Match Threads Brighton vs Spurs

[Trix]

Is the pressing sustainable for 97 minutes though?

It's certainly more sustainable than just 45 minutes which is all we mustered today.

Look, after the last couple of league games I'm putting this down to a very poor day at the office for everyone involved. Hopefully we get a grip of it and learn valuable lessons very quickly, but I'll be damned if I'm letting Ange off the hook any more than the players when he stood by and watched it happen, just because he's put all the blame on them. When things aren't working it's his job to put them right, not tell us it was a lost cause, and he'd accepted it. They all have something to learn from today, ALL of them.

 

[YB123]

Wouldn't mind to finish outside Europe next season.

7 games into the season and our pressing style had us knackered after 45 minutes. To many games for a to weak squad, we're always just an injury away having to play Werner ffs.

With no Europe maybe we actually can do something.

Who seriously cares about the league right now? I dont get the mentality above.

We are nowhere near winning a league and we dont kick on after top 4 finishes.

We should be going all out for cups and being in as many competitions as possible.

 

[Fidget]

It's certainly more sustainable than just 45 minutes which is all we mustered today.

Look, after the last couple of league games I'm putting this down to a very poor day at the office for everyone involved. Hopefully we get a grip of it and learn valuable lessons very quickly, but I'll be damned if I'm letting Ange off the hook any more than the players when he stood by and watched it happen, just because he's put all the blame on them. When things aren't working it's his job to put them right, not tell us it was a lost cause, and he'd accepted it. They all have something to learn from today, ALL of them.

Think he was genuinely shocked himself and maybe he could have put Mikey on earlier to give them something different to think about.
Let’s hope a break can work positively. We can’t just be second to the ball and stop fighting because we’re on the rails and I agree all of them have gotta take some blame but it’s an end to a good run and that’s all. Not sure he can do much if everyone theows in the towel. I’m just really disappointed and I think everyone else is the same.

 

[rossdapep]

It's not though is it. The press vanished, our midfield went AWOL, our forwards ran out of steam. I wish it was just defensive errors but it's more than that.

in Ange's defence, he only had Moore and Lankshear to change the attack and I'm not sure a game like today is an ideal time to throw them 2 on to take the sting out of the opposition or give them something to think about.

I said before but I'd have been tempted to get Bissouma and Sarr on and take Werner and Maddison (as they disappeared), move Deki wide and just beef up the middle.

But then again, had it gone wrong or had no effect, Amge would have no dice left to throw apart from chuck Moore on which would have been a hail Mary.

Brighton are a very energetic team and they have loads of options.

That's twice we've turned up there with very little in the way of options of the bench or on the pitch.

Not making excuses for Ange cause he got stuff wrong today but he does need options in the bench to actually change things. We could only really change things defensively today.

 

[Johnny J]

in Ange's defence, he only had Moore and Lankshear to change the attack and I'm not sure a game like today is an ideal time to throw them 2 on to take the sting out of the opposition or give them something to think about.

I said before but I'd have been tempted to get Bissouma and Sarr on and take Werner and Maddison (as they disappeared), move Deki wide and just beef up the middle.

But then again, had it gone wrong or had no effect, Amge would have no dice left to throw apart from chuck Moore on which would have been a hail Mary.

Brighton are a very energetic team and they have loads of options.

That's twice we've turned up there with very little in the way of options of the bench or on the pitch.

Not making excuses for Ange cause he got stuff wrong today but he does need options in the bench to actually change things. We could only really change things defensively today.

Which all makes sense. But then why did he wait until we'd shipped three goals before strengthening the midfield? That's the change to make when you've conceded one, two at the most. He should be intervened sooner. Instead he - and the players, of course - just let the game go.

 

[Mr Pink]

If we had have done what many people think we should have done, i.e. sit back a bit, manage the game etc like every other manager would probably do, we might have won. But what Ange is saying, is that when we are consistently pressing with intensity (which is within our control), we'll still stop the oppostition. It's not about sitting back, managing the game etc. We need to keep the intensity and pressure, that second half we lacked energy, that's why Brighton suddenly had space, if we had maintained the energy, they would have been wide open.

But youre not going to keep that level of intensity up for 90 minutes pressing high up the pitch, and if thats the plan then subs coming on at the right time would be absolutely critical.

Left the subs way too late.

 

[Johnny J]

But youre not going to keep that level of intensity up for 90 minutes pressing high up the pitch, and if thats the plan then subs coming on at the right time would be absolutely critical.

Left the subs way too late.

Right. And look at Arsenal last season. They would always come flying out of the blocks, get a couple of goals, then control the game when initial blitz was over. When they didn't score early, they were sometimes more susceptible, because they used a lot of energy at the start.

 

[VancouverSpur]

We are so desperate for a feared destroyer or a pacey disrupter in midfield. I hate to say a Roy Keane but either that or if we had a prime N’golo Kante as it would fit so well with our high press.

Being there today so close to the implosion in the second half. It was crystal clear to me that we needed someone to take a moment and just look every one of our side in the eye and say “ dont you dare let this slip away” and be feared enough to scare then straight

Instead we just imploded and looked so so naive it was painful.

 

[worcestersauce]

If we were tired from Thursday, reacting in game mode you take off a forward player and bring on another midfielder to gain control of the ball again after they score the first one, but Ange did bugger all.

Also, why did we move Kulusevski to left wing for the last 10-15 minutes!? Ludicrous!

He didn't, he brought Mikey Moore on.

 

[Reece_Spurs]

It's definitely a mixture of the players and Ange.

The players came out in that second half far too complacent and just expecting to run about a bit and see out the second half. Momentum is such a huge factor in football and as soon as they got that early first goal the team needed to switch on. They didn't and everyone started to go into their shells.

Ange should have made changes when the heads started dropping, but I do kinda understand wanting the players that got themselves into the shit, to get themselves out of it, it's a mentality issue more than anything. These players are absolutely on it when we are doing well, when put under pressure they're prone to crumbling.

It's such a shame aswell because it feels like a few weeks of positivity and genuine progress has been lost in 45 minutes of football, and yet again when going into a shitty international break on a loss.

 

[DCSPUR64]

We are so desperate for a feared destroyer or a pacey disrupter in midfield. I hate to say a Roy Keane but either that or if we had a prime N’golo Kante as it would fit so well with our high press.

Being there today so close to the implosion in the second half. It was crystal clear to me that we needed someone to take a moment and just look every one of our side in the eye and say “ dont you dare let this slip away” and be feared enough to scare then straight

Instead we just imploded and looked so so naive it was painful.

I was screaming from Bissouma on around 54 minutes!

 

[rossdapep]

Which all makes sense. But then why did he wait until we'd shipped three goals before strengthening the midfield? That's the change to make when you've conceded one, two at the most. He should be intervened sooner. Instead he - and the players, of course - just let the game go.

I agree. I would like to have seen that and was crying for it.

But I do wonder if was reluctant to sacrifice some attacking poise knowing that it'd have been hard to go back.

Only Ange will know.

But yes, I wanted him to get Sarr or Bissouma or both on to add some bodies so we weren't as easy to play through

 

[Reece_Spurs]

He didn't, he brought Mikey Moore on.

Kulu went to the left after the first 2 subs when he brought on Sarr and Biss, when Moore came on for Maddison, Kulu went into Maddisons position and Moore out left. He played on the left for about 6 minutes.

 

[Mate]

The irony is that last season our problem was always going behind and having to come back. Now we've become the opposite!

 

[Joely]

We are so desperate for a feared destroyer or a pacey disrupter in midfield. I hate to say a Roy Keane but either that or if we had a prime N’golo Kante as it would fit so well with our high press.

Being there today so close to the implosion in the second half. It was crystal clear to me that we needed someone to take a moment and just look every one of our side in the eye and say “ dont you dare let this slip away” and be feared enough to scare then straight

Instead we just imploded and looked so so naive it was painful.

Interesting point about the midfield. When Deki, Maddison and Bentancur started against Arsenal, general consensus seemed to be that it was very attacking and we could lose the battle in there but too be fair even though we didn't play particularly well and lost that game, the midfield itself wasn't completely overrun. It's done well in the games after but still a question mark over its makeup especially away from home imo.

Midfield were OK in the first half but Brighton were always going to come out hard in the second half and straight from the off the alarm bells were ringing and did think Ange would react and maybe bring on Bissouma to stick in there to add a more naturally defensive player.

Understand a manager may want to give it some time before making a change but we looked a complete mess with not one iota of control in that period and it felt like a matter of time before the inevitable was going to happen and just think in those kind of situations your hand is almost forced.

 

[Mate]

When was the last time we lost from 2 ahead?

Genuine question

Jan '23. 2-0 up against City at the Etihad at HT. Lost 4-2.

 

[UbeAstard]

Who seriously cares about the league right now? I dont get the mentality above.

We are nowhere near winning a league and we dont kick on after top 4 finishes.

We should be going all out for cups and being in as many competitions as possible.

In my opinion we're unlikely to be winning cups either if 'This is the way we play' and there is no game management.

 

[SpursSince1980]

Perspective is badly needed here. We throttled them first half.

I don’t think they get anything out of the game if VdV and Destiny don’t swing and miss at a cross. That was a pure luck goal. We then got rattled. If there was a change needed, it should have been Udogie and Werner. As it was clear they targeted that area of the field as our soft spot.

The second goal was about more lazy defending and panicking. The third was again Udogie brain farting and Bentancur switching off along with Romero.

Ange can’t throw players on to wrestle back control based on the bench we had. However, he should be thinking long and hard about Udogie, and having players like Spence and Archie pushing him, as he has had some rough patches this season.

Was a weird game TBH. But as I have already said many times. I’m totally expecting an entire season of this. Some days we will be unplayable. Other days we will be brittle. The latter is a change of mindset and growth in terms of character.

I have faith. But that doesn’t mean days like this dont feel like a kick in the knackers.

 

[Mate]

And I forgot to add - not one of their goals was a good goal. Udogie had the worst 20 minutes of his career. Panicked clearance attempt on the first. Didn't get across and put a decent tackle in for the second. The third he gave away an easy throw in. Then didn't stand his man up when it was thrown to him. Compounded by Bentacour being a pussy bynot sticking a tackle allowing the cross.

We have far too many Mr Nice Guys. Who in the squad is the general. The one that rants at poor efforts, raises a fist with a come on shout telling others to switch the fuck on. Demanding greater effort...... We need a nasty fucker. A Roy Keane type.

Rant over

Vicario. Not sure it has much effect though...

 

[VoteMe4Prez]

I just don't know why I bother sometimes. I am still at a loss at how we get so jittery at 2-1 and completely lose our heads for the next 20 minutes. Clearly need another forward and some experience protecting the defence.