AyeDubbleYoo

I think Spurs should buy a central midfielder TBH, they've only got 74 of those.

Yes, players expect injuries when they go on the pitch, but they also expect the game to be played relatively fairly and without deliberate attempts to injure. If I was a builder and I pushed my mate of a roof, I couldn't just say "aye well he knew the risks of being a builder". It would be attempted murder. Slightly extreme example, but you see what I'm saying!

I don't think that means much in reality. What's the difference between a player who loses his temper or gets frustrated and flies into a dangerous tackle, and one who gives someone a dig in the ribs? I know I would rather have Barton punch me fairly lightly in the chest than Nigel de Jong shatter my leg in two places, for example.

Nope. One is violent conduct, one is serious foul play isnt it? One can break a players leg effectively ending a career, another is a punch to the chest. I didn't really mean whether they were technically both "violent conduct" under the laws, I meant that they were both acts of violence and any distinction between them is morally dubious.

There is very little difference between a dangerous two-footed tackle and a punch in the chest IMO. Both are acts of violent conduct, designed to hurt someone and driven by frustration. If anything, the tackle is worse, as it has the potential to much more seriously injure the victim.

We're 5th in the league FFS.

It was the Bruce Lee one-inch punch, apparently Barton trained with Sensei Lee before he became a footballer. Little known fact that.

The way he chuckles to himself at things are not amusing in the slightest. Paul Scholes repeatedly fouling people last night was a case in point, what the fuck is so funny about it? It's not Joey Barton?

I like how Barton has played, but I think we were looking good with two genuine wide players. Looks like we'll get a chance to look at that formation again thanks to Bartongate XV.

Think most people would agree that Ranger would benefit from a good loan spell, obviously we can't do it without bringing someone in.

I really wonder whether we have the personnel to change much. Last night I would have been tempted to go with Routledge to provide genuine width, go with one up front and put Nolan back into his behind-Carroll role. The most important things are not to give them goals early and make it easy for them, and to stay patient and work the ball into good positions. I think because Carroll is playing so well he tends to become every player's first thought... launch it up to Andy. He's really much better when we supply him from a better base... also gives support time to get around him. The long ball will only ever be a low percentage approach, especially against strong defences like Blackburn's.

Hope so, anything more would be totally excessive.

I can't understand for the life of me why some randomly-selected incidents get looked at after the event, and others don't. Totally unfair and inconsistent.

To say we should sell Barton for something like this is mental TBH. It was an incident of average significance at best, I would say it was fairly minor. He will be punished by the FA (which is right, although I wish they would punish all the other violence in the game as well) and accept that. I don't think it has much significance beyond that. I certainly don't think it means Barton is reverting to his old ways or anything like that.

What Barton did was stupid... and he deserves a ban. Any slating of him and over-the-top reporting is nonsense beyond that. There were also violent incidents involving Henry of Wolves and Fellaini of Everton, both players with a worse on-pitch record than Barton, that will no doubt receive virtually no column inches.

We have some problems to resolve, but the good thing is that they should now be obvious to Hughton. Breaking down defensive teams at home is what he needs to dedicate his brain to for a bit... hopefully he'll come up with a decent answer.

Is that statement based on anything? (BTW, I don't refereeing is necessarily improving, I just don't think it's any worse than it ever has been) If fans are thinking it's getting worse (these are the people that watch football week in week out), then it is. It's getting worse on the amount of major howlers, and also the amount of bad challenges that seem to go unpunished at times. Erm, I don't believe fans are the most objective and reasonable people to be assessing referees' performances TBH.

It was a bit silly by Barton, but lot's of little niggly things like that happen in football, it doesn't mean Barton is satan. For me it was like the sort of thing that happens throughout a Rugby game or even a game of amateur football... just a slightly dirty player trying to unsettle his opponent. If on this occasion he is spotted and gets a ban, fair enough, but I don't think we need to worry about it beyond that TBH.

Think that's a pretty good post Beren, nothing Hughton can do about Tiote gifting them a goal right at the start of the game. He does need to find a way to help the players break down these defensive teams though, that's a big part of the challenge this season. We probably don't benefit from teams being open against us as other "newly-promoted sides". I would have liked to have seen him go with Routledge tonight, to stretch the game a bit and give their left side something to think about. Can see why he went with the same team after a great performance at Arsenal, I'm not so sure why the players resorted to long balls and hopeful diagonal passes so often.

Snorting coke. Allegedly.

I just think it's that we don't have the fundamental ability to break down teams that just want to defend. If Blackburn had set out to play a decently-attacking game we would have come away with a point or probably all three. I don't think it's to do with being home or away, it's just that at home we have often faced very defensive and resolute teams, who we don't have the ability to create a lot of chances against. Maybe there's also an element of the team reacting well to being thought of as underdogs.

Is that statement based on anything? (BTW, I don't refereeing is necessarily improving, I just don't think it's any worse than it ever has been)

Canny poor, but we didn't deserve to lose. Draw would have been fair, would probably have got a win if we hadn't gifted them a goal. Very rough performance in the end... nobody did that well really.

We just need to keep it on the floor and stretch the game, tell Jonas to stay wide and maybe bring Routledge on.