Woeful. Shambolic. Disastrous. Any bigger words I can use to describe that today?
We conceded ridiculously early but I don't think that's a fair excuse. We still had 90 minutes and still attempted to execute our original gameplan thereafter. Which was wrong. Mainly because Paulinho is given far too much freedom from his midfield position. You can - and we did - get away with it sometimes against sides such as Cardiff and Crystal Palace, but away at Emirates Marketing Project it is a disaster of a decision. He needs to show more discipline. Sympathy for Sandro who had to hold the fort in our midfield all by himself first-half. Paulinho tries lots of positive things, but very little have come off for us yet. You can accept that from a £7m squad player, but a £17m first-teamer should be more productive considering how much he tries to pull off unlikely moves.
AVB got his tactics wrong, we were way too open. The players were largely to blame too, of course. They didn't seem overly bothered by conceding goal after goal. Below are my ratings:
Lloris: 4 - a top keeper who had a nightmare. It happens. Two costly errors, generally a bad day at the office with his kicking and not pulling off any particularly good saves.
Walker: 6 - our best defender on the day. He has poor awareness but I cannot fault him too much today because he was one of the few who seemed to care and carried on trying well after the game was lost.
Kaboul: 5 - poor from Kabs, he gets caught out positionally a lot by intelligent strikers. Will deal well with Lukaku, Benteke and players of their ilk, but against top strikers with movement such as Aguero, Suarez and RVP he gets shown up a bit, especially since his horrific injury.
Dawson: 4 - honestly lost count of how many times he gave the ball away/was out of position. Very limited defender, if it wasn't for his leadership skills he would be 4th choice centre-half here.
Vertonghen: 4 - equally as bad, albeit out of position. Out of sorts. Offered little going forward and constantly gave up whenever a player ran past him. Seriously, our fanbase needs to stop being so kind to Jan. Good on the ball but error prone.
Sandro: 6 - up against it from the get go. Was a bit rash at times but he was completely exposed due to Paulinho being caught high up the pitch. Put in the effort.
Paulinho: 3 - by far his worst game in a Spurs shirt, deserved to be hauled off at the interval. Whatever he tried, it didn't come off. And he made some bad decisions in good areas. Needs a rest/to be dropped for a while.
Lamela: 4 - he's not a left winger, never has been. Just isn't the type of player to skin his man on the outside, prefers moving in centrally. Didn't link the play well enough, but he'll get better I'm sure of that (although worryingly it feels like he really doesn't want to be here)
Holtby: 4 - dreadful. Offers little creativity. Presses a bit and people like him for it, but the main thing in that position is linking the play and he's average at it.
Lennon: 5 - always chased back (well, until the last ten mins), so put in the graft but lacked quality. Lack of gametime probably pays to that.
Soldado: 5 - didn't get a touch hardly. Again slow and ponderous in possession, but hardly got any service (again). We know he's not the right striker for us, he knows it too.
Dembele: 6 - some poor decisions but equally he put in effort and actually tested their keeper (in the loosest term possible).
Adebayor: 5 - missed a great chance. Didn't do much else. Glad to see him back in the fold even if he's an **** - we need a player who offers what he does.
Sigurdsson: 5 - average. He's exactly that - an average player who will score some cracking goals from time to time. Would have fit in well in our mid-2000 team.
AVB: 3/10 - gave us Lamela but in the wrong position. Chiriches undeservedly dropped from the eleven. Questionable tactics, again.
Us away fans: 7/10 - majority of us stayed and sang our hearts out at 3-0. Shame some felt the need to up and leave but I guess that is to be expected in such dire circumstances.
Emirates Marketing Project a good side, as you would expect given how much they've spent over the last few years. Were without key players like Kompany, Silva and Hart too, dread to think how it would have ended if Silva was there.
