Poch's team selections are becoming so predictable lately that it's filtered down through the team. If plan A don't work, that's ya lot! We need fresh impetus and some drive
I don't even understand why. We didn't even try it with our back-up players. Put Wimmer in for Vertonghen and Davies for Rose, telling the Welshman to go forward more. It's not ****ing rocket science. Instead of that we switch to four at the back and Dier looks awful, our balance is shot and we're crap. The confidence is gone at the back, we've got no width and we're creating nothing.
Shambles of a display. Turned over by Gent reserves. All jokes aside with the Sissoko bet I done, that's exactly why he gets slated. Make no mistake though, Kane and Toby were ****ing dog **** too, Kane's missus needs to be the one that feeds the baby at night because Harry's clearly ****ed on that pitch. All the players just ain't on it at the moment, started a strong side, brought pace on, brought Eriksen on for creativity and yet there was just nothing to us. Completely naff performance. Gonna neck more Tyskie's and pass out on the sofa.
Well, that's spoilt my birthday! I was having such a nice day until this match started. At least their manager had a good birthday present (53 today) an ineffective Spurs tied with a big bow...
I don't know about that. I couldn't see that we would leave out any width and pace and play a midfield of Wanyama, Dembele, Winks and Sissoko. Especially when Davies had replaced Rose. The game was crying out for some width but we had nothing on the left at all and Walker was well marshalled on the right. When we have Lamela and Eriksen out on the pitch we have some creativity to link with the wing backs. Today it was just dead. MP has to bear a good deal of the criticism. That was a turgid team selection. If you trust GKN enough to put him on the bench then play him occasionally or just leave him out. Wretched and some players need to be left out. If Janssen can't make that bench then we're carrying a dead duck.
I am not screaming Pochettino out or claiming we are suddenly **** but why do we throw away chances of trophies by pissing around with stupid formations, team selections etc in cups? It's not just this match but we nearly did in the fa cup v Wycombe, we did it in the last 2 league cups, the EL in the last 2 seasons and it's not just under Pochettino ... previous managers have fielded weakened teams in the cups. I know I am in the minority but I want to see us actually try and win a trophy. Since 1991 we have been in 5 league cup finals winning 2 of them...that's pretty piss poor. 2 trophies and 3 losing finals in 26 years is not ok. My other gripe is why and how do the players talk about winning things and then deliver appalling performances? May they could actually do their talking on the pitch. Really disappointed and have absolutely no confidence about sunday at Fulham and the return leg next Thursday.
I don't think it's our defence that is responsible as poor as they were a couple of times tonight, it's our loss of control in the middle. Wanjama and Dembele have flattered to deceive, although Dembele tried very hard this evening, they have just not been controlling things. To be fair Gent were tackling from behind all night with impunity a real home town ref. for sure. Dele displays the right attitude but he uses it in the wrong way. In a similar way to Liverpool, Gent harried and bit like terriers and stopped Spurs playing. OK but they shouldn't be able to do that; our quality should have come to the fore ..................it did not. Dembele tried very hard and Winks was excellent as far as I was concerned but the left was a shambles and Kane perhaps needs to be stronger and not get pushed around so much. Who said football is not in the mind?
We've now lost more games in Europe this season that we have in the league. The attitude of the players is wrong, the team selection's wrong and our tactics are wrong. The backup players aren't that ****ing bad.
Why is anyone that surprised with this chaotic mess. We cannot absorb any injuries without the quality fresh hold dropping drastically. This has happened time after time . Anyhow fortress Wembley beckons.
At last someone else seeing and mentioning the ref. He helped them control the game. Early on (can't remember who- think Dembele ) ) one of our players had their shirt pulled but in their attempt to win the ball back, the foul was given against us. It sets the tone for the rest of the match and clearly prevented us playing with any fluidity.
It's almost like some of the players think that too. last season we had 1 formation and it got sussed out, luckily towards the end of the campaign. This season we've utilised a new 352 formation successfully, but we are now seeing how it has simply just papered over the cracks from last year. As soon as we can't use it, we revert to something that had its day 8-9 months ago. - There may have been a few personnel changes over the summer, but we're either not seeing those players play often enough and/or they arent producing the goods, meaning we're in the same position we were in at the end of the season. It was like nothing was learnt from the Liverpool game. We knew Davies wouldn't be under the pressure he had from Mane on sunday, but did we pair him up with a left winger like we used to with Lamela, which was successful in the past? No. Did we have any width to take the game to Gent and relieve ourselves of defensive pressure? Did we have any pace to break forward with, that'd allow Alli and Kane in particular to make off the ball runs into space to open up the opposition defence? No Did we manage to prevent our opposition from sitting deep and compact? No The list goes on. Where has our dangerous counter attacking game gone? To rely on 2 wing backs to make the front 4 look like decent footballers, is ridiculous. - especially when 1 gets injured and it basically makes the other redundant.
Happy birthday Maggie...my Birthday too...I'm 41 today. Everything was going great till 6pm, thanks Spurs
****ed up your birthday, mate, Horrible display. Awful defending, especially for the goal. This ain't Bayern we're talking about, Gent are 8th in the Belgian league!...