Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

We have no choice. The end of last season and beginning of this season have demonstrated just how crucial Dembele is to the overall welfare of our system. Like Modric, he doesn't pick up many goals or direct assists, but when he's not there...bloody hell do you notice it!

Bentaleb was the most similar in style to him so, being Spurs, we did the sensible thing and loaned him out to Schalke for the year.

Dembele has such a unique skill set he is impossible to replace without breaking the bank. As I've discussed on our transfer thread - what worries me more is that this problem was obvious last season yet we haven't developed a Plan B. Poch still stubbornly sticks to the 4231 system that, as PNP has rightly pointed out, is completely unbalanced with 2 DM's.

It also doesn't help that Alli and Erikswn have apparently decided to forget that they are good at football.

 

I understand that it's a temporary measure while Dembele's out, but I think that it's clearly the wrong choice.
The problem is that we don't have natural cover in that position, so anyone that plays there will be something of a change.
Alli or Eriksen are more attacking options and weaken us further up the park, but Wanyama's far less effective going forward.

It highlights one of the many problems that we've got in the squad at the moment, in my opinion.
Pochettino seems to trust about 15 of our current players, which leaves us with very few options and little depth.
The window's nearly shut and we don't look to have strengthened enough or shifted enough dead wood, unfortunately.

 

Dembele's come on leaps and bounds then since you signed him. If I remember correctly he wasn't a fans favourite for quite some time?
Seems an important cog from what I'm hearing.

Similar in a way to how Can is becoming for us. Other fans don't rate him, but if you watch us week in week out, you realise how important he can be. Although he's still young and has a lot to learn. But he'll be real quality soon.

 

He went through 2 years of utter indifference. Given his reputation at Fulham and amount of PL experience, most of us were disappointed to the point of being happy to cut our losses and sell. Then, suddenly, Mason picked up a basically season-ending injury in our 5th game of the season last year and Mousa was moved into his position next to Dier. He and we haven't looked back since. It really is amazing how the fortunes of a footballer can turn on one key moment. For Mason, that injury ended his Spurs career. For Mousa, it reinvigorated his.

 

I think it's typical of most managers to only really 'trust' 15-17 players whilst the rest are just the polystyrene filling in the box. Our bigger problem is that only 3 outfield squad players can be said to 'fit' into Poch's preferred system. It's too early to pass judgement on CCV, Winks and Onomah, so we basically have:

Kev
Wanyama
Janssen

Who can be called like-for-like replacements in their positions who allow the 'system' to continue functioning seamlessly. Maybe at a stretch you can count Davies as one of them.We then have:

Chadli
Son
Trippier
GKN or KN they're the same player
Mason

All of whom are a step down in quality and also don't seem to really 'get' what Poch wants from his 'system'.

On paper, our overall squad is probably the strongest it's ever been in the PL era. Harry's starting XI was probably better but his wider squad certainly wasn't. The dilemma is that in practice, it obviously isn't working.

 

Atmosphere isn't helped by the large gaping hole we have in the stadium now, plus the fact the away fans barely sung so it didn't generate any banter between the two sets of fans.

Loudest English fans I think I've seen at the Lane in my years of going have probably been Stoke, mainly in their first couple seasons in the Prem, the weird song choice of Delilah was questionable but they took the roof off when singing it. I was quite surprised that in 2014 or 2015, according to Talksport, we were supposedly the joint second loudest fans in the Prem along with Stoke (would've thought they'd been top by a long shot), the loudest apparently were Utd but I think that must be down to having a massive stadium, this was based on having people to record the decibel levels at both home and away games for a couple matches.

In general though, English fans aren't that loud any more in my opinion, I think money plays a massive part in that because your standard working class bloke can't afford to go barely any games nowadays and so it's left a with a decent number who come with a sort of expectancy in that if you don't score within 10 minutes they'll just start tutting and sighing.

I'd recommend anyone if you can to go to some of the renowned European club's matches and sit with their fans, whether that be in England or their own stadiums. I've been Ajax before when they played PSV and that was amazing, before the match they have a sort of party right outside the ground where flares are lit and there are about 4-5 drummers playing in unison, at half time the crowd were singing three little birds by Bob Marley and swaying along with one another but throughout the 90 it was a great atmosphere, my Cousin managed to get us tickets in the stand next to the F-Side Ultras which was an incredible experience - And you can drink beer in the stands too!

I've also been with my mate and his Fener lads when they played Sheffield Utd in a pre-season game a couple years back (Sheffield and Fener have one of those good relations between clubs, a well respected former director of Fener now works for Sheffield), literally non-stop singing along with a drummer that goes for 90 minutes, his arms must've been dead by the end of it, they brought out flares at one stage too, crazy atmosphere. I've been offered the chance to go to the Utd game in Istanbul for the Europa League match providing I sort flights. The accommodation and match ticket will be sorted for me, so that'll be an experience if I decide to go.

 

I've said this several times, but in my opinion, the atmosphere at the Lane hasn't been the same on a consistent basis since Martin Jol left. Okay, we can all recall times when the place has been jumping since Jol went, but for routine games, the atmosphere has generally been subdued.

Of course, the bloody great hole isn't going to help, but the acoustics are terrible at the moment. Could anyone who was there yesterday possibly decipher a word of what Ossie Ardiles was talking about ?

 

To be honest, Spurcat, he could be standing in front of me talking and I wouldn't understand him! . I watched the Spurs TV bit with him and Wanyama the other day, there's a point where Wanyama starts smiling and begins to laugh, I think it's due to not having a clue what Ossie is saying when he's being interviewed.

Agree though, it's very difficult at times hearing the interviews or stadium announcements, Coytey I tend to hear perfectly in fairness but whenever he's holding the mic to someone it's generally hard to make out what they're saying, often I find myself hearing a few words in a sentence and then trying to put 2+2 together.

 

As to our forwards being off: one, Lamela, has had a hand in all our goals and is clearly better than he was last year. Another, Kane, is continuing his history of bad Augusts. That still leaves Eriksen and Alli, who have clearly been disappointing overall, though Alli at least had a good game last week.

What may have caused their problems is the larger problem we face, IMO, a tactical dilemma. Koeman realized our aggressive press is most vulnerable to an aggressive press. Klopp showed Koeman was right. Pochettino has some serious thinking to do. No doubt part of the solution for him is a speed dribbler, who we’ve been unable to wrangle.

Indeed. Liverpool has been our midtable bogey team for some time.

However that may be, good luck to you. I don’t like your club, but I like the ’Pool Not606 posters, and Klopp too, for that matter.

 

You cannot understand why that is so on match day 3 ?? Really ??

 

So we were a bit meh overall.

Saw the first 10 mins, and the Poool were penned into their final 25 yds.
The MOTD stuff did not give much indication, other than Vorm looked very
sharp off his line (food for thought for when Lloris is ready to return) .

Anyway, a win at Stoke means we are no worse off than for the equivalent
last season, will be on 2 pts per game, and the return of Dembele.

 

The second sprint off his line Vorm did, was an outstanding piece of goalkeeping. He had no right to get that but he did. See it again, and it looks the forwards ball all day long.

 

Good for him.
As I said, the Lloris injury could be a blessing in disguise if it means Spurs are
able to rotate GK in PL/CL/cup games this season and Lloris is forced to raise
his game (his near post weakness etc) .

 

Driving home from the game yesterday, I was listening to Michael Dawson who was due to co-commentate on the Hull v United game. They asked him about Spurs and his views on our performance earlier against Liverpool.

Twice during the chat, he referred to Spurs as "we".

I liked that.

 

Come to think of it, wasn't there talk after his departure that he'd be getting a testimonial? I wonder if we're going to go through with that, as he certainly deserves one.

 

The Fans Trust group certainly got as far as proposing the idea to Levy. Last I heard he was going away to give it some thought, but that was over a year ago, so I guess it's not going to happen.

I don't think Levy approves of testimonials as it has always been rumoured around the club that he had to be bullied into granting Ledley one.

 

Testimonials are so different these days. 30+ years ago they were the club stalwarts pension. Now with so much money in the game and the players getting hopefully set up for life after hanging up their boots, they are really only a chance for the fans to say an individual 'thank you' to those special club servants.
Daws certainly fits the criteria in my books although there wouldn't likely be too many more. Ledley was a no-brainer and I am amazed that Levy had to even think about it, but I guess the logisitics of arranging even a one-off game in these tight schedules is quite a struggle.

 

Any one see this happen?

 

Nope, but Allli worries me, still. I saw what he did to Firmino, luckily the referee didn't!...

 

I don't think that anyone noticed it at the time, but it doesn't look good, does it?
I'd like to see how it looks on film, but a ban for Lamela wouldn't surprise me.