We've scarcely seen our strongest outfit this season and there's been some hangover from the summer from those involved in the Euro's. However, we went to Moscow without half of the team from last season and our most expensive signing, that would have been considered suicidal last season and we still won. All those who stepped in did well but there's still some issues that need addressing: Dele obviously doesn't want to play in the pivot. He hasn't shown the discipline needed for that position when played there recently and I think picking him there is counter-productive. Before the game I suggested picking Harry Winks tonight and I was very pleased to see him get on and thought he looked very comfortable out there. Let's hope he can get some more time throughout this season as he seems to have 'it'; GKN really has 'it'. What a difference his pace made. I'd like to see him get some game time on Sunday, maybe as a replacement in the second half, especially if we need to get at them with half an hour or so left. There's no lack of confidence there; Currently, our attack is too reliant on threading the eye of the needle around the 18 yard line and blasting away from outside the box (mostly into the crowd). We need to get behind teams by getting the ball out wide earlier and get players making runs across the front post and to the rear post for early crosses. This is what GKN does and Vincent Janssen needs; We need to work on keeping the ball when we are ahead. We're really not great at it and it will cost us. Still, a very important win. Something in Germany should put us in a very handy position and make the return to Wembley a good one.
Really excited about what I saw in N'koudou tonight. He looks like he thrives off taking players on. He seems Confident that he is going to cause a problem. Wants the ball...hits the danger spots. As you say Bri, last half hour against city to tear them a new one...I think N'koudou will be game for that. Son reminds me of playground football...fantastic.
'Home' means something different for us this CL campaign.... But tonight's win should put the wind in our sails for Wembley again
I'm getting bored doing it, but once again credit has to go to everyone who put together the plan that got us this team. Last year we were the best team in the league but could hardly replace anyone. This year we're able to dominate games without half our team, and perhaps our two best players at that. How well-judged have our moves and non-moves looked? Son becoming our big scorer, Wanyama and Janssen very capable filling in, Sissoko and N'Koudou providing the pace we lacked...I did like what I saw of N'Koudou in the seventeen years his transfer negotiations took. N'Jie is a good player, but N'Koudou looked significantly better, and is a couple of years younger. I have to say I look forward to reading the match thread after a win. I'm a pretty pessimistic bastard myself, but reading most of the comments you'd think we've won one, lost five and drawn two, rather than the other way around... It was always going to be hard to fly to Moscow the day after a game and beat a good team with players who were tired before the trip. I would think seriously about N'Koudou, Son, Lamela, Winks and Wanyama versus City. Eriksen and Alli look like they could use a break. My main criticism is that we keep trying to hold onto a lead when we'd be better off trying to add to it.
Ironically we might find it easier against a "better" team that doesn't have all their players behind the ball. So we might even do better against Citeh if they spend at least some of their time attacking us! Son had a load of shots that just hit players in the box (plus a couple of great blocks by their defensive midfielder). Logic suggests that with fewer guys in the area, there's more chance of the ball getting at the goal. Well that's what my simple mind thinks anyhow. Overall very pleased with the performance. Basically if you aren't happy with that you're destined not to be a very happy person. I followed Spurs in the second division! I remember the times when we were aiming just to get high enough in the league to get into the UEFA cup and regularly getting squashed by certain other teams we now compete with fairly evenly. We can always do better, but you've got to appreciate the times when you've got a good team and dominating games.
I see that we just need two things to happen to get going properly, win at Wembley and Vince to score.
If we can take points against Liverpool and Arsenal coming soon then a good season will be assured. It will also test how far we've come.
While I agree that mixing things up can be good - I don't think there is much evidence that crosses work better than the threaded pass (which is how we actually scored last night in case you didn't notice). We are only going to score about one in fifty times we get the ball near the penalty area so trying lots of threaded passes in the expectation that one or two might pay off may well be a good tactic. I suspect that crosses give the ball away more often without increasing the chance of scoring.
The build up play to last night's goal was very good and while I agree with you about crosses they do also serve to commit the goalkeepers and put more pressure and make them prone to more errors. A good crossed ball has the keeper looking left, right, running across goal, backwards and forwards. I've already said that N'Koudo feeding the centre will be good.
The advantage of having pacy wide players isn't so much about the crosses flying in as it is about their ability to drag their FB's and mids out wide and increase the gaps in the back 4. Teams without excellent holding midfielders won't be able to compensate for those gaps quickly enough to prevent the likes of Lamela, Alli and Son exploiting them. This, I feel, is what we lack most when Walker and Rose are out. I like Davies a lot, but he - and certainly Trippier who isn't even that good defensively - lacks the pace to do that stretching job. The problem before GKN came on was that Son and Lamela were constantly cutting inside, and as CSKA were very well organised (that Wertbloom guy was superb), those areas were consistently well-manned and congested. Once he came on, things visibly changed. If you look at our goal, their midfield line was stretched widely across the pitch, giving Toby that extra second to feed Lamela. I feel that this was because GKN was out wide,almost hugging the byline, and their man didn't want to lose track of him. True enough, the two passes leading to the goal were top quality, but differences as subtle as an opposition midfielder standing 3 metres further away from 'active' play can make all the difference at the highest level.
0 being as funny as Fabio Cappello, 100 being as funny as West Ham this season... I'd say 20. The kid is very, very talented and extremely assured in possession. I don't think he has the dribbling skills that Luka had but then again, the Croatian joined us at 23 having played regular football for one of Europe's stronger sides for 5 years and international football for 3, and he still didn't really 'click' for us until his third and fourth seasons, in which he was probably the best creative mid in the country. Based on that, Harry has a very, very good chance of following suit. My only major worry is that competition for places at the club now is much higher than it was when Modric joined, and the reality is that the competition is provided by players who aren't that much older than Harry and not retiring any time soon. Will we be able to hang on to him long enough to see him blossom? I don't know.
The nature of Spurs means that an ever increasing number of teams know that to play a certain way guarantees they may not lose, or even snatch a win. This is something that our rivals do not seem to suffer. Therefore in my desire for an ever-improving Spurs, this has to be overcome ASAP and I expect Pochettino to attempt to rectify it.
"which is how we actually scored last night in case you didn't notice" Really? We played a team with an old, slow defence. They sat on the 18 yard line and we ran into them or belted the ball into them over and over and over again. It lacked intelligence to keep doing that for as long as we did. Yes, it did eventually get us a goal but look at the amount of possession we had and how long we spent in the final, attacking third of the pitch. It was a decent performance and a great result but there are still some issues to address. One of the main ones being what has happened to the press. Their defence was really ancient and had we harried them more I am convinced it would have brought us joy. Last season we scored a lot of goals by winning the ball high up the pitch as it negates the fact that we aren't the fastest in our attacking positions - teams don't have time to set themselves up against it. CSKA had plenty of time to see us coming last night and it nearly cost us. I'm not negative. This team has the potential to win us something and maybe something big but there's no point in hiding from the fact that we should have put them away a bit more comfortably.
I don't follow this at all. All PL teams prepare for whoever they are facing and set out strategies accordingly. The recent transfers have brought in players like N'Koudo , Sissoko and Wanyama precisely to offer alternatives for getting through parked buses.
Yes the high ball, that was tried as well last night but they won most of them. Their 'Old Slow Defence' was very good and labeling them in that slightly insulting way does not make it true. You also have to take into account the injuries we have and the need to remember City. In any case we won
I am unhappy that things are not up to speed yet compared to last season. But I am happy that : - at least the on-pitch personnel are talking about the same flaws and the need to address them, and in some cases the talk is actually real action (manager rotating/resting players etc) . - we are regardless where we currently want to be in the PL/CL campaigns.
I watch teams like the Goons season after season routinely destroy teams who then play Spurs and the match becomes a chore at best or a smash+grab job at worst. That is a flaw I hope will be addressed ASAP.
