Excellent first half where Aurier and Rose never moved off the touchline so stretched the Palace defence to breaking point. Lots of space was created by good movement and we were clinical early on. Second half Aurier and Rose narrowed things a bit to snuff out their attackers and to ensure a clean sheet yet we could have still got a couple more. Winks, Sissoko and Lamela all played really well as did Rose and Aurier...everyone had a good game imho. Two things I noticed... 1. We again kicked off towards the Wall...so wonder if this is our new choice and we again did not score at the other end...can only remember us scoring against Huddersfield and Everton at that end out of 10 or 11 home matches. 2. Palace fans were quiet throughout apart from the first 5 mins...about a third of them did not return for the second half, half had left by 70 mins at which point they sang about us being **** fans Genuinely thought they were really poor (as they were back in April)...yet they have a reputation for being loud. Good to see Andros getting a good welcome and Zara is an utter twat...complains about everything yet has sly digs throughout the game ... was a completely self absorbed show pony throughout and Palace would have been better off selling judging by his performance today.
Yep, definitely said a few “Na Zdorovie’s” after the game! Felt like the Spurs of 16/17, played without fear and pressed high, especially in that first half. Second half we managed it well and slowed it down to conserve energy (for Olympiacos) and see out the win. Front three were devastatingly good, Kane showed he doesn’t always need to score to be brilliant, whilst Son and Lamela just took the piss with the Palace defence. Back four were also impressive, assisted the mids/ attackers nicely and generally gave Hugo an easy day, his only saves were from half chances. Lovely moment at Half Time too with a lady called Brenda coming out, 70 years of coming to games and was given a surprise when Cliff Jones came out to hand her a present. Please can we have more of that!?
I hate to call the hacks predictable, but I totally ****ing called it... https://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2019/09/...harry-kane-will-be-devastated-he-didnt-score/
When you are N points behind the leader, and for FOUR consecutive games you cannot play first and get a result that decreases the gap and puts pressure on them, while they are able to do the converse, that is not equality.
Excelllent performance and some pretty clinical first-half finishing. A return to the 4-2-3-1, a right-back at right-back and the use of the pressing game high up the pitch were all important factors. Why have all of those things been missing for months? Aurier still looked a bit rusty, but his wide runs and deep crosses caused Palace endless problems. Son leading the press and working his arse off earned him plenty of chances and he took two of them very well. The Korean fans in attendance definitely got their money's worth yesterday and you can see why they idolise him. Rotation will be needed with our schedule, but we seem to have plenty of players available, despite having a bunch of injuries already. The system and tactics need to stay, though. We look ten times better when we play like this, regardless of who is in the team. Pochettino got it very, very right for this game and he needs to stick with it.
One thing of note was our tactical fouls high up the pitch I'm not sure why our players got booked for them, though, as it never happens to The Sheikh Mansour Team's players when they do it endlessly...
Just as we all expected, an easy win over Palace. Well, in any case, an excellent performance. I wonder if there's any chance we'll see the same lineup and tactics versus Leicester. It would send a good message, I think. I had been wondering if there was any chance Kane could play more like Llorente, since the latter seemed to bring out the best in the rest of the team. Kane's pass to Lamela yesterday gives me some hope he might.
For me, it was no coincidence that when we play 2 attack minded FB’s who hug the touch line, we cause all sorts of problems. Sissoko, Winks, Son, Eriksen (in fact the whole midfield) had so much space to work with. We’re often quick to slag off Aurier on here, but not only was he excellent, he caused a domino effect of other brilliant performances due to the balance he helped provide. Yesterday was much more like it. Great team performance!
Who knows ?? It reminded me of the 1st half blitzkriegs during the reign of Arry, and I would rather Spurs play like that and go 1-0 down like we did against Villa and the Toon, than have outbreaks of AVB 2013-14. IMHO we also need the return of the MF press closer to the final third. The important thing is that manager and squad allegedly discussed what was currently wrong, and seemed keen on rectifying it.
As a whole it was a good overall performance and central defence was much tighter. Shout out to Ben Davies who I thought was excellent when he got on. As for Palace, they were dreadful. Glad we didn't fall for the Zaha transfer trap in the summer. May have talent but attitude stinks. And Ayew is a twat as well.
Just in time for the plaudits hailing our centre backs as playmakers, here's the pass map which shows they were guilty of more sideways passes than anyone else... please log in to view this image
You expect that from CBs (especially in defence) . Tis the MF <-> FB and MF <-> MF passing that is the primary source of grief. More use of Toby-ball is to be encouraged though. And IMHO a bit of "total football" in support of Jan, as he can actually take the ball deeper into opposition territory quite well.
Indeed, I think if we used SheffU's overlapping centre back thing, we'd do it better than them. I've always thought that Jan especially could do this more often, and it also makes for exciting football when a centre back comes forward during normal play.
That outside of the boot Lamela pass leading up to our third goal was so sexy, the whole move was sexy actually but that pass was just really sexy. Watched it back a few times now, proper sexy. Sexy.
Finally a good performance. It's been a while. It's very reassuring that the following attacking talent wasn't in the XI... Ndombele, Lo Celso, Dele, Lucas, Sessegnon. That's some back up and we still have Eric Dier, Ben Davies, Davinson Sanchez et al to fit on the bench. Finally, a squad to match some of our competitors!
Former Ajax CBs not able to bring the ball forward even when under a bit of pressure ?? Ajax probably had capital punishment for that in the 70s.