Match Threads Spurs vs Leicester - Match Thread

[whitelanefever]

Those 2. Liverpool were in 3 European Cup finals in a row so the 4 seasons thing is wrong. They were clearly a good team playing good progressive football as soon as Klopp took over. He has been amazingly lucky with injuries which is why they won the league so easily this year. Man City bought the best players for every position but also have a very progressive manager who always plays on the front foot. We now try and nick every game which doesn’t work if we go behind for too long as we don’t know how to play with the ball.

I think Klopp changing his coaching staff had a big part of them winning CL & PL.. Pep Ljinders is a brilliant coach

 

[GutBucket]

I predicted a 2-0 win, it was better than that so no complains from me. Kane looked great and it's obvious which positions need improvement.

 

[$hoguN]

Is that a valid excuse? Most people would display them in their loft behind the Christmas decorations

They were shown on TV once and probably made the respective people’s day. There is plenty to dig him out for, that isn’t one of the things though

 

[rossdapep]

For me, it was his snide remarks after we sold Bale when he stuck the knife in publicly saying we should be challenging for the league for the money we got from the sale. It was arrogant posturing off the back of a good season when Suarez was lethal for Liverpool and a sign of his self-promotional
Instincts overriding any decorum.

Then Suarez was sold and despite reinvestment, Liverpool slumped and he was fired. If such a thing as karma exists, that was it right there. He’s an old fashioned, self serving, ruthless twat

He's also a coach who benefits from good situations but once his team face difficulties he has problems reversing it.

 

[Barrd10]

I think Klopp changing his coaching staff had a big part of them winning CL & PL.. Pep Ljinders is a brilliant coach

I know nothing about him but Liverpool have done brilliantly. No real injuries for a couple of seasons does make a massive difference because your game plan doesn’t have to change.

 

[danielneeds]

Rafeal Leao could be that..he just needs to learn to get himself in goalscoring positions. I'd personally like a player similar to Kane in attributes. An alround player

But then you’re left with two target men if you want to play both. Someone who’s fast, has decent size and hold up play would give us a cover for Kane, but then Jose could change matches by playing two up too.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

Great week all things considered. Lockdown seems to have done us wonders.

What's that, 5 wins, 2 draws and 1 defeat since we've been back? I'd have taken that all day long at the restart.

There's no great mystery about it. Mourinho finally had some time to coach the defence and we got our two world-class strikers and our most physical midfielder back.

 

[rossdapep]

But then you’re left with two target men if you want to play both. Someone who’s fast, has decent size and hold up play would give us a cover for Kane, but then Jose could change matches by playing two up too.

It's why Osimhen woukd have been perfect but obviously won't happen.

Hopefully we can find somebody similar.

 

[DiVaio]

It's why Osimhen woukd have been perfect but obviously won't happen.

Hopefully we can find somebody similar.

Watkins with relatively small release clause and HG status would be ideal.

 

[davidmatzdorf]

No. It’s the same as Brighton and Sheffield Utd with a different result.

Sheffield United play nothing like Brighton and neither plays anything like us!

What on earth have you been watching?

EDIT: I wonder if you meant our performances against Bournemouth and Sheffield United...? It was nothing like them either. Against SU, our defence was all over the place, the opposite of today. Against Bournemouth, we were hesitant and dithery in attack, the opposite of today.

 

[whitelanefever]

But then you’re left with two target men if you want to play both. Someone who’s fast, has decent size and hold up play would give us a cover for Kane, but then Jose could change matches by playing two up too.

Well you already have Son & Moura for that.. We have no one as alrounded as Kane.. Good players adjust to each other.. I think of Belotti like Jimenez & Kane just fantastic footballers

 

[Oscar22]

If we manage to get sixth out of this absolute shit top of a season then I’ll be fine with it. I know it’s not what we wanted at the start, but the way this entire season has gone, I’ll actually consider 6th a bloody good achievement.

 

[Ionman34]

Watkins with relatively small release clause and HG status would be ideal.

Sarr .

(Drops mic and leaves...)

 

[Amo]

If only we had a shot on target against fucking Bournemouth and didn't combo-break dozens of their shocking records.

We would be two points off fourth place with a game to go.

Edit: Utd and Leicester play each other last so it wouldn't matter but still.

 

[tommo84]

As appalling and joyless the three games vs Sheff Utd, Everton (despite winning) and Bournemouth were, in the last 3 games we’ve seen steady improvement and a clearer game plan.

Our players look more comfortable sitting back and looking to counter, and the improving fitness of players is allowing us to get more players forward in those counter attacks. We’re undoubtedly still a work in progress but, for the first time since Xmas, we are seeing steady progress.

Plus, I hate Leicester - quite happy to give them a whooping irrespective of who it helps.

 

[rossdapep]

I think we'll benefit massively from playing this way. Why?

Firstly, for such a long time now teams have been prepared for a Tottenham team that likes to have the ball, that likes to play out from the back and push high up the pitch.
Our high intensity and ability to be incredibly aggressive high up the pitch helped us out for a while but as we've seen in Poch's last year all the opposition had to do was let us have the ball and wait for a moment to attack us because we were too lethargic and toothless.

By playing more defensive yet attacking with speed and excellent movement it will give teams a headache in what to do when they play us.

Take the game to us and they need to ensure they finish any chances they get and be able to create them in the first place. Theyll need to be constantly wary of the counter attack too. Decide to sit back and they may be in a bad situation if we scored first.

I think we'll cause more teams headaches now.

I've seen City toil this last year as they come up against a team who have a plan and take advantage of them. This is mostly cause City lost Kompany but it's also because they have generally had the same approach to games for the last two years.

Liverpool changed their approach to allow them to soak up more pressure and become more resilient too and then they started getting the better of City too.

I think it's silly to continue playing the same way for so long, teams figure you out and another strategy comes into play.

People say Jose is outdated but he isn't outdated for us, we needed a new approach, we needed to have a different strategy against the bigger teams and bigger games.

Let's hope we've seen the beginning of things to come.

 

[C0YS]

Those 2. Liverpool were in 3 European Cup finals in a row so the 4 seasons thing is wrong. They were clearly a good team playing good progressive football as soon as Klopp took over. He has been amazingly lucky with injuries which is why they won the league so easily this year. Man City bought the best players for every position but also have a very progressive manager who always plays on the front foot. We now try and nick every game which doesn’t work if we go behind for too long as we don’t know how to play with the ball.

Erm well.

They played fun stuff. Then they stopped playing fun stuff and started winning. Just think about how they played against us in the CL final? Just be compact and stop up from playing, not from the front foot, it was a masterclass in out of possession control.

They didn't reach three European cup finals in a row, they reached two and the final of a cup that you have to not be good enough to qualify for.

Klopp won nothing until last season. In his first season he took a club in 7th position mid season and, erm, made them finish 8th. Then two well fought 4th positions before finally winning something.


Klopp puts it best:

“You cannot win only with offensive football, it’s not possible. Because you are open and the pitch was too big for that [...] you need to be organised"

Klopp: Why I’ve stopped Liverpool’s high-press…

A lot of Liverpool fans have been disappointed to not see a rampant high-press orchestrated by the team this season. We can remember it against PSG in the opening 20 minutes, but bar that game our …

www.empireofthekop.com

They were incredibly inconsistent when Klopp was going full on pressing. They started playing way more defensively and in an organised way, and stopped pressing all the time and started focusing on being defensively more compact and this helped them a lot. Liverpools success is not based on fluid attacking football, it's based on a solid base and structure.

Klopp has a reputation has being an attacking exciting manager, and that's why people cut him some slack. But, they don't turn it on very often these days. They are a winning machine, rather than a particularly exciting team to watch.

We have things to work on, but I just don't like this sort of basing managers off reputation rather than what they actually are doing. You can win playing boring boring football. We do need to learn to be a bit more creative. But there are a lot of positive green shoots.

 

[rossdapep]

If only we had a shot on target against fucking Bournemouth and didn't combo-break dozens of their shocking records.

We would be two points off fourth place with a game to go.

Edit: Utd and Leicester play each other last so it wouldn't matter but still.

I'm more upset with our start to the season and our reluctance to not sack Poch sooner. Think he should have gone after the Brighton game. We could have had that honeymoon period sooner but we drifted through games against Watford, Sheff Utd . Although we probably wouldn't have avoided the injury crisis.

 

[C0YS]

I think we'll benefit massively from playing this way. Why?

Firstly, for such a long time now teams have been prepared for a Tottenham team that likes to have the ball, that likes to play out from the back and push high up the pitch.
Our high intensity and ability to be incredibly aggressive high up the pitch helped us out for a while but as we've seen in Poch's last year all the opposition had to do was let us have the ball and wait for a moment to attack us because we were too lethargic and toothless.

By playing more defensive yet attacking with speed and excellent movement it will give teams a headache in what to do when they play us.

Take the game to us and they need to ensure they finish any chances they get and be able to create them in the first place. Theyll need to be constantly wary of the counter attack too. Decide to sit back and they may be in a bad situation if we scored first.

I think we'll cause more teams headaches now.

I've seen City toil this last year as they come up against a team who have a plan and take advantage of them. This is mostly cause City lost Kompany but it's also because they have generally had the same approach to games for the last two years.

Liverpool changed their approach to allow them to soak up more pressure and become more resilient too and then they started getting the better of City too.

I think it's silly to continue playing the same way for so long, teams figure you out and another strategy comes into play.

People say Jose is outdated but he isn't outdated for us, we needed a new approach, we needed to have a different strategy against the bigger teams and bigger games.

Let's hope we've seen the beginning of things to come.

I mean I sort of agree. I don't think it will give clubs headaches because we are Spurs. I am sure they will more or less work out how we plan to play. Though one of Jose's strengths is the game plan changes game by game, so he is unpredictable, but the base is the same.

The argument about Jose being outdated is the belief that his sort of football comes from a pre-pressing world, and he defends very deep, which isn't the fashionable way to be defensive anymore. But these things go in cycles and managers change. Similarly Jose's failure at United is overstated, to say the least.

Poch also did try to change things, without reinventing the wheel. He tried to change things all the time, but some principles remained the same. Namely, play high up the pitch and build from the back. His attempt to change things is in part responsible for are loss of form. It's difficult to do so, but I don't think Poch was static, he was stubborn and proactive about his approach, and it could sometimes be a bit naive. He definetly focused more on what we were doing than the opposition. Jose's biggest weakness in my book is the exact opposite, he often focuses on how to counter the opposition rather than make something interesting with his team.

 

[Barrd10]

Erm well.

They played fun stuff. Then they stopped playing fun stuff and started winning. Just think about how they played against us in the CL final? Just be compact and stop up from playing, not from the front foot, it was a masterclass in out of possession control.

They didn't reach three European cup finals in a row, they reached two and the final of a cup that you have to not be good enough to qualify for.

Klopp won nothing until last season. In his first season he took a club in 7th position mid season and, erm, made them finish 8th. Then two well fought 4th positions before finally winning something.


Klopp puts it best:

“You cannot win only with offensive football, it’s not possible. Because you are open and the pitch was too big for that [...] you need to be organised"

Klopp: Why I’ve stopped Liverpool’s high-press…

A lot of Liverpool fans have been disappointed to not see a rampant high-press orchestrated by the team this season. We can remember it against PSG in the opening 20 minutes, but bar that game our …

www.empireofthekop.com

They were incredibly inconsistent when Klopp was going full on pressing. They started playing way more defensively and in an organised way, and stopped pressing all the time and started focusing on being defensively more compact and this helped them a lot. Liverpools success is not based on fluid attacking football, it's based on a solid base and structure.

Klopp has a reputation has being an attacking exciting manager, and that's why people cut him some slack. But, they don't turn it on very often these days. They are a winning machine, rather than a particularly exciting team to watch.

We have things to work on, but I just don't like this sort of basing managers off reputation rather than what they actually are doing. You can win playing boring boring football. We do need to learn to be a bit more creative. But there are a lot of positive green shoots.

What are we actually doing? Every game is based on counter attacking. Never on the front foot. This is our world now.