PLAYER RATINGS: Spurs 1-2 Stoke City

Spurs slumped to a second consecutive home defeat in the Premier League as Stoke City’s first half double was enough to sink a soulless Tottenham side.

Harry Kane was presented with his first Premier League start of the season and he came closest to opening the scoring with an improvised diving header was smartly saved by Asmir Begovic. The response from Stoke was immediate, as Bojan motored through midfield to drill past a helpless Lloris after 6 minutes of play.

Spurs probed fruitlessly for an opening but some sloppy defending from Danny Rose and Younes Kaboul allowed Mame Biram Diouf to pick out Jon Walters unmarked and send the Potters in at the break two to the good.

Poch made his changes at half-time but they were largely ineffectual, as his side looked void of ideas going forward and completely disorganised at the back.

Danny Rose’s deep cross picked out Nacer Chadli at the back post for the Belgian to rifle home his 6th of the season but the brief moment of hope was destroyed when Victor Moses was brought down cynically by Kyle Naughton who was given his marching orders with 5 minutes left.

The players left the field to a chorus of boos as Stoke recorded their first win against Spurs in 6 games.

Player Ratings

Hugo Lloris - 5 – Wasn’t to blame for either goal but also didn’t do much of note. Left completely unguarded by his defenders especially for the second.

Kyle Naughton - 5 – I’d say he was probably one of our better players up until his thoughtless red card. Put in some meaningful challenges and looked the most comfortable of our back 4. However, we’ll now be without our first team rightback for the trip to Hull.

Federico Fazio - 3 – Is this guy an upgrade from Michael Dawson? Looked tactically inept and some of his passing was laughable. Brought in to cope with the aerial threat that Stoke no longer possess because Peter Crouch sat on the bench, and Ryan Shawcross made him look silly at corners.

Younes Kaboul - 3 – Captain Kaboul… About that. Had a nightmare for both goals, leaving Walters unmarked for the second after backing off Bojan for the first. After his error at Villa last week too his place has to be under threat armband or no armband. Plus, his marauding runs made me cry a little bit.

Danny Rose - 4 – The Danny Rose of 2013 made his first appearance of the season today. The man who was largely scapegoated for the majority of last season had improved amazingly this year but he was sloppier than ever today, giving the ball away for the second goal especially.

Etienne Capoue - 4 – Woefully out of form, out of position and out of ideas. The player who dominated the passing figures of the opening weeks of the season has gone missing. Bojan waltzed through the space he is meant to be protecting for the first goal and the Frenchman didn’t play the “sitting midfielder” role once today.

Ryan Mason - 5 – One of our more enthusiastic players again but even Mason had a disappointing one today. His passing wasn’t as sharp as recent weeks and the openings weren’t there for him to exploit.

Andros Townsend - 4 – Didn’t make good on his chance. Will be kicking himself after the job he did on Thursday, earning him today’s starting spot. But the England man as subbed at half-time for yet another lifeless showing in the league.

Christian Eriksen - 3 – The “creative spark” of the side didn’t show up again, it pains me to say. Had the chance to play no.10 with two wide players either side but none of the 3 created much. Pulled off at half time again, although it would have been nice to see him on the last-gasp free-kicks.

Nacer Chadli - 4 – One of the few players to take another man on today, but did so in a fairly ineffectual way. Failed to provide the width we lacked. Excellent finish from Rose’s cross though, and 6 goals is an over-achievement nonetheless.

Harry Kane - 4 – Probably should have given us the lead with 5 minutes gone as he had a lot more of the goal to aim at with his diving header. Almost certainly had too much pressure on his shoulders following a crazy few weeks of speculation. Should start next week.

SUBS

Mousa Dembele - 3 – Wow. I called for Mousa to come on at half-time and was pleased when he did so, but boy do I regret that now. Looked on another planet.

Erik Lamela - 4 – Did very little when he came on, finding it hard to work space in a congested Stoke midfield. Came very close with a well-saved freekick.

Emmanuel Adebayor - 3 – Had 25 minutes to make an impact. Completed 1 of 6 passes.

Today was another one of those days. A day where everyone felt the negative effects of watching Tottenham Hotspur.

We’re currently stuck in a negative circle, where the poor football makes the atmosphere flat which in turn makes the football even poorer. Arguably it’s why we’re better away from home, because our away support is admirable.

This is yet another write-off, a game that we should just forget and look forward to the next one.

The problem is, there aren’t many games that we can look back on any more.

Come on you Spurs.

 

i will not say anything about tactics, football players etc. etc. because everyone has their opinion which is very much respected. what i want to say is that someone at the club needs to get to the dressing rooms and put a 10 minute video of what this CLUB is all about! Everyone who wears this jersey needs to understand for what club they are playing for. Its being a loooooooong time to see WHL with empty sits! If they cant produce the goods they are more than welcome to leave. They insulting us by playing like this week in week out.

 

Wheres Ramos ? I want a word with him.

 

Is that the Ramos who told us all what an excellent manager Poch is and how he has a proven record. I state that I would back poch but that my concern was that he has no plan b, but at the minute he doesn't even have a plan bloody a!!! The football is awful , the atmosphere is non existent, the manager is utterly clueless and the chairman is a *****.
The captain is one of the worst defenders in our history, let alone captains and this football club is rotten to the core. Rotten, rotten, rotten.

 

It's painful to watch Tottenham play so poorly. In my opinion, the Spurs we are use to watching, died out when Redknapp got fired. If he was our manager when we sold Bale, we would of brought in the right players for the club, Baldini or not. Now we are stuck with too much of the same type of player. We sub Erickson out, bring in Lamela, and what changes? Nothing. Hard times are ahead for us Spurs fans. I really hope Poch can make something happen in January when the window opens up. Also, we need to bring Yedlin to the side ASAP! He can help secure our right flank, and wouldn't need to sacrifice a red card because his lack pace. Same would go to Kyle Walker.
Overall I'm scared for the times ahead. Poch has brought out real inconsistency from our Spurs, and he needs to crack the whip on some of these big headed ego players we have. I pray things turn around for us, but I don't know how it's going to happen. It's been too long since I've even known how our best spurs player is! (Besides Lloris and I guess Kane) They're all playing so laxidazical. I don't even know what else to say. It hurts so much that I'm now just ranting about all our problems, but I feel like I could bring up so much more problems. Something needs to be done. Until then, I'll keep up my support and fight thru this pain.
COYS

 

why does Poch continue to pick the worst players that he has available to him?

Loris absolute World Class keeper. Gone in the Summer.

Nought Going on. I think this clown would struggle to get into a Championship side. He is absolute toilet. How he keeps getting in the team is amazing, He must have dodgy pictures of Baldini and Levy together.

Rose. Liability. Clueless. Awful defender. Awful player. Must have the same pictures as Nought going on.

Spazio. We sold Dawson and replaced him with this imbecile. Remember when we signed Rasiak, this guy is the defensive Rasiak. Shockingly awful footballer.

Kafool. Really. Captain? Really. Defender? Really.

I Can't believe there can be a worse defence in the Premier league, I doubt we have had a worse defence ever. I suppose we could find a space for Vlad Clueless.

How we can even put that defence out in any game and think that we have a hope in hell of keeping a clean sheet. There is not a brain cell between them, they have no heart, no guts and have absolutely no idea how to defend. Dawson was not Bobby Moore, but he put his heart into every single game, he was proud to wear the shirt, it was an honour. These mercenaries are stealing from the fans, they don't care, it doesn't hurt them, why should it? They play atrociously and then are guaranteed to play again the following week. I am sick of them. I would rather see kids from the youth team play that these over paid scumbags.

Our best defender doesn't want to play for us. He gets wheeled out for crappy cup games and then dropped for Spazio.

I could go on. Chadli is our top scorer in the league, shows again how poor we are.

Lame Ella just play him against rubbish teams then we can wee and wow at how amazing he is. No point playing him when you have to roll your sleeves up.

Capooh. Really an upgrade on Sandro? What does he do?

Eriksen. Bless him. In a decent side would be a good player. In a really sh*t team waste of space

Mason. His local, the fans like that, if the team continue to struggle that novelty will wear off

If one player sums up this sorry mess it's that useless, mercenary, work loathing, stinking attitude piece of garbage that we have upfront. Adebayor. As long as he is associated and in and around the first team we will suffer. Get rid ASAP. His appalling attitude consumes the team. He is a cancer eating away.

I don't think the answer is getting rid of Poch. But we certainly need to get rid of most of that team who played today. Mourinho is a magician I don't even with him at the helm he could turn this sorry ship around

 

I said after the man City game this is the worst spurs in 20 years. I was told to 'behave'. Where are you now mate? There are many problems too many to list here. The best manger in the world would achieve nothing with these overpaid *****s. We seem to seek out world football for the most annoying brainless players...fazio kaboul naughton and if they weren't gormless to Start with its not long before they get the look.... Erickson vertonghen.....don't even start me on danny rose....time for levy leavey and fans to protest

 

Actually the players we have seem to have got worse under Pochettino. I thought he was overhyped and was very underwhelmed when we appointed him ( I also thought the same about AVB & Jacques Santini come to that) Jole & Redknapp are the only half way decent managers we've had in recent years. They might have had some tactical failings but they did know about football and the need to set up a team with some short of shape to it and the ability to keep the ball. They also knew that you need to inspire players…precious little shape or inspiration today.As for keepin the ball... How can a manager put out a team week after week and get mugged in exactly the same way I ask you??
As for the players, whoever was responsible for signing some of them should be prosecuted under the trade descriptions act.
Erikson - uninspiring and unimaginative for weeks now, consistently fires corners and crosses straight at the defenders
Dembele - a poor man's Modric at the best of times and now way past his sell by date
Townsend - consistently overhyped, yeah he had a decent performance against…WHO? in midweek,
splendid athlete but lousy decision making all the time
Rose - a winger not a defender please
Capoue - After finally been given a chance he's not taking it..
Lamela - flashes of inspiration but not enough of this, a good buy at £ 5 million…
Fazio and Kaboul - it takes 2 to tango and they didn't
Naughton - a bit improved, hardly his fault the red card but the fact that the ball was given away in
the first place but I hope the other Kyle gets well soon
Mason - yes even Mason has been going awry the last few games, some awful passing
Adebayor…I pass
Chadli, Kane, Loris and Vertonghen (sometimes) are the only decent players we have at the moment

And finally Levy, hope he's not a gambling mans because his ability to pick a winner is pretty modest at best.If only he would give up on the director of football idea ( as he did under Redknapp) we might actually get somewhere. The reason for all of the above ultimately rests in his hands...

 

This is a side without direction, heart or leadership. The manager is a joke. He has no tactics, no clear direction and dreadful team selection. You may question the commitment of Vertonghen and the pace of Dawson but there is no doubt they are a much better central defensive partnership than Kaboul and Fazio. We play with only Rose providing any width. The players all look totally bemused as to what they should be doing. Eriksen has been dissappointing but Lloris apart he remains our best player. He is the only player likely to make something happen but continues to be the first replaced. Lamela is like a little boy lost and has had a hand in more goals conceeded than scored. Outpaced and out played by Stoke. The last five hme league games have yielded three point and so few shots on target. Not only are we losing but we are truly awful to watch. Tim Sherwood's Tottenham took 25 points out of a possible 27 in home games outside the top four and was sacked. His sides entertained, gave it a go and scored goals. Sorry Spurs fans who moaned about Sherwood you have got what you asked for,another foreign coach. An AVB clone but with even poorer football and worse results. Even discipline is poor five red cards and seven penalties conceded. Fans will put up with boring football and winning or great football and losing a few. But **** football and losing is another thing. If Levy is consistent "Botch" will be sacked before the next game. AVB had a much better record and was sacked and Sherwood's record was, believe it or not ,having just lost to Newcastle, Stoke and WBA and all at Home was won 13 drawn 3 lost 2 against sides ooutside the top four. I would rather watch the Tottenham I saw under Sherwood any day of the week rather than the boring **** dished up at the moment!

 

Overall Sherwood was doing well, even though he had a lot of players out injured. Yet the fans wanted him out, because he was a mouthy cockney and a goner as a kid.

 

I want to hate but I'm too numb, what has happened to Spurs? All blame leads directly to one man Daniel Levy times up. We want our Tottenham back.

 

"Eriksen. Bless him. In a decent side would be a good player. In a really sh*t team waste of space"

I agree. Eriksen was trying hard today, moving into the pockets of space and taking deep runs trough 1. half. He didnt receive many passes on those runs though. None the less everything we had going offensively in 1. half came through Eriksen. The way I see it, the problems in 1. half today, was largely with bringing the ball from the CDFs to mid. Kabouls long passing skills are very limited - he threw away many balls that way. Rating Eriksen 3 must be based on the fact that no goals was scored in 1 half, and perhaps based on a somewhat poor set piece performance. I would rate Eriksen 5 - one of the players that were trying today the way I see it. Kaboul I would rate 2-3, poor passing, poor at set pieces (defending), poor positioning (taking a nap at the 2. goal).

 

To be honest I dont know where to start
We seem to have no idea and it seems that it is the same old story week in week out
Fistly if it is true that Baldini is responsible for bringing in this lot of good for nothing so called players he should be shot
The team lacks heart, energy, and talent, How is it that they are doing double training yet they play as if they are unfit, I just dont get it
When Poch was appointed I really believed it was the wrong choice, I know the guy needs time but when you are making the same mistakes nearly every game it really is very worrying when the manager is not making any impact on the team, Some of his decisions dont make sense ie, kacrap as captain, issues with vertoghen, continuing to select that waste of space Ade what a joke, Team selections seem to make no sense most of the time, The only words I can think of OUT OF HIS DEPTH
These players getting 40 50 60 grand a week they should be ashamed of themselves

42 years I've supported this lot and I have had some really good times but at the moment I couldn't care less what happens because I've supported them through thick and thin yet they are a joke and have been for a while, Whether the players are not good enough or it is the wrong coach, the management of this football club needs to take a long look at it self

We supposedly got rid of the only manager in my time who really brought tears to my eyes for some of the magical football we were playing to then replace with that idiot and joke of a coach AVB then bring in this clown who had not done anything but get an average team playing nice football, Funny really because look at Koeman and the football his team is playing now, Even better then Pochs team were playing last season, I KNEW IT WAS A BIG MISTAKE HIRING THIS GUY, I really hoped I would be wrong

Another bad call by our esteemed MD, He might be good at running a business but he is loosing sight of the fact that this is a football club and are in the business of winning football matches

The only time we will turn the corner and become a BIG CLUB is when we build the new stadium so we can compete on an equal footing and get rid of an MD who has no idea how to run a sucessful football club

 

Tired o this tired ol ****. Daniel Levy and his DOF should pay the the £110m pounds flops wages out of their own pockets. It's the same tired ol disjointed scattergun signings that were made under Ramos. Yes we got Modric & Bale but also Bent, Bentley, Dos Pantos, Hutton, Frazier ****ing Campbell, Pavchenko, Gomez were all £50m+ of overpriced uncoordinated flavour of the month signings. All this whilst selling Defoe 1st time, Keane and Berbatov. ****ing joke its all happening again. Yes Pochettino doesn't know if he's coming or going and already has the dead man walking look of Spurs managers past. ENIC needs to sell up and **** off sharpish and take the useless ball headed coot with them.

 

Why are some of you defending Poch? Why are you insisting on giving him time? Most of these players are international footballers, quality at that. This is his fault. He doesn't need to make friends, tip toe around reputations and ego. His job is to manage them, tell them what to do, give them tactics, change it if required, make subs, dish out bollockings and get them playing football. It's not rocket science, but he's making it look like it is.

He needs to go now before it's too late. I'm all for giving a manager time, to build a team, but we we're going backwards.

I can accept getting stuffed at home by Man City, Chelsea or a Liverpool with one of the best players in the world in their team, but not losing to West Brom, Newcastle and Stoke. That is unacceptable.

Please get rid Daniel and get de Boer.

 

RAMOS my old foe/friend has conveniently disappeared. I said he was a fraud from day one didn't I? He championed Porch from day one
when most of us wanted FdBoer... Said rose n naughton were capable players. Said kaboul was our best defender and vertonghen ooverrated. Stated Townsend was a potential world class performer and
chadli would prove to be a quality signing. And what about fazio the ffantastic character on and OFF the field apparently. Well he seems to spend a lot of time off it of late which may well be a blessing!!! Looking at today's starting 11 Ramos himself may well have selected the team indeed!! Well the wheels have certainly fell off now indeed. Wonder what he will say now with his extensive knowledge.
Under Poch we have seen
- new signings fazio Davies stambouli all flop
- our best player dembele constantly overlooked
-our best defender Jv overlooked
-kaboul made captain even though he is struggling for form fitness and confidence
-club talisman Sandro replaced by stambouli ???
-vice captain adebayor shockingly appointed and picked ahead of leading scorer Kane.
-our most effective no 10 sygi been allowed to leave

Now I'm all for giving time but the above so far doesn't make for good reading or much sense!! He needs
To smarten his act up sharpish.
As does Levy who appoints these muppets .
Pre season I said I would have targeted ashley Cole danny welbeck and konopklplaya in and splashed out on a centre half.

 

It seems to be the same old story week in week out. Same useless players up for criticism messers kaboul, naughton, rose, capoue and adebayeeorr, for whom im not going to waste text on. How is it that us long serving fans can see that these players are woeful, yet the manager still selects them every week. To make kaboul captain is an embarrassment and a sad indictment of what the future holds. I for one was not keen on poch and would have preferred de boer or we should have given sherwood a go, at least he had a bit of passion, but levy didnt like this because he was bringing the club into disrepute, and was duly sacked! Levy wants yes men, and im really concerned that we will imminently end up with another total disaster off the merry go round of managers. It will be interesting to see if levy supports poch in the january transfer window? I like Eriksen as I think hes our only player with some potential. I said it last week, I am at at a loss to understand how good players are being made to look mediocre......is it sonething endemic in the coaching, or are the players baffled by these well documented systems. Why dont we play 2 up front? I appreciate that there may be 4 to 6 teams better than us, but its hard to stomach losing at home to stoke, wba and newcastle. We will soon be out the europa league and league cup , and probably lose to worcester city fc in the cup if they get through!! Happy days.

 

These are truly difficult times.
I first went to The Lane to watch the old curtain raiser - the Public Trial match - first team v the stiffs....Ron Henry, Tommy Harmer, Alfie Stokes.
I was then priveged to see Blanchflower, Mackay, Jones, White, Smith and the rest of the doubles side, soon to be followed by the Greavsie, the best ever natural goalscorer ever for me. There was big Chiv, Glenn the best Englishman in my lifetime even considering Gasgoine. Then laterly Berbatov, Modric, VDV and of course Gareth Bale, a player of true world-wide class.
Fast forward to last season and this.......25 or so PL games that have been, without doubt, the worst block of performances I have ever seen from our players in over 50 years of following the Lilywhite's.
We are lost, totally lost, at sea in the dark.....we've been short of a top class striker for over 5 seasons (we didn't fancy Suarez ffs), we leave JV on the bench and sell Daws, only to put Kaboul and Fazio in the heart of our defence, flanked by Rose and Naughton. Painful, truly painful.
That Baldini still has associations with THFC is a crime of monumental proportions. He and Levy have wasted over £100m................say it quickly, it hurts too much if you reflect on it.
Where do we go from here. Roughly a goal a game if relegation form and anybody who was subjected to today's performance, or West Brom, or Newcastle must surely feel as I do that if we don't get out of this quicksand we will be sunk.
Leaving JV on the bench is a crime. I don't care if his attitude is wrong. FFS playing Kaboul and Fazio together has to be a worse crime imo.....
I am a life long Spurs fan, always will be, but will I head over to MK, pay my good hard earned money over to watch this total bunch of w****rs............you have got to be kidding, and there are several thousand more feeling the same at the moment imo. Do you hear me Daniel Levy, do you.
COYS

 

You're lucky.
I only saw the first bunch you mentioned, then it was Sunday newspapers three weeks later in the US as and the books my relatives sent. Saw spurs live in 1968 in Baltimore, contrary to spurs press releases about the Liverpool friendly being the first game in that city. And in the past few years whenever spurs played pre season within 500 miles.

Today's game. Rubbish. Absolute rubbish! If pooch made six changes at halftime it wouldn't have mattered. You go at least 4-4-2 at home. The Thursday-Sunday argument is as hollow as the Wednesday-Saturday one. So you pick your very best 11 at every opportunity. We don't have injuries as an excuse. We need true wingers, not inverted ones. Who came up with that stupid idea, anyway? You have a massed defense and nobody with speed to play wide, hit the touchline. Too many players with the same qualities. These guys must never have heard of spacing. In basketball terms, we played a half-court game while stoke played fast break. 'Nuff said.

 

Hull, Everton n then Chelsea how we are playing at the moment i wouldnt be suprised if we lost all 3 then we really will be in the sh;t and how could Poch genuinely keep his job then?
FDB was my prefered choice in the summer but people calling for him now are in dream world what respected manager will want to manage this lot of clueless bottlers?
No we went for a mid table manager, and bought some mid table players in the summer and now people wonder why were- mid table?
I called this all pre season and got pelters for being 'negative' and i asked these people then and im going to ask them again what are the positives?
Levy & Enic should be tried for crimes against Managers, Fans and Spurs, Baldini should be investigated over the obscene amount lamela cost and ive tried to be patient with Poch but its so difficult to find anything that hes doing right. Its getting to that time weve seen on many occaisions where the players are just not responding and the longer it goes the worse it gets. Hes showing us nothing to be patient or encouraged about.
The crux of the matter is player recruitment, im not having it that this squad is full of untapped talent waiting to burst out for the right manager. Its weak, unbalanced, bloated and extremely limited. Coupled with no ambition or leadership right from board down its no wonder such a poor atitude is displayed they are a disgrace!