Match Threads Spurs vs Wolves - Match Thread

[King of Otters]

Don't bother, emotionally stunted stupidity drags it out of me like a vet with his arm up a cows vadge trying to pull a calf out.

Oops

Yep. I think it’ll be a long wait.

 

[rupsmith]

A weekend of anger, frustration and disappointment. Everyone has had a vent and with some justification.

After a nights rest, a more measured reflection probably concludes that the game is probably where we are as a club and team. A world class stadium but with a squad that clearly needs more quality. There are unfortunately too many players who are not part of a top 4 squad. Poch at his peak was able to squeeze every bit of effort and quality out of them but that began to unravel about an year ago. That passionate, but I have a consider somewhat fortuitous, Champions League run papered over a lot of cracks in squad quality.

Its going to be a season of transition and unfortunately we don't look a top 4 team. If Jose gets us there, he deserves a big bonus.

But he is a quality manager and a proven winner and players will want to sign for him (Bergwyn, Fernandes, Toby etc. are evidence of that). If Levy is going to trust someone with transfer funds, I understand why he would want to give that mandate to someone with a proven background.

It's going to be a tough season but hopefully we get a Europa league place and push on next season.

Come on you Spurs.

Bitterly low though. This one seems hard to shake off for some reason.

 

[DenverSpur]

I don't think I've ever seen Harry Winks have a good game. I mean seriously, what does he do? He offers nothing defensively. He doesn't score many goals or create many chances so what exactly does he bring to the party?

The new Jake Livermore / Jamie O'Hara. Just not good enough.

Ah yes the old Tottenham stand by: if we’re playing badly it’s obviously all the fault of home grown player(s) in the team.

 

[DenverSpur]

A mixed bag overall. We played pretty well in the first half on the front foot dominated possession. Problem is it’s too easy to get at our back line. All there 3 goals came from one of their players being able to run from the half way line, or further back, unopposed all the way to our area. The midfield offers no protection to the defense.
Thought Davies had a poor game and I’m one of this supporters. His crossing was poor when it’s usually quite good. For the first goal he tracks Dougherty into the box but then leaves him and when the ball fell to him he just stood off when he should of been throwing himself into a block. For the third I’ve no idea why he’s so far behind the play as Jota didn’t get up the field that fast which meant Jimenez had loads of time to get his shot away. But it also begs the question where was the midfield cover for when the wingback gets forward?
Interestingly their three goals came from their 3 top goal scorers whereas our 3 top goal scorers from last year are either injured or have moved on. It makes a difference.
Disappointed at the atmosphere at the game(and over the season). A 60000+ stadium with a 17000 South stand yet for the last 20 minutes chasing the game there was no noise supporting the team. We have to help the team by making an intimidating atmosphere. Sometimes the team have to inspire the crowd but sometimes, like now when we are without key players the crowd has to inspire the team.

 

[shelfboy68]

A weekend of anger, frustration and disappointment. Everyone has had a vent and with some justification.

After a nights rest, a more measured reflection probably concludes that the game is probably where we are as a club and team. A world class stadium but with a squad that clearly needs more quality. There are unfortunately too many players who are not part of a top 4 squad. Poch at his peak was able to squeeze every bit of effort and quality out of them but that began to unravel about an year ago. That passionate, but I have a consider somewhat fortuitous, Champions League run papered over a lot of cracks in squad quality.

Its going to be a season of transition and unfortunately we don't look a top 4 team. If Jose gets us there, he deserves a big bonus.

But he is a quality manager and a proven winner and players will want to sign for him (Bergwyn, Fernandes, Toby etc. are evidence of that). If Levy is going to trust someone with transfer funds, I understand why he would want to give that mandate to someone with a proven background.

It's going to be a tough season but hopefully we get a Europa league place and push on next season.

Come on you Spurs.

Bitterly low though. This one seems hard to shake off for some reason.

I have asked this question before but can someone tell me when transition ends and we actually start delivering as a club, because all I ever hear every year is one of transition.
So when does this club actually get something right and deliver on it and when does transition end and success begins.

 

[allatsea]

Very disappointing to lose and I am not sure we deserved to. We clearly need upgrades in certain positions but as with Liverpool a few seasons ago there is the basis of a very good team already within the squad. Kane, Son, Lo Celso, Ndombele, Bergwijn, Alli, Winks, Tanganga, Sanchez, Lloris. Add the likes of Alderweireld and Davies as squad fillers and that leaves us looking for two new top class fullbacks and a DMand cover for Kane.

 

[Serpico]

Morning after thought...
Wanted 3 points-didn't expect 3 points.
I guess, played as well as we could with players missing but I did expect a little better. Some mistakes are just simple errors that could be stopped. The basics have gone, the simple things are not being done. Payers are trying too hard to shine (which is a good thing) but detrimental to the structure of the side. Im not believing we could get better results but do believe we are not this poor.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

A lot of people were expressing concerns at how we were playing and yesterday we saw a number of the things they were complaining that we were missing, structure, passing it out from the back, signs of improvement going forward all addressed. But for some defensive calamity we would have got a result as well. I can't help but wonder if this improvement came at the cost of a bit of defensive discipline and it's maybe a case of getting the balance right but whatever, at least this stuff about not seeing even signs of a plan can be put to bed. it's a waste of time saying it on here but I'll say it again anyway, we'll play worse again and we'll play better and we'll get that from now until this season finally (and thankfully) ends so maybe expectation should be put aside for a while.

It's still early days but I'm confident that given a transfer window, a few ins and outs and some solid time on the training round pre season, we'll have a better season next year.

 

[worcestersauce]

Not many fans down there yesterday were confident of a win before the game but I thought we started pretty well, we certainly played football kept possession and played through the middle rather than bypassing it with a long pass as we have been doing recently and this raised our hopes, unfortunately to no avail. We got a brace of goals which at home ought to give you at least a point but Wolves did to us what they do best scoring from a deep position breaking forward fast and making it count, all three goals coming in from our left hand side. Although we got two goals without Kane or Son I couldn't see us coming back from that and irony of ironies once we took Aurier off we lost all attacking threat. Overall we were beaten but I saw some good signs like a plan might come together with a few additions here and there.

 

[daryl hannah]

It's still early days but I'm confident that given a transfer window, a few ins and outs and some solid time on the training round pre season, we'll have a better season next year.

Every. year.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Every. year.

Yeah, that's right

 

[spursfan77]

I’m doing 10,000 steps a day for cancer research this month so bought a Fitbit to count steps etc (I’ve been meaning to buy one for a while so got one for this). Anyway, I had it on yesterday and it records heart rate. My rate went up to 128 during the game yesterday. I think it’s when we scored our first goal, but could easily be when there’s went in!

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

I’m doing 10,000 steps a day for cancer research this month

Nice one. SC will be doing something in the summer.

Although I wouldn't place too much faith on the accuracy of the Fitbit heart rate thingy. Last year I had an ECG and the Fitbit was only about 60bpm out

 

[worcestersauce]

By the way do we know what happened to Hugo yesterday I still don't know?

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

By the way do we know what happened to Hugo yesterday I still don't know?

Groin strain

 

[Gb160]

Nice one. SC will be doing something in the summer.

Although I wouldn't place too much faith on the accuracy of the Fitbit heart rate thingy. Last year I had an ECG and the Fitbit was only about 60bpm out

Mine reckoned I did about 1500 steps whilst watching a film.

 

[worcestersauce]

Mine reckoned I did about 1500 steps whilst watching a film.

When in fact it was only the 39 steps?

 

[Spurs 1961]

Just seen extended highlights of the game. Looked a much better performance in terms of playing positively. We seemed to have more players in the box when attacking and generally went for the games.

Undone by some sloppy mistakes against good players. I thought young Tanganga was not helped by having to play on the left side where he did not look comfortable. Might have been better to have switched him and Davies as I think Davies is a better centre back than a full back and Tanganga has the pace Davies lacks. But we needed a left sided central defender.

All in all the article in the ‘I’ today is not far off the mark in the assertion that Aurier epitomises the team, veering from the sublime to the ridiculous.

 

[spursfan77]

Nice one. SC will be doing something in the summer.

Although I wouldn't place too much faith on the accuracy of the Fitbit heart rate thingy. Last year I had an ECG and the Fitbit was only about 60bpm out

Yeah. I did think it would be much higher......for the WHOLE game!

 

[rossdapep]

Just seen extended highlights of the game. Looked a much better performance in terms of playing positively. We seemed to have more players in the box when attacking and generally went for the games.

Undone by some sloppy mistakes against good players. I thought young Tanganga was not helped by having to play on the left side where he did not look comfortable. Might have been better to have switched him and Davies as I think Davies is a better centre back than a full back and Tanganga has the pace Davies lacks. But we needed a left sided central defender.

All in all the article in the ‘I’ today is not far off the mark in the assertion that Aurier epitomises the team, veering from the sublime to the ridiculous.

It's clear though that when we try to play more positively we are more open defensively as the midfield we have is not aggressive enough in the turn over. We keep getting caught out.

Against Chelsea we were deeper but their first goal came from losing the ball and no-one within 5 yards of their midfielder.

Yesterday our defence sat back more when we lost the ball but this meant there was a huge gap between midfield and defence. The goal appeared to be 'drop as soon as we lose the ball' the issue of course is that if only your defence does this they can get isolated if the opposition have runners - which Wolves have many of.

I think Jose started with the expressive approach to boost confidence and get points on board, realising that we'd concede goals but as long as the team had the firepower we'd win.

As soon as we got shutdown by United, then Chelsea he realised we couldn't keep playing this way as we were susceptible to getting caught out.

So he worked with the defence and started to implement the low block, keeping the midfield closer but playing through the middle using Ndombele as the link. But then Ndombele got injured which screwed that plan, then Kane got injured which paid rest to using a target man as a focal point.

So, realising he had no cm to play through the press, and now, no CF, he opted for the full counter attack option with a very low block and using the pace of Son and Lucas to get at teams. This worked quite well against Liverpool (with a bit more luck we'd have got a point) and it worked against City (although we were lucky). The problem is that you can't go to teams like Burnley or Sheffield United with this approach as you need to be more assertive but not a lot of choice.

Then Son gets injured which screws that plan also. No surprise we were utterly toothless vs Leipzig and Chelsea. Ndombele is back but struggling, Bergwijn is adapting, Lo Celso is coping but not as high up the pitch as we would like him to be.

So yesterday, Jose decides to be more adventurous, knowing that we don't have all the pieces to really put Wolves under the kosh. He plays Tanganga and Sanchez because he knows we will get exposed on the counter and the midfield can't protect them, with both being quick movers to recover, but at least we can attack more.

He's just moving with the pieces he has available week to week, different opposition to different opposition.

It's why he's continuously praising the players, he knows they can't do what he's asking or what the situation needs, he knows that they have constraints. He's just in damage control mode.

Everytime Jose starts working on a strategy we have some form of setback and the players at his disposal are not adequate to fill any 'plan b" let alone 'plan b'

We need to just hope that;
- Kane, Son return and have no further set backs.
- Jose is backed with the players he wants.
- We get some or all of these players in early.
- Everybody returns in the summer fresh and ready.
- Certain players who can't operate are sold.
- Jose gets enough time with them during preseason.
- Ndombele comes back ready and over his issues