[HRK]

To be fair to McAuley, I think he was pretty annoyed with the ref missing the obvious boot on him from Walker and as a result he was ready to go shoulder to shoulder and put Walker into the stand, but when Walker held off he was unbalanced.

At the end of the day he shouldn't be playing on the left of a back 3 because he's too old to be getting dragged into wide areas, but he'd still be ideal at the centre of a 3. It's unfair to say he's 'no longer up to it' because he's made a mistake playing out of position. He remains the best aerial defender in the league in both boxes and is the main reason why we rarely ever concede from a set play.

Olsson on the other hand must be replaced. He's been a great servant but his legs have gone, timing has gone and he really shouldn't even be in the mix as a squad player anymore. The fact McAuley is playing in the wider position of a 3 is due to the fact Olsson is in the team. In what other circumstances could a 37 year old centre half be deemed to have more legs?

Pulis always sets up the side to defend first against the top sides and when you get a 0-0 it's a masterclass, when they score early it's terrible...

But the reality is, Foster aside, each and every player was terrible today. Fletcher and Yacob were too slow and kept missing the easy outball. Mozza and Chadli were particularly shocking - they both had some reasonable opportunities but fluffed their lines time and time again. Rondon was isolated, but couldn't trap a bag of sand when it did go forward to him. HRK, despite his wonder strike at Southampton, really doesn't offer any threat as a sub and seems to be the type of 'forward' who will only ever score wonder goals because his main attribute is just 'putting himself about'. Dawson and Brunt were as bad as I've seen them play at full back in the first half.

This game shows us exactly how big the gap is getting between the top 6 and the rest. We can compete with most sides, but with a couple of injuries we're miles off the top sides.

We desperately need a centre half to replace Olsson and a real left back who we trust. Fletcher and Yacob are generally solid defensively, but we need more mobility in that role. That was made blatently obvious today. Assuming Saido is gone, you can't expect to do anything with just HRK and Rondon. When you weigh up the squad at our disposal, we've been punching well above our weight this season and maybe this brings us back to reality...

The most comprehensive description of our performance I've read since getting back in from the game. Spot on. 

It also has to be said that Brunt was targeted today and that our best player of late Matty Phillips, was constantly pegged back helping out Brunt. Dawson also struggled with Rose on the other flank but to be fair they won't be the only full backs to struggle against Spurs this season.

We've massively been punching above our weight consistently for quite a few seasons now - the fact we're still in the division at all after Alan Irvine & Terry Burton's stint at the club is remarkable in itself; I listed out those players brought in during that period in the transfer thread and not a single player from that list remains at the club now. 

If being pissed off about losing to Spurs whilst remaining 8th in the league is a bad thing, I'll take more of it. 

Blatant progress being made and a couple of bad performances after a relatively good start to the season isn't the end of the world.

Here's an idea, let's not carried away and talk about Europe when we beat lesser teams and let's not get suicidal when we lose to a top 6 side?  

To be fair, speaking as the only person on the thread who mentioned Europe, it's not a case of getting carried away.  I accept that we've probably been punching a bit above our weight so far this season, and I did say in the OP that the chances of Europe are slim at the very best.  What I wanted (and still want, ideally) is a couple of new signings to give us a boost, to keep stringing together wins where we can against teams below and around us, so that we can hopefully stay within vague touching distance of Everton the next month or two *just in case* 7th place looks like becoming a Europa spot.

I'm not booking my plane tickets or cracking out the Albanian phrasebook, and not recommending anyone else does either.  It's purely a best-case scenario view of what we *might* be able to compete for if things go our way, to help keep a bit of excitement and possibility alive after another awful cup exit.

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Apologies: HRK did also mention Europe, but I think they're of the same opinion as me on the matter.  Realistically it's damn near impossible for us.  Optimistically... well, it's nice to nurse the hope that our season hasn't effectively ended in January.

Exactly right Ska'd - it's more in hope than expectation. 

Taking away the top 6 teams currently, we're right up there in the "mini-league" of other teams who realistically won't crack the top 6. If we can have more performances similar to Burnley and Hull at home, we're in with a shout at taking the likes of Everton and Stoke who are competing this 7th place with us right to the wire.

Also last but not least, Villa   Don't hear so much from them nowadays, not going to plan is it this coming straight back up business hahaha.

SOTV!