Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Stoke City

Not any more. They certainly were under Pulis but Hughes has overturned that reputation in his time there as manager. The problem is that they've gone too far in the other direction and are now too much style and not enough substance. It doesn't help that they have half a team missing through injury, but still - Shawcross, Allen, Imbula, Cameron, Bony, Arnautovic - they all are or will be amongst the first names on the Stoke team sheet and the bottom line is: they don't work hard enough.

I did some research in the summer when Dona and I were discussing Arnautovic coming to Spurs, and I saw somewhere that Stoke covered less miles last season than any other team in the top half. If they could graft like they used to under Pulis, they'd be challenging for Europe.

 

Thanks CK I too was at a conference so good to be able to see the game.

 

Jeez, DGC, great show of optimism and positivity!

I don't think anyone's getting carried away with Kane, most just seem buzzing that he's off the mark which will hopefully act as a boost for him.

As for not being convinced, I'm not really sure what you're after mate. We're undefeated four games in, conceded just twice in those four games and both weren't even from open play, we've had to make do without Dembele (plus Lloris for a bit) and we just played a decent team off the park at their ground for the second successive season. If we beat Sunderland 1,3 or 5-0 it all amounts to the same points, it's harsh to give the impression you won't be convinced (and presumably satisfied?) if we don't win by a 3 goal margin, no team has a divine right to win any game by a certain amount, we all know how crazy the Prem can be, City for all the money they've spent managed to only scrape a 2-1 win against them...

The fact we've barely got out of second gear so far should act as a major warning sign to the rest of the Prem.

 

Actually PL "golden boot" wannabees are very worried.
Kane gave them til the last week in September last season to fill their boots
before his first PL goal. This season he has gone 2 weeks sooner.

 

The main positive I've taken from the start of this season so far is that we're straight back in the groove defensively. As much as it's great watching us in full flow scoring goals, there are always going to be games where we struggle to get thegoals and our consistent performances at the back was really important for us last season. Not conceding more than 2 goals for the first 37 games of the season helped us to a lot of points. It's even more impressive when you consider the only goals we've conceded so far were a crossed freekick which crept in at the far post and a penalty.

It's funny how closely we've replicated the results last season though, all the scores are the same except the 0-0 against Liverpool was replaced with a 1-1. Presumably this means we're almost guaranteed to beat Monaco and Sunderland 4-1 next week.

 

Yeah completely agree. I'd say we have the best bunch of defenders/ defensive players in the league. We've proven - unlike other sides - that when a key player from that unit is out, we're arguably still just as strong such is the quality of their competition. When Hugo was injured Vorm stepped in and was superb, Davies made Rose's absence nearly unrecognisable yesterday whereas last season Big Kev showed what a capable player he was in Jan's absence (where the hell is Kev by the way?), Tripps also done great in his opportunities and we now have Wanyama who'll compete for the DM role with Dier now that Dembele is back. It's incredible quality and competition.

 

Yep, and hopefully we're putting together the same further forward too. If we can swap Janssen for Kane, Sissoko for Dembele, Nkoudou for Alli and Son for Lamela with little fuss then we're looking very good indeed. Just need Onomah or Carroll to step up to replace Eriksen when needed. Easy...

 

SpursOrSex, not many decent teams concede 4 goals at home twice so I can't agree Stoke are a decent team. I'm just going on last year a bit when 4 were put past Stoke and then look what happened. I know it's a different part of the season but history repeating etc is what's concerning me a bit, ok.

 

The one thing I want to see above all is that elusive quality that Spurs teams have lacked for years and years, consistency!!

You can't put in a complete professional performance one week, and then look completely clueless and/or lifeless the next. As we have done so many times.

When I see that, I might start to believe we can actually win something.

 

Exactly what I mean when I say I'd like to see a similar score against Sunderland and not back to 1-1 or something.

 

We didn't concede yesterday but I wouldn't say the defence looked 100% - As a result of Vertonghen having 'one of those games' when he made a few unforced errors and then chose to blame those around him.
He can be a bloody good player when he puts his mind to it, but theres something about the lads attitude at times that stinks.
I for one would be more than happy to see Wimmer in as a regular rotation - but where the hell is he????

 

In today's episode of Journalism Really Isn't Difficult, we have The Grauniad starting that we started with Dier playing on the right wing.

No. No we didn't.

 

This is what happens when "proper" journalists start believing they can write ****ty hack pieces like their red-top counterparts.

 

The Metro put Danny Rose in their Team of the Weekend. He was winning Player of the Weekend too, before they realised.

 

That beats the article I read in the summer about Son that concluded with a paragraph that noted how the player was 28 years old and didn't have many years left at the top, and postulated that this was his reason for seeking a potential move away.

Top comment under the article read:

'He's 23 you plank'

 

To honour the journalism of the likes of John Pilger et al.
perhaps we should have a 'John Pilchard' article where we can display these nuggets.

 

I thought Davies' introduction into the team was seamless, but that is ridiculous.

 

Speaking of Davies, what an absolute pro he is:

"You want to play as much as you can but Danny (Rose) has not put a foot wrong, so I can’t complain too much. That’s football and it means when I get a chance, like I did today, I have to try to do well."

Not only is he a superb LB who's helped get the best out of Rose but what a great attitude he has too. Lucky to have two top LBs fighting for one spot.

 

And we should regularly rotate to keep both 'game fit'.
Ben fitted in seamlessly after 3 PL games but any longer could be detrimental.

 

Pochettino rotated the FBs in the 2nd half of last season, until only the PL remained.
All his talk to date this season has been of needing a strong squad, CL games to come etc.
So I think he will do the same much sooner.

I wonder if he has the guts to rotate GK though (the back four do not seem to be
adjusting their general play based on which of Lloris/Vorm is behind them) .