While that's true to a certain extent, especially when you consider that having Skipp today would have given us a way to change up our midfield either with an additional man or by simply changing the dynamic, it does have to be said that Conte relying on a small core of players and nobody else is potentially costing us I'm not going to suggest that Harvey White or Alfie Devine are going to step into the team and have people wondering when we re-signed Modric or Dembele, because that's obviously going too far (and then some...) but having somebody come on with something to prove is sometimes all the difference the team needs as that would have both a shot of energy on the pitch and also rouse the crowd And, much as I hate to bang on about it, in games when we're leading by three or four goals going into stoppage time, why aren't we blooding the likes of White, Devine, Bowden etc when they're on the bench while Hojbjerg's ankles are bleeding? They're an asset, so don't treat them as a seat filler
For me the difference between Villa n Brighton today was that Villa played a bit more expansive and gave us space to exploit in the final third. Brighton didn’t. Unless we get a quick goal against these teams we struggle, we got the early goal against Villa
That's because Villa couldn't sit back and clog, as we scored in the 3rd minute - and, more importantly, kept them out when they pushed for an equaliser in the first half That's why they opened up so much more in the second half, because their pre-match gameplan was out the window after three minutes and they were already committing forward for the rest of the first half, so we set up to pick them off in the second half and Gerrard played into it, and once we went 2-0 up Gerrard ran out of tactics
I’m not sure it’s really costing us because we’ve all seen what little the other players can and have produced for Spurs. Practically everyone knows Winks is woeful and we all know that Lucas is simply a squad player, so if we rotated them into the XI for games we’d just be weaker for it, especially as we’re only really playing once a week now which should be more than sufficient for our first XI to keep playing in with adequate rest. Today was just a stinker from every single player whilst Conte didn’t make the best of choices too but I don’t think he has too many either, I’d personally have had Bergwijn on a lot earlier and generally before Lucas but that’s about it. Ultimately our squad is pretty shocking, as shown with our ECL embarrassment and the need to bring on Kane vs Morecambe but in general our first XI isn’t far off from being a very good side, today was just a bad day at the office for them. Credit also needs to go to Brighton, they were better than us on the day and deserved their victory. I’ve made no secret of my admiration for Potter too. If he had a Kane or Son in that side they’d be a real ****ing problem to the Prem’s top six. I’d love to see White and/ or Devine given a shot, especially when we’re out of sight in games like Villa/ Newcastle but Conte just doesn’t really seem to be that type of manager.
The main issue today was willingly going for the Winks/Hojbjerg pivot in spite there being eighteen months of evidence of, when they're being pressed, both of them are afraid of passing the ball forwards and, as a result, the pressure is on our WBs to do not only their job but also the pivot's - and what was happening today? Our pivot was getting pressed (and kicked), and while bringing on Winks may have been due to Conte fearing Bentancur picking up a second yellow, it was clear we needed another body in midfield rather than the same number but with different faces - and it was made worse by Lucas being a headless chicken so there wasn't anyone screening nor giving an outlet to the pivot on the right flank
Skipp is a huge miss in games like this. For me he’s a much better all round player than Hojbjerg. Winks has to be sold in the summer and a midfielder with some flair and creativity is a must. Lucas and Bergwijn probably should be moved on too and replaced with Gil coming back and then one new signing. Having 15 top players instead of just a solid 11 makes a massive difference.
Thats my point…unless it goes perfectly, I.e we score early…it becomes a struggle because we can’t pick the lock truth is I remember being frustrated at the same issues when we had a prime Eriksen and Dembele…I remember the Hull’s of the world doing numbers on us. I don’t know the answer but I think playing with the right attitude…the hell bent on breaking through attitude you see in the top 2 current teams in the country goes a long way in getting that breakthrough. playing every minute like it’s the last 5 minutes.
6 games left. Got away with it today but we won't get that lucky again. Need to get over it like we did after the United defeat and come back fighting. Like I said earlier, we are neither as good or as bad as we are made out to be. COYS
The main issue with our midfield at the moment is that Hojbjerg and Winks are from very similar molds, so if we do as happened today and bring on Winks for Bentancur instead of making a tactical switch we're homogenising our tactics - which can be useful if sitting on a 3-0 lead for the last 5-10 minutes, not so useful in a game where the score's 0-0 (or worse) and the midfield's been making sausage for an hour Realistically we need to be looking for a CM who plays through balls from deep because that is the one thing we don't have, because if we have somebody who can not only break an opponent's press but also leave the opponent's midfield 10-20 yards out of position due to sending somebody on their way, that reduces the number of games where we get bogged down in the middle
We need to prove that over the next 6 games. So far there's been a big bit of luck with United, West Ham, Wolves and Arsenal imploding. We need to finish the season like we did in 2010 when we had to play United, Chelsea, Arsenal and City in our last 6 games and we only lost to United and won the others. This is a massive opportunity to catch up after 3 wasted seasons. The players and manager need to do what Harry and Co did back then after losing to Pompey in the semi final that season.
All about the mindset. Today was a combo of the classic : - slow motion train crash - well I get paid whatever the result is
but at the very least, when he brought winks on, he could have taken one of the CBs off instead of Bentencur
Very true, only Man City and Liverpool have won more games this season. The 11 defeats is alarming though, if only half of those were draws then the table would look very nice right now
A bloke who turned Victor Moses into a superb league winning wingback isn’t the problem imo nor is his tactics. I didn’t really see a master plan from Harry Potter…like he sussed us put because he’s a genius. We got out run in midfield so we looked overpowered but our game is on the wings and our players occupying these roles couldnt quite deliver. I saw plenty opportunities where smarter thinking would have yielded better attacks. Brighton just parked the bus…not genius at all…they offered **** all threat tbh and we’re always hoping for a smash n grab. Like I said yesterday…we can never break buses down…I go back to days of Hull in the PL. Conte ball is as affective and proven as boring tiki taka and Klopps Gegnpress or whatever it’s called. We though don’t have the personnel…Conte needs and wants the personnel. Must be patient and see if Levy does his job this summer
Where will Matar Sarr fit in next season, he looked a real prospect when we signed him but he seems to have faded , only 19, will he get in the squad or be loaned out again
I think we’re close to having a very good first XI but we’ve got a terrible squad. Yesterday was a bad day at the office for our first XI, it’s rare that the likes of Romero, Bentancur, Kulusevski, Kane and Son were all shocking but you’ll get games like that. Problem for us is that when bringing Winks and Lucas on (Bergwijn’s 5 mins can’t be counted) there’s zero hope or expectation from fans that those two will bring anything positive. Winks just made our midfield even worse and Lucas was a headless chicken. I think our XI is just one or two signings away from comfortably being one of the best XIs in the Prem but beyond that is where we’ll have major troubles if we don’t add in the summer. We’ve seen how bad it is with the ECL embarrassment and needing to bring on the likes of Kane vs Morecambe. If we had say Eriksen and Bale to bring on yesterday instead of Lucas and Winks, chances are we’d have gotten something out of it.
Ignoring this game in particular, I don't think that the current rules deal with timewasting well. It's not good for the sport and it's certainly not good for the fans watching that ****. I've suggested solutions before, but I wonder what others think should be done, if anything?
How much of that is to do with not having players that play like them, though? We don't have a creative midfielder and very few teams have someone that's capable of what Bale does. Their overall quality is a big factor, of course, but we don't even have ****ter versions of them.
I think we all agree Spurs are terrible against teams that park the bus but I personally don’t agree that Brighton did this yesterday. in my opinion, our midfield was overrun and spurs couldn’t cope. Spurs are set up to counter attack. Brighton nullified this by their tactics of marking players and ensuring they got to the ball first, or quickly getting it off our players. This counter attacking style football only works against teams that we can’t dominate possession. When spurs are at home against “weaker” teams, we shouldn’t be playing counter attacking football. IMO. Peace out.
