A thoroughly enjoyable afternoon at the Lane and a well deserved win. In my view, that score line flatters Norwich. I know Lloris made the first real save of the game and also made a stunning double save near the end, but we could and should have had five, such was our dominance at times. After months of moaning about Poch's style of play, at long long last, I am beginning to like what I see these days. We are approaching a crucial stage of this squads' development as we have to do something in the window to support Harry Kane, and the level of expectation in Poch has increased and it will be interesting to see how he can cope with this. COYS
I thought up until we got the penalty Norwich were perhaps the better team but without creating to many opportunities, then once we got the goal it was total dominance. In the second half we really turned it on and could have scored a few more. Going to the game you really get a sense of how hard lamela works, he was all over the pitch today, his rabona shot was amazing, he was practising these before the match as well and the power he gets on these shots is quite incredible. Saying this we had like a 3 on1 in the second half and he either had to shoot or lay Kane in for an almost certain goal and he made a right hash of it. I am also pleased that Dembele has become quite a fan favourite, after years of me banging the drum for him he seems to have finally found his place in this team. Full credit must go to Pochettino and the players for how they have performed so far this season, they seem way ahead of were I thought they would be at. From what I have seen so far we should be aiming even higher than 4th place, I don't see many teams ,if any better than us in this league.
In fairness to Lamela on that "right hash", none of the 3 or 4 players alongside him made any attempt to pull away from the one defender and make the lay off easier for him.
I think maybe because it was so central there wasn't quite the angle for the pass, I just felt he could have showed more conviction either way.
"In fairness to Lamela on that "right hash", none of the 3 or 4 players alongside him made any attempt to pull away from the one defender and make the lay off easier for him" And not the first time Spurs have done this. I remember a Europa game at WHL where Bale, Walker et al had bombed forward beyond the back four and did exactly the same thing.
Yeah, it certainly was nice to go out 3-0 winners and feeling like we could've scored many more. Most of all it was good entertainment, Lamela with his rabona and bicycle kick attempt, Alli taking on the Premier League one nutmeg at a time, Carroll and Kane burying half chances into the corner of the net and Vertonghen put in a really good tackle in the box when Norwich threatened at 0-0. It'd be nice to see us start a bit quicker but it feels like every game you can spot something new that really works well. I noticed how good it is having Lamela and Alli on the pitch for long passes, Lamela was winning a number of headers whilst Alli was always a target for the ball over the top and caused Norwich a lot of troubles with that. As good as Kane is, it's good to have other options for outballs from the back. Maybe it's too much turkey and beer but I really think we have a shot at the title after seeing Arsenal tonked tonight.
Tom Carroll's post match interview sounds like a 5 year old delivering his lines at the school nativity play.
Dare I say it...we are beautifully placed in the league....it's the closest I could come to agreeing with YV's last paragraph above.
One of Spurs’ best friends right now is the competition for places. Non-starters see Carroll, who was one of the ones farther down on the depth chart, getting more and more time, and know that if they work hard enough and play well enough and they’ll get more time. Dier and Carroll is a good partnership, since Dier adds all the steel and size that Carroll lacks. I hope we’ll see a bit more rotation, since Carroll, Son and Rose, at least, don’t represent any real dropoff in quality, and some of our players, including Eriksen, especially, and Dier, Dembélé and Kane, look tired at times. Last week I thought Lamela was MOTM. This week, as good as he and the whole team was, really, I thought it was Alli, who was a monster today. (I had thought that he was being slightly overpraised in the recent past.) I think there’s a rational calculation on Rose vs. Davies. If we’re scoring often enough, Davies is the better bet for being less error-prone. If not, we need Rose’s ability to create goals. How smart does Pochettino look for seeing a CB and turning him into a DM, and seeing a deep lying player and turning him into a #10/secret striker? I wonder how many managers would have made those moves?
Cartilage Free Captain tapped the well with their three part series A Christmas Tom Carroll last year.
