Tottenham v. Reading 1/4 Match Thread (Halford in)

[Vision]

Agree with the general consensus that penalty was harsh but we certainly didn't do enough to deserve anything from the game.

All 4 midfielders were outplayed by their counterparts and when that happens any team would struggle. Given that, i thought the front two actually performed pretty well and made an awful lot out of very little.

Think one of the major problems was that i can't recall either full-back actually overlapping today. Compare that to Chimbonda and Lee who provided countless supporting runs for their wide players. This is usually a main feature of our game but it was certainly lacking a bit today. That said i thought both Shorey and Halford coped pretty well defensively under a lot of pressure and certainly saw enought from Halford to suggest he could be a big player for us in seasons to come.

One last point which i don't think has been mentioned is that our starting line-up contained 8 English players. Any stattos out there have any idea when the last time that happened in the Premiership?

[papereyes]

Middlesboro, last season, played a team of youth players against Fulham. If that didn't contain 8 Englishmen I'd be surprised.

Going back a bit, the Villa side that was top for a few months in 1998/99 had 10 Englishmen and an Aussie goalkeeper for most games.

[Vision]

Middlesboro, last season, played a team of youth players against Fulham. If that didn't contain 8 Englishmen I'd be surprised.

Yeah forgot about that although i think that was just prior to the UEFA Cup final when they rested virtually the entire 1st team. Certainly has been some years since a team started with 8 Englishmen in their best available 11.

[papereyes]

Aston Villa: Oakes ,Wright ,Southgate ,Ehiogu ,Watson ,Taylor ,Thompson ,Joachim (Grayson ,86 ) ,Dublin ,Barry (Collymore ,54 ) ,Hendrie
Subs not used: Charles,Vassell,Ghent,

Aston Villa beat Arsenal 3-2, I think to go top of the table in Dec 1998.

That's all English.

Middlesbro: Turnbull ,Davies ,Bates ,Wheater ,Taylor ,Morrison ,Jason Kennedy (Cooper ,85 ) ,Cattermole ,Christie (Walker ,62 ) ,Graham (Craddock ,81 ) ,Johnson
Subs not used Knight,McMahon,

Last game of last season. Their youth team. And Colin Cooper. According to Soccerbase, all English.

[Vision]

Aston Villa: Oakes ,Wright ,Southgate ,Ehiogu ,Watson ,Taylor ,Thompson ,Joachim (Grayson ,86 ) ,Dublin ,Barry (Collymore ,54 ) ,Hendrie
Subs not used: Charles,Vassell,Ghent,

Aston Villa beat Arsenal 3-2, I think to go top of the table in Dec 1998.

That's all English.

Middlesbro: Turnbull ,Davies ,Bates ,Wheater ,Taylor ,Morrison ,Jason Kennedy (Cooper ,85 ) ,Cattermole ,Christie (Walker ,62 ) ,Graham (Craddock ,81 ) ,Johnson
Subs not used Knight,McMahon,

Last game of last season. Their youth team. And Colin Cooper. According to Soccerbase, all English.

Although as i said earlier, it wasn't a proper 1st 11 in that the entire 1st team were rested ahead of the UEFA Cup final ( that worked well ) as our example and the Villa team were made up of the best 11 available.

Full respect to Boro though, cos not just are those players English but i think virtually all of them ( I know Christie was signed from Derby ) were from, or very close to the Middlesbrough area. Also the side that started the UEFA cup final contained 5 English players ( it would appear that only James Morrison started both games with Lee Catermole coming on as a late sub ).

It would be nice to see other clubs adopt a similiar policy although not very likely.

[Hoop Blah]

I thought we were well beaten and looked like a team off the pace and a little ring rusty.

Halford looked pretty good. As others have said he got caught out defensively a few times but that's not that surprising as everyone coming into our back four has done the same this season. On the ball he looked pretty comfortable and composed, there really is a similarity to Shorey in that respect, and I don't think he's actually as slow as he looks. He looks a very good prospect and a good pre-season and further coaching in the Reading way of defending could see him really put pressure on Murty, and Little for that matter, next season.

Lita again looked like a forward who can only operate in the penalty box. He's really improved his work rate but his ability to hold onto the ball and contribute to build up play still needs to sharpen up to demand the starting place his finishing deserves. I thought Kitson was clearly the better of the two and he showed signs that he can play at this level with his link up play being at the heart of most of our good play.

As others have said, the midfield was totally dominated, lets just hope it was a one off or a kick up the rear if they think the season is over.

Coppell has said many times in the past that the way you finish a season can have a massive impact on the start of the next season so I expect him to push the team to the final day to keep our momentum over the summer. If we don't I fear the dreaded second season syndrome.

[Yorkshire Royal]

We weren't very good in the 2nd half. Shame really, as the 1st half was a great game to watch..

Ultimately though, a bit long ball and never really looked like scoring in the 2nd half. Perhaps this is as much to do with Totenham's defending, but I did feel a little disappointed after such a thrilling first half.

It obviously wasn't a penalty, but if we had got a point from that game it would have been a little unfair to Spurs..

[Dickie's Spear]

In defence of Reading, Spurs played very well indeed, and would have carved up many other premier league teams on the day.
So perhaps despite some grey areas, Reading were'nt as bad as some say?.

[zac naloen]

We didn't score because our midfield was outplayed, as such we resorted to trying to by-pass their midfield with the long ball which i don't think i've ever seen work for Reading.

[Huntley & Palmer]

In defence of Reading, Spurs played very well indeed, and would have carved up many other premier league teams on the day.
So perhaps despite some grey areas, Reading were'nt as bad as some say?.

The movement from Spurs was superb, all over the pitch. I think we should have done better to try and shut them down more, we seem to struggle against teams where they pass the ball around very rapidly as we try to impose this on them.

[ferret]

I thought we were well beaten and looked like a team off the pace and a little ring rusty.

Halford looked pretty good. As others have said he got caught out defensively a few times but that's not that surprising as everyone coming into our back four has done the same this season. On the ball he looked pretty comfortable and composed, there really is a similarity to Shorey in that respect, and I don't think he's actually as slow as he looks. He looks a very good prospect and a good pre-season and further coaching in the Reading way of defending could see him really put pressure on Murty, and Little for that matter, next season.

Lita again looked like a forward who can only operate in the penalty box. He's really improved his work rate but his ability to hold onto the ball and contribute to build up play still needs to sharpen up to demand the starting place his finishing deserves. I thought Kitson was clearly the better of the two and he showed signs that he can play at this level with his link up play being at the heart of most of our good play.

As others have said, the midfield was totally dominated, lets just hope it was a one off or a kick up the rear if they think the season is over.

Coppell has said many times in the past that the way you finish a season can have a massive impact on the start of the next season so I expect him to push the team to the final day to keep our momentum over the summer. If we don't I fear the dreaded second season syndrome.

Sorry I really cant agree with you about Lita's and Kitson's performances yesterday.

Kitson was well of the pace all game and didnt really contriubute anything until the last 15 mins and the people around me were saying the same thing too.

Lita on the otherhand thought it alright, yeah a few things he tried didnt come off but he worked hard all game and wasnt given anything from the ref as Dawson was all over him most the game.

But the game was lost in midfield and for me Little was especily poor and given he was up against a poor left back who hasnt got a left foot, I cant remember him beating him Once.

Hunt though just wasnt good enough as Chimbonda whose maybe the 3rd or 4th best right back in the league was just too good for him.

[Huntley & Palmer]

I thought Kitson and Lita linked up really well, some lovely close passing between them. As Coppell mentioned when Leroy was on his hot streak, he now needs to deal with not scoring and not let it get to him. A more confident Lita would have put both of those headed chances away, he just needs to be patient

[Royalee]

Thought we more than matched them up until the penalty, which changed the game. Wouldn't go along with those who thought we were outplayed due to the amount of pressure and chances we had first half, especially being the away team. Thought Sidwell had a good game, although the rest of our midfield was poor with Little having a rare below par game and Hunt carrying on his miserable late run of form (I'd definitely be looking to play Doyle on the left against Liverpool).

The loss of Murty obviously didn't help, although Halford made some important challenges and if that was a penalty than Jermain Defoe can finish. Duberry looked suspect and I can't see why we paid £800k for him as he frequently lost his man and looked dodgy.

Shame to see Hahnemann go off as he seems to have upped his game again as of late and was superb, although Federici was equally outstanding in the second half.

Going forward I thought Kitson and Lita looked dangerous and were both very unlucky not to score. Leroy would normally have buried those two, but you can't fault his effort and that's the most important thing - he's getting into the right positions.

Overall Spurs had more chances and based on chances they deserved their win. However, I feel the penalty completely changed the game and had it not been given, we wouldn't have needed to chase the game thereafter and they wouldn't have been able to find anywhere near as much space as they did with us pushing forward.

[Dickie's Spear]

H + P said

The movement from Spurs was superb, all over the pitch. I think we should have done better to try and shut them down more, we seem to struggle against teams where they pass the ball around very rapidly as we try to impose this on them.

Hear hear!!!!
Exactly think Arsenal?

[Hoop Blah]

Sorry I really cant agree with you about Lita's and Kitson's performances yesterday.

Fair enough, I just thought that Kitsons flicks and touches where the only thing that got us decent posession in and around their box and he opened things up quite a few times.

Lita on the other hand holds on to the ball too long or just falls over looking for the freekick, which at times he probably deserved.

There was a lovelly move which involved Kitson and Lita where Lita ended up with his back to goal and should've flicked it back to Kitson (a bit like Kitson did for Sidwells goal against Villa) for a shot on goal 10 yards out. Lita kept hold of it for too long and I think played Sidwell in on the edge of the box. Little things like that I just think Kitson did better.

Signs of the partnership working which is a positive though.

[RG30]

We didn't play brilliantly but I think it's a good sign that we were still able to create chances. I recall 3 very good ones, 2 of which fell to Lita and he should have done better on.

The penalty was a joke, it wasn't intentional and I didn't even see any Spurs players calling for it. The inconsistency is what annoys me.

[cmonurz]

We didn't play brilliantly but I think it's a good sign that we were still able to create chances. I recall 3 very good ones, 2 of which fell to Lita and he should have done better on.

The penalty was a joke, it wasn't intentional and I didn't even see any Spurs players calling for it. The inconsistency is what annoys me.

Apart from Robbie Keane's best impression of a Flintoff lbw shout.

[RoyalBlue]

2WW1WC

However to be fair it seems like they scored a perfectly good goal, which was wrongly deemed offside so as it happens we deserved to lose anyway - possibly.

Well arguable not. Berbatov was clearly offside and made a definate move towards the through ball. He must have only been 4yds from the ball when Defoe shot so Federici wouldn't have been sure which angle to close down (and yes I know he'd go to the ball).

Spot on. Keeper was left trying to cover both options for as long as he could. Or is he expected to ignore the player in the offside position (even if he's realised the player is offside) and trust that the Assistant will flag if the ball is passed to him?!!

In my book Berbatov was interfering with play but the current law/guidelines are just plain silly and lead to all sorts of problems and misunderstandings amongst players, officials and supporters.

[Harold]

Little had one of the worse games I've seen him play in a long time. Y.P Lee marked him out of the game.

[M4 Junction 11]

it was handball