So, we were lucky to beat West Ham and we didn't score as many as I thought we should have done against Hoops and AEL which all put together told me our form wasn't quite right and it showed today. I've said that Poch has an immature side to him and it showed. Against AEL on Thursday it was a penalty and the keeper had a hand on Paulinho's shot which was by no means a really convincing win for us at all. Everybody was waxing lyrical and I tried to bring people down to earth but Liverpool have done that far better than I ever could.
That performance today was as poor as QPR were last week. Kaboul was all over the place and with Rose reverting to his normal 'meh' level, the defence never looked comfortable. Lloris didn't help provide any great confidence either. Dier made a few mistakes, but he did at least work his socks off. The penalty did show some inexperience, but was harsh all the same. In midfield, Kapoue was strolling and Bentaleb pretty anonymous. Eriksen and Lamela likewise and Ade didn't lack effort but was generally isolated. The lack of pace and forward momentum in the 2nd half was really painful. As for Townsend, I mirror the comments above and hope that he will be moving in in the next 24 hours. Liverpool showed so much more desire and energy in almost every sector, but the most disappointing thing for me is that they were not that great...... We gave their midfield too much time and space and cannot help, but think that we needed a 'Sandro' character out there. Early days, but today was a good chance to see whether we had moved on from last season and unfortunately there were not too many -if any - clues that we have!
For me, it's all about how Poch responds. Same as it was under AVB and Sherwoodie, when things started to go wrong for them. All joking (by me) aside, I really do want Poch to succeed, but I am extremely nervous about bringing managers in based on one good season at a lower club. We've seen, far too many times, the the chances of a rookie Prem manager turning out to be a world-beater after one good season are close to zero.
First of all Spurs were fairly awful today, seemingly a yard slower than Pool and too slow in the build up and lacking creativity and a zest of passing. The first half was fairly even, maybe just shaded by Pool, but once again a game involving the dippers was influenced heavily by the referee at a crucial time. With the game at 1 nil, Allen should have received a second yellow for that laughable dive, when instead Dowd laughably and predictably awarded a penalty instead. A goal down and playing against 10 men for the remaining 40 minutes or so could have seen a very different second half and result. As we know, the Dippers always get the benefit of doubt from referees and it is this constant stream of favourable decisions that massively changes the dynamic of matches. There is no way a decision like that penalty today would be given against Liverpool at Klanfield of any other ground for that matter.
"Everybody was waxing lyrical and I tried to bring people down to earth but Liverpool have done that far better than I ever could." A thousand tongue in cheek comments, and you took them all as gospel.
To be fair to Pochettino, he's being asked to do a job with "somebody else's" team. I.e. Not necessarily players he would have bought or chosen himself. I have to say that he will soon realise, if he hasn't already, that many of them just aren't good enough for a club with Spurs' aspirations.
No manager will be good enough for Levy, they'll just be the fall guys for any failures when in fact no manager could possibly overhaul clubs with the resources City, Chelsea, United, Liverpool and Arsenal have without some kind of investment themselves.
Liverpool showed last season that it can be done. Let's face it, we spent £100mil with very little to show for it. If Levy wants to blame Pochettino for that, then it's about time he went himself!...
There's many a true word spoken in jest RDBD and there were heads in clouds already including Pochs. I don't think that I'm wrong to look at the nature of the win rather than just the win. Winning convincingly and properly is the right way to win. I also think I'm right to look at how many our strikers miss because misses are an indication of a striker's form as well as goals. There were a few good chances that went begging in the recent matches which all add up and sooner rather than later all this manifests itself in results like today's. I also think I'm right in my expectations as I've followed Spurs for a while now and when we fall short then I know that things are just not right. On a positive note it's better to be brought down to earth early in the season and to get the bad results out of the way whilst there is still a lot of time to improve. Let's get a 0-2 against Sunderland.
Imo the penalty is a red herring...liverpool should have been 3 up at ht...balotteli missed a header on 2 mins and an open goal when lloris came out of his area. I was at the spurs southampton match at the lane last season...we were 2 down and came back to win 3-2 ... poch had no plan B and today things needed changing very early on as ade was isolated and we were over run in midfield leaving us short at the back but nothing was changed. kaboul should have been subbed...he instilled utter panic at the back...his worst performance for us...townsend did nothing good nor did dembele when they came on Bad day for us but it will keep everyone clearly understanding where we are in the pecking order...6 ish
Ade isolated? Can you honestly see him as a match winner against any of the top clubs,isolated or not?
Chadli and Ade had chances that were just as clear as Balotelli's in the first half. Second half was a write off once we went 2 down but we had to go for it and take risks, hence the third goal. You can be negative about it and I'll be positive about it Anyway, back to the dive. For a bit of perspective, this was given as a booking for a dive and Dier's contact on Allen makes it look like assault... please log in to view this image
"There's many a true word spoken in jest RDBD and there were heads in clouds already including Pochs." What, Spurs are REALLY going to win the PL (the jest) ?? We all know that Pochettino will take time to instil his desired playing style into the squad. Today was only going to be a measure of whether he is ahead of schedule of that or not. Three PL games in, and the transfer deadline madness to come, and we are exactly where I expected the team to be (6 pts out of 9, however they came) .
Today was a bad day at the office, terrible in fact but some of the responses on here have been absolutely ridiculous. We were poor, shocking at times but Liverpool weren't THAT good, they just took advantage of a bad Spurs performance, Scousers will obviously go home happy which is natural but on another day, we could've won that had we finished some great chances. Straight after they scored, Ade had a glorious moment to equalise and but for a slightly over-hit lob, the ball bounced on top of the net rather than inside. Then not long after Chadli too had a brilliant chance, Mignolet saved well but had Nacer just picked a spot out and placed it, rather than going for power, that too would've been a goal. So instead of going into the break 1-0 down it could well have been 2-1 and the dynamics of the game would've been completely different but that's football, chances like that ended up costing us dearly as Liverpool then capitalised on our failure to finish and poor defending and credit to them for doing so, I thought Sterling was extremely impressive, Henderson was good too. From my position in the crowd, it looked like Allen took a shocking dive and Dowd being the c**t that he so regularly is, duly awarded Liverpool the Pen. Dowd's performance infuriated me more than my own teams', every time a Pool player pathetically went to ground he rolled over and gave them a freekick. The only really negative thing I will say and I hate to say it for the record but even I may have to give up with Kaboul now, I've long said that a fit Younes is brilliant but as the games go by, unfortunately he's just not getting any better and is miles away from the guy that helped get us CL and had a superb season the year after. Fazio, if ready, will likely start our next match I reckon as Younes has been error-prone for too long. A real damn shame as it seems injuries have ruined a top centre back. As I said, a bad day at the office and unfortunately we're bound to have a few more, just like most sides but the doom and gloom merchants have overreacted big time.
Anyway, going back to the match, Lloris might've saved the first but he didn't have any chance with the other 2 but his kicking and decision make was poor and nearly gifted Balotelli a goal. Dier looked good again, even if you think it should've been a penalty he generally did well at the back. Kaboul was the worst player on the pitch, in my opinion, I'd like to see him sold as he has been poor in all 3 league games and was our worst defender last season. Vertonghen did okay by comparison but was hard to judge, he didn't make any huge errors but didn't do anything particularly well either. Rose did what we expect, lively going forward but leaves himself too much to do defensively. Capoue and Bentaleb were decent but kept the ball too long at times. Lamela had a game similar to the West Ham game where he never really got going but on the occasions he did start to look a threat, he found himself getting fouled(just like West Ham). Eriksen was fairly quiet again but he did better in the middle and always worked hard. Chadli was similar to Eriksen, just lacked any really outstanding moments. Adebayor was our second worst player, imo and spent far too long running around out of position which meant we frequently lacked a threat in the area. I'm all for a striker who can move out of positon and rotate roles but he needs to remember he's a striker first and foremost, especially when we're struggling to get anyone on the ball in the box. Dembele I thought did really well, would be interested to see how he does starting a game as the rest of the team went downhill fast after the 2nd went in. Townsend obviously ****ed up for the 3rd but did better going forward, he just needs to stop trying to outwit every defender and get the ball into the box. Davies didn't really do much to assess, we were well beaten before he'd even got onto the pitch. Oh well, it's not the end of the World and we've got a good run of games to get back on track before we face Arsenal now.
I cannot believe that you can be satisfied with a "However they came" attitude just as much as I cannot see how anybody can be satisfied with a "However we win" attitude, both are wrong. Goals which creep in off the posts are not as good as goals which go in smash bang in the centre of the goal with the keeper well beaten. Offside goals and lucky hit arm penalties are crap and show crap form. 3-0 at half time should mean 5 or 6 at full time. We should have beaten AEL 4-0 with good goals after good build up play. It was a very lucky penalty we were awarded as he was trying to evade. Everton's offside goal last week and Chelsea's lucky 4 goals last night indicate form but being a Spurs supporter I can detect my own team's shortcomings better than I can see others but basically the rules apply to all teams. Press home advantages and score as many as possible and notice weaknesses. Help me along.
"I cannot believe that you can be satisfied with a "However they came" attitude" For all the reasons I stated, I can be. I am expecting to see what Pochettino demands of his sides to be demonstrated on the pitch by all the team no later than October. That means a summer of pre-season, 7 weeks of competitive games, and four weeks after the likely player churn tomorrow is therefore allowed/accounted for. After that, the above issues can no longer be used as excuses.
Nope, and I never have done. Why did £ity let him go so readily? It's not that difficult to work out, really.
I think that Dowd's performance today has summed up a major issue with the officials in this country at the moment: They're too bloody Northern. I've mentioned it before, but when you've got more Londoners in Liverpool's starting XI than on the Select Group Referees list, then something's off.
"Why did £ity let him go so readily?" And Madrid not progressing beyond their loan in 2010-11. He has his moments, but the 20+ PL goals per season ones seem to be long gone.
