Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Hull City

United with a late winner. ****e.

 

Bloody Man U score a late winner?

 

3-0 FT. A slightly strange performance, but a good enough result.
First half was pretty easy and comfortable, despite a couple of moments at the back.
Started the second very poorly, though. Winks' introduction changed that.
Nice to see Eriksen back in form and Sissoko putting in a good shift.

 

Most of the 1st half was uninspiring at best as well. Winks better than Dele but frankly that didn't say much - and the absence of GKN when we're looking for creativity is strange.
Still too many questions unanswered for me.

 

Well it should've been 8-0

Pleased enough with that. I hope Pochettino doesn't put too much faith in going 3 at the back as I think it was a bit of a hinderance at times and we were helped by Hull being woeful.

Great Stuff from the fans at the end, giving Hull Spurs their chants. I don't think many fans do homecoming's as well as ours. Even Sol's was keenly observed

I'd give MOTM to Walker, I thought he was terrific today.

 

Terrible round of games for Arsenal. Everyone else in the top 8 won.
Not exactly perfect for us, but at least we got the win, I guess.

 

A number of players had very quiet evenings in what was a strangely easy game to win. Hull made it easy to be honest. A little bit more belief and bite and they could've punished us in that dreadful half an hour spell before and after HT.

Vertonghen, Rose, Walker, Winks all had excellent games. Eriksen MOTM by a mile. The only player in the final third who looked like he could make something happen.

Kane and Alli were particularly disappointing. And I'm still not entirely comfortable with the 3 at the back idea, especially with all the fannying about around the box we bizarrely insist on.

Nice to see Sissoko put in a shift. Some excellent runs followed by shots that at least gave me something to laugh about.

With all of our rivals picking up maximum points today, a win was essential. Tricky one coming up against Burnley but one that we really should win.

In other news, our GD is now better than City

 

Agree with that although Eriksen was excellent as well

 

Yeah, I'd add in Rose and say they were our 3 stand out players whilst the rest were all just "good".

 

Son came on and finally managed to pass a ball to a team mate!

 

And also run into a couple of deadends - one of which was in a 3 onto 2 breakaway.

 

Sorry, despite the result, there's something about Poch that I do not like. I do not approve of his belief in being so defensive. Yes, he's trying to build from the back and is determined to have the best defensive record in the PL but surely this is not what Spurs is about. Where's the flair, the dynamic, the passion and the creativity? This is simply how life was under AVB during his short tenure. Boring.

Kane was isolated upfront. In games like this, Spurs should be playing with 2 strikers. Appreciate Janssen is injured but he could have dropped Dier and/or Wanyama and played Son upfront with Kane. I really do not like his obsession with 1 striker and 1 or 2 DMs! Be flexible and creative.

 

Solid performance, nothing spectacular but we done more than enough to see off a pretty poor Hull side, I'm kind of glad in a way that we didn't bust a gut to win this seeing as we have another game on the weekend.

Walker and Eriksen were superb, Rose and Jan also great - how unlucky was his Messi type run?! Would've been goal of the season if he scored that.

This is the Eriksen that I feel backs up my points from the other day in that he really is one of the best playmakers in the world on his day, he may not get you out of your seat with a Ronaldinho-esque run but his vision, timing and positional awareness in the final third is immense, a shame his set pieces have gone downhill although that seems to be a curse at Spurs; Bale, Bentley and others all seemed to lose their set piece abilities. Very nice to have the "real" Christian Eriksen turn up in recent weeks, he was sorely missed for the first 10 or so games.

As for Walker, boy has that lad stepped up to another level this season. Last year he was great, bettered by Rose but still great, this season I'd say he's put himself in a very worthy position to say he's the best performing RB in world football at the moment, I can't think of anyone who's been a close second.

Shout out to Sissoko too, was our best player when he came on against Utd and he put another really good shift in tonight, more of that please mate - although work on the shooting will ya!

I think karma came back to bite us as well, after Alli's controversial penalty against Swansea the other week, we had - in my opinion - two stone wall penalties not given, a blatant hand ball in the first half and then a trip on Wanyama in the second (think it was Wanyama, was down the Paxton End and I'm in Park Lane so was hard to tell).

Was great at around 88-89 minutes, we started singing the names of Daws, Hudd and Mason. After the final whistle, Daws and Hudd both got another rendition and they turned to clap the Park Lane. Dawson especially got an incredible reception, I hope he realises just how loved he is by us all, a legend in my eyes.

Nice three points, clean sheet and no injuries, bring on the weekend

COYS!

EDIT - How **** was Alli again? He'll lose his place soon if he's not careful, Winks looked much better when he came on and with Sissoko improving in his past couple of games plus Lamela nearing a return, competition for places will be fierce and he's doing nothing to justify his at the moment.

 

Just couldn't make it up could you mate? One of the best strikers in Europe against a side in the bottom three who've barely kept a clean sheet all season... He produces a dud and is taken off at 70 minutes! ****ing football

 

On my way home from the match.

The Good
1) Thought we were decent enough in the 1st half
2) Eriksen remembering how good he is
3) Sissoko remembering he's a footballer
4) Toby and Jan partnership
5) Walker and Rose
6) scoring 3 goals without Kane scoring
7) reception for all the ex spurs
8) Harry Winks

The bad
1) Inviting pressure by taking ridiculous short goal kicks all the time
2) Dele's performance... needs a break imo
3) some of Dier's passing
4) some of Wanyama's passing
5) Hull City
6) The interview with some celeb I have never heard of at ht
7) the lack of passing options at times

The Ugly
1) There first 15 mins of the 2nd half
2) Snodgrass...hard working but a face like a camels arse
3) The person behind us who shouted out "that was pish Dier" at one point...Seriously? Pish???? Thought I had been dropped into an Enid Blyton story.

Am going again on Sunday...so more of the same (minus the lashings of ginger beer) would be good

 

See, a boot up the arse don't hurt anyone.

#toughlove

Played Eriksen.

 

The tactic that has changed things massively imo is this newfangled crap brought over by the likes of Guardiola that in a high pace, high intensity league that is generally low on technical skill, to 'play out' from the back is somehow seen as a sensible idea.

Besides for being a complete misnomer as you end up giving the ball away just as often as from a traditional 'welly' only in much more dangerous areas, this approach has all but killed our excellent pressing game of last season.

Whether it is a goal kick or whether we are in normal possession of the ball, the CB's and Hugo are seeing far too much of the action. The key to a high press is for the defensive line to hold an average position just shy of the half way line. If they spend so much time parallel to their own box pissing about with the ball, two things are inevitable:
1) They have an extra 30 yards of ground to cover in order to press.effectively
2) The opposition is invited to press us and try to win the ball back in a dangerous area. This has led to the frequent impression this season that 'teams have started to beat spurs at their own game'. They haven't in the slightest. We have brought it upon ourselves.

I'm not entirely sure why the 'piss about with the ball' tactic has risen to such prominence this year, nor can I fathom what advantages it offers in Poch's eyes. But it is, more than anything else, costing us the edge and ruthlessness we showed plenty of last year. Get rid asap says I.

 

26 sideways and backwards, and then from goalie to goalscorer in 4

 

Are Chelsea doing a Leicester this season with these 1-0 games? But I think that signing of David Luis from PSG has worked wonders....and screwed up PSG.