Great Dane!: Thoughts on Spurs and More

photo by Laertes	via PhotoRee

Ed has thoughts on Spurs and more:

Spurs finally won.  More than that, they played at a pace that made them look like they wanted to win.  Granted, they picked up that pace after a somewhat fortunate red card sent Hull to ten men, but hey, they got it done.

 

For the first time in some time, Danish star Christian Eriksen finally had a good game.  His goal was terrific as was his creativity in the middle of the field.  Eriksen is a number 10 and dies not play wide to the same effect.  The modern game requires speed wide, and he doesn't have much of it.  

 

Which of course brings up the question -- where does Lamela play when Eriksen is central?  Well it turns out he played in pretty much the same position as Erikson.  Weird but on this day effective.

 

Another note is Harry Kane.  Kane is certainly not a top Striker -- he's big but not that big, average on the ball, and a good but not great shooter.  But...he's playing better now than any other striker Spurs have, meaning, of course he's scoring goals.  A brilliant commentator brought this point up not long ago in a blog piece titled "Your Only as Good as Your Front Two."  Spurs finally have someone who is putting the ball in the back of the net.  If that continues it will make all the difference.

 

Some additional thoughts from around the league:

 

-- Manchester United won this week against a better Arsenal side in typical Arsenal fashion.  Now United are in the top four.  Wow they don't seem to have played even remotely good enough this year to deserve that placement.

 

-- Chelsea continues to kick everyone's butt.  Mourinho may have been forced to resort to stealth face pinching at Real Madrid, but he certainly knows the formula for winning the premier league.  And how much of a beast is that Costa guy?  Wow, I get it now.

 

-- Liverpool just ain't good.  Correspondent Scott laments the team and speaks of Rodgers being on the hot seat.  But the real problem was summed up in that same article I referenced above -- 50 goals are gone this year.  What's more, many of rest of the players are kind of "eh." Joe Allen? Borini? Balotelli?  Would Chelsea ever start any of those guys?  Regardless, I liked seeing Lambert up top -- and he earned his starting spot with a great first touch and goal very early in the game.  

 

--  Yannick Bolasie may be a name that haunts Scott Roberts because he simply dominated his side of the field for Chrystal Palace against Liverpool. His speed and terrific runs -- note how he shoved the Liverpool defender off course on a great through ball to pick up an under hit pass -- where fun to watch.  In fact, I'll give him my player of the week award. He was definitely the most influential player in that match against the Reds.  Come to think of it, why not player of the week honors?  Great job, Yannick!

This is farlieonfootie for November 26.