More like coming home and finding your wife in bed with: Your dad; your boss; your younger brother; your best mate; that bloke you hate at work and your gran. Smile! At least we love you!
Just hope we hold on to all of them. Previously the case was that they learn their craft and then move on once they've mastered it.
While you could be right about Lamela, Spurf, my objection was both to taking off perhaps our most effective player and making a (debatable) defensive substitution. Son on for Lamela I would not have minded as much. Tbf, if Lamela had gotten a second card, many would have criticized Pochettino for leaving him on. In any case, the worst defensive substitution prize for the day was won by Martinez at a canter, for taking off Lennon and Lukaku on the way to losing 2-3.
Bottom line, it's been a fantastic season already. Really dissapointed with the last half hour though. No drive, no hunger. Everyone looked ****ed tbh, and if the g***s had gone at us from the start like they did the last half hour, I think we'd have been toast. Even the ususally flawless Aderweireld looked like he played hem on for their equaliser; the first majot mistake I can remember him making all season. Bright points for me were ai thought Danny Rose was excellent, and Kane suddenly seemed to remember where the back of the net was after the break. Hope to God he keeps that up for the rest of the season, to give us he best chance we have of Champions League.
Rose was very good but personally thought Walker had one of his best games. Very surprised to hear Dembele being mentioned as Spurs MoM..... Not bad by any means, but equally not the dominant force of earlier in the season. Maybe back a game too soon?
Fixture congestion certainly hasn't helped. It's fair to say top teams have to deal with it. When one of your principal strengths is expending more energy, it's liable to hit you harder than most. There's no question in my mind that at least some of the poorer play and effort we've seen in the past two weeks has been caused by tired legs. As it happens, I was so resigned to losing at half time I don't feel too bad about this game. We'll still be ahead of Arsenal for at least two more weeks. I'm always relieved when we score a couple. We have to win games down the stretch, not draw them, and nothing will make that less likely than losing the scoring habit. In this particular game we reverted to the early season mistake of giving up the initiative after taking the lead.
And I'm at least as surprised you thought Walker was good. Did anyone else? Was I watching a different Walker? I agree with you about Dembele, though. After a bright start, he faded badly, quite possibly when his injury started to take effect.
Truth be told, I'd rather Leicester win it if we aren't going for it. Hopefully, we can resume our winning form for most of the remaining games. We looked like we wanted to outplay them rather than outscore them in the first half. No killer instinct. Both goals, however, displayed the necessary tenacity, especially Kane's. Why can't we play like that without going a goal down, and the opposition going a man down, first?
We need a genuine playmaker, it seems that Erikson ain't it. We far too often struggle against the sort of tactics that so many teams employ against us at WHL. We huff & Puff, but don't break defence down .
Eriksen was poor today. He was far too wasteful in possession and not for the first time recently either.
Since Bale left it appears we need to be deep in penalty area before we strike confidently. Kane's goal, as great as it was, baffles me. Why doesn't he strike, from a distance, and at height, more often?
Agreed on Eriksen today. I think he’s been good the last few weeks or so, though I thought he wasn’t very good for parts of this season and bigger parts of last year. Generally speaking, I like is his ability to move and pass the ball forward smartly. Finding the right ball against a set defense is something I’ve never thought he’s particularly good at. The problem is we now have quite a number of players who look good paired with Dier, and nobody who is a real number 10 type. Eriksen runs out of ideas. Alli is hit and miss (though brilliant when he hits). On the other hand, the tactic of just hammering the ball towards the goal which we’ve adopted works much better for us than tapping it around the box used to. We’re averaging more than one shot on target a game more than any other team. No doubt we would. But it was very revealing that Coquelin didn’t protest, apologized to his team afterward, and looked to be getting angry at himself while he was committing the foul. Come to think of it, Coquelin deserves some credit for that as well. I can count on one finger the number of Arsenal players who would do that. Many will say Dier deserved a second yellow as well, but Giroud’s hand or elbow to his face was the initial offense. The only thing I saw Oliver do wrong was award a goal kick on what should have been a corner for us.
It should be 6 points next two matches. Spurs when they were 5th touched 4th then went back down to 5th. 2 or 3 matches later they were at 4th. Then from 4th they touched 3rd and went back down to 4th and then a couple of matches later they were at 3rd. From 3rd they touched 2nd then went back down to 3rd. A couple of matches later they were at 2nd. Today they touched 1st and now have gone back down to 2nd. Let's see if this continues as it has in the past few weeks.
Was an exhausting NLD. I thought we started very well but finding the first goal just hasn't been easy for us lately, no matter how much we dominate. 2nd goal was poor to concede and with hindsight perhaps we would have been better off going more defensive but there were opportunities for us to put the game to bed going forward. Not the derby I hoped for because of the result but what a strike that was by Kane. Right up there with Bale's against West Ham and Rose's against Arsenal for my favourite Spurs goal, just incredible. So Dortmund next. The fun/stress just doesn't stop, can't wait
What I like about this group and I find it reassuring is the genuine anger after every disappointing result. None of the 'we're punching above our weight' bollocks of the Redknapp era (not meant as a dig at him). Just straight out 'we should have won'. No excuses, just 'we didn't try hard enough'. That's the attitude that'll carry us over the finish line.
