What's new

Pochettino explains why he made defensive switch that didn't impress Spurs fans

whitesocks

The past means nothing. This is a message for life
Jan 16, 2014
4,652
5,738
Yes, finally!!! You can say it!!! But my God you've had to wait a long time. You've had to endure beating United, Chelsea, Inter, you've had to weather a League Cup victory against a Premier league team (albeit just the Spammers), you've had to sit through our CL resurgance. Through sitting in the top 4/top 3. And now, the heavens have answered - we've lost in the league for the first time in months. It's down to the lack of summer activity I tells ya!
Levy you fool, Poch you moron!
The chickens have come home to roost!
We've been lucky that Lamela has miraculously recovered and somehow found the best form of his life.
Same for Sissoko.
And Winks too.
We had no reason to think any of that could happen.

Sorry but the decision to keep Dembele (who said he wasn't up to the premiership any more) and Wanyama (who looks in pain all the time) last summer was reckless.
And keeping Alderweireld for another year seems risky too - we have to assume the club has that one in hand, but that decision could bite the hardest and one we will be still talking about in 25 years time.
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
104,143
We've been lucky that Lamela has miraculously recovered and somehow found the best form of his life.
Same for Sissoko.
And Winks too.
We had no reason to think any of that could happen.

Sorry but the decision to keep Dembele (who said he wasn't up to the premiership any more) and Wanyama (who looks in pain all the time) last summer was reckless.
And keeping Alderweireld for another year seems risky too - we have to assume the club has that one in hand, but that decision could bite the hardest and one we will be still talking about in 25 years time.

That's not luck.
 

buckley

Well-Known Member
Sep 15, 2012
2,595
6,073
Why is everything in football punditry extreme like you win your fantastic you lose you are the pits.
You expect this from some supporters its all life or death but whats needed is a little bit of common sense.
For me it was a big ask to win three big games in a row with all our absent players but I feel the telling thing was we played three games in seven days Arsenal played two games because in Europe they played a complete reserve side ; from what I saw more than a few were running on empty and in the circumstances it was an O.K. performance.When we play in the cup it will depend on what team both managers put out but the premiorship return match will be on 2nd of march and I will be interested to see how tough a few of these Arsenal players really are as it should be at the new stadium hopefully and it will be a mad cauldron ; I can't wait boys
 

dannythomas

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
3,757
2,813
Yes, finally!!! You can say it!!! But my God you've had to wait a long time. You've had to endure beating United, Chelsea, Inter, you've had to weather a League Cup victory against a Premier league team (albeit just the Spammers), you've had to sit through our CL resurgance. Through sitting in the top 4/top 3. And now, the heavens have answered - we've lost in the league for the first time in months. It's down to the lack of summer activity I tells ya!
Levy you fool, Poch you moron!
The chickens have come home to roost!

We’ve also had to endure losing at Watford, throwing away leads at PSV and Inter and being played off the park by Liverpool and Arsenal. I have no problem in the way we lost to Man City and Barca because these are elite teams with some of the best players in the world and we competed well in both games. And yes we were superb against Chelsea and resilient at home to Inter. We have fought hard to win games without playing well.
But let me make this point. My opinion is that Alderweireld plays against Arsenal and we had just 1 of a peak Dembele and Wanyama we don’t lose that match from 2-1 up.
You may disagree with me but we needed to replace Dembele and Wanyama in the summer with at least 1 player like Arsenal found in Torreira. We still do. Dier, Sissoko and Winks cannot fill that void.
We have a great group of players . We can probably get by without upgrading our full backs, though we need to hopefully in the summer. But we are 1 midfield signing away from having the squad to push on for the rest of the season.
 

Sweetsman

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2011
6,673
6,588
We've been lucky that Lamela has miraculously recovered and somehow found the best form of his life.
Same for Sissoko.
And Winks too.
We had no reason to think any of that could happen.

Sorry but the decision to keep Dembele (who said he wasn't up to the premiership any more) and Wanyama (who looks in pain all the time) last summer was reckless.
And keeping Alderweireld for another year seems risky too - we have to assume the club has that one in hand, but that decision could bite the hardest and one we will be still talking about in 25 years time.
Love seeing how some of you vultures take flight at every opportunity, swirling high on your pre-set opinions. One day, they'll make a BBC wildlife film about you.
 

Sweetsman

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2011
6,673
6,588
Would rather know why he played into their hands with a shitty diamond to begin with.

#NoMoreDiamondFFS
He adjusted the diamond and while we we didn't have control to begin with, we did afterwards. Each goal was down to individual errors. This was also the diamond that neutered Chelsea, who also play with flying wing-backs.
They had fresh players and we didn't. Tired players tend to make mistakes and ours were mentally jaded. The biggest game of our calendar is next week at the Camp Nou.
 

sebo_sek

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2005
6,023
5,168
We've been lucky that Lamela has miraculously recovered and somehow found the best form of his life.
Same for Sissoko.
And Winks too.
We had no reason to think any of that could happen.

Sorry but the decision to keep Dembele (who said he wasn't up to the premiership any more) and Wanyama (who looks in pain all the time) last summer was reckless.
And keeping Alderweireld for another year seems risky too - we have to assume the club has that one in hand, but that decision could bite the hardest and one we will be still talking about in 25 years time.
Or, conspiracy theory time - Lamela has had enough time since his injury to get back to his best, as has Winks, Sissoko is finally showing his TRUE value.
Maybe you had no reason to think that could happen. I believed it would and was especially rooting for Sissoko to prove the doubters wrong. Just as Lamela used to be a scape goat for over a year, so has Sissoko. Sorry for bursting your bubble, but they are simply good players.
Wanyama was also out with a lengthy injury. How about you just get behind them. Toby might or might not be gone in January, we'll know soon enough. Was it a mistake for Liverpool to keep Coutinho for 6 extra months?
 

sebo_sek

Well-Known Member
Jun 2, 2005
6,023
5,168
We’ve also had to endure losing at Watford, throwing away leads at PSV and Inter and being played off the park by Liverpool and Arsenal. I have no problem in the way we lost to Man City and Barca because these are elite teams with some of the best players in the world and we competed well in both games. And yes we were superb against Chelsea and resilient at home to Inter. We have fought hard to win games without playing well.
But let me make this point. My opinion is that Alderweireld plays against Arsenal and we had just 1 of a peak Dembele and Wanyama we don’t lose that match from 2-1 up.
You may disagree with me but we needed to replace Dembele and Wanyama in the summer with at least 1 player like Arsenal found in Torreira. We still do. Dier, Sissoko and Winks cannot fill that void.
We have a great group of players . We can probably get by without upgrading our full backs, though we need to hopefully in the summer. But we are 1 midfield signing away from having the squad to push on for the rest of the season.
Watford were flying at the time, and still only scraped a win. PSV and Inter were very frustrating but I'd rather start slow and speed up than be in Liverpool's position. I'm not saying don't buy in January, but we've shown that this squad has what it takes to take on the biggest and win. And as for the being played off thew park by Liverpool, we were one refereeing blunder from a very high possibility of a draw. Arsenal was the only game (barring Barca where we also put up a hell of a fight for our form at the time) where we can say we were well and truely beaten.
Sissoko was key against Inter and Chelsea, Winks is a young player who is already an England regular and has that Modric-esque ability to boss the midfield. Support more and don't look as if you're out on a mission to prove a myth which the team have debunked long ago.
 

dannythomas

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
3,757
2,813
Watford were flying at the time, and still only scraped a win. PSV and Inter were very frustrating but I'd rather start slow and speed up than be in Liverpool's position. I'm not saying don't buy in January, but we've shown that this squad has what it takes to take on the biggest and win. And as for the being played off thew park by Liverpool, we were one refereeing blunder from a very high possibility of a draw. Arsenal was the only game (barring Barca where we also put up a hell of a fight for our form at the time) where we can say we were well and truely beaten.
Sissoko was key against Inter and Chelsea, Winks is a young player who is already an England regular and has that Modric-esque ability to boss the midfield. Support more and don't look as if you're out on a mission to prove a myth which the team have debunked long ago.

I’m not on any kind of mission. Clearly you consider Winks and Sissoko to be adequate successors to Dembele and Wanyama. I don’t. You’re entitled to your opinion and I am too. It’s not that complicated.
 

Sweetsman

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2011
6,673
6,588
I’m not on any kind of mission. Clearly you consider Winks and Sissoko to be adequate successors to Dembele and Wanyama. I don’t. You’re entitled to your opinion and I am too. It’s not that complicated.
Who said they were adequate successors? They may well fit into the system perfectly well. You can have whatever opinion you like, but the likes of you just come out of the woodwork at these times to hammer certain players/management/owners. @sebo_sek isn't a happy clapper, so there can be no accusation of blind loyalty.
 
Last edited:

dannythomas

Well-Known Member
May 17, 2004
3,757
2,813
Who said they were adequate successors? They may well for into the system perfectly well. You can have whatever opinion you like, but the likes of you just come out of the woodwork at these times to hammer certain players/management/owners. @sebo_sek isn't a happy clapper, so there can be no accusation of blind loyalty.

I will ignore “ the likes of you “ description and repeat again that in my opinion we need to strengthen in centre midfield. You can make whatever comments or hurl whatever insults you like but they won’t make me change my opinion. Now if Think Tank is correct and Foyth has it in him to play there or if Poch believes that Skipp is capable of stepping up then I will be delighted to be proven wrong. But so far Poch does not show signs of going with those options.
 

Sweetsman

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2011
6,673
6,588
I will ignore “ the likes of you “ description and repeat again that in my opinion we need to strengthen in centre midfield. You can make whatever comments or hurl whatever insults you like but they won’t make me change my opinion. Now if Think Tank is correct and Foyth has it in him to play there or if Poch believes that Skipp is capable of stepping up then I will be delighted to be proven wrong. But so far Poch does not show signs of going with those options.
Skipp is a midfielder, whereas to put Foyth into midfield would confuse him at a critical point in his development. As for strengthening the midfield, that's not an original thought. Dembélé has now had an op in Qatar, so it will be interesting to see if this actually brings him back to somewhere approaching his best. He wasn't played much in the World Cup and then due to being there till the third place game, he didn't have much of a preseason. I think the fall off in his play may be due to lack of conditioning, which at his age will have a significant effect.
 

Sweetsman

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2011
6,673
6,588
I will ignore “ the likes of you “ description and repeat again that in my opinion we need to strengthen in centre midfield. You can make whatever comments or hurl whatever insults you like but they won’t make me change my opinion. Now if Think Tank is correct and Foyth has it in him to play there or if Poch believes that Skipp is capable of stepping up then I will be delighted to be proven wrong. But so far Poch does not show signs of going with those options.
 

degoose

Well-Known Member
Jul 3, 2004
2,832
3,012
Should have put Tobes in from the start.
Should have brought Tobes on after 10 minutes at 1-0
Ok, we settled in the latter stages of the 1st half.
Should have brought Tobes on at 50 minutes
Should never play Dier in CB. Especially with Foyth and a rusty Vertonghen

He hasn't explained it and he hasn't apologies for it. It cost us the game. A calm, mature defence would have seen us get at least a point. It would have given the offense more time on the ball, time to get in to spaces.
Games like this kill kids like Foyths careers. He (and the others) will have nightmares about yesterday. That was a slaughtering.
Apologise lol. You're a bit self entitled aren't you
 

Spurs 1961

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
6,665
8,739
That's two seasons in a row Arsenal have taken the game to us at their home ground. Their manager managed to win the tactical battle, as Poch had managed against Chelsea. My only comfort is that at Wembley last year we gave Arsenal the biggest 1-0 defeat you are likely to ever see. Disappointed still about Sunday and going to the game later with little enthusiasm
 

spursbhoy67

Well-Known Member
Dec 20, 2006
1,316
1,475
Man City rested Sergio Aguero at the weekend because there performance specialist said there was a high chance he would suffer an injury and if he did he would be out for 4-5 weeks.

Maybe Poch's staff may have had similar warnings with Toby and did not want to risk him.

Data analysis is a huge part of the game now and has more influence than a few years ago. Keeping players healthy and fresh is key. Clubs need full strength squads in March-May so resting players now when needed will pay off. Our World Cup players are certainly vulnerable and the cumulation of fatigue is an issue despite what some pundits think.
 

dtxspurs

Welcome to the Good Life
Dec 28, 2017
11,234
46,574

Not going to be popular based off what he says about Winks but I don't disagree. Keeping or thinking Dembele has a big role to play is foolish though IMO.

Also are we sure that isn't @thinktank twitter account with the Foyth for DM shout out at the end?
 

Sweetsman

Well-Known Member
Jan 30, 2011
6,673
6,588
Not going to be popular based off what he says about Winks but I don't disagree. Keeping or thinking Dembele has a big role to play is foolish though IMO.

Also are we sure that isn't @thinktank twitter account with the Foyth for DM shout out at the end?
I'm sure he's not the only one who's thought of Foyth as a DM. Vertonghen has played there, but one of the main points made in the thread is the need for people to be able to have right control when being pressed and then being able to break out of it.
 
Top