I sometimes think I must watch different games from everyone else. We made some shocking mistakes in defence but Wolves needed three mistakes to score each of their goals. But we also created a lot of chances....both Son and Kane were through and should both have scored and Romero had a decent headed chance. We need to cut out the mistakes and be sharper on finishing and we will be fine. Conte ought to be able to coach some of that. The new players didn't fill me with any great confidence though. Kulu did very little and Betancur contributed a mistake to both their goals.
Read somewhere that Conte has lost 3 league games in a row for the first time in 13 years Spurs really do break managers don’t they
kulu looks a bit hit and miss. Thought bentancur looked very good although lost it dangerously in a few places. Played some great passes, particurly the one to son. Also very combative and great energy
They are what they are for the money they cost. Juventus wouldn’t have let them go in January if they were amazing players. Just need to hope that Conte can coach them to be good players. Diaz was the top target but he chose Liverpool which is fair enough. The next best option for Paratici was Kulusevski. The transfer window was more about outs than ins. Problem is 3 will probably be coming back and then it will take time to get rid of them again in the summer.
Early days, but alreaady agree with you on Bentancur. He's got talent and attitude, although bizarrely reminds me of Berbatov the way he moves/strolls around the pitch in gloves! Trouble is, he does look to be hot headed and in the PL that could be a problem. If he settles in though he should be some player for us. And by God we need it!
Everyone more or less covered yesterday how I felt about the game and current squad. Shambles really. How some continue to get minutes here is just mind boggling. Reaching a stage where as others have said I’m beginning to not even care anymore. Yesterday at the game I barely lost my rag, it was just “typical Spurs” running through my head. One thing I will say is Conte needs to stop putting Lucas on this undroppable pedestal he seems to be on. He’s a squad player, a decent one at that, but he’s not a good enough starter. Either start Kulusevski or give Bergwijn a final run or switch to 352 which most of us want anyway. Edit: Add Sanchez to that too, he’s likely only playing now whilst Dier’s out but the bloke’s a calamity at the back. Good heart and tries his best but he’s the type of defender who just too often lacks concentration, Titus Bramble-esque. Rodon can’t be as bad as that, especially if given a run.
The problem yesterday wasn't Winks or even the midfield. It was mistakes by Lloris, Davies and Bentacur, misses by Son and Kane and Lucas having one of his frequent games where he contributes nothing
If given the choice of a Premier League title or hosting the Superbowl, ENIC would choose hosting the Superbowl, which is exactly the kind of business model that is holding their football operation back.
I don’t see the correlation between the two? Hosting big events at the stadium doesn’t hinder the squad and probably doesn’t help it either.
Not disagreeing with the other nominations, but Winks was dreadful. Misplaced passes, missed tackles. Even completely missing the ****ing ball on one occasion which nearly cost a goal.
I agree he wasn’t directly at fault for any goals (although he played awfully) but Winks is never really a solution either. Offers almost nothing positive to this team and hasn’t really since his breakthrough, around five and a half years ago. There isn’t a USP about him unlike other midfielders in the past like Dembele/ Wanyama/ Modric etc or now with someone like Skipp, who we are missing incredibly. Earlier in his career he stuck out like a sore thumb amongst good quality players (well to me he did), now he’s surrounded by more like him and it’s no real surprise we’re struggling like we are.
Winks is playing because Skippy's injured and Hojbjerg looks done in, having played too much football in the last few years. The only other option is Harvey White and he should be out on loan learning his trade. I can't see that throwing him into the current situation will help him or the team. It's ridiculous that we're in this position but Ndombele and Dele were done at the club and Lo Celso was deemed no more than a disinterested passenger. So, here we are. The defence is nearly as bad. Rodon's less popular with our procession of coaches than Kurt Zouma at a Cats Protection League meeting. He's done, leaving us with the unbalanced and rudderless 3 of Davies, Romero and Sanchez. Two of them are squad players, the third is playing in a position that doesn't best suit his best talents, or those playing either side of him. Chuck in that, the absolutely critical wing back positions were filled by players who just look like they took the wrong turn in a stadium corridor and ended up on the pitch by accident...and the building blocks of the team are just not good enough. Hopefully the return of Dier and Skipp gets performance levels and results up to where they were before they got injured...but the inescapable fact is that we have too many players who simply aren't at the level that the club says it aspires to. We've now reached a point where, a talented kid and a centre back with issues, are crucial to us looking like any sort of team. It's ridiculous that in 2022 we're picking a team containing Doherty, Sanchez, Davies, Sessegnon (given his total absence of fitness and form) and Winks. One can only wonder what Nuno would be getting out of that lot and a sulking Kane? That's what we're left with after 5 seasons of mismanagement, complacency and failure to address issues raised by Pochettino, Mourinho and now confirmed by Conte. The squad's being carried by 5 or so players and if all of them don't play, and play well, we're totally ****ed...and we're entering the time of the season when they're tiring and prone to injury. I pretty much wrote this season off before we'd kicked a ball, so I'm neither surprised, nor disappointed at what happens on the pitch from game to game. There is only one issue that matters and it's been the same ****ing one for four and a half years... Will the club properly finance the rebuild that the team so obviously needs to justify the aspirational claims of a CL and the highest ticket prices in football? If yes, Conte will start to sort this **** out. It won't be completed this summer, because the job's got bigger and bigger with each departed coach and failures in successive transfer windows...but given money and time, Conte will get us back where the owners want to be. If not, the club and its fans are going to grow further and further apart, as we return to the dark days of Alan Sugar and The Bloke in the Coat, Gerry Francis and Christian Gross...because that's where it's heading if Conte walks because the money isn't there in the summer. In the meantime, helmets on, boys and girls!
When you are 2-0 down it is necessary to take more risks so more passes will be misplaced and you will be caught in possession more. Winks also played a number of very good passes, and had one of our best attempts on goal. I actually thought he was our best player with only him and Romero having any semblance of a good match
The most striking things about the last couple of games, indeed the whole recent run of form stretching through the 2 cup games against Chelsea, are the number of individual mistakes. I think the defence lacks leadership and organisation without Dier, and the midfield has continually been overrun due to Skipp’s absence and Conte’s insistence of mostly playing a midfield 2. Both of these put more pressure on a defence that is already error-prone with Sanchez in the lineup. Admittedly though, you don’t expect the errors from Lloris or even Ben Davies, who has been quite consistent of late. But these things happen, and happen with more frequency the more pressure is applied. Hopefully the second part of the game yesterday shows Conte the light. With a 3rd midfielder playing as a 10 we had more options to retain possession and actually looked threatening on occasion. Both of these helped release the pressure valve and take some pressure off the defence. The shape of the team looked off with 4atb, both in our defensive 3rd and when we tried to press, so I expect us to go back to a 3atb but with the extra man in midfield, likely sacrificing Lucas. Conte has a week now to work on a tweak in shape, and hopefully will have at least one of Dier and Skipp back for City.
