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Ratings vs Liverpool

MOM

  • Lloris

  • Walker

  • Dier

  • Vert

  • Rose

  • Bentaleb

  • Mason

  • Lamela

  • Dembele

  • Eriksen

  • Kane

  • Paulinho

  • Chadli

  • Soldado

  • Undecided

  • None deserved


Results are only viewable after voting.

Main Man

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2013
2,314
1,699
You disagree with what?

I didn't say that our players didn't look fitter. They looked to be lacking concentration and sharpness - that's nothing to do with 'fitness'.

"It's been working, but the push we gave at Arsenal looks to have been a bit much with a game 3 days later"

I don't think the Arsenal game was in any way responsible for Mason and Bentaleb playing them clean through on three occassions!
 

Shea

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2013
7,711
10,930
"It's been working, but the push we gave at Arsenal looks to have been a bit much with a game 3 days later"

I don't think the Arsenal game was in any way responsible for Mason and Bentaleb playing them clean through on three occassions!
Now if they can start threading through balls like those in the opponents danger zone we'll really have some creativity from midfield
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,770
99,327
"It's been working, but the push we gave at Arsenal looks to have been a bit much with a game 3 days later"

I don't think the Arsenal game was in any way responsible for Mason and Bentaleb playing them clean through on three occassions!

Agree, and the majroity of the mistakes came early in the game as well.

Liverpool also had their third game in six days, so I don't think fatigue was too much of a factor.

Anfield can be quite intimidating, particularly at night. I just think Mason/Bentaleb were a bit edgy/nervous early on but grew into the game.

We played well, it was just those mistakes got punished, otherwise we'd of taken at least a point - which our performance more than merited.
 

Main Man

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2013
2,314
1,699
Agree with 99% of that......

Rose was poor i agree, but trust me we have no choice atm imo, Davies is not the answer at this moment, he is young and may go on to become a decent LB for us,what ive seen of him so far aint clever , so atm Rose is the better option ,warts and all.

West Ham's Cresswell is the player we should have bought not Davies.

Davies hasn't been great for us, but he is a better player than he has shown. If we give him a good run of games then I think we will really benefit from that.

Rose just doesn't seem to learn from his mistakes.

If I was an opposing manager against Spurs I would play a right winger and just tell him to say upfield. Yes Rose will gallop forward but he won't do anything worthwhile in the final third - he never does! And you can bet your life he won't bust a gut to get back either. As a full back, he has his priorites all wrong.

But Davies struggles with pace too, although I do think he is a much, much better defender. Unfortunately he provides even less going forward than Rose though.
 

Main Man

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2013
2,314
1,699
Agree, and the majroity of the mistakes came early in the game as well.

Liverpool also had their third game in six days, so I don't think fatigue was too much of a factor.

Anfield can be quite intimidating, particularly at night. I just think Mason/Bentaleb were a bit edgy/nervous early on but grew into the game.

We played well, it was just those mistakes got punished, otherwise we'd of taken at least a point - which our performance more than merited.

They pressed us well in fairness, but we should have been able to deal with it.

Big opportunity missed imo - they are a shadow of the side they were last season and I will be incredibly disappointed if we finish below them this season.
 

Main Man

Well-Known Member
Apr 11, 2013
2,314
1,699
Sakho: 10 for sitting on his ass 1 and a half minute of the injury time.
Phil "the tank" Dowd: 10 for adding 15 seconds to the 4 minutes of injury time where Sakho "the convict" was sitting on his ass wasting half off it.

We had a great chance at 4:15 of the injury time gone, should have been atleast 5 mins, even my Liverpool mate admited that. And he blows the whistle, what a pussy.

I fucking hate refs in the PL, every last one of them, theyre out of shape, have bad eyesight somehow, biased towards hometeams, old fucking pussies who needs to get with the times. Don't get me wrong, we do get our share of bad decisions going our way, but I hate injustice.

Get them all out, we need a new generation of refs, in my opinion just get rid of them on the pitch and go video reffing. But since that won't happen at least we can get in some proper refs. The refs should be athletes themselves, to keep up with this furious tempo. Phil Dowd is almost as fat as me! DISGRACE!

The ref was terrible and I have no doubt the reason he kept booking people was to slow the game down and get a breather!

He will be embarrassed watching his performance back, surely?

Fergie was right, he is nowhere near fit enough to officiate at this level.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,770
99,327
They pressed us well in fairness, but we should have been able to deal with it.

Big opportunity missed imo - they are a shadow of the side they were last season and I will be incredibly disappointed if we finish below them this season.

They did press us well, as did we at certain times throughout the game.

I agreed with BC's thoughts on the game. After it went 2-2 I thought we were the side looking more likely to win it, so it was pretty gut wrenching to see them win it. I was confident we'd get at least a point when Dembele scored.
 

Strikeb4ck

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2010
4,483
9,409
No one played badly. You say you were proved right, but what evidence for that is there? As I said we played well but lost. We scored only one real goal and 3-2 was misleading? Come on fella you can't be serious anyone can do that in a game. We also could well have had a penalty for a foul on Kane. We dominated a lot of possession and even the scousers largely feel they nicked it.

There was nothing really between the sides.

Who is to say with a load of changes we'd even have been competitive in the game? Sorry but away against a tough opponent you stick your strongest XI out
Welp.
Mason and Bentaleb were both awful and set up 3 or 4 clear cut chances for Sturridge just by themselves.
Rose looked exhausted and was beaten all night by an average rookie that Bryan Oviedo was able to handle ffs.

Yeah - you stick your best XI out. But sometimes it's better to start players that are 100% fit/fresh and maybe not in the normal best XI as opposed to players who are physically and mentally exhausted and can only hit 50% of their normal best. The best starting XI can change 3 days after coming off a massive effort.
 

225

Living in hope, existing in disappointment
Dec 15, 2014
4,563
9,064
"It's been working, but the push we gave at Arsenal looks to have been a bit much with a game 3 days later"

I don't think the Arsenal game was in any way responsible for Mason and Bentaleb playing them clean through on three occassions!

What? You said...

I completely disagree with this.

We looked fitter than them all over the pitch.


...When I mentioned nothing about fitness. Mental exhaustion is a real thing, you know.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,512
You and me have had many conversations over the years along the lines of "why can't we just get players working and pressing the ball properly from front to back".

The last two games have been the first time I have seen a Spurs team showing 90 minutes of coherent collective commitment to that cause for two games consecutively and at that level for as long as I can remember.

So I can can kind of forgive many of the mistakes made last night, both tactically and individually. Chadli excepted as he had no excuse, as you say.

I'm also a realist, and know that with this group, this kind of performance is something I doubted I'd ever see, so I think credit is due.

The pressing was admirable, its a good sign I agree... It just wasn't smart the way we went about it against a 3-4-3. We should have had two disciplined banks of four, and then Kane +1 working their absolute nuts off hassling the centre backs. Instead of wide players pushing up on their centre backs, fullbacks on their wing backs, and wide forwards left free as a consequence or 2vs1, which is what we saw for long spells. What annoys me is that, and maybe this is me being a smartarse I admit, I called what I feared would happen in the lead up to the game and its pretty much how things turned out, so I expect a multi-million pound manager to figure it out and adapt too. Yes there are a lot of encouraging things happening at the club, but I still think adapting from game to game and different threats is something Poch needs to work on.
 

Blackcanary

Dame sans merci
Jul 15, 2012
5,621
12,168
Welp.
Mason and Bentaleb were both awful and set up 3 or 4 clear cut chances for Sturridge just by themselves.
Rose looked exhausted and was beaten all night by an average rookie that Bryan Oviedo was able to handle ffs.

Yeah - you stick your best XI out. But sometimes it's better to start players that are 100% fit/fresh and maybe not in the normal best XI as opposed to players who are physically and mentally exhausted and can only hit 50% of their normal best. The best starting XI can change 3 days after coming off a massive effort.

I thought quite a few of them had bad nights which seemed a result of fatigue. This match will be exhibit A when I want an example of why you rotate.
 

Strikeb4ck

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2010
4,483
9,409
I thought quite a few of them had bad nights which seemed a result of fatigue. This match will be exhibit A when I want an example of why you rotate.
Tell that to the 25+ disagree/dislike/spam/WTF raters I've encountered. It's blatantly obvious that several players were fatigued physically/mentally following the NLD effort. Some of them, like Eriksen, you can't afford to rotate. But some of them, like Bentaleb, Mason, Rose, etc, you can rotate and bring in [about] equal quality - certainly better quality when say, Stambouli is 100% and Bentaleb 50%.
 

Shea

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2013
7,711
10,930
They seemed a little bit more on their game than us last night

A little bit more dangerous, had that cutting edge and caused us more problems (Sturridge in particular)

We made more unforced errors, but they also pressed us very well and attcked in packs off the ball to force the unforced errors (if that makes any sense lol)

I think we had spells where we took control, had more possession and were the better team but on the balance of play they just edged it and I can't really complain that they nicked a winner in a thrilling game

We were unlucky and we played well but we were very slightly second best over all in my opinion, mostly because they looked the more dangerous team on the night. But it could have easily gone our way and I doubt there would have been too many complaints had we taken a draw or even nicked a win because it was a tight competitve battle of the match

Only cure for this disappointment is 3 points off the Spammers, progression in the Europa and a wembley victory over Chelsea (am I being greedy?)
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,512
does a goal not count as output?

Bundling one over the line is a start. I guess its hopefully a gradual work in progress with him... He's perked up and with his new role started doing work 30-35 yards out rather than 45-50... We hope over the next few weeks he's in and around the box causing real damage.
 

double0

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2006
14,423
12,258
Any one who reckons we were awful because we lost is damn silly. Point taken Bentaleb and Mason made a couple of suicidal miss placed passes apiece lucky no goals were directly scored from them, both grew and improved in the game and this will happen being a new young partnership we all should know this.

I watched the game again we were bloody unlucky not to at least draw at the minimum.
 

Shea

Well-Known Member
Apr 5, 2013
7,711
10,930
Any one who reckons we were awful because we lost is damn silly. Point taken Bentaleb and Mason made a couple of suicidal miss placed passes apiece lucky no goals were directly scored from them, both grew and improved in the game and this will happen being a new young partnership we all should know this.

I watched the game again we were bloody unlucky not to at least draw at the minimum.
To be honest - anyone who watched that game and says we were terrible are probably just letting their emotion/frustration at losing overwhelm their logic and reason

We weren't terrible by any means - we competed well with a Liverpool team who put in a good performance and we were unlucky to lose even if they were marginally the better team, or at least the sharper more dangerous team

Coming from behind twice away from home at Liverpool is no mean feat and had we hung on to the draw it would have been an excellent point

As it is we have to dust ourselves off and put it right against West Ham now
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
The pressing was admirable, its a good sign I agree... It just wasn't smart the way we went about it against a 3-4-3. We should have had two disciplined banks of four, and then Kane +1 working their absolute nuts off hassling the centre backs. Instead of wide players pushing up on their centre backs, fullbacks on their wing backs, and wide forwards left free as a consequence or 2vs1, which is what we saw for long spells. What annoys me is that, and maybe this is me being a smartarse I admit, I called what I feared would happen in the lead up to the game and its pretty much how things turned out, so I expect a multi-million pound manager to figure it out and adapt too. Yes there are a lot of encouraging things happening at the club, but I still think adapting from game to game and different threats is something Poch needs to work on.

I don't think Pochettino is ever going to be that kind of manager. I understand what you are saying and have criticised Pochettino and others for their tactical rigidity, such as AVB.

There are various types of managers. Those that do tactical variation and actually do it well are extremely rare, especially ones that can go from all out hunt one game and then deliberate pragmatic sit and break three days later with nuanced marking and role deviations etc. Because it's not just as simple as spotting the tactical plan, it's having tactically intelligent players and the time to drill the new instructions into them. And then you have to do more than just counter the opposition you have to try and better them.

Look at the mess LVG has made of it at ManU this season. Wenger is an awful tactician. I think for all the good managers around the EPL right now, Koeman and Rodgers are probably two of the better tactical thinkers and implementers. And they are good in game too.

I don't whether you remember, but we were having a similar conversation during AVB's tenure and I said something like " my problem is not the system/rigidity he's employing it's that he's not doing it severely enough". I think this is what Pochettino is now achieving.

In the absence of of a tactical pragmatist, which I like too, I will happily take a more method minded coach who can actually achieve the full potential of that more singular methodology consistently. Especially if that method is type of football we have seen the last couple of games. My worry has always been the sustainability of that approach over the long term, but I still think that approach, if done will also has plenty of merit when paired with decent players.

For all that you think we were slightly tactically outwitted last night, I'm really not so sure it was the case, if you take out the errors we made that presented Liverpool with several dangerous counter attacks, and look at how many times we got into great situations ourselves, there really wasn't too much in it tactically between the approaches. Yes, Ibe got at Rose first half, but Pochettoino definitely countered this second half, and there weren't too many times when Liverpool were allowed to create wide (or any good) chances for themselves with out our AM's chipping in and helping their FB's and CM's.

If Pochettino can get us playing this way consistently, I'll take that, knowing Mourinho isn;t likely to come our way any time soon.
 

Xeeleeyid

Well-Known Member
Aug 4, 2012
1,693
3,186
Welp.
Mason and Bentaleb were both awful and set up 3 or 4 clear cut chances for Sturridge just by themselves.
Rose looked exhausted and was beaten all night by an average rookie that Bryan Oviedo was able to handle ffs.

Yeah - you stick your best XI out. But sometimes it's better to start players that are 100% fit/fresh and maybe not in the normal best XI as opposed to players who are physically and mentally exhausted and can only hit 50% of their normal best. The best starting XI can change 3 days after coming off a massive effort.

Mason and Bentaleb awful? I'm switching off now as you're just using ridiculous hyperbole rather than making any kind of point. Awful? Blimey.

You don't run a good Liverpool team close at Anfield if both of your central midfielders are awful.

Awful? Again, Blimey!
 

Strikeb4ck

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2010
4,483
9,409
Mason and Bentaleb awful? I'm switching off now as you're just using ridiculous hyperbole rather than making any kind of point. Awful? Blimey.

You don't run a good Liverpool team close at Anfield if both of your central midfielders are awful.

Awful? Again, Blimey!
My word. Watch the game without the tinted glasses on.

Mason and Bentaleb, along with gifting Sturridge about 4 chances, were poor in possession and I can't even count how many times they just let a runner go by them. Was probably the worst performance of the season from both.
 
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