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Alli delivers dressing room stance on Mourinho tactics after Man City win

mawspurs

Staff
Jun 29, 2003
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Dele Alli believes that the way Tottenham beat Manchester City on Sunday shows that they are now very much Jose Mourinho's team.

Source: Daily Express
 

Khilari

Plumber. Sort of.
Jun 19, 2008
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Really? We got incredibly lucky. This wasn't a display of tactical genius - City opened us up repeatedly and we were just lucky Aguero, Sterling and Gundogan didn't have their shooting boots on.

Had it been a dull game of limited chances and us taking them out on the counter attack or even held on for a draw, then perhaps Jose's stamp is being imprinted on the team. But in fact they had 65% possession, 18 shots, 52 touches in our box vs 11 in their's.

Outclassed but we kept on going, which is a credit to the team.
 

newbie

Well-Known Member
Jul 16, 2004
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6,342
Really? We got incredibly lucky. This wasn't a display of tactical genius - City opened us up repeatedly and we were just lucky Aguero, Sterling and Gundogan didn't have their shooting boots on.

Had it been a dull game of limited chances and us taking them out on the counter attack or even held on for a draw, then perhaps Jose's stamp is being imprinted on the team. But in fact they had 65% possession, 18 shots, 52 touches in our box vs 11 in their's.

Outclassed but we kept on going, which is a credit to the team.

CIty were lucky to have kept 11 players on the pitch for so long as well though.
 

spurs mental

Well-Known Member
Mar 10, 2007
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Really? We got incredibly lucky. This wasn't a display of tactical genius - City opened us up repeatedly and we were just lucky Aguero, Sterling and Gundogan didn't have their shooting boots on.

Had it been a dull game of limited chances and us taking them out on the counter attack or even held on for a draw, then perhaps Jose's stamp is being imprinted on the team. But in fact they had 65% possession, 18 shots, 52 touches in our box vs 11 in their's.

Outclassed but we kept on going, which is a credit to the team.

18 shots but only 6 on target. One being a penalty so 5 from open play. None that made Lloris really work too hard either that I can remember. The only one maybe was when Toby cleared it off the line but that was good defending.
 

teok

Well-Known Member
Aug 11, 2011
10,836
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Really? We got incredibly lucky. This wasn't a display of tactical genius - City opened us up repeatedly and we were just lucky Aguero, Sterling and Gundogan didn't have their shooting boots on.

Had it been a dull game of limited chances and us taking them out on the counter attack or even held on for a draw, then perhaps Jose's stamp is being imprinted on the team. But in fact they had 65% possession, 18 shots, 52 touches in our box vs 11 in their's.

Outclassed but we kept on going, which is a credit to the team.

I agree it's not sustainable as a game plan relying on the opposition to miss every thing.
 

Donki

Has a "Massive Member" Member
May 14, 2007
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Really? We got incredibly lucky. This wasn't a display of tactical genius - City opened us up repeatedly and we were just lucky Aguero, Sterling and Gundogan didn't have their shooting boots on.

Had it been a dull game of limited chances and us taking them out on the counter attack or even held on for a draw, then perhaps Jose's stamp is being imprinted on the team. But in fact they had 65% possession, 18 shots, 52 touches in our box vs 11 in their's.

Outclassed but we kept on going, which is a credit to the team.

How many times did we have the majority of possession and most shots to either draw or get beaten before? The game is ultimately about taking you chances and being clinical, we were and City weren't.
 

dude573

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
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We got battered until the red card and even after that and despite the two goals we were still somewhat on the back foot. However, under Poch earlier in the season City were all over us and deserved to win too, so it is not an anomaly.

I hope we get better playing football under the cosh. We need to be stronger in our counter attacks, move the ball quicker and actually find our runners.

What I would say though is that even under peak Poch we lost a lot of big games playing beautiful football, the Juventus CL tie and Chelsea FA cup semi final defeats always sticks out in my mind. We played well and lost.

I wouldn't mind some more of Mourinho's pragmatism providing we get more consistent in winning these big games.
 

teok

Well-Known Member
Aug 11, 2011
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It was a fun smash and grab win. That's all it was though.

It clearly wasn't the game plan to just let them have free shots on goal almost at will from dangerous positions. The first half looked like some sort of training exercise. You can't rely on luck in the long term.
 

Shadydan

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2012
38,247
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I agree it's not sustainable as a game plan relying on the opposition to miss every thing.

That's literally been Jose's tactic over the last 2 decades and it's wielded how many trophies...?

The key thing he wants to improve is he defense and the defensive process, not letting the opposition get off easy chances, mentality, fitness, pressing zones etc...when that improves we'll concede less chances.
 

teok

Well-Known Member
Aug 11, 2011
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So that clearly wasn't the game plan then was it.
 

Riandor

COB Founder
May 26, 2004
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The Man City with 10 men argument is slightly flawed.
Immediately afterwards we were the better team, we had momentum, but we remained cautious because JM will have drilled into them that Man City are ALWAYS dangerous.

We didn't go gung ho and look to finish them off, we held to the tactics that had gotten us through the match and City whilst still very good, didn't create any clear cut chances after we scored.

Had we decided to up our game, we might have upped our possession or goal threat, but we would have left ourselves exposed to City's attacking threat and jeapordised a result in search for a "better looking" performance.
 

slartibartfast

Grunge baby forever
Oct 21, 2012
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Think people confuse playing keep ball with dominating the game. If you have the most possesion but do nothing with it, and as has been said they only had 4 shots on target all match and Lloris wasn't making save after save, then it counts for nothing.
How many games have we dropped points qhere teams have just defended. Its a tactic that works against better teams. The Italians did it for decades, its nothing new.
 

$hoguN

Well-Known Member
Jul 25, 2005
26,626
34,700
Really? We got incredibly lucky. This wasn't a display of tactical genius - City opened us up repeatedly and we were just lucky Aguero, Sterling and Gundogan didn't have their shooting boots on.

Had it been a dull game of limited chances and us taking them out on the counter attack or even held on for a draw, then perhaps Jose's stamp is being imprinted on the team. But in fact they had 65% possession, 18 shots, 52 touches in our box vs 11 in their's.

Outclassed but we kept on going, which is a credit to the team.
Fundamentally disagree with this. Yes City were on top but the narrative that they should have been a few up before the sending off is not true. We defended well, yes their movement created space but they weren’t creating clear cut chances like people are saying. Lloris made one good save tipping aguero’s shot on to the post abd the pen obviously. Clearances by the defence mean that we are getting players in the right place.

Did we deserve to win? It’s an unhelpful concept. We scored the goals when it mattered which is what counts.
 

Khilari

Plumber. Sort of.
Jun 19, 2008
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18 shots but only 6 on target. One being a penalty so 5 from open play. None that made Lloris really work too hard either that I can remember. The only one maybe was when Toby cleared it off the line but that was good defending.
Sure - but it wasn't like these were shots into the corner flags. One was Aguero who missed from an acute angle whilst 2 yards out and just put it wide, another was Gundogan who, with the goal manned only by Toby stretched and put it miles over. And of course De Bruyne's brilliant cross/shot that nearly lobbed Hugo who reacted really well to tip it over.

My point iss that City were profligate, we were lucky and this resulted in a win for us. But going forwards whilst we are all happy with 3 points, let's not get too excited that "we beat City". They were all over us. Like back in the day when we were flying high and yet couldn't break down a Burnley/Swansea/W Brom/Newcastle team who sat back and defended despite 18 shots and peppering their goal.
 

Khilari

Plumber. Sort of.
Jun 19, 2008
3,461
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How many times did we have the majority of possession and most shots to either draw or get beaten before? The game is ultimately about taking you chances and being clinical, we were and City weren't.
Yes and on this occasion we were lucky and got the 3 points. However we still have 13 games to play in the Premier League and our performances don't yet suggest we will easily catch Chelsea. This wasn't a game plan that paid off, this was a performance where we were clearly second best for about 60min of the match and clarifies just how big a gap there is between the two sides. Even bigger than last season when we gave them a game at the Etihad after our CL escapades.
 

spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
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18 shots but only 6 on target. One being a penalty so 5 from open play. None that made Lloris really work too hard either that I can remember. The only one maybe was when Toby cleared it off the line but that was good defending.

but but but narrative.

That's how I saw it too. Defend and attack. Games ebb and flow. That’s how it is.
 

Khilari

Plumber. Sort of.
Jun 19, 2008
3,461
5,287
Fundamentally disagree with this. Yes City were on top but the narrative that they should have been a few up before the sending off is not true. We defended well, yes their movement created space but they weren’t creating clear cut chances like people are saying. Lloris made one good save tipping aguero’s shot on to the post abd the pen obviously. Clearances by the defence mean that we are getting players in the right place.

Did we deserve to win? It’s an unhelpful concept. We scored the goals when it mattered which is what counts.
Ok - interesting the opinions can be so different from two people at the same game!

I sat on the half way line and saw very little from us in terms of attacking threat - a few balls over the top from Toby and Sonny chasing some through balls aside, we didn't offer a lot.

City had numerous shots, but had at least 4 really good chances that they'd often at least one of in other matches. I think everyone around me in the stadium assumed Aguero had scored when he was through, similarly when Aurier blocked his shot in the 6yd box he scuffed it wide. Although less blatant but when Lloris and Tanganga had their mixup I think we all held our breath as Aguero knocked it towards goal and we really couldn't believe when Gundogan skied it.

Sterling was in just to the right of Lloris once also and again messed it up.

They were through time and time again and had 2/3 possession! That was about as dominant as I've seen a team be without winning.

The toast fell butter-side up for us, but I hope our performance improves over the next few games.
 
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