Player Ratings

It's difficult to score our players fairly today- the whole team worked their asses off and was super organised and hard to break down. But on the other hand, we seemed very content to keep on giving the ball back to spurs with aimless long balls. That was mostly due to spurs' quality and our inability to deal with them. So although we worked hard, we were completely outclassed. 


Marshall - fantastic performance today and the busiest I've seen him in a long time. Brilliant job 10/10

Taylor - He tried his best but his lack of quality was evident to see in the light of some of premiership best - 5/10
 
Turner - Did okay. Kept on kicking the ball out. Better safe than sorry I guess - but still, could have done better really. The defence spent most of the game giving the ball back to spurs. His long balls are still shocking. 7/10

Caulker - Did what he had too - I don't remember any stand out moments from him. 7/10 

Cathy - Was brilliant today -what a change to have a solid right back who is not afraid to get forward. 8/10 

Bellamy - I have to say, he's lost it. His first touch was poor as was his general passing skills. One for the bench now I fear. 5/10 

Gunnarsson - He blew a good number of chances today. Not only on goal but in setting up others. He tried hard but, ultimately his lack of quality was really exposed- I think Mutch should now be given a chance. He was superb at the end of last season. 5/10 

Medal - Another solid performance, making a nuisance of himself.  8/10

Kim - Out of the game for the first half, but so was everyone else really. Showed some nice touches on the ball and drew out some fouls. Still our best player  imo - 8/10

Whitts - a reasonably solid performance from him. But like most of the midfield, did not have much a chance to play attacking football. 7/10 

Campbell - Should have done a lot better with that early chance - made it too easy for the keeper. As for the rest of the game, he can't be blamed for his lack of attempts - Spurs just wouldn't give us the ball. 6/10 

What does everyone else think?

It wasn't so much 'Campbell made it too easy for the keeper', it was more 'the goalkeeper was proven via tv replays to of handled the ball outside of the box, and should of been sent off'.

Beyond that, I agree. Odemwingie was particularly impressive and we seemed a different team when he arrived. I find myself eyeing the possibility of Campbell and Odemwingie combining up front, or at least Odemwingie replacing Bellamy. Frustrating could sum Bellamy up in a word. Twice he got the ball at his feet in the box in space, and twice he poorly offloaded it to a player who was too wide to be a threat. The Bellamy we all know and loved would of smashed it goalbound. This new Bellamy seems slow, tired, and disheartened.

The biggest problem today, rather than any individuals performance, was that we were routinely outclassed. We had only 35% posession, at home, yet there wasnt widespread media reports of us being hammered. We gave it our all against a team that spent 100 million pounds this summer, and if we got anything from the game it would of been a massive upset.

Bellamy would be more effective coming off the bench. Taylor is the weak link in defence but we don't have an alternative. Gunns on the other hand should be moved out, either for Mutch or a shuffle that brings Odemwingie.

Outplayed for most of the game but the lack of a clinical finisher cost us. Last season we could afford to miss chances but this season we have to take them because they will be few and far between. Gunnarson's miss when unmarked near the penalty spot was a shocker. Also some dodgy refereeing from Clattenburg (as usual).
Would agree with most of Rhys's comments but I would only give Marshall 9 because brilliant as he was, his kicking was shocking with most of them finding a Spurs player or sailing into touch.
We certainly seem to have found a right back - now we need a left back! Spurs had done their homework and targeted Taylor for much of the game and he was definitely a weak link in the back four. Just so gutting that his last mistake cost us the goal in injury time.
Gunnar was also poor, giving the ball away regularly.
Of the rest, Medel was excellent and Odemwingie looked a threat after he came on. Caulker and Turner were sound but Whitts was a bit sleepy on times and added to the problems down our left flank. Kim worked hard (like the rest of the team) but I agree that the end looks in sight for Bellars.

Sooner Odemwingie gets fully match fit the better. Will replace Bellamy out wide!

Good work Rhys, deserving of some flair!

I wouldn't disagree with anything said in the posts above. I said in an earlier thread that we would have an idea of what was in store for us this year after the Fulham game. By that time, we will have played a good cross section of the division, either home or away. Although we are going to come up against class sides, it's what we do against the run of the mill teams that will count in the long run.

Being charitable, we can write off the West Ham game as a bad, nervous start, but we really should have done better at Hull. Fulham have a poor start and I would expect us to win there. At the end of the day, we were the runaway winners of the Championship and have spent £33m on strengthening the squad.

Today highlighted the difference betweeen spending £33m and £100m on an already very good PL Squad. We will not compete with such teams at the moment, but I would expect the momentum from last season to count for something against the lesser teams of the PL.

I don't agree that Fulham is a game we should win. Maybe the top 7 playing relegation teams fall into this category but not us.

£33m is a lot of money but £8m or so of that will not be available and Fulham have built there squad at Prem level over many seasons.

If we earn a draw then beat Newcastle at home then 4 points from the next 3 games will keep us ticking over (i'm writing off Chelsea away ).

9 points from the first 8 games isn't spectacular but given we would have played 4 of the big 7 teams in that run while adjusting to the league I would be satisfied with that.

We seem to of drawn the whole of the top half of the premiership at home first. That will affect our points tally but also means that our run in is much , much easier than any other of the relegation candidates. It's comin knowledge a good finish is much more important than a good start in this league.

Spurs were just about the best team I’ve ever seen against City. They were on another level entirely so losing is no disgrace; just the last-gasp nature of it was frustrating.

Marshall was superb, and the save from Soldado’s volley (even though he was flagged offside) was incredible.

City arguably had the 2 most clear cut chances of the game that Campbell/Gunnerson could not convert.

Fulham next week will be another backs to the wall effort.  Despite a recent dip they have much more quality throughout their team than City.

What worries me is that we need to pick up wins and we're playing for draws. I hope the park the bus tactic is just when we play the big boys at home, but it won't earn us enough points to stay up. Newcastle at home will be interesting, if we defend in numbers against them I fear for us.

i could take loosing to spurs if we started to convert winable draws into wins. if things don't improve we may yet find ourselves relegation fodder.

what sticks in my craw was having to listen to all the spurs fans on how justified their win was on the journey home

10 points after 10 games would still be good and see us on target. We only need to average just over a point a game and, in fairness, we showed enough against a very good Spurs side (who wouldn't be a bad outside bet for the title) to give me confidence that we can do that.

Arkay Dubya wrote:10 points after 10 games would still be good and see us on target. We only need to average just over a point a game and, in fairness, we showed enough against a very good Spurs side (who wouldn't be a bad outside bet for the title) to give me confidence that we can do that.

Rearguard actions against top teams are one thing and we may get the occasional point...........but it is establishing a dangerous style of play and mindset. We need too seee different tactics employed to actually go for wins in games against the lesser or struggling teams.............we have an opportunity over the next two games to do that.

I agree with most of what has been said above, especially G-ster - certainly the best side we've seen at the CCS. Marshall had a great game but not 10/10 as his distribution was as poor as ever (and he continues to ignore defenders when they make themselves available for the short throw-out that needs to be used more in the Prem). We seem to have solved the right back problem nicely but Taylor and Whitts have now been caught out badly twice on the left defensively (Everton and Spurs). In midfield, Medel, Kim and Whitts did well but Gunnar and Bellars look out of sorts and the Newcastle game will hopefully see Mutch come in and Odemwhingie providing a bit more support to the excellent Campbell up front.

'Odemwhingie' is either a hilarious mistake or one of the greatest nicknames ever given to a professional footballer. Well played sir