Let's put today's game into context. This is a brilliant 3 points for Spurs. After the passing of the much loved Gian Piero that had rocked our club we faced an in form Brighton team that hadn't lost at home since March. They rarely troubled us and yes going forward we were sloppy at times ( Son in particular nowhere near his best) but it was a comfortable win against a good side. We miss Kulusevski and when he's back I'm sure we will see the real spurs from an attacking aspect. Today I saw a team that dug in resolutely and I'm delighted with them.
Ended up a good day for me. Cousin came down from London to ask me to be his “head groomsman” with some engraved cufflinks (aka reserve best man as his brother’s a bottler). So nice gesture and then Spurs cap it with a win. Don’t wanna talk too much about the performance though (it was dire) but we got the win and we done it for Gian Piero which Hugo made sure all were aware of at the final whistle. Next…! (but my god do we need to improve, players and manager).
please log in to view this image I was going to post a pissed assessment of the match, but I think I'll end it with Harry's words.
I didn't see todays game but it clearly must have been difficult for the players following their loss of Gian Piero, so well done to Spurs for carrying on and managing to chalk up a win.
Wasn't able to see the game but just seen Sess was our MOTM and got the highest rating on the match report with 8.5. Lies and fiction or did he actually play well?
That is just wild. I didn’t realise he was *that* close. In my head I had it at around 30ish away from Greaves. Think that’s the last Spurs record for Kane to get too, gotten just about every other one involving goals I believe and that’s along with some of the ones he holds in the Prem. Players like him come along once every 50 years - if you’re lucky.
I thought both he and Doherty did ok, but as much for defensive side of their games as anything. I think it's probably indicative of the game that our best 5 players were probably the back 5.
Sess was ok, but too often his final ball or decision let him down. I certainly wouldn't have made him our MOTM. Ben was excellent on his return and Doherty also did well.
The only people worthy of an 8.5 rating (at the least) were the fans in the stadium - of both teams - for having paid to watch that match whilst showing incredible respect to Gian Piero.
I didn’t think he warranted MOTM but I would be hard pressed to decide who ought to have been awarded it. Sess didn’t do anything worthy but none of them did. It looked rather pedestrian on the pitch, almost as they were preserving themselves for the mid-week game. I can understand that.
Our unsung hero! There wasn’t any of the running around like a headless chicken either so he’s better suited in a 3 man midfield based on yesterday’s game.
Meh.... His presence in a 3 man midfield made a positive difference, particularly first half, but the booking was stupid and his impact from then on was limited. Also he is clearly not on the same wavelength as his teammates yet as there were a lot of misplaced passes.
Passmap time please log in to view this image Well that's different... The obvious difference is Kane and Son are getting the ball form midfield, albeit Hojbjerg is the only player getting the ball to them frequently enough for arrows to form, and it's also worth noting that the Dier/Davies/Hojbjerg combination is back in effect as it has been for the past couple of seasons so that we're getting the ball moving in a subtly different way On the other hand, you can see how Brighton were targeting our right flank just by looking at Doherty's position as he's deeper than all of our outfield players bar Dier, and when you look at Brighton's map you can see just how much they were targeting that flank as Gross and March are practically interchangeable there, which does nip some of Conte's strategy of passing to the back to rebuild in the bud please log in to view this image That being said, it really doesn't show the difference after Richarlison replaced Bissouma in our play, but you can certainly see why that was a poor choice and we should have gone like-for-like with Skippy because Mac Allister is spraying the ball around at will, and taking the extra man out of midfield definitely saw us getting overrun for a period and needing some last-ditch defending to hold them at bay
I didn't see the game but I'd guess a reason behind Doherty having a deeper position on average was to make sure we doubled up on Trossard, who - as I keep droning on about - is one of the most criminally underrated players in the PL and we should sign him in Jan for peanuts .
Shearers record will be on his mind. Although the way it's going Haaland will have it in a few years. Need Barca to do their thing and tap him up.
