We watched the first half and Fulham were bloody awful in fairness. Made Forest look like prime Barcelona. I will very disappointed with nothing less than a good win on Sunday......
And one last thought for the night. Our shooting - when we actually shot - was dreadful all night! Oh well, at least the Spanners didn't win their cup final
Let's not go there! Also the set pieces have gone to pieces ever since that bloke Conte employed departed....
This is probably going to sound a bit stupid, but I'd rather have Werner in the middle than Son. At least he can head the ball, even though his finishing is obviously far, far worse. If Postecoglou's going to insist on them both starting, then they could at least switch it up a bit. I can see there being a few changes again on Sunday and I think it's needed. I just hope that we don't overdo it or run anyone into the ground.
Yep! To be serious though, everything Werner does, Son does 10x better. We’ve already seen Werner fluff about three golden chances since joining the club in typical “Werner fashion”, having him play CF for us is just asking for trouble in my opinion. Of all our options, Son is currently the best CF we have despite his struggles against more robust sides, but if he is to move back to LW for someone it has to be for Richarlison, not Werner. We are massively scraping the barrel at the moment though with the German and Brazilian, both have no right being at this football club if we want to be serious.
I can only assume that Richarlison is currently only fit enough to give us 10 mins off of the bench because that can be only the reason that he didn't enter the fray earlier when we were crying out for more of a presence at CF and Werner was offering so little on the wing.
Given we've got a brand new defence that doesn't seem too worrying. Since actual goals conceded are less than xG that suggests the goalkeeper is doing well. Conceding corners is the main issue by the look of it.
Without the histograms or mean values for all those stats, you cannot really say how good/bad things are.
You don’t need histrograms or mean values to know Spurs need to be better at defending set pieces. With many fans saying the back four and keeper don’t need upgrading, where do the club improve to rectify this issue?
I think there’s a clear gap in set piece coaching. Most glaringly obvious for defensive ones but also offensively. You only need to look at that lot down the road to see how impactful it can be on a season. Serious case for a specialist to be bought in this summer IMO. It’s also fair to say that our CBs aren’t that dominant aerially. They’re much better at defending during general play and they’re both very good on the ball. Dragusin is reportedly a bit more of a dominant header but that might be something we need to work on with VdV particularly. He’s massive and there’s not many good reasons for him to be losing out in the air.
Really ?? So if the PL mean for goals conceded from set pieces is 10, how much better do Spurs need to be ??
You’re happy for Spurs to be around the PL average for goals conceded from set pieces? How can the club be successful if they don’t see it as an area to improve on?
Set pieces are the great equalizer and epitomise the ‘moments’ that win or lose points. Doesn’t matter how dominant you are in open play if you can’t reset and make the most of them both defensively and offensively. Improvement is needed across the board, not just when we’re defending them.
And if the best team is conceding 8, how less happy should I be?? "How can the club be successful if they don’t see it as an area to improve on?" Unless you are perfect, there is ALWAYS room for improvement. In fact, I am actually objectively displeased by those stats. Do you care to venture a guess as to why this is the case ... ??
The other big question aside from set pieces last night is over two of our stars of recent years - Kulusevski and Bentancur. I’m far from convinced of the former as a 10 right now and the latter doesn’t quite fit in that Sarr 8 role, and I’m also not convinced he’s an elite 6. He was the perfect profile for a CM in Conte’s 343 but fitting him into Ange’s system is proving more difficult. I appreciate he’s missed a lot of football though and has been playing with injury since so perhaps it’s a bit of a reset and some hard hours on the training pitch over the summer that he needs. But when we’re playing against a low block we need more creativity from midfield (quite aside from the profiles at winger and 9 not quite being right) and to do that we need a really good 6 to help us guard against counters. Only reaffirms that a lot more surgery is needed on the squad this summer.
I think our defence in general just needs better coaching, both set pieces as well as open play. All four starters are very good players in my opinion but I don’t think they’ve clicked as a unit yet, being a fresh unit is obviously partly reason for it but I think tactically and in terms of coaching it needs tweaking/ improving. I don’t have the same calmness watching them under pressure as I did with the Redknapp’s or Pochettino’s prime defences, especially the times we heavily rely on van de Ven’s speed to save our arses which isn’t sustainable long term in my opinion, especially as it takes a toll on him too as we’ve already seen with the muscle injuries, a big guy like that having to make quick reaction sprints so often just isn’t ideal on his body.
I actually thought Bentancur played a lot better last night and was the best of our starting midfield three. He made one really stupid pass in the second half which thankfully didn’t amount to anything but other than that his passing was clean and crisp and he was instrumental in our goal. It’s clear to me though the injuries have taken a toll on his fitness and sharpness because he hasn’t got 90 mins at full pelt in him at the moment, though as Ally Gold mentioned a few weeks back, those at the club believe we won’t see the best of him again until next season and I’d be of similar opinion. He’s had a hellish 15 or so months; the ACL, the Cash injury and then the broken toe, the guy hasn’t caught a break. But hopefully he steers clear from anything else between now and the summer, has a pre-season and is then ready to hit 24/25 running. I think he’s our best midfielder by a distance and (hopefully) look forward to him showing as such next season, as I think a 100% Bentancur can play the 6 or 8 role pretty much perfectly.
He’s one of my favourite players to watch in full flight for sure. I very much hope he can hit the ground running next season and be that transformational player at the base of midfield, because that’s what we really need.
