Match Threads Brentford vs Spurs

[Haddock]

Brentford is a tricky away match. City lost twice against them last season.

However, Look at how Chelsea and Liverpool instantly tries to play forward as soon as they break up play. It’s because they have pace up and movement up front. Something we’re lacking.

 

[Mr Pink]

Wait, Romero can't play against United?

Ffs.

Surely that's at the discretion of our medical team,

 

[spurmin]

Brentford is a tricky away match. City lost twice against them last season.

However, Look at how Chelsea and Liverpool instantly tries to play forward as soon as they break up play. It’s because they have pace up and movement up front. Something we’re lacking.

Neither of them were playing just to counter attack.

 

[Guntz]

Looks like Paratici was at the game today

 

[YiddoTHFC]

Yeah makes sense.

Both Kulu and Son both take a touch back inside and allow the oppo to set.

They can do it though. Deki is more about close control and power whereas Son needs a bit of space to knock it into

There were loads of times during pre season where a natural left/right footer on the correct side would have led to a simple ball into the box and clear a opportunity at goal, they kept cutting back inside and it eventually becomes predictable for the opposition .

 

[DenverSpur]

How was he "at fault"? He got beaten by good player while out of position. It happens.

second half he didn't lose a 50/50 and provided cover o Udogie's side several times.

Weird take

You his agent or something? You seem to be taking a heck of effort to defend him. I thought he was poor, you didn’t- get over it!

 

[mpickard2087]

Firstly, before I get into the critique, I will iterate that I thought for an opening game under a new regime the performance was absolutely fine. There were clear foundations as to what our ethos is going to be – play high up the pitch, dominate the ball – and there was clarity and confidence as to our structure and individuals wanting to get on the ball and be involved.

But all we got were some of the very basics, and that was it. Obviously there are two teams on the pitch, and Brentford were organised and defended with a back five and made things difficult, but I thought considering we had 70% possession we largely struggled to progress the ball in the final third, put any real attacking sequences together, develop overloads, break them down, and create good quality chances. Thought second half players tended to get dragged a bit too deep – particularly Maddison – to get on the ball, and it was largely in front of Brentford.

I can kind of understand why, but I disagree with how we’re setting the midfield up. We’re going to have plenty of games like today where we’re camped and having to pick our way through, just have some bollocks and get a second “10” alongside Maddison. Against United might not be the game, but we need Lo Celso (or a new signing) in that role instead of Skipp/Sarr ASAP. With Emerson inverting to make a box midfield there is no excuse, that Right Centre Mid should be playing way high. Skipp was doing his best version of Sissoko today, dropping deep and right because he can’t really play in 360 and receive the ball on the turn between the lines.

Also said all pre-season that I’m not convinced about Son and Kulu in these winger roles, hope they overcome it but today wasn’t a good start. In this system with condensed space and them hugging the touchlines we need direct, nimble, two-way, 1vs1 dribbling types. That’s not really either of those two. It would also help if they received the ball standing on the offside/defensive line ready to drive at the defence, way way way too many times today they’d get it 5-10 yards off the offside line and at a terrible body angle coming backwards. Signing another wide player should be top of the list of priorities.

Richarlison didn’t do much, but the 9 in this style of play is meant to be occupying the backline and coming alive when it gets in the box. The football ethos is to move it about, create overloads, get into situations where you’re sliding it across goal, and the striker is there to apply the finishing touches. We had virtually zero of these scenarios today, and he was up against a back five, so I’ll give him a pass this week.

Defensively, particularly in transition, I thought we were pretty bad in the first half and this stuff is the biggest work in progress. We need to work on counter-pressing much better those initial passes, breaking up play, sometimes our recovery runs are way too slow at present, and teams get behind our midfield and at the defence far too often at the moment. It was better second half (though the opposition sat deeper and were less ambitious) but this is obviously going to need the hours on the training pitch to fine tune and I think it’s inevitable in some matches this gets exposed until we get into the habits and can defend and press and restrict high on a consistent basis.

It wasn’t a bad first run out. The foundations are coming together, we’re already displaying something that fans can get behind… All about building on top of those in the coming weeks and months.


Individually:

Vicario – Way too frantic at times, and probably should have had a penalty given against him. Look harsh or not it’s pretty clear already his technique with ball at feet is rudimentary at best, which given we were apparently prioritising this aspect seems a bit strange….

Emerson – Did fine and scored a nice goal. Little bit lackadaisical at times and if he’s going to play in there then his ball recovery and transition stopping work needs improvement.

Sanchez – Did fine.

VDV – Good debut.

Udogie – Thought he tired quite badly last 10-15 mins, but looks pretty impressive. Physical specimen and can play a bit.

Bissouma – Fantastically press-resistant and obviously catches the eye and this was much moer encouraging. Could find the purposeful pass a bit more often though, and also needs to fine-tune his defensive transition and counter stopping stuff.

Skipp – Totally lost.

Maddison – Bright at times, got a couple of assists, thought he could have stayed higher in the pocket though and trusted team mates to find him and be closer to the forwards.

Kulusevski – Did little.

Son – Did little.

Richarlison – Did try and compete throughout, and actually ran back quicker than several of the midfielders on many occasions, but ultimately outnumbered and also did little.

 

[Donki]

Son didn't do anything wrong. It was clearly incidental contact.

It was a good first decison by the Ref; a scandalous intervention by VAR and a cowardly reversal by the ref who knew it and punished us for his humiliation for the rest of that half.

If it was against our player we would be crying pen. What I’m saying is there was no need for Son to put himself in that position. If that was a forwards take on one of our players I’d say bang on pen.

 

[fortworthspur]

not bad at all. understandably rickety defense first half with new keeper and CB and best CB off after 12 minutes. Bissouma and Maddison look like a great midfield pairing to build around, and Richarlison, Son and Kulu isnt a bad front line at all. Get the defense settled and Im optimistic.

 

[Joshua]

Yep. He was a bit wayward, but he may have had nerves. He did the basics right.

Bar a shaky first 15 he was fine

 

[chas vs dave]

Looks like Paratici was at the game today

Mate, his scouting is good

Udogie, bissouma, kulu, bentancur, Emerson,..

 

[thefierycamel]

I’d add a CM to that list, on the creative side, Skipp did ok but we need another baller in there.

We have Lo Celso, and Bentancur to eventually come back. With skipp and Sarr we really don't need another player in there. I'd be giving time to an academy player or moving kulusevski in there if we really need another attacking force through that area of the pitch

 

[Colonel_Klinck]

 

[hughy]

Mate, his scouting is good

Udogie, bissouma, kulu, bentancur, Emerson,..

Don't think Bissouma was a difficult one to scout to be fair.

 

[DarwinSpur]

You his agent or something? You seem to be taking a heck of effort to defend him. I thought he was poor, you didn’t- get over it!

A while ago you were happy to agree to disagree but now you've decided to come back for a second crack...

If you think Emerson Royal was "poor" in a game where he had the second most touches for Spurs; scored a goal; didn't lose a 50/50 contest for 75 minutes and made several covering defensive plays when the Left Back Udogie and Van Den Ven were out of position then, respectfully, I think you're wrong and I'm going to say so.

 

[spurmin]

You his agent or something? You seem to be taking a heck of effort to defend him. I thought he was poor, you didn’t- get over it!

Still a weird take.

 

[DannyNZ]

Caught some of the match on my honeymoon in split, Croatia

My overreactions:
- Son should be tried at ST until we get someone else there. Think it's going to be a worry all season long, hope I'm wrong.
- Sanchez is fine as 3rd/4th choice. Would love to get a Schurrs type to have him as 3rd choice for both sides.
- GLC didn't feature?
- Maddison was class
- Emerson was good

Question whether Emerson was good, at fault for goal and also beaten too easily where Brentford should have scored at the far post. I thought he needed to be much better defensively.

 

[Lifelong]

If it was against our player we would be crying pen. What I’m saying is there was no need for Son to put himself in that position. If that was a forwards take on one of our players I’d say bang on pen.

For me…absolutely not……if that’s the benchmark then this season will be a record for penalties given but then I’m old school…in my day you could kick a player in the nuts and he would be the one that got booked……

 

[homer hotspur]

Don't think Bissouma was a difficult one to scout to be fair.

Just difficult for Conte to play him......

 

[THFC_SWE]

My problem with the system so far is that Son is too far away from the goal, hugging the line when he gets the ball. He can't score goals out there.