The Official Tottenham Hotspur thread [Vol 13]

[48k]

We said at the time we were dancing with the devil. It's not as if no one could have foreseen this.

The jovial mask will fall off Mourinho after the end of the season the instant he doesn't have an Amazon TV crew following him around 24x7 for the documentary.

I know from the secret thread that I'm in the minority but I looked at last night in a more positive light - a patched together team without two first choice strikers played ste for an hour and kept the young dynamic darlings of this years competition at bay, we conceeded a goal, changed things round and went at them for the last half an hour, put them on the back foot and but for a couple of great saves could have had at least a draw. We were in a similar place when we played the return leg against Ajax last season, I'm not too upset about last night.

[Guvernator]

It's just not last night though. If you look at our performances since Jose has come in, none of them have been pretty. It's just grinding out results and his tactics make even our most talented players look rubbish. Yes he's only been here a few months and needs time to rebuild but I just can't see light at the end of the tunnel as I think he is taking the team in the wrong direction. After years of watching dynamic Poch football, it seems even more of a kick in the teeth.

I've also noticed a trend that we seem to be stifled into playing the Jose way for 70 mins then realise we are Spurs, take the shackles off and wake up and play properly for the last 20, I've seen it happen in countless games now. Why can't we play like that from the start?

At the end of the day my main gripe is I just don't like Jose's brand of football. I used to be riveted to our games, now I usually have the match on in the background while I do something else. It's just boring which makes me think I could be making much better use of those 90 mins to do something else.

If results start going badly and more fans start thinking like I do, we could end up like Arsenal with their half empty stadium.

[lemmingjames]

Im sure Sye will come along with the stats but Spurs havent performed since Last January (under the beloved Poch), look at the CL games, how many of them went from nothing to winning in the final 1/3?

[Fittster]

Guvernator said:

I've also noticed a trend that we seem to be stifled into playing the Jose way for 70 mins then realise we are Spurs, take the shackles off and wake up and play properly for the last 20, I've seen it happen in countless games now. Why can't we play like that from the start?

.

How often does the last 20 minutes equal the introduction of ndombele? If you are an optimist, the more he can play the better we will become.

The style of play was always going to be this way. We don't have a DoF to impose a style on a head coach, so whoever we employee will bring their existing style and attempt to remodel the squad to fit their strategy.

In fairness, in an age of pressing, by-passing the midfield does make sort of sense.

[70proof]

Possession football did not work for us, team's just sat back and we passed it back and sidewards....endlessly, no balls over the top.
Pressing worked when Erikson fed off balls won by lamella....there are stats somewhere,... Shame he is injured so much
The team didnt like being pressed back..... Just some thoughts on the poch years

I currently see a team that mixes it up, and that is what we need to do, b able to play in differnt ways

[Guvernator]

By mixes it up if you mean sits deep and launches hoof balls up the field then yes you could call it that. I'm just not seeing the dynamism, energy or the passing that we used to be famous for under Poch before it turned sour.

In GLC, Ndom, Bergjwyn and possibly Gedson it looks like we've lucked out and actually bought some real talent, we just need to work out how to use them and I don't think Aldewiereld launching logs balls over their heads is the answer.

[Silkyskills]

There's an old adage that if you've got the ball then the opposition haven't and if you've got the ball for 70% of the match then they have only 30% of the match in which to try and score.

It's simplistic but if you take last night it worked for RB Leipzig. There will always be matches where that doesn't pan out, Man City is an example, but I want to see US with the ball not the opposition. That's what I pay for. When they have the ball all the time I get bored and don't want to watch.

Something has to change or as has been said the stadium will soon resemble that lots stadium down the road in terms of attendances.

[Fittster]

Silkyskills said:

There's an old adage that if you've got the ball then the opposition haven't and if you've got the ball for 70% of the match then they have only 30% of the match in which to try and score.

It's simplistic but if you take last night it worked for RB Leipzig. There will always be matches where that doesn't pan out, Man City is an example, but I want to see US with the ball not the opposition. That's what I pay for. When they have the ball all the time I get bored and don't want to watch.

Something has to change or as has been said the stadium will soon resemble that lots stadium down the road in terms of attendances.

It worked for RB Leipzig but they didn't thrash a pretty poor Spurs side. It could be because they want to quickly pressure the ball, get possession and then quickly break. Arguable long ball is the way to go against them, can't pressure the Spurs midfield if they don't have the ball, and if you do get possession from a long toby punt, you are a long way from goal with most of the Spurs team between you and where you want to be,

Under Poch we often had the ball but couldn't do anything useful with it when we can up against a team that sat back (low block).

Would people want to watch an open, attacking side lose week after week?

[mickk]

Silkyskills said:

Something has to change or as has been said the stadium will soon resemble that lots stadium down the road in terms of attendances.

As long as we have Son there'll be few empty seats.

[Guvernator]

Fittster said:

It worked for RB Leipzig but they didn't thrash a pretty poor Spurs side. It could be because they want to quickly pressure the ball, get possession and then quickly break. Arguable long ball is the way to go against them, can't pressure the Spurs midfield if they don't have the ball, and if you do get possession from a long toby punt, you are a long way from goal with most of the Spurs team between you and where you want to be,

Under Poch we often had the ball but couldn't do anything useful with it when we can up against a team that sat back (low block).

Would people want to watch an open, attacking side lose week after week?

The modern game is about balance, attack as a unit, defend as a unit. Teams that can do that are successful. 90% of the balls we hoof fall to the opposition who come right back at us. 30% possession stats mean we spend the majority of the game chasing the ball or panic defending. It's crap to watch.

[48k]

Guvernator said:

It's just not last night though. If you look at our performances since Jose has come in, none of them have been pretty. It's just grinding out results and his tactics make even our most talented players look rubbish. Yes he's only been here a few months and needs time to rebuild but I just can't see light at the end of the tunnel as I think he is taking the team in the wrong direction. After years of watching dynamic Poch football, it seems even more of a kick in the teeth..

I didn't say it was just last night. As I said - we all knew what we were getting in to.You're not saying anything that wasn't already said ad infinitim when he was made manager. Not sure what else you expected to see under Jose? That's his brand of football. He isn't going to change just cos he's managing us.

Edited by 48k on Thursday 20th February 17:49

[HRL]

First half aside, I think it could have been a lot worse.

However, it was almost like the team only began believing in themselves with 30 mins to go. Not sure why that was but for the last 1/3 of the game we outplayed them.

All to play for in Leipzig. We were always going to need a win there anyway. Hopefully we’ll start the second leg with the players that finished the first though.

Think we’ll stuff Chelsea on Saturday?

[48k]

HRL said:

Think we’ll stuff Chelsea on Saturday?

Nope, we'll get turned over.

[NRS]

Fittster said:

It worked for RB Leipzig but they didn't thrash a pretty poor Spurs side. It could be because they want to quickly pressure the ball, get possession and then quickly break. Arguable long ball is the way to go against them, can't pressure the Spurs midfield if they don't have the ball, and if you do get possession from a long toby punt, you are a long way from goal with most of the Spurs team between you and where you want to be,

Under Poch we often had the ball but couldn't do anything useful with it when we can up against a team that sat back (low block).

Would people want to watch an open, attacking side lose week after week?

Ask Norwich fans about that.

[Guvernator]

48k said:

I didn't say it was just last night. As I said - we all knew what we were getting in to.You're not saying anything that wasn't already said ad infinitim when he was made manager. Not sure what else you expected to see under Jose? That's his brand of football. He isn't going to change just cos he's managing us.

Edited by 48k on Thursday 20th February 17:49

Dunno miracles I guess or that his time off and previous troubles might have given him a different perspective but I guess it's true that a leopard never changes it's spots.

[silverfoxcc]

Silky said

Something has to change or as has been said the stadium will soon resemble that lots stadium down the road in terms of attendances.

The only difference is our 35k equals their 60k

[Fittster]

silverfoxcc said:

Silky said

Something has to change or as has been said the stadium will soon resemble that lots stadium down the road in terms of attendances.

The only difference is our 35k equals their 60k

When West Ham are relegated the tourists will come to a proper stadium to watch a Premiership game.

[dmulally]

HRL said:

First half aside, I think it could have been a lot worse.

However, it was almost like the team only began believing in themselves with 30 mins to go. Not sure why that was but for the last 1/3 of the game we outplayed them.

All to play for in Leipzig. We were always going to need a win there anyway. Hopefully we’ll start the second leg with the players that finished the first though.

Think we’ll stuff Chelsea on Saturday?

I doubt we'll get anything at Chelsea sadly.

As for the game against sportsdrink, they scored and then sat back to protect it. They let us back into the game. Perhaps when they saw Deli came off and Ndom come on they realised they would actually need to defend. Deli's brother had a shocker.

[Guvernator]

Dele was poor no doubt but he was playing in a position which was being totally bypassed most of the time. Hard to get involved in the game when you hardly get the ball, he probably got a crook neck from watching the ball sail over his head or fruitlessly chasing the ball while Leipzig just passed it round us with ease.

I also find it odd that we setup to sit deep and counter, have two massively quick wingers in Moura and Berg and yet we failed to get the ball out wide to them to let them use their pace. It's something that the likes of City and Liverpool do really well and yet somehow we never seem to manage it. Our defence not being able to pass the ball under pressure is one problem. Leipzig did a great job of pressing high and we had no one on in the first 65 minutes willing to try to take a player on in midfield and get the ball out wide. It was only when Ndom and Lamella came on that we started getting the ball forward. Ndom HAS to feature more because at the moment, we don't really have anyone else able to link our defence with our forwards.

[Fittster]

Guvernator said:

Dele was poor no doubt but he was playing in a position which was being totally bypassed most of the time. Hard to get involved in the game when you hardly get the ball, he probably got a crook neck from watching the ball sail over his head or fruitlessly chasing the ball while Leipzig just passed it round us with ease.

I also find it odd that we setup to sit deep and counter, have two massively quick wingers in Moura and Berg and yet we failed to get the ball out wide to them to let them use their pace. It's something that the likes of City and Liverpool do really well and yet somehow we never seem to manage it. Our defence not being able to pass the ball under pressure is one problem. Leipzig did a great job of pressing high and we had no one on in the first 65 minutes willing to try to take a player on in midfield and get the ball out wide. It was only when Ndom and Lamella came on that we started getting the ball forward. Ndom HAS to feature more because at the moment, we don't really have anyone else able to link our defence with our forwards.

We have forwards to link to?