It will look like that on MotD but to be fair we lost because we never controlled the game after 2-0. I don't know the possession/passing % but they won't be good, and when that happens eventually mistakes will be made.
Yes we defended badly, but that includes the midfield and forwards. In the second half and the last ten of the first, we stopped holding it up. Every ball forward looked 50:50 and the midfield were just strolled through. As a team we were shocking after spurs scored the first goal. I'll edit that and day I thought Shaw did well. Neither Lennon nor Townsend have him a problem.
Starting to dislike going 2-0 up away from home. But hey ho, for 20 odd minutes we were excellent. Possibly our best opening 20 minutes of the season. And at the end of the day, points aren't exactly a priority for us. And I've got a few quid in the bank, because you could see this turn around at HT from a mile away. Spurs to win was too good not to slap some money on.
Lovren hasn't exactly been a massive pansy all year, so I'm willing to give him a pass on the basis that he probably shouldn't have been playing...his fault for rushing back, but he wouldn't be the first player who felt fit right up until players were rushing at them.
We lost our out ball once Rickie got knackered after 50 mins too. At the end of the game they were all shagged, it was like watching a an overweight boxer after 12 rounds. We're nearly a very good team though. Work in progress.
Yea that's probably about right. Missed Jay Rod's energy when he came off. Thought Steven Davis worked his socks off as well today though.
One bad game doesn't make him a bad player. Agree about the boxer comment^. It was like Haye v Valuev all over again in the second half
Just need to get 2 or three good players in in the summer with only the dross going out and we can expect another good season next year. Sure today is gutting but we could be down the road being entertained by the genius that is Richie Barker.
And we lost the ability to get behind Spurs' high line when Jay hurt his knee and subsequently exited. But, yes...this was one where it'd be nice to have the reverse, with Mystery Striker X starting, and Rickie entering in the second half to kill teams off. At times we're a bit like a sprinter running a distance race; come out flying, only to tire and get overtaken as the competition wears on.
Wow. The best and worse of Saints all in one game. Just goes to show how close we are to being a top top side. We just don't know what to do to close out a game. Totally in control at 2-0. One defensive error should not have handed control to spurs in the way that it did. But we're a young side and that inner strength will come in time I am sure. A couple of positives for me: gaston continues to get better and a stronger presence on the ball. And lovren - having lost it for a significant part of the game suddenly got his head back where it should be. Not excusing him fir the mistakes but credit for not quitting. At the end of the day it's difficult to say spurs were not worthy of the three points.
Indeed. As well as not being disappointed at throwing these points away due to the fact that we don't actually need, I'm also not disappointed because the game basically told me what I already know. Namely that we have next to no options available to us from the bench to help change the flow of a game and/or freshen things up. Gaston did alright when he came up - more than alright actually - but that's it. We're minus Osvaldo and Puncheon. And even if we had them, I'd still want another pace option. Jay alone is not enough. We suffer without him similar to how Arsenal suffer without Theo. Now it might be completely misplaced optimism, but I have every faith that we'll deal with this issue over the summer. Quite simply, if we want to continue to push on, we have to address it.
