Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Bournemouth

Now you've done it!

 

Wembley is a pitch and stadium that lends itself perfectly to bus-parking. It is almost impossible to create the pressure cooker atmoshere that spurs a team on to play with greater intensity whilst psychologically tormenting the opposition into making a mistake. At the same time, as much as Poch et al have tried to play down the significance of playing on a pitch 5 yards longer than WHL, it clearly is a factor and at this level all it does is give the opposition extra time and space to reorganise before we bear down on goal. The extra space behind the banks of 4 is only beneficial to a team playing with pacy attackers playing off the last shoulder, which we don't.

Rose and Aurier in the starting line up will help matters, but not drastically. All in all I've already braced myself for at least 12 deadly boring games at Wembley - and maybe half a dozen that actually involve football. As long as we can maintain a strong away form, lots of 1-0's or even draws at home should be fine. I can't see us challenging for the title this season and tbh most fans I know can't either - and that is completely fair enough. But top 4 is certainly within our wherewithal to achieve.

 

I think another factor is the atmosphere at Wembley. It was no secret that at WHL we could create some raucous atmospheres that not only intimidated opposition but also gee'd up our lads.
At Wembley that just doesn't exist, partly because the singing groups at WHL are spread out through Wembley (albeit there is a section where some Park Lane and some Shelf Side do mix) but also the fact that quite frankly, Spurs fans just don't wanna be there. It's not home, it's not a good footballing stadium being so far from the pitch and it's a ****er of a journey for so many, especially when leaving.

I still harbour hopes of a slight title challenge and a good season that'll hopefully end with silverware but I can't deny I'm just counting down the matches to get the **** out of there.

 

Regarding how the stadium itself is impacting performance, it seems to me that if a team is sitting back I fail to see the logic in thinking that pacier wing backs will make a difference. If there's no space to exploit it doesn't matter how fast your wing backs are. How do you get behind a team that isn't going forward? The length of the pitch I think is a red herring. There have been comments about the softness of the pitch and the design of the stadium (other than the dimensions of the pitch) that might be worth thinking about. But it's really not a good stadium for regular use is it. It might be fine for a one off event where both teams are in a final or something, but that just covers up it's flaws.

 

It is going to happen again.
Just that as things stand, you are going to have to endure the pain of
at least another 10 PL home games like the four that have passed.

 

I will always take a 1-0 win, how many times in the past have we lost these sort of matches even in recent years think Hull, Wolves, Stoke, Wigan - football matches we played under highly revered coaches where we battered them for 90 minutes and either conceded very early and couldn't get an equaliser or conceded a sucker punch goal in the last 10 mins.

Yesterday wasn't perfect by any means but the result was good and we got the same 3 pts for our 1-0 win as City did for winning 7-2.

 

I think we also forget that in any season there are only a few games that are really exciting to watch. We are excited to see our team win of course and that's what gets us through many banal games. When you are watching a game as a neutral there are very few that actually produce exciting end to end stuff and even rarer when it is one of the big headline games. I watched the Liverpool/ United game for example. I thought Liverpool played some decent football and look dangerous going forward but overall it was a poor spectacle because United had limited ambition.
I think you are actually more likely to see exciting football matches in the local park, the only reason you don't is because you don't care who wins.
There are very few games that stick in the memory.

 

You weren't top in your maths class then?

 

Wembley Shmembley.

Let's see how Chelski manage there if it comes to that.

 

Didn't look like that to me. Son started at left wingback and Pochettino switched it around after about half an hour.
Pushed him onto the right and had a back four for the rest of the game. Looked very disjointed til half-time.
Our system's quite fluid though, so I could be wrong.

 

On adjusting to Wembley, I think Poch as good as admitted in his press conference after the game yesterday that they're still getting used to it. He cited the period of adaption to WHL a few years ago and we all remember that it took us a while to get it right there. Clearly the team are still adapting to Wembley, that said I think that if a team really came at us at home then we'd be able to turn them over much more easily. Most teams struggle to break down opponents who park the bus and most teams will do against us at home, and doubly so for us right now in unfamiliar circumstances.

We changed things a bit in the second half yesterday to secure the win and could have had one or two more on another day. Poch and team have a lot more to do to get this sorted out and it is a problem, but one I think he recognises and that we have seen a few signs now of them adapting to now.

 

Cheers, Gareth.

 

TBH I was surprised to see him in the starting line up. Given Dele's absence on Tuesday, I thought we'd see him and Eriksen supporting Llorente or Son up top.

With Wanyama out and Dembele a major doubt, it'll be interesting to see how we set up against Real. I've already stuck a tenner on a Sissoko hat trick though. GOAT.

 

We've got a lot of big games coming up and it's hard to see where Kane's going to get a rest.
With that in mind, I'm surprised that Pochettino didn't give Southgate a ring and ask him not to play him in that nothing game.
The pillock played him for the entire game, instead.

It looks very likely that we'll have a complete 2nd XI against West Ham in the Haribo Cup.
It'll be a good opportunity for some players to prove a point, but a loss wouldn't go down very well, of course.

 

City's was far more convincing though wasn't it and their win I'm sure fills their fans with a lot more confidence than our 1-0 win fills us.

 

MOTD highlights:

 

That will never work without a complementary rcl
"That Sissoko, he'll never score a hat-trick away in a Spurs kit" .

 

This was entertaining