5 games for Boro (!)

Ref and his linesman on the right hand side have been terrible to Spurs apparently. Not giving fouls on Dalmat and being very inconsistent.

[sendorange]

Lots of pressure from Spurs, but Boro are dangerous on the counter - Zenden's pace, Nemeth and Christie up there as well are agile and sharp.

Come on you Spurs!

[sendorange]

Halftime 0-0.

Spurs have had more possession but we haven't done enough with it. Boro have counterattacked and had good chances. Dalmat has looked class though and has been moved into central midfield to give him more of the ball.

I'd drag Poyet off, the commentators have described him as "non-existent". Again. I'd then put Ricketts on, or maybe Mabizela to enable Dalmat to have much more of a free attacking role in midfield.

As it is if we're careful against their counter attack then we should get at least a draw, but if we get some quality balls into the penalty area and have a bit more cutting edge, then a win is definitely on.

[The Double]

1min: Zenden flashed wild 30-yarder a mile wide.

2mins: Decent build-up from Boro, Mendieta curler always going over.

5mins: Konchesky whipped cross from left caused all sorts of alarm bells in Boro defence, ball scrambled away.

12mins: Dalmat picked out Keane, Konchesky overlapping, Poyet inches away from low cross to near post.

15mins: Konchesky piledriver from 30 yards flashed wide.

19mins: Southgate big block from Anderton on edge of box.

20mins: Keller low save to his right from Doriva 25-yard drive.

21mins: Poyet break, Zamora low shot from 20 yards comfortable for Schwarzer.

27mins: YELLOW. Taricco for foul on Mendieta.

32mins: Konchesky attempted to lob half-punch away back over Schwarzer but keeper able to gather.

36mins: Quick break, ball ended up with Zenden wide left, low drilled cross flicked over by Boateng.

38mins: YELLOW. Mendieta for foul on Taricco.

45mins: Nemeth 30-yarder forced Keller to flick ball over the bar.

Half-time: Spurs 0-0 Boro

[sendorange]

2nd half, no subs and our midfield is starting to look really poor now. What on earth is Pleat thinking??? Why the hell is he just leaving Anderton and Poyet out there to get dominated?

We can't rely on luck forever, at some point we're going to get shot down.

Come on you Spurs! Keano and Dalmat can still see us through.

[sendorange]

Boro are all over us now. McLaren has noticed the lack of energy in our midfield and their players are pouring forward from there. They're in total control and if it stays like this we're going to be in deep trouble.

We need Mabizela or King on for Poyet, and I think maybe also Ricketts for Anderton. Perhaps even Postiga for Poyet and switch to 4-3-3.

Poyet is getting a real slagging off by Alvin Martin, one of the commentators, calling him a passenger and that he has been useless. Get him off!

[sendorange]

Postiga is now on for Zamora. Zamora has been bright and lively, but he still needs experience to get his cutting edge right. Hopefully Helder will bag his first goal today.

King on for Poyet. Finally. You know, Gus could still be a useful supersub this season for his goalscoring, but his energy levels and determination just aren't anywhere near good enough to carry on as a starting Premiership player. He's finished.

It's one way traffic for Boro. A draw is looking very appealing for us about now.

[The Double]

Full Time:
Tottenham-0
Boro-0

[sendorange]

Well it wasn't a good game, but at least we managed to squeek out a draw at least....I'll watch the highlights this evening, though I doubt there'll be many.

The unbeaten run goes on, but we're still someway short of being a strong team.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/3206862.stm

[The Double]

I hope we ******** up West Ham on the 29th (?)

[soccernutter]

Originally posted by sendorange
Finally. You know, Gus could still be a useful supersub this season for his goalscoring, but his energy levels and determination just aren't anywhere near good enough to carry on as a starting Premiership player. He's finished.


Agreed. Though I wonder if Ricketts got rest for this game as he has played alot and Pleat may want to keep him fresh all season long. That is the only reason I can see of him not coming on earlier.

[sendorange]

http://www.spurscommunity.co.uk/modules.php?name=News&file=article&sid=1168&mode=nested&order=0&thold=0
This is the authors thoughts, which are very interesting:

Medi's View

Thought before game: Why are Anderton and Poyet in the starting 11?

Thought after game: Why were Anderton and Poyet in the starting 11?

Playing the Spurs 'old-guard' in the centre is stupid. Just plain stupid. I said it after the Leicester game, and I'll say it now, how can someone who's paid to be a manager continue to pick two players who are quite obviously not upto it.

The midfield at the start of the game saw Dalmat on the right, Konch on the left, with Dazza and Gus in the centre. As it became obvious to Pleat this wasn't working, he tried to fix it, shifting Anderton out wide, and Dalmat into the centre. Outcome, even worse than before. Why? Because both Dalmat and Poyet tried to get forward too much, forgetting about defensive duties, and Anderton walks around whether he has the ball or not, and working the ball wide to someone as slow as Anderton inevitably kills the momentum of any attack.

Then Pleat tried to fix it again, off went Poyet, on came King. Outcome, slightly better, but King seemed confused as the what he had to do, and was clearly rushed into the position rather than coached into it over the past week. Mabizela would've been a better candidate having proved his tough-tackling credentials by cything down Izzet last week in some kind of psychic retribution for the Turk's tackle on Fredi Kanoute 15 minutes later.

Stephane Dalmat played fairly well early on, but slowly faded as the game went on. Also, some of the coaching staff must have a word in his ear about what to do with the ball when in defensive areas. All too often the Frenchman will attempt a piece of skill which, if failed, puts our defence in a compromising position. My advice would be to keep him out wide until we can be confident this area of his game has been coached out of him.

When he came on, Rohan Ricketts looked hungry, and I'm sure if he plays on Wednesday night will have a marvellous game.

Bobby Zamora is a hard worker, and no-one can argue otherwise, but he is lacking in both confidence and end product. Today was restricted to one half decent effort from 20 yards, and must try and get into the box more.

Anthony Gardner today had a fairly solid game, and showed signs that the promising defender Gardner from yesteryear may gradually be returning, but he still takes far too much time when in possession of the ball, and even today made a few elementary mistakes. His lack of a kicking right foot also worries me as even the simplest right-footed clearances pose the young man with a major problem.

All in all though, a very poor performance, and if David Pleat plays the same central midfield duo on Wednesday night, for me, he is displaying exactly why he shouldn't be made Spurs boss, as apart from changing the formation to 4-4-2, Pleaty appears to be making the same mistakes as Hoddle did, with his refusal to drop Gus and Dazza. If we play them two together again, even against West Ham, we run the risk of being knocked out. The prospect of an upbeat Hammers side playing to impress new boss Alan Pardew against Poyet and Anderton in our side worries me greatly, though hopefully, Pleaty will see the light when he watches the highlights of this poor match tonight on TV. Unfortunately, I doubt it.

COME ON YOU SPURS!!

[DigitalTron]

Originally posted by soccernutter
Agreed. Though I wonder if Ricketts got rest for this game as he has played alot and Pleat may want to keep him fresh all season long. That is the only reason I can see of him not coming on earlier. Excellent point. As Pleat put it, we have 3 games this week, so I wasn't surprised that Poyet went a long stretch. Hopefully King and/or Ziege will be ready soon, at least by next Weekend.

-Digital

[sendorange]

http://www.glory-glory.net/news/show_story.asp?story_id=238

Here's Glory-Glory's take on things. Same as above, no more Poyet-Anderton, defensive midfield should be between Mabizela and King. Although it is bizarre that Mabizela did not get a chance this week after his goal and tigerish tackles last week. I was surprised to see King, he's been out for a few weeks so he wouldn't have been sharp enough to be effective in that role as a sub.

Anyway, in the last five games we've only conceded one goal (which was a fluke mistake) and of course kept four clean sheets. I always thought we had the defenders there to get this kind of record going. Long may it continue, with West Ham and Bolton up next.

[DigitalTron]

King is an important player for us, so I have no problem trying to ease him back into the team as a sub. I think that was Pleat's plan all along and he didn't want to force King to play too many minutes, thus he held out longer than he should have with our central midfield combo. I suspect Mabizela may start Wednesday against West Ham, and then King will again come on as a sub.

As for the defense, let's not lose sight of the fact that we're playing many more defenders now (442), and the problem has become creating chances. Taricco isn't the most attacking wingback, and putting Konchesky in midfield is clearly a defensive move. When Ziege and Davies return, then we'll be able to determine whether our defense has really improved that much, because Ziege and Davies are certainly attack-minded and offense-first players.

At that time, I suspect we'll see Carr and Konchesky as fullbacks, and a midfield of Davies, Ziege, Dalmat and King. That should be a far more athletic and excitingly attacking midfield. But with all that dynamism, our defense just might be more exposed as well.

-Digital

[Rambler]

The midfield needs a bit of experience, but playing both Anderton and Poyet isn't working. I think when Redknapp returns we can dispense with both of them. The midfield seems to be the weak area at the moment. We couldn't even cope with an average side like Boro in the second half.

I think another year of mid table obscurity beckons.