Analysis of the goals conceded against Hull City (30/10)

Friedel’s own goalRobert Koren and George Boyd link to get Ahmed Elmohamady free down the Hull right, and the Egyptian’s dangerous cross sees Hull players queueing up to finish it. Curtis Davies goes to ground to slot it home, but instead hits it back across goal, where it goes in off the flailing Brad Friedel.

1

Koren feeds the ball wide to George Boyd. Spurs look relatively well-organised at this point.

2

Boyd draws Walker in…

3

… and beats him with a clever flick to set Elmohamady free. Sigurdsson fails to track him.

4

Elmohamady is one of the best crossers in the Premier League, and puts a very dangerous ball into what Sky refer to as the ‘corridor of uncertainty’. The biggest worry is that Spurs have not got themselves organised – the five against five we had has now become three against one at the back post as Lamela and Dembele have totally switched off.

5

Davies slides in to finish the cross, but inexplicably directs it back across goal.

6

Poor old Friedel – his reflexes aren’t what they once were, and the ball rebounds awkwardly off him and into the open goal.

 

McShane’s goalPaul McShane gets above Vlad Chiricheș to meet a corner, and powers a header beyond Friedel, who is rooted to his line.

21

Chiricheș is marking the eventual goal-scorer, McShane, and Spurs generally looked pretty well-organised again.

23

There’s no significant movement from McShane, but he gets up above Chiricheș. Friedel is absolutely rooted to his line. Given that he had no man near to him restricting his movement, he really should be coming to punch anything in his 6-yard box.

24

And if he’s not coming to punch or claim the ball, then the least he can do is stop anything within a foot of him – this is pretty much straight at him, but his reflexes aren’t good enough to keep it out. He just palms it into the roof of the net.

 

Whilst Spurs didn’t play well – although there were patches of domination and good approach-play – it wasn’t as bad a performance as many have made out. We made eight changes to the team, suffered injuries mid-match (Chadli, and Naughton, and Walker seemed to be struggling too) and yet, but for a couple of Friedel errors, we would have won and kept a clean sheet.

I can’t for the life of me understand why Friedel is ahead of Gomes in the pecking order at this point. A lovely man, no doubt, but he hasn’t been a top class goalkeeper for at least two years now, and his reflexes are getting worse by the day. It must be time to bring Gomes back in, or to show some faith in young Jordan Archer when we rest Hugo Lloris.

There were positives last night though:

– Younes Kaboul came through 120 minutes seemingly unscathed, and was one of the better performers on the night.

– Academy graduate Harry Kane showed his quality, and must surely now be ahead of Chadli in the pecking order for the back-up wide left role. With Adebayor still out, I wouldn’t mind seeing him used as the focal point on occasions too. Defoe’s performance last night was particularly abject.

– We won a penalty shoot-out, scoring eight of our nine kicks. Remarkable!

1882 was out in force, and a good time was had by all.

Join the conversation

  1. Can you check your vid again, as for the first goal, I seem to remember: - Poor play by Naughton got them the corner - Naught and Walker sort of switched sides during the set play, so Naught went out right to shut down the ball, which was then played across the pitch, and it was Walker who dived in and was bypassed. - I think Walker (if it was he) should have hung back, but Sigg should have been covering. In fact, Sigg was lax earlier when he lost the ball, and stood claiming a handball (not given) while the Hull player ran at goal and got a shot away. These small factors make huge differences. I won't comment on our goalie... I don't think there's anything more to be said there. I'm happy to be wrong about who it was (walker/naughts), but it's perhaps a good time to mention Walker's play. I'm massively impressed with him this season, and even last season when he was getting so much flak. Because he does get caught out a few times, fans seem to miss how he plays on the front foot. Rarely do crosses come in from his side (compare with Naughts or Vert on the other side), and his willingness to stick a boot in reminds me of players at the top clubs. But in playing this way, he does need to be right pretty much every time. As he darted in last night, I was watching and thinking ooh that's risky.
    1. You were spot on. As I was watching it, I did think to myself "is that Walker?", but just assumed, wrongly, that it must be Naughton. On review, Naughton is central-ish. I kind of agree about Sig too - he could have tracked runner far better. Agree with you entirely on Walker - worth noting that his position is essentially a wing-back, too, yet people judge him against "old-fashioned" right-back standards; he's so much more
  2. Are these the only positives? MOTM performance from Sigurdsson and that unreal goal does not get a mention? interesting.
    1. Long-term positives. So impressed by Sig though, and I hope he's back in the side on Sunday.
  3. brad at fault for both goals...any cross the opposition meets, that hits the target, is a certain goal as he is rooted to his line thought he was lucky with the pen saves he made too!...just guessed correct way on what were pretty crap penalties.
    1. He's just not good anymore.
  4. Missed this match as not well but have to agree on the freezing out of Gomes, it's inexplicable given Friedel. Am I the only one who has noticed that if Lloris is injured we might as well give up. But is there a pattern here? Ade, BAE, Players who are more 'characters' seem to be frozen out by AVB.
    1. I don't really understand the logic behind it. My understanding is that something "really bad" happened off-field with BAE, hence being loaned out.
  5. Nice to Kane find the net in a game that matters, and scored with his left foot. (Took his penalty with his right)Friedel has filled in well so far this season but I agree if you have Gomes available use him. We can't sell him if people see him play. Siggy scores again, Lamela is lost and Chadli just looks a yard slow. But all in all another win and we have yet to play anywhere near the level that we played at times last season
    1. Kane's a fantastic striker of the ball with both feet - really pleased to see him getting a goal, I think he'll build on it.
  6. Always one to look on the bright side, those were some cracking penalties. Only seeing the briefest of highlights it's hard to guage, but there appeared to be a little more zip to the build up to the goals, though i here it was few and far between zips. I see Lamela is getting a rough time in the press, I hope it passes, Sandro was introduced very carfully initially then hit with a bang, though equally Dos Santos can be used as a very different example. For many years Spurs have brought people in in pairs in such situations and it's helped, Corluka and modric, all the way back to Villa and Ardiles, I understand Pavlyuchenko was supposed to come with Asharvin, anyway, anyone know of any argentinians that could come over, help him settle and play fullback?
    1. 8/9 scored. Remarkable! There was, at times, more zip, but on the whole it was a bit disappointing. I think Lamela looked really good when moved centrally, and think he needs to be used there from now on personally.

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