You’re spot on. It’s just extremely frustrating that whatever game plan we had was ruined within 2 minutes when one of our own players went rogue.
The only way you can nullify Messi is when he has to take the burden of the entire team on his shoulders. It often happened with Argentina, but seldom so with Barca.
A disappointing result but it was never realistic to expect Spurs to win when Messi played the way he did. Spurs were fortunate not to concede more. The first half was poor but what was pleasing was the way Spurs kept the pressure on and Barcelona were getting concerned. Thus I'm pleased Spurs didn't capitulate but yes, plenty of errors out there by Spurs. Calamity Lloris! No shame in losing to Barcelona and I can now see Spurs dropping to Europa League.
Proud of the lads tonight and winks deserves some credit he was very good 2nd half but messi was a class above us .just a shame Hugo had another brain fart at the start of the match to give the momentum to barca .if it was me I'd drop him now and get Gazza back in goal but what do I know I've only been watching football for 50 years
It's not a difference in ability across the squad, because some areas we have narrowed that gap (most obviously with the addition of Moura, which addresses both GKN and Sissoko: Backup Winger nicely), but central midfield continues to be an issue because if Dembele's injured or off form our options are either... Sissoko having the physical presence but lacking the control of attacking nous Winks attempting to be a Modric/Xavi type in spite of his development stalling for two seasons Dier & Wanyama in the pivot, so we may as well bring a book to games The issue that hit us in the yarbles during the summer is we fell between two stools: we were looking for a Dembele replacement but didn't sign one due to a series of ill-advised transfer strategies (i.e. assuming Lyon hadn't made Ndombele's loan permanent yet, forgetting Seri existed, not acting fast enough to sign Grealish, Rabiot needing to be a saga for at least another six months, etc etc) yet we didn't want to sign a one-season wonder in the mold of Stambouli to freshen up the options. Now I get not wanting to sign a stopgap, after all it's the worst of both worlds as the Levy Out mob will kvetch about a late window cheapy while we have a player who won't make an impression on the team treading water for a season (and potentially being tough to move on, as GKN has been) but we've also managed to put pressure on the squad by this while also inviting pressure on the club to address this in January. And, you know, beat Inter in our final game. That'll help a lot!
Does 3rd place join it at the knockout stage? If so..wouldn't mind some knockout footy and would fancy ourselves but for the sake of our league position I might have to agree with you. Our squad isnt strong enough to focus on more than one thing I'm afraid
Levy got deep pockets and short arms when it comes to our first team. He needs to back Poch or **** off once the stadium is done and hand over to someone who has ambition on the field. Anger stage is kicking in again...think it's time to roll another spliff
Well that was a typically Spurs performance, wasn't it? Can't say that it was boring, anyway! I've not read the rest of the thread yet, as I've just got back, but I can't help feeling that we shot ourselves in the foot. Too many unforced errors and poor passes when we weren't under pressure. What was the general opinion of the officials tonight? It's hard to judge from the stands, of course, but I wasn't impressed. The inexperienced German ref was an odd choice and he made some very questionable decisions. The most annoying and yet bizarre was the constant unpunished foul throws. Maybe Aurier watches Barca too often?
Looked like the ref didn't like a physical game and always fell for their dark arts. To cut a long story short...it's not easy to tell from the TV but was he wearing a Barca shirt?
Well, can’t really fault the lads other than Lloris. I said before the game we shouldn’t drop a keeper in good form for one returning from injury and tonight showed why, conceding in the first two minutes against Barca was just suicidal and it was Hugo’s fault. I hope Poch has the balls to drop him for Cardiff because it’s bang out of order for Gazza to be dropped like he was tonight. Other than that, we were just simply beaten by a better side, no shame. We worked hard, made a few mistakes but when you’re without four of your best players it’s understandable, we gave a good account of ourselves regardless. Makes you wonder how we would’ve done with Jan, Dembele, Dele and Eriksen in the side. Thought Winks (yes, you read that right) had a good second half. Lamela was brilliant. Kane had his best game of the season so far, looked back to his old self which is a great sign. I hate seeing Spurs lose but Messi is just phenomenal, he put on a masterclass tonight. Feel privileged to say I’ve seen him play live, that’s one off the bucket list.
Things I learned tonight... 1) Barcelona are so good to watch but have no class. Their play acting and "gamesmanship" is appalling. 2) Refs don't like giving decisions against them. 3) The ref was so inconsistent it was untrue...the lack of advantage given to us at times was almost comical. 4) 3 of the 4 goals originated from our silly mistakes. 5) We did really well to be in the game at 85 mins with no Eriksen, Dele, Dembele and Jan. 6) Lamela is in fantastic form and was excellent tonight...really hope he ain't injured. 7) The real winks stood up to be counted in the second half...that's the guy I wanna see play. 8) We played with passion and pride and showed we have a back bone...really enjoyed the second half. 9) Suarez is a ****er 10) We could have a very good season if we continue to play like that 11) Trippier needs to have a "muscle strain" to get 2 weeks off instead of playing for England...he looks physically and mentally knackered 12) The students in the student union building next to Wembley should realise that throwing bottles and drinks at football fans for entertainment is always going to lead to them getting a slapping when some football fans decide to enter the building to give their opinions. 13) We sang our hearts out tonight but the atmosphere weren't rocking...roll on the new lane...that noise from our single bank terrace will be so intimidating. 14) I loved being their with my girls and we all love Tottenham
disagree...so best you go smoke your spiff before I piss you off so much you have to hunt me down and slap me with a kipper
Yeah I know..I'm hard pushed to find support for my campaign...but the fact is I'd love to slap you with a kipper then slap Levy over the head with it a few times Off to have that spliff
Barcelona may claim to be "More Than A Club", but that was less than an away support. How can a club of their size not sell 3,000 tickets for a Champions League game in London? Yes, Barcelona took us apart at times, but the run of the whole game stemmed from us producing a dog of a first half performance. Give them a two goal start, and that's exactly what we did, and they'll run rings around you. Having shown that we struggle to play through a press against Liverpool and Inter Milan, we decided to do exactly that against one of the best proponents of it in world football. You can call it brave but it was ****ing stupid given no Eriksen, Vertonghen, Dele etc. The result was a ****ing shambles at times. We couldn't pass through them in the first half to save our lives. Why we didn't decide to by-pass the midfield in that first half, I'll never know, If you cut out their press and try and get directly at their back line, they'll drop off. Then you can play football as you want a bit more. However, in that first half we looked lost and despite us being a second half team, I thought that they'd just pass us to death after the break. Fair play to everyone there, we all raised ourselves for the second half. The fans got stuck in and so did the players. We got back into the game twice and Lucas Moura nearly made it 3-3. Yes, they hit the post twice and Hugo had another rush of blood to what passes for his brain but we had a right go and I'll take that in the circumstances. I thought that HK looked much better, Lucas was dangerous throughout, as was Coco, who was superb. Winksy got his blood up and started to get stuck in and even Ben Davies started to look something like the player of early last season. That level of fight has been missing too often of late. Still, it's an opportunity missed. This isn't the Barcelona of a few years ago and if we'd played something like the second half, in the first, we could have had a chance of beating them. Let's hope that we get 3 points against Cardiff and a chance to get some injured players back and regroup. This campaign isn't done yet and there's still enough fight left to show that with a stronger team and bench, we can still make something of this season. Disappointed but unbowed.
