The refs in the States have been completely clueless. Citeh were unnecessarily aggressive for a friendly but I presume that they were making a point. We tend to react well to losing, so it may have the opposite effect. We need to get Danny Rose and Victor Wanyama fit and quick and lift the mood with some decent incoming players and we can render this irrelevant. Citeh are just an injury to Kompany away from being vulnerable. Now, if they got their hands on Alderweireld and Hugo........(shivers.)
Interesting that we played with a strong team and made few subs. Obviously planned for the players to get up to 90 minutes game time fitness.
Slow starts have killed 2 great seasons as far as really competing for the league has been concerned. We've been too far back to catch up when we've got into our stride. We've learned that from 2015/16. Last season the Euro's screwed with us and Chelsea's lack of European football gave them a strong early advantage. This year there really isn't any excuse. Mauricio Pochettino says our top players have only been in pre-season for 2 weeks. Given that Harry Kane and Dele were slow starters last season, is that wise? I don't know. Fingers crossed that we've got the balance right. Given our injuries, lack of purchasing and no startling improvement from GKN or Vinnie, there's no other options.
What i dont get is what is the point of pre season when the main first XI rarely features...nothing is played at high intensity to check the potential. Ok i hear it's about fitness, so why the concern of the attitude? i dont know how to feel about the coming season as things stand...for me the pivotal game is the Chelsea at Wembley...we get a result there and we can turn it into a fortress, we lose and it's going to be a hard slog. Why? because we dont react well to knock backs.
Before the game, I thought Citeh might really up their game, pre-season or not. They lost to Man Utd, and another loss to a PL rival might have got the plastics going. Similarly they didn't want the PR of Walker "made the wrong choice" wanting to leave Spurs etc.
I already said it's vital we win our first match at Wembley to break the recent hoodoo. Wish it wasn't against Chelsea but with new signings I'll feel a lot better about it and the new season.
didn't this game remind you of the end of season game v already relegated Newcastle? A good question for the coming season is:- will we finish in the top ten next season and will we have the most "home" defeats since......? I sometimes look at all the money paid to players today and think they could just go through the motions until they want a pot or two (Walker) and decide to leave......
http://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/new...pment-squad-u21-france-tournament-win-300717/ Lads win Under-21 Tournament in France! please log in to view this image
It's not all doom and gloom ...I like to think it's because the referees for that tournament knew what a foul was.
Belated impressions from my trip to Nashville: Man City out-fought and out-thought us thoroughly. Their press was so effective we spent most of the game going backwards. As to why that is, I'm not sure, but the worst case scenario IMO is that Man City is very good. I hope it was more a case of our players not turning up for the last game in a long road trip. They certainly did not look up for it, and were second to every ball. Bright spots were very few and very far between. N'Koudou looked lively. On a day when we were unable to string two passes together, his speed dribbling actually got us somewhere from time to time. Janssen's backheel flick that cleared both defender and goalkeeper was delightful, even if it didn't result in a goal. Winks looked good early, but faded. Kane at one point made a concerted effort to get us back in the game, but City wisely kept him surrounded with four players. Vorm did about as well as could be hoped. Vertonghen and Wanyama made powerful cases for themselves by their absences. Trippier got flack from the crowd for being particularly bad, and while he was, almost everyone was fairly awful. I don't know how many times I saw Eriksen telegraph a pass to Kane, only for the defender to step in front and intercept. Finally, I didn't like the way the crowd booed Walker. He was a good servant to the club, and did nothing obnoxious concerning the move. On the bright side, driving back from Nashville I found the most American thing ever: a fifty foot high statue of Jesus rising from a cornfield. What makes it the most American thing ever is that it replaced an earlier, 60 foot high statue known as Touchdown Jesus, because his arms were raised in the way gridiron refs indicate a touchdown. Why would anyone replace something as wonderful as Touchdown Jesus, you ask? Because--I swear I am not making this up--it was struck by lightning and burned to cinders. Not, on the face of it, a ringing endorsement of the statue, or perhaps even of Christianity itself. Certainly not an indication that trusting faith over science (we don't need no stinkin' lightning rod!) may come back to bite you in the ass. But a good comeback from the church responsible for the statues nonetheless. The day after God scored a direct hit on Touchdown Jesus and idolatry in general, beside his charred remains appeared a large sign reading, "He'll be back." please log in to view this image https://www.theguardian.com/world/2010/jun/16/touchdown-jesus-statue-burns-down?CMP=share_btn_link
Renato Sanches playing like he doesn't give a ****, keeps on losing the ball, attempting Hollywood passes miserably.
Jan played 70 minutes before being replaced by Wimmer. But I can certainly understand why you thought he was absent. In fact, I had to regularly double check that I wasn't watching City's pre-game warm up and that the match had actually started
I saw many games in my time where Spurs just didn't turn up.This was another I just felt embarrassed for our mad keen fans who went to watch it. I hope one of our players apologises for that display of indifference!
In a nutshell I think RWAEB hit the nail on the head - Man City outpressed us. It's not the first time we've seen it. When the other team tries to really, really press us hard we can't handle it. Which is why we do it ourselves. I thought Man City played very well against us as much as we played badly. Sorry you made that journey to go see Spurs and we were so utterly ****, RWAEB. And yes - Christianity in the US is horrible. In the UK and Europe at least you get some nice buildings, some amazing art, nice music, funny costumes etc that has built up over the centuries. Plus hardly anyone's actually Christian which makes it all very palatable. In the US, however, it's people in ****ty, ugly buildings surrounded by nasty art and because, of all things, they actually *believe* that God stuff and aren't just hanging out somewhere there's nice stained glass windows and a bit of history. Horrific.
Christianity in the UK and Europe Bloodshed, torture, extortion, violence, slavery, inquisition..... I'd settle for "horrible" in the US.
