Against Stoke he couldn't miss. His first flick with the ball crossed from the right was meant for goal but was heading for the left corner flag.
Very poor performance tonight. Monaco were crap but we were worse. Really disappointing to lose one of our home games in that fashion. Simply not good enough from many of the players.
1-2 FT. Not good enough. Started both halves well, but defended like **** and spurned our chances. Looked totally devoid of ideas at the end and either knackered or demoralised. Pochettino needs to change things for the weekend and assess things for future Wembley fixtures. The space means that we've got to use slightly different tactics and probably players, too. N'Koudou and Sissoko might enjoy the larger pitch, but some of our team certainly don't.
That has been a meh all-round performance. The pressing game was non-existent for much of the 90 mins, too much AVB 2013-14, and not enough using the brain cells to select the percentage ball. Don't wanna hear any blurb about Wembley not having the same atmosphere as WHL either.
Hilarious to see the Goons and Chavs come out of the woodwork on our Twitter the second the whistle blew. It's like they've been sat there waiting since May, which is healthy...
Eriksen was anonymous again which is becoming a worrying habit. Lamela still doesn't seem to learn and Kane looks so desperate to score, it's affecting his decision making. Team needs some small tweaks here and there to give us more width and pace
That was a real 'welcome to the big time' wake up call, and I'm glad we got it out of the way in our first fixture. Many of our players seem inexplicably knackered for so early on in the season which is a massive worry and makes me wonder if Poch simply pushed them way too hard, too far, too soon last season. Kane simply hasn't turned up this season. There's no politer way to put it. Eriksen needs to learn that one good performance every four matches is not worth the new 70k salary he's on. And Hugo's distribution is frankly Sunday-league standard.
SpursOrSex, this is what I meant about not being carried away with Kane and about following up a good score with a mediocre one. I'm NOT convinced yet about Kane or the team and tonight showed why.
Agreed. Eriksen, Alli and Lamela just don't have the pace to cover the bigger pitch, rendering our counter-attacking useless. That imo was the difference - Monaco weathered the storm because they always had a pacy outlet on the flanks to receive the clearance.
Think Kane needs a rest now. Benched for the next match please Mr Poch. We played crap and deserved to lose. That's the short summary.
I thought that we were fine at first, as we weren't chasing the game. Once we went behind though, the flaws in our system became very obvious. Alli was fine getting forward against Stoke from a deeper role, as they didn't have an effective holding player. Monaco had two and they were disciplined and hardworking. That left him out of position and possession, while Dier was isolated and trying to cover two gaps, failing to do either. The Dembele substitution worked well and we dominated play for the start of the second half. Bringing on Janssen for Lamela had the opposite effect, though. We basically had no pace or width at that point. Sissoko injected some, but our legs and belief had gone at that stage. I think that we'll see a number of changes for Sunderland and I wouldn't be surprised if Kane and Dier drop to the bench. There are some tired, jaded legs in our side and it's only September. That's not great.
Spot-on analysis and yes, the tiredness is a massive concern for me. We were simply outworked tonight, as we were against Liverpool and against Everton, and it runs contrary to everything we saw last season. Very worrying.
The balance of the side's been off in every game, including most of the Stoke one. Dembele makes a big difference, but we have to be able to play without him.
