Norwich vs Tottenham 2nd Feb 2016 (Home)

[Lavanche]

Very surprised to see Mulumbu there and not see Brady, but rest are just as assumed. Good to see 3 men midfield with Olsson as left back. Hopefuly we can at least have a good match, if we cant get any points out of it. Playing well against top teams always boost confidence for next few matches.

 

[Gaffer]

Very surprised to see Mulumbu there and not see Brady, but rest are just as assumed. Good to see 3 men midfield with Olsson as left back. Hopefuly we can at least have a good match, if we cant get any points out of it. Playing well against top teams always boost confidence for next few matches.

I hope it's because Brady has this sickness bug as he impresses me in his natural position more than Jarvis. It would be harsh to judge him as a left back when that's not his preferred position.

 

[madman]

some streams here

http://sumo.ly/f6Qy

 

[flashdown]

Bassong has been on the wrong side of both situations that have lead to Spurs goals.  Ball watched and missed Alli running by him. Poor tackle on Alli leads to a penalty.

Though he has the ability to defend, he shows lapses in judgment/concentration at the wrong times too many times.  He is more of a liability than an asset.  I feel he needs to be dropped and Bennett start in his place from here on out.

 

[RhythmicTheory]

Playing very narrow, not stopping crosses, pinto exposed over and over (needs help),but needs to get tighter for crosses.

Bassong off the pace, never a pen though.

Mulumbo, can see why hes hardly featured, looks woefully short of the match pace.

Should have had a pen at the end though, Wimmer barges over naismith.

 

[Gaffer]

But that was never a penalty. There wasn't even a real appeal for one but then a stonewall penalty we should've got wasn't given. It's the kind of thing that ruins the PL.

 

[flashdown]

I am only following via twitter so I didn't see Bassong's tackle.  I might have judged too quickly, though I do feel he just can't keep up with the pace.

 

[RhythmicTheory]

Ref has been poor today, foul on Olsson for me at the end.  Howson, poor game didnt offer any cover in the first half, distribution through out the team bad.

Mulumbu needs a run, hes off the pace, although better second half.  Klose looked good in possession, some good tackles and clearances, one blip but on the whole good.

 

[Lavanche]

Better second half and their third goal came from clear foul on Olsson. Was second time in 3 mins where ref didnt give free kick in situation where Tottenham player would most likely get one. First led Tetteys yellow and second fir goal. To add penalty for them and not giving penalty for us and we were very unlucky today in 50/50 ref calls. Specially penalty was so clear foul on Naismith.

Anyway not our best game, but not worst either.Spurs were clearly better team today. Our midfield struggled to create anything and on second half we played trough long balls which worked on our favor.

Bassong had one of those days again and it is so sad we pay for so easy mistakes. Rudd also was nervy. Spitting almost every shot our and in dangerous areas.

Also communication between Bassong and Klose was very poor. There were lot of situations where it was very close to lead error when they were confused who should take the ball or man.

Attackers did ok in circumstances. Fullbacks were ok after Pintos shaky first 20 mins. Tettey was again very good, but Mulumbu surprisingly was better at Tottenhams end of the field than ours. Silly defencive errors. 

Howson was invisible. Had to check on second half if he still is on the field. Jarvis didnt start well, but second half was much better. Good delivery and combination plays with Olsson.

AN also got his changes wrong this time by taking our mobility and after those we didnt see the ball much and full backs had to carry ball front as distances grew too big.

 

[ZLF]

if your cant say something nice dont say nothin at all is my motto today.

spurs were excellent and whether with or without the refs help were deserved winners by 3 goals.    we wont get relegated by losing to spurs;   just need to pick ourselves up and put in a far better 90 mins on sat (although tettey will be sorely missed);  we are better than today,  but we have to shelve these half hearted performances.  

 

[Brian Fantana]

Just got home....welll, that was dreadful.

Positives: I thought Klose looked composed and showed good distribution. Early on he was visibly trying to lift the tempo and, whilst not perfect I thought it was a solid debut.

I thought Howson played well in the second half, all of our best moves went through him and he did show some ambition.

Negatives: Bassong had another stinker, he has to be dropped and Bennett needs to come back in on the right side of the central two.

We played so narrow which left the full backs completely exposed; neither had great games but they were done no favours by them in front. This was especially true of Jarvis, why does a natural winger who profits most by playing wide spend the whole game drifting inside???? When Olsson got the ball he had no options and when Spuds had the ball he was hopelessly exposed against the winger. The same goes for Pinto in the first half, less so in the second.

All over we looked sluggish and off the pace and our only tactic appeared to be to smash it long to Dave and look for the knock down, what happened to trying to play football???? I think there is a value in going long occasionally, keep teams guessing and worried about it but after th first 30 balls from the centre half are lost it might be a good idea to try something new!!!!!!

Very disheartening.

 

[GJP]

Spurs were good but they're not world beaters. Unfortunately AN has become scared of too many teams at this level. 

Thought Howson did alright on the "wing" even though he's far from natural there. Offered no less than Jarvis on the other side who is a natural. Having said that, I thought it was an odd decision to take Jarvis off when bringing another striker on. He had just put in a great ball. If you've got two strikers on then at least keep on the player most likely to get service into them.

Credit to Olsson for giving it a bloody good go down the left side. Pinto...well...Whittaker would never be allowed to get away with it.

Klose was alright but no more than that. Decent on the ball but caught out a couple of times defensively and had nervy moments. Mbokani tried to get stuck in upfront but with Mulumbu and Tettey in the middle and Howson on the right AN made it quite clear it was going to be workmanlike.

And Rudd just doesn't inspire.

 

[Fimbo]

Few positives tonight. I thought we missed creativity without Redmond or hoolahan. We played too much long ball despite some of our few bright moments coming from passng it out from the back. Mbokani is clearly good at winning it the air but this tactic never really worried the spurs defense. 

The ref. I'm really not convinced he saw the bassong challenge well. I was perfectly sighted and saw nothing wrong - but I've not seen a replay.  Another ref may well not have given it. But then you had the feeling spurs could have gone up a gear if they had not got soft goals. 

Klose made an OK start despite a couple of.errors. mulumbu looked clunky. Howson came into it in last 30 mins. Mbokani worked hard but struggled to make space. Naismith hustled and bustled. Lots of effort but just couldn't really get going against a better team.

Next.

 

[GJP]

The ref. I'm really not convinced he saw the bassong challenge well. I was perfectly sighted and saw nothing wrong - but I've not seen a replay.  Another ref may well not have given it.

Pretty obvious he was the kind of C unit who was hoping for any chance to do Spurs a nice big favour.

 

[Brian Fantana]

He had to have had money on the game, that performance was woeful to such an extent it could not be an accident. The guy needs looking at.

 

[Dubai Mark]

Well that was certainly a bit of a Panto performance .....from Pinto, oh dear and I thought he was OK on his debut, but on that performance we have at least two better RB's. Klose I thought went from a shocking first half hour to a decent hour, at first though I was very concerned, and Bassong, who I am actually usually a fan of had another mare unfortunately. So, that's three of the back four not up to it for 90 minutes, say no more......as for the refereee, sure Spurs would have won without his help, but that was a bizaar performance, almost surreal. I will refrain from criticising AN's team selection as we really dont know what went on behind the scenes, particular as all of the team played like that had some sort of virus in the first half, must have been Lemsips at half time!      

 

[Fimbo]

Agree that we don't know the illness situation but I was surprised by team selection. We veered from an attacking set up against Liverpool, with redmond, hoolahan, Naismith neatly cutting through the defense, to a very defensive hoof ball set up. It felt a bit desperate. I was also not convinced by the subs. Bringing Jerome on alongside mbokani seems to add very little. 

 

[ZLF]

Olsson; the great deceiver; looks fantastic with his surging runs but has no end product,  poor crosses and woeful defending.  One of many changes if brady is fit.

 

[GJP]

Bit harsh. Especially considering the number of times Jarvis drifted central.

 

[Lavanche]

And Olsson was our best defender yesterday which isn't much of course, but defending wise his marking is better than Brady's and even when he is out of position he has speed to recover those situations. 

Made at least 3 very important tackles and in one of them Spurs ptobably would have had 1 vs 1 against Rudd without him.His delivery is also good for fullback.

Sergio Ramos was back in days considered best full back around and his crosses wouldn't have hit barn door. Olsson at least provides almost always a cross that is possible to attack or we get a corner and his overlaps are well timed providing our wingers good support.

So yes very harsh to point him out from yesterdays squad.