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Curious but how do people rate the players last night, I understand it was against City and they tend to steam roll everyone but here mine for what it’s worth.
Loris: 8 - Amazing save from Aguero, can't really fault him
Walker: 6 - Ran himself into the ground
Dawson: 4 - Love him to bits but not good enough against this quality
Chirches: 6 - Thought he was great under pressure, lot of composure
Rose: 6 - Very good, shame about the linesman
Lennon: 3 - I know he has limitation but that was poor
Bentaleb 5 - Nowhere in the first half but second half was quite good, a game of two halves as they say
Dembele 5 - Good touches, did Toure once or twice let down by sloppy passing
Siggy 1 - I know its City but what the fuck
Eriksen 5 - Talent of any city player but not great defensively,
Ade 5 - Gave a lot but never really in a position to threaten
Subs
Capoue 4 - Maybe controversial as he scored but is he really a DM because he never followed midfield runners, no where near Sandro
Holtby 5 - not much time tried his best
Noughton 4 - again tried his best not his position
 
Thought Capoue actually did very well when he came on. He had a couple passes picked off early on, but after his goal he gained a bit of composure and confidence and did very well in maintaining possession.
 
Thought Capoue actually did very well when he came on. He had a couple passes picked off early on, but after his goal he gained a bit of composure and confidence and did very well in maintaining possession.
It was the defense that was poor, watch the Rose tackle that got him sent off again and see how he let the man go and didn't run back after him, he did that on quite a few occassions, I had the impression he was supposed to be a DM like Sandro but he played more like Bentaleb or Dembele.
 
Dermot Gallagher reckons Tottenham¿s Danny Rose should not have been dismissed against Manchester City
Last Updated: 30/01/14 11:49am

Former Premier League referee Dermot Gallagher reckons Tottenham's Danny Rose should not have been dismissed against Manchester City on Wednesday.

Gallagher believes the decision to award a penalty against Rose, when he appeared to win the ball in a challenge with Edin Dzeko, was wrong, but he feels referee Andre Marriner had no choice but to dismiss the Spurs defender after pointing to the spot.

"It wasn't Andre's fault," Gallacher said. "Danny Rose has got so much of the ball. Dzeko's knees have buckled. For me it's a good tackle.

"It's the assistant who gives the penalty, and unfortunately once the penalty's given the argument is it's a red card, it's got to be a red card because it's denying a goal scoring opportunity, but for me, no. No penalty. No red card.

"The referee should just give a corner, he's played the ball out, but the assistant has come in and he's flagged. He's flagged in all honesty he's given what he thinks he's seen. But he's read it wrong, and unfortunately he's sold the referee down the river. It should be a corner, and we can't defend that."

Tottenham endured other misfortune during their 5-1 reverse at White Hart Lane when Michael Dawson ghosted in behind Emmanuel Adebayor to meet a free-kick and volley into the net from close range, only to be denied by the assistant's flag.

On this occasion Gallacher backed the decision from the same assistant, on the basis that Adebayor was offside when he challenged City keeper Joe Hart for Christian Eriksen's aerial delivery.

Gallacher said: "The same assistant. And I think he's got this one 100% right because the law does say if a player attempts to challenge for the ball he must be given offside. Adebayor's in an offside position as the ball comes in.

"Hart goes to play the ball and Adebayor goes to head the ball. Now the minute he goes to head the ball he's interfered with an opponent and therefore he's guilty of an offside offence. Therefore the goal was correctly disallowed."

Across London, Chelsea enduring a frustrating night when they were held to a scoreless draw by West Ham at Stamford Bridge.

Chelsea boss Jose Mourinho complained about time wasting from the Hammers, which resulted in seven minutes being added at the end of the match.

Mourinho also criticised referee Neil Swarbrick's decision to rule out a Samuel Eto'o effort when the striker put the ball in the net as West Ham keeper Adrian prepared to take a free-kick.

Gallacher said: "He's actually given a free kick. I just think when Neil gives the original decision there's a little lack of clarity really, people are left wondering.

"But you see from the original offence when there's a clash with goalkeeper in the six-yard area (Swarbrick) goes to the goalkeeper, says free-kick and puts the ball down."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/...t-have-been-dismissed-against-manchester-city

Edin Dzeko went down easy, looking for the pen (I know we all know this) commentators comment on when they should fall as its part of the skill in being a forward. There was more skill in Roses good tackle than Edin Dzeko diving. The comments should be the other way round?
 
It was the defense that was poor, watch the Rose tackle that got him sent off again and see how he let the man go and didn't run back after him, he did that on quite a few occassions, I had the impression he was supposed to be a DM like Sandro but he played more like Bentaleb or Dembele.

I'll have to look at it again, but it looked to me like an excellent through ball past two poorly positioned CB's.
 
Yes agree with you.It is like you wait ages for a game to come around now with no FA Cup and this happens.i can take losing but not a massive piss take like there has been this season with woolwich and west ham.all you will see and hear on sky sports news now until Friday is this game

Fortunately (if you can call it that) Man City are a cracking team. Bloody hell.

As for the Woolwich and West Ham results, well compared to the scum we have just regressed (while they are standing still) and West Ham, haha, they are just dog-shit, more so than ever.

Obviously, Sherwood would do well to recall, that performances like this was the exact reason AVB was sacked (because the results were pretty much the same).

A whole lot of fans seem to think, that Sherwood will be gone in the summer more or less no matter how he does. I am inclined to agree.
 
Fortunately (if you can call it that) Man City are a cracking team. Bloody hell.

As for the Woolwich and West Ham results, well compared to the scum we have just regressed (while they are standing still) and West Ham, haha, they are just dog-shit, more so than ever.

Obviously, Sherwood would do well to recall, that performances like this was the exact reason AVB was sacked (because the results were pretty much the same).

A whole lot of fans seem to think, that Sherwood will be gone in the summer more or less no matter how he does. I am inclined to agree.
It wasn't the result that got avb sacked it was the completely lack of fight and belief from the players, even at 10 me we where running hard even if it was too no avail, against Liverpool the body language was the worst I have ever seen and we had most of our players fit for that game. Sherwood will probably not last but people have very short memories if they think the performance was as bad as the previous Liverpool or man city outings. When we have our big game players fit again we will get a better understanding of where we are.
 
It wasn't the result that got avb sacked it was the completely lack of fight and belief from the players, even at 10 me we where running hard even if it was too no avail, against Liverpool the body language was the worst I have ever seen and we had most of our players fit for that game. Sherwood will probably not last but people have very short memories if they think the performance was as bad as the previous Liverpool or man city outings. When we have our big game players fit again we will get a better understanding of where we are.

Don't say that. Look at the abuse I got for saying player power was involved...

I do not agree about the performance yesterday, though. We could easily have lost as much or as little as AVB's defeat in Manchester. Running around or not, the performance was equally poor.
 
Tottenham's midfield still a work in progress
Posted by Michael Cox
(ESPN)

Manchester City's 5-1 thrashing of Tim Sherwood's Tottenham Hotspur on Wednesday night shouldn't be used as evidence of Spurs' lack of quality. Few clubs have the capability to cope with Manuel Pellegrini's side in top form, while Spurs had two extremely tight decisions go against them, denying them an equaliser and reducing them to 10 men.

However, if the final scoreline was a harsh reflection upon Spurs' second-half efforts, City's 1-0 halftime lead was an inadequate reflection upon their dominant opening. For the first half an hour, City were imperious, dominating possession inside the Spurs half, moving the ball quickly across the pitch into attacking positions and always finding space.

There were two zones where City enjoyed too much room. The first was out wide, where City almost always boasted a "man over" -- someone outside the width of the opposition's defence, ready to receive the ball on the run.

The arrival of Jesus Navas has been crucial in this respect -- he stays out wide and attacks in behind the opposition full-back, an option City never had in the Roberto Mancini days. But others do it, too: For the fifth and final goal, Stevan Jovetic's strike, it was notable that the Montenegrin forward maintained a position out on the left, enabling City's attacks to continue flowing. Edin Dzeko had also taken up similar positions earlier in the game.

The second area was between the lines, illustrated perfectly by Manchester City's opening goal, scored by Sergio Aguero. Starting on the left of midfield, David Silva drifted inside to such an extent that he found himself with oceans of space in the right-centre channel behind Mousa Dembele. Vincent Kompany couldn't pass him the ball quickly enough and Silva took the ball in his stride, slipped in Sergio Aguero with a neat through-ball and watched as the Argentine produced a beautiful chip beyond the advancing Hugo Lloris.

First and foremost, this was a beautiful goal -- the positioning of Silva, the weight of his pass, the timing of Aguero's run and the deft finish. However, it's difficult to ignore quite how simple it was for City, primarily because they were afforded so much space.

One of the key tenets of Sherwood's approach is his insistence on playing without a standard holding midfielder. For his first match, a 3-2 victory over Southampton, he started with a midfield of Gylfi Sigurdsson, Christian Eriksen, Mousa Dembele and Erik Lamela -- a goal-scoring midfielder, a slender playmaker, a converted forward and a wide attacker. Emmanuel Adebayor won Spurs the game, but the side suffered from a gaping hole between the lines, exploited efficiently by Adam Lallana for Southampton's first goal.

In truth, Sherwood has adapted his approach significantly. His opening selection was 4-4-2 with two out-and-out strikers and no holding midfielder. It was back to basics, as if his entire methodology was to become the anti-Andre Villas-Boas.

Since then, Adebayor has dropped off more without the ball and Eriksen has drifted inside to make up the numbers in the centre. Then Nabil Bentaleb was introduced to provide a more reliable deep midfield presence, and finally, Spurs switched to one up-front, with Christian Eriksen just behind Adebayor. It's now not entirely different from a modern 4-2-3-1.

Yet Sherwood continues to insist he doesn't require a standard defensive midfielder. "We don't have one," he told The Independent this week. "I never used to play with one -- I used to play with two who can do everything. One goes up, one stays back, just be clever and adapt around each other. That's what City have with Yaya Touré and Fernandinho."

However, City also have more understanding in their midfield. While not a pure defensive midfielder, Fernandinho is playing a more cautious role than he did at Shakhtar Donetsk, where he was more of a Ramires-style player, bursting forward regularly. Besides, against top sides, City have appeared vulnerable between the lines -- they were outgunned by Bayern Munich with the midfield looking overrun and very flat and have generally looked most troubled when sides attack quickly behind Fernandinho and Toure.

Spurs coach Les Ferdinand continued the assault on holding midfielders, describing Claude Makelele as the worst thing to have happened to the Premier League. "I don't like holding midfield players. I like players to understand that if one goes forward, the other one tucks in for them,"he told the Tottenham Journal website. "I don't want someone who just sits in front of the back four and doesn't go anywhere."

However, the Aguero goal exposed the naivety of the Spurs' approach -- every time Silva drifted inside, he found too much space. It wasn't exclusively because Spurs weren't playing a holder, either -- it was also because they weren't compact enough -- but the comments hardly look great when the side is opened up so readily.

t was rather amusing, in light of Ferdinand and Sherwood's comments, to see Etienne Capoue introduced for the second half. Spurs have supposedly been attempting to sell the Frenchman throughout January, probably because he's the antithesis of their beliefs -- he's a standard holding midfielder. For the second half, Spurs ran a 4-3-3 with Capoue solidly behind Bentaleb and Eriksen.

Capoue's first contribution was to aggressively foul Silva as the Spaniard drifted inside, showing how Manchester City's playmaker now had a closer opponent. Sherwood and Ferdinand had turned to a holding midfielder.

To be fair, there's a difference between what Sherwood has said and what he has actually done. In interviews (which he's conducted keenly since his arrival, aware of how Villas-Boas' frosty relationship with the media contributed to his downfall), he's gone for the Harry Redknapp approach: tactics don't matter, 4-4-2 can still succeed, it's all about players.

But, like his role model, Sherwood is a keener tactician than he admits, changing his shape according to the qualities of the opposition and gradually becoming more pragmatic. Still, there remains a clear element of naivete against top clubs, and Spurs have been convincingly defeated by Woolwich and Manchester City because opposition midfielders have enjoyed too much space.

Nevertheless, Sherwood's overall impact has been positive -- five victories from seven league matches shouldn't be ignored, and the Tottenham squad is clearly happier and more motivated. As time goes on, though, Sherwood is learning why some of his beliefs now seem outdated.
 
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