Tottenham Vs Leicester (EPL): Match Thread

[Pimp_Spur]

That was the worst defeat we have had in ages. A massive 6 pointer against a top 4 / dare i say it 'title rival'. What makes it even harder to take is the other results......city and Arse both dropped points. We could of been within a point of Leicester, ahead of city and closed the gap to Arse.

Unfortunately Durham on Talksh*te was right - we bottled it and the main reason was that we did not have that cutting edge / final finish. If we do not get in a striker this window then the club will have failed massively in the window.

We still have City, Liverpool, Pikeys and Chavs away from home with Arse and Utd to come to us. None of those games we could be certain of a win in and all of those teams (except Chavs) are in and around us.......some very tough games to play still

 

[Glenn_Purvey]

The issue with yesterday's game is that you have to score when on top, we had a very good spell in the first 20 minutes and we have to get a goal. If you manage to score in that time the other teams plans go out of the window and they have to eventually take a gamble and push up. The same happened at Everton we had a number of chances and yet we were not clinical enough and then we found ourselves 1-0 down.

Lets just hope that we get the same response when we lost to Newcastle and go and win the next couple of games. Yesterday was a massive disappointment and only 3 points on Saturday will start the healing process but if we can win Saturday and then get a result in the Cup then we will start to look ok again.

 

[mightyspur]

Does anyone have a gif, or Vine etc. of the goal because I'm still baffled what happened to Dier to end up on the floor and how Huth had pretty much no one within 25 yards of him.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

Does anyone have a gif, or Vine etc. of the goal because I'm still baffled what happened to Dier to end up on the floor and how Huth had pretty much no one within 25 yards of him.

Watch Alderweireld wrestling with him (Dier) and then practically throwing him to the floor, whilst Huth is standing all on his lonesome waiting for the gift that is a totally free header (the goal is at around 3min 50secs)...

 

[DiscoD1882]

morning thoughts on last nights game.

We should have won. But what annoyed me last night was that even though we had the lions share of possesion and we had more corners than i can ever remember which were wasted. even when we got the ball wide and into the box we just didnt have enough numbers in there to make it count. The number of times the ball went to either walker of Davies and we had Kane in there against 8 leicester players was staggering. I know they play counter attacking football and we needed to be mindful of that. But the chances of finding one player in that box against a well drilled defensive team like leicester were practically zero. We need to be a little more gung ho against teams that park the bus.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

morning thoughts on last nights game.

We should have won. But what annoyed me last night was that even though we had the lions share of possesion and we had more corners than i can ever remember which were wasted. even when we got the ball wide and into the box we just didnt have enough numbers in there to make it count. The number of times the ball went to either walker of Davies and we had Kane in there against 8 leicester players was staggering. I know they play counter attacking football and we needed to be mindful of that. But the chances of finding one player in that box against a well drilled defensive team like leicester were practically zero. We need to be a little more gung ho against teams that park the bus.

Spot on and, I guess, one of the reasons a fair few of us are missing Mason? The lad is always busting a gut to support the attack, or arrive late in the box etc.

As you rightly say, we have nowhere near enough players getting in the box when it really matters. It was the same on Sunday, too. Trippier was constantly whipping in crosses of real quality, but the poor sod only had defenders to aim for.

We (Poch) need to sort this out, and quickly!

 

[mightyspur]

Watch Alderweireld wrestling with him (Dier) and then practically throwing him to the floor, whilst Huth is standing all on his lonesome waiting for the gift that is a totally free header (the goal is at around 3min 50secs)...

Still so difficult to see what is happening from that. It kind of looks like Alderweireld just tracks the wrong man, get's caught in no-mans land and reacts too late to challenge Huth.

 

[robbiedee]

Still so difficult to see what is happening from that. It kind of looks like Alderweireld just tracks the wrong man, get's caught in no-mans land and reacts too late to challenge Huth.

They scored from a corner on Sunday because Toby ran into his own players while tracking the goal scorer. Still can't get over the amount of time and space Huth had! Shocking.

 

[mpickard2087]

Going wide and getting crosses in will not play to our strengths though. Kane can head a ball if its dropped on his head but isn't likely to attack it, Chadli likewise. Apart from that you can expect virtually nothing from Son, Eriksen, Lamela, Alli etc etc.

What we need are to work the overlaps into very advanced wide areas and then pick someone out with a low cross or cut back. Walker to be fair is showing signs of this recently, and Davies can do this (see twice last night), but I'd like to see more of this in games because they are often our best moments. For me our football, bar the first half against Everton, has got more and more impatient in recent weeks. We are having possession but it's more side to side and then in all truth aimlessly slinging deeper crosses in the box from wide areas.

And again I have to say I want to see more meaningful contributions from positions centrally in the final third. Need to be receiving passes between defence/midfield and then attempting more through balls. Yeah it's not easy to find the space there but this is top level football, it isn't going to be. We need players to work harder to find space rather than Eriksen dropping deep constantly or Kane dropping deep/wide to get the ball.

 

[Kiedis]

On a positive note, how about Ben Davies? Kept Mahrez totally quiet and did well going forward (created at least the two chances that Lamela missed in the second half), and combined well in passing moves at times.

Still anyone thinking that Rose is a "class above"?

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

On a positive note, how about Ben Davies? Kept Mahrez totally quiet and did well going forward (created at least the two chances that Lamela missed in the second half), and combined well in passing moves at times.

Still anyone thinking that Rose is a "class above"?

Davies is so much better than he's given credit for!!

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

Still so difficult to see what is happening from that. It kind of looks like Alderweireld just tracks the wrong man, get's caught in no-mans land and reacts too late to challenge Huth.

Do you have Sky Sports? I repeatedly did the old "hold down the play button on the remote" and watched it in slow motion a few times. It was totally perplexing as to what on earth Alderweireld was attempting to do! He didn't just run into Dier, he literally wrestled him to the ground.

 

[Damian99]

Does anyone have a gif, or Vine etc. of the goal because I'm still baffled what happened to Dier to end up on the floor and how Huth had pretty much no one within 25 yards of him.

You don't want to see it trust me, it was awful defending something right off the park on a Sunday Morning. Huth just stood there and had to nothing other than put his head on the end of the corner.

It's not the first time we have defended like this from set plays - but have gone largely unpunished for it.

There is a big lack of leadership out on the field an organizer that can get these situations sorted out on the pitch - only so much you can do out on the training pitch - these have to be put right out on the pitch.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

There is a big lack of leadership out on the field an organizer that can get these situations sorted out on the pitch - only so much you can do out on the training pitch - these have to be put right out on the pitch.

Couldn't agree more. I'm sure I saw an article (maybe on BBC Teletext) last week, in which Lloris stated we need to bring in some experience if we want to be genuine contenders?

EDIT: Found it - http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/hugo-llori...erience-young-squad-become-great-team-1537280

 

[ajspurs]

Going wide and getting crosses in will not play to our strengths though. Kane can head a ball if its dropped on his head but isn't likely to attack it, Chadli likewise. Apart from that you can expect virtually nothing from Son, Eriksen, Lamela, Alli etc etc.

What we need are to work the overlaps into very advanced wide areas and then pick someone out with a low cross or cut back. Walker to be fair is showing signs of this recently, and Davies can do this (see twice last night), but I'd like to see more of this in games because they are often our best moments. For me our football, bar the first half against Everton, has got more and more impatient in recent weeks. We are having possession but it's more side to side and then in all truth aimlessly slinging deeper crosses in the box from wide areas.

And again I have to say I want to see more meaningful contributions from positions centrally in the final third. Need to be receiving passes between defence/midfield and then attempting more through balls. Yeah it's not easy to find the space there but this is top level football, it isn't going to be. We need players to work harder to find space rather than Eriksen dropping deep constantly or Kane dropping deep/wide to get the ball.

We haven't done this since the Bale/Lennon, Harry Redknapp days or maybe a bit under AVB but it's been absent from our game for a few years now. It's what happens when you play with 2 inside wingers. Walker has never been great in the final third and Davies is ok but we need more than that.

 

[whitesocks]

This happenned...

https://twitter.com/BPLZone/status/687426988118781952

Exactly the same thing happened in FA Cup too

Alderweireld is a big unit and sure is ball watching here, but dumping Dier on the ground looks to be a deliberate action.
Now maybe Alderweireld thinks Dier is a liability as a third CB and just gets in the way.
He may be right, but with one of the best defensive records, the extra CB generally seems to be effective, and while it could easily have been Walker we were cursing today, the evidence shows that Alderweireld takes the blame this time for a very poor decision.
It is a shame as he has had a stand out season, but in this game he let the pressure get to him.

Ranieri got the tactics spot on, and his players bullied our younger players all over the pitch.
The only way through for us was going to be from out wide - Townsend on the left or Danny Rose would have been better options.
MP needs to quickly work out where he went wrong as Fat Sam has no-doubt watched this game 10X and will be looking to do the same to us this weekend.

 

[Gassin's finest]

2 things concerned me last night...

1. There were some moments when defending corners where you could see Verts, Dier, Toby all arguing about who was picking up who... genuine confusion about how to set up before the kick was taken.

2. We are terrible at crossing, either hitting the first man or too far behind or in front of the target.

I genuinely think also that we are better with Alli alongside Dier, and running from deep. He is not an AM and certainly not a winger. That, as much as Dembele in the AM position, is the reason for that great spell of form we had.

 

[CoopsieDeadpool]

Alderweireld is a big unit and sure is ball watching here, but dumping Dier on the ground looks to be a deliberate action.
Now maybe Alderweireld thinks Dier is a liability as a third CB and just gets in the way.
He may be right, but with one of the best defensive records, the extra CB generally seems to be effective, and while it could easily have been Walker we were cursing today, the evidence shows that Alderweireld takes the blame this time for a very poor decision.
It is a shame as he has had a stand out season, but in this game he let the pressure get to him.

Ranieri got the tactics spot on, and his players bullied our younger players all over the pitch.
The only way through for us was going to be from out wide - Townsend on the left or Danny Rose would have been better options.
MP needs to quickly work out where he went wrong as Fat Sam has no-doubt watched this game 10X and will be looking to do the same to us this weekend.

So I'm not going totally bonkers then! It was literally as though he decided "get out of the fucking way" and made sure that's exactly what happened, whilst totally forgetting the Huth shaped lump who is renowned for heading ability in either penalty area.

So, so frustrating!!

 

[mightyspur]

This happenned...

https://twitter.com/BPLZone/status/687426988118781952

Exactly the same thing happened in FA Cup too

Just seen this. My word that is absolutely fucking absurd. What is Toby doing? He must be totally focused on the ball and thinks he has his man or something. That is mental.

 

[Grey Fox]

Think Toby was marking Huth and Dier was blocking his way so he just threw him to the ground in an effort to get to Huth. Dier at fault for switching off in my book