Dempsey with 1 goal and 2 assists and alot of nice touches = MAN OF THE MATCH , anybody disagress then your just blind
Man Robbie Keane was pissed im watching the game cause I recored it on my DVR. I did see the Kamara goal and WOW goal of the year by far and probably for the rest of the year what a goal. Huddlestone, and Jenas and Steed, and chims are the ones that looked like they switched it off. Lee, bale, and Berbs were still going. To be frank Huddlestone was like where's waldo he didn't even seem like he was out there at all. That shot he had in the first half was awful. Just to say it Bale looks fabulous at left wing. Bale and Lee will make a damn good partnership out there. The right side looked worst then the Left on this day. Now all we need to do is get the prince(I like to call him that) on the pitch and we can see how all the new signings do. Kaboul looked good. I think that once we get back King we will be doing just fine. Giving up 2 goals in the final 20 is a huge bummer though at least we got 1 point then none. Should have had 3 though. I like Dempsey and he did have a great game. Just got to Fulham's 2nd goal and it was just unlucky no way in a game at full speed Rocha could have known that was going to happen. I was watching preimier league review and I saw berbs in the locker room and eating at the spurs facility and he does not look he talks to anyone. Looks like he just plays football and thats it. When eating at the table he would just drink his drink and read the papers. If we can string together a good winning streak then I could see him staying if we did make CL football but he thinks that the offer from Man U was good and I know that it will still be on the table next year. Im at the 88th minute and I mean if Jenas, hudds, and chims are going to sit back and play defensively then they should play defensively and not just wait till the whistles blows. And there was the amazing bicycle kick. ROCHA WAS JUST WATCHING THE BALL WHAT THE ******** MAN! I saw him just standing there while his man went unmarked. Holy shit. Now that pisses me off. Rocha what hell is wrong with him I hope he doesn't become the next gardener. That was horrid defending I just can't believe it a lot of things went really wrong in the last 10 mins but that had to be the worst. At this rate were in the running for relegation forget top 4.
OK, after watching the entire thing again (well minutes 65-95 once), I've calmed down enough to make some meaningful comments. Chimbonda--again--was at fault for the header. I'm a big Chimbonda fan actually, but he's a weak link defending set pieces. He's got all the ability in the world to be a great defender at it ... he just doesn't seem to do it. He saw the cross coming in and ran away from his mark--Dempsey--allowing him to rush straight at goal and be only minimally contested for the header. Chimbonda saw the cross coming in, and never once went for it, he just ran about a yard or so in front of it and jumped in the air as if he thought it were coming at him ... which it clearly wasn't. Clearly, he needs some instruction on defending set pieces ... and it sure wouldn't hurt if the rest of the team took notes as well. Robinson was adequate, but he really should have been able to stop the final shot by Kamara. I've seen it in replay about a dozen times now, and I do think that a top keeper stops that. No doubt in my mind that Cech, Howard, van der Saar, Given, heck even Peter Schmeichal's clone playing for Manchester City could have stopped that. (Don't give me this "son" business, I'm not buying it! He went to Italy and had himself cloned!). It's by no means an easy save, but it could have been saved. Seriously, Robinson has got to STOP BOOTING THE BALL UPFIELD! Chimbonda, Kaboul, Lee and Bale are all responsible with the ball, trust one of them to start the attack from the back every once in a while. Rocha probably is too, but he's the only questionable one. The only thing that really made Robinson look good today was the atrocious keeping by Niemi. Wow, I think that might be his career worst game, and it's almost embarassing that we only scored 3, with 1 being a bit of a fluke by Kaboul. On the other hand, Kaboul looked absolutely stellar. He was tactically fantastic--quite uncommon for a youngster--and used his athletic gifts wonderfully. I think it's going to be very very hard to put him on the bench when both King and Dawson are healthy. I think he was a great buy. Yes, the goal was awkward and a bit lucky, but he did well to keep his hands out of the way to avoid a hand-ball call nullifying the chance, then he quickly and aggressively stabbed the ball towards goal. Nicely done. He was strong both defensively and offensively in the air, and he knew when to push forward and when to stay back. I'm very impressed and he's my MOTM. Bale looked young but impressive. He made his share of mistakes and gave away a few balls, but his defending wasn't bad at all, and he really does create chances offensively. I'm salivating at the prospect of our attack when we get Lennon back to terrorize the right side. Jenas had a decent match actually, but it was what he didn't do that really stands out. His first chance he waited too long and never got a shot off. Keane made it known that if he wasn't going to shoot, he should have laid it off to the open man ... Keane. Unfortunately, when Jenas was clear on goal in the middle of the goal, those thoughts haunted him and he inexplicably attempted a dicey pass instead of the high-percentage shot. Had he tried the shot, he would have likely scored. Between those two chances he really should have scored. His outside of the right foot shot another time was a fine shot, just not accurate enough to beat the keeper. Huddlestone must have loved this match. Fulham's central midfield was probably the worst of any teams in the Premiershisp. Smertin's goal was massively unlucky, but Smertin was smart enough to take a lot of shots from distance against Robinson, because now everyone knows that's one of Robinson's weaknesses. Unluckily for us, Smertin got a perfect deflection and a goal. The goal was a fluke, yes, and undefendable. But, the strategy to take lots of hard shots from distance and hope for a screening defender or a deflection seems to be working for everyone against Robinson these days, so it wasn't as much of a fluke as it might seem at first glance. Malbranque was unlucky on a nice shot, but essentially he wasn't a factor in this game. That's surprising considering players tend to shine when they return to a former club. Keane was our defacto central attacking midfielder, and he did a great job of keeping the flow of the game going, our attackers involved, and bossing the game. I think the Defoe substitution was forced upon Jol because the club are trying hard to get Defoe to sign a new contract. But, IMHO, I would have left Keane on the field because he was coordinating our attack, and as we were showing, the best defense is a good offense. They couldn't score while we had the ball, and Keane kept them on their back heels defending almost the entire time he was in the game. Argh. More next post. -Digital
Props to Lee ; Kaboul doesn't flinch! I have to give some props to Young-Pyo Lee. He actually attempted 2 left footed crosses from the end line this game, which is a major improvement! OK, both were blocked by defenders, but that's not the point; the point is that he is actually attempting left footed crosses from the end line instead of settling for impotent right footed crosses from the top of the box that give the strikers only a razor-thin window of opportunity to score. Lee also defended solidly and had by far his best game of the season. Props to Lee. Rocha actually looked good this game too. I'm always in favor of errors of comission over errors of omission. He did the right thing trying to block that shot, it was unfortunate that it happened to glance the top of his knee and take the perfect angle to beat Robinson and slip into the net. Rotten luck, but again, unstoppable when that happens. Speaking of blocking shots, we had a discussion last week about Gardner turning his back to Nani's shot, which screened Robinson and allowed the goal to be scored. Major Props to my MOTM Kaboul, who closed down his man without flinching and took a shot in the gut completely shutting down the attack. THAT'S how it's done, and I hope Gardner took notes. -Digital
Typical Spurs throwing that game away... it resembled getting kicked in the nuts and taking it up the bum at the SAME TIME. Knew before it happened there was a goal coming off that Davies cross. Malbranque and Jenas were total garbage today. Too many give aways and lax defending on top of not finishing their shots which would've sealed the game. I'm really starting to wonder about Rocha... as someone said he is at the center of almost every defensive calamity... how many deflection goals and set piece goals are we going to give up? Robinson again continued to punt upfield to nowhere turning over possession. He should be beaned on the head with an egg everytime he does that. Only bright spots are Kaboul and Bale who look the real deal. And I agree YP Lee had a good game too. Daws on for Malbranque made sense... Defoe on Keane didn't. Should've been 16.5m BENCH MAN Bent on Jenas! Jol dug his own grave on this one so can't really have any sympathy there. In the end Fulham's crapiness really made us look better than we really are. We still look like a team on holiday that doesn't realize the season has started. Special thanks go to shitehead Levy & the board for undermining any and all progress/confidence... any failure to improve will be held on your heads as well. Arse up next at the Lane, oh goody!
RATINGS Robinson 5 = did nothing but pick the ball out of the net chimbonda 6.5 = at fault for dempsey goal, but solid throughout. Kaboul 7 = showed glimpes of pure class Lee 7 = had an offensive mind, and was solid in defense. Bale = 7.5 maybe the next ryan giggs? Jenas 6 = good until the last 10-20 minutes Huddlesone 6 = same as jenas Malbranque 5 = another quiet game Berbatov 8 = Class Keane 8.1 = CLASS Jol 1 = he played a big part in loss
Jol Furious With Slack Defending Martin Jol was clearly a troubled man after watching his side outclass Fulham but leave Craven Cottage with just a point this afternoon. Tottenham dominated the match at Craven Cottage, but missed cances to put the game out of sight when 2-0 and 3-1 up and were made to pay as Fulham came back with two late goals. It was Clint Dempsey and Dimonsy Kamara's efforts late in either halves that left Jol so disappointed and the under pressure boss insisted that his team must cut out these mistakes. "At 2-0 we should have scored the third and the fourth, we didn't do that and conceded from a corner," said Jol. "It's awful to see that. You can't concede goals like the third, from a throw-in. We have to cut out these mistakes, they make it difficult to win games. "I can't say we are unfortunate all the time but we have to defend better. If it is a wonderful attack with lots of one-twos..... but a corner-kick?" Jol removed Robbie Keane in the second half for Jermain Defore despite the Irishman having made two of his team's goals, but the Spurs boss attempted to justify his decision. He explained: "Jermain Defoe was very hungry in training and I thought he could do something. Robbie didn't have the best of games despite making two goals. Most of the time it comes off but this time it didn't. "You could see he was unhappy but he better be (happy) because he's my skipper. He knows Defoe is an important part of the squad, and so is Darren Bent." Source: Goal.com
Martin being "furious" just doesn't cut it anymore. The top teams in this league NEVER let games slip away like this, let alone do it every few games. I've tried to stay supportive of this coaching staff, but enough is enough. It's time for a change.
Im starting to agree with the new coach idea. This team just doesn't have that killer instinct to put teams away. We just don't keep the pressure up. We need to destroy teams and send a message to the bigger ones saying were kicking ass and taking names so stay out of our way.
"robbie didn't have the best of games"?...is he ********in kidding? I'm stunned by that comment - Keane was the best player on the pitch...Hauler is right, forget top 4 right now, let's just try and avoid relegation. Not really I know, but Jesus...
Ya I was kinda of joking about relgation but I mean were quite a mess right now. Was this how we started last year?
What can I say? I'm dreading the North London derby coming up. And in other news we drew Boro in the Carling Cup. It just keeps getting better!
I just got a chance to sit down and watch this game, and I saw some really good things going on. Yeah we gave it away, yeah we let them come back and yeah Jol made a bonehead move taking out Keane(it sucked the life out of the whole squad the second he crossed the touch line). But for the most part we moved the ball really well, we got a lot of chances and our summer signings looked really good. I'm pissed we shared points, but I think things will only get better from here on out. Oh and one more thing I really can't fault Robinson for any of the three goals, and I thought he played well...
You can't really blame Robinson for either of the two first goals. First one was just a mighty powerful header and a total misjudgement from Chimbo. Then, there was the most unlucky deflection that I've ever seen. Robbo was pretty far off his line again though. Just like last week. When every goal scored against you is a hard shot that turns into a chip by way of an upwards deflection, maybe you should look at your position... I haven't really watched the third goal over and over again yet, too painful. But once I take a look at it, Robbo probably wasn't at fault for that one either. It's hard for any defender to put his head in the way of a bicycle kick, by the way, that's how I messed up my DMJ two weeks ago. Still can't eat bread without pain.
Jol was asked on MOTD whether or not his "decisions during the game, particularly subbing Robbie Keane" contributed to the loss of three points. He stopped short of actually saying it was his fault, but he basically said that taking Keane off and putting Defoe on was the wrong choice. He also said his tactics were "below par".
jol is usually always acountable and he himself says he is expendable...but should he go hell no! Will he go, sadly yes the rumors will be to strong and it will be the end of what could of been a grand era
So it has taken this long for Martin Jol to discover that Spurs can't defend and he should have spent the cash on improving the defence, not adding yet another striker that isn't even going to get many first team starts.
In fairness, he did buy Kaboul this off season, and purchased Rocha towards the end of last season. Rocha has shown improvement over his first few starts in the Prem., and Kaboul looks like he's invented a new position (centre-half-forward), but still looks pretty solid defensively. With Daws back we shouldn't look too weak. Chimbonda's looked good, and the left back situation shouldn't be too bad with Lee and BAE. The problem I see is holding in the midfield, we flat out don't do a good job. I've counted on Hudds and Jenas to keep the ball in control down the middle, but it seems to be more of a pass-to-the-wings philosophy. This killed us at the end of the Fulham game. It was clear we needed to get the ball to the midfield and hold it, and when an attack failed we needed to bring it right back to the midfield to start again. We have to stop with the Robinson 70 yard kicks as well.
Good for Jol not sidestepping that question like so many other managers probably would. The man is straight up, but at the same time that substitution was the obvious turning point in the match for Spurs. The look on Keanes face and his demeanor were priceless. But I was happy to see him shake Jol's hand as he walked into the players bench area. Great teammate. Im just left wondering about the Spurs' inability to keep a lead or close out a match consistently. Its almost a characteristic now. I think more times than not that this can become a team mentality thing where the players somehow hit a mental ceiling, choking if you will. Its a team "self-esteem" issue and one worthy of sports shrink. Once it becomes engrained in the team's memory that this is how things are, it becomes a constant reality. In the team member's mind, the mentality becomes less "we will win" and more "lets not lose this lead" type of thing. Whether or not you want to place the blame on Jol for this is up to you. I for one think that by replacing him, you might have a very good chance of lifting this problem if the next manager is just as competent if not more so. Jol, if he is to stay, really needs to address this psychology.
As a life long supporter of the New Orleans Saints (for those of you across the pond - the worst team in the history of the NFL), I consider myself a bit of a connoiseur of the choke. And yesterday was a choke for the ages. You could sense it coming, though - even the announcers called it before it happened. Where is the defense?