[Archived] Tottenham Vs Rovers

[Parsonblue]

I thought we gave a decent performance yesterday and can't say that I came away from White Hart Lane feeling dispirited by what I had seen. We made individual errors and they cost us. Salgado drifted off the post at the corner towards the centre of the goal. If he had stayed on the post he would have easily cleared their first goal. The second goal went 'through' Brown while the third goal caught Chimbonda out of position and the wrong side of the player he was marking. Three individual errors resulted in three goals.

Nonetheless, there were times, particularly in the first half when we played some decent football. However, I felt the major difference between the teams was the crispness of the passing and Tottenham's pace. Tottenham's players executed their passes better while some of our passes, although well intentioned, were poorly executed. However, at the end of day they have spent a fair amount of money in assembling their squad while we are shopping in a different market. Ultimately, you get what you can afford but despite our difficulties I believe that we are on target to finish around the 12th or 13th position and in view of our limited finances I really do believe that would be a decent result. Others will no doubt disagree but I would be very happy finishing anywhere between 12th and 14th place.

[thenodrog]

Palacios got the ball, watch the replay.

In that case Corluka should have been dismissed for an off the ball assault. You can't have it both ways Harry.

dunn was hopeless today. beyond the half shout for a penalty, he did nothing besides try to do too much. rushed passes that didn't need rushing, and did nothing defensively.

i think he's great when playing his best, but today he should have been subbed at halftime, imo, and given basturk a shot.

The evidence suggests that he's only great when playing for a new contract!

[tony gale's mic]

That's the thing, Sam has done a great job with our home form that it only begs the question why the away form is so unbalanced. By comparison, there is no reason why 1 win in 14 should be acceptable away from home. Tris does have a point, even if it he is sporting a certain agenda.

I haven't seen anyone on this board claiming our away form is acceptable. Tris and co however are using it as a reason to say why Sam should be removed. Therefore he still has no point as the only thing he's disagreeing with us on he's wrong about.

We do have some very winnable away games coming up though and I hope we'll win a couple of away games before season's end.

[thenodrog]

I think Warnock was sold to cover a £5m hole in the budget, presumably part of that is / was wages. I think you're correct Warnock wasn't sold just to cover Salgado but I'm pretty sure he was sold simply to balance the books.

Just like Fred Pickering and countless of our finest since Paul.

Not wanting to drag this on, we'll just have to agree to disagree about the manager.

I'll guarantee you we will not finish 12th though.

Very brave statement. What odds are they offering at the bookies btw?

[JAL]

In that case Corluka should have been dismissed for an off the ball assault. You can't have it both ways Harry.

If this is about Dunn's first half penalty claim, nobody seems to mention Dunns dangerous left arm push out towards Corlukas face, this alone should have resulted in a Spurs free kick rather than any penalty claim.

[thenodrog]

I think Paul's right, Warnock was sold to cover a budget hole, the book's then balanced, then Sam was a norty boy and signed Salgado without getting the green light from the board first.

So you think Sam Allardyce's signature on BRFC cheques is authorised now do you Bryan?

[thenodrog]

You cant allow a player to touch the ball with his hand and then allow him to control the next movement and get away with it. Thats called gaining an unfair advantage.

C'mon he wasn't even looking at the ball Dawson had just almost bundled him over with a 'professional challenge'.

btw In all this criticism of the defence nobody's mentioned Samba's clearence off the line to my knowledge. It was excellent play.

[Hughesy]

Not read all the comments - but if the ref had been fair we would of lost 4-3. Spurs should of had 1 penalty, we should of had 1, and Kalinic's goal should of stood as his handball wasnt intentional as it came via GBH!

[thenodrog]

League football is about winning. If this team can win at home then the same players can also win away, if they are used correctly.

They are not being used correctly. You need to open your eyes.

Ditto Tris. The bottom 11 teams have won a cumulative total of 17 games away from home. Thats 1.5 away wins for each team. It sure aint good but in the light of the table below is our away record really that bad?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/table/default.stm

btw you are still attracting a few sheep to vote for all your critical posts. It's very churlish and immature of them. Care to own up guys or should I say Dare to own up?

[tcj_jones]

Considering how abysmal our away form is, how few goals we score on the road, and the fact that we often concede a shed load, I'd like to see us play two up top and attack. Can't really do much worse than we are at present.

It is interesting how awful the combined away record is in the league this season though.

[MarkBRFC71]

Therefore he still has no point as the only thing he's disagreeing with us on he's wrong about.

In your opinion. Which is no more right or wrong than Tris's.

[speeeeeeedie]

We were never going to win. The first 45 mins were typical Rovers away stuff; play for 0-0 and on't try to score. The 1st goal killed us.

Salgado got slaughtered but he was nowhere near as bad a Chimbonda. Maybe because he's a right back playing at left back? Either way he should not play for a while.

[tony gale's mic]

In your opinion. Which is no more right or wrong than Tris's.

Of course it's my opinion. But then we could be arguing that Fergie should be sacked at United and it could still be my opinion that he should get the boot, no more right or wrong than anyone else's.

[broadsword]

Even though Tris is outspoken about his personal dislike of our manager, what he says is true. Sam is NOT getting the best out of the players away from home. There's no reason why our away form should be so shockingly disparate to our home form. If anyone thinks we can hope for no better than 1 win in 14 away games then they need their head testing. I don't know why we don't simply approach the away games as we did in the cup and just go for it. Are we likely to do any worse?

Our solid home form is keeping us afloat, but the dilapidated away form is costing us prize money at the end of the season. Money Sam will really feel the pinch of next season when he's scrambling around for new signings.

Are you saying that the side's set up wrong in terms of formation for away games, and that is what's costing us?

From what I saw, the formation looked OK yesterday, but the side was lacking in what I would call gumption. There wasn't really any conviction to what we were doing, it was like going through the motions. I don't think we played badly, but until the Samba goal Tottenham were never under any great threat.

But as I've said, it was an improvement on teh non-football on display at St Andrews.

[jim mk2]

League football is about winning. If this team can win at home then the same players can also win away, if they are used correctly.

They are not being used correctly. You need to open your eyes.

More trolling.

Your hatred of Allardyce is befuddling your already limited capacity for reasoned thinking.

And no one needs lessons on behaviour.

Not least from an expert on late-night drunken rants.

[Montfort]

Ditto Tris. The bottom 11 teams have won a cumulative total of 17 games away from home. Thats 1.5 away wins for each team. It sure aint good but in the light of the table below is our away record really that bad?

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport1/hi/football/eng_prem/table/default.stm

Excellent point. I am suprised that no one has noticed this before. It does put our away form in some sort of perspective - bad but comparatively not as bad as I thought.

[MarkBRFC71]

The bottom 11 teams have won a cumulative total of 17 games away from home. Thats 1.5 away wins for each team. It sure aint good but in the light of the table below is our away record really that bad?

Says as much about how p**s-poor the Premier League is as a competition. Best league in the world my a*se - La Liga is streets ahead in every way.

[philipl]

Says as much about how p**s-poor the Premier League is as a competition. Best league in the world my a*se - La Liga is streets ahead in every way.

Obviously I have been unlucky but I have seen some absolute crud in La Liga this season. The financial disparity in that League is far bigger than the Prem- in fact I think Rovers would rank 5th or 6th largest club in Spain.

This thing about winning home games goes in sequences strangely. Only two or three seasons ago, the question was being asked whether there was such a thing as home advantage any more. Now, no club has a better away record than home record with only Wigan, Bolton and pompey having one fewer away win than home win- the other clubs have bigger imbalances.

[Blue blood]

Only seen MOTD highlights, so just a few impressions from what I saw.

With a better referee we perhaps could've got something. We should have had a penalty - changes the whole complexion of the game scoing first - and Niko's goal was imo wrongly ruled out. If he was going to give anything it should have been a free kick to us. Both instances we perhaps (probably) would have still lost, but it would have given us a greater chance of getting something from the game. He also missed a penalty for them, but even so, we came worse off from the ref.

The full backs from the little I saw looked poor. Salgado was utterly done by Bale's pace, whilst Chimbonda was marking dreadfully for the first and third goal. Looking more like the disinterested mercenary then the competent professional he did when he first joined.

Brown should have saved the second. Poor imo.

Was interesting to see Samba with the captain's armband, and it was good to see him looking a lot more focussed and up for it, as well as providing a good goal, and a great clearance.

As for our away record - it is interesting that a lot of teams have poor away records and that does make it somewhat more bareable. However, having been to a couple of away games myself and knowing the effort it takes, the results away from home are clearly unacceptably poor by any standards. To be honest it's not just the results but more the performances, which have been dreadful and in any context unacceptable/disappointing from the team.

[MarkBRFC71]

Obviously I have been unlucky but I have seen some absolute crud in La Liga this season. The financial disparity in that League is far bigger than the Prem- in fact I think Rovers would rank 5th or 6th largest club in Spain.

But, there are only 2 huge clubs guaranteed to finish in the top 4, whereas here it's likely to be the usual suspects (although Rafa's doing his utmost to f**k that up). Therefore the Champs League money is distributed more evenly meaning that 3rd and 4th can go to any one of about 8 clubs.

The quality of football (and by that I mean on the deck, pass-and-move stuff not kick and rush like here - except Arsenal) is vastly superior.

[allanncd]

Harry said Samba is the only defender in the world who could made that goalline clearance after (another) Brown error. Sounds like a bit of tapping-up particularly as Spurs have been linked previously.

[philipl]

So Rovers even as we are today would stand a decent chance of getting regular CL football in Spain.

[tony gale's mic]

So Rovers even as we are today would stand a decent chance of getting regular CL football in Spain.

That's not true at all. How would we rank as the 5th or 6th largest club in Spain? And how would we have a decent chance of getting regular CL football?

The biggest 4 clubs in Spain are Barca, Real Madrid, Valencia and Atlético Madrid. They all have stadia far bigger than ours, with far more money and a much bigger fanbase. There would be NO chance of "regular" CL football whatsoever.

Even after that we have Sevilla, an excellent outfit who recently won the UEFA Cup, serving a catchment area of about 1.5 million along with Real Betis and Espanyol the second team in Barcelona. On what grounds do you think we'd have a decent chance of getting regular CL football?!

[Tyrone Shoelaces]

Harry said Samba is the only defender in the world who could made that goalline clearance after (another) Brown error. Sounds like a bit of tapping-up particularly as Spurs have been linked previously.

I think we can look forward to Samba being this years Bellamy, Santa Cruz, Bentley. Arry's obviously making his move early.

[MarkBRFC71]

So Rovers even as we are today would stand a decent chance of getting regular CL football in Spain.

Not regular, no. But we would have MORE chance of getting it than in the Prem by virtue of the fact that the top 4 here are almost set in stone, over there it's only Barca and Real who are guaranteed Champs league and 3rd and 4th are a little more up for grabs.

That's not true at all. How would we rank as the 5th or 6th largest club in Spain? And how would we have a decent chance of getting regular CL football?

The biggest 4 clubs in Spain are Barca, Real Madrid, Valencia and Atlético Madrid. They all have stadia far bigger than ours, with far more money and a much bigger fanbase. There would be NO chance of "regular" CL football whatsoever.

Even after that we have Sevilla, an excellent outfit who recently won the UEFA Cup, serving a catchment area of about 1.5 million along with Real Betis and Espanyol the second team in Barcelona. On what grounds do you think we'd have a decent chance of getting regular CL football?!

Although at present Atletico are way down in 11th, some 13 points off 4th. And Mallorca (a club comparable to Rovers in size and finance?) are 5th - 1 point off 4th. Hmmm, perhaps we should look at their manager in summer?