Match Threads Spurs vs Man City

[TheChosenOne]

That first goal... we had 8 players in the box to their 3. Haaland was still able to just stroll past them all and tap the ball in. I know he's a big lad with amazing mobility and positioning, but still.

TBF it took a deflection - wasn't going towards EH in my opinion Still dumbass defending of course.

 

[Gassin's finest]

TBF it took a deflection - wasn't going towards EH in my opinion Still dumbass defending of course.

The issue is no one thinks "oh look, its that big guy they have up front, what's he doing there? I should probably do something about that..."

 

[bigfrooj]

I disagree, I thought the team selection was spot on, the object of the exercise was to give game time to players coming back from injury and other new players to continue their acclimatisation and it did that in spades.
Big game next Thursday big cup to win last night helped that.

You think? Ok, I hope you’re right. I just don’t like using any PL game like that. I wouldn't have made the effort to go if they’d told me and watched it from the warmth of my own house.
I guess the days of getting minutes in players legs by inviting Leyton Orient over for a friendly are long over.

 

[Adam456]

Surprised doesn't begin to express how I'd feel if he is still here next season.

He may not technically be 'here' but he will probably still be a Spurs player next season.

I don't know who buys him outright on the wages he's on with his injury record. You'd have to be nuts. But if you were him you'd obviously see out your contract. Only other way would be paying up his contract or an acceptably (very high) % of it

 

[aliyid]

The issue is no one thinks "oh look, its that big guy they have up front, what's he doing there? I should probably do something about that..."

To be fair it's not like we didn't have enough bodies in the box.

Seven players were back but covering quite a small area. You can never cover every possible angle but we gave it a damn good try

 

[NEVILLEB]

Spence has demonstrated clearly the defensive deficiencies in Porro and Destiny

 

[-Afri-Coy-]

The issue is no one thinks "oh look, it’s that big guy they have up front, what's he doing there? I should probably do something about that..."

Everyone bar Johnson (who stuck a foot in) were caught ball watching

 

[DenverSpur]

The issue is no one thinks "oh look, it’s that big guy they have up front, what's he doing there? I should probably do something about that..."

Spot on but that seems to be the modern defending ethos. They mark space not players. Totally bizarre way of thinking.

 

[teedee]

Tel just doesn't look like a striker even though we were told it was his preferred position. Would be interesting to see him have a go out wide at some point. Otherwise, it's hard to see us taking up the option somehow.

Give the man a chance.

 

[DenverSpur]

To be fair it's not like we didn't have enough bodies in the box.

Seven players were back but covering quite a small area. You can never cover every possible angle but we gave it a damn good try

View attachment 152495

This is a classic case of modern defending. When the ball’s out wide they all take up positions to try a cut out the cross. Which is fine but nobody is thinking about what happens if they don’t manage to prevent the cross? Who is in a position to get on the end of the cross? Who needs picking up? Despite there being 7 defenders all 3 City players in the box are unmarked! All would have had the time and space to get a shot off had Doku picked them out.

 

[KingsDodgyKnee]

I'm not having this nonsense that we were completely outplayed last night. Not at all.

City dominated the 1st half, we dominated the 2nd half. That's football. City could have been 3 up in the 1st half. We could have scored 3 in the 2nd half. It's not a game of 'coulds' though, is it?

As much as I generally hate it, xG was 2-1 to City. Total shots were pretty much even, as were shots on target. We won more tackles, had fewer clearances, won more duels, outpassed them, passed more accurately, made more forward passes and Vicario made less saves than Ederson.

What we had last night was a generally inexperienced team(2nd youngest team in the PL) with players coming back from injury going up against an (admittedly out of form) multi-title winning, Pep managed City team. And for the most part it was an even game that probably should have ended up in a draw.

Because of our recent form, we (as a fan base) are being massively overcritical of our performances. We were by no means shit or outplayed last night.

 

[Gassin's finest]

To be fair it's not like we didn't have enough bodies in the box.

Seven players were back but covering quite a small area. You can never cover every possible angle but we gave it a damn good try

View attachment 152495

That's what I said in my earlier post... 8 spurs lads in the box, and he simply strolled through, tapped the ball into the net, then walked off again like on his way back from a wank.

Pathetic.

 

[JUSTINSIGNAL]

That first goal... we had 8 players in the box to their 3. Haaland was still able to just stroll past them all and tap the ball in. I know he's a big lad with amazing mobility and positioning, but still.

Personally I think that is on Danso - he went careering up the pitch, got dispossessed, and then didn't get back in the defensive line in time. If you look he's actually the wrong side of Haaland when the ball is tapped in.

 

[Yid-ol]

Personally I think that is on Danso - he went careering up the pitch, got dispossessed, and then didn't get back in the defensive line in time. If you look he's actually the wrong side of Haaland when the ball is tapped in.

And that's where a more defensive CM would work, if a CB goes forward, the DCM drops back to full the gap. Currently none of the CM players will do that.

Said it before, but we need someone to play like how Dier did for us in CM.

 

[FloridaSpur]

We need to rotate at times and get injured players back on the pitch. It just shows some of the back up players or even starters are not good enough and need replaced in the summer.

VDV and Romero both coming back in slower than expected, so hopefully that's the start of us trying to be a bit more sensible with injured players.

The proposed at best starting eleven have been brought in by Ange.

My worry on the delay on the return of Mickey and Cuti are worrying, in as much as i agree with the extended delay, but what if one or both breakdown again before the end of the season?

I may be wrong by a long way, but Mickey was known for his injuries in the past, but I don't see him lasting a season with rest or not through rotation.

The end of the day, someone has told Ange how to handle Micky's injury, and time will tell on his future. Cuti was pretty much injury free before joining us, having played 42 games his last season at Atalanta, and 33 the season before at Genoa.

The good thing is next season we will have four very good CB's assuming Cuti isn't sold.

 

[HildoSpur]

And that's where a more defensive CM would work, if a CB goes forward, the DCM drops back to full the gap. Currently none of the CM players will do that.

Said it before, but we need someone to play like how Dier did for us in CM.

Archie Gray

 

[werty]

Personally I think that is on Danso - he went careering up the pitch, got dispossessed, and then didn't get back in the defensive line in time. If you look he's actually the wrong side of Haaland when the ball is tapped in.

And that's where a more defensive CM would work, if a CB goes forward, the DCM drops back to full the gap. Currently none of the CM players will do that.

Said it before, but we need someone to play like how Dier did for us in CM.

None of this is true. Danso didn't go careering up the pitch and lose possession. He went into for a challenge inside their half and didn't get the ball, which initially got him and about five players got out high up the field.

Spoiler

Secondly, Bentancur did drop in and cover the space.

Spoiler

The problem is the rest of the midfield were 70 yards from our goal when Danso got beaten, leaving a massive gap in the middle.

They did however get back in time. The problem is Gray got attracted to Doku and ended up in no man's land. He needs to be more inline with the front post, something none of our centre backs seem to do, but thats for another time. Johnson makes a token effort to double up. Udogie can see Haaland is running off the back of Danso but his lack of defensive instinct kicks in and doesn't recognise it in time, something that's again common with him

Spoiler

 

[Yid-ol]

None of this is true. Danso didn't go careering up the pitch and lose possession. He went into for a challenge inside their half and didn't get the ball, which initially got him and about five players got out high up the field.

Spoiler

Secondly, Bentancur did drop in and cover the space.

Spoiler

The problem is the rest of the midfield were 70 yards from our goal when Danso got beaten, leaving a massive gap in the middle.

They did however get back in time. The problem is Gray got attracted to Doku and ended up in no man's land. He needs to be more inline with the front post, something none of our centre backs seem to do, but thats for another time. Johnson makes a token effort to double up. Udogie can see Haaland is running off the back of Danso but his lack of defensive instinct kicks in and doesn't recognise it in time, something that's again common with him

Spoiler

Never seen the first half or seen the highlights, just caught the second half.

It's Poro that's fucked us there, if he was further back

Porro needed to be back to cover the player wide at RB that way it would let Bentancur push up to stop the run and block off any easy pass to the center and then out wide.

 

[punkisback]

I went last night despite having a chest infection and feeling really unwell but I couldn’t keep away - I thought we were due a really good game and performance. I haven’t read any comments on here and I haven’t read any reports so this is my impression of the game and the performance - what a load of shit.
Thats it. The team selection was bad, the performance was bad, the tactics were bad and because of the initial team selection the substitutions were bad. Ange needs a talking to - what on earth was Werner doing on the bench let alone on the pitch? If I was Moore or even Ajayi I’d be mightily pissed off. This was a training exercise to get the squad match fit for the Europa - we nearly snatched a point but I felt like the game had been thrown.
Some individuals had flashes of decent play and we managed a couple of decent moves but overall I should just have stayed at home and offered up a free ticket on here. The journey home wouldn’t have been so long and tedious and so bloody cold, I’m sure.
Brennan Johnson if you happen to be a SC lurker - wobble your head mate, what the hell was that? I don’t love you anymore.
Manchester City are well off their best. We would have won that if we started with our best team.

But last year you know it was fine to go all out against city to hand Arsenal the title even when we had nothing to play for. But you know it’s our winning culture mate.

 

[onthetwo]

That first goal... we had 8 players in the box to their 3. Haaland was still able to just stroll past them all and tap the ball in. I know he's a big lad with amazing mobility and positioning, but still.

I didnt watch the game but in the highlights, there are 3 occasions where Haaland just runs into the box as if hes been given the freedom of the town. Im no tactician so could someone in the know enlighten me on whether thats due to zonal defending ie defenders are supposed to pick him up when he gets into the box from midfield or a man-to-man that doesnt look to be working as it should?