Analysis of the goals conceded against Norwich (31/10)

Vertonghen’s own goalA corner comes back out to the edge of the box, and a Tettey volley hits Vertgonhen and finds the corner of Lloris’ goal.

A corner is drifted in, with Vertonghen marking Morison at the back post.

Morison seems to have his arms on Vertonghen, but gets above him and wins the header… it’s difficult to tell, but it seems to come off Vertonghen and back out towards the edge of the box.

Tettey is waiting at the edge of the box, with Sigurdsson and Falque closing him from either side. He gets a shot away, but it is travelling wide.

Vertonghen tries to adjust his body, but can only divert it past Lloris.

Jackson’s goalAnother set piece – this time Snodgrass’ free kick is headed down powerfully by Holt. Lloris saves, but the ball pops up for Jackson to slam home.

Snodgrass angles his free kick to the far post.

Holt easily beats Vertonghen in the air, and powers his header downwards.

Lloris makes the reflex save, but the ball pops up. Huddlestone had been marking Jackson, but doesn’t follow him into the six yard box.

Lloris makes a desperate lunge for the ball, but Jackson beats him to it, and powers home.

A very disappointing result, especially having dominated the game for long periods, been 1-0 up with ten minutes to play, and of course missing the late penalty. However, there were some positives to be drawn from the game – Lloris was commanding, decisive, quick off his line and generally a strong presence. Tom Carroll showed plenty of ability in midfield, keeping the ball ticking over and also showing a willingness to tackle. And finally, Yago Falque had a really good game – he was creative and intelligent, providing good crosses and almost scored with an excellent curling effort.

On the down side, Dempsey and Sigurdsson struggled to have any impact on the game again, and I personally don’t think either deserves to start against Wigan. My preference would be for Lennon, Bale and Falque to play in a fluid “three” behind either Defoe or Adebayor.

Another slight negative was the performance of Vertonghen. He came on for the tiring Carroll (we had limited other options, but one would have been dropping Sigurdsson deeper), but seemed to lack intensity. He was arguably at fault for both goals, and I think AVB will have perhaps learnt that he is not an ideal candidate to come off the bench, and that he should either start or play no part at all.

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  1. What do you think is wrong with Dempsey for us, my recollection is that he could be unplayable at times for Fulham? I was excited to get him, thought he was a winner. But he looks slow, off the pace, just less alert and skillful than the players around him - he looks as if he's playing for too good a team, he's not a Test batsman as it were, good county player.

    I'm puzzled the faith AVB seems to be showing in him, but take point re lack of choices.

    Sigurdsson I'd give more time to.

    Vertonghen is contender for player of season so far imho, but he's not an 'intense' type of player, I agree with you.

    1. I can not work Falque out.. if he a winger? is he a striker? or is he a hybrid of the two or something else?

      There was numerous times when he had the ball on the right wing with 1 man to beat with acres of pitch with which to run in to... but he would then play a short ball to Walker and proceed to run inside. Dont get me wrong he was wipping a few good balls into the box when he got around the edge of the 18 yard box. With a few more games under his belt I think he will develop into a very good player.

      Also he nor anyone could take a corner last night! I have never known 3/4 players to all not be able to get the ball higher than their knee from a corner!

      Carrol for me was poor the majority of the match. He was struggling with the basics! Misplacing 5 yard passes? He was always showing willingness to get the ball which is good in a youngster, just last night he needed to do the simple things right.

      We looked like we didnt turn up last night. To sum up the majority of Spurs' play; Naughton to Carrol > Carrol back to Naughton > Naughton give the ball away or passes back to Caulker. Throw in a couple of cross field balls which were either too short and cut out by the full back or too hard/high even Peter Crouch wouldnt have gotten his head on them.

      Not even going to start on Dempsey or Sigg.

      On another note... how poor were the Norwich fans? Looked like they had as many fan as Spurs did.
  2. we supposedly beat liverpool to the signings of siggurdsson & dempsey, I'm beggining to feel that it was them that had a result!both of them playing together are no where near as good as vdv!! we've had the guts ripped out of the team & this has been replaced with S#### thanks Levy, beggining to think your a closet gooner!!
  3. I'm all for bedding in time but Siggurdson has looked low on confidence and Dempsey although having scored two important goals has lacked any where near the form he showed at Fulham. I thought Lloris played well and the 2nd goal was not really his fault I think he will start on Saturday. Falque has looked good in spurts in both cup games and could be something of a find but is he better than GDS could have been? We miss the creativity and goals of VDV. I'm happy with Dembele to replace Modric, it was Madrid after all, we need him back sharpish but I'd take VDV back for Siggy and Dempsey at the moment. I don't even know where to start with the striking situation, games like that are made for Ade, what is the crack with him? Thank god we have Bale, without him we look average but if we have our best 11 available we could beat anybody. We need more from the players who should be playing for the places, perhaps theyre feeling the pressure when they start
  4. I'm amazes again at how many players we have in the box, I think its nine against five in one of the pictures.
    But I'm not convinced they all know what they are supposed to be doing.
    Late goals again, that's seven in the last ten minutes of games; set pieces again.
    I thought that Lloris would have come for the first.

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