- Jun 13, 2008
- 21,900
- 32,611
Last weeks pathetic performance and result were the cause of our demise tonight. So many fans were completely underestimating what a precarious position we were in. Losing and not getting an away goal left us at the mercy of a moment within the 90 mins, such as a set piece, and that duly occurred. A further moment, a reckless one from Alli, then left us in a deep hole that we couldn't climb out of.
We had a promising start with the early goal, but I though the first half was mainly huff and puff rather than quality. Gent were happy to sit deep and narrow, giving up the wide spaces for us, so it was no surprise we had complete run of the flanks. However bar a Vertonghen run, and a cross each from Walker and Davies, there were precious little really quality moments and actual chances and mostly just kick/rush football and slinging the ball into hopeful areas. Even the goal we scored was a comedy of errors - defenders missing the ball, Eriksen's touch I thought was way too heavy and the goalie should have been out on it, and then almost dived out the way of it.
However to the credit of the 10 men left on the pitch, I thought we came out for the second half and made a decent effort of trying to claw it back. I was tearing my hair out that the Son/Davies swap wasn't made at half time, but that was quickly sorted and we kept plugging away and creating chances. We got one goal back and there was hope, but about the 75th minute around the time of the Dembele sub we just lost the momentum and rhythm and shortly after the killer blow was dealt. The closing minutes were played out with us having a couple of chances mixed with a bit disappointingly losing our rag again as things went against us.
In future we need much more consistency of performance in European matches so we don't end up in desperate situations trying to claw it back from the brink.
Lloris - Very little to do, but the second goal seemed to crawl past him.
Dier - Defensively was ok, but distribution was really poor again. Maybe half at fault, half unlucky for the second killer goal, but then has a meltdown in the closing stages yet again and had to grow up a bit.
Alderweireld - Pretty solid.
Vertonghen - After being critical of him earlier in the season I have to praise him for his adventure with the ball at his feet.... Why did he hide it away for so long? Good game.
Walker - The freedom of the right flank and I think you would hope to get a bit more decisive impact, some half dangerous contributions but that was it.
Davies - Davies. handbrake largely on.
Wanyama - I thought he was a little scattergun with the ball, and I'll be honest I probably would have had him off early in the second half as we chased the game, but popped up with a neat finish.
Dembele - Did what he does. His ball security and retention when down to 10 men helped at times, and he broke up play well at times. I thought subbing him off was the point we lost momentum.
Eriksen - Some lovely touches, but a few wasteful ones too in promising positions. Worked pretty hard tonight.
Alli - A couple of nice touches, some farting about, and then the ticking time bomb finally went off after two seasons...
Kane - Missed one great chance, thought he worked fairly hard tonight though.
Subs:
Son - Good early impact then got a little lost. Barbecued a great chance at the death.
Winks - Ok.
Janssen - n/a.
We had a promising start with the early goal, but I though the first half was mainly huff and puff rather than quality. Gent were happy to sit deep and narrow, giving up the wide spaces for us, so it was no surprise we had complete run of the flanks. However bar a Vertonghen run, and a cross each from Walker and Davies, there were precious little really quality moments and actual chances and mostly just kick/rush football and slinging the ball into hopeful areas. Even the goal we scored was a comedy of errors - defenders missing the ball, Eriksen's touch I thought was way too heavy and the goalie should have been out on it, and then almost dived out the way of it.
However to the credit of the 10 men left on the pitch, I thought we came out for the second half and made a decent effort of trying to claw it back. I was tearing my hair out that the Son/Davies swap wasn't made at half time, but that was quickly sorted and we kept plugging away and creating chances. We got one goal back and there was hope, but about the 75th minute around the time of the Dembele sub we just lost the momentum and rhythm and shortly after the killer blow was dealt. The closing minutes were played out with us having a couple of chances mixed with a bit disappointingly losing our rag again as things went against us.
In future we need much more consistency of performance in European matches so we don't end up in desperate situations trying to claw it back from the brink.
Lloris - Very little to do, but the second goal seemed to crawl past him.
Dier - Defensively was ok, but distribution was really poor again. Maybe half at fault, half unlucky for the second killer goal, but then has a meltdown in the closing stages yet again and had to grow up a bit.
Alderweireld - Pretty solid.
Vertonghen - After being critical of him earlier in the season I have to praise him for his adventure with the ball at his feet.... Why did he hide it away for so long? Good game.
Walker - The freedom of the right flank and I think you would hope to get a bit more decisive impact, some half dangerous contributions but that was it.
Davies - Davies. handbrake largely on.
Wanyama - I thought he was a little scattergun with the ball, and I'll be honest I probably would have had him off early in the second half as we chased the game, but popped up with a neat finish.
Dembele - Did what he does. His ball security and retention when down to 10 men helped at times, and he broke up play well at times. I thought subbing him off was the point we lost momentum.
Eriksen - Some lovely touches, but a few wasteful ones too in promising positions. Worked pretty hard tonight.
Alli - A couple of nice touches, some farting about, and then the ticking time bomb finally went off after two seasons...
Kane - Missed one great chance, thought he worked fairly hard tonight though.
Subs:
Son - Good early impact then got a little lost. Barbecued a great chance at the death.
Winks - Ok.
Janssen - n/a.