Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Gent

Enjoyed watching Dembele and Wanyama play, when on the park together. Verts played out of his skin against his fellow Belgiums........The rest was ugly.

Kane looks like he's been changing too many nappies late at night and Ali just looks as if hes been going with out.

 

I think that MP did well with his substitutions tonight. As has been said by others Son makes an impact as a sub but not as a starter. Perhaps on Sunday we should leave Dele out, push Dembele up further and play Winks.
PS . Please please please get Lamela fit.

 

OK Almost made Clattenburg look good.

 

That was our first straight red in 93 competitive games, a run stretching back through almost 2 years of football.

The last player to see a straight red was prodigious defender and club hero Vlad Chiriches.

You've joined an elite club there Dele. Hope you struggle to sleep in whichever of your 8 bedrooms you chose tonight.

 

We are out due to a pisspoor 1st leg, poor finishing and Dele being an idiot.
Was really impressed with the team in the 2nd half but in my honest opinion Dier needs a rest. He is an accident waiting to happen in most matches and a break will do him good.
I would put wanyama in his place and put winks in starting line up.
Loved the character we showed.
Even though we went out the way we played, leaving nothing on the pitch makes me positive...until sunday at least!
It is not the reason we lost but that was one of the worst officiated games I have seen live.
We could see the corner they scored from should have been a goal kick from where we were at the opposite end of the ground. We could also clearly see winks fouled when they scored their second.

Final point...think the crowd were excellent.

Had a good night all round

 

I think the bigger picture has problems when it comes to our club. We won't move up a level from this until we get 2 players. One to challenge Kane and the other to give Eriksen a boot up his arse.

 

I think it's time to play the Funeral March!

if all our home games are at Wembley next season,is it possible we will be relegated?

 

Just back from the game. Desperately disappointing. After our failure to get an away goal in the first leg I wrote that if they got an away goal we were in trouble and so it proved. We seem to have learned nothing about playing in Europe over the last few years.

I was probably near to RCL behind the goal Christain Eriksen scored in. I saw Dele Alli becoming increasingly frustrated and when he snapped it was no surprise. From 40 odd yards away it was an obvious red card. Yes, he was a **** ref and gave us nothing all night but Dele has to channel that frustration or it will continue to cost him and us.

I thought we played fairly well in patches but we were up against the team in 10th place in the Belgian league, FFS. There are problems. Our shooting from distance was bloody awful. Jan and Christan Eriksen must have put 4 or 5 into the crowd each. We had 25 shots and managed to get 3 on target. THREE ON TARGET. It's a ****ing joke.

We lack pace without Rose and went sideways and backwards far, far too often. If Ben Davies has a future at the club it's as Jan's stand-in as the left side of a back 3. He's not got the game to stand in for Danny Rose and we need to buy Sessegnon or Guilherme Arana as our left wing-back cover. Failing that, Sonny needs to up his defensive game to justify starting games in front of Davies, who could play as a predominantly defensive left back.

We MUST sign some more pace for this team. Today, only Walker and then Sonny seemed to be able to outrun their opponent in what is a second rate Belgian team. Our free kicks and corners are an abomination. Allowing Eriksen to waste them without end is no longer an option. We scored 23 goals from dead ball situations last season. Currently, this season we have 3. ****ING THREE.

I feel very sorry for Kyle Walker who was tremendous all night. Victor Wanyama played well.

It was the best of the games for atmosphere of the European games at Wembley but still very flat at times. I screamed myself senseless but far too often there was just me and a bloke about 10 rows back, trying in vain to get things going. The stadium is currently a problem to us and next year we're there for every 'home' match. We,the supporters, need to raise our game and so do the players and put this nonsense to bed. If we intend to become more than 'Arsenal Light' then we need to create something really special on and off the pitch and make Wembley the new WHL.

Finally, if I see any more of our players bigging up our chances of winning a tournament before we win one, then they can just **** off. Stop talking **** and get on with delivering performances. Mauricio Pochettino needs to lay down the law. Nobody talks about winning anything until we've won something. That includes the manager.

 

I'm glad you still had a good time, RCL. You had a special night out with loved ones, that's the main thing.

As to Spurs...I didn't get to see this one, but from what I gather it was, ironically, one of our better European efforts this year. For whatever reason, for the most part, the team simply didn't look nearly as up for Europe as they've been for the league. It's disappointing, but this isn't a squad strong enough to make a serious run at a European cup and at the league at the same time. We needed 2/3 of Janssen, N'Koudou and Sissoko to come through to do that. I can only hope Spurs finish the season and FA Cup competition at their best.

 

The officiating was terrible but if we hide behind that then we really are in trouble. Would we have won with 11 on the pitch? Probably - but for all the valiant effort, other than Walker, Wanyama and to a lesser extent Son when he came on, there wasn't much to shout about - even before the sending off.
Eriksen scored a decent goal, but his dead ball kicking and shooting was otherwise dreadful. Vertonghen must have had 5 long range efforts, none of which went less than 10ft over the bar and how Kane can look so assured and confident scoring a hat trick on a Sunday and then look so poor 4 days later is beyond me. His turn and shot in the last minutes was the best he managed all night.
We just seem to made too many basic errors, particularly in the final 3rd of the pitch. It isn't all down to the Wembley-effect!!

 

I'm beginning to think Spurs are the great pretenders.They lead us on then trip over themselves. Our team seem to think they've only got to walk on the pitch and they've won. No. One has to fight to get any where....but not that way Mr Alli.
I hope we do the job against Stoke and Millwall.but remember Spurs they will both be fighting hard.Get the idea?

 

[oops]

 

I know what you mean by saying we shouldn't hide behind the officiating, but on the other hand it appears that two bad decisions directly led to their two goals. So that makes the officials rather decisive in the result of the match doesn't it? So how many bad decisions should we not complain about? If they made say, five bad decisions that led to goals for the opposition should we be saying "but we still should have scored six". Don't get me wrong I do understand the sentiment, but at the same time it's not an even playing field is it, and the effort in the second half deserved something out of the game. I was really proud of the effort.

And I certainly don't agree with the lack of fight that smithy mentioned. The 10 men showed magnificent fight in the second half. As for Alli's particular "fight" then hopefully he learns from that and becomes a better player.

 

Indirectly I would say. Conceding a corner doesn't directly lead to a goal - just ask Eriksen for ****s sake!!!
Seriously though, the only major decision that truly influenced the outcome of the game was the Ali sending off - and he got that one 100% correct I am afraid.

 

Absolutely I've never seen a number 10 so **** with the dead ball and for all of Walkers positives, he could also do with getting the ball over the first defender a lot more often than he does. Eriksen needs to get in the Gym or quite frankly I'll welcome an upgrade and he can pissoff the little school girl. The amount of shots he and Verts skied is embarrassing. I don't care what we had going against us, we had enough chances and they were rubbish enough for us to trounce.

Spurs have a soft underbelly and its embarrassing. I said I can't defend them with excuses if we go out and I can't. Even if the ref was a prick, you can't hide your own downfalls behind that. We had enough of the ball to win.

Another odd thing is if every bloody team can raise their game for Wembley then where is our pride in raising our game? Why can't we raise it or be up for it as much as the opposition. All weak thinking....plus I think Levy needs to stop wasting £50 mill on **** like Sissoko and Jansen. Which idiot thought it was OK to pay 30 mill for the laziest waste of space I've ever come across? Who actually gets paid to make this recommendation? and you don't even need to be an expert to know we were getting shafted. For all the good Levy has done for us blah blah, new stadium etc...a part of me wants him to **** off too and let someone who is interested in actually moving up a level take over instead of smokes and mirrors like 30 mill for ****soko to hide our downfalls....50 million which buys us actual class and any one of us would have done a better job of identifying where to spend it than some useless twat at the club who flushed it down the toilet.

I keep on saying it, we got to win something with this bunch or they haven't done anything...incase anyone at the club reads it....don't talk until you deliver on the pitch lads, cheers for the embarrassment... Losing to a bunch of mid table third rate league footballers...please do **** off and don't expect me to sieve for some positives.

Alli might be young but he is a mug of the highest order and let's see if he actually has a brain and grows from this, he cost us badly I don't give a **** what else he has done for us...that's no leeway for anything....our club got embarrassed!

 

The only time we 'played' was after we went down to 10 men, thanks to that twat, Dele. That's when we did what we should have done before, upped the tempo, upped the pressure on them, give them no time or space.

Spurlock's right. There's no other way of looking at this other than yet another ****ing embarrassment. We don't so much shoot ourselves in the foot as use both barrels to blow the ****ing thing right off!...

If I sound angry it's because I am! I've watched over 50 years of this ****, happening time after time, after time....I'm beginning to think it's on our DNA - it'll never change!...

 

And that was a very dubious red against Manchester City from something of a non-foul on Aguero unlike the full-on assault by Dele. If the ref had not been a total pillock, however, and given the foul on him seconds before, there would have not anything to react disgracefully to.

 

I would note that probably the majority last season were celebrating Alli's tempestuous streak after he was banned for punching an opponent in the chest, as showing that he cared. Did warn that it would cost us, but few seemed concerned then.

 

In theory Wembley should suit us. A bigger pitch with our movement and pace from the full backs means we'll run most teams ragged. Will be more difficult to park the bus against us. My only worry is whether we can maintain our recent high standards.

 

I am not blaming Spurs at all for this result, it's European football and that has always meant poor refereeing and different standards. People always talk about being naive in Europe thereby admitting the different standards that are used. The away goal rule completely changes the way to play and the tactics required but awful refereeing is beyond any teams ability to deal with.
As far as I am concerned people are in denial about the first leg where Gent were allowed to tackle from behind all night with impunity. The officials made this tie not the players on the field.