Match Threads Newcastle vs Spurs - Match Thread

Metalhead said:

I think that you might have to get used to a different style of football than under Poch. The end game is to become resilient and ruthlessly effective but the football will not be based on possession or necessarily the most shots. We definitely aren't where he wants the team to be at the moment though.

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Col_M said:

And Erik ran 78m for the 3rd goal. Great effort.

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spud said:

I don't mind a different style of football, and we no longer have the players in midfield to play as we used to.

What I do mind is setting up not to concede without a plan to win games. Today Newcastle had a plan. You could see how they were trying, often successfully, to create overloads against our full-backs. They also had a 'plan B', with running with the ball at, and through, the heart of our midfield. It was ultimately unsuccessful but at least they know what they can and can't do and plan accordingly.

What was our plan? How did we think we were going to break them down and score?

Every game we are solid defensively - which I applaud because we weren't before - but we are clueless going forward. We play Aurier forward so that he can get to the line and cross. But we don't play in a way that will deliberately create space for him to do that. We have a theoretical plan dictated by the fact that we only have a right-back who can barely defend and isn't all that good going forward, but no strategy of how to execute it.

As long as we have no strategy to attack and just hope that we'll win by our forwards creating something from nothing I'll be bitching about it.

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spud said:

They had more possession than us
They had more shots than us
They had more shots on target than us
They had more corners than us
They had a territorial advantage for most of the game
They pressed more effectively than us
They hit the post and Shelvey put a free header into row z that he should have scored from
......But our strikers are better than theirs so we won.

Newcastle were as good as, or better, than us. Or, to put it another way, we were not even as good as Newcastle - a team with seven of their squad injured who even their most ardent fans think are crap. Mourinho has mentioned fatigue. That's bollocks. We only have three players out, he didn't have to play the same team as on sunday, and even then he had the opportunity to use five substitutes if players were tired.

I'm happy with the three points and I'm happy with the effort of the players, but if anybody thinks that was a good performance then they were either high or watching a different game.

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Typical Spurs said:

To put it bluntly....who fucking cares? You get no extra points for tippy tappy 70% possession each week. It's about winning. We won 1-3. I don't care if they had more possession or shots. Its irrelevant because we won.

You're probably a top person and I'm sorry for sounding pissy. But we've just beat Arsenal at home (who beat Liverpool tonight) and Newcastle away.

Yet all I've seen from posters like you is how shit we've played. How we've not deserved it. How we've not controlled the game. Its bollocks. Its 3 points.

To use your stats in your first paragraph, if we would have been better in all the stats and lost, would you feel more satisfied than us actually winning but having less possession and shots? Presume you would given how disgruntled you are after 6 points gained in the last 2 games?

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davidmatzdorf said:

Whilst I agree with a lot of the sentiment that we were OK and effective this evening, I do have a growing concern, which is that the whole team is shot-shy. Every game since the restart, I find myself saying "shoot, FFS, shoot!" 10, even 20 times a match.

They're all as bad as each other: Son is probably most at fault, but also Lamela, Lucas, even Kane. Someone will attack the box, either with support or not, there will be 2-3 split-second opportunities to let fly, but instead the player will over-elaborate, get marked, look for a pass, stall the momentum or simply lose the ball.

You can't score if you don't shoot. The statistics back me up: we're taking 9-10 shots a game. In recent seasons, it would often be >20, routinely >15. You can see the players hesitating.

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spud said:

I don't mind a different style of football, and we no longer have the players in midfield to play as we used to.

What I do mind is setting up not to concede without a plan to win games. Today Newcastle had a plan. You could see how they were trying, often successfully, to create overloads against our full-backs. They also had a 'plan B', with running with the ball at, and through, the heart of our midfield. It was ultimately unsuccessful but at least they know what they can and can't do and plan accordingly.

What was our plan? How did we think we were going to break them down and score?

Every game we are solid defensively - which I applaud because we weren't before - but we are clueless going forward. We play Aurier forward so that he can get to the line and cross. But we don't play in a way that will deliberately create space for him to do that. We have a theoretical plan dictated by the fact that we only have a right-back who can barely defend and isn't all that good going forward, but no strategy of how to execute it.

As long as we have no strategy to attack and just hope that we'll win by our forwards creating something from nothing I'll be bitching about it.

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parj said:

I really believe Newcastle played some great stuff today ala Poch style but in the final third were lacking ala Poch style. But what really worried me was they actually wanted to try and get the result they wanted, we wanted to hold out. With our players, it should have been the other way round.

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Cochise said:

We created fewer chances, but the few we did create were better than theirs.

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