was there with my daughter so here is my take on the match; 1) Thought Fazio played well and thought the team did ok until the 83rd minute. 2) Bringing on Adebayor changed the atmosphere...we didn't boo but it was an audible and loud minority...and it seemed to give encouragement to Leicester fans and then the players. Ade has clearly lost the fans...his comments slagging us off are being thrown back at him and MP needs to understand how destructive the situation is. Whatever my or anyone elses view of the booing this can not be allowed to keep festering and imho opinion is about MP being stubborn. 3) Lennon...he is still a spurs player...he plays out wide and runs at people and yesterday he should have been played (unless injured) as Townsend will be again relied on to provide width on Wednesday...and will be needed next weekend against west brom. We made 9 changes yesterday so not changing Townsend for Lennon makes no sense to me. 4) Lamela did ok but needs to get match sharp but it was good to see him back. 5) We need another striker...not buying one will cost us big time for the rest of this season. finally I have a very bad feeling about Wednesday night!
No Brian I wasn't, but from the radio commentary I had on and from what everyone has said, you're absolutely right in your assessment. At no point have I tried to say we were anything but poor yesterday and it would seem that the sideways passing and slow buildup was back in force but thats what you get when you play Dembele, Capoue and Paulinho in midfield - Dembele is too conservative, Capoue is not a creative midfielder and Paulinho has never looked consistently quality in a Spurs shirt. Add to that a dodgy back line and perhaps a lack of width and the loss begins to look less and less surprising in hindsight. Leicester probably wanted it more than the players who played the majority of the game for us as well. Eriksen came on at like the 65th minute? Thats probably ok but waiting so long for Kane, and introducing Ade before him when the game clearly needed killing, was a poor choice. The squad clearly needs a lot of work. We have a decent enough 'first XI' with Bentaleb and Chadli coming back in - decent but needs improvement in some areas clearly - but we lack options off the bench as too many players are limited in key areas of their game, have poor attitudes, or are just not good enough.
I'm having to guess, as I didn't see the game and the highlights are completely unhelpful, but I think that the subs cost us. Adebayor probably didn't do too much damage, but Eriksen on the wing always unbalances us. Combined with Lamela on the other flank, just back from injury and that leaves our fullbacks utterly exposed. Going to a 4-4-2 with those two out wide seems a bit kamikaze.
I'm really just guessing as well, since I only listened to the game on radio. But for what it's worth, I thought the squad picked was okay, with the exception of Dembele in a deep lying role. He will always, and has always, slowed us down going forward. He should either start at LM, where he's reasonably good, I think, or not at all. The problem was not trying to press forward for a second goal. To be fair, we didn't start sitting back right away, it seemed. But the sitting back always seems to be a bad move with us. Well, maybe with 30 seconds left, it would be okay. But the only defense with this team looks to be a good offence. The moment we let the other team have some time and space, our defensive weaknesses are so glaring, it becomes a matter of time and luck till they score. Even if we don't score a second, trying to score a second looks likelier to keep the other team from getting an equalizer than, well, trying to prevent them from getting an equalizer. While I have agreed with some of the criticism of some of the players, I would add that this is the first meaningful cup game we've lost. The second team has started for most of these games. So they can't be all that bad.
It was a lacklustre performance, I was really disappointed to go out, especially as even though we weren't great, Leicester didn't look like scoring either so when they got the equaliser and winner, it was a kick in the teeth for me. But credit to them, they really went for it in the final 10 and got their rewards. Felt for Vorm, he kept us in it in the first half with some great saves and then goes and concedes what is probably the worst goal he's ever let in. Not really much else to say, we're out, disappointed - especially what with the other results - but that's football for you and the magic of the cup, truly anything can happen. Here's hoping we try double hard now in the Capital Semi against Sheffield and cement our spot at Wembley.
When you say Leicester went for it, I think they, like most of us in the crowd, sensed that Spurs had eased off and were trying to coast through the final stages. I sensed before the end of the first half that some had switched off and could see the game turning unless we bucked our ideas up. We didn't and so got caught out. Three days later and I am still angry and disappointed with the almost flippant way we treated this game and I include the manager in this as well. What with making Adebayor skipper only a few days earlier, he didn't have a good week last week. Quite frankly, he and the players, owe it to everyone to go out there tomorrow and get a result which takes us through to the final. To go out to an average Leicester side and an average Sheffiled side within the space of a few days would be totally unacceptable.
Spurcat, Exactly. I can't believe how some seem to accept Saturday's performance. We started back passing to our keeper from the opposition's penalty area late in the first half. Nobody appeared to counteract it not Manager, Captain, Vice-Captain, Goalkeeper- Nobody) and it got worse and worse in the second half. It was possibly the most feeble performance at the Lane I've ever seen. I've been going since '69 and have seen some bad sides in poor seasons but I can't think of another game where we offered almost no effort as a team. The walk up to Seven Sisters has seldom seemed so long. I tried to explain to my daughter that it was just bad luck her first game was rubbish and mine was the same (Sunderland 0-1 in Oct 69). I had seen Stevie P's first game, I'm afraid she just got duped. I wonder if she'll want to come back?
