What the pundits & media are saying about us

I do think it's hard to call this year, I'm only really confident that City will win the PL and Pool will finish somewhere in the top 4, so 2 places for Chavs, UTD, us and the gooners and it really could be any combination

Think Citeh will probably win it, though reckon Chavs and Liverpool could have a bigsay in it. Gooners look pretty good to me and will likely battle with Man Utd for 4th. We're probably scrapping with Leicester for 6th/ 7th, but you never know. Get a bit of momentum early days and avoid big injuries and it could be an ok season. Still think we should focus on Europa League tho.

Until the transfer windows closes it’s very hard to guess where anyone will finish.
There’s still a month of the window left, lots can change for lots of teams.

14/04/91 said:

Until the transfer windows closes it’s very hard to guess where anyone will finish.
There’s still a month of the window left, lots can change for lots of teams.

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Precisely this.

All those football pundits will be changing their minds if we end up signing the likes of Bale. (Not that I'm expecting it but the point remains)

Locotoro said:

Precisely this.

All those football pundits will be changing their minds if we end up signing the likes of Bale. (Not that I'm expecting it but the point remains)

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No they won't. As far as they're concerned, Mourinho's done and we're back in our box.

RichieS said:

No they won't. As far as they're concerned, Mourinho's done and we're back in our box.

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They will get a big surprise come the end of the season then. This will be the season we rise from the ashes and start claiming our place at the top table again

I think Ciy and Liverpool are far ahead of everyone again. Proven players and managers.

We sit in the next group and I think have as good a chance of 3rd or 4th as Chelsea, Utd and Arsenal. Will hopefully be an exciting season.

Those who obsess about bookies odds are missing the point. Bookies overround generally means they will win over time anyway but odds do not just reflect the likelihood of it happening but also where they think the money will come at a price. Liverpool and Utd will often be shorter than their true odds because people back them. Like England at World Cups and Euros are always a stupid short price and us mugs still back them.

Anyway I think 4th is definitely up for grabs this year. Our squad is strong, we have a top manager and the pressure is not really there which will help us. Fixture congestion is not ideal but all top 6 will have that through the season if they progress, it is just these extra qualifiers we need to navigate.

As for the pundits. Who gives a toss, but this is the pundits thread lol.

COYS.

Losers

Jose Mourinho and Tottenham on the back foot
There is nothing inherently wrong with setting Tottenham up as Mourinho did on Sunday, sacrificing possession so deliberately in the first hour at home to a supposedly weaker opponent. Lucas Moura, Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son should be an excellent counter-attacking threat, for starters. But the success of the plan relies upon three things:

Pressing – Mourinho complained after the game about the “lazy pressing” of his team, but his teams historically have hardly been renowned for the high intensity press that has become the cause celebre of several exceptional modern coaches. Mourinho also complained about a lack of fitness after a short and complicated pre-season, which begs the question why he thought the pressing plan was the answer in the first place.

Defensive solidity – We expect Mourinho to immediately improve a team’s defending, but that hasn’t really happened so far at Tottenham. They conceded twice or more in 13 of his first 29 matches and, although they improved that record after lockdown, are still far from perfect. They have now kept seven clean sheets in 36 matches under Mourinho.

Toby Alderweireld and Eric Dier are one of the slowest central defensive pairings in the division, which becomes an issue when Matt Doherty pushes high up the pitch as a full-back rather than wing-back (see Richarlison’s one-on-one for details). One thing Spurs were very good at last season was defending from set pieces (no side conceded fewer than their six goals), but if Dier is going to succeed at centre-back he’s going to have to get better at tracking runs in the penalty area. Dominic Calvert-Lewin had it too easy.

Response to adversity – If you let other teams have the ball, they might just score first; it happens. Tottenham were excellent last season in such situations – only Arsenal and Liverpool took more points per game when conceding the first goal. But what was so disappointing about Sunday was how comfortably Everton defended their lead. Spurs unsurprisingly saw more of the ball as Everton dropped a little deeper, but sacrificed possession became sterile possession. Tottenham managed four shots in 39 minutes after going 1-0 down, fewer than Everton.

Mourinho is not stupid. He knows that playing in this way invites more criticism when it goes wrong because supporters – not unreasonably – wonder what might be if they tried to be a little more proactive and front-footed. That explains the myriad post-match deflections tactics: fatigue, referees, Dele Alli, laziness.

The immediate question is whether we can expect a quick improvement, or if this is the new Mourinho norm that will eventually cause his undoing again. Tottenham face a relentless run of early fixtures that takes them to Bulgaria on Thursday and Southampton on Sunday. One of the results of such a schedule is that momentum, for better and worse, becomes key. This was the worst possible way to mark a season that Mourinho identified as the only acceptable time for him to be judged.


e - One more:

Glasses always make people look more intelligent and yet they make Paul Merson look even more gormless. How is this possible?

Interestingly, today on SSN Darren Lewis suggested that had any other big club signed Bale it’d be lauded as a masterstroke and then referenced Ollie Holt’s article today which apparently describes (not verbatim) it as a PR stunt.

BringBack_leGin said:

Interestingly, today on SSN Darren Lewis suggested that had any other big club signed Bale it’d be lauded as a masterstroke and then referenced Ollie Holt’s article today which apparently describes (not verbatim) it as a PR stunt.

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Lewis’s opinion on Holt seems to have changed since the rudiger incident with a lot of spurs fans on twitter pointing towards Holt’s support of Terry when he racially abused Anton Ferdinand. He seems a lot less matey with the scumbag since.

spursfan77 said:

Lewis’s opinion on Holt seems to have changed since the rudiger incident with a lot of spurs fans on twitter pointing towards Holt’s support of Terry when he racially abused Anton Ferdinand. He seems a lot less matey with the scumbag since.

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Holt has raced to the top of my shit list of journos, ahead of even Ashton and Jiggins.

BringBack_leGin said:

Holt has raced to the top of my shit list of journos, ahead of even Ashton and Jiggins.

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He's as good a journalist as his mother is an actress and she's more wooden than Pinocchio.

Harry Kane and Heung-Min Son
An astonishing performance from two forwards who dragged their team on after they had offered next to nothing for the first 44 minutes of the match (and very little last week). If the broad definition of the best players is that they give you the advantage when all else looks lost, Tottenham have two game-changers. Working in tandem on Sunday lunchtime, they produced one of the most extraordinary spells of attacking football in recent Premier League history.

Harry Kane’s brilliance as a finisher has always overshadowed his ability to link play. Kane’s party trick is to drop deep for the ball and – rather than hold it up – to play a first-time pass around the corner for an overlapping teammate to run onto and catch out a flat-footed defensive line. But Kane also has the vision and passing range to mix it up. He can play those passes around a defence that curl away from the goalkeeper and meet a wide midfielder’s feet at pace. We know them best as the De Bruyne ball.

On Sunday, Kane produced a complete creative performance. With Jose Mourinho presumably spotting Southampton’s high defensive line, he instructed Kane to drop in between the lines where central defenders were unable to track him and central midfielders were unable to spot the danger quickly enough to thwart him.

In a barmy 28-minute period he contributed 13% of his career league assists. Each time, Heung-Min Son was the recipient. Son might just be the most underrated finisher in Europe. Tottenham found a cheat code to break Southampton and if we know one thing about Mourinho’s management it’s that he’s more than happy to keep his foot firmly placed on an opponent’s neck.

This creates an opportunity for Tottenham moving forward. Too often under Mourinho they have been stagnant in possession and struggled to break down opponents, but this gives them a majestic Plan B. If you thought Spurs looked dangerous with Kane playing passes in behind to Son, just wait until he has Gareth Bale as a second passing option.

While it doesn’t solve the issue of a lack of pure chance creator to unlock deep defences (as seen against Everton last week), against a high line Kane really could thrive as a creative false nine with two wide forwards who tuck in to create a striking pair.

Ok I know it’s pathetic to mention it but Harry Kane not making Garth Crooks team of the week!? 4 assists and a goal!

offside_ruel_fox said:

Ok I know it’s pathetic to mention it but Harry Kane not making Garth Crooks team of the week!? 4 assists and a goal!

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He's not a very good pundit to be quite honest.

offside_ruel_fox said:

Ok I know it’s pathetic to mention it but Harry Kane not making Garth Crooks team of the week!? 4 assists and a goal!

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probably had the left back slot already filled

offside_ruel_fox said:

Ok I know it’s pathetic to mention it but Harry Kane not making Garth Crooks team of the week!? 4 assists and a goal!

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Someone at Spurs must have pissed in Garth Crooks weetabix at some point in the past.

offside_ruel_fox said:

Ok I know it’s pathetic to mention it but Harry Kane not making Garth Crooks team of the week!? 4 assists and a goal!

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You clearly dont follow Crooks' team every week. It's pretty much always ridiculous. Honestly he's just a fairly ridiculous individual altogether. I don't know how he's still on the BBC week after week. I'm sure he's a nice guy but fuck me is he hopeless as a pundit.