3rd pre season game , who is convinced about team play?

[neilmcnab]

watched a few games so far as i do most pre season, liverpool build up and pass, as do man utd, just watched b,burn, and they look similar to us, except they try to pass, so far we seem to struggle to pass, and the gol against v sth african minnows, was as last season a defensive blunder, centre half, gardener, and keeper robbo, geting in a muddle and allow old boy bartlett to get in between them and score a headed goal, very poor in my opinion, i know its early but id of hoped we looked better than last term, it also looks real bad on our left side as it has looked for the last few seasons, midfield was ruled by the home team also concerning,what amazes me is that these professionals actually train together, and that is their performance, routledge, daws, robbo, jenas , zoko, all look the same, very uncomfortable on the ball, which is the biggest concern, THESE ARE MY OBSERVATIONS, I KNOW ITS VERY EARLY, AND THERE ARE 4 WEEKS BEFORE OUR 1ST GAME V SUN,LAND.BUT ID HOPED WE,D ATLEAST LOOKED COMFORTABLE ON THE BALL. AND HAD A STING TO OUR GAME.

[Ioang]

After last preseason, I don't give a shit how we do, as long as we get fit and show the commitment needed come sunderland, as every premiership fan will be watching and I want to lay down a signal of intent.

[berbzy 'G']

watched a few games so far as i do most pre season, liverpool build up and pass, as do man utd, just watched b,burn, and they look similar to us, except they try to pass, so far we seem to struggle to pass, and the gol against v sth african minnows, was as last season a defensive blunder, centre half, gardener, and keeper robbo, geting in a muddle and allow old boy bartlett to get in between them and score a headed goal, very poor in my opinion, i know its early but id of hoped we looked better than last term, it also looks real bad on our left side as it has looked for the last few seasons, midfield was ruled by the home team also concerning,what amazes me is that these professionals actually train together, and that is their performance, routledge, daws, robbo, jenas , zoko, all look the same, very uncomfortable on the ball, which is the biggest concern, THESE ARE MY OBSERVATIONS, I KNOW ITS VERY EARLY, AND THERE ARE 4 WEEKS BEFORE OUR 1ST GAME V SUN,LAND.BUT ID HOPED WE,D ATLEAST LOOKED COMFORTABLE ON THE BALL. AND HAD A STING TO OUR GAME.

Considering Defoe, Lennon, King, Bale, and Kaboul didn't play injured or at home... I thought we done quite well, We could of won that game with another 3 or 4 goals if the linesman were wearing there glasses but nevermind... As long as we can sort out our injury problems ready for Sunderland, We'll be good on the ball... and in that Kazier Chiefs game, We didn't really have our 1st team that we would normally have either... I mean in the prem we wouldn't have our reserves playing... I don't think any Club really try to win the game in Pre-seasons anyway... theres not really much point... But I feel comfortable?

[peterc]

[QUOTE=berbs;54051]Considering Defoe, Lennon, King, Bale, and Kaboul didn't play injured or at home... I thought we done quite well, We could of won that game with another 3 or 4 goals if the linesman were wearing there glasses but nevermind... As long as we can sort out our injury problems ready for Sunderland, We'll be good on the ball... and in that Kazier Chiefs game, We didn't really have our 1st team that we would normally have either... I mean in the prem we wouldn't have our reserves playing... I don't think any Club really try to win the game in Pre-seasons anyway... theres not really much point... But I feel comfortable?[/QUOTE

Chimbo is still a Spurs player;)

[hastingsyid]

at the moment im not too concerned,aslong as the players stay fit and dont get injured then roll on the season...............COYS

[Keanoldinho]

preseason games mean nothing just look at last season we were looking real good in preseason beating everyone then Bolton gave us a beating in the first game.

As long as the players get fit and nobody important gets injured we'll be ready to get a win against sunderland.

[neilmcnab]

is that u keanoldinho mate, im concerned that we cant keep the ball, cos to me its a mark of progress, that players should show composure on the ball, and create space to dictate the pass, very hard to work out what spurs team was doing on the pitch, n e way good to hear from u mate

[berbzy 'G']

prefere your older avator you used to have keanaldinho?

[Spur]

prefere your older avator you used to have keanaldinho?

You weren't even here when he was! Unless...you actually are rickyh???

It's a general rule with Spurs that whenever we do badly pre-season we do well in the real thing - so i'm off down the bookies and putting a ton on us winning the league!

Seriously, they mean nothing so it's not worth getting wound up over. Obviously i'd like us to win 8-0 and play total football, but it's not the end of the world if we don't. Just as long as we keep winning the games i'm a happy man.

[choda]

How do you know Keanoldinho, Berbs?

Are you Ricky H?

I don't care anyway because you've grown up and sorted yourself out, but that was bad slip buddy. :o

By the way welcome back Keanoldinho mate. :)

I hope you kept hold of the soap!

Have you seen our new strikeforce? The world class Berbatov and bordering on world class Keano. 45 goals between them. :p

[choda]

is that u keanoldinho mate, im concerned that we cant keep the ball, cos to me its a mark of progress, that players should show composure on the ball, and create space to dictate the pass, very hard to work out what spurs team was doing on the pitch, n e way good to hear from u mate

Sometimes we can be more critical of our own side I feel.

I mean you are saying Blackburn or Liverpool pass it better, which just isn't true. I'd be tearing my hair out of I was a pool fan. I already do it when I watch them as a spurs fan.

We are developing as a side and it takes time. Last year our passing and work rate improved as the season went.

I don't share your concern, we are one of the better passing teams in the league. We often dominate the possession in a way that not many other teams are capable of. But sometimes our young team then takes the lead and bottles it. That's just something they have to learn about.

I agree the left side needs sorting. But Taarby will be able to play there, he's awesome. I'd still prefer him to understudy Petrov or some other class senior player for this year though.

[Keanoldinho]

haha choda ya funny ****er

but yeah our strike force is looking real good throw Defoe in and they scored 63 goals. Now we got Bent to we'll be looking to win something next year lets just hope our defence gets over all these little shitty injuries.

[choda]

Yea, Defoe scored 18 too, but he was obsessed with his own pursuit of goals to the detriment of the team.

Team play very poor and no good movement to create space for himself or others.

Still not my favourite spurs player. ;)

One of the reasons we ended much better was Berba and Keane being first choice.

Berba and Keane scored while also being excellent all round strikers and were telepathic in their understanding together. They won a joint prem player of the month!

Keane had the highest goals per minute in the England. :cool:

And we've added Bent. :D

I think he's a great player. Pace, power and movement in behind, exactly what we don't have. He'll be great off the bench and can replace either of the front two.

I think he's as good a striker as Keane actually.

[olly27]

Whats the point in us wiping teams 6-0?...there is none..at least the players had a decent workout...and thats what these South African teams will give us...proper preparation in my opinion.

[neilmcnab]

ahh whats the point of whipping teams... errr you have selected memories ehh.. last season as with the season b 4 we greatly struggled to beat or ven score against lesser teams, and we lost or drew against most of the teams iaround us or above us...because of lack of team play, i.e composure on ball, passing to our OWN players, and generally not being able to string 3 passes together, and we have started the same way again,ALSO LAST SEASON I RAISED THE POINT ABOUT A CENTRE BACK, AND MOST PEOPLE DIDNT AGREE, AND SURE ENUF, FEW DAYS BEFORE START OF SEASON KING GETS INJURED AND SUBSEQUENTLY WE COULDNT WIN A GAME, OR LOOK COMFORTABLE, RESULTING IN ROBBO LONG KICK, DAWS LONG KICKS, BUT WHAT DO I KNOW YOU GUYS ASSURE ME SPURS WILL BE EXCELLENT, WELL DOMINATE TEAMS AND WIN GAMES CONVINCINGLY,also choda liverpool they are and will be million miles ahead of us.. just momo sissoko alone would run riot against our lathargic midfield, in my opinion... C OY S...

[choda]

Chill the **** out Neil.

It doesn't happen overnight. We are progressing every year, what more do you want?

I don't understand fans like you.

Liverpool's passing is ****ing awful for a team of that standard, it's worse than us, no question.

They bypass the midfield so often. It's embarassing because they have Alonso and Machearano, who can pass excellently.

And I thought we were talking about passing and not points, the two aren't always the same. But they did only finish 8 points ahead of us. It's hardly miles ahead considering they finished 21 behind Manu.

Manu finished 8 or so behind Chelsea last year. Were they miles behind?

I expect pool to be a strong outfit, but we are strengthening too.

We're far from perfect yet, but the signs are good. We want to play the right way, which is a start, and we have a lot of potential and quality which will hopefully gel into a super team.

What ever you say we have shown repeated patches of real quality in the last two seasons, and that is a good sign. It's better than anything in the recent past and better than the other level two teams.

I wanted 2 defenders (centre and left), a striker, 1 or 2 wingers, and an attacking midfielder. Everything so far has been sorted to my satisfaction apart from the midfield, so you weren't out in the bare winter all on your own Neil!

I'm sure one or two others wanted a defender or two as well. ;)

[olly27]

ahh whats the point of whipping teams... errr you have selected memories ehh.. last season as with the season b 4 we greatly struggled to beat or ven score against lesser teams, and we lost or drew against most of the teams iaround us or above us...because of lack of team play, i.e composure on ball, passing to our OWN players, and generally not being able to string 3 passes together, and we have started the same way again,ALSO LAST SEASON I RAISED THE POINT ABOUT A CENTRE BACK, AND MOST PEOPLE DIDNT AGREE, AND SURE ENUF, FEW DAYS BEFORE START OF SEASON KING GETS INJURED AND SUBSEQUENTLY WE COULDNT WIN A GAME, OR LOOK COMFORTABLE, RESULTING IN ROBBO LONG KICK, DAWS LONG KICKS, BUT WHAT DO I KNOW YOU GUYS ASSURE ME SPURS WILL BE EXCELLENT, WELL DOMINATE TEAMS AND WIN GAMES CONVINCINGLY,also choda liverpool they are and will be million miles ahead of us.. just momo sissoko alone would run riot against our lathargic midfield, in my opinion... C OY S...

Think your missing the point slightly!!!......pre season is about conditioning and getting fitness levels up...ok if we whip a side fair enough..but the main objective is getting the players fit...I would much rather see the side have 3 or 4 close games which have tested them..than see them stroll about and wiping a league 2 side without even breaking a sweat...hence the reason we are taking part in the SA tourny...those SA teams really want to impress and are taking the games quite seriously..which can only help us in achieving the aforemetioned objectives...

[\jackdaw]

Personally I never read too much into pre season games, they really are just to get fitness up in my opinion.

Also look at the teams MJ has fielded, not exactly our starting 11. The time will come closer to the start of the season when the stronger players will be fielded that will be the time to see how much progression has been made.

I am not expecting a flying start to the season but as long as we are in the top 5 by xmas then a good season will be had.

[JJ]

Not too fussed at the moment to be honest. These games are pretty much entirely for fitness. We've got injuries, its rarely the same players starting, the pitches aren't very good at all and i'm pretty sure its alot hotter than it is here.

Like Spur said, as long as we're winning them at this point, it doesn't really matter.

[JJ]

Liverpool's passing is ****ing awful for a team of that standard, it's worse than us, no question.

They bypass the midfield so often. It's embarassing because they have Alonso and Machearano, who can pass excellently.

Liverpool don't make sense. Like you say with that midfield they should be playing alot more passing football, but they don't. Personally i put that down to Benitez not being a player. Same with Mourinho and Chelsea.

[mjbmedia]

yet bizarely they still both manage to finish well above us last season with Liverpool wrongly 'giving up' in the last few games of the season to help us close to just! 8 points was it?

Man U played the South African tourney last pre season and went on to win the title.....................i wonder :cool:

[TomMcLaren]

I blame Rafa for the crappy passing, and MJB is right about 'pool giving up towards the end to focus on the CL final.

[Chaydle]

yet bizarely they still both manage to finish well above us last season with Liverpool wrongly 'giving up' in the last few games of the season to help us close to just! 8 points was it?



Not forgetting the small matter of playing in a Champions league final!
If Liverpool's passing is so much worse than ours then i'd be happy with that compared to a UEFA cup quarter final!

[choda]

yet bizarely they still both manage to finish well above us last season with Liverpool wrongly 'giving up' in the last few games of the season to help us close to just! 8 points was it?

Man U played the South African tourney last pre season and went on to win the title.....................i wonder :cool:

Well, they started way ahead of where we are trying to catch up to, for a start. And they are defensive teams, we are not. There is a bit of apples and oranges.

They grind out, we don't. When we try to grind, give up territory and possession, we lose. We need to look at other teams who play quality winning football at all levels like manu, barca, milan etc. and use them as a template.

There are ways to kill a game at 2-0 apart from sitting off and giving them the ball!

But as I keep saying, a young team has to learn how to be able to adjust the tempo and hold possession etc.

If you look at manu, they have mastered this from the late 90's. They can fly at you when needing a goal or what they are even better at is holding a lead.
They slow it down at a comfortable two goal cushion and just keep possession. They 'kill' the game, and any fight back, in the most efficient and entertaining way and then they patiently wait to pick you off with the pacey players.

I think a call for patience is again in order for many spurs fans. I wonder why they call us fickle?

And pre-season is pre-season for god's sake, it's more about getting fit and feeling your way back into playing again.

[Gino Ginelli]

Just to re-iterate Choda; There's been a big build up to our new season, with most people expecting a dynamic explosion of success, with a trophy or two and 4th place all coming our way. The usual pre-season excitement is always tempting to get caught up in, but it may pay to be restrained and realistic here, if only to save yourself the frustration when we don't go and hammer Sunderland 4-0 on day one.

I personally am only expecting 5th place again. The top 3 are still way too hard to break into, and I feel the Gooners still have too decent enough of a batch of young players, not to mention Fabric-ass & Rosicky, to be written off yet. As much of a nob-head Wenger is, he's shrewd enough in judging his players that I feel he'd be panicing a lot more if they were genuinely shit.

All I'm saying is that we're still a season or two away from being the awesomeness that everyone expects this year.

[choda]

Come the end of transfer season I could well be predicting fifth as our most likely destination too.

I hope not. I hope we can sign 2 or 3 top class midfielders and then I will feel we are favourites to overtake the arse.

I think we need a left winger, preferably another winger and a central attacker better than Jenas to be favourites.

But Ljungbergs' comments this week give further encouragement that this is the time to do it.

[Gino Ginelli]

But Ljungbergs' comments this week give further encouragement that this is the time to do it.

Without doubt. While not quite a "sinking ship", the Arse are definately taking on water at the Bow (or Stern depending on the accuracy of Wenger's leanings). I think the danger comes not nessecarily from catching Arsenal, but from allowing Everton/Blackburn/Bolton to catch us!

[neilmcnab]

hold on a bit, the feed back im getting from a lot of guys is your happy to finish mid table, and well one day get better, especially when the other teams above us and around us get worse, sounds a bit of a loosers habit is taking over a few on here, my point about pre season is not about winning games but its about creating and looking like you know what to do with the ball, we spurs dont, man u do, as do chelsea, arsenal and liverpool, i sit down expecting to see football, you know passing that round thing around the field opening up the other team, and creating chances, nothing more, and in that aspect we do look lacking, err choda you know far too much...

[neilmcnab]

arsenal could field any 11 of their 1st team including new recruits, and they seem to work the ball up and down the field, we just dont seem to create the same openings,AND IF YOU CALL ROBBO PUNTING THE BALL THE LENGTH OF THE PITCH FOOTBALL, THEN I STAND CORRECTED. ANYWAY LETS SEE TONITE, HOW WE PERFORM... COS THE LAST 2 SEASONS WE HAVE LOOKED QUITE LOST FOR LONG PERIODS OF MOST GAMES IVE WATCHED...

[mjbmedia]

good call Neil

[choda]

hold on a bit, the feed back im getting from a lot of guys is your happy to finish mid table, and well one day get better, especially when the other teams above us and around us get worse, sounds a bit of a loosers habit is taking over a few on here, my point about pre season is not about winning games but its about creating and looking like you know what to do with the ball, we spurs dont, man u do, as do chelsea, arsenal and liverpool, i sit down expecting to see football, you know passing that round thing around the field opening up the other team, and creating chances, nothing more, and in that aspect we do look lacking, err choda you know far too much...

I know far too much? Lol.

You should be agreeing with me so. :confused:

I usually agree with you Neil, but I can't agree at all with what you have said on this thread.

We didn't have any trouble scoring goals last year. We had one of the highest scoring records in europe.

I can't see how you can say Liverpool and Chelsea pass it better than us. Certainly not Liverpool anyway and not Chelsea if we reach their overall standard.

When I sit down to watch Chelsea and Liverpool I usually get confused at some point and have to remember I'm not watching Rugby. The cl semi-final first leg made me want to puke. It was some other sport, certainly not football.

I'd actually stop watching the game if everybody played like them. I only watch them in big games, otherwise I'd close the curtains if they were in my back yard.

And if spurs played like them I'd be bitching the way you are now and leading the Jol out campaign.

I think you are confusing points creation and even to an extent goals scored with how it was done. The two can be very different from team to team.

And I'd wager I'm more ambitous than you Neil, but I also know where we came from. Rome wasn't built in a day.

And in case you haven't noticed we're not in mid-table anymore Neil, so how could we still be content with it! Lol.

We are content that the club is continually progressing and building a quality young side. Do you really think any manager could have come in and took over the patently average side we had, started the rebuilding and have done much better to this point than Jol has?

If you go through last years team most were bought for 1-2 million and many were sold for similar prices, and Carrick for 18 million. He has not spent much (until now), but rather done it the only way spurs can become great again which is by buying potential and building a team.

This is the logical, balanced opinion Neil.

And Arsenal groom their youngsters through the academies in their style of play. In patches the kids can beat anyone and play great, but if you threw them in at he deep end like our lads playing 60 games a year, then they would struggle to finish top six initially.

The two games a week and a few losses would start to hit them hard and the flowing football would go out the window to a large extent. They would have to learn things just like our boys.

Just because we were in bad rut and giving tired performances coming into the semi and they were fresh, bright eyed and on a mini-roll doesn't mean that much.

In hindsight it is to be expected from a young team that they don't show up for patches of their first 60 game season.

We pass it as well as anyone at times. The trouble is we need to grow-up a bit and be able to do it 90% of the time instead of 40%, like manu, barca etc. And **** Arsene by the way and his european failures. They are a prem designed break away team.

How do you like that ambition?

But we do need to add some more quality attacking midfielders (a left winger and an attacking mid or the real Jenas) and continue to develop to be a top team.

[Gino Ginelli]

hold on a bit, the feed back im getting from a lot of guys is your happy to finish mid table, and well one day get better, especially when the other teams above us and around us get worse, sounds a bit of a loosers habit is taking over a few on here, my point about pre season is not about winning games but its about creating and looking like you know what to do with the ball, we spurs dont, man u do, as do chelsea, arsenal and liverpool, i sit down expecting to see football, you know passing that round thing around the field opening up the other team, and creating chances, nothing more, and in that aspect we do look lacking, err choda you know far too much...

Woah, I'd be far from happy with mid-table! I know I say I expect 5th, but anything less than 6th and I'll be fuming.

And my caution that I'd be more worried about the likes of Everton/Blackburn or Newcastle is exactly in line with your concern over us waiting for others to fail rather than us getting better than them. This is a great opportunity to overtake Arsenal as they are weaker than they have been for a good few years now, but we need to make sure we stay significantly better than the rest of the top 10

[neilmcnab]

there you go gino can see the points im making,look b,burn come to ours with hardly any household names, and play us off our own park, everton do the same,my concerns is that m.hughes, and moyes, can coach their respective teams to pass the ball to players in the same team shirts , our lot at times cant make 2 or 3 passes, and hardly one pass goin forward, arsenal man u and chel, play at times at walking pace, then up the tempo, they have a method of getting from A to B, OUR LOT 4 OR 5 CHASING THE PLAYER WITH THE BALL, yesterday for instance, 1 goal and sit back, then when they scored we looked panicky...and those teams are far inferior, man u gave their oponents 5 by 58minutes, and game before 3,4 by the same time, their out the traps working the other team, we are goin at half speed,THE WAY A TEAM TRAINS IS THE WAY A TEAM PLAYS...spurs need to adress the way they train, for me i expect a lot more from midfield

[Spur]

I think thats just down to the midfield being generally shite.

[TomMcLaren]

there you go gino can see the points im making,look b,burn come to ours with hardly any household names, and play us off our own park, everton do the same,my concerns is that m.hughes, and moyes, can coach their respective teams to pass the ball to players in the same team shirts , our lot at times cant make 2 or 3 passes, and hardly one pass goin forward, arsenal man u and chel, play at times at walking pace, then up the tempo, they have a method of getting from A to B, OUR LOT 4 OR 5 CHASING THE PLAYER WITH THE BALL, yesterday for instance, 1 goal and sit back, then when they scored we looked panicky...and those teams are far inferior, man u gave their oponents 5 by 58minutes, and game before 3,4 by the same time, their out the traps working the other team, we are goin at half speed,THE WAY A TEAM TRAINS IS THE WAY A TEAM PLAYS...spurs need to adress the way they train, for me i expect a lot more from midfield

I just want to point at that we played Everton at home when we were generally shit (i.e. first few games of the season), and we sucked against Blackburn at home because JJ wasn't playing.

[Gino Ginelli]

we sucked against Blackburn at home because JJ wasn't playing.

?????!!!!!!!

[TomMcLaren]

?????!!!!!!!

What? Not turning into a Berbs are you? ;)

[Gino Ginelli]

What? Not turning into a Berbs are you? ;)

No, just bewildered how Jeans NOT playing was a bad thing. Surely if he WAS playing it would've been worse?!

But hey, let's not start the whole JJ thing again... :confused:

[choda]

I just want to point at that we played Everton at home when we were generally shit (i.e. first few games of the season), and we sucked against Blackburn at home because JJ wasn't playing.

I was nodding in agreement until the last three words!

But every team has bad days. We were very up and down this year. By Neil's logic Bolton pass it better than Arsenal. :confused:

I'm sorry, this is absolute cock.

Everton and Blackburn have good coaches and decent to good players and they play pretty good football. Well, blackburn do anyway, everton are more about work rate.

We have a good coach of a young team with some real quality and play some very attractive stuff at times, the trouble is it has been too patchy for consistant results.

But we are different gravy to Blackburn and Everton, hence the fact we finished 5th two years running, something their current teams haven't been able to do.

And it's obvious to anyone we are a better footballing side. In the Uefa cup, Sevilla and Spurs we were by far the most stylish teams.

[neilmcnab]

everton and b,burn operate on a minimum budjet for a long time we are a big london club, we have money and many players and as you can see everton and b,burn are not far from us, and please dont take my observations out of context, OUR METHOD OF GETTING AROUND THE PITCH IS NON EXISTANT AT TIMES, IF YOU LOOK AT OTHER TEAMS AROUND US THEY HAVE A PLAN A WAY TO MANIPULATE THE BALL DURING THE GAME, WE FAR TOO OFTEN LOOK AS IF "ER WHAT DO I DO NOW" 'ER THE BALL IS BEING PASSED TO ME" ER,. Not push and move , make an angle , look over my sholder to see whats on, whos behind me etc,WE JUST DONT LOOK COMFORTABLE, IF THE BALL GOES BACK,WHICH IT USUALLY DOES, ITS A LONG KICK FROM ROBBO OR DAWS, KABOUL IS A BREATH OF FRESH AIR HE TRIES TO PLAY, OTHER TEAMS GO BACK AND DRAG OPONENTS AROUND BEFORE GOIN FORWARD AND CREATING OPENINGS, THATS FOOTBALL ...

[olly27]

I cant believe what am reading!!!...lets just say I agree with Choda (not because it seems to be the stylish thing to do these days!) ever so slightly!!

[TomMcLaren]

Neil - I definately saw that at the beginning of last season, first half a dozen games(?) were terrible, v frustrating, Everton at home was a prime example. However, I think we sorted that out massively as the season went on, and we were carving teams up at times last year, so I don't expect this to be a problem this year.

BTW, JJ was one of the biggest criminals at the beginning of last season, which was why I slated him so much, but he's sorted it out now. :D

[olly27]

Neil - I definately saw that at the beginning of last season, first half a dozen games(?) were terrible, v frustrating, Everton at home was a prime example. However, I think we sorted that out massively as the season went on, and we were carving teams up at times last year, so I don't expect this to be a problem this year.

BTW, JJ was one of the biggest criminals at the beginning of last season, which was why I slated him so much, but he's sorted it out now. :D

Well as everyone knows the 2nd half of the season was a huge improvement on the first...new players adjusting played a big part..Zokora was even dropped for a while after the Liverpool game at the lane (I think)...a certain Mr Davenport was responsible for a shocking defensive display against Everton at home...no doubt about it..after beating Fulham in the cup 4-0 was the significant turning point of the season...even though there had been some decent performances before that..namely Newcastle at home..allbeit we lost..god knows how!!...I feel that was the real turning point..I think it coincided after the defeat to Sheffield United and Big Martin took action introducing a tougher training regime whilst the club enjoyed a bye against Feyenoord. I am encouraged that there wont be whole sale changes - instead just some quality additions...otherwise it could be another slow start...much the same as last season...I think some underestimate the amount of time it can it take a team to gel and gather understanding on the pitch when there are a lot of new faces introduced regardless of their quality...it still takes time...just my thoughts..

[choda]

Neil - I definately saw that at the beginning of last season, first half a dozen games(?) were terrible, v frustrating, Everton at home was a prime example. However, I think we sorted that out massively as the season went on, and we were carving teams up at times last year, so I don't expect this to be a problem this year.

BTW, JJ was one of the biggest criminals at the beginning of last season, which was why I slated him so much, but he's sorted it out now. :D

I think that's exactly right. I was moaning about it for the first few months, but times change!

I do think JJ improved towards the end of the season, but I hope to god he doesn't think he's 'sorted it now'!

[choda]

Well as everyone knows the 2nd half of the season was a huge improvement on the first...new players adjusting played a big part..Zokora was even dropped for a while after the Liverpool game at the lane (I think)...a certain Mr Davenport was responsible for a shocking defensive display against Everton at home...no doubt about it..after beating Fulham in the cup 4-0 was the significant turning point of the season...even though there had been some decent performances before that..namely Newcastle at home..allbeit we lost..god knows how!!...I feel that was the real turning point..I think it coincided after the defeat to Sheffield United and Big Martin took action introducing a tougher training regime whilst the club enjoyed a bye against Feyenoord. I am encouraged that there wont be whole sale changes - instead just some quality additions...otherwise it could be another slow start...much the same as last season...I think some underestimate the amount of time it can it take a team to gel and gather understanding on the pitch when there are a lot of new faces introduced regardless of their quality...it still takes time...just my thoughts..

Spot on Northerner. ;)

And just to clarify, is it stylish to agree with me or not right now?

[olly27]

Spot on Northerner. ;)

And just to clarify, is it stylish to agree with me or not right now?

It certainly is sir!...:)...

[choda]

It certainly is sir!...:)...

It wasn't stylish back in october I can tell you, flaming nora.

[olly27]

It wasn't stylish back in october I can tell you, flaming nora.

First impressions are over-rated!! (at least on forums)...I now reserve judgement as oppossed to being flippant!!

[choda]

First impressions are over-rated!! (at least on forums)...I now reserve judgement as oppossed to being flippant!!

You might tell Jrio it's stylish by the way. ;)

[olly27]

You might tell Jrio it's stylish by the way. ;)

Well that could be tricky!!!

[jrio]

Well that could be tricky!!!

Apparently even Sir Alex is doing it.:rolleyes:

I wonder if choda's real name is Carlos(not The Jackal).

[neilmcnab]

for me it doesnt matter who u sign its how you set up to play, and for me spurs dont set out to play to their optimum, and also the personnel dont allow us to, as we dont have natural width, and also we dont have a schemer, everton have artetta, and fernendes, bburn play thru tuguy, and gamst and bently, they always want the ball, liverpool have many players , alonso, pennent, gerard, all want to start the move, as with manu, who do we boast... answers on a post card, entries must be in before tuesday..

[choda]

We will get there buddy.

We have our issues, I don't ignore it, but we do try to play it out through midfield. We try to play via Zokora or the Hudd.

Liverpool in many games last year were completely ignoring Alonso and playing it straight over him, it was painful.

I'd rather urinate myself every Saturday on the arsebumming grove pitch wearing a spurs jersey than play like liverpool.