Spurs Banter Archive May 13 2013

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13 May 2013 22:16:38
Hi guys I'm a GOONER and have a strange question forget top 4 and everything right now

What areas do you feel you need to strengthen?
From an outsider looking in I'd say A world class ST or at least a potential one aka Benteke and maybe DM as I don't rate Parker but yh you've got a pretty solid team

Whereas us we need a GK, CB, DM Winger and ST
Sounds mad but we've had Keeper problems since seaman left even with the crazy German Lehmann, I do not trust mertesacker far to slow, we've lacked a DM since GILBERTO left, wingers and ST we do lack that attacking threat but they may be down to us piling in the box and not be very good in counter attacks

So yeah where do u feel you need to strengthen and where would you say arsenal need to strengthen? Never know next year maybe we could do a London 123 arsenal still above Tottenham of course lol
Dandan

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13 May 2013 23:35:08
We don't rate Parker either. We have Sandro, he is out injured but is easily the best DM in the prem if not the world.

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Best dm in the world? Calm down

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I would say wingers and CB is a must for you. I rate podolski and Giroud to be hobest so I wouldn'nt say a striker is too important, well not when you look at spurs. We obviously need a striker. I think we need a bit more quality in the midfield. Maybe someone in the mould of christian eriksen, although it may not be him. Injuries ahve meant that CM has been our weakest position at times.

I would be interested to know how you rate Walcott upfront? Do you think he'll play there next season? If I remember rightly that was one of the conditions under which he signed a new contract.

Jimbo

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Alright, I like Sandro, but the best in the world is a bit of a longshot there.
I feel we lack a creative spark in the middle since Modric left.
Left back is an area to be addressed but with a returning Danny Rose and Ezekiel Fryers coming through hopefully this problem will be fine.
I feel we need to buy a creative spark in the middle, Moutinho would be class IMO.
And if we are to take that step and contend for anything anytime soon, a world class striker has to be the priority.
R91

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Walcott fr me is a lot like Defoe has a great finish and pace but doesn't really offer a lot uptop alone, can't hold play up or threaten in the air, Walcott would be great playing off Giroud in a 442 but that's to simple for Wenger, he worries to much about playing ST when he has enough chances as RW just needs to improve his positioning,

Dembele would be a good AM for you providing you get another DM as he was great for Fulham even Holtby

It's strange as I would say you have a better Defense and GK than us but our defensive record this year is quite impressive

Dandan

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14 May 2013 12:50:40
Name the DM's better than Sandro then.

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Javi Martinez
Sven bender
Yaya Toure

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Toure, David Luiz and Masherano IMO are better off the top of my head but I do believe he's quickly becoming very much a top player. Hopefully this injury won't affect him to much.

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I believe Sandro has the potential to be one of the best DMs in the world, but to call him the best DM in the world when he hasn't even had a full season, is a little ridiculous
R91

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I agree that Yaya Toure is a much better and all round player. Sven Bender not so sure about very good player but in a league that only consists of a handful of decent teams, Javi Martinez is no where near Sandro early season form but a good player IMO on par with Sandro. Sandro has time on his side still a young lad and if he continues his development will become one of if the best in the world. {Ed004's Note - Javi Martinez is a wonderful player and him and Schweinsteiger dominated a midfield consisting of Xavi, Iniesta etc how you can say he is on par with Sandro is beyond me. Sandro is a good player probably one of the best midfielders in the premiership when playing well but IMO that Bayern midfield is the best in the world}

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Ed004,

I completely agree with you I got my plyers mixed up and for some reason thought of Javi Garcia that plays for ManCity, I would say me having a blonde moment, but I can't because I ain't got no hair lol, and on reflection Javi Garcia ain't a patch on Sandro. {Ed004's Note - I agree completely there. I do not see what Javi Garcia offers to that City team at all. He wouldn't even get on that Benfica team from last night imo}

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13 May 2013 21:44:11
Just a little word to all those who may not know about the 1882 movement, I would be unaware if not for twitter so those non tweeter may also not know.

Theres a growing group of spurs fans attending matches, attempting to sit together and meeting prior, in an attempt to bring the best most vocal support to the club. Tonights u21 semi-final against Everton was the latest outing and the vocal support was recognised on the official Everton feed, showing its not just 1 or 2 doing it but there's a fair few.

Huge numbers turned up to the u21 game at barnet the other night and numerous other games.

its a great movement and would actively encourage as many of you to get involved as possible, i'm not an organiser at all or anything so a search for #1882thfc on twitter may give you more information and news about latest plans.

if anything just a great way to meet people and cheer on the spurs!

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I was at Underhill for the U21's game against the nomads.

It was one of the best atmospheres I can recall. The players didn't know what hit them and our boys did the business as we sang for the short and waved our shoes in the air!

Get along if you can and listen to the podcast - they are on itunes but don't know if I allowed to mention them though Ed's?

Flippit {Ed008's Note - Go for it!

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Search on iTunes for "the fighting cock podcast". The 1882 movements updates are always on there.

(If you look on iTunes for football pod's there are more spurs ones than anyone else, by a long way. Most of them are excellent and keep me well entertained during my many hours behind the wheel each day). There's bound to be something for your tastes.

Thanks Ed (s)

Flippit {Ed008's Note - Your welcome.

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13 May 2013 17:57:38
Ed, any chance we can havd the agree/disagree feature back please? {Ed008's Note - It's not up to me to decide that I can mention it but very unlikely it will come back due to the trolls around.

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This is an open site, if you want to agree your disagree just type. One word if you want - you don't even have to leave your name!

Much love fellow yid {Ed008's Note - Why have the disagree button if your not gonna comment to why you disagree? By removing them you have to now say why you agree/disagree. So many times I've seen great posts on this page,Liverpool page etc and it has like 12 disagrees within 30 mins of it being posted say why that's what we're trying to promote.

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13 May 2013 14:58:31
Whether or not we qualify for the Champions League, our weakness this season has been our defence, which has conceded 46 goals so far. This is more than any of our 6 main rivals and is 10 more than the much-criticised Arsenal defence. On paper, our defenders look to be good quality so I have looked at three factors that might have had an impact on us.

Firstly, there is the dodgy form of Ekotto since coming back from injury. In the 11 games he started, we have conceded 1. 18 goals a game but in the other 26 games it is actually slightly higher (1. 26). On the other hand, we have picked up 1. 45 points a game when he has played but 2. 03 when he hasn't. It is difficult to argue that his form has had an appreciable effect one way or the other.

What about having to replace Sandro with Parker? Defensively, it has made no difference. We have conceded 1. 3 goals a game when Sandro has played and exactly the same when it has been Parker. Our strike rate has been slightly better with Sandro (1. 85 goals a game rather than 1. 64 with Parker) but our points ratio has been slightly worse (1. 86 with Sandro against 1. 92 with Parker). Again, these differences are far too small to be statistically significant.

Finally I looked at the influence of Dawson. He has missed 15 games, mostly at the start of the season when AVB wouldn't play him. When Dawson has started matches we have conceded 1. 05 goals a game and when he hasn't this rises to 1. 53. The games he has started have yielded 2. 09 points a game and when he has been missing it has only been 1. 53.

If we extrapolate Dawson's games over the whole season we would end up conceding 7 fewer goals and have a club record 79 points. Conversely, if our form had continued as it was in the games he has missed, we would end up with just 58 points.

37 games is a very small sample size and these data shouldn't be over-interpreted, but there is certainly a case for saying that AVB's obstinacy at the start of the season may cost us dear.

However, I think the real problem was that when Harry went all his back room staff went as well, so there was nobody left to tell AVB he was wrong about Dawson. I hope we don't regret that.
KM

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Stats are good but they don't take into consideration what standard of opposition each of the above players were playing against.
Jay-B-13

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Jay-B-13

Of course you are right. Disraeli famously said: “There are three kinds of lies – lies, damned lies and statistics. ” I also recognise that the sample is so small that a few bits of luck or a few refereeing decisions going the other way could significantly affect the result.

I have no axe to grind. I was just curious to see whether some of the ideas I keep reading on this site could be tested. For example, to my eyes Ekotto was not quite as bad or Sandro quite as good as people have been saying. Unfortunately, the data doesn’t settle this question either way.

In the case of Dawson the data seemed more revealing but, at your suggestion, I have looked at the individual fixtures.

In the 12 games against our nearest rivals, Dawson played in 7 and missed 5. When he played we won 3, drew 3 and lost one (1. 71 points a game). When he didn’t play we won one and lost the other 4 (0. 6 per game). However, 5 of the 7 games he played were at home. Only one of the 5 games he missed was at home. Does home advantage alone account for the difference?

Would Dawson’s presence have made any difference to the 15 goals we shipped against the likes of Chelsea, Arsenal and Man City? Who knows? On the other hand, when we lost at Liverpool from a winning position it was because of bad mistakes by Walker and Ekotto that Dawson could do nothing about.

If I compare the results in all the other games, the average was 2. 26 points a game when he played and 2 when he didn’t. That is a relatively small difference but still amounts to 2 or 3 points at the end of the season. What wouldn’t we give to have those points in the bag right now.

Of course, I still haven’t proved anything, but a few statistics from time to time are no worse than the unsupported opinions we normally get.
KM

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13 May 2013 11:26:34
We desperately need Wigan to play as they did against Man City on Saturday. It could be unfortunate that they have to win, a draw is no good to them which means if they're level near the end they'll have to keep going for it. This will suit the f!lth no end to exploit counter attacks and means a tough ask for Wigan/us to get what we need.
Newcastle are now safe and have looked very poor in recent weeks. A narrow away win at rock bottom, relegated QPR, they've shipped loads of goals at home lately; I have a horrible feeling that Newcastle will concede 3 or 4 next Sunday so it's all on tomorrow IMO.
Simmo

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Simmo,

Whilst I understand what you are saying, surely ARSEnal getting into the CL is as important to them as staying up is to Wigan and a point is no good to the gooners either, however I do agree that I believe it is upto Wigan to take points because ARSEnal will undoubtedly smash Newcastle, as Pardew has already said he doesn't care if they lose 4-0 on Sunday. I think the bigger problem could be that if Wigan do beat ARSEnal, Sunderland will be all out to beat us at the Lane.

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Yes, the Sunderland factor if we do get a favour of a Wigan win will be massive. I know what you mean about the Goons needing to win too and I think in an out-and-out shoot out they'll take Wigan but, in other circumstances if the match was level late on then Wigan may have shut up shop. I don't want Wigan to go down but a draw is best for us.
As for Pardew saying that, I didn't realise but he's probably trying to bluff because he knows they will be spanked regardless.

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