| S |
|
59.28% |
| P |
|
62.43% |
| U |
|
53.71% |
| R |
|
57% |
| S |
|
53.57% |
| = |
|
57.2% |
Form Guide Nov 2012
P W D L F-A GD Pts
7 3 1 3 11-11 0 6
Two Cup matches
Pos:- 5th
· October 2012 figures
· Last year's figures
November 2011
Hugo Lloris - Tottenham's Number One
November, 2012 will surely be remembered as the month in which Hugo Lloris established himself as Tottenham's Number One goalkeeper. Given a Premier League debut in early Octcober against Aston Villa, in which he did absolutely nothing wrong, Lloris had to sit out the next three league games, and content himself with being our Europa League keeper, and also playing at Norwich in the Capital One Cup game at the end of October.
Lloris has now played in our last four games, which included the last three Premier League games, with Brad Friedel finally ousted and having to watch from the bench. Friedel has been gracious towards Hugo, who is, after all, the future in the Spurs goal, hopefully for a few years to come.
Not only has Hugo established his status, but he has won the Spurs Odyssey player of the month award for November, although Cordeiro Sandro and Gareth Bale (in that order) ran him ever so close. What clinched it for Lloris was the outstanding individual performance of any player in the seven games played in the away game against Lazio, where he made many fine saves, most of which were made at the Lazio end, where the fans were hostile to say the least! Lloris's International experience has come to the fore, and he has now settled in at the club so well that he was able to dish out a rollocking to Steven Caulker, whose unnecessary and failed clearance against West Ham led to the one consolation goal for our East London rivals in our 3-1 win.
Lloris may have been lucky to have missed out on the Wigan defeat, but maybe if he had played we would not have lost. Who knows? Lloris won just the one man of the match award, with that Lazio performance, but his consistency across the five games he played won the day for him.
Sandro was voted MOTM twice, and Bale has excited in three of this month's games, scoring 8 or more on those occasions. Both have advanced their case for the ongoing player of the season, still being led by Mousa Dembele, who we have seen return this month.
Jermain Defoe was also voted man of the match twice, for his goal-scoring prowess at home against Maribor (hat-trick) and against West Ham (two goals)
November has been Spurs' busiest month so far, with seven games on the agenda. It started horribly, with that home defeat against Wigan, and also included ritual suffering at The Etihad and The Emirates. The least said about those events, the better, but while the last two wins have boosted morale, and league status, there is plenty of improvement needed to achieve the club's objectives for the season of qualifying for Champions League football again, and winning some silverware.
There is a trend being established of a contrast between the performance of the team, and that of the head coach, Andre Villas-Boas. This was particularly marked by the defeat at Arsenal, but AVB gained a lot of kudos with his bold team selection (only thwarted by Adebayor getting sent off early), and equally bold, audacious even, substitutions for the second half of that game.
Plenty of people are still unconvinced by AVB, but maybe a lot more recognise the job he is doing with so many key players missing for the best part of the season. Here, I refer to Dembele, who missed 8 games; Kaboul, who we haven't seen since the first game of the season; Assou-Ekotto, missing since game three; Scott Parker, who hasn't played at all, and finally Adebayor, yet to reinstate himself fully as a Spurs man. Any team would struggle to deal with such prolonged absences.
Because of those missing men, players such as Vertonghen, Bale and Walker are having to play more than they should ideally. All three played in all seven of the games in November. Since Assou-Ekotto's injury, Jan Vertonghen has rarely played in his best position as a central defender. Vertonghen started the season as man of the match in almost every game he played, and he is also in the running for that season award, but he has been losing chalks just recently.
One of our major summer signings Gylfi Sigurdsson has made only one start this month. That's not good enough, especially at a time when we have missed key personnel. Clint Dempsey finally showed some form in the West Ham game, winning over a few critics, which augurs well for the rest of the season.
There are another seven games to come in December, six of which will be league games against teams below us in the table. In sequence these will be Fulham (A), Everton (A), Swansea (H), Stoke (H), Villa (A), and Sunderland (A). With one or two of our missing players back before the end of the month, it could be a good one! Here's hoping!
...if you want to read reports of the matches played during this month, then links are on the Spurs Odyssey Fixtures page here. By working your way back through the previous month's figures, you can review the performances since November 2000!
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Key:
S Skill levels
P Pluck (ie effort)
U Unforced errors*
R Resolve (defensive ability)
S Score ratio (goals to shots)
= Overall mark Total Percentage
Percentages given for each category.
* less errors equals a higher mark
The Spursometer was brought to you by Spurs Odyssey in association with My Eyes Have Seen The Glory.
· All the Spurs Stats you could hope for here! THFC6061 Sports Stats
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