What went wrong vs West Ham?

[CornerPinDreamer]

No Rose no balance
No holding player
Dire individual performances, some possibly due to the Europa
Shit tempo made it easy for them to hold their positions, again possibly because of a few tired legs
West Ham were actually good

Couldn;t agree more, especially the tempo bit. We just didn't move the ball fast enough and that could be because the only place to move it was from the center to the right, no players to create space on the left and start pulling wham around.

AVB needs to improve his ability to change 'in game' tactics.

 

[CJMurray]

How is Lamela one of our best players? He's been poor at best in every game he's played thus far and the only good thing he has done was the assist for Paulinho

Well, for starters he's better than Sigurdsson, he should be starting now. Maybe if we give him more than just throwing him on with 20 minutes left of a game in the league then he'll be able to show what a class act is.

 

[balalasaurus]

defoe should never have started this game. he offers no link up play and cannot for the life of him seem to understand the difference between being onside and being offside. soldado would have been better but part of me feels that ade would have been ideal for this sort of game (especially considering the number of header chances defoe missed/ couldn't reach today). we needed a dm in this game. sadly andre just didn't see that. eriksen since the norwich game has been guilty of going missing. i hope we give holtby a start next game till eriksen learns that his place in the first XI is not guaranteed and he needs to fight for it. having two right footed players on the left side is extremely risky. would have been better playing verts at lb and starting chiriches alongside dawson. until kaboul sorts his injuries out that's our only option in my opinion. lastly avb needs to be more proactive. sticking to your philosphy's admirable and all but when the chips are down there's no harm in admitting you were wrong.

 

[amathews3416]

I agree.

At least under Harry and BMJ i enjoyed watching us play, even though there were plenty of frustrating games under them too.
If we are going to be boring to watch, we have to be competing / winning things. Else what's the point?

I agree, I was bored as hell watching us play today. Had split screen and found myself watching the Arsenal/West Brom game quite a bit.

 

[cabinfever]

So do we have a leader in the squad?

I don't believe we do and I think we need one urgently!!

 

[PeeEyeEmPee]

*facepalm* Jesus.....

 

[WiganSpur]

The holding player problem I've overlooked massively and I'm still not convinced by it - Many of you seem to believe it is one though?

Perhaps for away games we need Sandro involved but we've dominated teams using two box-to-box players - I didn't see a problem then?

I'm normally v. happy with the Paulinho/Dembele pivot and today I think they were the least of our problems. They were crowded out on purpose.

Be great to hear your view on it mate

I'm not sure I just thought we looked exposed today. We did against Norwich too a bit but thankfully they were terrible when they got the ball. I think the best way to go when Capoue is back is to rotate Paulinho & Dembele to prevent tired legs. So Capoue/Sandro, Paulinho/Dembele & Holtby/Eriksen. That way we should be affected less from Europa games and long trips.

 

[Spurs 1961]

AVB I still a baby as a manager. He is being out thought by very experienced managers, most of whom have played the game not just come from a coaching school, so he has a lof of learning ahead.

We have a lot of new players and need to find the right blend or indeed several blends to deal with whatever might arise. New players need time on the pitch to play together. We are using too many decent players instead of giving the really good players a chance to get settled into the EPL game. Lamela for example scored 15 Serie A goals last season plus created chances which suggests he has something.

AVB showed last year that his instinct is to defend at all times and try to hold one goal leads if he gets them. This is too negative to compete against the big boys and far too dangerous in a league where even the likes of the spammers can score goals if you let them.

Dembele needs to be replaced by a real DM, Sandro. Paulinho is the more complete box to box player as he has more than show, with a real goalscoring touch. Sandro will add some solidity which will allow Paulnho to drift. Dembele for me is like Defoe in that he need lots of space to play in. Paulinho finds gaps and drifts into positions. It's a big problem when he is the only midfield / attacking player who gets onto the box...which is why we need Soldado up front

The left side situation needs addressing. We have no left back and no one who can play well on the left side. Lennon might give us an option there but he will need to regain fitness.

What does worry me is that our passing is getting slower and worse that it was at the start of the season.

 

[absolute bobbins]

*facepalm* Jesus.....

Plays for Citeh

 

[thinktank]

1. Save our best players for prem. games.

Play them!

2. Buy a LB, RB, CB, CF in Jan - we have baldini, we have cash, we can do it!

3. Play at a high tempo, EVERY FUCKING GAME!!! E-V-E-R-Y game without exception. Always. Forever!

4. Make subs whenever necessary, at the time they are required! Fuck the players feelings

There.

If we don't do those things it is going to be very very difficult.

 

[shelfboy68]

Or beat team's in the bottom four and not lose at home 0-3 to them might also help I would guess.

 

[OmarsComing]

1. Save our best players for prem. games.

Play them!

2. Buy a LB, RB, CB, CF in Jan - we have baldini, we have cash, we can do it!

3. Play at a high tempo, EVERY FUCKING GAME!!! E-V-E-R-Y game without exception. Always. Forever!

4. Make subs whenever necessary, at the time they are required! Fuck the players feelings

There.

If we don't do those things it is going to be very very difficult.

 

[Japhet]

I'm not enjoying seeing wingers cut in constantly ... Bring back wingers getting around the full back to the by line it's a joy to watch. Townsend is good at it because he can use his right foot but I would like to see a left footer on the left and a right footer on the right more often and to see them Switch over.

Anyone else get a bit annoyed with the cutting in of wingers these days..?

Don't see why we can't play 1 inverted winger and 1 conventional one (Townsend/Lamela for example) to give a bit of width. Current set up doesn't suit Soldado IMO.

 

[hughy]

As I said in the match thread, today was a freak result. The footballing gods have a habit of throwing one up out of the blue every now and then, Chelsea lost 3-0 to Sunderland at home a few years ago, Arsenal lost 3-1 to Villa at home only a couple of months ago. It happens, and is extremely unlikely to happen to us again in the near future.

We can slate AVB and the players until the cows come in, or we can forget about today and trust them to come back in 2 weeks time and make amends for what we saw today. Some of the replies I read in the match thread were shocking, and quite frankly there are a number of members here who should be as ashamed and embarrassed as our playing staff and management this evening.

It sucks that we're going in to an international break now, and naturally the next 2 weeks until our next league game will feel like a lifetime, but we have to keep our heads up and stick by the lads, at the end of the day we're only 3 points off the top of the table. We'll be there or thereabouts challenging the top 4 at the end of the season.

Faith.

 

[Black]

We play too slow.

One striker up front at home.

Terrible subs by avb yet again.

Holtby for sigs

Soldado for one of the cm, instead he fucked it up.

Half the time we don't even need to play a high line, we squeeze up so much the striker gets no space and things gets congested up top.

No one from midfield wants to run pass the striker, we have walker(sometimes) and Townsend playing in crosses to one striker in the box.

No one wants to shoot from outside the box but Townsend

 

[kazzah9]

How is Lamela one of our best players? He's been poor at best in every game he's played thus far and the only good thing he has done was the assist for Paulinho

Chads should have come on

 

[Harry Barber]

Nothing went wrong today. Fifty years I've been supporting Spurs, same shit different day.

 

[TheGreenLily]

This isn't a kneejerk thread so let's not use it as such.

But,
1.) I think we need to play with a proper DM at all times, otherwise we are too porous, especially if we are playing with a high line like we do. 4-3-3 with Sandro, Dembele, and Paulinho in midfield for me.

2.) The score is extremely flattering to West Ham. Only 1 of their goals resulted from something that wasn't a lucky deflection (the last one).

3.) Imo Dawson is too slow to play this high line. If we are going to press that high we need quicker defenders than Dawson at the back.

4.) Townsend was very impressive, which is a positive from today.

We wouldn't have won with Bale either. To be honest though I kind of just wish we would revert back to a counterattacking team and play a low block. I understand with AVB it's about his philosophy but I just think that we can at times become too vulnerable when we press so high up. It also makes it more difficult to create chances, and the chances we do create are more difficult to score.

No, far too defensive for me (IMO)and zero creativity.

Sandro (DM), Paulinho (Box to box/AM/Runner) and Eriksen (Creative/AM).

What we need, are players on the fucking wings with a brain who can stay there and their job and stretch teams and create the spaces needed for players like Soldado, Paulinho, Eriksen, Lamela to do their thing. Not to mention the the god awful full back situation we have.

 

[ItsBoris]

Oh stop it. Fucking hell.

Wtf SB? What I said is a fact, let's not be all melodramatic.

 

[roosh]

Don't have a problem with passing backwards and sideways. Movement is our key issue. You can easily open up a team by going back or to the side as long as you take players with you and open up space.

For years Spurs have been a counter-attacking side relying on pace on the break to do what West Ham did to us today. Now we're trying to become a possession team in the style of Barcelona. Only problem is that Barcelona have incredibly intelligent players who looks for openings and make dummy runs. They're always passing backwards or sideways, but with an actual purpose.

Key word: movement - absolutely!