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*** Tottenham Hotspur Vs Liverpool OMT ***

Whilst I was all for Dawson being selected against Wet Spam and he did do reasonably well, surely you cannot want him up against Suarez??

If you were to select a player in the league that would cause Dawson the most problems... then Suarez would either be top of the list or pretty close to it.
I am not saying any of our other CBs could cope with Suarez easily (only Ledders seems capable of that), but lets be honest here.... Suarez would run rings around Dawson.

Has to be Gallas & Caulker for me.

I was thinking about them when I put Dawson in - basically I wanted to have Vert and Caulker in the middle but wasnt sure about moving Vert from LB. Gallas I dont think has the legs to play in the PL any more and I think the 'leadership' which he brings is massively over-stated. Plus Daws will be fired up to keep his place and actually talks to other players which not many of our team do. I would keep him in - an on-form Dawson is a top class CB ( in the same way as an off-form Dawson is woeful) ...if we can have that on-form Daws til Jan and then have Kaboul back to give us another option at CB and Benny back so that we can move Vertonghan into the middle, then we should be ok defensively...
 
Falque strikes me as a Taraabt ... a bit of a show pony... although Taraabt has added some substance to his game

Dont see them as similar at all. Tarrabt just got hte ball and ran at people - as if he got paid per player which he beat. Falque gets it and just dallies with it, standing over the ball doing nothing. I wouldnt want either in the Spurs side but if I had to have one on the bench would definitely prefer Tarrabt as he's more likely to create something
 
Nowhere near as confident as some of you lot are. They're long overdue a win against us and we no longer have King there to brick all over Torres/Suarez/whichever unlucky guy is playing for them that day. Dawson is fantastic in the air and dominated Carroll yesterday, but he sometimes struggles against tricky forwards with quick feet, which Suarez is, and I hate to even think about Gallas trying to keep up with him. They've become very good at keeping possession, and if they get an early goal and then keep the ball, the crowd and players will get frustrated and we'll probably end up losing the game.

My other major worry is AVB's late substitutions yesterday. For the first time in fudging ages, the tactics and subs were all correct - however he took until the 79th minute before his first substitution - with seven of the starting XI having also started in Rome, and now this game with Liverpool on Wednesday. I am really worried about our tired players conceding in the last 10 minutes again, especially against a side like Liverpool who will play possession based passing football which requires a lot of running and movement to deal with.

Agree with every word of this. Suarez, who I hate as a person, but love as a footballer, is the key. Stop him and you virtually stop Liverpool. Dembele at full fitness would be a major plus for us in dominating midfield. Really hope the Walker/Lennon combination starts to work. We need something coming down our righthand side.

Very nervous though.
 
Dembele has come on the last two games so I'm hopeful he could start here if there was no adverse reaction to those appearances.

I actually feel good about this game.
 
I think it's just a tired, unjustified criticism of Dawson that he struggles against trickier opponents.

The guy's been very good for long stints - months - and throughout those periods has had to play against all sorts of defenders - fast, strong, left footed, right footed, skilful etc. You don't rotate defenders week by week, depending on the opposition. I don't remember anyone complaining about his performances in the Champions League. He seemed to do perfectly well away at the San Siro against Ibra and Robinho and at WHL against those two, as well as Pato. Even though we got battered by Madrid in Madrid, I actually thought Dawson did just fine too.

Yes, he's slow and a bit cumbersome, but he adds an awful lot to the team - brilliant in the air, brave, deceptively good touch and better on the ball than Gallas. He's not some sort of bumbling clown - the guy knows how to defend.
 
But he will also get caught ball watching, allowing the attacker to sneak in behind him.
 
I was thinking about them when I put Dawson in - basically I wanted to have Vert and Caulker in the middle but wasnt sure about moving Vert from LB. Gallas I dont think has the legs to play in the PL any more and I think the 'leadership' which he brings is massively over-stated. Plus Daws will be fired up to keep his place and actually talks to other players which not many of our team do. I would keep him in - an on-form Dawson is a top class CB ( in the same way as an off-form Dawson is woeful) ...if we can have that on-form Daws til Jan and then have Kaboul back to give us another option at CB and Benny back so that we can move Vertonghan into the middle, then we should be ok defensively...

I think it's just a tired, unjustified criticism of Dawson that he struggles against trickier opponents.

The guy's been very good for long stints - months - and throughout those periods has had to play against all sorts of defenders - fast, strong, left footed, right footed, skilful etc. You don't rotate defenders week by week, depending on the opposition. I don't remember anyone complaining about his performances in the Champions League. He seemed to do perfectly well away at the San Siro against Ibra and Robinho and at WHL against those two, as well as Pato. Even though we got battered by Madrid in Madrid, I actually thought Dawson did just fine too.

Yes, he's slow and a bit cumbersome, but he adds an awful lot to the team - brilliant in the air, brave, deceptively good touch and better on the ball than Gallas. He's not some sort of bumbling clown - the guy knows how to defend.


Agree with both of you.

Gallas a couple of seasons ago, fair enough, put him in against Suarez or a RVP for that matter, but the old warrior now looks to me as if he's struggling against even the lesser players .

Maybe it's just a rest he needed and if selected tomorrow he will show us all he's still got it.
 
Suarez's game is based on playing on the shoulder of the back 4 - something i for one accept Dawson isn't great at dealing with, but I do think that is something Caulker IS good at.
 
Suarez's game is based on playing on the shoulder of the back 4 - something i for one accept Dawson isn't great at dealing with, but I do think that is something Caulker IS good at.

There's no evidence of this, in fact he's also caught ball watching and is slow to turn (besides a wooden left foot which is limiting when he plays on the left side)
 
Gallas is done, mate - fair innings

You could be right , probably are .

I'd prefer Gallas be the one shipped out of the five central defenders . It was noticeable that with the addition of Lloris in goal and Dawson in the back line, we looked a far faster vibrant confident defence . That's something like 20 years shaved off the age stats of our back five in swapping Brad and Gallas for, Lloris and Dawson.

Also noticeable how much happier Walker's game was with Dawson alongside.
 
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Had a read on RAWK most of them seem happy to take a draw, I also got a laugh about how a lot of them saying Ledley King will start. Thinking back they are quite right he would always seem to come off long layoffs and start out of nowhere against Liverpool and play a blinder haha
 
Andre: "Long term injuries are the same but Scott is on the way back. It's been a good week. Sandro is fine and fit for tomorrow, We had a difficult game vs West Ham. But we put in a great performance which gives us confidence, Liverpool is a totally different proposition to West Ham. A difficult opponent, great individuals with experience. We are focused"
 
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