Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v AFC Sunderland

What will constitute "getting better with time" for 2016-17 vs 2015-16 ??

 

A couple of things might help. Let's come out and blitz the opposition. Games like this one are transformed by an early goal. This season there have been way too many slow starts. Pin them back and panic the **** out of them.

Second up, can MP designate someone else to take corners and free kicks for a while? Eriksen's have been shocking for the whole season and yet nobody else gets to take them? Not Dier or Walker? Rose is a great crosser of the ball, why don't we try that? Anything but waste chance after chance making the same bloody mistakes again and again.

Small details win games and titles. Let's get them right. COYS.

 

Finishing second or having more points or winning something.

 

Rodwell foul on Dembele

 

Indeed but you are the one missing the details. Corners rarely lead to goals and we have scored from about the average number. So there is no evidence of anything going wrong. Why would you then decide to put a less skilful player on corner duty?

 

Was thinking the same our free kicks and corners couldn't be any worse we can be a major threat with the likes of Toby Jan and harry getting on the end of them but we need to stop ****ing about and get it in the box as much as I like errickson we need to put someone else on free kick and corner duty

 

The average number of goals? Very few teams score the average number. That average is made up of the good, the bad and the indifferent. Last season we didn't score the average number of goals from such positions.In fact, we scored the most goals in the PL from set pieces including 22 from free kicks and corners.

This season's return is poor in comparison because footballers aren't generators. Their performance can be affected by loss of confidence, injury, all sorts of extraneous factors. Currently, Eriksen's confidence is affecting his performance in taking free kicks and corners, so we should have the intelligence to try something different for a while. In cricket, if your front line bowlers can't break a partnership then you give the ball to a part-time bowler or anyone to shake things up a bit. Sport is not science or maths or engineering. It's a human endeavour that needs the understanding of human factors - daring to do rather than settling for average performance. Aren't we aiming for better than average? Otherwise our club motto would be:


Average effectus est satis.

It doesn't do it for me.

 

I don't see how it is going to help Eriksen's confidence to take him off corners for no good reason even if I agreed with your assertion.
Of course we need to be above average to win things but we won't achieve that if we don't use data to support decision making. Essentially a corner is a set piece opportunity to put a pass into the box. It should be taken by the player most skilful at that. That can't be measured by your observations over the past few weeks. Form is temporary and class permanent. I'm sure if someone else proves to be better in training then Poch will make the change.

 

I have to say that a few of us are beginning to sound as deluded as some of the wumsters on this site accuse us of being.

It is arrogant to expect that we are going to waltz into matches against teams like Sunderland, on their own turf and so far away from home, and take an easy three points.

Okay, so the ref made a few bad calls. It happens to all teams. Get over it.

On the night, we had more than 70% of the ball, but simply couldn't break down a Sunderland side that defended for its Premiership existence.

I'll repeat what I said before - Arsenal couldn't even get a draw against Watford on their own turf!

Some of us are beginning to act as though we deserve the title.

Let's take stock and be grateful for second spot, and the fact that we are now in February and still looking easily one of the best four teams in the league.

 

I got no problem with Eriksen taking set pieces, what I do have a problem with are those ****ing short corners that amount to absolute jack-all and have even at times seen us ending up passing the ball all the way back into our half.

How frustrating must it be for Toby/ Dier/ Jan/ Kev etc to wander up from CB only to then see the ball played short and wasted?

 

Whilst Eriksen's confidence is the issue, fronting him up with "you're not doing as well as last season" shouldn't destroy him. Sissoko was told that MP "expected more", Janssen has been left off the bench a number of times recently. At some point difficulties have to be addressed.

If you stick with out of form players because they could do it, we'd still be employing David Bentley and Wayne Rooney would be a fixture at United and for England. However, someone has to steer the ship and call the orders and the players are paid to train and do what MP says. In my view it's time to let someone else have a go. Eriksen might even thrive having them taken away from him for a while? Currently, his body language when he takes them tells you he isn't enjoying it as he did previously and we've had Lamela, Walker and Kane and Dier take the odd one. Time to switch it around again.

 

If not seen completely reliable data but as far as I can tell short corners are slightly more effective than directly crossed ones. Especially if you take into account the fact that counter attacks from failed corners are more likely to lead to goals than normal losses of possession.

 

That's great when we're 2-0 up with 10 minutes to go. Playing the percentages and not giving the ball away, I get that then. However, when we're 0-0 in a game we really should be winning? Come on?

 

In the last minute you are definitely right but with 10 mins to go we are likely to have possession on 15 to 20 more occasions. It's really important to maximise the chance of scoring from each of those. I'm pretty sure that's one of the things that has been learned quite recently. In the 60s teams would start pumping no hope balls into the box half way through the second half.

 

I thought that we played all of those corners short because they were totally packing the box.
Refusing to launch balls into such a congested area forced them to move men out to deal with the short balls.

I'm going against conventional thought on this, but I'm not convinced about sending defenders up for set-pieces, anyway.
They're normally a bit taller than attacking players, but they're far ****ter at attacking. That's why they're defenders.
Shorter attackers will lose when competing in a static jump, but they should get into better positions.
It also leaves you less prone to the counter when you've got your best defenders back.

 

Toby Alderweireld?

 

He made one really poor one and a few minor ones, which allowed Rodwell to stay on the pitch.
Wasn't a horror show, by any means, and our overall performance didn't deserve the win.

 

Alderweireld is good at everything, though. He's a footballer first and a defender second, but not in a bad way.
The same applies to Vertonghen and Dier to a lesser extent, but I'm talking generally.
How many goals do defenders chip in with, is it more than attackers would and is it worth the energy expended?
I don't know, but I'm surprised that no team in the world seems to go against the conventional wisdom.

 

I'd say our three best from set pieces are Toby, Dier and Kane, in that order.

I'm happy for our CB's to go forward for set pieces, providing Rose, Walker and one midfielder are further back than the opposition's striker(s). Rose and especially Walker can catch any attacker in a straight race so I never feel overly conscious to potential counter attacks in that respect.

 

A win was never on the cards as far as attack went.
And Sunderland did not really have to play the game of their careers
just to get a draw.

That is a concern.

The fact that several times this season have been exactly like last night
is the BIGGER concern, when 6 PL teams are really competing for the top 4.