But when you're as far advanced as Vertonghen was, then the obvious thing to do is to challenge the advancing player?? When a defender is on the backfoot, that is when he is most vulnerable. My complaint is that Vertonghen naively allowed himself to get caught on the backfoot and then allowed it again.
Monumentally awful today. The ref and Benteke won it for us with a combination of poor decisions that lead to Villa losing it and stupidity. No shape, cohesion, team spirit, guile, fight, penetration, courage, or commitment. Right now, we are truly the worst I have seen us for some years. Villa fancied it today because, Burnley aside, if there is one team you want to be facing at home when you need to stop a losing streak it's us. Actually at least Burnley would put a shift in.
Fair enough, I might have to watch it again. Obviously I thought Vertonghen was too far away to close down to not leave himself vulnerable to just having it knocked past him but I could be wrong.
I agree the lack of help for the FBs, especially on the left, was appalling. Kaboul was very poor. Rose made a half-hearted and poorly judged challenge in the sequence that resulted in the goal. Our finishing was terrible, again. Yet overall, I think almost everyone is being very harsh. (I ought to add I only saw the first half--I always play tennis at noon my time 5:00 pm yours, for seven months when it's cold). The biggest problem was what it's been: poor finishing. Our buildup was too slow at times, but many times it was not. For a team that was a complete, toothless shambles, we created an amazing number of good chances. The switch to two strikers was a good idea, IMO, though surely Kane should have started. We've played pretty well in the past and lost. Today we played a very open game, left our defenders stranded but created a lot of good chances, in an attempt to address our biggest problem which has been not enough goals. It was a sensible adjustment, and it worked, though luck seems to be the main cause. But as far as luck goes, I think our entire season would be different if Kane hadn't been so unlucky as to have an OG. In any case, I think if we can start the players who have been able to produce goals, namely Kane, Chadli and Lamela, we may do surprisingly well. I don't know where our poor squad has come from. It still looks like a talented squad to me, struggling to deal with their first downturn. I'm also not sure what Pochettino should have done differently, other than starting Kane. Fazio/Dier and Stambouli may deserve starts instead of the disappointing Kaboul and Capoue. I'll add that Eriksen was very disappointing today. To be fair, Chadli wasn't so grand either until he scored, considering he seems to be the one at fault for Rose getting no help whatsoever. But players who can produce goals change everything. I can only imagine how bad the reviews will be if we do less than outshoot the other team 18-12, get seven versus one on goal and have 60% of the ball. But everyone seems to agree: Villa were desperately unlucky not to get all three points in a game where they had one shot on goal to their opponents seven. I have trouble picturing anyone saying that about Spurs if the final score and shots on goal numbers were reversed.
Imo mason was very lucky not to get a red too...and if it had been the other way round I would have reacted like lambert did tbh. As for the team, pochettino has not got the players he wants. Adebayor and soldado do not defend from the front, chasing down defenders and forcing mistakes. Harry kane does...thats why I was amazed he did not start with them. Too many of our players are refusing or are unable to do as the manager wants so we are playing slow, boring football a lot of the time in the league now. In the cups we use different players like kane, davies, lamela, stamboulie, fazio, townsend, lennon, mason... (I know some have started being in the prem team like mason) ... the tempo in those games is better by and large and the closing down and work rate seems much better...I know the teams we have faced aint been great but those players would have played better v a very bad villa side, a very nervy newcastle side, a poor west brom side, etc. Imo. Its not all bad...todays performance was appalling but at least he made some good changes. He now can not be under any illusions about who can and can't do the job he wants in the team maybe we will sart to see players he prefers rather than the ones he can't drop.
I agree. I thought he looked a complete scruff and I had to turn my volume up to an intolerable level to try and comprehend what he was saying in his embarrassing broken English.
AVB was a scruff too and stammered when he was lost for words. Somebody tell these coaches to smarten themselves up. Poch didn't have a clue what to say.
Poch hasn't got the players he wants to play to his preferred system, but if you want steak and chips and all you have in the cupboard is bread, then make toast! If he stubbornly follows this course,we will be ****ed by January and nobody will want to join us in the window to strengthen us. It's not working right now. Think again Poch.
Sorry but as much as I respect a lot of your views I think this is bang out of order. He can dress how he wants...and I could understand him...he just refused to answer the questions asked and hid behind his broken english....what bothered me was he said we started well and went on to talk about stats as though that showed we werent ****...but then again the last manager who said we were **** was slaughtered for doing so...so he cant win either way.
I agree with that. I always feel like it's promising when you're creating chances, even if you're not finishing them. The trouble is it's got to the point where it's happening every week and really causing us problems. If you look at the chances we created against Arsenal, Southampton, City and Newcastle we should have scored a lot more than 3 goals and in all but the Southampton game we were punished for missing them. Today was the same and it just doesn't look like there's an end in sight for it. In the second half it was worse, even with the sending off the best chances we had were when it fell to Chadli for the equaliser and 2 freekicks just outside the box(the latter we scored from).
With respect, I think you're clutching at straws to find excuses for the guy. Maybe I come from a different generation, but I do not expect to see the manager of THFC appear on national TV looking so bloody scruffy and coming across as so unintelligible. I don't recall ever seeing Bill Nicholson, Matt Busby, Bill Shankly, Don Revie, Brian Clough, Bobby Robson etc look like a scarecrow when interviewed, or having to hide behind pretend lack of English.
A bit of my handy Photoshop work Yes, ironically the seven players we blew £100m+ on last year after selling Bale. Great cup players. Dire in the league!
