The Official Tottenham Hotspur Thread [Vol 3]

[im]

hornetrider said:

flasher said:

In the spirit of harmony we should now join forces to support Bayern.

I am moved by this humble entente cordiale between two traditionally fierce rivals. On behalf of Liverpool fans everywhere I humbly request that we may join you in support of FC Bayern.

You want the spuds over the chavs?

Climb aboard my scouse friend.

[Gun]

[redacted]

[hornetrider]

im said:

You want the spuds over the chavs?

Climb aboard my scouse friend.

Granted it's like choosing between cancer and AIDs... however I have faith you'll stuff up the qualifier

Any word on potential opponents? Hopefully it won't be Dynamo Kebab from Armenia...

[flasher]

Blib said:

Well, it could be argued that Arsenal are dangerously reliant on one player, Flasher. Had he not been in record breaking form all season long, you'd be nowhere near third.

I can't see another seriously dangerous player in your line-up. We have several. For now.

No team wins with one man, it takes 11. Yes, RVP is good but there have been others this season who have been brilliant at times, Szcesny, Koscielny, Vermaelen, Song, Arteta even Walcott.

For all your dangerous players you still finished beneath us. Whether they stay or not depends on what happens on Saturday evening....

[Gun]

[redacted]

[schwarz993]

As much as it saddens me, this season can only be looked upon as a failure. Our fate was in our own hands with the lead to 4th we'd built up and we completely threw it away. On top of that we choked when we had a last-minute chance to redeem ourselves. When you consider the squad we have, we lost 3rd to an inferior (player-for-player) team. Despite the fact they were heavily reliant on one player, Arsenal showed a winning mentality which we simply don't have.

Now we have to cheer on Bayern and win a play-off to qualify for CL. What a joke. Who could blame Bale & Co for leaving?

[Justin Cyder]

Gun said:

Its true though.

It's a poor argument though, you can argue about the finish all day long, but over 38 games, there's one point in it. What does that prove?

Trajectory, now that's a different matter...

[blindswelledrat]

schwarz993 said:

As much as it saddens me, this season can only be looked upon as a failure. Our fate was in our own hands with the lead to 4th we'd built up and we completely threw it away. On top of that we choked when we had a last-minute chance to redeem ourselves. When you consider the squad we have, we lost 3rd to an inferior (player-for-player) team. Despite the fact they were heavily reliant on one player, Arsenal showed a winning mentality which we simply don't have.

Now we have to cheer on Bayern and win a play-off to qualify for CL. What a joke. Who could blame Bale & Co for leaving?

Half agree.
It could well be that we make the champions league and then I would consider it a decent season.
As for Bale/Modric going- I would blame them. Spurs crap second half of the season tallies almost exactly with their drop in form. Bale in particular, whilst still good, has been a shadow of the player he was in the first half of hte season and all of last season. WHilst I wouldn't go as far as to blame them, it is inevitable that when two such influential players are not on top of thier game, then the team will suffer.

[Robbie B]

blindswelledrat said:

Half agree.
It could well be that we make the champions league and then I would consider it a decent season.
As for Bale/Modric going- I would blame them. Spurs crap second half of the season tallies almost exactly with their drop in form. Bale in particular, whilst still good, has been a shadow of the player he was in the first half of hte season and all of last season. WHilst I wouldn't go as far as to blame them, it is inevitable that when two such influential players are not on top of thier game, then the team will suffer.

I see your point but I have two points worth raising. Firstly, I genuinely think fatigue could be a problem. There's the article linked a while back about how many minutes our key players have played compared to top teams and if you imagine how many miles Bale has run in that time. However, I do also think that they should be able to handle it.

On the Modric front, I'm going against my usual inclination and I'm not going to agree. I think Modric is usually overrated, he's a really good player but I would personally prefer Silva or Mata. However, these stats below are hard to deny and make it difficult to suggest he has had a bad 2nd half to the season:

"96 - Modric has created the most chances for Spurs this season (96) - more than Iniesta (33), Ronaldo (58) and Xavi (63)."

He is compared with what seem to be very carefully picked players though which makes me wonder.

[Justin Cyder]

Bale's had two problems this season though, being forced to play inside when he has no right foot & sides doubling up on him. When he's had the opportunity he's been as rampant as ever.

[schwarz993]

Justin Cyder said:

Bale's had two problems this season though, being forced to play inside when he has no right foot & sides doubling up on him. When he's had the opportunity he's been as rampant as ever.

Was he forced to play inside or does he want to? He seems to be trying to mould himself on Ronaldo and he's just not there. Keep him on the left and he's savage.

I don't agree about fatigue, we rarely played first teamers in Europa and played 5 FA cup games. Chelsea's old guard have played more games this season. Messi's played 60!

[hornetrider]

Problem is when good young players break through is can they adapt when teams work out a gameplan to nullify them. It's what separates the good from the great. Will be interesting to see how he develops, as in full flight he is awesome, has to be said.

[blindswelledrat]

Justin Cyder said:

Bale's had two problems this season though, being forced to play inside when he has no right foot & sides doubling up on him. When he's had the opportunity he's been as rampant as ever.

Agreed, although I think Bale has pushed to play in the central role. I just hope him and Harry recognise that it hasn't really worked and keep him doign what he's brilliant at.

[blindswelledrat]

Robbie B said:

On the Modric front, I'm going against my usual inclination and I'm not going to agree. I think Modric is usually overrated, he's a really good player but I would personally prefer Silva or Mata. However, these stats below are hard to deny and make it difficult to suggest he has had a bad 2nd half to the season:

"96 - Modric has created the most chances for Spurs this season (96) - more than Iniesta (33), Ronaldo (58) and Xavi (63)."

He is compared with what seem to be very carefully picked players though which makes me wonder.

I also agree that he's a bit overrated, with 45 million+ price tags.
I do think he's brilliant at what he does though. He almost never loses the ball and every 5th pass he does shoes the vision and execution of a world-class player. I'd say 60% of games are run through him.
I do agree that to justify the hype he has to score more, though. I can't really understand why he doesn't so equally I can't really imagine what would have to change to elevate him from a 5 goal a season player to a 15 goal animal

[anonymous-user]

blindswelledrat said:

I also agree that he's a bit overrated, with 45 million+ price tags.
I do think he's brilliant at what he does though. He almost never loses the ball and every 5th pass he does shoes the vision and execution of a world-class player. I'd say 60% of games are run through him.
I do agree that to justify the hype he has to score more, though. I can't really understand why he doesn't so equally I can't really imagine what would have to change to elevate him from a 5 goal a season player to a 15 goal animal

Was chatting to my Spurs mate yesterday and he said he would rather lose Bale than Modric, obvs neither would be best but he said you have shown you can cope when Bale goes missing, he reckons not so much with Modric

[Cheib]

Robbie B said:

On the Modric front, I'm going against my usual inclination and I'm not going to agree. I think Modric is usually overrated, he's a really good player but I would personally prefer Silva or Mata. However, these stats below are hard to deny and make it difficult to suggest he has had a bad 2nd half to the season:

"96 - Modric has created the most chances for Spurs this season (96) - more than Iniesta (33), Ronaldo (58) and Xavi (63)."

He is compared with what seem to be very carefully picked players though which makes me wonder.

I have never seen a "chances created" stat before....how do you define it ? Pass to someone thirty yards out that takes a pot shot ?

The assists stats don't flatter Modric

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/assists/_/leagu...

He's not even in the Top 20....he has four assits.

I know stats aren't everything but at the end of the day the players that go for the big money either create or score a lot of goals and he doesn't do either. He's a very good player but doesn't do enough in the final third in my opinion.

[TEKNOPUG]

Cheib said:

I have never seen a "chances created" stat before....how do you define it ? Pass to someone thirty yards out that takes a pot shot ?

The assists stats don't flatter Modric

http://soccernet.espn.go.com/stats/assists/_/leagu...

He's not even in the Top 20....he has four assits.

I know stats aren't everything but at the end of the day the players that go for the big money either create or score a lot of goals and he doesn't do either. He's a very good player but doesn't do enough in the final third in my opinion.

Your assist stats are equally meaningless as they are determined by how good the players are around you - would Modric have had more assists if we was playing with Ronaldo, Aguero or RVP, instead of 'Phants, Saha and Defoe?

Stats mean very little in football. You have to watch games and understand football to see how good a player is and what influence they have on a game.

[Cheib]

TEKNOPUG said:

Your assist stats are equally meaningless as they are determined by how good the players are around you - would Modric have had more assists if we was playing with Ronaldo, Aguero or RVP, instead of 'Phants, Saha and Defoe?

Didn't stop Adebayor, Van De Vart or Bale getting more assists that him did it.

[Justin Cyder]

It's a false comparison nevertheless. You could not meaningfully prove Modric's contribution one way or the other by pointing to assist stats.

[Fittster]

Now can we sign Jordan Rhodes? What more could any Spurs fans want than the next Zamora!