Tottenham will bounce back from United defeat, says Brad Friedel

Keeping positive: Friedel says Spurs will have a great season
11 April 2012

Brad Friedel today insisted Tottenham will bounce back from defeat at Manchester United and enjoy a good season in the Premier League.

Spurs were beaten 3-0 at Old Trafford last night after Danny Welbeck, Anderson and Wayne Rooney all scored second-half goals for United.

Spurs were under strength after Luka Modric refused to play for the club due to hamstring injury amid speculation the Croatian midfielder continues to push for a move to Chelsea.

Manager Harry Redknapp denied the player was on strike but admitted the saga has cast a shadow of the Spurs' start to the season.

But despite the uncertainty, Friedel, who made his Tottenham debut in goal, insists the club's supporters should not be pessimistic over their prospects for the season.

"I have seen enough to believe we will get off to a decent start," said Friedel. "We'll have a good season. We have got some very good players and there will be probably one or two more coming in yet. There are 37 games to go.

"Early on we just wanted to make sure we didn't get carved open but once the first goal went in, our heads went down a touch and we never recovered from it.

"They have the quality from their runners in midfield - that has been one of the strengths of United teams for many years.

"Their front-runners have tremendous movement and they have good touch on the ball which allows other players to join in the attack. You have got to follow each runner that comes your way and last night we got overrun a bit."

Friedel signed a two-year deal with Tottenham after his contract expired at Aston Villa in the summer and played his 267th consecutive Premier League game last night.

But Friedel faces stiff competition for places with Heurelho Gomes and Carlo Cudicini also among the ranks and the 40-year-old insists he is not automatically expecting to maintain a run of consecutive appearances that dates back to May 2004.

"I don't count personally," he said. "I don't play for personal accolades and things like that. I just play to win and last night we didn't win so I will go home disappointed.

"All three of us are what you would consider number one goalkeepers and each one of us wants to play football. The great thing about it is we are all experienced and all very good in training with each other.

"The most important thing is not who steps on the field, it is getting results for the football club."

Create a FREE account to continue reading

eros

Registration is a free and easy way to support our journalism.

Join our community where you can: comment on stories; sign up to newsletters; enter competitions and access content on our app.

Your email address

Must be at least 6 characters, include an upper and lower case character and a number

You must be at least 18 years old to create an account

* Required fields

Already have an account? SIGN IN

By clicking Create Account you confirm that your data has been entered correctly and you have read and agree to our Terms of use , Cookie policy and Privacy policy .

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

Thank you for registering

Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged in