It doesn’t need to be sustainable all the time though because we don’t play it all the time. It’s only against sides that are basically our top 6 rivals where we know the battle for possession will be a lot harder, therefore we’re choosing to concede possession and play a counter game which so far has been highly effective thanks to the personnel we currently have. I think saying we’re reliant on poor finishing from the opposition is a massive disservice to the strong defensive work we’ve been putting in in these games. Hojbjerg and Sissoko are working their arses off protecting the defence and the defence themselves are now well drilled which is then backed up by a top, top keeper. We’re not giving teams many chances to score, often half chances that we should be able to deal with.
I totally agree with this, in these last 3 matches we have played 2 of the best sides in the league, and our biggest rivals, who may be out of form but still possess 1 outstanding striker and a couple of very decent ones - In those 3 matches Hugo has made 1 outstanding save, and a couple of good saves that haven't really stretched him. Other than that we have been stopping attacks at source or winning the challenge so that no attempt on goal is reaching the keeper. That is due a mixture of excellent defending, good coaching, being prepared properly, the low block and the players actually implementing the coaching plans given to them.
The Utd game? It was 2-1. Ndombele equalised after 4 minutes, Son put us ahead after 7 and Martial was sent off after 28. They were desperately hanging on then, too.
I don’t always buy the ‘lucky’ argument either. Kane is an exceptional striker and has been burying chances like the one he got on Sunday for years now. Sonny’s goal was a bit more outlandish but he’s got that in his locker if you back off and give him space and he sees the keeper out of position. Both were great goals in their own ways but were they lucky? They’re world class players and we’ve seen them both do similar before. Lucky to me is something like Lanzini’s goal against us precisely because although he’s a very handy player he doesn’t consistently score goals of that quality. It was such a good goal that nobody really does
Arteta's post-match comments made good reading for non-Arsenal fans. He's got no idea what's wrong, apparently. He even went all Moyesy, talking about the sheer number of crosses that they had, at one point. If they had an aerial threat in the box, then he might have a point. They don't. Why keep crossing it to nobody?
I did say I understand it against City or Chelsea but my issue was that we had so little possession against a poor Arsenal team. I know Europa is different, but we've struggled in a few of those games. I see I am in a minority of one here and that's fine. I really hope you are right, but we have the players to be more aggressive and not rely on the counter all the time.
The second half yesterday was not enjoyable to watch but it was interesting. The two goals in the first half were sublime. Son's strike was sumptuous, probably one of the most perfect strikes I have ever seen. It wasn't like Rose's fantastic strike against Arsenal, that was instinctive and brilliant. Son's was almost cool and calculated and perfection. Overall watching Mourinho's football, now that he is MY manager is fascinating. He always appears to have a plan and he is always looking to change it depending on the game. He calculates odds all the time and that's where his reputation for defensiveness comes from I think. He didn't stifle our play against United or Southampton but he did very much against Chelsea and Arsenal and City don't give you an option, you just have to defend and look for possible breaks. I would much prefer to see the Spurs as imagined by Harry Redknapp or even Pochettino but the ability to understand and apply the required tactics is where Jose excels. With him football becomes much more like chess, you don't get so much excitement but you do get the hits when Kane and Son produce their magnificent ballet to confound our opponents. Sitting watching the game on my own yesterday I could only let out a quiet Wow! when Son scored and not forgetting Kane's gymnastics in the middle of the park that produced the chance. Just fantastic, the rest of the PL are well aware of them and their reputation gives us a head start and room to maneuver for Jose.
Son;s strike reminded me of when Brazil had a front line that produced such shots. Jairzinho, Pelé, Gérson, Tostão and Rivelino. Incredible football. Their names were recited like a mantra. Son and Kane are up there with them IMHO.
I think that Mourinho's just setting up with what we've got, as he doesn't have the exact team that he needs to play more expansively. Sissoko's doing a great job for us, but we'd benefit from having someone in there that can do more on the ball that he can. A Carrick or Modric is what we need, in my opinion, but how many of them are there out there? The Europa League has been a struggle because of some poor team selections and a number of unfit players, for me. Our squad's still got a fair bit of work that needs doing to it, but I still feel that we're not getting the best out of some of those players.
They’re playing poor but they’re not a poor team in my opinion and we all know that in NLDs form goes well out the window. A good few times over the years our fans expected to batter them and we came out with a loss or draw. I think we treated them with the respect needed, the NLD is essentially a cup final to both teams just without a trophy, so we chose to take the less risky and more pragmatic approach which worked nicely. We do have players to be more bolder with the ball at times but I would say we’re also not as good at it without Dembele and Eriksen, so we have to be more careful when we pick and choose to play such a style. With regards to Europa I think Jose’s definitely made some selection mistakes but at times - and we’ve seen this under Poch and Redknapp too - our players go in with an air of overconfidence. We’re not the only team to do that either of course, many top teams in Europa seem to think they can half arse it and win, it’s why Sevilla deserve so much credit, they take it extremely seriously and they’ve reaped the rewards over many years.
Pass map time please log in to view this image The fact that Harry Kane is now playing deeper than two of our players, with both Son and Lo Celso regularly receiving the ball further up the pitch than him, certainly looks strange - but this leads to the obvious talking point, namely the amount of traffic between Dier/Hojbjerg/Lo Celso, which is something we usually don't see as Hojbjerg usually shifts the ball onto the flank, coupled with how Dier is clearly playing a more advanced role than he usually does which almost makes it look like he's pushing up into midfield so that Hojbjerg in turn can press a little higher, and with Sissoko also being higher than usual you can see we were putting the screws to their midfield Remember the last part of that sentence, as it will be very important in a minute Now on paper you would think this was suicidal, as it would potentially be leaving a gap at the back that could expose Toby to 2-on-1 attacks - but then you look at Woolwich's pass map and suddenly you understand why this was happening please log in to view this image Yes, you are looking at that right: Aubameyang and Saka are constantly running into one another while playing deeper than Willian, and on top of that Lacazette is practically a central midfielder Yes, that is a sentence which I just typed That goes a long way to explaining why the Dier/Hojbjerg/Lo Celso combinations were so fruitful, as we weren't creating space in the game - they were creating space for us, which we politely accepted. In turn this also explains why we were pushing into their midfield more, because with Aubameyang and Saka occupying the same space it makes a hell of a lot of sense to shut that space down and to do that we needed to double up, and with Lacazette dropping almost as deep as partey keeping him locked down nullified both their attacking threat and a potential out ball, and so you see all the thick slugs going back and forth between their back line and the amount of traffic heading back to Leno
If you want to know what sort of a manager Jose is , just listen to his post match interview. Not, 'we did this and they did that' but true analysis and understanding intricacies of the game.I am sure he is a great chess player. Lampard learned from him and therefore last week he was wary of the counter, knew our capabilities, and didn't allow us to do to them what we did yesterday. Arteta learned from Pep, and we saw how 2 weeks ago we beat a Pep team on the counter. Can we keep defending the way we are and relying on the opposition not scoring? Leicester did. I love the way we now hoof the ball out when necessary. Remember when we would try to pass or dribble the ball out of defence (Lamella CL ) and we were all screaming: row z! Sure , I still go into every game nervous that we will concede because I am a Spurs supporter, but I fully appreciate what Jose is about. Read his book. So many insights. He has built a team. Hard men, talented players, world class players. Each has a job to do.
Son basically passed it into the corner of the goal from 25 yards. The camera angle caught it superbly and I said wow too.
From what I understand, Goons are bleating about Son and Kane being "dirty" during the game without being able to pinpoint a single instance of the aforementioned dirtiness to back up their argument I'm guessing they can't spell Xhaka's name either...
‘We are top of the league, we are top of the league’ the boss isnt scared of this challenge It’s his forte King Jose
