No matter how the season ends, I can tell the grandchildren I saw Kane and Bale on the same pitch, in their pomp.
Some observations from today: - Aurier looked surprisingly sharp considering he's been out for over a month and had very little cover down his flank (although Hojbjerg started getting across more as Bale tired). - Reguilon is so many miles better than our other FBs (both flanks) it actually isn't funny. - Sanchez looks much more assured next to Toby than he does next to Dier, who I would say is comfortably the worst CB at the club at the moment. - Gareth Bale has managed 8 goals and 3 assists this season. Erik Lamela has managed 7 goals and 6 assists since the beginning of last season.
We've scored 13 more goals in the cups than we have in the league, despite largely picking our reserves for them. I wonder how much of that is about how we've approached them and how much is the quality of the opposition?
I guess the quality of the opposition in the cups has played a role...we’ve had a few big scores in the Europa and FA cup
I think that out of the EL teams only Antwerp are of a prem standard...and they'd be lower half. In the Fa Cup only Everton were a decent standard. In the League Cup only Chelsea and Brentford were premier league standard. I think that explains the high number of cup goals... 54 in 17 games. I ain't knocking it tbh cos in most of those games we've played severely weakened teams. Will be very interesting to see how the next set of cup games go.
im expecting our best line up to start the Europa from here on in so hopefully we are ready for the tougher tests
It went 7 pitch "stripes" in distance, and close to stone-dead after hitting the pitch. In summary : Hoddle-esque.
Was a fantastic first touch from Kane as well. Had it have gone in directly rather than a deflection then you are looking at goal of the season shortlist.
Pass map time please log in to view this image A few things to note * Funny how we play a reasonably straightforward system, and the players know where their teammates are when passing the ball * How strange: the ball goes out to our right flank...and then comes back out again. What is this witchcraft? * Similar can be said about Aurier having the most balls into the centre. True, they're usually passed inside to Hojbjerg, but it's a start... * For a moment I thought the map was broken as there appears to be two arrows coming out of Lucas towards Bale, then realised the second one was from Son * If you look closer, you can actually see Hugo finding Harry Kane with reasonable accuracy, which is surely a first * Those thick lines from the CBs to their respective FBs are nice to see - not least because there's been a few recent games where we haven't seen them at all * On the other hand, the thick lines from Hojbjerg to the CBs while the ones from the CBs to Hojbjerg are pretty odd - and also do a fine job of silencing 98% of online criticism of Harry Winks being too conservative with his passing, but of course that'll be forgotten PDQ...