Yesterday they looked like a team capable of taking a Champions League spot and with Gareth Bale in the form he is in currently they have a player who is right at the top of his game driving them on.
That defeat halted a mini revival that had seen United record back-to-back victories over Chelsea and Aston Villa, but it was always going to be a tough ask going to White Hart Lane and getting something out of the game even though, in my my very humble opinion, we matched them for periods and could have got something out of the game ourselves. No real complaints though, the better team won.
The question really is how does the defeat leave you feeling? Granted we dropped a place courtesy of Manchester City’s defeat at Southampton (maybe that makes our defeat at St Mary’s seem a bit better?) but we’re still six points clear of the bottom three and four wins and a draw away from the points usually required to guarantee safety.
Did the defeat yesterday set alarm bells ringing again or did we show enough for you not to be so worried about losing knowing that we should have enough throughout the rest of the season to see us safe?
I’m in the latter camp if truth be told. Defeat is always horrible but I think we still showed enough to suggest that we’ll be more than a match for a lot of teams we are due to face in the coming weeks.
However we’re only ever a game away from disaster and suddenly our next league game against Southampton has taken on an extra importance and seemingly some extra difficulty following their win yesterday. Anyone who thinks that match will be a pushover is kidding themselves. Mind you, three points is a must.
So, how are you feeling today?
All good… pleased with 6 points from – Villa, Chelsea & Spurs. Would have taken that a few weeks back with out hesitation..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Theres no way you boys will have any trouble moving up the table,you have bought some great quality and i expect you to really push on next season.
Wyart Lane(Quote)
Normally an optimist, so I went on the BBC predictor and played the semi pessimist. Still saw us move up the table and that was with 6 points from the next 4 games. Win home to stoke and 3 draws. There is some rubbish down the bottom.
premandup(Quote)
Aussie – sorry mate but from the last article, do you not think that Perch was at fault for the first goal?
Re this article – I’d have to agree that overall the better team won yday. But what the Villa and Chelsea wins have done has put a little distance between the teams below us but brought us within 3 points of 11 place. The optimistic amongst us would say that our next 4-5 games are winnable or certainly points available, but we will have to continue to play as well as we’ve doing in the last 3 games, if not better. Benny back soon please.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Happy enough with the performance, Bale was the difference and we have our very own Bale coming back for the next home game so we can only get better.
Stuart79(Quote)
Why was Tiote left on the bench. He’s the best anchor man in the league. He gives yellows away but he might have hit that bale a bit.we still have a problem at left back . Santon good going forward but always gets turned around when attacked.Need a left footed player their. Big clubs have evra, cliche, cole, esso ecotto,Gibbs, baines, it’s not rocket science. If the winger goes outside the L B he’s attacking his stronger leg . If he goes outside a right footed LB he’s attacking his weaker leg. That’s why it very rarely works a right footed left back.its criminal these so called pro coaches have not addressed this situation at nufc Pardew especially as he’s the manager
If you cannot get the basics right we will struggle tactically.That’s just one small instance which might seem insignificant but to me it’s a major issue . I could go on about no crosses into the danger area ie 6 yd box . Remember Gillespie and ginola. If it isn’t Crossed in you get no goals.
George leighton(Quote)
Agree with Aussie.
The return of six points from those last three games is better than I ever imagined. The new arrivals have had a massive impact
Toby le Rhone(Quote)
George,
Ideally, Santon would be playing in Jonas’ role and we’d gave a naturally left footed fullback…
JJ(Quote)
SHARPY17
collo was at fault for the 1st goal he was allso responsible for the 2nd goal also
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
George/JJ – I know he’s out injured at the moment but I’d love us to get Neil Taylor from Swansea. There was a suggestion we once bid around £1m for him when Swansea were first promoted but it never come off. I think he’s a cracking young player and all left foot. Good in defence and equally good going forward.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Forgot to mention the big boot from krul.used it a lot. Sissoko and gouvron probably haven’t seen much of this.will need to adjust from into feet in France to into head and chest at nufc . Sign of lack of confidence in playing ball around.Watched a bit of Southampton- city . Southampton looked ok played on deck, matched city,full of running wont be easy at sjp
George leighton(Quote)
Their i no shame in a 2-1 loss at WHL we gave a good account of our selves and were beaten by the individual brilliance of Bale . I can see us going on a run now we have a run of games against mid and lower table teams . The biggest blow yesterday was Gouffran’s injury .Hope the lad is only out for 1or 2 games and with him and a fully fit HBA back their is going to be plenty of defences scared of us
Axel(Quote)
I wouldn’t discount Santon,
For much of the season he was our most attacking threat.
Now that he has people to aim for in the box, he has provided two assists in three games.
He has also not been anywhere near as bad in defence as people make out. He has made the most clean tackles this season, the most interceptions, won the most 50/50 balls, he’s played the most forward passes, has the third most assists this season, won the second most fouls, and played by FAR the most accurate passes overall.
Not bad for a 22 year old!
JJ(Quote)
<<<<<<<<<, wonders if liverpool want to swap carol for collo
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
In fact, I think people forget how young Santon is. If he wasn’t so well known and so experienced he’d still be considered a wonderkid!
JJ(Quote)
<<<<<<<< but thinks even liverpool aint that stupid
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
With Ben Arfa, Cisse, Gouffran, Sissoko, Cabaye, we suddenly have goal threats everywhere.
Then with Saylor/Mbiwa replacing Willo and Debuchy replacing Simpson, and Tiote/Anita/Perch behind (in that order for me). We have a strong defence that can actually pass the ball and create opportunities.
Its one hell of a team. Really exciting. If we’d had this team at the start of the season, I would have been very confident of a top six finish.
JJ(Quote)
ok, had a few comments about the side I suggested before the spurs game, such as “Had I not watched the games” re:sissoko, “why change a winning” side, “why drop Debuchy”.. “what had saylor done to be dropped”… well I thought I’d bide my time. and here are my responses to the above.
1) yes I had seen Sissoko was playing advanced midfield, but thought his pace and power would be better used in front of the back four, where he could pick up bales runs. he is quick and could have kept up and knocked bale of balance. Perch and cabaye could do neither.
2) Debuchy, I saw him get roasted by Abonglour at villa, there was no way he would keep up with Bale, which is why I suggested Anita started at full back and could have followed bale all over wing/centre mid etc.
3) dropping Saylor for Mbawia, only reason, pace… having Anita,sissoko and Mbawia as a triangle on bales side might have kept him quite, only saying might, dont have a crystal ball.
4) as for not changing a winning side, we played well at Chelsea but they play with no width, attacking midfielders behind torres/ba… spurs play with pace and width bale/lennon… so to suggest that the sides we put out are the same for both is naive and school playground logic, “you play well, you staying in the side”.. well this is a professional business, you play the best side to win a game, and if that means peeing off a professional saying he’s not suited to this game then that’s the way it has to be.
as for the game its self, I wasn’t too disappointed, we worked hard and put up a performance, just undone by bales runs at us…
shame no one thought about a tactic to stop him………..
4 wins and a draw still to go…
for info, this is the side I suggested for the spurs game…
……………………………… Krul……………………………..
Anita…………..Mbawia………..Collo………..Santon
……………….Sissoko…………………..Tiote……………
……….Jonas…………….Cabaye……………..Gouffran..
…………………………… . Cisse……………………………….
none of the above with hindsigth, before anyone feels like saying it.
kev(Quote)
Sharpy, doubt we’d go for him no with Haidara here. But ye, he did look a good player.
JJ(Quote)
Kev the reason I said don’t change a winning side is confidence. ATM we are recovering from a poor first half of the season and have a lot of new players to integrate, even Tiote just back from ACON, Cabaye & Saylor just back from injury. Tinkerman philosophy is OK with a strong confident squad and hopefully we will soon be in that position.
In the meantime we change softly softly. Tiote has found his feet with a cameo yesterday and could start. Will Gouffran need replacing and will HBA be ready for a start. Would not be surprised to see HBA on the bench to come on after an hour, replacing Goofy, or Obertan if Goofy not ready.
premandup(Quote)
Kev
What has lead you to think that Anita would do any better at stopping the pacy wingers than Debuchy?
Andymag(Quote)
<<<<, though we were playing well til Gouffran got a knock after that with him not there spuds were able to play further forward as Gouffran pace was making them play a bit deeper
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Kev,
I get your logic, but it really isn’t that simple.
I agree with Mbiwa. I thought Pards may have subbed Taylor when we needed the second goal simply because we HAD to push up and it left us very exposed to a counter attack where Mbiwa’s pace would be crucial.
However, Bale may well have been too much for him too.
Anita isn’t all that much quicker than Debuchy. He also isn’t a natural fullback and with Debuchy pushing up field and being a threat on attack, it had Bale having to drop back and defend for much of the first half. So disagree there.
Sissoko held the ball up superbly in his advanced role. He pressured the Spurs defence and he won several aerial duels. Something Cabaye would not have been able to do.
Cabaye also had a great game in his withdrawn role and his passing from the back is second to none. He played some delightful long balls out from the back. Sissoko often being the target with his pace and strength getting us out of our half and on the attack.
He also played wide right a lot of the game because of the gaps left by Bale pushing up. In fact it was here that we scored our goal!
I think Pard’s did ok, and the game swung in Spurs favour when we lost the threat of Gouffran who was superb as an outlet and spreading the Spurs defence.
Marv came on and was VERY VERY VERY disappointing in comparison.
The first Spurs goal was an individual **** poor effort from Perch. They second was a result of a mix up where we didn’t have the pace to match him on the break.
So Mbiwa for Taylor and Tiote for Perch earlier where the changes that in hindsight should have been made.
Still it happens. I think the performance overall was encouraging. So not blaming anyone here. Spurs are a quality team.
JJ(Quote)
in general I agree that a winning side is a confident side, but at times you have to look at what you are up against and the 3 around bale, were debuchy,saylor and cabaye, none with express pace, it was a disaster waiting to happen. Saylor was just back from injury, cabaye looks knackered at about 75 mins of each game at the moment and debuchy looked slow at villa. compare that to having Sissoko, Mbawia and Anita on that side of the pitch. swapping it also keeps the players in the side on their toes too, knowing people are ready to come in.
from their point of view they obviously tried to stop Guffrans runs, taking him out each time he set off and put a young quick defender up against Sissoko on his side (naughton)..dropped big centre half in Ventogen and made sure they had pace against Cisse.
kev(Quote)
My glass is half full, imo we could have tried harder to stop Bale, but the way he’s playing it would have been a waste of time. We arn’t and won’t be the only team that Bale will rip to shreds this season.
In the same way that Benny has ripped teams open, and will rip a few more open when we get him back.
It’s not like we were hammered imo the 1st goal was all down to Perch, and the 2nd was a stupid mix up between Saylor and Colo and I would have expected Colo to have done more for that one, so the way I see it was that without our mistakes they wouldn’t have been as good.
Big Dave(Quote)
agree as I said, I wasn’t too disappointed yesterday, we have been very good since the signings and its nice to debate a side/players and this wasn’t the case 4 weeks ago.
we have some winnable games to come in the next 4 weeks, we should be looking at 12 points southampton/stoke/wigan/fulham …
kev(Quote)
J J I’m not having a go at santon. He’d be better pushed up like bale was originally a LB. he has good technique going forward which he likes to do a lot but when it breaks down we are open to quick counter attacks down left .debuchy sits we need a lb who sits . Ideally the mids and strikers do the attacking and the defenders sit tight.if he wants to attack push him into left mid , if it breaks down there’s a lb their . Give him a go in the masks position.
George leighton(Quote)
“cabaye looks knackered at about 75 mins of each game”
This I agree with. He’s been outstanding since his return, but when he is tired then bring him off rather than risk injury. We have Anita who is more than capable and plays basically the same role.
JJ(Quote)
TAE – I did say on the ‘game on’ article that Colo gave away a pointless freekick, which actually had that been Tiote people would have remarked on more. So yes I agree initially Collo at fault but once the wall line up for the freekick, it is their job to defend it. To get themselves in the way and stop that ball getting through. Had Perch jumped instead of watching the ball go over his head and turn to watch it hit the back of the net, that goal would never have been scored. The ball was low enough that had he jumped he would have blocked it. So yes Colo shouldn’t have made the challenge to concede the freekick, but Perch should have jumped.
Sharpy17(Quote)
@ BIG DAVE
disagree about perch was collo give the freekick away and if you got a good look at the wall sissoko told the wall not to jump which jonas did not understand cause he jumped,agree with ya on bale the guys simply top draw imho 😉
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
JJ
I wonder where B & B is he’s Marv’s biggest fan is he not? 😆 Was disappointed with Marveaux when he came on, thought it would be a like for like replacement for Gouffran, but Marveaux just seemed lazy and didn’t attack with the same tempo as Yoan.
Andymag(Quote)
andy @21 . I only said might, I think Bale was superb yesterday and it would have taken and exceptional player to stop him, just thought before the game that Anita might have been able to nip in and get the ball before it got to Bale, as he seems good at that in midfield.
“3) dropping Saylor for Mbawia, only reason, pace… having Anita,sissoko and Mbawia as a triangle on bales side might have kept him quite, only saying might, dont have a crystal ball.”
kev(Quote)
The first goal was not all down to perch. He did not give away the free kick in a dangerous position. He did not position the wall or the keepers position. He did not have to be in the wall, why pick a little’un. His only contribution was in not jumping when it MAY have made a difference. May have deflected it past Krul who knows. What instructions are the wall given and by whom, Manager or Keeper.
Easy simplistic target. Cisse moved away from the wall. Cisse missed a header. Everybody makes mistakes. A few get tanked by the fans. Too many fans not enough supporters.
premandup(Quote)
Prem, I agree about Perch, but JJ and Big Dave are blaming him like he kicked it in or something. From now on lets keep a tab on every player that doesn’t get a block on a shot and we can blame them for the goal.
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
<<<<<<<<, knew what was ganna happen the second collo give away the freekick, was amazed when we put know1 on the post cause you could see it coming.
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Aussie imo its simple I believe that Perch could have stopped the ball if he was brave enough to take a smack in the head for the team.
I am not saying it was him that gave the free kick away or owt, As I said he had enough time to turn his head out of the way then turn the other way to watch it hit the back of the net, he had time to jump 6ins to block it but he didn’t. If you or anyone else don’t agree thats fine.
Big Dave(Quote)
@ BIG DAVE
sissoko told the wall not to jump bud
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Thought we put in a good performance yesterday and losing Gouffron was the turning point. What has concerned me for some time is our substitutions. The substitutions made can be a matter of opinion but even going back to Chris Hughton we seem to make substitutions based on the clock and not of the need to change the game. Brian Clough would make a sub in five minutes if he identified a problem. Do we ever make a sub at half-time unless there is an injury?
Groucho(Quote)
Dave – divvint worry mate, you’re dead right, he should have jumped. Kruls positioning was such because he had set his wall up to cover that side of the goal – hence why he wasn’t closer to it.
If you put a player on the post at corners, and the ball is headed towards them, you expect them to do what they can to stop a goal. Same as a wall in a freekick, they are there to block the ball. I really understand how people can question that 😕
Sharpy17(Quote)
Big Dave, Perch may have stopped it he jumped but the word is may. Just like Krul may have stopped it he was a pace further back and didn’t have to dive slightly backward as well as across. But the fact remains that it is not Perch’s fault… The goal is more Collo’s fault, he should never have given a free kick away in that position.. We’ll have to agree to disagree on this one..
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
<<<<<<<<< also blames collo for giving away the freekick
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
<<<<<<,,, also thinks if williamson had give that freekick away he would of been hung drawn and quatered on here, but as it was mr do no wrong collo thats ok then
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
TAE
So Sissoko tells the wall not to jump. Firstly, not so sure about that. Because even he went up onto his tippy toes to make himself big.
Secondly, the ball literally went an inch or two over Perch’s head. Yet he stood there completely still, with no reaction. A slight effort to get to the ball would have saved him from any blame for me.
Colo isn’t blameless for giving away the freekick, if he hadn’t, there would have been a shot on goal anyway. I guess he took a chance.
To say Perch wasn’t at fault is ridiculous. But that’s my opinion. Nobody has to agree.
JJ(Quote)
TAE don’t try to tar me with the if it had of been Willo instead of Colo stuff, as after the way Colo got on during the window I said he should have been stripped of the armband, so I won’t be defending him, thats why I said yesterday that it was Colo that gave a stupid free kick away.
But that doesn’t change the fact that Perch didn’t have the balls to take one in the head for the team, and I don’t buy the Sissoko told them that they 😉 wouldn’t just jump straight away because he knows he is in tje wall to stop the ball, but he bottled it
Big Dave(Quote)
JJ
going up on ya tiptoes aint jumping and sissoko was clearly seen in the wall telling the wall not to jump so the only thing perch is guilty of is doing as he was told and to blame perch is simply laughable in my opion
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Getting a bit sick and tired of all those saying:
“It it had been Willo…”
“If it had been Perch…”
“If it had been Colo…”
The reason why these guys get pointed out more than any others is that, more often than that, it is them making the errors.
The other reason is that, as much as some are overally critical, others are far too defensive of these players. They can’t handle other blogger pointing out their errors. So they make a big deal of defending them.
If Ameobi, Willo, or Perch have a good game, I’ll be the first to state it. If they make an error, the same as any other player. I’ll point it out. If its a blatant amateurish error that is **** poor, I’ll definately not ignore it!
No matter who the player is. The fact that the same names keep getting brought up, is only an indication that these players make more mistakes.
For me, its as simple as that.
JJ(Quote)
JJ – correct 😉 . This isn’t Perch bashing at all, simply analyzing the goal. If it had’ve been any other player in Perchs position I’d be saying exactly the same thing.
Sharpy17(Quote)
Did Bale get the first goal or was it Perch? 🙂 🙂 🙂
Agree with TAE… 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
TAE
If Perch had gone up on his toes, he could quite easily have blocked the shot. Sometimes you need to use your own initiative.
Its look being in the army and your superior tells you not to shoot but then someone starts firing on you and the only way to stop it is to fire back, but because you were told not do you don’t so you die…
Perch watched as the ball went an inch over his head. Didn’t move a muscle. For me that’s inexcusable.
Its one incident though. On the whole I think he’s been one of the better performers this season. But that goal was a big individual error.
JJ(Quote)
only 1 in the wall of 4 jumped,in my opion ya whole wall either jumps or it stands still
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
The first goal was more Collo’s fault if you want to assign blame.. but hey ‘ I guess he took a chance’ 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Aussie,
I’m not surprised you agree with him. He’s wrong and you are usually wrong so the odds were always good. 😆 😉
Regardless. We can’t go back. And one mistake doesn’t make Perch a bad player. I still think he’s very useful. On current form, he’s better than Tiote. But Tiote at his best is far superior to Perch at his best.
JJ(Quote)
Just watching Carroll run about against Villa. He seriously ends **** up on the ground a lot for a big lad.. not fussed about him coming back to be honest.
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
Wow not much to talk about if people are still on about the Wall lol Think some people need to get over tbh.
Half full for me btw 😀
Santii(Quote)
I’d say the Colo had a part in both Spurs goals. Still I’d him him in the team every week.
JJ(Quote)
Aussie @53,
Definately don’t want Carroll back. He should go to Stoke. He’d do well there.
JJ(Quote)
Stoke is Andy Carroll’s wet dream JJ 😀 I really hope he doesn’t go there. He is fin at West Ham 😀
Santii(Quote)
And your never wrong JJ, it is a constant source of amazement to me, how right you always are 🙂 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
@ JJ
dint get me started about the 2nd goal bud all i got to say about that is 2 words weak *** lol 😯
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
WHam are just banginging everything long to Carroll, it makes us look like Barca 🙂 🙂 well almost 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
TAE
You’re right it’s Jonas’ fault 😆
Andymag(Quote)
@ ANDYMAG lol was thinking more allong the lines of the dude was surposed to put it in row z lmao
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Didn’t we lose the game because goofy can’t ride a tackle, Or maybe Sissoko didn’t put Bale in the stands. Or maybe they were just better at punishing our mistakes than we were at punishing theirs.
premandup(Quote)
Aussie – Colo should not have made the challenge – why? – because it was a clumsy half arsed effort and the kid was nowhere near, nor was he running in the direction of the goal. So he wasn’t stopping a goal scoring opportunity.
However, from the point of the freekick, it becomes a goal scoring opportunity and Perch should have blocked the effort – why? – because that’s the whole point of having a wall there.
It was an unfortunate mistake, and take nowt away from Bale coz it was a well struck, well placed freekick – but it could have been blocked
Sharpy17(Quote)
@Prema
I think it was Xisco’s fault like 😀
Santii(Quote)
Preman
No one can argue that. World class players capatilize on errors. Bale made us pay maximum, from two errors that most games, would perhaps not even be pin pointed because no goals would have results from them.
Aussie,
I was amazed at always being right too, until it just became such a common occurance that it no longer surprises me anymore mate 😀
JJ(Quote)
It was actually Willo’s fault. He’s taller and if he’d just been a better player, he would have been in that wall and stopped it. 😉
JJ(Quote)
@ BIG DAVE
not trying to tar ya with any brush bud the point im trying to make here is collos no were near a top draw defender as some peeps on here try to make out
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Sharpy, look mate the only time in my opinion that you can blame a guy in the wall is when he ducks out the way. If you decide not to jump pre kick, you are not set move quick. You are looking for it at your body or feet.
I (like everyone else on here) am not going to change my views so lets not flog this any more than it has been 🙂
Aussie Magpie Fan(Quote)
@TAO
Last season’s team of the year would say otherwise 😳
Santii(Quote)
the result yesterday was exactly as expected really… and i think most people knew that Bale was key to win or losss.. the guy is world class, as in serious world class.
The bigger game for us is the next one, southampton is a huge one for us and they are on the back of a big win yesterday. i am sure it will be a very hard game.
craig chisholm(Quote)
@ SANTII
last year was last year bud lol
TOONARMYELITE(Quote)
Aussie – aye alreet then mate, I was getting a bit bored of this one anyway to be honest 😉
Like I say, it was a good freekick anyway to be fair.
Sharpy17(Quote)
I disagree with every single one of you.
Fans Should Own The Club(Quote)
I thought that was a pretty good performance despite the result. Heads didn’t drop when we were behind and really we could easily have come away with a point. We appeared to lose some of our threat once Gouffran was injured but we still did not give up.
That’s three matches now where the team (and Pardew) have produced the sort of performance that suggests we have turned the corner.
We need to keep up the intensity until the end of the season.
We also need to try and get Cisse, Ben Arfa and Gouffran playing together as soon as possible. If they can really gel I think that will absolutely terrify most of our opponents defences.
Pootle(Quote)