***Official Spurs Match Thread***

[mcfc1632]

Overall, I'm quite encouraged by today's performance, albeit that we were perhaps lucky, overall to bag the point.
Particularly impressive, given my expectations, was Kolo Toure's performance, and bro. Ya Ya looks as if he will settle into a very commanding midfielder for us.

Obviously, with a settled back four as Spurs have, Tevez and Silva couldn't be expected to gell, offensively, so quickly, not least because of their still having to shake off the post World Cup cobwebs.
Silva is obviously somewhat lightweight, but so far he hasn't looked as if he'll be fazed by the physical EPL defenders.

I thought Nigel De Jong was our most impressive outfield performer today: his anticipation, decision-making, and even quality of his tackling was well-nigh faultless
His partnership with Ya Ya could well develop into the Premier League's finest this season.

SWP's poor miss could affect his start prospects in the next few weeks; Johnson showed far more in the shorter time he was on the field.

Micah Richards showed good invention going forward, but he was far too often our weakest player defensively.
Hopefully Boateng will be available to start soon, as Richards could end up costing us points that could prove an insurmountable obstacle at the business end of the season.

Nicely balanced and hard to disagree with any of it.

Would point out that while de Jong was again a monster in the midfield, it is these sorts of games that he excels in, when we are playing Watford at home, de Jong becomes a passenger who's shortcomings become very evident.

Also a little upset at the balance of the midfield, hard to see what we were trying for most of the time, was it a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1 or with Barry playing left maybe a 4-4-2 that lacked shape.

Yeah - good comments and balanced - apart from "....Micah Richards showed good invention going forward..." - what game was being watched????

Total fucking incompetent on all areas of the game - that might not seem balanced I admit - but fuck me it is totally accurate!!!

[The Original Special One]

Hoddle has been very fair and considered in his opinions today, nice to see for a change. Blatant pimping from Sven when asked :-)

Hoddle is one of the best, if not the best, studio analysts, anywhere
(I was embarassed for Sven)

"So Sven, what do you think?"

"I think Manchester City must improve"

I had to laugh at the sight of poor old Sven, squirming in his seat when he was asked that
(funny that, I just read an article in the Mail I think about his old FA secretary girl-friend, who's living in Canada now, and I had to chuckle about the old devil: hopes he gets a job soon, so that somebody else will have the opportunity of hearing brilliant half-time teamtalks like that, if nothing else)

[The Original Special One]

Overall, I'm quite encouraged by today's performance, albeit that we were perhaps lucky, overall to bag the point.
Particularly impressive, given my expectations, was Kolo Toure's performance, and bro. Ya Ya looks as if he will settle into a very commanding midfielder for us.

Obviously, with a settled back four as Spurs have, Tevez and Silva couldn't be expected to gell, offensively, so quickly, not least because of their still having to shake off the post World Cup cobwebs.
Silva is obviously somewhat lightweight, but so far he hasn't looked as if he'll be fazed by the physical EPL defenders.

I thought Nigel De Jong was our most impressive outfield performer today: his anticipation, decision-making, and even quality of his tackling was well-nigh faultless
His partnership with Ya Ya could well develop into the Premier League's finest this season.

SWP's poor miss could affect his start prospects in the next few weeks; Johnson showed far more in the shorter time he was on the field.

Micah Richards showed good invention going forward, but he was far too often our weakest player defensively.
Hopefully Boateng will be available to start soon, as Richards could end up costing us points that could prove an insurmountable obstacle at the business end of the season.

Nicely balanced and hard to disagree with any of it.

Would point out that while de Jong was again a monster in the midfield, it is these sorts of games that he excels in, when we are playing Watford at home, de Jong becomes a passenger who's shortcomings become very evident.

Also a little upset at the balance of the midfield, hard to see what we were trying for most of the time, was it a 4-3-3 or a 4-5-1 or with Barry playing left maybe a 4-4-2 that lacked shape.

Yeah - good comments and balanced - apart from "....Micah Richards showed good invention going forward..." - what game was being watched????

Total fucking incompetent on all areas of the game - that might not seem balanced I admit - but fuck me it is totally accurate!!!

thats rich coming from a man so out of touch that he thought MCFC existed back in 1632, fer Chrissakes! :)

[TonyM]

I expected us to be impotent today and we were. The team needs time to gel, especially the front 3. 6 Months now and Mancini has not got us playing decent football (yet I hope), tippy tappy posession is no use to anyone. We continue to have no system and our midfield is too ponderous and often lazy. Not as much "very much contentrate" as is required. Whether it's the WC or the new 25 rule or the preseason schedule, we are not real contenders at the moment. Today's team would not have beaten West Brom. I want to see a lot better against Liverpool - I can't say I expect it though.

It's not desperate times yet .... but it will very shortly if we don't get some goals.

Rhing will look a lot rosier with goals and wins.

[dazby]

If SWP is, or will be, better in any way than Bellamy, I'm the Pope.

Totally agree with this. I hope Bobby knows what he's doing.

SWP should have buried that chance.

Sweep created more chances than any other of our players. Yeah you can curse a player that creates and misses but I prefer to point the finger at those that create nothing.

Sweep was a good outlet and had a good game.

[DoomMerchant]

It's not desperate times yet .... but it will very shortly if we don't get some goals.

Tony, you Tiger. Roooooooooooaaaaaaaaar! i won't really take your bait, kind sir. But i will give you this...you asshat. Cheerios, Honey Nut.

[Spurge]

Our new signings are so far overawed with the pace of the game. Holding the ball too long. Only Kolarov has the no nonsense attitude needed.

Spurs goal is minutes away.

And that didn't take long.... FFS be positive...

sod off. I'm positive, not fucking blind.

This has to be 'post of the decade'

[Douglas Higginbottom]

Our new signings are so far overawed with the pace of the game. Holding the ball too long. Only Kolarov has the no nonsense attitude needed.

Spurs goal is minutes away.

And that didn't take long.... FFS be positive...

sod off. I'm positive, not fucking blind.

This has to be 'post of the decade'

haha nice.Having missed the reactions here yesterday I thought I would have a little wander throught he posts at around half time.Always fun to see how the emotion shows in the posts in the middle of the game,
Absolutely horrendous
I will be almost embarrassed if we got something from this game...................are you?
Show me something to be positive about................was the 2nd half enough?
bizarre,horrendous
disappointed in mancini
Take Kompany off....................glad we didn't
clueless all over the pitch
be patient...............good man Dazzler
don't think we've been that bad...................hmmm
defence has been excellent....................hmmmm
stop giving the ball away................spot on SoF

I have watched the game closely now and first and last it's a great result to get a point at Spurs.Well pleased with that. Of course as a team we were poor in that first half but Spurs were really firing. Hart was superb and some of the other defending wasn't bad either.Richards was made to look weak but toi be fair Bale is on fire at the moment. My worry in watching and listening was that we went out again against a good side with very limited ambition but again we were away at Spurs and that's not a bad thing to start with.The biggest problem though was the lack of good passing,control and movement which just kept inviting Spurs to attack.

2nd half we got better and Spurs got worse and I was encouraged at least a little.Signs that we can hold onto the ball , signs of better movement. Not enough real desire as a team to get into the box but I felt a little better after this none scoring game than quite a few of the others last year against the better sides. Liverpool at home will be very very interesting

[Dameerto]

I just look at how Micah played against Bale, then at how Kolorov played the first half against Lennon in his first Prem game while carrying some knock/injury - Kolorov hasn't been given enough credit, and Micah had a mare.

[Cocacolajojo1]

If SWP is, or will be, better in any way than Bellamy, I'm the Pope.

Totally agree with this. I hope Bobby knows what he's doing.

SWP should have buried that chance.

Sweep created more chances than any other of our players. Yeah you can curse a player that creates and misses but I prefer to point the finger at those that create nothing.

Sweep was a good outlet and had a good game.

And it's not his bloody fault that nobody saw him making good runs into the area behind the Tottenham back four almost all the time when city had the ball.

[Grob]

Not enough real desire as a team to get into the box

It was a shame Adebayor or Jo didnt come on untll it was too late. Time after time we got into a good position when we needed to feed the ball into a front player and Tevez and Silva were stood outside the box knocking it sideways to each other. Perfect job for Santa Cruz if you ask me.

If Tevez was supposed to play as a striker yesterday, then he did an awful job.

[Beefymcfc]

Not enough real desire as a team to get into the box

It was a shame Adebayor or Jo didnt come on untll it was too late. Time after time we got into a good position when we needed to feed the ball into a front player and Tevez and Silva were stood outside the box knocking it sideways to each other. Perfect job for Santa Cruz if you ask me.

If Tevez was supposed to play as a striker yesterday, then he did an awful job.

I thought he was part of a 6 man midfield!

[getdressedmctavish]

A much better second half. But to me the question is whether Mancini's goal of organized , slow, passionless play will work in the Prem. I hope it does. But I feel it wont. The sight of Pratt reading half a dozen pages of a book to Johnno before he came on says it all. Pratt is a serial failure. What about "get to the feckin line or get a shot in". And like Ted I believe the driving out of Bellers for no better reason than he mouths off is feckin pathetic.First we need to keep the ball, which we managed in the second half, then we need to penetrate, which we didnt. Another game under Mancini where their goalie didn't have a save to make.Lets hope Bellers is loaned, not sold.

[brite blu sky]

it is always surprising what people see and dont see in football matches.. and personally i am never ready for the slamming players get for not being perfect 100% of the time. My take is that we played well given that most of the midfield and attack had only trained about once together. Spurs are a well tuned team and did a good job of cutting out supply balls by getting a foot in. They got bodies behind the ball quickly and did well in cutting out the distribution. I saw numerous occasions where they just managed to intercept a through ball that what would have split them. Sweep got in some good positions as Dazby pointed out, only for spurs to cut out the supply in the nick of time.
Add to that, the fact of all the new lads together and we didn't do too badly.. just a few more percentage points of coo-ordination from City and everyone up to speed and you would have seen a different game.
The key for me again was the front of midfield and once we get up to speed and able to play more fluidly together in that area between Barry, Yaya and Silva we will be fine.

I thought the signs were there from the kick off as to the way we are going to set up.. in the first 5-10 mins before spuds got going we had both Micah and Kolarov taking up positions very close to the half way line so the midfield could sit high up in Tottenhams half, unfortunately we just are not up to speed yet in order to hold that formation, but good to see us trying and that away from home against a solid team.