PL: Spurs a Ratings & Reactions

[Milfner]

In many ways, "going for the win" is spurs' main problem. Too often they will go forward and get beaten on the break.

Spurs 0-1 Stoke.

Whelan, 86.

Point and case.

[GlastonSpur]

Teams that try and win games will come up trumps?

Yeah, that's why Arsenal are top of the league.

They are in the top 4, just as are Chelsea and United. When was the last time you saw any of these 3 set out to mainly just "park the bus" in front of their own goal and hope to nick a goal on the counter?

The logic of 3 points for a win (but just 1 point for a draw) says that teams who play to win - or at least really try for the win and take some risks along the way - are more likely to do well in the longer run.

Is it a co-incidence that Liverpool's relatively poor season so far has coincided with them generally fielding 2 DMs (Mascherano and Lucas) and playing in a less adventurous fashion? I think not.

[VillaChris]

Spurs have drawn four of their last seven league games.

[GlastonSpur]

Spurs have drawn four of their last seven league games.

That's not the point ... the intent to play attacking football and least really try to win, to take risks, is the point.

[TrentVilla]

Glaston I think it is fair to say that your sides strength is going forward and our side's strength is its ability to defend, each of our sides has an advantage over the other in this respect. It is also fair to say that both sides play to their respective strengths and at times at least fall short in respect to the other side of the game, we at times struggle to create chances and score goals you on the other hand struggle to keep them out at the other end.

I think it is though a little foolish or perhaps bias to suggest that Spurs some how make more attempt to win games than some of their rivals they simply have different strengths. I also think it is a little foolish to suggest that a side that goes out to win more games will have a better chance of finishing 4th than others, such a suggestion would indicate you haven't watched Liverpool much in recent season.

[GlastonSpur]

Glaston I think it is fair to say that your sides strength is going forward and our side's strength is its ability to defend, each of our sides has an advantage over the other in this respect. It is also fair to say that both sides play to their respective strengths and at times at least fall short in respect to the other side of the game, we at times struggle to create chances and score goals you on the other hand struggle to keep them out at the other end.

I'd agree with this.

I think it is though a little foolish or perhaps bias to suggest that Spurs some how make more attempt to win games than some of their rivals they simply have different strengths. I also think it is a little foolish to suggest that a side that goes out to win more games will have a better chance of finishing 4th than others, such a suggestion would indicate you haven't watched Liverpool much in recent season.

I'm thinking more of Villa in this respect (and Liverpool also this season to some lesser extent), rather than all of the rivals for top 4.

Perhaps I have an unbalanced view due to the two Villa-Spurs games this season, and perhaps Villa have played adventurous attacking football in many of the Villa games I've not seen. But certainly in those two Villa-Spurs games it seemed like Villa were largely playing to hold out for a draw, whilst maybe hoping to nick a goal on the counter. OK, in some away games I could understand this approach, but don't you find it a bit dissapointing when it happens in a home game?

To some extent I'm probably complaining because Spurs like to play in open games since it suits us better in terms of chances to win rather than just draw, whereas we have struggled to break down packed defences on several occasions this season. Man City came to play an open game with us and lost 3 - 0, whereas Villa at least got an away point.

As for Liverpool, I do think that this season they have been less adventurous in their playing style and team selections than previously. But then again I suppose the loss of Alonso has had an effect on this.

[Condimentalist]

But certainly in those two Villa-Spurs games it seemed like Villa were largely playing to hold out for a draw, whilst maybe hoping to nick a goal on the counter. OK, in some away games I could understand this approach, but don't you find it a bit dissapointing when it happens in a home game?

We were very poor in the home game against you. A lot of people were very unhappy with our negative performance. Thankfully that is not how we play most of the time, hence why we were amongst the highest scorers in the league last year. Our midfield of Milner, Petrov, Downing and Young is inherently attack minded.

I thought we played a good away game this weekend though.

[stato]

It was my 2nd visit to White Hart Lane and I'm yet to see a goal! The last time I went was when we drew 0 - 0 in 2006 where Sorensen had the game of his life and Barry, playing left back, got sent off for 2 yellows after cynically taking Lennon out twice. It was also the weekend that the whale got stuck in the Thames!

Maybe it was because we played a spoiling game and stifled them on Saturday, but the atmosphere wasn't all that great from the Spurs fans - I had the impression that they were one of the more vocal home crowds.

I said beforehand that I'd take a point so at the end of the game I was happy. We all know we have more going forward than we showed in this game, and the home game for that matter, but at least we got something from games against a Redknapp team for a change.

It also leaves us nicely placed to leapfrog Spurs should we win our game in hand away at Wigan.

[TRO]

Overall, good point from a difficult fixture and our defence is rapidly becoming the best we've seen for a long, long time.

I cannot for the life of me understand the continuing short-sightedness of O'Neill's substitutions. I was thinking during the game that we shouldn't be too harsh on Carew thrown back in so soon after injury but that would be covering up the fact that his level of performance has been the same whenever he's played for at least 12 months now. Given the way Spurs were asserting themselves in midfield, I would have replaced Heskey with an additional midfielder and tried to wrestle back a little more possession. The like-for-like swapping of Heskey for Carew offers us nothing on a day like yesterday and it means the other ten players on the field have to work even harder to carry our monumentally lazy no. 10. If it's one of those days when he produces a killer moment that leads to a goal it offsets the balance but the fact is those days are very, very few and far between. I genuinely think that if O'Neill is so dead set on playing 4-4-2 we are much better off giving Delfouneso a chance - he has greater stamina, better movement and for all his comparative inexperience, gets into the right positions to ask opposition defences more serious questions. The esteem in which Carew is held by Villa fans baffles me - I can only think that we are collectively so desperate for a talismanic centre forward that we have tried to help manufacture one out of Carew given his presence and generally likeable personality. The fact is he's not an especially good footballer - he has bad touch, always need one more than the Premier League allows, is slow off the mark to react to situations and doesn't match the effort of his teammates. Heskey, for his faults and limitations, at least offers better link up play and we've looked better with him as a regular start over the last two months.

Bottom line - neither are good enough and we can't finish in the top four without a striker alongside Agbonlahor who is vastly superior to these two in every department. The rest of team is looking very solid - add some true class up top and could break in. But this will undoubtedly require O'Neill to make his biggest gamble in the transfer market yet - let's hope in the summer he is up to the task.

something has gone wrong with Carew....He has been held in high esteem by the fans because he was good at what he does.... he isn't right now he is a shadow of the player he has been.

[Mantis]

Maybe Carew will find his form again soon? He's been out injured for a while don't forget.

[AVFC-Prideofbrum]

What was his excuse for the run of about 10 starts before he got injured?

[Vojskovoda]

"Boring boring Villa" - **** off you cockney shitheads, seeing as you were the HOME team, the onus was really more on you to score! I think it should be "Boring boring Spurs" because we scored at Villa Park against spuds... they couldn't do it against us at their ground.

[millbrook85]

Spurs have drawn four of their last seven league games.

That's not the point ... the intent to play attacking football and least really try to win, to take risks, is the point.

There is a thin line between taking risks and playing stupidly. When playing against top, top sides who are ruthless in punishing the smallest mistakes, what you might call "taking risks" is just stupid. We've beaten Man U, Chelsea, and Liverpool this season along with drawing Spurs twice and Arsenal once. I think those results against top sides more than justify the way we play against them. The race for the top four will be decided on gritty afternoons at Stoke, Wigan, Wolves etc. (and that's taking nothing away from those teams - no disrespect intended towards them). The games among the top sides are usually pretty cagey, with neither team wanting to give too much away. I think we need to do a much better job of controlling games when we're up against lower-placed teams who come to play defensively, but our results against good sides show that we have absolutely nothing to be embarrassed about in terms of how we play against them.

[Ponky]

I suspect we should have been more considerate to the Spurs fans and taken off a defender to bring on another striker, you know, for the sake of making it more of an attacking spectacle, because after all, the Villa players were just supporting actors for the main stars.

I mean how disgraceful would it be for the Washingto Generals to start playing a bit of defence, make it hard for the Globetrotters to score once in a while.

In fact, as a gesture I think Randy Lerner should refund all Spurs fans' tickets for boring them in such an offensive manner, thereby robbing them of the 2 points they were rightfully entitled to.

[villa89]

One point to note about the game was Carew's horrific performance. What a sack of crap he has become. He has been nothing short of dire all season and the attempted back flick shot was laughable. Definitely need to replace him ASAP. He seems to have lost all interest in playing for us.

[roonst83]

Hugley ironic when Spurs were singing "Boring, Boring Villa" when they were thumping the ball up to Crouch at every opportunity. Fair play to the villans who were down there singing their hearts out for the boys. Best moment of singing was in retaliation to the Spurs "Boring.." song was when the villa boys jumped up and down singing "If you're all going to Wembley clap your hands.." non-stop for ages - very loud and very proud.

Cant stand spurs or their fans. Was pleased with a point.

[roonst83]

You also say "the aim is to win your home games". Sorry, the aim is to try and win all games, which at least is what Spurs try to do.

Clearly frustrated that you couldnt score against a team who defended excellently. Did it not occur to you that our tactics may have been to frustrate you and then catch you on the break with a goal - this is what we tried to do - and but for a Gomes save in the first half we may well have achieved our mission. We go into every game to win it, no doubt about it.

You're proclaiming that Spurs are the Premier League entertainers..absolute tish mate. The only thing entertaining about Spurs is the constant revelations surrounding 'Arry Redknapp's dodgy transfer dealings...year in, year out.

Man City got turned over at your place as they left themselves exposed - with the players we have (i.e. young, milner, downing, gabby etc) we suit counter-attacking football - and play to our strength accordingly. Now our passing was piss-poor on Saturday, but we still took a point - yur team had no Plan B against us and were left hoofing it upto Crouch for a knock down to try and get a goal.

Stop doing what your manager does best...talk about other teams and realise that Spurs arnt exactly setting the world alight with fantastic football themsleves. No doubt you criticised Wolves and Stoke on their style of play when they beat you aswell.

We went to Man Utd and Liverpool and won with our style of play - did you guys do that? No, so you have no right to judge us and criticise how we play - you couldn't break us down at home which, if you were so much better than us then you would have done.

[barry'sboots]

To be fair to Spurs, at least they were pumping it up to a specific target. We were just hitting it long and hoping.

It was a poor game but we got a draw because of the brilliant defence.

[evel]

I did get annoyed at the way we just couldn’t keep possession in the 2nd half when we had the ball, passes going behind players, straight to there player, back to our goalkeeper… MON seems not to want to offend any of our MF’s and take them off, I personally would of got Carew off and got another MF on so we could at least boss that area of the pitch a bit more!

All very well saying spuds were going route one, but we kept giving them the ball back.

[Richard]

I've already said it was a better result for Villa than Spurs, so what are you arguing about?

The point I disputed was that it was a "great" result for Villa, when clearly it wasn't ... winning would have been great result for you, drawing is merely decent/OK.

It's clear beyond the slightest doubt that Villa played for a draw and that Spurs played for a win.

So we played for a draw and got one, yet it's only OK

You played for a win and didn't get one and it's not shite.

You're the one talking garbage, mind you it's not for the first time