PL: Spurs h Ratings and Reactions

[paul34]

poor game from the boys,first 25 i thought we are up for it harrasing them and really giving it all then we faded and second half we didnt come out the dressing room in my view.i thought that nrc and petrov looked knackered second half and that was before nrc got injured whats the point of having fresh legs on the bench if you dont use them :shock: cueller was by far the best villa player today he was a class act giving 100% the full 90 mins,milner and ash just seem to be out of form especially ash maybe a bit of bench time is needed, im just not sure because when hes on form hes unstopable.Im sure there will be a few changes for the portsmouth game im hoping for albrighton and downing and delph to get a game maybe a risk but the rest need to see they have to fight for there place.

[Hereford-Villan]

Id lie to see Delph and Downing in CM and Reo (if fit) and Gabby up top on his own. Albrighton is a good shout too.

[dudley_villa]

Hard fought point in the end... Spurs without doubt best footballing side we have played this season.

[beasley14]

Totally outplayed in the second half. I really want us to practise some one touch passing and moving in training, it makes the game so much easier. We just don`t do enough of it.

[tinker]

Decent result from a bad performance from our attacking players, defence was awesome and deserved better TBH. We had a few break aways were we looked like startled rabbits when presented with chances, if Defoe would have been on our team we would have scored quite a few IMO, hes on fire.

Dawson had a great game for Spurs and it has changed my opinion on him. Lennon was kept quiet by the two Youngs. Beye and Carlos were very solid, our MOTM was just about Carlos.

Its a good job Gabby scored because the handball off the line from Spurs in the build up should have led to a sending off, Defoes hand ball IMOM deserved a yellow card and Dawson knew it hit his upper arm, from behind him you could see half the ball as he controlled it, but their overall play deserved it.

Don't think either team will make the top 4 as it stands, we look pretty tame going forward and Spurs looked vulnerable to the counter attack.

We need another proven forward.

[ChrisVillan]

I thought the first half was pretty good, which makes the second all the more disgraceful. We played some good football, Gabby held the ball up well, defence was in control and Luke Young had Lennon in his pocket with some smart help from Ash. Reo-Coker was decent.

And then in the second half we sat back and allowed Spurs to come on to us. That's Spurs, who scored NINE in their previous match. It was suicide and we were lucky they could only put one away (thanks in large part to Friedel). I'm sick of seeing us sit back at 1-0. We didn't need to do it, we were playing well and actually containing Spurs well too. They were always going to improve in the second half but we didn't need to give them a helping hand.

And Dowd was appalling.

[rjw63]

Ashley Young needs benching, his attacking threat is nil

[TrentVilla]

The only threat Ashley Young poses is to those sitting behind the goal beyond the far post. His performances have been poor for a year now, he no longer deserves to be starting games in my view as for going to the World Cup the thought is laughable.

[slowandlow]

the manager cost us points - he went way too negative way too early, forcing our main goal threat onto the right hand side for mush of the second half

if we had lost i dont think we could have complained about getting what we deserved too much

[Morley_crosses_to_Withe]

The only threat Ashley Young poses is to those sitting behind the goal beyond the far post. His performances have been poor for a year now, he no longer deserves to be starting games in my view as for going to the World Cup the thought is laughable.

Oooh, don't say that about the Golden Boy. You'll have people shouting you down and pointing out that he took a decent corner 79 games ago.

I, however, agree. He's miles away from the England Squad. Light years away from being world class.

[justpeteash]

Taking a positive from the game, Heskey, who we've been mocking recently, actually looks like he can play football and seems to have his eye for goal back! If he continues in the way he played y'day I would suggest dropping Carew!

And i was so pleased to see NRC starting! - he makes such a difference in the middle - although just don't let me shoot!

[slowandlow]

the ball kept coming back because we were dragging all our men back.

**** joke

[Demitri_C]

fair result for me, thought we shouldnt have bothered coming out 2nd half as we were poor attacking wise. was impressed withe cuellar and l young. also beye impressed i have seen him critised but think he has done well when called upon.

think ashley young was very poor with his crossing today, milner was average as well.

i certainly feel petrov wasnt very good either

[ozvilla28]

I just want to ask one ???? why did we sit back in the second half and try to defend a 1 nil lead those tactics from MON were bad.In the first half we created and troubled spurs and was playing wonderful football,but then in the second Gabby is upfront by himself playing long hopeful balls with him against 4 spurs defenders. Carew playing behind him and not even as a striker ???.Our defence was awsome yesterday ,but sooner or later it was going to crack as the ball just kept coming back.Poor tactics from MON for me.Collins is big lost for us bigtime he just wins everything and is a lion when partnered with Dunn.

[S-Platt]

Sometimes you just gotta admire our defence obviously we should be taking the game to the opposition at home but some of the blocks/clearances were just amazing Beye was quality against Crouch and Cueller is at his best when its backs to the wall. Drop Ashley Young and bring in Downing and i think you will see a difference going forward. Heskey was quality when he came on but you cant fault Carews workrate yesterday but sometimes he looks cumbersome. I dunno a point aint bad but you really have to win your home games against those around you. 3 points against a rejuvenated Hull is a must now.

[slabsquare]

Didn't see the game but sounds like we were shit again, but managed to scrape a result.

Surely we have to click soon and start playing better possession football?? Surely??

We need to hand Hull a tanking next weekend. Won't be easy though. The kind of game we generally lose.

Although we're still 5th and well positioned, it's all a bit 'meh' so far this season, bar the Liverpool and Chelsea games.

(Hopefully Downing is the answer)

Without the ball we were superb in fairness.

Agreed - we now have a more than decent back four with very decent cover, plus a midfield that, whatever its other failings, can put a foot in when needed, plus the team generally seems to be up for a fight and, even when playing rubbish, their work ethic / desire cannot usually be questioned.

But that simply isn't enough, particularly when playing a team like Spurs (who IMO will unfortunately be the likely fourth place team this season) who have plenty of flair and will use the ball effectively when you keep gifting it to them. Defoe could have had another hat-trick yesterday but for a combination of good luck and backs-to-the wall defending but we cannot keep relying on that if we have serious top-four ambitions - we got away with it for the first half of last season then got found out as the luck ran out and, though we are better set up defensively now than then, we will keep getting found out in a competitive league if we persist with this approach.

To me there is a potentially reasonably simple solution whereby we sign (just like that!) a creative, ball-playing central midfielder to mix it up alongside one of of NRC / Petrov / Sidwell / Delph etc etc and a more skilful, goal-scoring striker to compliment the obvious strengths of JC and Gabby - not making any recommendations but then I'm an early forties fan with 2 left feet rather than a well-paid PL manager. Suffice to say that this would enable us to use our current strengths of strong defence, pace, width, height, athletism and hard work, whilst expanding the variety in our game enormously

[stewiek2]

Totally outplayed in the second half. I really want us to practise some one touch passing and moving in training, it makes the game so much easier. We just don`t do enough of it.

This is why our players tire in games. Instead of making the ball do the work by nice passing and keeping hold of it, we spend the majority of the game chasing the ball as we lose possession so so often. And we do have the players to do that already.

[Hanky]

I thought we were crap without the ball in central midfield. Too many times their midfielders were wondering in behind and nobody was tracking them. We were getting completely pulled apart at times in which three men were dragged towards the ball, it just wasn't good enough.

[GasGasGas]

With NRC in the team: we were winning the game

With NRC out of the team: we immediately conceded the goal

Playing the passing attacking game: we were dominating Spurs

Playing the hoofball game to nobody so the ball comes right back and we can hoof it yet again: we were absolutely dominated by Spurs

What's new? When will they ever learn?

[Big_John_10]

Like the burnley game it wasn't a terrible result but the performance was poor.

First half was pretty good, we pressured spurs whenever they had the ball and actually played some nice stuff. They had a lot of the ball but there only clear chance came from a deflected freekick and cuellar produced a quality block on the line.

2nd half was very poor, no one was capable of keeping the ball and slowing the game down for us and everytime we cleared it both strikers were still on our 3rd of the pitch.

There was also a period of time when we tried to switch formations and some of the players looked liked they didn't have a clue where they were suppossed to be playing.

As much as i hate them spurs are a good team and were coming off a huge victory the week before, a draw isn't terrible but the performance was poor.