Has our midfield created our striking problems?

first !

seems to me MF has been instructed to play the wide ball... not enough through balls to strikers run onto... only one is pav, who does link with modders well. Harry has to wake up to tactical and movements... and Defoe to remain onside FFS!!!

The midfield isn't the problem, harry's lack af ability in formations and squad rotation is the problem. The fact of the matter is that at home we should be playing two strikers and not five midfielders, especially against so many of the smaller teams we dropped points against. Oh and get rid of Ferdinand - he was rubbish for us as a player and he's now doing the double as a "coach".

aspurnorthernboy - Cheers for the article. I think what you're getting at is that our strikers scored less goals because didnt have 2 of them on the pitch. It's an fair point and it's entirely possible that was the case. However, your point is lost somewhere among the mad comparisons with Chelsea, claiming that our strikers usually score 100 (I dont belive I've ever seen a Spurs strikeforce score 100 goals between them), claiming that Harry didnt know what do with all of our midfielders (although you might gain a few fans for saying that, it is effectively nonsense) and the idea that what really caused the slump was because Drogba (i.e. the big tall bossy guy) wasnt playing for us. I absolutely agree that what we need next season is a huge front man to push opposing defenders around. In the mould of the likes of Drogba or a young Adriano.

No. If a striker does not score that is his problem. Our strikers had the chances they didn't put them away, it is as simple as that. You and many others are trying to read too much into this.

How does a midfield or formation prevent you from kicking the ball in the net. There was a statistic brought up by the BBC when Luka said he wanted to leave. Modric has created 66 goal-scoring chances this season, one less than VDV who has created 67 chances. That's 133 opportunities to score a goal created by two players, now that doesn't even include Bale and Lennon who are sure to have an oil tanker full of those numbers too. We have also broken premier league records with our ability to take sooo many shots and fail to score. Nowhere in the stats does it suggest, 'If Harry played 4-4-2 those chances would become goals'. Admittedly not all those chances are created for the strikers but the games against Blackpool, West Ham and West Brom had more than enough chances for the strikers to score from 6 yards out and they didn't. The strikers incompetencies are due to the strikers, not whether they have another striker stood next to them or not.

The problem of goals last season was not about midfield. There were hundreds of chances created that went unscored because the strikers were simply not putting the ball in the net. Chance after chance went begging for someone to poke the ball in the goal. Pav, Crouch and Defoe - none of them can hold the ball up and keep posession - and how often do they get the ball and simply and easily give it away to the opposition. Not good enough, simple as that!

Markoose16, great response. You can float around all the stats and maths you want - of course the strikers will score more if we play two vs. one. But that is irrelevant. I SAW THE GAMES and our strikers were bad this year. Pav's an enigma, and Defoe and Crouch had poor seasons (especially Defoe, who was either injured or awful all year). For half the seasons were were putting the opponents under heavy pressure, literally for 70-80 minutes of a game, and not getting goals (or getting an early one, shipping a bad goal, and then creating 57 chances and no goals for the rest of the game). Sorry, I'll take Modric, Lennon, Bale, VDV, Huddlestone, and Sandro as my midfield any day. If Pav, Defoe, and Crouch are still our strikers on 1 Sept., I am going to struggle to get through the games without throwing a pint glass. Case closed.

Just to add I agree with the last two paragraphs in the article ASNB. I also see similarities between us and a few other teams. A 4-2-3-1 (which is pretty much a 4-4-1-1 anyway) would suit us well and to be honest, would be easier to implement if Modric left. i.e. Gomes; Walker, Daws, Gallas, BAE; Sandro, Hudd; Lennon, VDV, Bale; Super-awesome world-class striker. Sandro winning the ball like Makelele, Hudd with similar passing range to Xabi Alonso, VDV like Gerrard/Lampard etc. We just need that striker.

aguero Llorente, Hulk, Eto, Milito or even Drogba?? you might as well add Messi and Ronaldo to that list cos we have as much chance of getting them as this lot.Seriously i love the optimism of our fans in getting the best but im afraid it will more than likely be an Odemwingie ,Forlan or Gyan.The "world class players" we have ,Modric,Bale,VDV at a push were either unproven when they joined us or came as a last resort to get games,We are not going to attract the top top players so have to settle for a hungry young guy wanting to prove himself,personally i would go all out to get Sturridge he shows a great work ethic and knows where the goal is.

Dare I question the problem being vdv this season? We brought in a player that did not fit our system, and he is the real reason we had to play 1 up front.

Med1 - Probably the most sense I've seen on this site for many a year.

I think our strikers are a bit 1-dimensional and none of them seem to be able to play up top alone. They seem to rely on partnerships like the Crouch/Defoe partnership for instance. And we can't rely on Harry to sort it out, he'll just say 'go out and play'. We are so close its untrue - one great striker in front of that midfield is all we need. We should push the boat out this time as its such a crucial transfer window, and it really is the last piece in the jigsaw. However penny-pinching Levy is more likely to get 49-goal a season Clive Allen off the bench like when he played in front of Waddle/Hoddle/Ardiles/Hodge/Allen!

*clap* *clap* *clap* TonyRich - You the man!!

i agree to an extent tonyrich but we were also pinning for a striker 2 if you told us the 1 up front would have been crouch all season i may have topped myself

I disagree. I believe our problem is in Midfield. Sorry but too lightweight and defense too easily exposed. This is usually evident especially away from home where we are easily pushed around and technical teams give us the runaround. Until we sort it out, we will always be a hovering below the very best.

true jvd. if we attack down the middle defoe will end the move by being offside, down the wings and the strikers fluff the chances or simply don't get in the right positions. AFter the first couple of months into last season i saw a stat that bale had delivered more good crosses into the box then any other PL player up to that point - it was a very high number but can't remember what. how many of these had been converted by our strike force? none. I won't blame harry for how bad they were, but will blame him if i see crouch or defore starting as the lone stiker with VDV. it doesn't work so change it. if harry is so stubborn that he wants to keep defoe and crouch then sell VDV, otherwise bring in the new blood. it doesn't have to be a superstar signing, he just needs the right physical attributes, speed, strength and height. otherwise, spurticus87 is right, bale and lennon need to move in more, preferably after beating their man

freddya im going to assume you don't rate our strikerforce because if you do then i firmly believe that you've stumbled onto vitalfootball in your 30 minutes weekly internet usage allowed for good behaviour in a residence for the criminally insane, so you don't rate our midfield and believe our defence is too easily expossed? so what your basically saying is our entire team is *****e?? thanks for that i feel so much better about the up and coming season lol

The main reasons for our striking problems last season were primary the incapability of our strikers to score (non of them is a player who uses his brains to score and has a winner's mentality) and secondly the lack of a sufficient number of assists. When the so called (by the mass) best player of the team who is responsible in the midfield to create such assists has produced only 2 in 38 PL games (see http://soccernet.espn.go.com/team?id=367&cc=5739), then you can't ask for more. Only the individual performance of Bale and VDV in a number of games has rescue Spurs last season. The end product of the other players of the squad was insufficient.

OUR so called strikers have created their own problems .Harry hasn`t helped by being so undecided on which ones to play .Harry "but i can`t drop Crouch" until he was left with no choice & left it too late .Should have played Pav more & Crouch less .Who do you blame for Crouch being so competent ? Crouch & Harry .Top strikers would love the service our strikers get but with Defoe being useless ,crouch being incompetent & Pav being inconsistent they only have themselves to blame for their own critics.Keane isn`t even worth mentioning but as harry spent nearly £40 million on Keane crouch & Defoe he`s the one most to blame .World class midfield bought by Commoli & Levy with average strikers bought Harry ? .Harry is the most to blame for not buying good enough even though £40 million was enough money to spend on getting it right .Players can`t pick themselves or buy themselves so it`s the person who does that who should be criticised .4 strikers & clearly the best one not bought by harry ,says it all for me .

Crouch being so incompetent .Competent & Crouch don`t go together in the same sentence ever

Ioan x how on earth is modders meant to play crouch in? the guy has no strength or pace, im going to put it very simply to everyone on the debate peter crouch is in my opinion without one shadow of a doubt in my mind one of, if not the worst footballer ever to grace the premier league let alone spurs. he has no pace, no strength, no ariel ability he has the coordination of a parapalegic mongoose, the shot of a 6 yr old girl (i apologise to any 6 yr old girls i may offend who do strike the ball harder that crouch) he completely destroys the way in which we play the game and turns us into a route one long ball team! don't ask me why but i believe dawson has ocd becuase every time he see's crouch its like he is compelled to hoof it aimlessley at him! he can't tackle i actually can't find a single possitive to say about him he is useless in every aspect and dimension of the word!!!!!! and yet even after 1 goal in 23 games harry insists on starting him and when people try to buy him off us harry insists he is not for sale and i don't want to hear about him being an option in europe because one hatrick against a team the calibre of young boys does not make you a good option......and that game against ac milan ive said it before ill say it again the amount of times we lobbed the ball into him we never once threatened the goal not once if it wasn't for gomes heroics and lennons dazzlingg run set of by a brilliant pass from modders we would have lost the game after dominating it!!! to sum it up nicely if crouch plays we will fail because there are only so many times the rest of the team can make up for incompetance he must never play in a white shirt again

cheers spursone2 he actually comes across as a nice chap i just cant tolerate watching him play for us anymore

BC - That's twoce in two posts that you've pit Crouch and competant together in the same sentance!! lol

Gomes did not throw away 15 points. He saves more than most and although he had a couple if howlers he saved 3 penalties and made saves most games that guys like Friedel just don't stop. All is confirmed in the stats. Crouch who I am loathe to defend was doing as instructed. the system was the problem. We have a team built for 4-4-2 and we played 4-5-1. everything catered towards VDV and hid goals per minutes scored was not even better than Pav's. The fix is the same as it has been for 3 consecutive windows, we need a young top CB and 2 top strikers. Harry felt last summer that our strikers were better than what was out there. He was wrong. He then exacerbated the situation to playing a style that suits none of them. Sure get Forlan on his last big contract. It's what Harry has wanted all along. It'll be fun watching him and VDV dropping all the way back with no one on top. Bale and Lennon can just do it all themselves. Suarez not good enough but Forlan is. Someone is taking too many happy pills. COYS

Last season the team looked so so predictable. wings wings wings and wings. Lets see what happens this time around

Firts time poster here so bare with me. sell crouch, defoe and keane buy a quality striker and give super pav a chance to play more than a bit part off the bench role at least the guy scores when he gets on and if funds allow a younger striker possibly sturridge.

Kierzo that`s why i wrote it ,i realised my error .Crouch Competent ? my worst typing error ever .Couldn`t be further from the truth

We are a team of loose fundamentals. Gomes fits in perfectly with that. COYS

Welcome gavspur67, I don't think Pav necessarily needs more time on the pitch, I think the amount of time he got on the pitch with 10 league goals was decent. If that was combined with the main striker (whoever we hopefully sign) and they could get 20 league goals, plus another 10-15 from van der Vaart, plus a youngster chipping in with 5 or so then we're talking! At the minute we don't have the combination of ability and hunger up front. We don't have a youngster to come on and throw caution to the wind, someone who really wants to grow as a player. We have a bunch of guys 28 and over, very set in their ways and very happy with their contributions.

our application for a judicial review on the OS has been denied. looks like DL will have to concentrate on the NDP or other options available to us.

crouch wouldn't play football if he's shorter. - FACT

On the back of my post, Freidel replacing Gomes, should be a plus, Walker in at RB, will also be a plus, if we could sign Gary Cahill another plus, the defence needs improving, but i have to agree on many counts, we need a x two class forwards bringing in, Sandro will be ready for the start, i hope for the coming season, we have to stop conceeding goals.

what_sux, absolutely, I don't like it when pundits say "Crouch's technique is decent for a big man". That's all well and good, Stevie Wonder might be a great driver as far as blind people go, but like ***** would I ask him for a lift.

Bernio, I do both. In my experience over many years and many sports it is rare that when all the stats are looked at (not cherry picking) they reflect what I see on the field of play. Some players defy stats and fundamentals, but it is rare. Grobelaar was very hard on the eyes and hardly without his moments of madness, but he was a great shot stopper. Liverpool just got good solid defenders and played them in front of him. If King and Gallas had played 20 games together last season we'd be in the CL. We need a stable defense pairing and that's not Dawson and Gallas because both are right sided players. We need a solid left sided CB to play whenever King cannot. COYS

peter, we can try sakho from psg, young international player and captain of club. good defender with strong physical presence, left footed centre back, but can play left back when needed.

Spu4life, that was epitomized in the two matches against City. Mancini set his team up not to lose. Harry set us up to go all out. They got 4 of 6 points playing not to lose and we got 1 trying to win. Teams that park the bus do the same. We have no plan to break them down. It's like tic-tac-toe. Play to not lose and you won't but you may win. Play all out and you just might make a mistake that costs you the game. Mancini learned from his mistake from the previous year. Harry didn't. ManU are hard to beat because Fergie plays not to lose while believing his guys and his subs will have that little bit extra to get the win. Ancelotti and Wenger just played their own style and don't worry so much about the opposition. They believe they will win because they are better. That's why we succeeded. They didn't try to stop us. ManU never looked like they thought we would score because they had it covered. Chelsea now have a manager who prepares every bit as much as Jose. They will still attack, but not conceding and thwarting the plan of the opponent will be the main focus now. I believe City, ManU and Chelsea will now start to open a chasm between them and the rest. Arsenal is now who we must overtake while making sure that Liverpool don't go past us. COYS

i believe %100 if we were to go all out for eto'o and give him a £15million signing on fee to compensate for lost wages aswell as bringing in that left sided regular center back your talking about (even though we have bassong and i'd take him over dawson every day of the week but harry doesn't like him so tough) we could challenge for the league let alone the last cl spot and the increased shirt sales from eto'o aswell as increased prize money he would pay for himself, i believe we have been very well run and sensible in our approach but now is the time to gamble and eto'o would be the man to gamble on, imagine the pace we would have on the counter with eto'o lennon and bale. it would strike fear into any team in the world

Modric delivers the pass that leads to the assist. Look at his other stats. Touches, % of completed passes etc. He is up there with the best. If we went back to 4-4-2 with Modric more forward, his numbers will get better. If he takes free kicks and corners (either he or Hudd should be) his numbers will look much better much like Bale and Lennons will the second we are not throwing a cross in for Crouch to nod down to VDV. Our system caters to one person and unless he is going to score 20 from open play and add 20 assists not from set pieces, then it's kind of counter-productive. COYS

Agree Gomes makes the defense nervy. Just look at Daws, he is like a kamaze pilot diving in and risking penalties every game. Gallas running back into goal to cover Gomes.. So if our new keeper Brad & Carlos can stop this then well done Harry.... Now about LB.. Rose has to be the understudy to BAE and Bale, no doubt.

No- the strikers we have don't offer any form of presence- the best for presence is Crouch & he isn't as good for his height. Nor were they as a unit willing to put in shifts that showed they were up for a fight. Too many games tackles came in & the front pairing hid. The opposing teams defenders must have thought they were on holiday- having to play against Defoe or Pav & even Crouch. We need to ship 3 strikers out & bring in 2. Anyone with height & presence can come in for Crouch- since it wouldn't be hard not to better his goals per game ratio.

er!! Have I missed owt while I,ve been away ???

So true. Apparently Crouch, Defoe and Pav have been telling everyone that the reason they're so dreadful is because of our midfield. It's got nothing to do with them, of course...

Paul, you are correct. That is exactly how Harry plays, irrespective of results in a results based league. If you're outscoring the opposition, I'm all for it, but when that isn't working there has to be something else. It's called coaching and fundamentals. We are short on both and it's why we don't have CL. Harsh it may be, but true it also is. We finished 5th because the other 4 teams were better managed. We are every bit as good as those that finished ahead of us. COYS

I have never put as much thought into a team and what direction it should go in than this Spurs team right now......i find myself trying not to think about it and there i am sitting at the table with the Mrs. and randomly ill think to myself, what does this team need to take the next step and i just cant come up with a clear answer. Some days i think its Harry, other days i think its the lack of strikers, other days i come on here and see 50 different opinions about the team we love........All i know is we gained a ton of revenue last year from our glorious CL campaign and The Lane sells out every game.....we might not have the chance to make big money moves like this again for years, so please Harry and Daniel, meld your heads together like some siamese twins and get some things done. Make us proud. Give us a reason to be even more excited about finally being a concrete contender in this league and in Europe. We all have our fingers crossed, i miss football. COYS.

Bit arsh to include Niko in the list, 'arry didn't play him anyway? Pinnear and sandro were fairly mid seasons aquitions and our problem has been all season long. I actually worry that the midfield may be the reason for the lack of clean sheets. also agree to many good chances went untaken last season for the attack to blame anyone.

good article and comments very much enjoyed reading them, i think the majority of people agree that crouch jd keane and the rest of the deadwood have to be shipped out asap so a quality striker(s) can be brought in but who??? thats the eternal question most of if not all the quality strikers we desperatly need are way out of our price range so is damaio and forlan the answer...i really dont think so as damaio is young and will take at least a season to settle and forlan has maybe only 1/2 seasons left in him!!!! or is it Gyan and obewinge??god i hope not mind you i would swap crotch for gyan having said that i would welcome carlton palmer instead of him!!!!!!

The strikers failed to convert fact. WE did in fact play 4-4-2 with VDV as the deeper striker (robbie keane plays this), He did ok with 14 goals in first season. No proper pre season and imjuries to boot. I too have witnessed so many amazing crosses across the 6 yard box on the floor and in the air, perfect crosses from bale and lennon, in the area that is no mans land. None of our forwards are brave, they don't throw themselves at crosses, or slide in, very little anticipation. A real hungry for goals good striker will launch himself with no fear at these perfect crosses and convert them our guys seem to dangle a leg and hope. Part of crouch's problem is he is ungainly and clumsy looking, lots of times defenders are holding him dragging him down to the floor and nothing is given. Now yes the ref is too blame as he should pick it up. As a striker, he should have the intelligence to realise the ref is not going to give anything and needs to alter his approach, his timing and angle in which he runs, jumps and attcks the ball. If the ref gives him the penalty then carry on but if he does not and it happens once or twice in a match, the he needs to change tact, umfortuanetly he is not a subtle enough player to alter his approach. I do believe we need at least 2 strikers. Dream land would be HULk, FALCAO, LLorentes, Rossi, Vuicinic. Would be happy with Leanardo, Obewinge, Podolski, and pull a rabbit from the hat. You cannot really blame HR that none of our strikers could hit a barn door. Pav is great when he is great but he is awful when he is not great. Crouch, is an option as 4th choice at best. Defoe, fed up with off side and his tunnel vision, he tends to get inside 25 yards from goal draw the defender beautifully towards him creatinG acres of space left or right for a rampaging lennon or bale or vdv or whoever and rather than slip them in he smashes straight at the defender closing him down. A premier league top 4 player should 95% of the time pick the right option. Thats what sets a good player apart from a great player. May have same technical ability but good player picks right option 3 in 10 a great player 9 in 10. Ronaldo when first went to utd was a good player but decision making was poor, as he developed he nearly always made right decision which has made him an amazing player. Defoe will never be any more than a good player as he has no awareness and his decision making is poor. This can be coached to an extent and then it is up to the player to learn and develop. Not HR's fault, I am sure he has given Levy a nice long list of who we want and I am sure if we are able DL will sign the players.

Just got as far as Tony Rich's comment about everybody mining for a 451 last season. So figured I'd comment on that. Tony, you're right mate. We WERE calling for it. However, we were also calling for a striker that would complement such a formation. And we were calling for this striker in the transfer window before that too. I literally have NO DOUBT that, had we acquired such a striker, we'd not be talking about 5th, or 4th, or even 3rd, for that matter. Had we got the striker that jas been NEEDED since the end of Harry's 'survival season', pretty much every article on here since then, would never have occurred.

I believe that with that OBVIOUS missing ingredient ('that' target man/lone striker), we'd be a much more superior unit than we are now, it would be incomparable!!.

And WHY can't we blame Harry for the strikers missing chances?. Who signed them?. The one striker that doesn't seem to miss too many chances (though he does have the annoying habit of 'looking' lethargic), is Pav. Yet how many starts/90 minutes, did you see him make/complete? Sorry, but if any manager in the league has strikers that aren't producing the goods, it's pretty much his fault. He selected them, employed them, and continued to play them. IF they haven't produced, it's basically because of him. Whether that's just down to not being able to recognise who could potentially perform, or whether he is unable to motivate them to the required standard, it's still all on his shoulders.

coopsieyid - I agree mate we need a Drogba type player but my only worry is someone like that will attract the long ball game again and I would like us play through midfield and use Modric, VDV, Sandro... not see Dawson play those long balls from the back because against the better teams we lose the ball and just give away possession.

Ok, sorry for the scattered response technique, but I'm answering as I read :-) Ioan X - You need to watch more Spurs fella (and read responses on here).. You NEED to see who played the ball to VDV, Bale and Lennon for them to get these 'assists'!!. Look at the game against Milan, for instance. Milan on the attack, SANDRO breaks it down, he plays the ball quickly to Modric!!. Does Modric dwell on the ball looking for a simple pass?. NO!! He plays the ball FIRST TIME, between two defenders, for the on-rushing Lennon to collect. Lennon then sprints 45 yards and crosses to Pepperami for a tap-in from 12 yards. No assist for Modric, yet the goal WOULDN'T have happened without the intelligence of Modric (and the security of Sandro). As is OFTEN said on here, some stats count for fack all!!

These are the strikers that fired us into the champions league, so we kept faith in them last season. No one not even the fiercest cirtics would of after the season before expected them to fail as badly as they did. January was potentially the time correct this. But you pay over the odds (carroll) for a player who may not actually settle immediately (torres) and make the difference. Also many players don't like to move mid season.

kernowsspurcoach - i can tell you weren`t logged in vitalspurs last summer when everyone was praying for Harry to buy a better striker .It wasn`t rocket science to know it was an area needing reinforcing with more firepower .Gomes having a bad year was a surprise but our strikers were not .What about January ? still nothing

The strikers he signed stopped us getting relegated and got us champions league football. Yeah I too wanted to sign a major player last summer we got VDV who has done well. In january if we had signed carroll for 35 mil I would not of been impressed 1 bit. Crouch is weak and he does get pulled to the floor regularly, but he apporaches it all wrong getting in tussles with players, where as he should try to find space as opposed to fighting a losing battle. How many goals did we score in our champions league qualifying season? alot. strikers scored. This year they did not. Please dont turn it into another HR out campaign.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

No need to look for OTHER SITES, we have one already WHL lets get on with the proposed stadium rather than keep waiting letting building costs accumulate,,get it done and owe no b.ugger, just remember the lack of financial help when they come begging in the future.

Agree with you Peter, but we cant just sit back watching the costs snowballing .

spurticus87, I have come here for a discussion and as a fellow spurs supporter really dont wish to be insulted. No wonder some of our fellow spurs supporters have a bad name given they start to insult their own!. You would have thought we'd won the league by your vitriolic response..It just a personal opinion based on my observations watching us especially away from home last season. Games away at Blackburn where we were battered and given the runround(yes we won!), wigan we struggled ,bolton etc. Am talking about performances here but am sorry they were poor. I just think physical wise opposing teams can easily pass around us and we dont close down space and teams who press tend to get the upperhand against us. Its so plainly obvious but it needs to be addressed by Harry and tone down his "We play open Football" style.

So cute, 123. Thanks for article aspurnorthernboy. I have not read through all the posts but what I've got to say I am sure is echoed by many others. Our striking problems are due to our current crop of strikers not striking....period!

Club Statement on OS Review Rejection : http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/articles/club-statement-230611.html

The last line sounds to me like our intention to pursue further on OS is now over and we have started looking for alternatives. If that is the case, I guess everyone is happy.

Just saw this from a Croatian website.It seems Luka isn't getting an easy run over there either after his daily mail interview: Former Croatian international, Igor Štimac wasn't too impressed with Luka's comments: "Luka made a mistake by announcing that he wants to leave Tottenham but stay in London. This wasn't the right move by Luka as its not his place to talk about potential transfers. Now he must defend himself against Tottenham fans as he just extended his contract six months ago. It is dificult to say how much money Tottenham would want to let Luka go, as everything has its price. The president and managers will decide but Luka has to be smarter than that." He's been a silly boy.Reports are that he was offered $130 pound a week by Chelsea, which obviously would turn anyone's head.Time for him to put things right now

I'll play for 130 pounds per week for my beloved SPURS. Heck... I'll pay them to play. We'll lose for sure but I'll only come in as a sub in the last 5 minutes.....please :)

Peterb. Looking at your post about playing not to loose.. I agree that defensive "park the bus" method is effective against us... question is playing the spurs way, can Harry come up with an effective counter? I doubt it as he just has not got the ability, as shown last season...

Madaboutspurs, Thats the point I am making..Away from home the opposition have too many chances for my liking..Its always we create 12 they create 15..But we score the winning goal our supporters go home happy. But Sorry the performance still lingers with me cause I know on a different day we easily could have lost that game. Am sick to death of making Wigan look like Brazil on their own patch. I remember watching Man city play away at West Ham. They dominated the game,closed down space, stopped west ham playing and came out easy winners. But what do we do...we go there and chances after chance go begging for both sides but they score the winner. The good teams concede fewer goals because they defend from the front, more compact and offcousre put the goals in at the right end. The midfield will probably remain the same going into the upcoming campaign I just feel even with a top goal scorer the same issues I have mentioned will still be there. We need someone to compliment Sandro in my opinion, a younger Parker I guess , great both offensively and defensively but thats my opinion and dont need abuse like I have had on my earlier post..And one other thing the reason we dont score goals is mainly because you have a midfield who generally dont score plenty goals and then upfront you pair VDV, another midfielder with some lump for knockdowns..If you play strikers Defoe and Pav I have no doubt goals will come..COYS!!

With many people on the Sturridge bit, read this morning that he Bolton put a bid of 6 million on the table for him? He was the only player who turned up for England U21 and had a good season with Bolton and when he was at City, until he shipped off to Chelski? Good option though.

asp - Agree. Sturridge would be a great acquisition for us - even at double that figure.

True Spur, agree with signing a W. Class striker would be bad but not 100% on his own week in week out in PL? Really suprised at how many people haven't put Bae in there 11? Class last season and really helped Bale put in a great season? Only reason I didn't put him in my 11 was because of the midfield issue again?

Aspurnorthernboy the ONLY reason I left him out is purely for the system. That being said Bale will only play half a season as he does SO much running each game. And the PERFECT replacement for Bale is Benny ! I honestly see if both play 50/50 a) Teams won't know what to expect & b) we keep BOTH fresh. Now sadly Harry doesn't do common sense, but if he did we'd "probably" win the League ! BAE was my (joint) Player of the season last season (Modric). And the season before he & Gomes were my Joint winners. He's VERY unsung & in the Top 5 LB's in the World, its just we also have Bale & VDV. Therefore VDV HAS to play CAM & Bale's only position available is LWB. This system will create a balance & a lethal combination of Attack & Defence. Of course that does require Walker being played @ RWB. Also why oh why do people STILL say we need cover for LB ? Nobody remember or see the great performances a certain Danny "boy" Rose put in ? Peterballb I like you, like MANY can't fathom this whole lack of practising ??? I can't believe its true, YET we do witness the most clueless bunch of individuals when we have a dead-ball situation be it Attacking 1 or Defending ! What gets me irate specifically with 2MP, when Attacking from a free-kick he needs to use the shoulders of the defender losing us possession & giving away a free-kick. WHY does he not have 2 Yids in front of him to BLOCK the defenders, use his TEAMMATES as leverage & then Attack the goal or setup VDV for said shot on target. And yes that means VDV aint taking the bloody free-kick (unless its just outside the area !). I've mentioned this a few times now, but I stick to my point, anyway here's hoping we don't have to deal with worrying about 2MP, who am I kidding Crouchie's never leaving us now ! COYS

Peter I know he SHOULDN'T have to do that but it's what he does, so if it's what he does then surely it's the better option for him to do ! I'm appalled if 2MP said that, what an idiot ! I really think we DESPERATELY NEED Sheringham as our Striking Coach, if Teddy can't get Crouch or JD for that fact heading a ball accurately NO-ONE can ! That being said Peter I think Crouch only scored 2 Goals with his feet last season all the rest were headers ! I'm basing that on the video of all last seasons goals that 1 if not more of our fellow Yids posted on here.

Big C is right: Crouch = incompetence, end of story. So first business should be ... offload Peter Crouch, except that our Manager does not see this as the essential business that it is! Last season, we scored 84 goals in all competitions - not enough clearly to win a trophy, but the quality was superb! I am convinced that Pav has what it takes, to be in the top 5 for Prem scoring next season ... if - and this is a BIG IF - HR shows humility and intelligence, to give the Russian the proper support needed: regular starts week to week, without substitution. Pav is fit - let him play for 90 minutes, Harry - he will get stronger this way. He is in his prime!!! One of my favourite goals was that screamer vs. Wolves. Pav hit the ball so sweetly with his left foot, like a rocket soared right over the keeper's head!!! COYS!!!! We can win the Prem, with better intelligent management.