You know it's weird, even though the scoreline wasn't exactly comforting for us fans and at home we'd have somewhat hoped for a bigger goal tally, I actually thought that was one of our best performances of the season. Huge credit to Burnley, they defended superbly and they got a goal due to some good early pressing and generally made it really difficult for us during the 90 minutes but I felt we passed the test superbly. Unfortunately the shooting of some is still off but I thought the all round play was really good and on another day we could've left WHL with 3 or 4 goals. Heaton pulled off one or two top saves so fair play to him. Danny was absolutely superb and an easy choice for MOTM, took his goal brilliantly and it was a deserved reward for his display. With the first 20 minutes aside, Walker was also great again and added yet another assist. What a pair of full backs we have, so lucky to have them. Winksy was really composed, dictated tempo and looks far beyond his years and experience with the way he plays, if he keeps this progress up he'll become an important player for the club in no time, really enjoy watching him play. Alli got the goal and fair play to him for making the run on to Walker's cross, was also unlucky with his curled shot in the second half but I still think he's missing that "IT factor" from last season, whenever he had the ball last year there was a sense of excitement and intrigue as to what he'd do, this season it's more or less waiting for him to lose possession. Though with the criticism aside, I need to remember he's still just 20 years old and is miles away from his best footballing years so blips and loss of form will be expected. Eriksen got involved with some positive play and was unlucky with his shot which Heaton saved well. Dembele didn't really impress me, again he didn't look match fit and without sounding like a broken record, I'll refer back to the thread I made in that while no doubt he's top class when fit and on form, his constant injuries and thus lack of match fitness is hampering our progression and rhythm. If over the next few weeks he's still having fitness and injury issues, I think Poch should really look at the possibility of not using Mousa as an automatic starter and focus more on a midfield partnership between two of Dier/ Wanyama/ Winks, we really need some stability and continuity in the XI and I'm having concerns that Mousa just can't be relied upon fitness wise to play regularly week-in, week-out. Such a shame because he's one of the most naturally gifted players I've seen at the club but just seems to be cursed with injuries all the time. I thought the subs of Son and Sissoko really helped changed the game, especially the latter. Son came on and added width, pace and directness while Sissoko added the same while getting a superb assist, that was a beautifully crafted goal between him and Danny - one of our best of the season - and it seems our underwhelming summer signing is starting to pay pack (albeit little by little) that hefty £30m we paid judging by his recent performances. I was surprised he didn't start as he played really well against Hull on Wednesday and he's done his chances no harm for more game time after his cameo yesterday. I like the fact he only seems to look forward when in possession and it's something we've lacked at times this season, it's nice to see a player just go at the opposition. I didn't realise though that he was lucky to remain on the pitch judging by media reviews, I know he got booked but from where I was sit I never noticed it was possibly red card worthy. I said before the Hull and Burnley games that 6 points were a must and thankfully the lads have delivered. Having endured a torrid season with injuries and loss of form to some so far, we're just 3 points off second place without having got out of second gear for the most part, bloody impressive in my opinion and we have a key player in Lamela nearing a return to help boost our chances of playing our strongest XI for the first time! Nice way to end our final couple of games in 2016 at WHL. COYS!
I thought that he was doing pretty well until this: please log in to view this image Not that there's any fuss at all about that tackle, of course.
I've seen no mention of that on the sports sites, still not seen Sissoko's tackle yet either, though funny how the incidents against us are going unnoticed by the media; Taylor on Walker, everyone on Rose, this on Dembele...
It's the scissor kick nature of the tackle that is disgusting. Look at the position and angle of Dembele's leg. If Barnes had been moving at speed, you're looking at anything from a bad sprain to ligament damage to a full-on break.
It will be interesting to see if this tackle makes it into the MOTD2 highlights, as you can bet Sissoko`s high tackle will be under the microscope. I see Dyche was whinging that Sissoko deserved a red card and that it contributed to his team losing, I don`t suppose he saw this tackle on Dembele.
I didn't understand why we would play all our deep lying mids against a team that hadn't scored an away goal in open play, and still don't. I used to be able to guess Pochettino's teams pretty accurately, but not the last few games. But I like the fact that he's changing things up. It seems to me looking for the right formula makes sense at this point. I also like three at the back, as it makes the most of our best players this season, our defenders. And one more thing I like is the shoot first, ask questions later style. It's a good cure for a slow buildup. The players showed good character to bounce back, though I don't know if I'd say it was one of their best performances. More important is that we've picked up points fairly well so far despite our attacking players being notably up and down to a man. We need to go on a winning run soon, I think, if we are going to have any chance of catching Chelsea. I think we have the players to do it, but need the performances. In any case, it's very nice to have a couple of wins going into Christmas. Scoring more and Arsenal struggling make it even better.
I don't understand why people thought we played with two DMFs yesterday. We didn't. Wanyama was DMF, Dier was a centre back.
Just watched MOTD2. As suspected not a single mention of the that attack on Dembele. Why am I not surprised
Nor the Ankle cruncher on Dele-also by Barnes who happened to score their goal. But Sissoko - well...... And who did they have on to discuss it- only Charlie **********Adams. What a joke
It certainly is interesting how a scissor tackle and studs to the face were not deemed worthy of mention by anyone, it seems, but studs to the thigh provoke universal outrage.
I saw MOTD yesterday and the 2 northern based 'anal-ysts' [emphasis strongly on the anal] were very keen to agree with Sean Dyche that the decision cost his team the game. Charlie Adam, who is known to be fair in all things and a lover of Spurs, compared the Sissoko tackle with one which produced a red card for his team mate Arnautovic. Yes, there are similarities but the crucial difference is the Stoke player went through with the challenge and wiped out the opponent. Sissoko was in the process of pulling out of the challenge, presumably because it was obviously likely to cause injury. In the end, he didn't fully avoid contact but the reason the Burnley player wasn't badly injured was that Sissoko was in control of his movement and went to avoid/minimise contact. Does that entitle him to the benefit of the doubt? To my mind it should. The laws of the game's ultimate on-field punishment isn't meant for that. If Sissoko had gone 'all-in' then he would have deserved to walk. Sean Dyche saying that "if his player had feigned injury then something else would have happened" just doesn't help anyone, including him. He's a good young manager and one I would hope to be above that sort of thing. Come on, Sean, you're better than that - just say the ref's made a mistake if that's what you think.
By complete coincidence, the other day I was reading an article about Don Revie's Leeds team, and in particular this passage stood out... Moreover they made an indelible mark on top-flight football, one resented by many as they squared-up to existing powerhouses. That sounds more than a little familiar to how the media seem to actively resent our attempts to knock at least one of their favoured clubs off their pedestal on a permanent basis, hence the overblown response to Sissoko's foul against Burnley or Alli doing what the likes of Sturridge, Sterling and Vardy (among others) do on a regular basis without comment, or for that matter how the papers can't resist trying to dismantle our team with claims of release clauses, players being unhappy that they have started 90% of our games this season, or contract talks stalling. That's a major reason the media were so behind the Leicester City Fairytale™ - it was always going to be one and done, and the following season normal service would be resumed, both in terms of the usual suspects in the top four and Leicester being much closer to the bottom of the table than the top. On the other hand we're in a position to potentially elbow one of the media darlings out of the top four, as we've already done so a couple of times (technically three, but UEFA ****ed us on that one...) coupled with the number of times we've finished ahead of so many of those same media darlings - especially Liverpool, the club which the majority of pundits just so happened to have previously played for.
The only indelible mark that bunch of cheating thugs made were the the gouges caused by raking studs! Although they did get relegated/promoted back to Div 1 in the early 60's, I cannot really see any parallel with the 'breaking the establishment' argument. There wasn't the same level of media scrutiny and there wasn't the same 'Big 4' to crack. Horrible club, crooked manager and some of the nastiest players ever to 'grace' the FL. But maybe I should say what I really think!!
I think that it's the fact that Dyche made such a song and dance about it that makes it a prominent highlight, of course Pochettino doesn't make a fuss to the BBC reporter about the challenges made by Barnes so they don't need to show it, as was the case with the Taylor v Walker episode the other week. Now I don't want Poch to become a whinger, but I would like balanced reporting and highlights from the BBC
