[Archived] Spurs Preview 2-2-2011

[Sysagent]

Sorry - think Jones will turn out to be a class addition to the team. He adds some pace to the midfield we desperately need.

Keith Andrews was played partly to help out Salgado with Lennon. I am not his biggest fan - think it was a waste of the £1m we paid for him - but he didn't have a bad game. One bad pass - that admittedly nearly led to a goal - doesn't make a bad overall game. Rovers fans seem to have a blind spot over Andrews - I saw a player who contributed to the team pattern - whose passing was ok, but limited - and who worked his socks off from start to finish. Sometimes you have to play more limited players who can play to a team pattern - and Andrews isn't too bad at this. Emerton would have been ideal - but would have asked a lot given he is only just back.

Roberts - well I must be alone - given he got no protection from the ref - he didn't have too bad a game - and when you look at the highlights was involved in lots of our better play. What about Mame - thought he looked off the pace from the start.

Substitutions - hmm - MGP for a tiring Dunn - seemed logical to me - he had been superb in the first half but his influence had waned. Nzonzi for Jones - as Jones was injured and Nzonzi offers slightly more than Grella - again seemed logical. Mame replaced by Benjani - personal preference I suppose - personally I would have put on Kalanic - but lets not forget Benjani against Liverpool ! What would you have done differently ?

For me - don't think there were any bad performances - just better ones from Hoilett and Olsson. Special mention for Salgado - who did a good job against a far faster player in Lennon.

Tottinghams best player - has to be either Gomes or the referee - a close run thing. It would appear there is no such thing as 50/50 when playing Spuds. Good example - Jones brings down attacker - justified yellow card - Roberts turns Spuds defender - edge of penalty - pulled back - surely automatic yellow card - no. So frustrating - especially watching Crouch elbow players, ride on their backs - and yet get free kicks his way !

That ^ just about sums up last night's match for me, apart from the Robert's observation...

I think the Rover's fans would still have the same perception and reaction to Andrews even if he had a match playing like Zinedine Zidane, I have to admit I was frustrated at times with the game as it played out, but as ever Andrews is the easy scapegoat for the majority on Ewood, he wasn't brilliant on the night but got the job done that was asked of him to help out Salgado over there on the right against Lennon.

Jones continues to impress with his passing and timely interceptions, I think that we should have signed a left back in the window just passed, as Oslson is like a caged animal having to play back there defensively, he is far better playing further up the pitch as a winger and gives balance to the game with Hoilett on the right.

Defensively one mistake is what cost us the match, from there on in we pretty much contained Defoe and Crouch.

In my opinion the one thing that stopped us from winning this game by a fair margin was Gomes, he is a proper Jeckyll and Hyde goalie and unfortunately for us he was in top form tonight, anyways it's the Pie Eaters Saturday and if we play as attacking and well as we did last night then I think we may get a result.

[the gilstar]

For me it seems pretty simple - against a top side with a an experienced management tactition like old fish face you have to start with your strongest players on the pitch. Otherwise you risk having to chase the game...

So we started last night with less than our strongest players and included two who are clearly not able to deliver at the highest level, and we pay the price. Oh we huffed and we puffed alright, but to no avail - Spurs players simply did their jobs, calmly, consistently and collectively well. OK Gomes played a blinder, but it simply comes back to one thing - we got our tactics wrong. Full Stop.

how much have spurs payed for there players so they can play that type of football gomez was the man of the match your right with not starting with our strongest team still a good effort

[alexanders]

Did SK say anything about why he didnt involve Kalinic last night?

We needed a goalscorer and Kalinic is one!

[S15]

A lot of predictable nonsense on here. We deserved a result, when was the last time we deserved a point against Spurs? They had a better team than us, but we played very well, and the man of the match was their keeper.

People can be frustrated, but not angry. Some people on here know absolutely nothing about football.

[BRFCS Content]

This is Kamy.

In terms of chances created last night Rovers were extremely unlucky not to draw/win that game, but I guess the diffrence is that Tottenham's forward line cost inexcess of £20 million, whereas ours cost £3 million. You pay top dollar for the likes of Defoe and Crouch because they invariably put their chances away. Having said that can't fault the effort from our lads and it times we played some really good stuff.

The booing of Andrews is just plain stupid, everyone knows that he is a player of limited ability. The booing just makes him play worse, there were people booing at the start of the game when his name was announced, it also has a negative impact on the other players. While Andrews was poor last night, Jones was not much better. He will soon realise that you do not get time in this league and some of his distribution was very poor. I hope that this is just a phase of him getting used to the Premier League.

The biggest problem that I saw last night was the formation that Kean has been playing since the West Brom game. It seems as though we are playing a 4-1-3-2 formation (with Dunn pushed on). While it definitely works in terms of the amount of possession we have and it enabled us to create chances, what it does do is leave our full backs exposed. Against quick players like Lennon that is always going to cause problems, also teams that play with wingers are able to stretch us out of shape or if we keep out shape then it allows opposition full backs to make overlapping runs and expose our full backs. I really hope that there is a re-think against Wigan because N'Zogbia in particular could have a field day against Salgado.

There were quite a few people panicking last night that we may get sucked back into the relegation battle. We are on 31 points, probably need between 39-41 points to be season, so in effect we have 13 games to get those points. While it won't be easy I think we should be able to get to that total without to many alarms. Wigan game is one that we can win if our tactics are right, N'zogbia is their main man, need to make sure that he doesn't have time and space to run at our full backs (especially Salgado).

[philipl]

Feeling very low.

Much as I despair of Keith Andrews, booing him is entirely wrong.

More to the point though, an injury-ravaged Spurs showed the size of the gulf that exists between Rovers and a top five team. Yes we huffed and puffed, had nearly equal share of posession and hit some stuff that Gomez could save but for slickness and pace, we were nowhere near the standard of Spurs.

Perhaps Kean picked the side deliberately to show the watching Rao family how far short of the required standard we really are.

Otherwise I struggle to understand why Kean picked the team he did which was every bit as bad a selection as we suffered at Villa.

If he wants to pick a Sam team with Andrews and Roberts in it then give it the full Sam treatment with the ball going into the mixer early and often. Instead at 85 minutes gone, we strung a move of 8 passes together at the end of which the ball still hadn't travelled out of our own half. It finally went over the half way line to Keith who promptly lost control of it.

Incidentally, I did not like the way J Jones was holding his back when he came off. Was a bit disappointed in Jones who either is not used to the pace of the English game or is not match fit yet. He did however, slide a glorious pass through which MB Diouf was a touch too slow to read- unfortunately the story of MBD's evening.

[daveJ]

I certainly don't agree with booing Andrews. It is wrong to boo any player in our shirt

But the guy is truly awful. Last night he was neither here nor there. When we were going forward he seemed to be sitting. And when they were attacking he was ahead of the ball.

Everything seemed to pass him by

[alexanders]

I agree Andrews is a very limited player, but last night BEFORE the boos he had a good day at work.

He won the ball and had some nice passing. He is a great engine.

I can think of worse players on the pitch.

[Bobby G]

Overall, in terms of creating opportunities, we did in abundance. Our attacking play is much more potent than previously, and no one can deny it. We werent lucky last night to be honest, but we were playing an injury ravaged makeshift Spurs team with only Rafael van Der Vaart as a stand-out performer.

I am very disappointed that we couldnt get a point against that team, but when I saw the team sheet I knew there was no "quality" or match winners on our side. Pedersen out for Andrews was shocking. Yes, MGP had a stinker the game before, and if he was replaced by Emerton or Nzonzi I possibly could have seen some sense. But Andrews slowed down the game, and gave a couple of awful passes which led to shots that Robbo brilliantly saved.

We werent clinical. But in my opinion our best two "finishers" were out. Why wasnt Niko brought on? Is it me or does Diouf seem a bit "slow" and heavy when running?

Olsson was magnificent in the first half but neither of our strikers got into the positions that they were supposed to finish his crosses.

Very disappointed.

On a side-note, I am completely against booing our own player during a match just because of his lack of ability. Its a disgraceful thing to do. He is on the pitch, would you rather contribute negatively to him and the rest of the boys? Its stupid. However, him playing at this level gives every Rovers fan who is physically able to the dream of making it to the top. Its shocking how out of his depth he is. Technically the worst player Ive ever seen play for us. I doubt he can do 10 keepy uppies in a row.

[jim mk2]

Reading Redknapp's comments he was clearly delighted to win the match and also gave the impression that with the team he had he would gladly have taken a point and was expecting to lose.

The hated Spurs were there was the taking but Kean blew it by picking the wrong players and sticking to the same formation. He also does not appear to have a plan B because at present he is very rigid in his approach which seems to be to try to play pleasing football but forgetting that the basis of any good team is to defend properly. The way Rovers are set up at present with his diamond formation leaves us very exposed.

It's been said before but the aim of sport is to win, not provide entertainment.

[Bobby G]

Reading Redknapp's comments he was clearly delighted to win the match and also gave the impression that with the team he had he would gladly have taken a point and was expecting to lose.

The hated Spurs were there was the taking but Kean blew it by picking the wrong players and sticking to the same formation. He also does not appear to have a plan B because at present he is very rigid in his approach which seems to be to try to play pleasing football but forgetting that the basis of any good team is to defend properly. The way Rovers are set up at present with his diamond formation leaves us very exposed.

It's been said before but the aim of sport is to win, not provide entertainment.

Fair assessment in all aspects.

[only2garners]

2) 2nd half and we are going foward. we have players in the box and then keef gets the ball 25 yards out....trys to chip (looked that way to me) two spurs defenders that look like they are standing all but 5 yards away. they break up our attacking momentum and clear with considerable ease!!

I assume you mean the time late on when the ball fell to him on the edge of a crowded area, with fans screaming at him to shoot, which would have been a complete waste of time. Instead he tried to lift it over two Spurs defenders to Roberts. It was difficult but had it come off Roberts would have been clear in front of goal on the penalty spot - in itself no guarantee of a goal but that wouldn't have been Andrews' fault. Given the state of the game it had to have been worth trying and would have been the assist of the season had it come off.

[chris]

Reading Redknapp's comments he was clearly delighted to win the match and also gave the impression that with the team he had he would gladly have taken a point and was expecting to lose.

The hated Spurs were there was the taking but Kean blew it by picking the wrong players and sticking to the same formation. He also does not appear to have a plan B because at present he is very rigid in his approach which seems to be to try to play pleasing football but forgetting that the basis of any good team is to defend properly. The way Rovers are set up at present with his diamond formation leaves us very exposed.

It's been said before but the aim of sport is to win, not provide entertainment.

Redknapp talks sh1te

Defoe £16 million

Crouch £10 million

Verse

Roberts £2 million (probably nearer £500,000 now)

Diouf (Young unexperienced Loanie)

Ask him if he would reconsider his chances of winning

[Hughesy]

After the lapse of concentration on 3 minutes – I thought the 10 men of Rovers battled well.

We created plenty of chances, but it was just one of those nights where every bounce and bit of luck went the opposition’s way. Gomes was In inspired form and it just wasn’t to be. Overall though I think we were the best side & can see very promising signs in the way we are trying to play.

Hoilett MOM once again for us….the only one gripe I had about him & Olsson last night was that they murdered Corluka in the 1st half and he made a couple of fouls, then early in the 2nd he got booked for a foul on Hoilett…which could have seen him get a 2nd booking on the edge of the box later – but my gripe was that after he got booked, I would have liked to see Hoilett & Olsson exploit that weakness and got at him for the rest of the night as he couldn’t afford another booking.

Overall MOM – Spurs keeper, which tells its own story – and good to see us not fear a bigger team anymore….deserved at least a draw.

10 men appraisals:

Robbo – Solid, and stood no chance with the goal

Salgado – Decent game

Nelsen – Good game, just wish he thought abit more with his distribution

Samba – Except for getting caught out for Crouch’s goal – tried to lead the team, often making runs with the ball as nobody offered an outlet.

Olsson – Good game - offered himself going forward as always, and decent in defence too.

Dunn – Probably one of his best games for some time, unlucky with a couple of near misses

Jones – Got caught out once or twice on the ball, but also played 3 lovely balls at the beginning of the 2nd half.

Hoilett – Improving every week & starting to look more and more like a future star

Roberts – Battled well, but never really creates anything for himself & didn’t really do anything of any note in an attacking sense…Impact player!

Mame – Made some good runs, and got clear of his marker a few times, but for some reason seemed abit off his normal pacey game.

Subs –

NZonzi – Did ok after replacing the injured Jones (looked like a back injury)

MGP – Did ok, but his freekick from the edge of the box frustrated me….straight at the keeper with all them bodies in the way, he should be hitting it to either side with that sort of power & it would have stood a better chance of going in.

Benjani – Held the ball well, and looked far more likely to create something himself than what Roberts had managed all game.

[Harrier7]

We Stanley fans have a similar "Andrews problem" in that one particular player, who in our case, is always picked for other than football reasons. This is really spoiling, for me, what should otherwise be a pretty good season. We would never , however, subject any of our players to such idiotic booing, which brings cringing shame on your club. I can't think of any other place where this could happen, other than the stupid booing of former players returning to play with a visiting team. What a miserable place Ewood must be for the players.

[Mercer]

Reading Redknapp's comments he was clearly delighted to win the match and also gave the impression that with the team he had he would gladly have taken a point and was expecting to lose.

The hated Spurs were there was the taking but Kean blew it by picking the wrong players and sticking to the same formation. He also does not appear to have a plan B because at present he is very rigid in his approach which seems to be to try to play pleasing football but forgetting that the basis of any good team is to defend properly. The way Rovers are set up at present with his diamond formation leaves us very exposed.

It's been said before but the aim of sport is to win, not provide entertainment.

Agree with all this.

If we play well and lose, what will happen when we 'lose form' ?

Feeling far less optimistic than pre Villa game. Lose at Wigan and we will be right back in it up to our necks. With a far from easy run-in, unfortunately, some worrying days ahead.

[thenodrog]

We needed a goalscorer and Kalinic is one!

Actually alexanders, our leading scorer's been sent on loan to Rangers on the strict orders from Neil Warnock. A decision which has had the massed ranks of the Ewood know-nowts nodding wisely and uttering quips like 'don't let the door slam on you on the way out' as he departed. Apart from that out of our top seven goal scorers this season only Nelsen started last night. So no massive suprise we ended with a big fat NIL is it?

But overall a decent performance with nothing to show at the end. It's crap but it happens. Hoillet and Olsson's performances deserved better reward for sure but how do people think Wolves fans must have felt leaving the breezeblock last night? With the exception of the excellent Peter Crouch and the comic that is Gomez Spurs and their back 4 in particular were there for the taking and a combination of bad luck and excellent goalkeeping led to us letting them off the hook. I'm sure we would have walked this match if only we'd signed a striker who is not made of tissue paper.

btw I thought Arsenal were the lucky team in London too.

Decent ref too apart from possessing rather mystefying judgement on what constitutes a yellow card and what doesn't. Apart from that he got most things right last night. I might be being churlish but I can only think the colour of shirt must be one of the factors in his decisions.

Subs? Jones appeared to be alternating between blowing bubbles and holding his back. The pace of the Prem does appear to hamper many foreign imports doesn't it? Whilst anybody not bust booing and getting their mates to do the same could see that Dunny had run his race and was daed in the water. (btw interesting fact that I heard last night, maybe some statto might confirm it... Over the past 4 seasons David Dunn has started and finished an average of just 6 matches per season! As I've said before Dunn's remuneration it kinda makes Torres's wages look cheap. Odd that nodbody ever boos him isn't it? Maybe next season I'll move to the Blackburn End and start an anti Dunn chant off every other week.

There was a film made in the 90's called 'White men can't jump'. Notwithstanding the fact that the title would have spread sheer terror amongst certain moderators of this site big Chris Samba took just 4 minutes to smash that theory to smithereens and actually prove the opposite. One hideously bad moment coming on the back of very similar defending at Villa Park cost us all three points and our place in the FA Cup. Funny how the Blackburn End goons didn't see fit to boo him too but who am I to judge?

Wigan on Sat will have more spice to it now. We need to keep our heads above water this month.

Feeling very low.

Perhaps Kean picked the side deliberately to show the watching Rao family how far short of the required standard we really are.

Dangerous bloody game when many suspect that Allardyce did that at Old Trafford!

btw Anybody superstitious out there? Just like women on a warship I'm beginning to suspect that that our Joan is a jinx! Party and big screen for the MU away fixture and a personal appearence for the Spurs match and sweet FA to show for both. Maybe some have judged Andy and Richard too harshly?

[thenodrog]

I agree Andrews is a very limited player, but last night BEFORE the boos he had a good day at work.

He won the ball and had some nice passing. He is a great engine.

I can think of worse players on the pitch.

In fairness to the Keefy haters winning balls in midfield is simply something that he does not do at all well.

[LeftWinger]

Actually alexanders, our leading scorer's been sent on loan to Rangers on the strict orders from Neil Warnock. A decision which has had the massed ranks of the Ewood know-nowts nodding wisely and uttering quips like 'don't let the door slam on you on the way out' as he departed.

The irony.

[sjsbrfc]

Actually alexanders, our leading scorer's been sent on loan to Rangers.

Wrong Diouf, M B Diouf is our top scorer!

[CAPT KAYOS]

Defensively one mistake is what cost us the match, from there on in we pretty much contained Defoe and Crouch.

how many times does this keep happening - sometimes more than once

Missing chances galore/ defensive lapses / making goalkeepers look good -- anybody else get that deja-vu feeling again?

[thenodrog]

The irony.

F@~K!

Fair do's. I'll not edit it's a proper hands up offence lw. Never assume anything my old boss used to say. Screwed up when I was checking Pedersons total.

On the subject of Diouf though he missed two excellent chances to add to his total by not going into the back post when two excellent crosses were pinged across. Derbyshire was not up to Prem standard and thats why SA got rid but I've a feeling he'd have got on the end of at least one.

[cloggyjimmybrfc]

You have to look at kean for his selection last night,not Andrews you can't blame the lad for coming here and trying his best,granted he's nowhere near Prem level and imo struggle at n-power level....

The booing from team selection right through the game was pathetic I don't have to voice my reasons why Andrews should never even get on the bench never mind the team..its all been said 1000 times over..

Kean as to learn to play his strongest 11 against wiley foxes like arry.last night was very dissapointing to read the line up....therefore I blame mostly kean for the loss....I'm praying he doesn't select Andrews (I'm saving the lad from another witching hour)for the wigan game because the same muppets will be out in force doing their cow impressions.....massive game Saturday......LET'S GET BEHIND THE TEAM F.F.S.

[Ricky]

...and who's pederson whilst we're at it Gordon

We do have a Pedersen. But I'm sure the non know-nowts like you know that

[thenodrog]

...and who's pederson whilst we're at it Gordon

Blackburn Ender are you Ricky? Alright then if you want to be picky..... Ganst.

btw Thats guideline 3 and 7 transgressed. 3 inadvertantly by me and 4 intentionally by you.

....... I only know that cos I've become a bloody expert on em recently.