West Ham Utd 0-1 Tottenham Hotspur (16/08/14)

[carnage]

Turn it in Saludo.

You don't like him, nor do others, but does that make it necessary to post complete nonsense all the time regarding Nolan?

[saludo de carlitos]

Turn it in Saludo.

You don't like him, nor do others, but does that make it necessary to post complete nonsense all the time regarding Nolan?

Make him droppable and not guaranteed to play no matter what and he and Sam would get far less stick. He hasn't played well consistently for a long time.

[carnage]

It's not his fault he is "undroppable or guaranteed to play" is it?

[Kitt the car]

It's not his fault he is "undroppable or guaranteed to play" is it?

Correct, it's not his fault, I think he even said he wanted to be dropped if it helped them team during his **** stage last but Allardyce was having none of it.

[hammerdivone]

Nolan put a proper shift in on Saturday.

He covered Vaz Te's position on numerous occasions, and there was one chase back second half where he pretty much chased a player the length of the pitch and won a throw in.

But of course he's close to Sam so he must be rubbish/priveleged/undroppable......

[Romford]

Nolan put a proper shift in on Saturday.

He covered Vaz Te's position on numerous occasions, and there was one chase back second half where he pretty much chased a player the length of the pitch and won a throw in.

But of course he's close to Sam so he must be rubbish/priveleged/undroppable......

I thought he played well in the newer withdrawn position...did a lot of the "ugly" work.

[Up the Junction]

I thought he played well in the newer withdrawn position...did a lot of the "ugly" work.

I think he's suited to it. Snappy, aggressive, in your face, combative - could be a new lease of life (and extend his playing career at the top level).

[mywhufc]

Withdrawn to the bench is his ideal position

[Romford]

Withdrawn to the bench is his ideal position

I would have bought him off and played Valencia off Cole...but i'm not sure of CFCs knees can last a game these days. But i unlike everyone else on here thought Spurs would sneak one near the end and wasn't surprised with the result. Even if Collins hadn't been daft...

History does repeat itself quite often...Bale,Saltieri etc..

[Estuary]

I thought he played well in the newer withdrawn position...did a lot of the "ugly" work.

I think he plays like that a lot v top half teams, drops in messes the other sides midfield shape up, and gets involved with some nice short passing.

I think he's suited to it. Snappy, aggressive, in your face, combative - could be a new lease of life (and extend his playing career at the top level

).

Agreed, and he was key in the two big chances, the pen, his shot without the handball goes in as I dont think their goalie had it covered. And opening the defence up for Downing, who, having now seen MOTD replays, I thought should have done far better.

Still feel we were mugged.

[ooh look who it is]

He played well Saturday. Was always in the way closing down space just being awkward. Very clever player.

[Knighter10WHU]

I agree Nolan was decent on Saturday as an all round 'snappy' midfielder. Bu as a no.10, he was poor, Cole much too isolated as usual, maybe its time for a change of tactics someone to allow someone to consistently help out the main striker.

[Up the Junction]

Bu as a no.10, he was poor.

The obvious answer there is that he won the penalty and put Downing through from which he should have scored - plus all the other good stuff you yourself admit he did.

What more do you think he should/could have done?

[jacko]

Nolan is so often the scapegoat.

[Knighter10WHU]

What more do you think he should/could have done?

I think he needed to get closer to Cole and work off of him much like he does when Carroll plays. There definitely isn't the same quality of link up. Although now I've said that maybe that is the point of Sam's new found tactics this season to play through the defence rather than off the main striker.

[Up the Junction]

I think he needed to get closer to Cole and work off of him much like he does when Carroll plays. There definitely isn't the same quality of link up.

Fair point.

[Sloop John B]

Nolan does a lot of work without touching the ball... The sort of stuff that if no one did it would leave us wide open. He gets a lot of nicks and scuffs, barges around and generally disrupts the opposition a lot.

Said before, but we're just not seeing the "No. 10" in him when he's playing that way... but then we do have three players dedicated to attacking.. How many do we really need?? and if Kouyate has the engine to get upfield it would seem the key is the balance and the roles of those midfield 3.

Having said we lose him as a "No. 10" he was still (and normally is) pivotal in all our main goal threats.

[Yea Why Not]

I haven't really been on here at all since the game as after such a disappointing result I just didn't think I could face reading certain posters unjustly slagging the manager and individual players after a decent performance. I thought we played really well, the long ball was no where to be seen and on another day we'd have beaten them by a couple of goals. Llrois was the difference imo. The speed of which he comes off his line is quite incredibly and no disrespect to Adrian but I honestly think the score line would have been reversed if the goalkeepers were

On this showing I fancy us to go and get 3 points at Palace

[hammer1975]

Also thought Nolan played well - in a different role. Playing him and Noble together just seems to leave us too deep/slow to support though. We play best when harassing the opposition high up the pitch IMO.

Penalty miss aside Noble is the better of the two for me though.

[LeonRivers]

I don't get the 'Cup Final' jibes? The match only has so much importance to us because we dominated our real rivals so hard they currently sit a couple of leagues behind us. In recent years we've come a lot closer to an actual cup final than Spurs have, despite the fact that they were one of only three or four clubs that actually took it seriously for most of that time. They've not reached the big boys cup final for thirty odd years.

I know loads of Spurs fans. I'd not contacted any of them directly after our numerous comfortable victories. They get one flooky win where they had to cheat to prevent us scoring and my facebook wall is full of banter. Some of it was good. Lister is clearly not a Facebook friend of mine. :lol: