Match ratings vs Swansea

[Gazza Dazzla]

actually can anyone name a central midfielder that plays at the base or acts as a partner at the base end of a 4 man midfield that has more than 3 assists?

and they shouldnt be taking set pieces either

so the player...cant be a wing player or a wide player, cant be a wing forward, cant play in the hole.

i'd be surprised if you could get more than 2 guys

Exactly - We're talking about comparing him (in a positional sense, deep lying CM) to players like, Carrick / scholes (now) / Anderson / Barry / Toure / Wheelchair / Mikel / Allen / Sahin / Mulumba / Tiote / Cabaye / etc, etc.

Really wound me up when people would say modric doesn't score or assist enough and then compare him to Fabregas / Gerrard / Lampard, it just shows a complete lack of understanding of the role he and those other players play! I see I'm going to be similarly wound up with criticisms of Dembele as well.

 

[Spursalot]

Why does he need to be assisting though? he's not playing the role of someone thats 'supposed' to be assisting.

this is the same thing people said about modric, personally i think that criteria to judge those roles is a little biased against the player in that position

Whilst he doesn't need to be assisting directly, it concerned me yesterday that when Swansea dropped deep he was essentially nullified because there was no space to actually go past anyone. As Sandro is not a very creative midfielder, if Dembele is also nullified we will struggle to create when we have possession. Which was precisely what happened.


The majority of our chances were more down to our pressing game picking up the ball in good areas of the pitch than they were to our creativity.

The pressing game doing this is good, and if one or two of those chances were taken then it's just fine and dandy, however Swansea made far less mistakes in the second half which placed the onus back upon our inventiveness.

 

[JPG_357]

Lloris 9 - My fave Spurs player
Walker 8
Gallas 9
Vertonghen 9.5 (Also my fave Spurs player
Naughton 7.5 (considering he's playing out of position deserves 9 really)
Lennon 7.5
Sandro 9 (Also my fave Spurs player
Dembele 8
Dempsey 6.5
Ade 7
Defoe 6

Townsend 8.5

Siggy 8
Excellent subs

AVB 10 - really got it spot on today

 

[clevelandspur]

Lloris 8 not much to do but a few vital punches
Walker 8 very good game, starting to see some great form from Kyle
Gallas 8.5 best match of the year from him
Vertonghen 8.5 solid at the back scored the vital goal
Naughton 7.5 very good defensively, looked a little tentative going forward
Lennon 5.5 not up to much, when he was his final ball was poor
Dembele 7.5 some great runs would like to see him shoot though passed up some chances
Sandro 8 Sandro beast
Dempsey 7 thought he was amongst our best in the first half, anonymous in 2nd
Adebayor 6 not involved enough for me
Defoe 5.5 tried hard but should have scored, a little off today

Townsend & Siggy 7 both subs contributed straight away just what you would want

AVB 10, great decision to move Jan to CB and Naughton to LB against the pace of Dyer also I thought his subs were well timed and both of them contributed to the win

 

[africanspurs]

Whilst he doesn't need to be assisting directly, it concerned me yesterday that when Swansea dropped deep he was essentially nullified because there was no space to actually go past anyone. As Sandro is not a very creative midfielder, if Dembele is also nullified we will struggle to create when we have possession. Which was precisely what happened.


The majority of our chances were more down to our pressing game picking up the ball in good areas of the pitch than they were to our creativity.

The pressing game doing this is good, and if one or two of those chances were taken then it's just fine and dandy, however Swansea made far less mistakes in the second half which placed the onus back upon our inventiveness.

are you forgetting that we struggle to break down teams that are playing deep anyway?

and this was with guys like modric , bale AND vdv in our team.

this isnt a dembele issue by any stretch of the imagination. its something we have had a problem with since we ditched the wonky with a wide PLAYMAKER. it can be circumvented with playing a shadow forward on the flank, or just going wide and getting bodies in there....

but like i said, not a dembele issue, not his primary duty, and not something we can put any deficiencies we may have on him

 

[Spursalot]

are you forgetting that we struggle to break down teams that are playing deep anyway?

and this was with guys like modric , bale AND vdv in our team.

this isnt a dembele issue by any stretch of the imagination. its something we have had a problem with since we ditched the wonky with a wide PLAYMAKER. it can be circumvented with playing a shadow forward on the flank, or just going wide and getting bodies in there....

but like i said, not a dembele issue, not his primary duty, and not something we can put any deficiencies we may have on him

You misunderstood me i think, it's not something i'm blaming on Dembele, but that it is a deficiency within our team if we play Dembele + a DM.


If both our CM's can be negated then we end up relying upon wingers, and when the team is back defending as deep as Swansea there is no room to run into, and our threat from crosses seems negligible at times.



Interestingly i think the best thing to do if this situation is occurring is bring Huddlestone on for our DM. Granted it might make us less solid defensively, however he has the ability to switch the play quickly, accurately and play balls through the defence from deep for Defoe to latch onto.

 

[africanspurs]

You misunderstood me i think, it's not something i'm blaming on Dembele, but that it is a deficiency within our team if we play Dembele + a DM.


If both our CM's can be negated then we end up relying upon wingers, and when the team is back defending as deep as Swansea there is no room to run into, and our threat from crosses seems negligible at times.



Interestingly i think the best thing to do if this situation is occurring is bring Huddlestone on for our DM. Granted it might make us less solid defensively, however he has the ability to switch the play quickly, accurately and play balls through the defence from deep for Defoe to latch onto.

you have just mentioned our exact problems of two seasons(almost its entirety) ago and bits of last season

i misread you...i thought the issue was with dembele.....your saying a dembele TYPE + a DM

one thing i will say though is that it was a problem for us under Harry in general....the centre being nullified and heavily reliant on the wings.

what i am saying is that it has been a problem for nigh on 3 years

 

[Spur of the moment]

Lloris - Not much do but my GHod it feels good having him in goal especially with his ability to come out early 7
Walker - Poor passing throughout but made a decent contribution. How has he become our free kick/corner taker 6
Vert - Class finish for the goal, much better in central defence than our wide 8
Gallas - No errors and plenty of talking 7
Naughton - Better than Verts at LB 7
Lennon - Some good moments but not on fire today 6
Sandro - A beast as usual, tackles galore 8
Dembele - Quiet by his standards but good touches. Should shoot more himself 7
Dempsey - A bit off form compared to recent games 6
Ade - Some glimpses but not consistent enough 6
Defoe - Shooting instead of passing as usual, missed the chances he had 6]

He's our main STRIKER ffs! ](*,)

 

[Jordinho]

That's a problem for a lot of teams. I never understood why some teams insist on trying to go through the middle when it's obvious for everyone watching that it won't work. You need some extremely quick and precise passing to get through someone that sits deep with a 5 man midfield.

 

[Jordinho]

He's our main STRIKER ffs! ](*,)

Doesn't mean he has to shot every time he's on the ball, especially if there are better options available to him. He would have to start looking up to see them though.

 

[billyiddo]

thought we played well yesterday and was also very surprised with how Swansea set up to play.

im not sure how others viewed it but compared to previous games against sides set up to get the draw i was impressed with our patience and consistent approach in our attacking play, we didn't seem to panic like we usually would when finding it hard to break the opposition down. stuck to our game plan and seemed confident/comfortable that we would get the breakthrough

encouraging, i thought

 

[Gilzeantoscore]

Modric certainly did not score lots of goals and he did not always make the killer pass that resulted in one, but he did set thing up, maybe two or three passes removed. Dembele doesnt seem to do much at all in terms of end product either and he certainly is not a Sandro or a Parker. Yeah he looks great, but in the grand scheme I think he is pretty ineffectual. Dempsey has been copping it, yet this guy is passing under the radar. Maybe his impact is so sublime I cannot appreciate it. :-"

 

[Mumorn]

Dembele isn't there to provide killer balls. That is where we need a Pjanic. Or even a Sigurdsson who is very capable of providing them.

 

[The Moonlit Knight]

Bit late to the party. Efficient performance, but a little bit disappointing too. We were disjointed too often, sloppy in possession and struggled to create from open play.

Lloris 7
Walker 7
Gallas 8
Vertonghen 8
Naughton 7
Lennon 6
Sandro 7
Dembele 6
Dempsey 6
Adebayor 6
Defoe 5

Sigurdsson 6
Townsend 6

 

[metalgear]

Bit late to the party. Efficient performance, but a little bit disappointing too. We were disjointed too often, sloppy in possession and struggled to create from open play.

Lloris 7
Walker 7
Gallas 8
Vertonghen 8
Naughton 7
Lennon 6
Sandro 7
Dembele 6
Dempsey 6
Adebayor 6
Defoe 5

Sigurdsson 6
Townsend 6

agree with this mostly except for:
Gallas 7 ... didn't think Swansea tested the defence enough
Townsend 7 ... was a great impact sub, I think he can start for Lennon if need be - adventurous and clever, not just speed

 

[braineclipse]

Exactly - We're talking about comparing him (in a positional sense, deep lying CM) to players like, Carrick / scholes (now) / Anderson / Barry / Toure / Wheelchair / Mikel / Allen / Sahin / Mulumba / Tiote / Cabaye / etc, etc.

Really wound me up when people would say modric doesn't score or assist enough and then compare him to Fabregas / Gerrard / Lampard, it just shows a complete lack of understanding of the role he and those other players play! I see I'm going to be similarly wound up with criticisms of Dembele as well.

Wound me up too. I was one of the more active participants in the Modric debates, not looking forward to the repeat version of that for Dembele. Only so many times you can bring up the Pirlo assist stats before it starts getting old.

Whilst he doesn't need to be assisting directly, it concerned me yesterday that when Swansea dropped deep he was essentially nullified because there was no space to actually go past anyone. As Sandro is not a very creative midfielder, if Dembele is also nullified we will struggle to create when we have possession. Which was precisely what happened.


The majority of our chances were more down to our pressing game picking up the ball in good areas of the pitch than they were to our creativity.

The pressing game doing this is good, and if one or two of those chances were taken then it's just fine and dandy, however Swansea made far less mistakes in the second half which placed the onus back upon our inventiveness.

It's just a fact of football that it's a lot easier to attack on the break. Every team in the world struggles to break down hard working, bus parking, well organized teams. Chelsea's CL success was built on this, so have several boring, but (to varying degrees) successful sides been. Of course we can get better at it, but this is probably one of the hardest things for a manager to make happen in my opinion.

I think AVB has a vision for how to help us get better at this long term, but not getting into all that right now.

 

[Pirate55]

Doesn't mean he has to shot every time he's on the ball, especially if there are better options available to him. He would have to start looking up to see them though.

Defoe laid a really quite easy chance for Walker with a delightful ball. He also sent Lennon scampering through late on.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Lloris 7 - Didn't have to make any saves, but took pressure off the defence with is sweeper keeper routine.

Walker 7 - Much improved performance, some good crosses, no major defensive fudge ups.
Gallas 6 - Not his best game, but not terrible either.
Vertonghen 8 - Soild performance and great goal. Won most of the headers.
Naughton 6 - Felt he was out of position a few too many times. Didn't offer a lot going forward.

Lennon 6.5 - Looked lively but his final ball wasn't quite good enough.
Dembele 7.5 - Drived us forward, made some key interceptions.
Sandro 8 - MOM. Some great tackles, displined performance.
Dempsey 5 - Anonymous

Adebayor 7 - Worked hard. Not convinced we will see the best out of the two strikers with both of them playing.
Defoe 6 - Not a lot of service, but didn't do much.

Sig 6.5 - Tried hard, but still won't come off for him.
Parker N/A
Townsend 7 - Provided an outlet when he came on.

AVB 8 - Good tactics today, Swansea played for a point, but we pressed them well just like we did in the same fixture last season. Still think we took our foot off the pedal once we scored the goal, we need to change our mindset and go for another.

 

[zin]

Swansea (H) 1-0

Back from holiday and catching up with these. I've decided to keep the comments to a minimum and dropped the previous match rating difference and replaced it with a season average rating instead. Season average rating is as of 1st Jan 2013. Incredible amount of votes for this game, surpassing the previous high of 34 vs Fulham (A).

Vertonghen's goal gives him his fifth MOTM award of the season and now tops the leaderboard in MOTM performances by himself. Defoe worst player on the pitch.