I'd agree with you YV if it wasn't for the fact that we've already faced United, City and Liverpool, as well as the fact that the entire league have essentially had a sh**e start to the season. All the big teams have had more than one mare already this season - City's came against us. I don't know if it's something in the Lucozade or if this is the Chinese year of the Scrambled Egg, but the table quite clearly hasn't settled with the likes of W Ham and Leicester still doing exceptionally well. In fact, I'd argue that this week's round of fixtures was the first that almost all of them made sense; apart from W Ham winning 3-1 away to Palace having previously managed draws against the mighty Sunderland and Norwich. Perhaps the table is finally beginning to settle down now as it often does after the second international break. We have a good run of fixtures coming up between now and the end of November to really get the measure of Poch's system. 3 tricky EL games including the trip to Saturn are interspersed between 2 must-wins against floundering Villa and B'mouth, followed by 3 London derbies back to back - an exceptionally rare occurrence that will really test our youngsters' resolve under pressure. I know no game is easy anymore but at the beginning of the season I'd marked November and April down as our hardest months PL-wise.It'll be interesting to see what's what in 6 weeks time.
Leave aside questions about whether Pochettino's system is too hard on the players, and we have quite a good start to the season marred by bad finishing. Once again we had the better chances and once again we only got a draw. Looking forward, Kane's off his best, Son is hurt, Chadli is hurt and Clinton has yet to show he can score in the PL. So the question is how we're going to get goals. Eriksen from free kicks is one answer. Pushing Alli forward to make room for Mason makes a lot of sense. (I agree Mason was key to setting the tempo for us. I'd add that Lamela has been the player who's created the most clear-cut chances.) Clinton should get a run in the team to see if he can replicate his Ligue 1 form. But what else we can do? is a fair question. For the moment I guess we go with Dier and Alli farther back, and Lamela, Eriksen and Clinton, with Kane as usual, or with Kane and Clinton swapped. I hate to not play Dembele after a game like he had, but it's impossible to see him helping us score, which is our need. Give Dier a run at striker? Despite the fact he hasn't impressed, I'd certainly think about playing Rose, either at LB or at LM. His record of scoring isn't bad, especially at LM. I can't see starting Trippier, who's looked worse than Walker this year. He does provide more threat through his crosses, but Kane is now our only fit aerial threat. It may be clutching at straws, but Carroll scored in preseason, and might be worth some minutes, maybe beginning against Anderlecht. We need Son back badly, and Mason would really help. If we paired Mason with Dier in the center, and played Eriksen, Alli and Lamela farther forward, I think we'd score a few.
Yeah, Dembele's composure and physicality seem to be far more effective tools in our own half. When it comes to attack he still tends to make bad decisions and slow things up but in our half his ability on the ball was very useful as Liverpool tried to swarm over us as soon as we won the ball back. There was one great moment in the second half where he picked up the loose ball on the edge of our area, nutmegged the player closing him down and brought the ball forward into tonnes of space before passing it off to someone further forward. I wouldn't bet on him doing as well against a more defensive side but he certainly proved his usefulness on Saturday. Clinton's an interesting one. His touch is poor and I'm not sold on his decision making but he's lightining quick and when it came to shooting he struck the ball really well. He's a bit like Lennon in his first couple of seasons, a bit unrefined but playing at 100mph is bound to cause problems. A useful player if nothing else.
I mean it could've been worse but I just think it's frustrating to once again be the best side in a home game and not find the breakthrough. The reason I included the cup games in the 3 wins from 4 bit is that it isn't "must win" at this stage of the season in terms of league games, however we do need to start beating teams regularly, we're 4 wins from 12 overall this season and a 1 in 3 win ratio isn't going to get us anywhere, regardless of rarely we lose.
Not really but the second and third goals were very well taken without the actual finish being exceptional, the first was just a tap in after reacting first. Bournemouth were all over the place though and it was a game made for quick players like Navas and Sterling. I do rate Sterling but I mostly just brought it up as a joke since you'd said he can't shoot.
Yeah i know. I don't rate Sterling. Ronnie Rosenthal scored a great hat-trick once. Maybe Sterling will change my mind and show he does have a football brain and a decent first touch and isn't just there to be fouled.
Found it quite an average game on Saturday, both keepers had to make a couple of saves, with Mignolet's one of N'Jie being one of the saves of the season but the game itself didn't have much too it I felt, the ball was in the centre of the pitch a hell of a lot. Kane again fluffed another decent chance, he's getting into the right positions and where as last season he'd stick it away with ease it's just not happening for him at the moment, it's a damn shame as he could well have had about 6 goals this season but for a lack of confidence/ lack of luck in front of goal. N'Jie was quite poor, lost the ball a hell of a lot though was unlucky not to score and delivered one perfect cross which could/ should've been met by a Spurs player. Eriksen and Lamela were pretty quiet, as was Alli. A couple of good performances from the CB pairing of Toby and Jan, their reading and understanding of one another's game is enjoyable to watch if you appreciate defensive qualities and I think we finally have a solid CB partnership for the first time since Dawson and King/ King and Woodgate. Rose and Walker were also fine on the flanks. MOTM was Dembele, probably his best performance in a Spurs shirt and one of the best individual performances I've seen down the Lane. If only he could play like that consistently we'd have one of the best CM's in Europe. Think a tweet on twitter mentioned he won 100% of tackles, had a 100% pass rate and a 100% dribble completion, that's just astonishing. Wouldn't mind seeing him partner Dier in the next game and see how that comes along. A draw against Liverpool isn't terrible, especially after recent results against them at the Lane but I can't help but feel we're dropping too many points this season with all these draws when our performances somewhat warranted a win but for some poor finishing.
Understand what a few are saying with regards to us dropping point..but I don't believe our performances warrant better. It's not as though the oppo have bricks and mortar covering their goals. We are not clinical enough. We are not finding the corners of the goal..we are not turning the screw, yes a little but obviously not enough. We are not cocky enough, maybe showing teams a bit too much respect. This is where managers earn their monies.
When we say 2 points dropped it's a criticism of our team. It's not saying we deserved to win, it's saying that we should have won given that we controlled most of the game and had the better scoring chances.
Look, last season I think we'll all admit saw a truckload of points picked up which our performances didn't really warrant. Think back to most of Eriksen's 89th minute goals. This season I think we're seeing much more realistic returns for our efforts, with a bit of misfortune in Kane's form and key players injured. Dona is 100% spot on - yes, we've dominated possession on more than one occasion, but it's not as if we're regularly besieging the opposition and throwing the kitchen sink at them. Until we do that I don't think it's fair to complain about dropped points as the bottom line is most decent PL teams will enjoy good possession and keep the opposition keeper busy but still come away with little to show for their efforts. I think there is still a bit of a Spursy mentality with this team; it doesn't (yet) have full confidence in its own abilities, which is understandable given that most of our players probably still need to show ID's to get into a certificate 15.
For me, we still lack the killer instinct. We have had sides on the rack, but let them go. We've got to learn to finish games off.
We've created enough clear cut chances in games in my opinion, just unfortunately Harry or whoever else has been in the position to score has often had a shot saved or shot wide. The past couple of years has seen us create little in games and thus relied on last minute heroics from Eriksen or waiting for Harry to produce a bit of magic. The performances from the team haven't worried me, it's just the finishing that's let us down, hopefully the forward players will turn a corner soon and we'll start putting them away because I can't see our bad luck in front of goal continuing like this, I also don't think it's a coincidence that since Son's been out our results have gone from wins to draws, he's really added that extra goal & attacking threat which gives opposition a tougher task on deciding who to mark and therefore opens them up.
