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Match Threads Spurs v Chelsea Match Thread - Carabao Cup - 1st Leg

smallsnc

Well-Known Member
Mar 30, 2017
699
1,237
I thought his yellow was overly harsh. He stepped in front - but he beat the man to the spot. He is entitled to that spot to protect the ball - which was within playing distance for him, after he shielded it.


And, Lamela always looks like a card waiting to happen - but I don't think he has ever gotten a 2nd yellow in a match with us.

You can shield the ball but you cannot throw a hip check into the other players midsection which is what he did. As a ref, I would have cautioned him every time. If he would actually learn how to tackle with good technique, his aggressive approach would be much more effective, but too many times his challenges are overly zealous when they do not really need to be.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
Man City hammering Burton 8-0 as I type. Training game for their starters and will now get to rest players in the second leg. And there were folks on here saying drawing Chelsea was not a bad thing. Better than two legs with City of course, but Burton was the draw we wanted and needed.
Beating a lower league side
by more than 7 goals
is ungentlemanly conduct.
That's why we stopped at 7
at Tranmere.
No rules seem to apply to City
not financial ones
nor showing respect to an opponent.
Clough Junior surely has a case
at the International Court.
Comes within the scope of
'hitting a man when he's down'
which is banned in Boxing too
under the Queensbury Rules.
 

ajspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2007
22,987
31,167
It was dreadful viewing. But they pressed us very high and we laboured on the ball.

So, two things but very much interconnected.

When fatigue sets in, players generally want more time on the ball. The one time we saw some great pass and move patterns, and one touch stuff was when Kane forced that great save in the second half.

But that was it. Everything else was slow build up, trying to play out from the back and with their press it was just painful.

I'm sure Poch didn't envisage that happening but when you start a match quite slowly as a collective it can be hard to break out of it.

I think we did look a bit fatigued, certainly on the ball, even though we defended resolutely when needed.

Need to be vastly improved for Sunday. And if we are, we could rip United apart.

We did seem to labour on the ball at times, mostly more so from midfield (because we're always laboured when passing around the back) and Dele was annoyingly guilty of that, but it's a bad trait of his I think, doesn't move the ball quick enough at times and can appear overly-lethargic and on this occasion a few times thought he had all the time in the world to play just a simple pass.

But yeah it was painful, we can sometimes look clueless when passing between our defenders in that slow fashion but I can't remember us having as much trouble finding a man from defence. Thing is there was no urgency from from our central midfielders to try and receive the ball more often from the defenders either. We found it so hard to find space.

I just found it strange, I do agree in that when starting slow and being slow for a sustained period it can be hard to break from, but certainly more often than not you do eventually do so.

I personally think it was tactical shortcomings as opposed to fatigue. This was the first time since the end of November that almost all the starting 11 had 7 days rest and we remained fresh enough when playing every 3/4 days. It of course can have an influence, but I just don't think fatigue would have had us struggling just as much as we did. If anything you'd think it would see us tail off in the final third of the game. I've seen some compare it to the Wolves game, which I don't fully agree with. In that I think it was the second half that we really dropped off against Wolves and were ok in the first half, whereas I thought we massively struggled from start to finish against Chelsea.

Hopefully it will be different against United. I actually think it may be vital for Eriksen to often operate a little deeper and to help out with the movement of the ball in midfield. As much as I haven't rated him in the past for United, the last thing we want is for a confident Pogba to have loads of space in midfield and to be pinging balls around that big pitch and behind our high line. Control that midfield and you'd fancy our attacking players to cause their defence harm and our defence to have less of a tough time with theirs. Here's hoping.
 
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