Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea

Last season we could at least bring on Bale or Lamela to make an effort at changing a game. And often enough, it worked.

Who is there on the bench anymore? Even if Lucas and Bergwijn had been fit and one was on the bench, we'd still be turning to players whose G/A records season on season are in single digits.

It is truly remarkable how we took an already weak squad and weakened it further.

 

That’s why the transfer window for me was so poor. Didn’t really bring in anyone ready to play in the team and didn’t even replace Bale and Vinicius with their loans ending.

Gollini and Romero look bang average to me, I got slated by many for writing off Lo Celso too soon but in hindsight I wasn’t wrong as he’s pants. I’m getting the same vibes from Gollini and Romero too.

Bryan Gil I like the look of but he alone won’t be enough and he’s for the future rather than the present.

Emerson looks like Aurier in disguise so far.

 

this was a major concern for me at the time too. 26 goals between them last year.
Failure again in a window to buy at least 1 creative player, as well as losing goals from the bench.
As I said in a post a few pages back, we’ve got 11 players, a 3 or 4 more who will do fine against most teams, but beyond that it’s kids, deadwood or absolute dross.
With the need to rotate regularly, unfortunately our line up is going to nearly always going to contain a combination of all the above.
Yesterday’s first half was bloody close to being our best team in terms of balance and shape. And it lasted 1 half.

as other predicted, it’s going to be a long season.
It’ll be interesting to see what moves (if any) we make in January. Not usually a window where we do much, but I think our hand may be forced by then.

 

All our troubles started when Poch started behaving as though he should be his own DoF. Took his eye off the ball on coaching while not improving our recruitment. The solution was to appoint a DoF, not to sack Poch. Levy got that badly wrong.

 

Following the Palace result I had no expectations that Spurs would even compete with Chelsea who were clearly the best team in the PL. Son was injured, Dier was injured, LoCelso, Romero and Sanchez were unavailable and Ndomebele hadn't even played this season. Then Nuno picks the boldest looking team for some considerable time and you begin to wonder. The game starts and suddenly Spurs are all over Chelsea who look genuinely shocked as the guys in white shirts press them back into their penalty area. A goal looks a certainty but it doesn't arrive but the first half is bright and only in the last 5 minutes did Chelsea show a serious threat. By now my mindset has changed and I am really looking forward to the second half with only a little concern that we really should have scored in that first 10 minutes.

Then came the second half and Spurs withered before my eyes, now I reminded myself that I originally had not had any hope of a good outcome to this game but it was no good. Spurs had done it again, raised my hopes and expectations to unsustainable levels only to disappoint as usual.
I should have known better. Stadium looked brilliant though.

 

Scored 3 in 5 of which only one has been from open play

All of a sudden everything looks dogshit as the reality of our state becomes apparent.

 

Still picking up vibes that many fans think we have a super squad with talent in abundance and we should be doing better

The same posters were saying we should enjoy winning 3 out of 3 because we should make the most of the good start.

I think everyone realises the truth but it hurts to admit it

we don’t have any minerals as a football club…anyone joining us is consumed by it. We must have a mediocre winning attitude coming through from the very top and it’s well and truly embedded into the fabric of our club.

 

The fact that we are relying on a player who doesn’t have the drive or commitment to solve our midfield problems is a little insight into how our club works. A player we are willing to depart with but couldn’t find a mug to part with his money. I’m going to have to listen to everyone telling me about our record signing coming good one day if only someone can tap into his head.

 

I actually like the look of Romero. He is cucumber cool on the ball under pressure and rarely goes to ground to challenge - something I look out for in a CB as it usually indicates they've read the danger early enough to avoid risking giving away a foul and usually picking up a card for their trouble. It was only his 2nd game of the season so I think he'll improve with time.

Gil concerns me a bit as he clearly expects to have more time and space on the ball than most PL teams will give him. He may have got that luxury in Spain but he won't get i here; I just hope he learns that lesson quickly.

Gollini I'm not particularly bothered by as it was a loan with an option to buy and GKs are generally much easier and cheaper to sign than outfield players.

Emerson is too early to tell but from what I've seen he looks worse than Aurier going forward but better defensively. The issue is he's a minimal upgrade on our previous options when in truth we needed a major overhaul in that position. It should have been high priority well before signing an AM or a GK, but we left it until the last minute and cancelled Aurier's contract anyway.

The biggest issue for me was losing Bale, Lamela and Vinicius. Two of those contributed a large number of goals while the other contributed drive, passion and fight. We haven't replaced or even attempted to replace any of them, which means we're short of goals and short of fight - both of which were in stark display as we wilted and failed against both Palace and Chelsea.

 

Here's a little insight into the contrast between our first and second half, as well as our tactical plan

In the first half we could do that as both Ndombele and Lo Celso were full of beans - but as neither were in a position to play for 90 minutes, Lo Celso as he's coming off an injury and has been isolating for a week while Ndombele has never been able to play full-pelt for 90 minutes, and that's why our hold of the game slipped away in the second half

It also gives an insight into Kane's positioning, as he's on the left while Son picks up the ball in the centre, which is odd in itself, and both drift right when Son's on the ball to get Kane central - although in this case, if Son played it to Kane we'd have VAR landing on us like a sumo wrestler

And in case anyone asks/presumes, the guy posting this is a Chelsea blogger

 

Switched it off after the 2nd goal

We don’t have the eye of the tiger as a club or a team so I knew It was a waste of my time watching till the end.

 

Everything leading up to this summer's transfer window was chaos....the chances of us making a success of it, after ****ing up every other window since the summer of 2015, were as close to zero as makes no difference.

We bought a player who we can't play in Pape Sarr, a player who's not ready to play in Gil and signed one who's going to sit on the bench 95% of the time in Gollini.

At least, the two defenders will actually play. Let's hope that they're more successful than most of our recent defensive signings, like Aurier, Doherty, Sessegnon and Rodon.

Losing Bale, Lamela and Vinicius with no effective replacement is criminal neglect...and the squad still includes Winks, Dier, Dele, Doherty, etc. and Harry Kane looks like he's not bothered

Nuno would need to be a miracle worker to fashion a successful team out of this squad. He isn't.

 

Mystic Colin.

 

Completely agree

 

Exactly how long do people wanna give Ndombele to get fit or show the right attitude.

It seems as long as he does one fancy move or forward pass a game then people think he’s the French Gazza or something.

Ndombele is rotten to the core, sooner he’s gone to be someone else problem the better.

 

I think when it comes to the summer window I’d echo what I said right at the end of it, the business we done I thought was good but it was the business we didn’t do that was poor.

Winks, Dele, Doherty, Lo Celso, Ndombele and the usual CBs remain at this club. Immediately that’s a huge negative as they’re clogging up spaces both in the XI and squad, annoyingly some of them still have their own little fan clubs, even the club itself still creams itself over Dele for some absolutely bizarre reason. He’s gone full circle, we signed him for £5m and after an initial two good seasons where his value soared he’s back to being worth £5m.

With no creative player being brought in that was always going to hurt as we’ve got no one who can regularly pick a meaningful forward pass and the failure to replace the 26 goals lost from Bale and Vinicius was inevitably going to haunt us.

Then when taking into account the poor business we didn’t do, something we did do was bring in a B-Tech Jose without the ego or history, because we really needed that right after the original Jose’s reign. A well executed game plan against City - which Jose done twice at home too - followed by boring and somewhat flukey wins against Wolves and Watford, drubbings against Palace and Chelsea and I think the penny has dropped for even the most optimistic of fans that this group of players and manager isn’t going to be delivering anything other than turgid football but likely just about enough results to remain semi-competitive.

All while we the fans continue to pay the highest prices in Europe, lucky us

 

yeah but if they don't charge you the highest prices in Europe, then how is the club ever going to afford these big buck signings all the while increasing the value of the club by developing everything in and around white hart lane

 

Gotta win Euromillions a few times a year in it, no biggie.

 

ok Powerspurs