Give Townsend to any club that will have him, brain dead Pool simply have better forwards than we have defenders
If I can put a positive spin on this dire performance, it's just what Poch needs to see to realise the weaknesses in the squad as we were in danger of getting drunk on our temporary, early season success. The nervousness, indecision and poor passing choices today have shown him where we need to do some serious work and games like this will expose the good from the poor players and those who have been fooling everyone into thinking they're better than they actually are. Above all, it shows we need leadership out there. So as much as another 'Pool drubbing hurts, perhaps having a mare of a game this early on will give us time to get these bad habits worked on.
The difference between their high line pressing and ours is they have a genuine desire to get the ball back and use it offensively. Our players have one nibble at it and if they come up with it they look to pass backwards or sideways. Too many players not taking responsibility today, either with the ball or without it. No real desire to get in the box or make themselves available in the final third. Four midfielders handed our 5 their own asses today. Embarrassing. Again.
"That's not good logic." Not logic in this case, but physics. Like what insurance investigators use when assessing incident scenes (and catch criminal fraud) .
Was it a foul? No. Was it a dive? Yes. Is simulation a yellow card offence? Yes. Was Allen already on one? Yes. The sad thing is that we probably would've gone on to lose to ten men, anyway. The sadder thing is how badly we've played.
I don't want to alarm anyone but Townsend just dribbled past 2 players and then completed a pass at the end of it
Silliness now. Ok - was the referee right to book Moreno for a very similar tug on Townsend there? He was. Difference is that Townsend wasn't in the box so he played on. Will just have to disagree. Not doing this all day! Very surprised how poor Eriksen was... you seemed to struggle without his creativity. Very happy with the points as I think everyone expected a tough game from a transformed Spurs side.
The thing I have really liked about the Poool is how they have INCREASED the pressing after getting to 0-3. That is proper going for the jugular.
And now he misses the handball, too! Must've had a cheeky bet on a clean sheet. Good bet, to be fair.
3-0 FT. Doesn't flatter Liverpool in the slightest and we were utterly awful. Started slowly again and never looked likely to get back into it after their early goal. Very lethargic all over the pitch and the movement and speed that we had against QPR disappeared entirely. We didn't deal with their pace up front, their passing in the midfield or their pressing all over the park. Panicked a lot in possession, let their physicality in the middle of the park put us miles off our game and were constantly looking over our shoulder when we had the ball. So frightened of them getting the ball and running at our defence, which had a very poor game.
Were we good enough today? No. Once again though the big decisions go against us. Allen clearly dived, I remember Welbeck did something similar in the CL and got rightly ridiculed for it. It's a dive and a second booking but instead the game changing decision goes totally against us and logic. As if to make it even more obvious how biased the ref was he then refuses to give a penalty when Lovren is trying to take the shirt off Ade's back. **** referee, oh to be a "big" team and get the decisions.
Yoda : You are doing everything possible to avoid calling a spade a spade. The fact that Allen was fouled does NOT give him the right to DIVE. The fact that a defender is winning the penalty box tussles does NOT give Suarez the right to BITE/BUTT/GOUGE. If you want to become a group of apologists/deniers, using (to paraphrase) an "envelope" of excuses, feel free to do so. Just don't expect it to not overshadow all the good you may do. As a Spurs supporter, I neither desire nor expect the players to behave so. And if/when they do, public contempt be upon them (and rightly so) .
Probably the booing towards Phil dowd he's had a shocker there, Liverpool I'm sure would have still won but that penalty so early in the second half I think we can all agree was a mistake. From a spurs defending point of view they gave sterling in particular way too much time on the ball, you don't let players like this turn and run at you. Kaboul today didn't even seem to know what his legs where doing.
"Disagree, we have looked flat since we got the 3rd." You only said that because by definition that means we were even flatter.
