Spurs Banter Archive October 11 2013

 

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11 Oct 2013 19:05:42
Andros t is not my favourite player at spurs nor do I think he deserves to start in front or say Lennon or Lamela
However: he is a spurs man and hope he has a great game tonight and maybe bring him different confident to spurs

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I agree mr g 100% not my fave player but he did very well last night, will do his confidence world of good well played andros, take a bow my son. as a team we need to get lamela playing more

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11 Oct 2013 14:41:52
Davo

Clearly, you don't rate Dawson. I do.

I only saw those four goals live, but my recollection is that 3 were from set pieces. These have to be defended collectively, so to assign all the blame to Dawson seems arbitrary to me. The other goal was when we were over-committed going forward and he was left exposed to a quick counter attack. Either he got a tackle in, or he was going to be beaten for pace. He chose to tackle and didn't make it. That happens

The issue is not just what he does wrong but also what he does right.

I have looked at all our games last season. AVB was reluctant to pick Dawson early on and then relented, so he played 29 games and missed 25.

How did we fare when he played and when he didn't?

When he played we conceded an average of 0.93 goals a game and picked up 2.06 points a game. When he didn't play we conceded 1.36 goals a game and only picked up 1.48 points a game.

I then looked at League games only.

In the 23 he played we conceded 0.9 goals a game and picked up 2.13 points a game. In the 15 he didn't play we conceded 1.53 goals a game and only picked up 1.53 points a game.

Next I looked at home and away, to see if this biased the results.

In the 15 home games he started we conceded 0.73 goals a game and picked up 2.26 points a game. In the 12 home games he didn't start we conceded 0.91 goals a game and only picked up 1.83 points a game.

In the 14 away games he played we conceded 1.4 goals a game and picked up 1.86 points a game. In the 13 away games he missed we conceded 1.76 goals a game and picked up only 1.15 points a game.

Statistics for a single season don't prove anything, because the sample size is so small, but whichever way I look at the numbers we conceded fewer goals and picked up more points when Dawson played than when he didn't.

Of course, Kaboul only managed one game last season and if he had been fit he might have supplanted Dawson as Vertonghen's best partner. Who knows?

The only thing that has changed this season is that Chiriches has arrived. He looks classy but a little short for the Premiership. Also, we have to hope that Kaboul will be available, which will be like another signing.

So, AVB will have some new defensive options this year, but if he chooses to play Dawson as one of his 1st choice centre halves I won't be surprised.

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Sorry, not sure who, no sign off name but looking at last seasons results mean nothing! We had Bale last year, and he was flying so pressure was taken off the defence! One of the reasons we got rid of Hudd was because it was like a battleship turning in the river thames, well Daws matches him for speed and agility! Also his timing, positional sense and 50 yard passes leave a lot to be desired!
You can't fault his commitment but how many of the other top ten teams would he get into? ( None I think )
As for Vlad being to short, he stands at just under 6' 1', big enough to win the ball in the air, can run twice Daws speed, can pass, can dribble, good positional sense, good tackler, need I say more?
Yes keep Daws as cover but first team player he isn't!

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Let's also not forget that Gallas was the stand in when Dawson was out the side so wouldn't pay to much attention to last year's stats!

Bottom line in positionally Dawson gets it wrong time and time again plus he doesn't have the reaction speed in his locker to recover when he does! Love the guy but if we want to kick on he comes out of the side for me.

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11 Oct 2013 10:28:43
Eds, Neither of my last 2 posts have been published, any ideas why not? {Ed002's Note - The last posts were days ago and will be on the teams page.}

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