Match Threads Fulham vs Spurs

Bluto Blutarsky said:

There are a lot of over-reactions going on in here.

We lost a game, by conceding an OG, and losing on Pens. We did not get outclassed. the world is not coming to an end. We are not getting relegated. We lost a game.

And yes, it knocked us out of the Cup. But, if we are honest, we were always going to be long-shots to win the Cup.

Lets see how the squad respond on Saturday, before we start declaring strikes against the manager, and that our good start to the season is ruined.


There are still a lot of things to be optimistic about this squad, and this season. Lets not let a road bump ruin the trip.

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I think there are a lot of things to be optimistic about our starting 11. The squad on the other hand is pretty weak when you get past 13 players.

Colonel_Klinck said:

I think there are a lot of things to be optimistic about our starting 11. The squad on the other hand is pretty weak when you get past 13 players.

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Yes and no.

I think if you rotated just 1 player in - the following would still play well:

Royal, Sanchez, Davies, Hojbjerg, Perisic

I'd consider Solomon if he played on the left.

Skipp and Lo Celso - I think they were both needing a bigger performance today - and when Bentancur comes back, they will find minutes tough to come by.

But, when you play them all together - I agree - it wasn't good enough - not enough leadership (or goals) in the team.

muppetman said:

Yeah, cause putting that team out in a league game would be totally agreeable.

Basically, anything other than winning upsets a lot of people.

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That's just it. I'm saying you shouldn't make 9 changes in ANY game. The level of rotation is absurd and unnecessary.

Romulus said:

I wonder how many of those games featured Sanchez and Davies? I know its a lot

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Most of these games we lost because our attack was awful.

I think this was a useful reminder. To all of us fans, to the players in the squad and (hopefully) to Levy and his minions in the boardroom:

• We are NOT as good as the league table claim we are; we are not one of the best 3 teams in the land(*).
• Our squad has plenty of holes, and we are still far from finished with rebuilding (however painful).
• Postecoglou was right all the time: it will take time to get all the players performing and play the way he wants them to. And to add to that: to have a squad that consist of players able to play this football to the required standards.

A few thoughts and observations:

• Son of 21/22 (and earlier) seems more and more like a distant memory. This summer’s surgery hasn’t helped one bit. Yet. He’s still the same as last season; indecisive, lacking in self confidence and belief; has lost a yard or a step or two (or several yards tbh) and is unable to outrun most (or any) of his opponents over any distance short or long; and he’s seemingly totally unable to pass any defender in 1-v-1 situation.

• Højbjerg & Skipp is the least dynamic and progressive pairing we have to play in the middle of the park.

• Were 4 of 5 of Fulham’s penalties more or less exactly the same? Forster moving to his right - and too early (selling his movement) - giving the Fulham players the easy option to calmly roll the ball slightly to the left off his centre.

• Lo Celso is not a 10. At least not a creative 10 that can dominate the play.

• We are going to be extremely dependent on Biss and Madders this season; without them, we are a middle of the table team. At best.

• Dane Scarlett is surprisingly slow. Average top speed, and no acceleration to speak of at alll.

• We are desperate for speed in the front line. Not necessarily top speed over longer distances, but acceleration, explosiveness and real burst of speed from a close to stand still. Right now we have no one. I’d claim that Maddisson is our “quickest” player because of his quick football mind, his even quicker feet and technique; he’s atm our only playrr able to bring unbalance to the opponents in the final 20-30 yards.

(*) … and neither is Wet Spam, btw.

mark87 said:

I have no idea how we played tonight, was it yet again another case of our squad players not being good enough?

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Think 1995.
With a grape coloured kit.
The horror.

So sorry for those fans again.

Shat on from a great height.

Bluto Blutarsky said:

There are a lot of over-reactions going on in here.

We lost a game, by conceding an OG, and losing on Pens. We did not get outclassed. the world is not coming to an end. We are not getting relegated. We lost a game.

And yes, it knocked us out of the Cup. But, if we are honest, we were always going to be long-shots to win the Cup.

Lets see how the squad respond on Saturday, before we start declaring strikes against the manager, and that our good start to the season is ruined.


There are still a lot of things to be optimistic about this squad, and this season. Lets not let a road bump ruin the trip.

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Spot on. We had a hiccup but it was an away draw to a PL side - who drew at the Emirates at the weekend - that we ultimately lost to on penalties.

Bluto Blutarsky said:

There are a lot of over-reactions going on in here.

We lost a game, by conceding an OG, and losing on Pens. We did not get outclassed. the world is not coming to an end. We are not getting relegated. We lost a game.

And yes, it knocked us out of the Cup. But, if we are honest, we were always going to be long-shots to win the Cup.

Lets see how the squad respond on Saturday, before we start declaring strikes against the manager, and that our good start to the season is ruined.


There are still a lot of things to be optimistic about this squad, and this season. Lets not let a road bump ruin the trip.

Click to expand...

Agree with everything here other than the first line.

I think I speak for most when I say that we're not freaking out because of the performance in the game.
The issue is that we have put out our B squad in the cup for the umpteenth time in the last 10 years. The only cup we have prioritised in the last decade is the Champions League, and we have borderline given up on competing for any other cup in favour of trying to get into the Champions League. It's been posted already but I'm going to post it again.

Basel
Gent
Colchester
Norwich
Leipzig
Zagreb
Sheffield
Middlesbrough
Everton
Palace
Forest
Fulham

thehipster said:

I know it’ll hurt.
But Ange will have learnt a lot tonight.
About himself. About his squad. About what he can and can’t do.
You always learn so much more in defeat.
It maybe hard to see it now….but I reckon Ange will learn a truckload about being a manager at Spurs tonight.
It will benefit us in the long run. But it hurts tonight.

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Well fucking hell some of this squad must have a sodding Master's Degree in losing by now.

18 years since we’ve gone out in round 2 and I make it only the 3rd time since 1979.

I would honestly have been a thousand times less upset if we had just played our first 11 and got played off the park and lost.

Because at least then I would see that for the first time in years that we've decided to take the cups seriously and not just as an opportunity to "Look at our players".

PLEASE PRIORITISE THE CUPS

Bluto Blutarsky said:

There are a lot of over-reactions going on in here.

We lost a game, by conceding an OG, and losing on Pens. We did not get outclassed. the world is not coming to an end. We are not getting relegated. We lost a game.

And yes, it knocked us out of the Cup. But, if we are honest, we were always going to be long-shots to win the Cup.

Lets see how the squad respond on Saturday, before we start declaring strikes against the manager, and that our good start to the season is ruined.


There are still a lot of things to be optimistic about this squad, and this season. Lets not let a road bump ruin the trip.

Click to expand...

Not forgetting we were away to a prem team in a London derby! The changes're obviously why we lost. Large swaithes of that team tonight were the same players that have been letting us down year on year. They are not good enough to be back ups let alone first eleven.

Hotspur88 said:

Terrible team selection, it was an atrocious performance.

Fulham hit 4 of their penalties in exactly the same place and Forster just fell over.

And I'm not just saying it now, but Sanchez was never scoring that penalty, I said it as soon as I saw him walk up.

Big week ahead, criminal we aren't bringing a CF in but need to clear some of the shite and see what happens.

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Someone had the tape on Forster. He went early on all the delayed run ups for a tap in.

When I saw Sanchez walking up I just said “oh no dav…”.

Tough watch.

if there was one competition i wouldn't mind bowing out early, it was always gonna be this one. usually, we are still in Europe so it really doesn't hurt.

it happens I guess, a tad disappointed as this competition is where we can try to bed in some of the younger players.

brings us all back down to earth for a bit.

Reece_Spurs said:

But it isn't "humiliating" ffs.

We draw 1-1 with mostly a second team and lost on penalties.. TO A PREMIER LEAGUE TEAM.

We didn't lose 2 or 3-0 to fucking Barnet.

It's disappointing but words like "livid" and "humiliated" just makes you sound like a bloody wet wipe.

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Have no idea why my feelings to this loss have to be according to your standard. Laughable. I had respected your feeling by saying you do you no problem, you may not agree to how I feel but telling me how to do it with such disrespect from your last sentence is not needed. Disgusting.

Got home, saw the line up and knew we were out.
Another cup competition, another exit!!!
Why? Because when it comes to cup competitions every manager we’ve had for the last 19-15 years has shit for brains and Postecoglou is no different than Conte or Poch or whoever.

Everyone, including Postecoglou, agrees it’s about time we won a trophy. Given that on what planet does it seem a good idea to rip a successful lineup to shreds by making NINE changes when you’ve been drawn away at one of better PL teams in this early round!!!!

Only 4 of that starting 11 have started a game this season and 2 of those only for 1 game. Of the rest Sanchez played approximately 80 minutes in the 1st game. The others had 15 - 20 minutes here and there. What on earth made Postecoglou think they would gel especially when he’d taken out what has been our strongest element ,our engine room, the midfield trio of press resistant Bissouma, creative force Maddison and non stop running Sarr. Sheer stupidity

I’ll say this until I’m blue in the face, your most important game is your next game, regardless of what competition it is in. So you play your best team in order to have the best chance of winning it. You don’t give squad players a “run out” in the cup games. You rotate your squad by making 2 or 3 changes every game so everybody in the squad gets both game time and rest and everybody is comfortable playing along side different players in the squad. What you don’t do is play the same 11 game after game in the league and then throw the bench players on for a cup game and expect them to be up for it.

I was thought I was as pissed as I could possibly be after the Sheffield Utd fiasco but this has me fuming a hundred times more. If I was the Tottenham owner I would be tearing a strip off Postecoglou in the morning and warning him if he ever pulled that trick again he’d be out the door the next day. It’s totally unacceptable for a Tottenham manger to treat cup competitions in such a cavalier manner.

As for the game and the players? VDV is the only one who can hold his head up so it’s doubly unfair that he scored a O.g. for Fulham. Of the rest Nobody enhanced their chances although hopefully Richarlison’s goal will help his confidence. Sanchez and Emerson’s passing was dreadful. Why was Sanchez taking a penalty?Didnt anyone else fancy it??!! I felt sorry for him - was the cherry on top of a bad night for him. Hojbjerg shooting was embarrassing and he was insignificant in Bissouma’s role. Lo Celso had no impact creatively but not sure why he was the scapegoat at HT - not sure also what the reasoning for bringing on Scarlett for him was because he made no impact on the game. Forster was very uncomfortable playing out from the back especially with a press on. Perisic was disappointing except for the cross for the goal. Solomon isn’t as effective on the right and as Kulu wasn’t much better when he came on it highlights the need for an effective right winger.
Davies was Davies and Skipp ran around a lot to not much effect. The substitutions didn’t do that much but they came too late. There should have been wholesale changes at HT.

To make a bad night worse we were playing in our 1st strip that had been soaked in diarrhea.

The only highlight of the night was the away support who as always were superb. It sounded like we were at home. As an old time away season ticket holder I know how good our away support is and I was proud of them tonight, as I always am. They were badly let down by both Postecoglou and the team.

EQP said:

I get the frustration with the heavily rotated team but how else is Ange supposed to understand which players he can count on, if he doesn't give said players the opportunity in a competitive fixture? He needed an opportunity to see how the other players go about implementing his style of play and this performance will tell him all he needs to know. Not a great result but I look forward to seeing the improvements we make moving forward.

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I hate this attitude. You see how “other “ players perform by giving them starts in the premier league games along side the regulars not in a team of “others” who haven’t played a competitive game together in ages. You rotate players in and out of the starting 11.

DenverSpur said:

I hate this attitude. You see how “other “ players perform by giving the starts in the premier league games along side the regulars not in a team of “others” who haven’t played a competitive game together in ages. You rotate players in and out of the starting 11.

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I wonder, does this apply to Ange? He literally said what I posted verbatim.



If we'd won, there would be zero complaining about the rotation. In fact, many would be praising how well the other players have been able to implement Ange's style of football .

If people aren't ready to accept that this system will take time to implement , that there will be bumps on the road and that there will be times where it seems that Ange has got it wrong, then you're better off tuning out right now and saving yourselves the stress.

amathews3416 said:

A lot of overreaction here. Brand new manager who had a shortened preseason of fixtures and large squad that he is still familiarizing himself and putting trust with. He needs to see some of these players in pressure situations of games that matter and would rather he do wholesale changes here as opposed to not playing our best 11 in the league.

Some of this is just luck of the draw as we had the hardest fixture getting a PL team away in our opening round. Most managers would have the luxury of more preseason games and a couple of weak opponents in this Cup to get a better grasp on their team.

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Sorry mate but that’s a complete load of bollocks. We had the hardest fixture so it makes sense to make 9 changes to a winning lineup just so he can have a look at the other players!! Give me a break . It’s not a practice game, for f**k sake. It’s a competition we should be making a SERIOUS attempt to win. It’s not like our trophy cabinet has been overflowing lately.

worcestersauce said:

This was not about prioritising the Premier league this was about changes to try out the players and see how they work out and for the coach to learn about his players.
I imagine he had it in mind all the time it's just a shame we got Premier league opposition to make it harder.

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I can’t believe the number of you who are making excuses for Postecoglou. He’s in a job to win trophies. You don’t experiment when you’ve drawn a PL team away. A League 1 or 2 team at hone maybe but to do it against a good PL team away from home is criminal negligence.