2-2 FT. Don't think either side wanted a draw. Shows the risk in rotating so many players. Got out of jail, after dominating the first half. Desperately need another striker. I'd go after another goalkeeper, too. Vorm's a good player, but not in this role. Our record with him is terrible.
That's the first Leicester game I've seen, their energy is brilliant but I realised as the second half panned out that I was watching classic Italian football. Typical frustrating Italian style score with brilliance and then defend defend defend.
Eriksen was very poor today. TBH with Pritchard injured he has nobody threatening his place. I assume something akin to the starting XI today will be playing in the replay too.
He was very good until Leicester scored and then went out of it almost completely. His corners are getting worse, too. We need to put someone else on them, especially as he's a goal threat.
"He was very good until Leicester scored and then went out of it almost completely." QED. If there any aspirations for the PL prize, you need some players who will front up no matter what the scoreline is. More so the MF playmakers.
"Hard to say it was deliberate, I'd be pretty annoyed had the other team been given it against us." Sadly you see softer ones than that given.
Is Dembele on the mend? I think he could be an effective force against Leicester, Chadli almost mimicked his dribbling style but was foiled at the end.
Mixed emotions after that game. 50th goal for Harry and he breaks his FA Cup jinx, confident penalty under loads of pressure. I thought Onomah was impressive and Carroll, who I slated to death after the Everton game, does look like he is improving. Pleased for Eriksen that he got on the score sheet but once again, for a player of his ability and now in his 3rd season at the club, he really needs to be bossing games much more than he does. It sounds harsh, but the majority of times I've watched Spurs this season I've felt a bit underwhelmed by him. Today once again (hopefully) reminded Levy and the entire board why Son will never be a stand-in for Kane. He rarely played as an out and out striker in Germany and the chances of it working out in what is a harder and more competitive league are almost nil. I 100% agree with I think it was @Spurfect who said his best position is where Chadli started on the left. With Erisken underperforming I'd be more than curious to see a '3' of Son-Alli-Lamela on Wednesday; I think that unit has all the ingredients to be lethal. Poor defending for both goals, especially from Toby for the second where he got his footing all wrong and as a consequence his shift in body weight basically pointed Okazaki in the direction he needed to go in to score. Vorm looked nervous throughout with some inexplicably bad kicks and throws that could've led to much worse than they did. We need a Cudicini or Keller type #2 to provide back-up for Hugo. Michel is clearly a confidence player who needs long runs of games to keep his self-belief up at a high. Similar to Gomes. Cudicini always had that Pirlo-esque 'And zero f**** were given' air about him. Harsh penalty but a draw was the least we deserved. I disagree with the comments that a replay is bad. With Fiorentina next in the EL I expect a full strength side for that, and probably thereafter if we progress as there are some massive, massive names in the tournament this year. That said, the FA Cup is one of the only chances left for players like Wimmer and Onomah to learn the ropes, or for players like Chadli and Bentaleb to build up match fitness. And no, I don't see winning a trophy as being anywhere near as important as top 4. Top 4 and no trophy trumps 5th and FA Cup every day of the week, for me. Try convinving Wigan and Portsmouth fans otherwise.
What was Shearer on about. Dyer didn't have his back to the ball, he was looking at it. He could easily have moved his arm, but instinct took over and he flicked his hand at the ball. Definite penalty.
We certainly got away with that today, especially since we lost a lot of attacking momentum when Bentaleb replaced Carroll. What gets me is that both of Leicester's goals came from some shoddy set piece defending: their first due to Toby getting blocked up a couple of our players to allow Wasilewski a free header, the second because we seemed to pull every outfield player back into the area (a regular source of infuriation since at least the Jol era), and the combination of a botched clearance, Carroll's challenge getting shrugged off as if he wasn't there and Trippier mistiming a challenge to give Okazaki a clear path to goal put them 2-1 up.
I like Carroll a lot and I thought that he was largely positive today, but I'd really like to see him playing further forward. He works hard defensively, but he's not a good tackler and his slight build allows opposition players to shrug off his challenges. Trying to play searching passes into the box from a deep position is much, much harder, too. I think we'd see the best of him in behind a main striker, especially as he seems happy to close down constantly. How do we approach the replay, now? We look fairly toothless without Kane, but he can't keep playing in every game. We can't bring someone in for that tie, either. Should've got it sorted as soon as the window opened, but that's Levy's way of doing things.
Thought a draw was the absolute minimum we deserved from the game, we played all the football Leicester confirmed today what have I thought for some time and that is that they are new Wimbledon, they are very good at it and certainly play to their strengths and fair play to them for that (but I never had a particular problem with Wimbledon either). I thought the replays showed quite conclusively that it was a penalty as well, he knew exactly what he was doing.
