I agree that we are 'under the gun' right now. Considering the issues, we've done well to pick up 21 points in the PL. We've won games without playing well. Most of those games have been against the bottom sides. Alternately, in Europe we've played okay. Not great but well enough and then chucked those performances away by panicking in the last 5 minutes of away games. This fits a pattern of leading or playing well in big games and blowing it. I can think of about 10 games where we've done it. Until that issue is confronted and resolved, we'll keep repeating it.
How do you 'close out' a game though? Is there a specific way of playing that guarantees we won't concede a goal in 30 mins after taking the lead? Goals are hard to score. The facts are that we scored three and one was totally wrongly disallowed. The red card was dubious too. If we played exactly the same in those three games we'd have got 4 to 6 points 99 times out of a hundred.
You asked me this after the Milan disaster. I shall refer you to my previous response.... I'd put this down to Eriksen failing to play to feet. His ridiculous blind pass resulted in the sending off of Hugo. Just keep the ball. It's kind of difficult for the opposition to score when we've got the ball. From today, don't give away free kicks allowing the opposition to lump it into the box. Trippier gave away a needless foul. From there you could feel the panic coming through the TV screen. Just play safely within your capabilities and keep the ball. It ain't rocket science but is well beyond us at this point.
And if it was as simple as that then no-one would ever lose once they had taken the lead. The fewer risks the leading team takes then the more risks can be taken by the losing team which makes them more likely to score. I think once you are two goals ahead you can change tactics but before that playing normally is correct.
Sorry bit I strongly disagree. There are times in games to play safe and times to up the tempo. It's a lot more difficult to score a goal than it is to avoid conceding one. Nothing is guaranteed but if you play measured football and deny space, time and opportunity to the opposition, there's a strong likelihood that they will fail to open you up. In the minutes before half time and at the end of a game, you don't take unnecessary chances. These are bad times to concede because there's no time to hit back and players are tiring. If you're winning, keep your foot on the opponents throat and enjoy it. When you've just scored, be ready for the opposition to throw the ball at you and hold firm. Enjoy being ahead and make it difficult/impossible for the opposition to get back at you.
separately...I think that while Lloris screwed up tonight and v Barca he saved us 2 points v Cardiff at the death and three v west ham so a little perspective is needed...he ain't as bad as people think he is at the moment imho
It's never as bad as people think. It's also rarely as good as people think when we win. We are in the best six teams in the UK and the best 16 in Europe. Our performances are entirely consistent with that. Trying to improve on it is very hard.
We threw the win away, as soon as we took the lead we appeared to ease off and tried to manage the game instead of being ruthless and going for a third goal to kill off the match. We are not clinical enough, we battered PSV and should have scored 4 or 5 but wasted our chances, you could see an equalizer coming, we`ve seen it all before sadly.
Really? Because if we'd been going for a third and got caught upfield on a break through which they'd scored, there would be a lot of people on here saying we should have been trying to manage the lead we had rather than going for a third.
CL aside we have had a good start to the season...even more so considering the injuries to: Lloris, Vorm, Rose, Vertongen, Dele, Dembele, Winks, Eriksen and Son missing a month when away with South Korea. The problem will be this run of games. City, West Ham (a) (cup), Wolves (a), PSV (CL), Palace (a), Chelsea, Milan (CL), Arsenal (a). last season we lost to City, went out of the cup to West Ham, beat palace with the last kick (or head) of the match, lost to Chelsea and if you compare wolves with West Brom we lost, if you compare them to Stoke or Swansea we had narrow wins. We also lost to Arsenal. By December 2nd we will be out of CL, could be out of the League Cup, and could have lost to City, Chelsea and Arsenal and dropped points against Palace and Wolves. Or we could have got 4 or more points from those matches plus beat Wolves and Palace, be in the quarter finals of the cup and be in with a very outside chance of CL qualification. Personally I think it'll be somewhere in between but that's what I love about football... the uncertainty and hope. Arsenal, Chelsea United and City seem to have a large number of fans who hate the ride and just want the results. I guess that's what constant success brings...give me uncertainty any day... keeps it exciting imo
Not me, Squire. As I said to PowerSpur, it's about playing the right game at the right time. Definitely push for the third, but if you're still only one goal ahead in the last 10 minutes, then it's time to reign back the attacking and concentrate more on ball retention, shape and minimising opportunities for the opposition. Our problem is that in big one-off games we play well and end up losing or drawing. Very often, this happens from us enjoying a lead or being on top and letting our opponent back into the game. As it keeps happening, it's not luck or coincidence.
I thought Spurs actually played well. The mistake from Toby was unfortunate, as were the disallowed goal (I still don't understand why it was offside despite some saying the goal keeper must also be behind the ball along with an outside player - I have never heard this before), and the red card that really shouldn't have been a red card (but I understand why the ref felt it was a red card offence). Yes, the team is not very good at shutting out the opposition when they are ahead and this is something that is repeatedly bandied about. I thought Dembele played quite well today and was going forward more frequently. I think I also saw an attempted shot from him which of course didn't threaten a goal! I don't mind that Spurs are probably likely out of the CL, I would rather they focus on the PL to ensure they qualify for the CL next season. If Spurs get a pass into the Europa, that's fine by me too. Son was a little selfish and need to think about how the team can score, rather than score himself.
I thought that the subs were good, Lamela for Moira and Winks for Dembele. The third was probably Sissoko for Son, but that was scuppered by the wrong sending off of Lloris. That would probably seen the game out. Their equaliser was as offside as our disallowed A player in an offside position, two in PSV s case but not really interfering with play. Lack of consistency again. The officials again proved their competence. I can handle incompetence but it needs to be consistent incompetence.
It’s a chance you take, or you manage, as Pool did tonight. They were 3 up and still attacking. Best form of Defence and all that...
I'm just pissed off in general time and time again we don't learn to close out a game it's so frustrating psv were very poor and were there for the taking but we couldn't manage it for whatever reason.
At home against Cvalfjasgtpj-e Vdpogbvpjg, who had no fans at the game, having been given two penalties...
I watched it mate, they went at them virtually from the start. And it’s not because of who they were playing, they do that in virtually all their games. They would have buried PSV too.
We knew that there could be problems when we got Inter Milan from Pot 4. Add in playing them away in the first game, added to by Barcelona in the second and we weren't in the best of positions. As soon as we lost in Milan, there was no room for further mistakes and we just blew 2 points. The pressure gets to this team. Until they get that out of their systems, we'll be condemned to repeat it.
