Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v West Bromwich Albion

Spurf, please adjust prediction league accordingly

 

So that's now two trips to the Hawthorns for me which has resulted in late drama and last minute equalisers.

Thought the game as a whole was pretty boring, though we had the much better chances and Foster played a blinder.

It was inevitable that Chadli would score and absolute fair play to him for not celebrating, class guy and class player, wish him every success with his future career.

Toby's injury was devastating to see, I think all Spurs fans wanted to cry when we saw him shout in pain after trying to stand before being taken off on the stretcher. I pray it's just a really bad knock and he'll miss maybe a week or two, it'd be terrible if he's out for a long spell, he's our best player and is the key to this successful defence.

Thought Walker again was superb, considering he'd just come in off the back of two England games, you could've forgiven him if he was going to play a bit laboured and I wouldn't have been particularity disappointed if Tripps had started but Walker's athleticism is freakish and he got back and forth as if he'd been fully rested, including making two incredible tackles when chasing back.

Alli was pretty decent, of the attacking three I felt he was trying to make stuff happen the most and took his goal really well, it's encouraging that he doesn't seem to be hitting top form in every game yet already has three goals to his name this season.

Lamela and Sissoko were terrible, neither impacted the game and their passing was way off, in a squad in which we have an abundance of talent looking for chances, they'll have to up their level in the next match or risk losing their starting spot. We could've really done with bringing on Dembele, Son and Nkoudou to help bring flair and pace into a slow game but Toby's injury meant one of those three had to be left out which was unfortunately Nkoudou.

Janssen put in a shift but his shooting is a worry, having seen his goal for Holland, every long range shot he's taken for us has been skied into row Z! It does look a bit concerning that he just doesn't seem close to scoring yet but I truly do believe the goals will come hopefully sooner rather than later.

A point away at a tough place, in which WBA will definitely pick up points against other top sides is not a bad point but referring back to a problem from this and last season, we really need to be more clinical in front of goal, it's the only thing that's let this side down.

Still unbeaten with improvements to be made and key players to return, not bad, not bad at all.

COYS

 

All such opposition behave accordingly.
As I said, a typical Arry Spurs side would have swept these teams away in the first half.
I would be drilling the squad into the ground to improve the speed of their forward
distribution of the ball.

 

He's playing pretty well and gives us a very different option to Kane and Son.
I'm not sure that West Brom is the game to play him in, but our fixture congestion had a lot to do with it, I think.
Should come into his own when the game's more level and we've got less possession.

 

I agree. WBA's defenders would have disliked playing against Son more but his travelling means we need to use him sparingly post-internationals. However, Janssen wasn't bullied at all and gave us a solid attacking base and he used the ball really well bringing Dele and Lamela into the game high up the pitch. The goal he scored for Holland in midweek showed he can make a chance and finish really well. I think he's a bit too deferential to some of the talent around him at present. However, that's understandable given his background and who he's playing with now and comparing them with his team mates from last year. He's made a massive jump to the PL but he's a bloody trier, as evidenced by coming back from dropping down to play for Almere City and fighting his way back to the top league in Holland and winning their top award last season.

Lots of players struggle in the PL in their first season. I recall Henry really did at the Gooners and he's doing better than Lamela did in his first 2 seasons. He needs our support to get him over the settling in period. Then people can judge him on what he's capable of and have a go if that's what makes them happy.

 

You'll be lucky

 

Suggestions that Toby's injury is bruising to nerves around the knee. That would make sense of the immediate intense pain being all down the leg rather than restricted to the location of the blow to his leg and him not needing any support, as was shown in footage from social media yesterday. The recovery from that would be a few weeks, hopefully. That sounds a whole lot better than it looked on Saturday.

 

Time for a "Physio room" watch article ??

 

Disagreeing mate. I remember us struggling under Harry v the Pullis Stoke team at home in 2010/11...we lost 1 nil late on and again v Wigan (home) and wolves (away) where we lost 1 nil. I remember us drawing away to Hull nil nil around then too. We have often struggled when teams have played like West Brom did on Saturday.

 

We got done on occasions, but many teams who tried it on just got swept away.
This season Spurs have been teetering on the edge with 1-0 leads etc when the
territory + more accurate shooting suggests a greater lead should have been achieved.

 

What's the latest on Alderweireld?

I think he's your MVP

 

Nothing official, as yet. Some encouraging stuff on social media, but it's still up in the air.

 

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/alderweireld-worry-for-pochettino-wf7j59wqz

"Toby Alderweireld received a boost last night when he was told he had suffered only nerve bruising to his knee and is likely to recover quickly. The Tottenham Hotspur defender will have a scan today to confirm there is no other damage, but is confident he has escaped a lengthy spell on the sidelines after he reported feeling better yesterday despite the injury making his knee feel numb."

 

I am probably going to sound like a smart arse but I think that you are looking at it with slightly tinted specs.
In 2009 / 10 when we came 4th we had these results...
Home
Spurs 2 Birmingham 1
Spurs 1 Bolton 0
Spurs 0 stoke 1
Spurs 0 Hull 0

we also only scored 2 v sunderland and 2 v the terrible Portsmouth team that were relegated.
Away
Birmingham 1 spurs 1
Bolton 2 spurs 2
Fulham 0 spurs 0
Wolves 1 spurs 0
stoke 1 spurs 2
Portsmouth 1 spurs 2

We also lost to pompey in the fa cup semi final.

that was 14 points dropped to such teams.

I have chosen the defensive teams at that time to illustrate the point. I ain't trying to point score but I just think it's easy to forget these results from that time and only remember the great football that led to wins over Chelsea, Arsenal, Liverpool, City and us scoring 5 away from home and 9 v wigan.

I also ain't slagging off Redknapps team...I just think you are over simplifying this. Genuinely hope I ain't coming across rudely cos it's an interesting discusdion

 

No, I remember the bad games too.
IMHO it doesn't take much to turn a Pochettino attack into AVB 2013-14.
Which is my big concern. The Arry team blizkrieg is something that worked
on that type of opposition far more often than it failed. So use N'Koudou etc.

 

etc ?

 

In 2009/10 The blizkrieg did not work more often than it failed against these teams though. I listed 10 matches against 6 different teams.
We only won 4 of those matches...lost 2 and drew 4. We only scored 10 goals in those matches and dropped a massive 14 points and we had no European football that season.
In 2010/11 we had the following results against similar teams...
Stoke (a) 2-1 w
Wigan (h) 0-1 L
Wba (a) 1-1 d
Fulham (a) 2-1 w
westham (a) 1-0 L
Sunderland (h) 1-1 d
Birmingham (a) 1-1 d
Fulham (h) 1-0 w
west ham (h) 0-0 d
blackpool (a) 3-1 L
wigan (a) 0-0 d
Stoke (h) 3-2 w
Wba (h) 2-2 d
blackpool (h) 1-1 d
Birmingham (h) 2-1 w

That's 15 games...5 wins...7 draws and 3 losses. 17 goals scored and a huge 20 points lost. West ham, brum and blackpool were all relegated and we only won 1, lost 2 and drew 3 of those scoring just 5 goals.

Like I said, I think you have made a mistake.
These 2 seasons with these 25 matches (a third of our league matches) gave us
9 wins
11 draws
5 losses
38 points
27 goals
That record does not support your view that we handled the wba type teams better under Harry than under Pochettino.

 

What happened to 2011-12 ...

 

Wigan (h) 2-1 win
Blackburn (a) 2-1
Stoke (a) 0-0
Sunderland (h) 1-0
Swansea (a) 1-1

 

Was that a 5 game season ??