A ridiculously enjoyable game.
Yes, Anji may not be Manchester United or indeed, Liverpool. But if we can play everyone with the same degree of purpose, we’re going to start causing problems in the Premier League and not just in Europe.
Let’s hope that this is Roberto Soldado’s turning point. It looked like it. A fine, fine hat-trick that completely changed his body language, the look in his eye. He needed to restore belief in himself. He needed to show The Lane he was a goalscorer.
Suddenly, we were watching the bloke off the YouTube show reels.
The header was top draw. His second stemmed from Mousa ignoring Anji’s midfield, followed by Lamela ignoring at least 3 of their defensive players; threading a delightfully weighted ball in. The penalty obeyed the golden rule of penalties and went in. To add perspective, Roberto had 4 shots and 3 went in. He wasn’t mucking about.
Elsewhere, there were lots of other positives, primarily young Holtby. The goal was gorgeous. His positioning was only bettered by an insanely composed touch and an equally composed finish. The only thing he got wrong in the whole game was his celebratory slide. The patch of grass he launched himself into was dry. I had flashbacks of a velcro darts game I had as a kid.
The approach play, the build up play was easier on the eye. This was largely down to the reverted inverted wingers. The frustration again though, was the scant presence of incisive action in the final third.
The suspicion that we’d be better off with Townsend on the left was confirmed. But for all the pressing play he brought, he is mind numbingly frustrating. It’s Defoe the mindset of me 1st, me 2nd and someone else as a last resort that’s killing his game. Someone needs to pop a Post It note on his clothes peg before every game with “sharing is caring” scrawled on it.
If Townsend can’t see that his routine is as predictable and as fruitless as most of Defoe’s and indeed Azza’s runs, then he’s never going to live up to the expectations. I was full of praise, that he had endured so many loan spells in order to hone his craft. I’m now wondering if it was more a case of clubs moving him on as they were sick of the squandering.
This will read as exceptionally mean spirited to some. But for nearly a decade, Azza has been occasionally fizzing dynamo. Like Huddlestone before him, the moments of of true brilliance are so few and far between, it’s a bare faced lie to describe them as anything more than nearly men.
If you’re going to be a midfielder with pace to beat a man, then you need to know when to move the ball on and make your move of value. Beating a man, making 20 yards and then walloping the ball into row z is utterly pointless. Townsend had 5 shots last night. 3 were blocked and 2 were off target.
That’s 5 opportunities where doing anything else, other than what he actually did, would have been more productive. Please don’t confuse this with a snide application to hindsight, it’s a recurrent aspect of his game.
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The crowd were great. Exceptional even. As I blogged back in April, the 1882 thing is commendable, but it won’t make a difference at The Lane were it would be most crucial, at Premier League games. It’s been predictably mismanaged. The fans were recently moved for repeated breaches of Health & Safety or something.
This week I was told about a mob of our fans that recently chanted “Who the fαk are you?” at the 1882 mob, which only serves to back up my considered belief that the sooner the new stadium is built, the sooner we can dilute and eventually rid ourselves of these poisonous scumbags. Why would you do that? Why?
The underlying issue is that it would be great if the “dialogue” between 1882 and THFC was actually worth a damn. I get the distinct impression that every time THFC has any contact with it’s supporters, it is always functional, uncommitted and as unmeaningful as they think they can get away with it being.
1882 should have been sat down and handed out guidelines, a precise list of do’s and don’ts. There should have been a designated area that the club “suggested” as being a vocal spot. Subject to no stewards being thrown onto the pitch, or bonfires lit, at low level games, they could have then been seamlessly introduced into Premier League games.
A pity. But then we’re still waiting to be told the results of the “consultation document” fiasco.
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