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Ratings v Leicester

Best player was...

  • Lloris

    Votes: 266 85.0%
  • Walker

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • Vertonghen

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Fazio

    Votes: 8 2.6%
  • Rose

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • Stambouli

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Bentaleb

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • Mason

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Chadli

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Eriksen

    Votes: 10 3.2%
  • Lamela

    Votes: 6 1.9%
  • Kane

    Votes: 7 2.2%
  • Soldado

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Paulinho

    Votes: 2 0.6%
  • no one

    Votes: 4 1.3%

  • Total voters
    313

Wheeler Dealer

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2011
6,863
12,282
We're far to easy to get in behind... If Leicester can do it, then I'd hate to see what Utd and Chelsea will do.
 

Spurger King

can't smile without glue
Jul 22, 2008
43,881
95,147
We weren't brilliant by any stretch of the imagination but a word for Leicester, made a real competitive game of it. They're battling for their premiership lives, didnt make it easy for us. Another test our young team has come through with 3 points. Ive seen a lot of talented Spurs sides surrender leads over the years, it nice to see this team are up for the fight.

They didn't look remotely 'up for the fight' to me.
 

Spurger King

can't smile without glue
Jul 22, 2008
43,881
95,147
Well they did to me....

You do know we were the team in yellow right?

One of the most spineless performances of the season. It wasn't a hard-fought win - it was a case of sitting back and waiting for Leicester to score. Thankfully Leicester's attackers were awful.
 
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southlondonyiddo

My eyes have seen some of the glory..
Nov 8, 2004
12,599
15,012
Our biggest problem in these types of games is not taking enough of our chances and being clinical enough early on

At 1-0 we’ll get nervous and with 4 games in ten days the players will naturally try and keep something in the tank for the games ahead

Clearly Hugo MOTM

Rose & Verts, not my cup of tea I'm afraid
 

yojambo

Well-Known Member
Jun 13, 2012
3,199
9,324
You do know we were the team in yellow right?

One of the most spineless performances of the season. It wasn't a hard-thought win - it was a case of sitting back and waiting for Leicester to score. Thankfully Leicester's attackers were awful.

I dont agree.
 

Redfap

Active Member
Nov 8, 2011
557
791
Lloris was MoM (again) and I'd say that Fazio was our next best player.

The full backs were poor, but I think we really struggled with our CM pairings, Bentaleb was well of the boil and Mason didn't improve the situation at half time.

We won this game, but I must admit it was largely down to the fact that Leicester were unable to finish their chances. I think we got a bit lucky, which is ok, because we have games where luck goes against us.

Despite what I've said above, if we buried our own chances we could have scored at least 2 more goals.

Strange game, where either side could have won, neither side really deserved to win.

But onward and upwards, still 3 important points!!!

Just a quick thought, I'm not his biggest fan, but I'd have given Dembele a crack in midfield and I think we might against Man Utd
 
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Ghost Hardware

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
18,000
61,617
What worries me most is how quickly we crumble when the opposition team press us. It's all well and good playing a high press and quick football, but once the opposition team manage to gather themselves after a period of Spurs domination and actually starting chasing down the ball and putting pressure on us we completely fall to peaces. It has happened many times this season and it happened again today. I thought originally it was just a symptom of the new manager getting his tactics across but I haven't seen any change in how we deal with being pressed no matter the quality of our opponent. It's very worrying as teams are starting to suss us out.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
The longest hour.

This is getting a little worrying. How easily we are ruffled out of our stride. What's really worrying is I watched us (yes, mincey, poncey, tarty, chocolate teapot us under Sherwood) do the same to Pochettino's Southampton twice last year. We're not even getting the Southampton Poch 45-60 minutes most days. We get about 20/30 minutes in and the first sign of it a bit up us-ish, we shit ourselves. People start panicking, stop doing the things they should be doing, Basic things like moving for each other, giving each other options, forcing careless passes, and even when there are options players seem to get rattled out of taking them. Off the ball we stop pressing from the front, stop protecting our full backs, this pulls people out of shape, leaving massive spaces on the flanks and between our lines.

For 30 minutes we were very good, having scored a very quick goal we continued to be composed, kept the ball well and won it back quickly when we lost it. All was going swimmingly until Leicester mustered an actual attack, this seemed to be the signal for us to go into anaphylactic shock, and from that point on we were paralysed with fear and trepidation, the ball became the hottest of hot potatoes. No-one wanted it, including anyone that had it, and they proceeded to give it to the nearest Leicester player. Repeatedly. What followed was the worst 60 minutes of football we've played for a very, very long time. It was utter shite. Even when we broke we did it incompetently. A few great chances to counter were wasted with timid, half hearted, bumbling carelessness.

With the exception of Lloris and possibly the two centre backs, everyone had a pretty bad day at the office. Kane scored but then proceeded to waste a glorious chance and generally look leaden footed and headed, turning into defenders instead of releasing the ball.

Eriksen once again came up with a winner, and the boy deserves credit for delivering consistently, and he did offer a few good pieces of play but days like this when you need to earn the right to play he can be irritatingly fragile. When we were struggling he didn't give the CM's much help, we could have really done with him stepping back and helping more, with and without the ball. Chadli, having set up the goal, basically then went pretty awol and gave Rose virtually no help.

None of the CM's had great days. Nor did either full back. But defensively, it has to be said, they don't always get the best of help from those ahead and around them. Chadli, Eriksen, Lamela and Kane were at times lazy (Chadli and Eriksen), at times too timid (Eriksen), erratic (Lamela), laboured (Kane). Even without the sabotage of the aforementioned, the CM's did a poor job themselves. Bentaleb at least was more involved than anyone else and received the ball more than anyone else ahead of the defence, but still not great.

Pochettino has to solve midfield problem. We've now tried all the variations just about and have found out that it doesn't matter who he plays there, something is not working. We are losing control of games for long phases. And I think his Southampton were the same. He has to either get those around the 2 CM's working coherently, with more discipline and diligence for longer in games, or he has to change format and play with 3.

Tactically Pochettino seems very limited in game. And he has so far failed to get the advanced players to do the right things for large sections of games. Chadli or Lamela should have been sacrificed and we should have switched to a 433/451, tried to get a foothold in the midfield, get some control back of a game that we had become unwilling passengers in. This victory was entirely indebted to fortune. Leicester's bad luck. And that is becoming a worrying feature of many of our games.

I don't like football that surrenders itself to fortune.

Individual admonishings:

Lloris - Very good game.

Walker - More dangerous to us than for us when he goes forwards sometimes. Still does some incredibly inane things. There was a moment second half when he broke forward, we had four men round him and should have been a dangerous break for us, he inexplicably gives the ball to Konchesky, taking 5 of our men out of the game immediately. This was preceded by the full Walker repertoire, one ball was whacked from one touchline out of play on the other, there was fucking about with it on the edge of his own box, there was the ball sacked at Eriksen, there was getting booked for fouling a guy after he'd lost control of the ball already, there was positional indiscipline and a couple of other breaks for us turned into breaks for them when he carelessly gives the ball away as we pile forward to support the move. I like having a RB who gets forward, with inverted wingers it's vital, but this boy really tests your patience.

Fazio/Vertonghen - I thought these two were horribly, horribly exposed repeatedly. Neither were foot perfect but I thought they did a reasonable job, particularly Fazio who is more comfortable with this kind of all in front if you onslaught, than dealing with quick counter attacking football.

Rose - Gets forward and is marginally more composed when he does than Walker, but defensively was all over the place. Gets wrong side, gave the wide player way too much space at times, and ,are some poor choices. Did not get much help at all but was still not good.

Bentaleb - Pretty poor game overall. Wasted a great break and should have done better for their goal.

Stambouli - Was like a turtle in a windsock.

Mason - Had very little impact on the game.

Lamela - Was reasonably good first half, great ball for Chadli in the build up to Kane's goal. Does show for the ball, even under pressure and does work off it, but second half became very erratic with and without the ball and was not good for the most part.

Eriksen - I have to temper criticism of him with some perspective. Even on a bad day he'll see the ball about 50 times, as he did today, and he continues to deliver. So as bad days go, it's still better than many shitter player's good days. But we cannot ignore some of the timid shit he does sometimes, and days like today you could really do with him having a tad more fight and bollocks about some of what he does. I'll take the payoff, but if he hadn't popped up with a another vital goal, I'm not sure I'd be busting a gut to temper criticism.

Chadli - Set up Kane's goal. Apart from that was probably the most ineffective player on the pitch. Rightly subbed.

Kane - Not a great day. Made poor choices to run the ball into crowds, wasted a great chance I think (need to watch a proper replay) and generally looked laboured.
 
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DanNolan

Well-Known Member
Oct 14, 2006
1,369
2,524
Right I was at the game today, just got back as my clutch went on a snowy drive home .... Great! Ha
Anyway, first 30 mins we picked up our good recent form and were very comfortable... Then we collapsed. I think bentaleb chance was a turning point as we were rampant at that point.

I'm sorry to pin lots on one man but I have to say Roses performance positionally is the worst I've ever seen from a full back. He was the root of almost every problem we had, he stands off to such an extent that they always have a free cross. If the ball is travelling towards him he always jumps in and commits putting us in danger, and when he gets forward he walks back leaving a hole that a midfielder has to plug leaving us open.... The guy is just not good enough.
Fazio on the other hand was very very good today. He made one slip up for verts pen shout and he maybe could've done slightly better for the goal(though not to blame), he blocked everything, was positionally great and covered for vertonghen constantly while vertonghen was trying to do his and roses job. Hugo was incredible as always!
Wins a win though and I like that we do grind out these performances lately. We are short of a dominant cm who will lead this team. We have lots of good/potential cms but we need a great one as they all have a tendency to drop off and we have no leader.

Ratings
Lloris 9- bailed us out and generally brilliant.

Walker 6- first half showed why we've missed him and gave a great option wide as well as covering pace. Tired visibly second half and missed support in front of him.
Rose 2- I hate ridiculous ratings but he really was that bad today. Horrific!
Vertonghen- 7 actually played quite well and though he made mistakes he made key interceptions and headers at big moments. Was very much hindered by rose leaving a massive space next to him resulting in him getting caught in no mans land.
Fazio 8- gritty big defender performance, used his intelligent positioning well to make key interceptions. Improving a lot!

Bentaleb 5.5 was at Newcastle game and he was great, but today he lost the ball endlessly today and failed to dictate play. Looked a player that befitted his age unfortunately. His miss seemed to destroy his game.
Stambouli 5.5 started well but played in a midfield two that went missing for 15 mins before the break.
Mason 6 added some forward impetus and bite but was ultimately lost in a midfiel we surrendered second half

Chadli 6 - did well for the goal but wasn't involved enough after that. Doesn't protect full back enough.
Lamela 6.5. - battled well and showed some great touches. Lively performance but would be better central,(eriksen rightly ahead). Has obvious quality needs more space than allowed today.
Eriksen 7- didn't do enough but most of our good play started with him. Quality is winning us points at present and his fk was great.

Kane 6- got his goal but is wasted as a 9, drifts into space but isn't quick enough to get away when playing as a lone striker. Love his work rate and improved when soldado introduced.

Soldado 5.5- didn't do much wrong and his link up was very good when he got the ball but he was hindered by coming on while we were being dominated. Not involved at all really.

Paulinho 5.5 ran about and put his head in few times. Did his job.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
Poor performance but take the three points. Not sure how. Must be Hugo's death stare that puts them off.
Performance does matter because generally speaking over a season playing well nets you more points.
Gave the ball away too often and punted aimlessly upfield on too many occasions.

Lloris.........9........Running out of ways to say unbefuckinlievable. Matchwinner not for the first time.
Walker.......5........His good progress on return ground to a halt today.
Fazio.........6+......Some dodgy moments but ok on the whole.
Verts..........5+.....Some moments that were not dodgy. Very iffy today.
Rose..........5.......Went strollabout at times and too far off his man.
Bentaleb....5......Should have scored one and prevented one.
Stombouli..6.......OK without doing very much.
Eriksen......5+1...Bit Scarlet Pimpernel today. They seek him here.....But another winner.
Chadli....... 5+.....Lucky assist and not at his forceful best.
Lamela.......6.......Usual stuff. Excellent decoy run for Eriksen's goal. Vital part in Kane's goal.
Kane..........5+1...What a boy. But not really in it today after the 59th second. Should have scored another.

Mason........6........Pleased to see him back but can't think why now.
Soldado......6.......Some nice interplay with Kane on two occasions but little else.
 

Larryjanta

Well-Known Member
Apr 22, 2014
1,953
5,040
So many people mentioning Leicester being bottom the league and our game should have been a walkover. Anyone who has seen Leicester this season would know they're much better than their position suggests. Same people assumed it should have been a walkover so are pissed we had to battle for it. This is what good teams do, win ugly. Yeah, we weren't great but we won.

Also, people already getting pessimistic about our next game, get a grip.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
So many people mentioning Leicester being bottom the league and our game should have been a walkover. Anyone who has seen Leicester this season would know they're much better than their position suggests. Same people assumed it should have been a walkover so are pissed we had to battle for it. This is what good teams do, win ugly. Yeah, we weren't great but we won.

Also, people already getting pessimistic about our next game, get a grip.


Sometimes this season we have won ugly, but this wasn't winning ugly, it was pure luck.
 

Larryjanta

Well-Known Member
Apr 22, 2014
1,953
5,040
Sometimes this season we have won ugly, but this wasn't winning ugly, it was pure luck.

Nonsense. We had a better striker who scored a more difficult chance. Arguably, we should have been two up. Their strikers missed some good chances which, if you know anything about Leicester (they're my second team), has been the story of their season. What they did to us is not a one off. They're a striker away from being right up the table. Also, not lucky that we have the 2nd best keeper in the world.

We have to play better, sure but you make your own luck.
 

sim0n

King of Prussia
Jan 29, 2005
7,947
2,151
Lloris - 9 (saved yet another 3 points)

Walker - 6 (nowhere near match fit/sharp)
Vertonghen - 7 (always under pressure when rose starts)
Fazio - 6.5 (always seems to have a "bambi on ice" moment once per game)
Rose - 4.5 (can't say I saw him mark anyone today)

Stambouli - 5.5 (seemed a fish out of water today, he'll bounce back)
Bentaleb - 5 (really wasn't his day, but he'll bounce back)

Lamela - 5.5 (drifted again today, broke chadli for the first goal)
Eriksen - 7 (scored again)
Chadli - 6 (assist)

Kane - 7 (scored again)

Mason - 6 (barely noticed him)
Paulinho - 6.5 (actually ran, won a couple headers, played like he wanted to earn a spot)
Soldado - 2 (never.ran.once.)

:bookworm::watching:
 
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Supersi32

Well-Known Member
Jul 23, 2008
2,525
2,754
Nonsense. We had a better striker who scored a more difficult chance. Arguably, we should have been two up. Their strikers missed some good chances which, if you know anything about Leicester (they're my second team), has been the story of their season. What they did to us is not a one off. They're a striker away from being right up the table. Also, not lucky that we have the 2nd best keeper in the world.

We have to play better, sure but you make your own luck.

I watched Leicester pummel Liverpool with only 10 men, they lost 3-1 if that's any consolation to anyone
 
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