Not sure about that. Bentancur Romero and Richarlison were poor (given recent form). Paulinha was much needed ans did well, the original 3 did not gel at all. Villareal swept though us too easily until the substitutions.
We look like a tight band of brothers again. Given that we're very unlikely to be able to compete at the very top of the transfer market, a collective belief in the coach and the club is essential. Currently, that's palpable. It's up to the new regime to make it thrive and grow. No more nonsense about difficult windows and pleading poverty, then chucking the coach in front of the media when it needs the CEO out answering the tough questions. On that front... "Brave Sir Daniel ran away. Bravely ran away away. When danger reared it's ugly head, He bravely turned his tail and fled. Yes, brave Sir Daniel turned about And gallantly he chickened out. Bravely taking to his feet, He beat a very brave retreat. Bravest of the braaaave, Sir Daniel!" Good riddance to that ****!
I thought I was the only one who thought Romero had a poor game. Bentancur was a mixture of negativity and misplaced passes, Spence was way off his best and probably adjusting to Xavi in front of him. Richarlison was very poor and gave us nothing. Only Palinha made a positive impact from the bench, Johnson was anonymous apart from crowding Udogie and making it easy for VR to pressure us. Bergvall and Kudus I thought at least were trying to be positive. And Vicario still fails to convince me that he is what we need as a GK at this level. But as we have all said, there's still 3 points in the bag and I am still confident that we are on the right path with TF.
You could literally fit the entire population of the town into our stadium I mean there's easier ways to arrange a bank robbery, but...
I went to our home game against Bodo/ glimt last season and I'm sure they filled the away section also the journey from Bodo involved dog sleds and land yachts to get to Oslo , poor turnout from Villareal tonight
He can say whatever niceties he wants in public, as long as behind closed doors the squad are in no uncertain terms clear as to when they are at fault.
I do sometimes fear that we have recruited another George Graham It’s fantastic we have tightened up the defence. It’s something we needed to do after the disaster of last year. Hopefully in time, we can find a way to get our forwards play more fluently. The only guy who regularly scores for spurs, Johnson, is benched for those that aren’t scoring. However, we just need to instil the winning mentality into the squad so winning is all that matters. Last night was fortuitous for us. Only one shot on target but it took an OG for us to win. The ref hesitated for that Simons foul and almost booked him but backed off when he remembered Simons had already been booked. Quite honestly, VDV should have been sent off too. Still, I’m very happy where we are compared to the previous two seasons. Hopefully we’ll start seeing more of Gray et al so they can develop into the players we are anticipating. PS - my only gripe with TF is chewing gum!
I'm glad that Johnson has been benched. I hope that Frank is working on his game because it really is not good enough. He has a valuable ability to score goals but surely that cannot be at the expense of contributing nothing else. Unless you are scoring at the rate of Kane or Greaves that is. Frank has a track record of improving players and Johnson needs some work. IMO.
I do agree. I accept Johnson doesn’t produce much but he does score goals. Hopefully, improvements will come! Overall, I’m feeling happier today and believe things are going to get better. There are some nagging worries but today isn’t the time to fret. Frank needs time and hopefully we’ll get there. As I said, we just need to instil the winning mentality into the squad for now.
I found Graham to just be a solely defensive manager. In Frank I see someone a bit more pragmatic and tactical. He approaches every game with a separate game plan and I really like that. He admits he got it wrong vs Bournemouth and that’s respectable and also understandable, it’s still early doors for him and he’s still likely finding out who he can trust to do what. Last night also wasn’t pretty but to utilise the old cliched saying “big teams find a way to win even when playing poorly” and that was very much what last night was about, there was likely some nerves from both staff and players too, many were experiencing their CL debuts. Outside of those two matches I think we’ve played some good stuff, we were dominating the best side in Europe for over 60 mins in his first competitive game, dominated Burnley, comfortably beat City and comfortably beat West Ham, Vicario has had quite a lot of easy 90 mins so far, a far cry from last season that’s for sure. For me personally, I don’t think I’ve been this excited for a managerial appointment since Poch, there was something about him that I really liked the idea of and I’ve just got similar vibes with Frank. If we can back him further in more windows I think we could be going into a new exciting era for the club.
Again, I agree. Look at Liverpool, playing poorly but grinding out results. Man Utd did this in the 90s. I also have good vibes re TF and in in no way trying to be negative! The signs are there for optimism.
That would generally apply to big teams having an off day in 10 or 15 games, not 2 in 5! Only joshing ..TF will leàd us to Glory!
Bissouma's timekeeping issues are so bad he got to the stadium at full time https://youtube.com/shorts/MtdtYsHzQIk?si=FXTLW3VkEfn8_LhZ No wonder Vicario blanked him...
