As we’ve discussed here, he’s got better options but hasn’t been picking them. I knew we were in trouble as soon as I saw today’s team sheet. A midfield of Sissoko and Dier just does not work! Dier is far too slow, has poor mobility and his distribution is, well, dire. It didn’t work against you lot, it didn’t work against Wolves, and it didn’t work again today.
Think it stems a lot deeper than just Dembele unfortunately mate. 1 - Dembele declining and going. 2 - Wanyama and Dier declining, the former is finished, the latter is looking very much like he may be. 3 - Huge drop in quality at FB. From 2015-2017 we pretty much had the best pairing in England with Walker and prime Rose. Now we have a load of **** other than an increasingly injured Davies and an unfavoured Foyth, neither though are of the quality of the 15-17 duo, despite having different attributes. 4 - Toby is no longer a world class CB that a large portion of our fans as well as the media still seem to think. I was content he signed a new deal, mainly because it buys us a bit of extra time in the position to find someone new but I won't be led to believe he should be a long term option in the position. 5 - Lloris declining to a level that is of a top 8-10 keeper (from top 3), whilst Gazza has unfortunately not been able to step up in his absence to the level I and others had hoped. 6 - Persistence with using mediocre players and not binning them to the reserves. 7 - Persistence with using players who are out of form and want out/ aren't wanted. 8 - Failure to replace Llorente, who more than proved his worth last season whilst equally failing to give Parrott adequate game time. 9 - Failure to utilise other players in the squad who can add pace/ creativity/ energy (Sess/ Gio/ Skipp). There are probably more but I'm tired and currently recovering from the alcohol I've consumed in the last two and a half days.
Utd and Spurs share the same problem at present. Without a dominant ball winning and/or defensive midfielder and without a playmaker (yours being AWOL in Eriksen), the only way to hurt teams is to go back to front very quickly. If that doesn't happen, the opposition get hold of the game. Throw in a couple of defensive errors and what may have been an unconvincing draw turns into a woeful defeat like today.
Yep, he is making a point to Levy that he needs to buy some players. He did it at Chelsea and he did it with us, he want's his own team (which is fair enough) but doesn't care if he has to make you suffer to get it.
Can somebody check to see if David Baddiel is currently tweeting about how he always said Spurs were racist and he's definitely not the weak link of two comedy partnerships?
If we are going to play 4 at the back then I agree with you. But I still think 343 is the way to go. Sissoko and Sessegnon at Wing back with Lo Celso and Ndombele in between. Aurier, KWP and Rose are perfectly good reserve wing backs and Winks and Skipp could back up the midfield. Aurier is hopeless as a full back and makes the side unbalanced.
Whatever our best formation, we certainly don't have the personnel to play 4-2-3-1...and that's what our new coach has us trying to play. It's blatantly obvious that we don't have the players to do it and it's not working against anyone half decent. I understood Mourinho going back to certain familiar faces and structures in his first few weeks.....but enough is enough. Change needs to happen, if we're to rescue anything meaningful from this season I'd be very happy to see us try anything that gets more fresh blood and some pace into the team. Sessegnon, Foyth, Skipp, Ndombele and Lo Celso need to be playing a lot more, preferably a number of them from the start. Neither Sessegnon or Sissoko are great defensively but they have the athleticism to work the flanks but we also need to start to do more than just make do and 2 new full backs are very definitely needed. However, I very much doubt that they'll be here before the summer.
I agree we should be using a wing-back system. I said after the United defeat I would go with: Gazza Dave Toby Jan Aurier Sissoko NDombele Sess Alli Kane Son For more or less the rest of the season. We'd probably need to score 3 goals per game to win at a fair clip, but the difference is we would be giving opposition sides much more to think about than we currently are, or were for the last 6 months of Poch's reign. One shot on target in a home game of such magnitude is shambolic, but so much of it is down to the system not being suited to the personnel. The glue that connects defense to midfield and midfield to attack simply isn't there. It beggars belief that this squad was crying out for investment for 2 years solid, then we finally go out and add fresh blood, but now don't see the pressing urgency of introducing that freshness to the team. It is madness.
We’ve appealed Son’s red card... bizarre. I saw the incident live as it’s down my end and knew straight away it was gonna get punished, moment VAR then flashed up it was obvious he was gone.
I was there yesterday, will be my last game for a good while because I’ll be out of the country for most of next year if not longer. There were two Chelsea fans sat in front of me (West Stand) which was an absolute pisstake. Supposed to be seeing the family on Boxing Day but I might sack them off now so my last game for the foreseeable isn’t that ****show we witnessed yesterday. Haven’t left a Spurs game feeling so disappointed for a good while.
Don't you get an additional match ban for a failed appeal? Everyone on twitter celebrating the fact that now Sess or Gio will get a run out...can't wait to see their faces when Eriksen is in the starting line up on Thursday.
I watched Arsenal at Everton and thought ...what a load of rubbish!.. Then our "team" played Chelsea!!!!
I think var would have blown itself up in the days of Robert Smith,Tommy Smith and that nut at Wimbledon!
Yeah I think you do, makes the decision even more stupid now. As for the replacement, if it isn’t Sess I’m rioting.
Well, that was bloody awful, wasn't it? Mourinho didn't learn the lessons of the Wolves game and found out what happens when you add a couple of awful errors to it. Aurier and Gazzaniga may have been responsible for the goals, but the overall performance was terrible and that's on the manager. We need to take charge of games and not rely on having more firepower and better finishing. We were crap in the first half, but removing Dier wasn't the answer. We needed more bodies in the middle, not less. He should've sacrificed Moura and given the team a better balance. He'll have to change things against Brighton, anyway.
While this racism investigation is underway it's probably best for the club to limit it's statements on the whole thing. I think that I can speak for everyone on here though when I say that if you are a racist, then you can **** off and support someone else. Maybe give Lazio a go? They seem to like that sort of thing. Has there been any footage released of any racism from the game, yet?
I cannot remember feeling so bad about a defeat as bad as yesterday , Chelsea did a job on us then Gazza turned full Jackie Chan to make the 2nd half near impossible, that moron decided to throw a missile on the pitch and to top it off the racist can't accept that one of our players spits out his dummy and gets a red , the only player who should not blush picking up his wages this week is Sanchez , the lad is slowly becoming the player we hoped for
Ndombele. Thrown into a **** situation and showed some skill and determination. I'd like to see us go with a 4-4-1-1 next and try him and Sissoko in the middle with Eriksen and Lo Celso wide.
