When I read our manager thinks we can win this tournament and then not have a shot in a game,well........someones dreaming.....I hope!
This was oh so familiar, our away performances in Europe have become like groundhog day , AZ were very average but we never went for them until the 80th minute, 1 down at half time ,we should turn this round next week
Son: "It was very sloppy and we did not perform like we should do, everyone is very disappointed with the individual and team performance and we have to look at ourselves, there are no excuses, we were not good enough and nowhere near how we should perform." If this was a one-off then this reaction is fine. When it's the 10th/20th time this season you wonder whether he just cut and pasted it...
Is Son wasting his time at Tottenham now and should be thinking of seeing out his career somewhere else?Inter Miami perhaps.....?
Ange - We were just lacking a bit of aggression in everything we did. We were a little bit hesitant with the ball, hesitant in our pressing and we can't be that way. If we address those things I'm sure we'll be in a position to at least cause them more problems that we did tonight. It's only 1-0 so I guess that’s a positive in that we didn’t let the game get away from us. Hesitant on the ball to me screams lack of options. Who's running in behind defenders, creating space, shooting from distance etc. Instead we pick up the ball on the edge of our box and push forward, pass it out wide. But the play is too slow and we end up passing it backwards to keep possesion. On the rare occasion we do get crosses in from the flanks, the opponents defense is generally well organised at that stage to mop it up. This is what I'm seeing and it's pot luck what team turns up to apply these tactics.
I think so. But getting past the last 8 is too big an ask Also, Spurs home form this season hasn’t been great so next week isn’t a given
Whilst so many of our players are at best inconsistent Johnson must be the most infuriating, can't tackle, never goes past his man, no conviction in his tracking back, and most annoyingly never seems to really show for the ball often found hiding behind his full back, which is ok when the ball is on the left because we know the one thing he can do is run off his fullback to score a tap in, but last night he just constantly seemed to offer nothing in either direction. We all know that we have over spent on many of this squad but Johnson for me is very close to the top of that list.
Whatever system we are supposed to be playing, doesn't work and makes less of just about every player on the pitch...but this bloke manages to stand out, as the culprit in chief, in a team of underperforming, gutless no marks. Yesterday was a new low. We stunk the place out. Vicario, Spence, Gray and Bergvall tried. The rest were an̈ insult to the shirt, whilst Ange stood and did **** all. We are a wretched mess.
We are not winning this. But we can play and have played better. We can beat AZ and the other teams are of a similar standard. There is no one unbeatable in this. Still think we'll have a duff performance and limp out, but it is not delusional that we could win it. A rested Kulusevski will make a difference.
Do we have a better chance without Ange? It's got to the point where I think that just about anybody else would be an improvement. If Levy wants to live up to the club's motto, then now is the final time to act this season. We have players who are good enough to win this, but not under this coach. COYS Daniel pulls in £6m to make big decisions...
Sadly the time to sack him has been and gone. We're stuck with him until the end of the season. I desperately want us to win the EL but after last night's performance, which was one of at least 15 similar performances this season, there is also a part of me that recognises that it will be a net loss when balanced out by keeping Ange for another season.
Daniel lacks the cojones for the big decisions. Like the appointment of Santini and van Gaal, instead of BMJ and Poch.and letting the Moutinho deal collapse over what was peanuts, relatively. When the moment comes, he turns chicken. We're gonna have to sack Ange. Do it now, you ****ing cowardly bastard.!
I'm not a fan of Brennan's but I am also mindful that under Ange almost no one appears to be improving and quite a few players have visibly regressed (I expressed concerns last night that Udogie seems to be the latest victim of this, he's had a very poor season). The formation and system, if it can be called that, castrates multiple players before the whistle has been blown. Pushing the FBs into advanced central positions means that two players who aren't very good at shooting are closer to goal than two players who are. Son and Brennan should be much more central and the FBs overlapping on the outside, but this bizarrely only seems to happen when Spence is playing at LB...good luck figuring that one out. Maddison is wasted out wide and Bergvall, while full of endeavour, spends all game running around like a headless chicken. Solutions to this are blindingly obvious, so the manager either can't or won't see them.
System or no system - that is the question! I don't have the maps to confirm my feelings, but as one of only 3 on-field players to emerge with any credit last night, the movement of Spence (until the subs) is revealing. At times he could be found virtually on the left wing, certainly LAM, ahead of Maddison. There was no response from the coach, indicating he objected, which suggests it's something of a free for all. Mind you, the MIA Johnson probably influenced Spences thoughts as he probably felt lonely on the right flank!!
And on a similar vein...why did it take to the last 5 mins for either Johnson or Bentancur to show any forward momentum?
There are so many faults with what is going on, that it will be impossible for the current coaching set up to construct a EL winnng unit. We'll win the odd game, because Vicario sa es us and from time to time, enough players 'click' on having a good day...but that's it. Ange isn't going to do away with suicidally playing out from the back, driving overlapping fullbacks inside and inside forwards outside. Nor is he going to stop cavalry charge attacks and open door 'defending'. It's who he is, mate. He has to go. Not tomorrow. Now! Whatever would be needed to make this 'system' work, we ain't got it. We're not going to spend the money to get it, either. Give it to a caretaker and start working on the first steps to arrest this utter **** show.