Other than a Poch brainfart, no, not really a reason. Understand the need for rotation at times but with Southampton on Wednesday, I'd much rather risk playing a weaker squad/ selection against them than doing so against Arsenal at The Emirates.
I was genuinely confused by this. Unless he was injured or wasn't completely match fit, to start an inexperienced 20-year old Argentinian in a game of such magnitude was absolutely crazy. Do you know how relieved I was to see Alderweireld on the bench? As I said earlier, Foyth had given away two penalties at Wolves, and was fortunate he didn't give one away against Chelsea, too. There were vulnerabilities to his game that the Arsenal players targeted, as he seemed quite unsettled for portions of that game. There is a good player in there, but chucking him in the deep end like that is not going to help his confidence. Not complaining though!
Was it tiredness? Did we once again think we just need to turn up? Poor selection...logic would suggest play the experienced man in the big game and the rookie against lowly Southampton. Was it too much for Toby to start a 3rd game?
I’ve seen a couple of people mention on Twitter that Alderweireld apparently felt ill in the lead up to the game.
The wisdom of Twatter Some twat has decided to add 2 + 2 to get **** knows what All will be revealed as I think Foyth needs the bench. Still fuming why Poch didn't take him off..for me the top managers are not afraid to make half time changes...Poch never does it...he always wants to come across loyal. Dier at the back...Winks on for Foyth would have been better...yesterday was ugly. Need to keep on reminding myself that we have had a decent week all in all but what a way to blow it..by not turning up
Talking of brain farts........ Aurier regressed yesterday after showing signs of getting his **** together. Appreciate he had a dodgy Foyth alongside, but his petulance was unprofessional and as an experienced international he should be leading by example, not going into full ‘toys-out-of-pram’ mode - particularly when on that occasion the fault was all HIS!
His positioning was poor...like a Sunday league full back...why was that defence so poor yesterday? I'm talking from experience here but they were all playing like they had been smoking some good stuff. The bad thing is...they hadn't...so why were they playing like their brains are not functioning right? Aurier was always in no man's land...chasing shadows.
You could equally ask what happened to our forward creativity, we were just overwhelmed by a side who would not be denied. We had no control in midfield, none at all, and that put intolerable pressure on our defenders. Don't just blame our defence, the whole team failed. It was a game too far in an intense week.
Yeah I got to agree with that Spurf...no one was at the races but the individual mistakes were nothing to do with tiredness..that Foyth pass was unbelievably lazy..Jan was on self destruct..the mentally bothered me. I certainly think it was one tough game too many in a week for this squad
With the best away record in the premiership I was expecting you to get a dray, always remember you played against Arsenal.
I expect to see every player who scores a goal and puts his finger to his lips,or puts his hand to his ear in the vicinity of the opponents supporters to receive a yellow card from now on,. It does, however seem to be acceptable for opposing team substitutes to go onto the pitch to confront a player who does it.
Not getting at you DH but I've never understood this 'having a mare' so sub them mentality. Every player in the world makes mistakes. Sometimes they will happen together and look like bad form. But there is no reason to expect that to affect their performance in the following few minutes. The only reason to sub Foyth and Vertonghen would be if they pressure was getting to them. Perhaps it was but it didn't look that way to me. Just up against a team playing really well. Anyway if they had been off the pitch Dier would have been at centre back and he was at fault for the last goal.
I’m not you sure how you can’t understand it, Power, to be honest. What’s the point in having subs if you’re not going to utilise them when a player is playing poorly? Subs are there to change or see out a game, as Emery showed at HT with his. I appreciate you’re someone who seems reluctant to ever criticise Spurs and I respect that but yesterday was a clusterfuck of mistakes from players and manager and nothing was done to try and rectify them. 79 minutes for the first two subs at 4-2 down, it’s shocking management.
You say that Spurf but we still scored two goals while Leno made one or two half decent saves. Yes our attackers/ midfielders weren’t amazing in comparison with other games but they still essentially done their job in principal. I don’t know what the averages are but two goals away from home is likely to be a positive statistic - especially against a top 6 side like Arsenal. Our defence were horrendous, filled with so many mistakes (including unforced ones) I lost count in the end. Giving away a penalty for a goal and losing possession for another can’t be blamed on midfield or attackers not doing their job. Hugo bailed the defence out a few times but ultimately couldn’t deny everything that the defence were letting through. I’ve been critical of Hugo in recent months but yesterday he didn’t deserve to have conceded 4 goals, his defence failed him miserably.
Subs are for three reasons: to replace players who are injured or tiring and to allow tactical changes. It is simply impossible to tell if a player is out of form on the basis of 45 mins of evidence. I’m perfectly happy to hear criticisms but not based on things I am sure are impossible.
Subs are there to change games for many reasons, whether that be tiring, injured, tactical change or simply playing poorly. Emery has already proven your theory that '45 minutes of evidence isn't enough to tell is a player is out form' is incorrect. He replaced Mkhi and Iwobi at 45 minutes, both of whom offered little against our poorly performing defence. The two players that replaced them; Lacazette - scored and Ramsey - grabbed two assists, is proof that it is possible to use 45 minutes worth of evidence to tell if a player is playing poorly or ineffective.
Exactly...them subs soon became important once the **** had hit the fan but by then it was too late. Poch used them with extreme reluctance..which kind of suggests he doesn't seem to think subs are important to turn a game...more a last resort. I've seen us get done in the past few years by certain managers doing nothing more than to make timely subs...remember the Chelsea cup semi final?
