Match Threads Burnley vs Spurs - Match Thread - Round 6

[Mr Pink]

The sort of ugly 1 nil win Fergie would grind out away from home 3/4 times a season.

Invaluable.

 

[RichieS]

Great win .
We either fell in to how Burnley wanted the game to go ( and still won),
dropped to Burnleys level ( still won)
or deliberately went toe to toe in a slug fest on purpose ( still won) .
The back 4 and midfield was picked for that battle with height and strength and saw it over the line .
Not many free kicks in that last 3rd of the pitch conceded that cost us Newcastle and west ham points.
Well done Jose and the team !.

Maybe all part of José's master plan - if you can choose to go toe-to-toe with Burnley at Turf Moor for a slug-fest and win (having not been troubled for the vast majority of the game), it bodes well for future physical battles/big games.

 

[Shadydan]

The sort of ugly 1 nil win Fergie would grind out away from home 3/4 times a season.

Invaluable.

Dare I say the sort of game Champions are made of

 

[bigfrooj]

I really enjoyed that game which might seem a bit perverse but we did exactly what we needed to do and walked away with three points. The same three points as spanking Manchester United at Old Trafford gets you, as Jose says.

 

[vuzp]

a few things from last nights game that got me, 1. Toby injury shows how dangerous defending can be inside the box now, when a forward to jump in with elbows flying but defenders need to keep arms down by there side as not to give away a penalty (i know it wasn't in the box).
2. Kane header of the line, the Burnley player was all over Dier ( i think it was ) arms on his shoulder lifting him up.
maybe Dier not strong enough but also more worried about were his arms are.
but 3 points at the end of the day so very happy.

 

[floydiohead]

Why didn't we deserve to win that?

We had 68% possession
We had 3 shots on target to Burnley's 4 plus another 4 blocked shots from inside the box.
We made close to double the passes Burnley made in the match.
We kept pushing throughout the match, fashioned a chance late in the game and took our chance.

I don't see that as lucky. I see it as persistent. You make your own luck.

I keep reading that we didn't play well and got lucky. I must have watched a completely different match. I thought we played very, very well. Nicely organised, kept the focus switched on for most of the match, kept Burnley at bay, forced them into rash shots and otherwise didn't give them much of anything. Kept working at it and scored one crucial goal in a nice player combo. The subs were good too. Especially Lamela, who must be positioning himself for a starting slot.

I'm with these two. I do wonder whether (and this isn't aimed at anybody in particular) whenever we come across a team who we perceive to be inferior to us, if we don't batter them or score lots of goals, there is a tendency to assume that we haven't played well. My take on the game is that Burnley were terrific for large parts of the game in completely stifling us and our way of playing the game. Yes, it might be 'anti-football' but they were super strong all over the pitch, they choked up the midfield, and more than once looked a real threat going forward. Turning to us, I saw a team that was frustrated by Burnley, but remained patient, adjusted our game, and persevered whilst (for the most part) defending resolutely to the very end. I think it's all too easy to say 'well, team X are rubbish, and given that we didn't play our usual game, we must have been terrible'. In a sense I find that a bit arrogant and it does a disservice to the other team who were effective in stopping us from playing.

 

[RichieS]

I'm with these two. I do wonder whether (and this isn't aimed at anybody in particular) whenever we come across a team who we perceive to be inferior to us, if we don't batter them or score lots of goals, there is a tendency to assume that we haven't played well. My take on the game is that Burnley were terrific for large parts of the game in completely stifling us and our way of playing the game. Yes, it might be 'anti-football' but they were super strong all over the pitch, they choked up the midfield, and more than once looked a real threat going forward. Turning to us, I saw a team that was frustrated by Burnley, but remained patient, adjusted our game, and persevered whilst (for the most part) defending resolutely to the very end. I think it's all too easy to say 'well, team X are rubbish, and given that we didn't play our usual game, we must have been terrible'.

Having watched the (admittedly short and produced by Spurs) highlights, there is no way we were fortunate to win that. I'm more than happy for us to be "allowing" potshots such as Burnley had a few of and the one real chance they created, we (Kane) defended very well. Compared to Son being put through, Lamela's cross just skipping away from Davies and our own very well worked set piece chance (goal), they had nothing despite all their defensive resolve.

 

[Yiddo1982]

Ben Davies was absolutely dreadful last night. Turned back every time, didn't make a decent cross, and gifted them several counter attacks.

 

[Locotoro]

I'm with these two. I do wonder whether (and this isn't aimed at anybody in particular) whenever we come across a team who we perceive to be inferior to us, if we don't batter them or score lots of goals, there is a tendency to assume that we haven't played well. My take on the game is that Burnley were terrific for large parts of the game in completely stifling us and our way of playing the game. Yes, it might be 'anti-football' but they were super strong all over the pitch, they choked up the midfield, and more than once looked a real threat going forward. Turning to us, I saw a team that was frustrated by Burnley, but remained patient, adjusted our game, and persevered whilst (for the most part) defending resolutely to the very end. I think it's all too easy to say 'well, team X are rubbish, and given that we didn't play our usual game, we must have been terrible'. In a sense I find that a bit arrogant and it does a disservice to the other team who were effective in stopping us from playing.

I think to some extent its confirmation bias for some folks.

Those people that think you can only win by playing the possession game. Those are the people that have had it in for JM from Day 1 - "the football is turgid, it's boring, we're parking the bus, I don't like the style of his teams, etc etc". We've seen that our team doesn't need to hold the ball for 90 mins to play attractive or attacking football but those people see this as defensive or giving up possession.

So finally when we play Burnley and finish with more possession and passes than we have in 3 years and at the same time create so few chances it would seem contrary to their "philosophy" that a team having 68% possession and double the passes of the opposition could be kept at bay so long and not score 8 goals in the first half. Rather than criticising the tactical approach of the manager, they'll say instead that the players played badly or we were lucky because of course, it is impossible that Burnley played defensively really well against a possession holding team. To those people, it must be the fault of the players

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Ben Davies was absolutely dreadful last night. Turned back every time, didn't make a decent cross, and gifted them several counter attacks.

Ben Davies gifted counter attacks.
I’ve finally read it all about our fullbacks

 

[Locotoro]

Ben Davies was absolutely dreadful last night. Turned back every time, didn't make a decent cross, and gifted them several counter attacks.

He actually made 5 crosses (more than any other player) and intercepted/recovered the ball 7 times during the game. He gave the ball away once late in the game but recovered the ball before Burnley got off a shot

Davies and Doherty were both played due to their aerial and physical ability compared to Reguilon and Aurier against a physically imposing Burnley front line. Sometimes you have to consider what the particular player's role. For someone who played LCB in midweek he did well to perform under the conditions he did.

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

I'm more than happy for us to be "allowing" potshots such as Burnley had a few of and the one real chance they created, we (Kane) defended very well.

Yes! The shots they had were a result of good, not bad defending on our end. We did very very well hardly allowing them inside the box.

 

[Blackrat1299]

Ben Davies was absolutely dreadful last night. Turned back every time, didn't make a decent cross, and gifted them several counter attacks.

When they made his gearbox, they forgot the forward gears!

 

[shelfboy68]

Even though we didn't play our scintillating quick football, I was actually Impressed how we dug that result out.
Even if we don't win the league this year that type of performance is normally reserved for champions, who find a way to win even if they are not playing at their best or the opposition don't allow them.

 

[Beni]

People need to know what luck is as a meaning.
It was an even game, where we orchestrated a well taken goal and Burnley didn't.
Our Goal was not because of some mad deflection, own goal, dodgy decision, or anything else which we benefited from which resulted us to be fortuitous.
We did not get lucky, with a clean sheet where Lloris had a worldy and saved shot after shot on target that 9 times out of 10 keepers don't save. Or we benefited from Burnley wrongfully not getting a goalscoring decision.

Last night was no smash and grab, where one team dominated in all areas and the other scored against the run of play, it wasn't. If Spurs lost last night, we would not have said Burnley were lucky. it was a game of small margins, which the result reflects. We were not battered, we defended well, Burnley defended well, we scored our chance and Burnley didn't with theres because of good defending and not luck.

 

[Mattspurs1982]

We do seem to be building some kind of Jose affect. Even at the end of last season we weren’t playing amazingly well but were shit housing wins. I like it..

 

[Mattspurs1982]

He actually made 5 crosses (more than any other player) and intercepted/recovered the ball 7 times during the game. He gave the ball away once late in the game but recovered the ball before Burnley got off a shot

Davies and Doherty were both played due to their aerial and physical ability compared to Reguilon and Aurier against a physically imposing Burnley front line. Sometimes you have to consider what the particular player's role. For someone who played LCB in midweek he did well to perform under the conditions he did.

While I do agree, I don’t remember any of his crosses finding a white shirt (most were dreadful) and he was lucky to an extend that when he gave the ball away at the end that it wasn’t against superior opposition - but he did what was expected of him as selected, tough, physical, broke up attacks and was generally more solid than perhaps Reggie would have been

 

[brasil_spur]

I'm with these two. I do wonder whether (and this isn't aimed at anybody in particular) whenever we come across a team who we perceive to be inferior to us, if we don't batter them or score lots of goals, there is a tendency to assume that we haven't played well. My take on the game is that Burnley were terrific for large parts of the game in completely stifling us and our way of playing the game. Yes, it might be 'anti-football' but they were super strong all over the pitch, they choked up the midfield, and more than once looked a real threat going forward. Turning to us, I saw a team that was frustrated by Burnley, but remained patient, adjusted our game, and persevered whilst (for the most part) defending resolutely to the very end. I think it's all too easy to say 'well, team X are rubbish, and given that we didn't play our usual game, we must have been terrible'. In a sense I find that a bit arrogant and it does a disservice to the other team who were effective in stopping us from playing.

Agree with this, although with a LB that could effectively cross a ball we could have been a much bigger threat going forwards than we were. I'm a fan of Davies, but in a wing back role where he's required to put in crosses he's close to useless.

 

[fletch82]

I think with ben davies its that people notice (maybe just me ) that when he has the opportunity to push on down the left and space he seems to 9 times out of 10 cut back inside and then play it backwards killing the attack.
Stats probably say otherwise but the eyes don't and that makes for fan frustration so any of the good he does gets a bit overlooked.

 

[danielneeds]

I don’t agree.

Liverpool in a number of games last season had relatively poor games but found a way to win. Utd used to do it regularly under Fergie.

Every team that wins the league has their “slog” games, games where they’ve played below their best level but still find a way to win. We will not play scintillating Football in every game, we will not play at our best in every game, we will not score hatfuls of goals every game. No one does.

To challenge, we need to do what we’ve done today on a more regular basis, win ugly, fund a way to get 3 points even when we’re second best.

We won’t be second best very often this season, but on the occasions we are, we have to show the same resilience.

There's a big difference between last season's Liverpool or peak United playing badly and grinding out a 1-0, most of the games like that they'll still create a handful of big chances. Either theire strikers aren't firing or the keepers having a blinder. Like I said, good result, but we need to create more to win those kind of tough, niggly games consistently.