I thought we looked good against Chelsea in the semi final. We lost, but we didn't look nervous.
Why do so many pundits expect us to bottle it there, but expect all of the visiting teams to turn up? That just doesn't make any sense to me.
ESPN have a good post about us and Wembley.I keep hearing it. Spurs - they would have a chance but wembley y'know.
To be honest the amount of times I have heard it makes me think its some sort of indian burial ground that the team has took turns smashing mirrors over and sacrificing black cats on.
For me it seems like a football pitch. Our results on that ground have been poor but mainly because we played CL football and some bloody good teams there. Now just so you know, the CL is not that easy, it is also less easy if your team is inexperienced in it.
How a few losses have suddenly meant we are crap at wembley I dont know. The spurs team I watched last season was at the end of the season demolishing teams home and away.
If there was some sort of hoodoo it didnt show as we beat a full strength CL finalist and 6 time consecutive Italian champion there.
I know its a friendly and means nothing but what it may show is luck is not against us.
Kane IS the best striker in the premiership, Dele, Eriksen and Son are statistics wise up there with best AM's in the PL, I wouldnt swap Dembele and Wanyama for any other MF pairing, Rose is the best LB in the league and Davies and Trippier are looking like they are improving with every match, our Belgian CB partnership is the most settled and talented in the PL and our GK is the french captain.
Our bench if everyone is fit will look something like this: Vorm, Wimmer, Davies, Dier/Son, Winks, Lamela, Janssen.
That to me seems pretty strong so why all the negativity..
Well.... its wembley ya know.
unless we have some catostrophic injury problems we should be challenging for the title.
I think the issue is that home advantage is a very big advantage.
Last season we won 17 and drew 2 at home. Away we won 9, drew 6 and lost 4.
Wembley is not going to feel like a genuine home fixture and I think it is almost certain we won't match our home record in the coming season.
Arsenal, West Ham and others had a worse home record than normal in the first season in their home seasons. If there is an answer to stop this from happening no one has found it yet.
ESPN have a good post about us and Wembley.
http://www.espn.co.uk/football/engl...d-by-wembley-dress-rehearsal-against-juventus
Wembley is 545 sq metres bigger than WHL. That impacts on our pressing game but ESPN note that it appears Poch has altered our play to compensate for this and it might not be such a hindrance in the coming season. Poch has even had our training pitch increased in size to match Wembley.
And the season before last we had the 5th best home record and the 2nd best away record so it's pretty hard to predictBut it's not like we're a bad away team. We had the 5th best away record in the league last season. We only got one less point away than united got at home. The idea that our team will collapse because of Wembley, but that away sides will be fine, especially with the 'home' support against them is ridiculous.
But it's not like we're a bad away team. We had the 5th best away record in the league last season. We only got one less point away than united got at home. The idea that our team will collapse because of Wembley, but that away sides will be fine, especially with the 'home' support against them is ridiculous.
Not really the point is it? We finished 2nd on the strength of having the best home record in the league.
We picked up 20 more points at home than we did away.
If our home record matches our away record next season we fall outside the top four
Forget the points. What I'm trying to say is that even when you take away our home advantage we are still better than 15 other sides are on the road. When you consider the other sides worse away form why are they suddenly going to start taking points off of us at Wembley?
Can't be bothered to explain again.
If you want to bet on whether we match last seasons home record at Wembley, I am happy to go 3 to 1 with you.
I don't think we'd match last season's home record even if we stayed at White Hart lane.
OK, last 3season we got 53, 36 and 33 points at home. That's an average of 41 points. Do you want to bet we don't get more than 41 points at home this season?
Jan vertonghen said something quite interesting on sky sports this morning. That he expects Wembley to be better when they are in possession but harder physically out of it. He expected some games that they will be shattered after 90 minutes.
It's interesting that this hasn't been focused on that much. How physically tiring the space will actually be with how we play.