Good to hear that Gomis is ok. You gave us a scare at the end there, though. Good luck for the rest of the season.
Good performance from the lads, you cant win them all or we would be above Chelsea.....fair result but we nearly nicked a draw at the end that would have robbed spurs of their win that i would not be complaining but spurs fans would have well played...
Great game and Spurs deserved the win on the run of play, Taylor was not at his best, and Monk brought on Monty far too late, but you can't win them all, though I thought we had knicked it at the death for a draw, but it wasn't to be.............
Having Stoke above us should be incentive enough to go for a win next game, even if it is Brenda's boys............. PS: My stomach churns at the thought of that miserable bugger Mark Hughes looking down on us, so please Monk get it sorted ASAP.........
Very good first half and excellent final 15 minutes. Spurs were good and deserved their win - maybe wanting to prove something after Europa League exit and losing on Sunday. Potechino certainly wanted to make a statement and was active throughout the game. Negatives out of the way first - after the break we went to sleep for half an hour & we lacked the levels of intensity, desire and fitness shown by a young Spurs team, full backs had a game to forget (but when has that not been the case against Spurs?). Positives - passed quite well when allowed, Montero back to his best, Gylfi showed his class, two very good goals. Cork & Ki were immense in the first half. Shelvey outstanding and if he played like that week in week out even I'd be calling for his inclusion in the England squad. Which does bring me to a question that no one could answer last night:- Shelvey (Marmite, I know) was having his best & most influential game of the season yet he was subbed. Was he injured? Apparently not. Strange as at the time he was taken off Ki, who had been good in the first half was not in the game, Cork had been suspect, even Siggy - who had been trying too hard - had gone off the boil and Oliviera was having no impact at all.
I am no football manager and I've never played competitive football myself. I have been watching football in one form or another for over 20 years though. I reckon our game would be greatly improved by just 2 factors being modified... Defenders getting closer to the guy with the ball. Taylor (just to pick a name, but other are guilty as well) has a terrible habit of backing off a player and standing off him by 3 or 4 feet which allows him to pass/cross/have a cuppa. I sometimes think I'm harsh on players because I don't understand what it's like to play myself. So I watched MotD and the better teams all close down best when they're virtually on the guys toes. Our guys need to get closer. It minimises options and forces play back. Ivanovic is a master at this. Accuracy of passing needs to improve. I have Shelvey as my main culprit here, but again, he's got plenty of company. Sometimes it looks like the weight of the pass is wrong and the guy recieving it is returning a serve from Andy Murray or it's very short. Sometimes it looks like a simple lack of awareness of players around and a nice simple pass isn't played with the right urgency so it gets intercepted either as it leaves the passer or just before it's received. Those two things alone would ease lot of my frustration. And I reckon both could be coached. I'm not asking anyone to become a champions league player overnight. Just the simple stuff.
