Hi guys, if it's any consolation, that was the best 90 minutes we've played this season in the league. Without sounding like a complete big head, when we play our passing game at home and focus on waves on attacks, it doesn't matter if you're Crystal Palace, Man Utd or indeed yourselves, you'll be in for a tough afternoon. Don't get me wrong you guys didn't help yourselves out, I thought the constant long balls were just too easy to deal with, even if we didn't win the 1st ball, we had at least 2 two defenders available to win the 2nd. Elmander and van Wolfswinkel looked far too isolated and our midfield ran the show. You guys, like us have invested in a number of players this season so I think both teams are still finding their feet, luckily for us we had a good game. You've made some great signings and given time, I'm sure they'll deliver. I watch a lot of Eredivisie, it's the only league outside the Prem I watch, so I know about the likes of Fer and van Wolfswinkel (was immense at Utrecht before moving to Sporting) and what quality players they can be for you. Redmond is also a great signing, very exciting youngster and with Hooper coming in too, you've got a natural finisher who I think will form a great partnership with van Wolfswinkel. With an already solid core at the back in Bass and Turner backed up by Ruddy, I think you guys will come good, hopefully Hughton is given time to prove it, I noticed a number of your fans today seemed to be pretty annoyed with him and were chanting "you don't know what you're doing" so I hope the board don't come under too much pressure and decide to sack him off. At the start of last season we were in a similar situation with AVB to be honest, first few results under him were poor and the win away to Utd papered over cracks, as the season progressed so did we, Bale took headlines but the team itself were looking better. Now it's fair to say the majority of Spurs fans have now bought into this "project" AVB has started and we're all very excited to see how we develop. I think you guys can go on a similar path with Hughton and the new players if you give them the time. All the best for the season
Yes, it was a poor performance, but Spurs were playing with a pace and fluidity that not many teams would have been capable of countering. It's disappointing when we outplayed Spurs in both league games last year but frankly I think they look better without Bale, far more balanced. In the end it's the games against Villa and Stoke that matter.
Absoloutely 100%.And thanks SoS for taking the time for such a comprehensive post.I think Spurs selling Bale for that kind of money was great business for them.They have bought half a Premiership title challenging team with the money.I was impressed with Spurs.
I think two games of MASSIVE importance and we really have to aim for an absolute minimum of 3 points from them - more would be a bonus!!! I said more or less the same to another fan last night. With Bale, Spurs seemed to rely quite heavily on him (who could ever forget his equaliser at CR last season!!), but I think they'll be VERY serious contenders for a CL spot next season and they have bought some very skillful players.
we were blown away by spurs,but we wont be the only ones this season. i found it easier than watching the hull disaster,because of the quality of spurs and my expectations,but i am worried we already seem to be getting into this "we cannot win away" mindset. surely,with the players we have bought in and the finishing positions of the last couple of seasons,we should not still be thinking like that.we know we can be so much better than that and hopefuly we will be against villa. anyway rvw needs to get into the groove pretty quick,we cannot afford wasted chances like that to often at away games(or at home)
It will be interesting to see how we perform against Stoke 2 weeks today and CH MUST send out a team to try and win, as opposed to 'not to lose'. If we get another abject performance in that game, then I'll be going to home games, but won't even bother watching away matches and certainly not going to any of them. (I could have got tickets to go to the Emirates in October!!)
It's just too early to start moaning,anything could happen.If we were in Sunderland's situation then maybe it would be justified but 4 points from 4 games when we have played two of the seven sides considered outside the relegation fight plus Saints who were rated highly this season I think that is OK.
Back from the game, a curry, a few beers and a night's sleep before reflecting: Positives: Ruddy played ok. Negatives: We were abject in every way. Hughton's tactics were awful, the team was set up too deep and had no obvious strategy for breaking down the midfield. We lost every single battle. The midfield could neither tackle or pass. Johnson was rightly taken off, but Fer contsntly gave the ball away and looked uninterested. RVW cast a felorn figure up front and looks to be lacking strength to muscle himself to the ball. He was so surprised by his only chance that he snapped at it. Garrido and Whitakker were constantly beaten, leaving Bassong and Turner exposed in the middle. Redmond looks too inexperienced and Snodgrass was just shocking. Elmander was too old and slow. The team showed no passion or spirit, leaving the crowd one of the flattest I have seen. It's not too early to start moaning, that was terrible.
Hi guys I thought I would put my thoughts down I see everyone has differing opinions of what the issues were. For me when I checked the line up I was very surprised to see us start with Elmander and RvW upfront. To me if there was ever a case of playing a 4-5-1 with 2 holding midfielders, which I usually hate it was yesterday. At times it looked like a 4-4-2 and we were totally over awed in midfield, Snodgrass had a mare, Garrido was awful again and Johnson went AWOL. It was only when CH brought Pilkington, Tettey and Howson on and we reverted to a 4-5-1 that we managed to retain possession a bit in the second half and have a few half chances. The tactics was wrong and the players didnt turn up, bad day all round. Need to move on and CH has to learn from this it might have worked at Hull or away to Palace but not away at a team who have just added £100m + of proper world class talent.
Away to top six sides I can live with 2-0.Half the rest of the teams that go there will do no better.If we were going to Sunderland,Fulham or most of the bottom half and playing like that I would be joining in.Spurs are a class side and may end up top four.
As scorelines go, you are spot on and I can live with a 2-0 away defeat at ant top 6 side in this league, especially if our performances are so lethargic. To a fair degree I think we got off quite lightly, and 4, 5 or 6 would not have flattered Spurs yesterday.
I only watched on TV here in Vietnam, but in general I disagree. This was being outplayed by a very very good side who could well figure in the top four if they can keep playing like that, not the negative, uncreative dross we saw against Hull and even more against Newcastle, Stoke and so on last season. I find it strange that Hughton tends to be more negative against the poorer sides than he does against the big boys, and I see your point about the need to flood the midfield yesterday, but in general I don't think he can be blamed for yesterday. We came up against a team of better players and we lost. It's not surprising.
Exactly what I said to some mates in the pub after the final whistle. The only mitigating factor is noone expected us to come away from WHL with anything, so we 'delivered' on that score but it was all too easy for Spurs with Johnson and Fer both being tied in knots by the Spurs midfield. This begs the question, why leave it so goddam late before addressing the fact that they were both totally ineffective - Tettey and Howson should have come on MUCH sooner. Somebody needs to inform Hughton that there is no law preventing bringing subs on before the 75 minute mark!
It isn't the 2-0 scoreline that I have the problem with, it is the performance in which we conceded more than 20 shots and mustered a few poor shots and two half chances for van Wolfswinkel. Let's not forget we were flattered by the 2 - 0 scoreline, but the problem is that if we play like that in other games we will never score and put massive pressure on our defence too. I actually thought the substitutions yesterday made a positive impact. Maybe Spurs took their foot of the gas a bit, but we did look a bit more like a football team when Tettey came on the pitch. The problem was, that we only had 3 substitutes and we would have needed 6 or 7!
I don't get what Tettey has to do to get into the team! As holtamania said yesterday, hes played every single game this season yet has only had one alright one and that was against Southampton. Next weekend, I would drop Johnson for Tettey and Snodgrass for Pilkington as both need it IMO. I would also get Olsson in for Garrido, just cos I believe he's better
I've got to agree with most of what has been said on here. Tottenham were very, very good. Eriksen and Dembele completely ran the show. As Fer was much better than Wanyama against Southampton, this time Dembele was much better than Fer. We weren't helped by being a man short in midfield (Elmander and the Wolf both ended up dropping quite deep but couldn't break up Spurs midfield dominance). Tactically Hughton came up short as Spurs were allowed far too much time and space. The obvious thing to see (and to know in advance) was that Eriksen is very good at finding space, playing just behind the main striker, and in so doing with single touches he can set people up (as he did with the first goal and the pass out wide that led to the second goal) and can control the forward tempo. So often you could see the Canary players trying to work out who should be picking him up, and in the main nobody really did. The players also lost their individual battles. They started sloppily and never recovered. Fer started by giving the ball away in a dangerous position early on. Johnson got booked early which limited his effect. The only player who looked himself was Bassong who made at least 5 important blocks, and was by a mile our best player. The Wolf looked more and more frustrated, and when he did get half chances he looked a little hesitant. Snoddie was awful, Redmond never got wide and when he had a chance would run straight into traffic. Garrido and Whitaker looked shaky against Sigurdsson and Townsend. Ruddy apart from the second goal was solid, and produced some decent saves. Overall it was extremely disappointing but hopefully lessons will be learned. If we are going to play counter attack, we must do so with pace and purpose, and have plenty of players who can get forward. We must get better service into the Wolf and/or any other striker, and we cannot allow players to control the game as we have done in the past (Gerrard for Liverpool) and Eriksen yesterday, without having a strategy to deal with them. I still think we have potentially a top 10 side, but for me Hughton and the Coaches have got to prove their worth and not constrain the players so much, they lose confidence and feel scared to pass or go forward.
I watched the game live via my foreign subscription(don't ya just love VPN), I personally was hoping for a draw but I wasn't surprised that we lost. I think for me the biggest disappointment was how poor some players were, I think for the Villa match we should be looking to start with what I_Clean_holtys_boots suggests above ^, when we made the subs we seemed to get more of the ball and play better. Not sure I would have took off Elmander though he was continually pushing forward more so than any other players, IMO his performance was pretty good under the circumstances. CH Should have subbed Snodgrass. I don't get the whole Olsson thing, what's the reasoning behind it?
Agree we were poor. However the £10 I put on Spurs at 33-1 to win the title is providing some consolation.
