Disappointed that a lacklustre Spurs made it too easy for Liverpool. As a result you're down among the dead men in the table. You haven't really played well yet this season (notwithstanding a good result at OT). I think the World Cup and then the following international breaks (especially for Son) have been the problem. Players can't keep performing at the intensity required without proper breaks. Every Spurs' first team player has missed out on a decent break from football in the last 12 months+. International football does club football no favours.
There are players who haven't played this summer but they've all had problems. Today we should have been able to field Ben Davies and Serge Aurier but neither inspire any confidence at the moment. In midfield, Winks, Lamela and Wanyama are all on the way back from injuries. The only one who's contributed so far is Lucas Moura. The rest of the team look jaded or just hopelessly out of form. Add in Vorm's presence in goal seems to mean that we can't defend corners to save our lives and the wheels show distinct signs of coming off. Brighton are going to be licking their lips about playing us after we've had a mid-week trip to Milan. It may be time for Mauricio Pochettino to rediscover Llorente, even if it's only to get his head on some defensive corners.
That penalty would have 100% been given if it was a Pool player being fouled, some clubs are given penalties and others are not.
I think we have to bear in mind that Winks is only just coming back from injury and just because we badly need our back up players to be on top form to give others a break, we cannot blame him or Wanyama or Lamella if they are not quite ready. Dier is struggling for sure, his passing is awful, it's more than just the odd horrendous back pass, he gave the ball away many times during the course of the game and he has been doing that for some time. Eriksen's game depends on sparking others if they have no spark he looks bad, he needs support. Kane, as we have all said, is just knackered. Rose I thought was slightly better than he has been but still way below the player the media still seems to think he is. Trippier looks knackered as does the entire England Belgium contingent. The world cup is costing us dear. MP has a difficult job on his hands to nurse these players back to full performance, whilst still playing, hopefully Wanjama, Lamella, Winks and a return to form Davies can help the team. The next few games do present the chance to restore some confidence and form to a severely jaded team.
This. I think we’d all be amazed how our attacking performances would completely alter if we no longer had the end game of “find Kane”. We’d see such better movement and have defensive back lines pulled all over the place, creating gaps for others to get in behind. - much more like the exciting attacking football we are used to. I don’t think it can be underestimated just how much Kane’s lack of movement and overall performances at the moment are holding us back from playing like this. And trust me, I never thought I’d see the day where I’m saying something like this. Confidence is such a huge part of football, but do the players feel confident that Kane is going to bang goals in at the moment? I don’t think they do to be honest, which may well be affecting them. I literally cannot remember the last proper strike at goal Kane had, let alone a goal from a decent range. Even all of his golden boot World Cup goals were pretty naff. For me, it’s Groundhog Day at the moment. We’re just seeing the same thing each week, but I think a lot of the performances are coming down to a lack of belief that the players have in the way we’re set up. It’s affecting their mentality now. It’s been like this as far back as the last few games of last season and it’s getting worse. Sadly, the common denominator is a “rushed back too early” and now “fatigued” Harry Kane.
Totally. Could be a mixture of things. Rushed back from injury, no break, a new born. Give the man a bloody break!!
For the next 3 games I want Eriksen dropped. Ideally Kane too. So Vorm/Gazza Alderweireld Sanchez vertonghen Trippier Lamela Wanyama Alli Davies Son Moura
I think that he's either carrying a continuing ankle problem or he's worried about the consequences of injuring it again. It's not as though he's tiring in matches. He's completely changed his game and seems to be playing increasingly within his abilities. Yesterday, it was shocking to see him in contrast to Lucas, who was very good again. Before the injury against Bournemouth, he was a beast of a centre forward. He'd be knocking centre halves out of his way, pulling them all over the place with his movement, shooting from distance and closing down as a matter of course. Now, none of these elements are present. He's trying but everything is at half speed and he's just too easy to nullify. Yesterday, I was suggesting that he be replaced at half time for Sonny as it was abundantly clear that he was offering us nothing. That's something that I never thought I would say about our best player. At this point, I can't believe that the answer is more football. As much as I would love to get a positive result in Milan, I'd rather that we start to manage him better and try and resolve whatever the problem is, right now, even if it's potentially at the cost of our PL and CL ambitions this season. He's worth so much more to us in the long term than we're getting out of continuing to pick him right now.
Send him and his family on a three week holiday to the lake district in a cottage without internet, tv, phone and take away his mobile phone. He'll come back refreshed and ready to play.
If there's no injury and it is burn out, then I fully agree. Whatever the problem, it wants fixing now because if he isn't injured at the moment and is just fatigued, he's likely to pick up an injury by playing in that condition. If he's carrying that ankle, then it wants addressing and playing twice a week for the next month isn't going to help it. MP may think that he's irreplaceable. but no player is when they're playing this badly. We did fine when he was out injured and can do it again.
I really don't think Eriksen is the problem and if we drop him we drop most of our creativity with him. He is still there creating but if others do not get on the end of them Ie Kane & Dele principally then he will look as though he is contributing nothing. His end product depends on others reacting to his prompts and offers.
Totally agree. Eriksen has nothing to aim for at the moment. Creativity in football doesn’t just come from the person who starts the move. It requires others to offer something to put the pieces of the creative move together. We have next to nothing in that department at the moment, except for Lucas desperately chasing every ball and trying to make something out of scraps.
The lack of movement yesterday was painful to observe. I've seen some criticism of the crowd but there was a decent energy and noise at kick off. However, the paucity of our play just sucked the life out of the place. We continually gave the ball away and went backwards. A large part of that was that players like Winks and Eriksen had so few options to go forwards and we ended up ****ing things up. We had 60% possession but just looked toothless for large parts of the game I can't think of another game where we gave the ball away so cheaply, so often and in such dangerous areas. Fans were trying to up the atmosphere but when the team were struggling so badly, it takes the energy away. It doesn't help that when we're losing we take short free kicks in the opposition's half and end up playing it back to the goalkeeper or let Eriksen and Lamela take dangerously positioned free kicks or Rose take corners, when we have Trippier on the pitch. The wholething seemed badly thought out and we got less than we deserved - it should have been at least 4-1.
No point complaining now since my complaint centres around the lack of transfers in order to help the first team.
Many players, Dier being a prime example, have nothing and nobody to push them. At this time he has nobody pushing for his place and so jogs along with piss poor performances like yesterday’s, When you have a decent squad, with new signings pushing for a place, you either up your game or you end up warming a bench. Too many of our players look like they’re under no pressure to perform, you can bet most of yesterday’s team will be picked again for the next league game.
Kane is wasting a starting slot...someone needs to do something about it...he's terrible to watch. Poch needs to be brave...like he told Levy to be. and don't be shy to make HT substitutions. Successful managers are ruthless in game if need be....Poch wants to be everyone's Dad...as much as he has discarded troublemakers there are a few players that get picked regardless of form...Kane being one of them. Bench him...he wants to break records...win things with us etc...let's see what fire a stint on the bench puts up his arse. Let's see if he reacts like a winner to that scenario
