Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Liverpool

Those are the rules.
Sissoko was booked for standing there. The ref gestured to where Son had done it.

 

I don’t really know what the bloke can do to be honest. His hands are tied with this squad, and I think it’s having a more prominent affect on substitutions than we’ve seen in the past. He needs to keep the squad fresh to prevent injury, but there’s some key players that aren’t up to it, where he’s basically forced into playing them. The affect of poor business over the last 2 years has caught up with us, despite us having a reasonable one in the summer.
The squad is a mess. - Players that are past it, players that don’t wanna be here, players that aren’t good enough, players that are injured.

Really testing times for us, which I don’t see being sorted out in January.

 

Lot's to be happy about despite the result. Claims that Poch has lost the dressing room are clearly ludricious. Good committed display by the team and we could easily have had a draw there, although to be fair we could just as easily lost by a lot more. Yes in hindsight I would have liked them to play like they did in that last ten minutes but that is very easy to say when you don't have the responsibility.
All in all there is not a lot wrong with this team with the exception Eriksen. He had better get his act together because no top team is going to want him on his present form which you could argue has been going on for months. He probably feels a change will recharge his game and that's why he want's away. PSG must be his only chance other than staying at Spurs signing a new contract and working on his game.

 

I think you showed that Liverpool are still vulnerable if you take them on (as Utd tried to do last week).
Van Dijk played Kane onside for the first goal when he should have been smarter.
You might have won had Aurier and Rose not had their usual costly mistake in them.

 

1 - he could stick with a winning team (bar Lamela who was injured).

2 - he doesn’t have to pick the very players who either don’t want to be here or he doesn’t want.

3 - he’s allowed to make more than one sub before the 65th minute to help change a game. Lucas and Gio got about 15 mins between them.

His hands may be tied mate, partly because he’s been the one tieing them.

 

You must have watched a different first half to me mate. Gazza made 3 or 4 top, top saves which tbh Vorm or Austin would not have kept out. We were on the ropes pretty much from the word go and once they equalised it was a matter of when, not if, we would fall behind.

I am proud of the team for not crumbling and folding after that happened - if anything we finished the game the stronger side and could even have nicked a point at the end, but the concerns many of us before the game Re the team selection were with hindsight vindicated. Our defensive plan was spot-on, but the personnel employed to pull it off meant that it was never going to last for 90 mins and, more problematically, nullified our attacking plan. Poch effectively asked Eriksen to play as a defensively-minded RWB for 82 minutes. I'll let that sink in for a moment. Eriksen, a player who has always shied away from a battle and doesn't want to be at the club anymore, was asked to play as a RWB for 82 minutes. Winks' performance came as a nasty surprise, but the former smacks of a manager who continues to display a remarkable aptitude to make inexplicable tactical decisions in big games. There is no getting away from it.

Literally the only positive today is the Arsenal score. It also means I've played an absolute blinder in the prediction league.

 

Usually when a player has the ball and tries to kick it and another player puts his leg in the way it is called a trip and the player in possession gets the free kick.

 

Mate, are you serious?

I don't know what most people were expecting. That could have been far worse.

Yep, subs were late, but tactics were an improvement on what we've seen before. Pochettino will sort it out.

 

We have done so for 3 successive fixtures.
To a manager with some vague intelligence, that should tell you
something about when/who to sub in this fixture (and no - 80 odd
minutes is not the answer) .

 

Such a predictable outcome, from the moment that team was selected I think we all knew that it would be difficult. Please just tell Eriksen to go and sort out his future, he is not playing for us so stop picking him - how he got 88 mins is completely beyond me, gave the ball away with his first pass and that just set the tone for his match.

Lets look for positives - Sanchez I thought was OK, Sissoko was his usual self but trying to play the roles of 3 midfielders is beyond him, we improved with Ndombele (& Lucas), and Lo Celso played more incisive passes in 5 mins that the Dane did in 88! Kane took his goal well and Gazza was our MOTM, looked very secure today.

 

As I said earlier in the thread, Poch always likes to rotate full backs after mid week matches. I only saw the second half which was quite even. Son and Rose missed two excellent chances. I think Eriksen was sent out to play Lamela’s role and wasn’t up to it. Very unfortunate penalty.

 

Eriksen's worst moments all came with the ball, when he had the opportunity to play others in and got it all wrong. I agree in that I think we could have done better with a different line up but ultimately a 2-1 loss away from home against the league leaders, who haven't lost in forever, shows we weren't miles off. As I've said, a few inches off the bar and a tangle of legs for the pen were the difference.

 

For what it's worth, we are catastrophically ****e right now. Looking at our fixtures coming up, Emery could be gone in the coming weeks.

Football in north London is not pleasant at the moment.

 

Big three points for us. I thought you'd do us today, and you deserve some luck after last season at Anfield and Madrid. But listen, we missed more chances than you, and that was as nailed on a pen that you get. Good luck for the rest of the season. I think Son would make any combined Prem team going. Eriksson is just not the player of last season though.

 

Similar to the Lamela penalty a couple of seasons back, so unlike the mousers who harped on about it for about 18 months, I've got no complaints. In fact the ref gave himself time to consider his decision, so fair play.

 

If there was a short break between games you can understand rotation - in any areas - but we had five days to prepare for this game, plus Poch even said the players had Wednesday off, we had a blinding performance against Red Star and he makes four changes to that side, one of those being a guy who was arguably MOTM (Tanguy), it's just awful management in my opinion. He's more to blame than any player for this dreadful run of form we've been on.

 

We're four points behind you mate so whatever you're thinking is ****e, think how bad it must be here.

 

If Poch loses his job he deserves it for picking Eriksen again and again

I won't be watching any games with that **** starting...my TV cost me alot of money.

 

I can't even defend Eriksen anymore, that's how **** he's been.

Although picture your hate for him and imagine what it's been like for me for about two years now every time I see Winks in the starting XI.

 

It's always fine lines though...that's football

We need to cross them