Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v AS Monaco

Given previous experiences with Wembley Park, my group headed off (at a fast walking pace) to Wembley Central after the game. We got straight on a train which left with spare seats and nobody at all standing. I was home in North Surrey/South London at 11.15.

 

I live a ten minute walking distance from the Lane so you can imagine the pain I'm going through now at actually needing to get transport to 'home games' .

When I managed to get on the train, the end carriages were also empty, the judgement by police/ stewards was so terribly off it was a joke. Legitimately fuming at the waiting times and the amounts they were allowing through, there were still thousands and thousands behind me in the queues so god knows what time they managed to get home.

 

Or get a train from Wembley Stadium (which is the nearest station particularly if you are on the south or west of the stadium) to Marylebone. The queues are much shorter usually

 

I've forgotten last night and HOPE Spurs bounce back on Sunday. 3-0 at LEAST.

 

The point is that you can't tell if it is working or not! Over the season we are going to have possession around 120 times in a match and probably only 2 of those will lead to goals (that would give us 2 goals a game on average which would be fantastic). So on average 59 times out of 60 Plan A will not lead to a goal. That means in one in every seven matches we won't score and in some others we will score more than 2 goals. That is exactly what is supposed to happen. It's not a reason to change to Plan B.

 

We can lack pace. The 2 really quick players from last season were Rose and Walker. Mauricio Pochettino knew this (see his comments regarding Mane's performance at WHL) and we bought GKN and Sissoko to address it. For various reasons, 3 of those players weren't potential starters last night and we looked pedestrian at times. Also, we started with our most influential player (Mousa Dembele) on the bench. If he doesn't play, we tend to look flat and have done so far this season.

There's no need to panic. We have players to change things round and bring a different emphasis to our play which wasn't the case last season. We need to win against Sunderland and assimilate our new purchases. I like the look of Vincent Janssen and think Harry Kane is well overdue a rest. His current form is in a dip and given what we've wrung out of him in the last 2 seasons, it's hardly surprising. He'll be back better and stronger because he's a fantastic player. All players have periods where it doesn't quite run for them. Janssen, Dembele and maybe Sissoko to start on Sunday and I'm pretty sure we'll be ok.

 

Really surprised to read criticism of Davies. Personally thought he was sound and one of our better players last night.
As Roo highlighted, he got little cover against one of Monaco's brightest players.
RB & LB were certainly not our issue last night IMHO.

 

I felt he let their winger, Lemaar (SP?), get too much space when wanting to cut in from the right, should've been showed down the wing further and force him to use what was evidently his weaker foot.

Davies wasn't terrible by any means, certainly not as bad as Kane but he's performed much, much better than that, big contrast in his Stoke performance to last night's I'd say.

 

The whole defensive display was a shambles. As was pointed out, Silva, who scored the first goal is almost completely left footed. Yet our defence let him cut inside on his left foot and put his shot away.

If they've done their homework on the opposition, which I find it hard to believe MP wouldn't, they'd have known this! Yet, Vertonghen, I think it was instead of forcing him onto his right foot, let him cut inside.

 

Went to Wembley Central too and didn't have any problems with queuing/transport. Was home in deepest Hertfordshire by 11pm. Was surprised to see the number of fellow Spurs fans going out to my neck of the woods, which you don't usually encounter on match days. I suppose it's because Wembley is a lot more convenient than WHL so more were making the journey. Following Spurcat's tip went to the Green Man pre-match which had a great atmosphere in their big beer garden in the sun.

Was sat on the halfway line upper tier directly behind commentary boxes (Jenas gave us a wave). As some have mentioned Wembley is just too big to replicate the atmosphere we create at WHL, songs from the other side of the ground just turn into a blur. Thought the atmosphere in the rest of the ground particularly behind the goals was good, but no one anywhere near me was even attempting to sing. Crowd where I was seemed to consist of suits, families, and quite a few internationals too, with groups from Denmark, Algeria, and China all surrounding me.

 

A poor performance by Spurs standards, but hardly played off the park.
More a lesson in being clinical then anything.
But far too much AVB 2013-14 for my liking, across all periods of the game.

 

Erm... I wasn't so much criticising Davies, nor Alli, with my comment. I would say that Rose has a bit more bite in his attacking play than Davies does. Rose on the pitch in that match would have driven us to more chances at getting back into the game.

I believe that Rose has more of the passion that Pochettino speaks about, as an attacker.

 

Fully agree with your first point, and it's one of the reasons why Walker stood out as our best player - he was the only one with the pace and engine to cover the extra ground at Wembley. I wouldn't necessarily blame Poch for not picking up on this as a potential problem - he picked what he felt was the strongest team and I for one was happy with it on paper. I will be interesting to see how he approaches our next game, and in a way it's fortunate that we don't return to Wembley until Novermber. By then, I'd hope that the manager will have a much clearer picture of where GKN and Sissoko fit in.

As for Kane, I worry that the battering he received after the Euros has severely dented his confidence. It's not so much that he looks tired as it is that he seems completely unsure of himself. I think he'll pull himself together as the summer grows more distant in the rear-view mirror, but for the time being I hope Mr Hodgson sleeps peacefully at night safe in the knowledge that his rank incompetence came close to ruining England's best striking prospect in over a decade.

 

I shouldn't worry too much about the result.Monaco this season will be the PSG of last season.Lets concentrate on the others in the group,after beating Monaco in the return!

 

Just seen the goals from your game.

The first was a carbon copy of Mahrez's against Vertonghen from last season.

 

Kane looks like he needs a good nights sleep followed by 3 weeks in the sun to rest up, as the boy is knackered. Hasn't he played something like 80 games in last 2 seasons as he also played in u21 tournament during last summer.
as a Gooner I hope Spurs keep playing him and he continues his poor form, but as an England fan I want him to have a rest

 

Yes he has basically played non-stop for 2 seasons straight, which at his age is utterly ludicrous and will lead to him fading earlier than others. The fact that he was our only striker last season was criminal. Compounding this is the fact that Pochettino is something of a taskmaster on the training ground, so even in between games he was working his socks off.

But trust me, as someone who watches the lad week in week out, there is something not quite right with his body language. This isn't just tiredness. This is Hodgsonitis.

 

Spot on.

From what I saw of the game, Monaco were very clinical.

Perhaps playing in a different stadium with a bigger pitch and a different atmosphere had an effect. WHL is ideal for those European nights where the British hosts sticks it up Johnny Foreigner by charging forward with relentless energy in a cauldron of noise (ditto Anfield). Wembley isn't intimate enough for that.

 

Having the entire British media corps single him out after every England game over the summer when they should have looked at the countless failings in Hodgson's system and The FA's need to placate Rooney's sponsors over the England team certainly didn't help.

 

That's true ... hadn't realised it until you said it.
Great result for you lot...must be well pleased...could kick start you title defence.

Personally I am not despondent about our loss...it was 2 lapses of concentration at the back and poor finishing that cost us which can be corrected.