don’t they?
Well they certainly did for Spurs for the trip Up North to play the Toon in the league on Saturday.
Number one came on Friday when it was announced that both Palacios and Assou-Ekotto had pulled up lame and so would miss the game. All the stick BAE has been on the end of but he’s nearly been an ever present – out of the 22 league games before this he’d only missed 2.5 – mainly down to the fact that the only other available left-back is currently the best left winger in the game.
So that’s Bale moved back to the defence and so new boy Pienaar straight in to replace him but with Palacios out it meant another opening in the midfield and straight away you knew ‘Arry would make the wrong choice and so he did. Jenas, returning to the place he couldn’t handle before Levy had a brainstorm and bought him. This did not bode well.
Personally before the game I was talking a back three, Sandro holding in the middle, wing-backs and two up top. Go for it ‘Arry it’s only Newcastle. Anything to keep Jenas out of the side. My formation and player selection pictured on right.
Second strike came when the teams came out of the tunnel and they were wearing that horrible baby-blue kit, that and Jenas in the side will just sum up the performance.
The third piece of bad luck came when Bale started to indicate his game was over barely 10 minutes in, his back had finally given out after apparently some weeks of trouble. He’s been another pretty ever present as before this early exit he’d only missed 33 minutes of league action in 22 games. So Bassong a centre-back at left-back, it just gets better.
Of course by this time the game had pretty much paned out as expected with Jenas doing such a good hiding job that the locals took a while to boo him. It got so bad hat it was even noticed by an ex-player commentating on the game and we all know how fucking useless they are at seeing what’s happening in front of them.
It also has a knock on effect so the whole side just under perform, there was times when even Modric was off it but how could you blame him when he had to cover the whole of the middle of the park on his own. No coincidence that the back lot were exposed on a number of occasions – Dawson lucky not to give away a penalty – and that it carried on until the 71st minutes when a certain substitution took place.
Things just didn’t click for Spurs, especially in the first 45 minutes as the Toon ‘keeper had very little to do, knocking on half-time when Defoe decided to do he usual and hit the ‘keeper with a shot instead of using a bit of finesse. Second half here was more from Spurs, again even more after that substitution, but of course after a goal had been conceded. One fullback, Coloccini, mugging another, Hutton, with a great take down and then Cudicini wrist going all floppy when the shot hist them so they didn’t stop the ball hitting the back of the net. Poor work by the Italian but he certainly made up for it later.
Lennon was the most active of Spurs players and along with Modric the best. The switch to the left side for the winger did bring some chances, which weren’t taken of course. Some still slagging off his delivery, I wonder if they swoon over Giggs and conveniently forget the rather large number of times he fails to beat the first defender or misses an open goal and stands there with that dazed and confused look on his face. The little fella made up for it with that added time equaliser.
The thoughts of a little hairy Toonite…
@Toxic_Web another injury time draw – Modric was superb, Van der Vaart a big girls blouse, Cudicini inspired, Jenas amusing….
— nige wibble (@yawnerddn) January 22, 2011
@Toxic_Web …but in summary we all agreed Spurs are the best visiting team we've seen at SJP this season
— nige wibble (@yawnerddn) January 22, 2011
There’s many a Spur with a Modric man-crush, van der Vaart did a bit of falling over but then he did a bit of unflashy work as he had to cover up for a certain players deficiencies by dropping deep, too deep. Pienaar also did his fair share of falling over, needs to be told we don’t do that. Was OK on his debut, ran out of steam a bit, it’s not all end to end 100mph stuff at his old club.
Could have lost it, scraped a draw, didn’t actually lose at Sid James’ Park, could have been worse but it’s a fight for that top 4 place..
As for Andy Gray and Richard Keys, when I heard the tape I did envision them sat with Gray behind Keys the former grooming the latter’s very hairy fur, picking out the fleas and eating them.
And as for the lineswoman in general the decisions refs are blasted for are about 80% of the time he fault of the those running the line. Doesn’t matter what gender they are most “assistant referees” are crap – the closer they are to an incident the greater chance they’ll get it wrong. Refs are bad in this country now but the linesmen are worse, doesn’t matter what gender they are.
But of course these two clowns decided to pick an incident where she got it right, which is typical. And then they banged on about her not knowing the rules, well if there’s anyone guaranteed not to know the rules of the game it’s an ex-player commentating on a game. Remind us again Andy what constitutes a foul?
Yes there’s no room for tokenism in the game, no room for gobby dim tarts like Karen Brady or commentators like Oatley. Thankfully after this there should be no room for Andy Gray and Richard Keys. No great loss.