Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Colchester United

He was literally the only shining light for me last night. Looked fit, fresh and was knocking in some great crosses despite playing RCB.

If the footballing gods finally wanna stop ****ting on us, they’ll make sure he stays injury-free and get him back in that XI because we desperately need 2014-2017 Eric Dier.

 

He was the only one spitting feathers and barking at others...I’ll take that all day

 

Here's what I'm thinking: after large chunks of last season saw us fail to control midfield like we had in Poch's first few seasons with the Dier/Dembele or Wanyama/Dembele pivots, Poch is now overcompensating - hence THE INFERNAL BASTARD DIAMOND

On paper I can see what he's trying to do, namely copy the midfield trio that Juventus used a few years ago of Pirlo, Pogba and Vidal - but there's clear problems with this
i.) When Juventus used this system they played a 352, while Poch is playing a 4312
ii.) Juve's front two was Tevez & Llorente, while our front two is Harry Kane & noted non-strikers Son Heung-min or Lucas Moura
iii.) Juve had Pirlo at the base of the diamond with Pogba & Vidal screening him, we have Harry Winks or Oliver Skipp
iv.) Last night we had Dier & Wanyama screening, neither of whom are capable of the progressive role Pogba had

This underlines the issues with THAT MOTHERFUCKING DIAMOND, namely we are missing at least two components to actually do it while we also nerf several of our players by trying to fit them into it

 

This is such a low point, can it get any worse? At times like this the manager needs to assert himself and take decisive action. Pochettino looks as though he is sinking, which shocks me to be honest. Is this the wake up call he needs? I hope so because slippery slopes can leave you without any control on what happens. Surely he needs to bench the players who don't want to play for Spurs NOW, we certainly can't wait until January. By then the whole project might be over. Players like Eriksen have contributed nothing this season except maybe for a brief period against Villa. I don't think he is being deliberately ineffective but at this level your mind must be right and his clearly isn't. We are very unlucky with the new signings all suffering injury but even without them we have enough to do far better than we are showing at the moment. Pochettino must know who the disruptive, disinterested, disjointed players are and this must be where he takes strong action and makes the point. However big you are, however much they have given in the past, now is what matters and if your head is not right then sideline them and let's build the team on those players who are here and WANT to be here.
We need to build the new team NOW not in January.

 

Who have you guys got at the weekend?

 

Mentioned this before but this is true but also shows the naivity in transfer policy beforehand. Its always best to replace players every season to get them up to speed and find out if they are good enough. I think the lack of transfers in the 4 windows prior is really starting to tell.

Not only that you can't replace half your first team and expect players to just gel. That rarely if ever works. I do think that sacking poch would be bad though as he's the main reason you boys are top 4

 

Poch was denied the chance to evolve the squad for 3 windows. At the very least he deserves 3 windows to try to put things right. One down, two to go. I think his vision of who needs to leave and who needs to come in is pretty clear at this stage, the big question is whether Levy has the cojones to make it happen. Across two more windows, I don't think there is an excuse not to, but what concerns me greatly is the relative pittance we'll now get from selling the players Poch wants rid of.

So I can see this playing out one of three ways: We sell a big name player to generate proper funds (Alli would be top of the list for me), we don't sell a big player and QED don't bring in the players Poch wants/needs, or we don't sell a big player and Lewis coughs up the cash anyway for the full refurb.

Of those scenarios, option 3 is by far the least likely. Option 2 will likely result in Poch quitting. So option 1 is my preferred one.

 

Southampton at home...

 

So easy win then

 

I can take people trying hard and failing (Moura, Son, KWP, Parrott Dele, Skipp, Tanganga etc).

Some days I give it my all in work but can not change the stress levels of a kid no matter what I do.

I can appreciate people taking risks that don't come off.

Some days I do something that is a risk and it goes wrong. Today I took them out early to play before the rain came but it sent them hyper and I had to bring them in after 3 mins cos they couldn't cope with the change of plan which caused further issues.

What I can not and will not accept are spurs players not caring about the fans and imho Eriksen and Wanyama strolled around like they didn't give a ****.
We spend a lot and have the right to expect them to try their hardest for a full 90 minutes and that ain't the case.

 

So what does ‘losing pre season’ time mean? We had the same amount of time as everyone else

What does ‘maybe our performances are good’ mean?


Shut up Poch with your bullshit

 

Just soundbites, like he turned into Brenda overnight

 

Wanyama kicking the ball out of play with a wayward pass and then laughing about it infuriated me.
Disgraceful attitude in a match where we're deep into the second half and not winning.

 

But it still begs the question: why is he playing? He has been broken for 2 years now and was on the brink of leaving the club on Aug 30th. Why then does he still feature in Poch's plans? Dier on the other hand was one of the few players who actually had a decent game last night and at least looked like he gave a damn. Why hasn't he been given more time to work on his fitness? We didn't need to play Wanyama at all; we didn't need to bring him on against Leicester, and yet there he is. Poch can't complain about an unsettled squad and then make decisions which feed into that problem.

 

I fully agree with everything else in this post but IMHO selling Alli at this point would be suicide, as would selling Dier. These two are the missing link right now. Nearly the only spine left in relatively spineless team. Yep, both have been out of form, but they provide a bit of bite when they play at their best that not many others do. Sell them to buy who exactly?

Levy has to lie in the bed he made and cough up for new players regardless of who goes for free or a sum, I believe this is likely, hence us going for Dybala and Fernandes.

I fully believe that Poch can turn this around and I won't be calling for his head any time soon.

When Arsenal fans start singing that they want Pochettino to stay in the same way we did with Wenger when he was clearly flopping, then I'll worry. Until then I remember that as shameful and disgusting as this current situation is, if it were any other team they'd be talking about how tinpot the cup is. Which is exactly what they'd say if we got through and they didn't.

 

The level of disrespect here is just wrong!

WOW!



If that doesn't inspire a win then we are in trouble.

 

I doubt that anyone can fault Dier's attitude and application, but he's had a bunch of fitness and health issues.
I can understand not using him until we're sure that he's 100% or as close to that as possible without match fitness.
I've no idea why Wanyama's being treated any differently, though.

Having Wanyama, Dier and Skipp in a squad is overkill. Starting them all is just bizarre.
We also need to address the gap between the U23 squad and the first team.
Anyone that gets promoted never drops back down and we don't use it to get people back up to speed following injuries, either.
Various players get left out completely for weeks or months, then get thrown in at the deep end with nothing like match fitness. It's madness.

 

Well you should be ok with that one

 

Gazzaniga was not happy. Quite a lot of abuse hurled in the direction of that player's mother!

 

I wouldn't bet on it.