Match Threads Spurs vs Liverpool - Match Thread - Champions League Final

[Snarfalicious]

I honestly don’t think I can ever watch this match again. I was a complete wreck the day of, and was so superstitious like a fool and didn’t really enjoy the buildup, at all. Just a pretty negative memory at this point, which is the worst thing of all.

 

[bubble07]

I hate to say it, but it was the ultimate bottle job. Liverpool even changed their game to accommodate us, were poor as a consequence and we failed to take advantage. The penalty might have been harsh but there was so much time left for us to take the game. Instead we just stared dumbly at our testicles like a person who’d gone into hospital to have their appendix out and woke to find they’d accidentally had a sex change.

And I said it before and immediately after the game- not starting Moura was the biggest mistake of Poch’s career so far. He has the game of a lifetime in the semifinal, the sort of performance that creates its own mystique and he got dropped. Football is massively psychological, and the Liverpool defence would not have wanted to play against a tricky, pacey Brazilian who’d recently entered Champions League folklore for the best kind of reasons

There will always be the debate with moura but kane had to start. Then it's a case of do you drop Dele who played in every game and every round?

 

[DCSPUR64]

In my opinion that was the beginning of the end of Poch career at Spurs. He completely threw his philosophy into the trash. The most annoying part was Lucas giving interviews how Poch never mentioned why he choose to do that nor an apology.

Pochettino paid for his inexperience and betraying his own philosophy.

Another point that I am not entirely sure but I think we went to Madrid far too late. Or at lest we should have done more training sessions in warmer countries / cities. I am not a coach or have knowledge about it but maybe we would be more suited to the warmer weather ???

Pretty sure Liverpool did his training sessions in Portugal ? I remember Klopp said something like playing against a portuguese which had similar playstyle as Spurs.

They (liverpool) were actually in Malaga a week before the final, my sister lives up the road in Estepona.

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

I’m still not over poch putting dier on in like the 80th min when we were 1-0 down lol!! Look I know people love that pic of the whole team before the game but we are the only team to ever do that! ok Liverpool done it last year too but that’s because we asked for it not them ! To me that’s us beat straight away that’s not the mentality .... that’s a oh we are happy to be here mentality! Which brings me back to dier no doubt he put him on because of the service he gave poch over the last 5 years it was a sentimental sub when we didn’t need it at all we needed a goal ! Poch got that whole final wrong from start to finish!

 

[Deleted member 22380]

1st half was a disaster. From the penalty and then Liverpool sitting back, and us doing nothing with possession it was truely terrible football.

2nd half we were much better and took it to them. Allison bailed them out for a few shots we had on target. We were well into the game searching for an equaliser until the Origi goal took the air out of the game.

My overall thoughts are Poch got his tactics wrong. Both Lucas and Kane should of started and Eriksen should of played further back in central midfield, like he did for the Ajax game in the 2nd half. Winks should not have started.

Its a champions league final and we should of been brave and attacking from the outset. At very least, Lucas should of been on at half time.

 

[Shadydan]

When that Origi goal went in it was an absolute killer - we all felt deflated and knew the game was up.

 

[nipponyid]

There will always be the debate with moura but kane had to start.

I disagree Lucas was flying with confidence after Amsterdam and should have started over a half-fit Harry. Pool's defence knew they could double up on H and nullify him as was the case....I also believe most of the senior players thought so too and one reason they felt let down by Poch in the biggest game of their lives, lost trust in him and stopped playing for him...

 

[Shadydan]

I disagree Lucas was flying with confidence after Amsterdam and should have started over a half-fit Harry. Pool's defence knew they could double up on H and nullify him as was the case....I also believe most of the senior players thought so too and one reason they felt let down by Poch in the biggest game of their lives, lost trust in him and stopped playing for him...

I think Lucas would have been snuffed out by Van Dijk personally, Lucas comes alive in space hence why he was causing havoc in the 2nd half against Ajax (Llorente came on and occupied De Ligt and Blind), unless he played Kane up front with Lucas somewhere behind him but then again you'd have to drop Dele, Eriksen or Son who are all match winners themselves, it wasn't an easy decision at all.

 

['O Zio]

I think ultimately Liverpool went into it with the mentality that they belonged there. We went onto it hardly able to believe our luck especially after the drama of the previous two rounds. Once we conceded the early penalty that just exacerbated the situation and made what already seemed like a daunting task even harder. We were able to somewhat snap out of it in the second half but didn't have enough left in the tank by then to take full advantage.

The worst part for me is that it was such a limp final. After everything from the previous rounds it was such an anti climax to just fizzle out like that

 

[punkisback]

1st half was a disaster. From the penalty and then Liverpool sitting back, and us doing nothing with possession it was truely terrible football.

2nd half we were much better and took it to them. Allison bailed them out for a few shots we had on target. We were well into the game searching for an equaliser until the Origi goal took the air out of the game.

My overall thoughts are Poch got his tactics wrong. Both Lucas and Kane should of started and Eriksen should of played further back in central midfield, like he did for the Ajax game in the 2nd half. Winks should not have started.

Its a champions league final and we should of been brave and attacking from the outset. At very least, Lucas should of been on at half time.

Yeah the mistake was not dropping Dele and playing both Moura and Kane. Or Dele as a false Nine and Moura out wide.

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

I think Lucas would have been snuffed out by Van Dijk personally, Lucas comes alive in space hence why he was causing havoc in the 2nd half against Ajax (Llorente came on and occupied De Ligt and Blind), unless he played Kane up front with Lucas somewhere behind him but then again you'd have to drop Dele, Eriksen or Son who are all match winners themselves, it wasn't an easy decision at all.

Vdv big weakness is when he is up against a small quick player like Lucas ! Lucas caused him all sorts of problems at anfield that year he hates that type of player not chance does he nullify him

 

[mpickard2087]

The most damning thing you could say is that we had three weeks to prepare for the match, and yet we went out there looking totally unready for it and with seemingly no clue as to what we were trying to do. It was an abject demonstration from both players and the coaching staff.

The start to the game just once again laid example to the lack of leadership, focus, and for all the good that had been done and however far forward we had come under Poch, the lack of attention to detail that often makes the difference in the fine margins right at the top of the game and often fucked us in the crunch moments/games.
Who was there - players or manager - making sure we were raring to go doing the right things with the right attitude? Drilling into those involved the slightly cliché but still time immemorial stuff like being ready from the first whistle, winning your first battle, laying a marker, letting the opposition know they will have a battle? Answer is no one, because in the first 30 seconds we lost (in some were completely dominated) all 5 or 6 individual duels, a couple of players have already been caught out of position, therefore the ball is in our penalty area already and Sissoko indulges in a spot of line dancing and gets mugged off. It was totally unacceptable and not what winning teams do.

Selection Poch obviously couldn't face making any big decisions. Kane was clearly a million miles from being ready, and it was like playing with 10 men - and the state our team was in it at that point we couldn't afford to carry any passengers. Maybe in 2016-17, not in 2019. 'Talisman' or not. What is a manager paid all these millions for if it is not to make tough honest decisions when required? It was a bit of a dereliction of his job truth be told and showed all his words and little speeches about meritocracy and needing players at 110% who could and would give everything was a bit of a sham.

The game you can forgive being a bit cautious and low tempo. It's a huge final, and was baking hot. People say Liverpool weren't great but going 1-0 up so early meant they faced the quandary of whether to sit on their lead or push forward and maybe get caught out, naturally in a big final fear overruled and they inched along playing as conservatively as possible protecting their lead. We, even with three weeks to analyse them and plan for the match, just didn't seem to have much idea of how we were trying to break them down - Son looked lively enough and threatened them a few times first half in particular, but it didn't seem by design to set him free and get the ball to him - and in all honesty we lacked ideas and I thought Liverpool held us off at arms length pretty comfortably.

All in all it was a showcase, but for all the wrong reasons. A lack of thought and preparation when it was needed most. A tired team with tired coaches. That standards had plummeted. And just about everything about us had declined.

 

[Gilzeanking]

De Light said it was clear Kane was injured . For me playing injured kane from the off was a political move . Player power and the most powerful player of all was not going to be denied a CL final and this trumped all logic .

Of course its entirely possible we'd have fared as badly without Kane . So much seemed awry and we'd been playing terribly for months.
The heat seemed to drag us down particularly...mebbe the draining effect of 4 years of Poch level intense coaching meant we were extra affected .

 

[Shadydan]

There's another side to all this Kane business, pretty sure he would have demanded to play the final himself and it was more about appeasing him rather than whether he was match fit or not.

There isn't any other club in the world who would have kept their star player out in a major final match fit or not.

 

[SpursTillIDie1882]

I hate to say it, but it was the ultimate bottle job. Liverpool even changed their game to accommodate us, were poor as a consequence and we failed to take advantage. The penalty might have been harsh but there was so much time left for us to take the game. Instead we just stared dumbly at our testicles like a person who’d gone into hospital to have their appendix out and woke to find they’d accidentally had a sex change.

And I said it before and immediately after the game- not starting Moura was the biggest mistake of Poch’s career so far. He has the game of a lifetime in the semifinal, the sort of performance that creates its own mystique and he got dropped. Football is massively psychological, and the Liverpool defence would not have wanted to play against a tricky, pacey Brazilian who’d recently entered Champions League folklore for the best kind of reasons

What bottle job? We were screwed from the off... it wasnt merely just harsh .. it was never a god damn penalty ever even all the scummy dirty scouse pundits n ex players said that during and after the match ... that set the tone n spoilt the match from the off and drastically affected the players of such blatant injustice or cheating. First half especially that ref blew hos whistle even when we breathe on a dirty scummy bindipper player we were hindered massively and the complete injustice of the pen affected us and gave a complete unfair advantage. Scouse were quite crap in the match and there game plan from pen was just sit back , sit on their cheating goal... although first half we controlled match... second half the sitting back really started as time passed on we had to push and risk more and more to get back a goal and thus we had to expose n compromise elements of our shap to push forward and that effectively led to their second.

Moura not starting was not a great decision especially in the first half when scouse were not quite with it his pace would have hurt them but the decision could be understood half fit messi or cr7 in same position would have started kane is our playet like that, son would not have been sacrificed for moyra although son was average at best in that game or just below he wasnt at the races himself in that game. But the game was taken out of our hands in the first few minutes and the ref in first half continued to blow the whistle for offences to our players but not for scouse, it was daylight robbery everyone knows it and thats, injustice no one can deny that , completely not unbiased and not a fair game , it was rigged in essence like gambling or the banking system, so no not a bottle job

 

[KikoSpurs]

There's another side to all this Kane business, pretty sure he would have demanded to play the final himself and it was more about appeasing him rather than whether he was match fit or not.

There isn't any other club in the world who would have kept their star player out in a major final match fit or not.

Do you see Mourinho playing a semi-crippled Kane in the biggest game of the club's life ?

I have my doubts....

 

[LSUY]

There's another side to all this Kane business, pretty sure he would have demanded to play the final himself and it was more about appeasing him rather than whether he was match fit or not.

There isn't any other club in the world who would have kept their star player out in a major final match fit or not.

Or country for that matter - Brazil, Ronaldo and France '98.

 

[Shadydan]

Do you see Mourinho playing a semi-crippled Kane in the biggest game of the club's life ?

I have my doubts....

It wouldn't 100% be down to him which is the point I'm making

 

[Shadydan]

Or country for that matter - Brazil, Ronaldo and France '98.

Ronaldo played though?

And that was much to do with Nike politics which kinda goes hand in hand with my point. The biggest players always find a way to play the biggest games no matter how match for they are.

 

[DiVaio]

Or country for that matter - Brazil, Ronaldo and France '98.

Quite a different situation compared to Kane.
Maybe he wasn't fit for 100%, but we have to remember that Lucas didn't play any game for 3 weeks too, is inconsistent and has better impact on the game coming from the bench than as a starter.

I wonder too if Liverpool lost that game would playing Firmino who was also injured and didn't play well that final over Origi was seen the same.