Men against Boys I am afraid! We have a great team coming together - but Dortmund show us exactly how far we have to go to compete at this level. They seemed to to be faster, pass more accurately and pressed us into almost constant errors. Not the end of the world, but definitely a lesson that needs to be learned. Move on - to the weekend and get back to winning ways against Bournemouth.
My phone buzzed with a Sky Sports notification. Liverpool draw 1-1 with Man Utd and win 3-1 on aggregate. Nothing about Spurs.
Dortmund are easily the best team we have faced this season. In addition their team and their players individually are experienced playing at this level. Next year our players will be more experienced and as a team we will progress. Of course I am disappointed not make the last eight but if we had drawn anyone apart from them and Sevilla I think we would have got there. I am also sure that if we had been sixth or seventh in the PL we would have put out a stronger team in both legs. On a separate note, if that ref was voted best ref in Serie A for the last five years, how bad must the rest be.
A predictable end to Europa again. I've said it once and say it again, what's the point of it for Spurs? Without the distraction and extra games we could be where Leicester are instead of being the ones chasing them down.
What I don't understand is how Dortmund crashed out of the CL. If they were still in it, they'd be among the favourites to win it.
Im not as disappointed as i should be maybe. However, i dont think we have it in us to fight on two fronts psychologically. So im hoping this allows the team to focus on every PL match a bit more than they may have done with other illusions of grandeur. Its not a dig...we are just not mature enough as a unit yet.
I thought we were okay up until the second goal. We kept the ball well and played some decent football, it just all fell to pieces with the final ball. Lamela and Chadli were poor tonight and Wimmer wasn't great but the rest were all lively. Son showed more of what we've come to expect this season, lots of great runs but decision making and finishing let him down. He could've had 3 goals and a penalty over the course of the tie. No excuses for Pochettino though. Should've brought Kane on for half an hour at least, we deserved to see us give it more of a go to try and just win the game. Tickets were expensive tonight and only really justified by the atmosphere.
I think as fans we need to accept what the bigger picture is this season and understand why things went the way they did, with us having a real chance to win the league..however pessimistic we may be as individuals.
This. Forgetting the dortmund results and what are priorities have been, we are going to need extra quality next season. For many years, we've spoken about what quality is needed to qualify for the CL. - well it looks likely we will this season. However, next season when the clubs who have had poor seasons bounce back, claiming a top four spot is going to be mighty tricky whilst juggling the squad in the CL. - which we are going to want to qualify for again, with the new stadium on the way, yes? I sincerely hope we learn from the last time we qualified, and strengthen accordingly in the areas we need to. Some of the youngsters will have learned a lot from this, and it's great for them. But there's 1 or 2 not-so-youngsters who are not going to meet the standard required.
