Last 32 of the F.A Cup this weekend and there are still six League One sides left. I think they all play the same way. A rigid 4-4-1-1 formation, lots of harrying and closing down, a commanding centre half and a big centre forward to hold up the ball, no expansive passing- just working the ball left to right and vice versa and playing for corners or free kicks. It's dull, but effective. With the extra quality in the Spurs team, the plan should be to avoid playing them at their own game, up the tempo and look to play the ball early and long to the quick players like Lennon or Townsend or Lamela or Chadli, whoever is picked.
Morocco's average life expectancy for men is 73.44, so it's a little early for his circumstances. Not too bad a run, though. I wouldn't be too disappointed with that. One of my colleagues lost his daughter to cancer recently and she was only 23. Burying parents is painful and hard. Burying kids is horrific.
I'm sorry for your colleague's lost, PNP. That is horrible. I decided to do myself a favor and not watch this one. It sounds like my decision was justified. I agree we should have had more than one wide player, and I don't get why Pochettino would clog the middle with central players two games in a row, when we looked much better with Rose on the wing. However: we have been poor against teams that sit back all year. The difference is that in the last few weeks we've scraped results. Luke's point about League 1 sides is well made. If it were so easy to beat Sheffield, they wouldn't have gotten to the Cup semifinals. To evaluate how we are playing overall, I think it may be more accurate to look at how we're doing against teams that try to attack us at least as much as how we do against teams that sit back. There seem to be fewer and fewer of the former, which in itself is a good sign. I hope we'll play Townsend and Rose, or perhaps Chadli if he's available, for the 2nd leg. I also am just not bothererd by the Leicester game. A return to about the same lineup we played against Burnley is probably a good choice. Kane and Eriksen need a rest, I think, though there's something to be said for playing one this game and the other next.
Just back. Credit to SU who came with a plan and executed it very well. They didn't make the stupid mistakes like we did in defence. Fortunately they are division 1 and therefore didn't punish us. They doubled up on Eriksen and Kane which is why they both were not in the game although I don't understand why Eriksen only tries to shoot after the 85th minute. (not even that today). Next week we need to revert to 4231 with Kane up front and Eriksen in the middle, Hopefully Nacer will be ready to play and Townsend. And we need to drive at them, not just pass it around hoping to break through.
On the way home... they did their job well and we were ponderous all night. thought the decision to play ade back fired big time which unfortunately ain't a surprise. The decision not to bring lennon on was stupid imo...we needed to widen the pitch and the run at them which he could have done...why have him on the bench if you aint gonna use him? Too many players were poor tonight. next week has the potential to be humiliating ... so lets hope this was a one off
Think we'll get beaten 3-1. I've been told that we were in a similar situation back in the seventies in the semis against Newcastle. We won the first at home 1-0 and were beaten 3-1 in the second. Newcastle play in stripes as do Sheffield Utd so 3-1 it is. Now I know that that's a load of bunk(ouch) but let's face it 1-0 could not be more delicate could it?
Strange selection from Pochettino, good effort from Sheffield and a disappointing showing from us. But a 1-0 home win would be a good result against a comparable team. In any event it means that if we can get a goal, Sheffield will need three to advance. For that reason, Sheffield will probably play the same way for most of the next game rather than risk leaving themselves open. I'll note we haven't conceded a goal from open play in two games where Dier has started at CB. Aside from anything else he has going for him, the fact that he's (supposedly) the fourth fastest player in the PL is certainly a handy quality in a CB whose team presses high.
I've looked at Sqwarka and NewsNow and I cannot find one journalist or writer who understands Poch's decision to even play Adebayor let alone have him as captain. There was no inspiration to the other players at all. Poch's reason was very weak too stating that he made him one of three vice captains seven months ago. Totally unfathomable thinking by Poch. Adebayor is selfish and only here for the money, the sooner he goes the happier I will feel. I also don't understand what took the Spurs fans so long to see he is useless, I've been saying it ever since he started. The first two semis were low scoring drab affairs and all four teams still have it all to do and not a one is out of it so I'm hoping for a pair of ding dong battles next week. This is our best chance of something because I don't think we'll make top four, we are just too lightweight and our rivals are too strong. It also concerns me that two matches running we dominated possession but failed to convert into goals.
Do you have the solution of how to easily break down teams who come to defend? It's a game of attack vs defence.
Oh and why MP played Ade --putting him the shop window. And why captain--ups the price by a few grand.
United came with a plan not to concede'which worked up until the penalty,however they didn't really look like scoring,i think they are too lightweight to score more than one ,and all we need is a draw,which i think even we can manage
A weird selection by Poch but I appreciate he tries to give as many players as much game time as possible (plsu shop window opportunities), even if some selections aren't as favourable as others. The problem with 4-4-2 though is that Eriksen is ineffective when on the wing, he's a number 10 and a fantastic one at that, out wide he won't get into those edge of the box scoring positions as often as he'd like. Kane was also deployed deeper, which to me didn't make much sense considering he's lead the line superbly when played there this season. Was great seeing Mason back though, looked a little rusty but that 60 minutes or so will have done him some good. Really wanted Lennon to come on, when a team plays to defend it's speed that's needed to open up the opposition by drawing multiple players out to them. Sheffield came for a draw, lets make no mistake about that, they often had all players back in their own half and while we're a far superior side, it's hard to break down such a clustered system. Thought Walker had a good game, as did Townsend and he took the pen fairly well, that's 4 out of 4 I think this season (although he must stop shooting from distance! ). To get the win though is what we needed, admittedly it would've been more ideal to have won by more than a one goal margin but they didn't get an away goal and also means Sheffield will have to send players forward at Brammall Lane which will suit us, an open game is where we excel with our pace, trickery and creativity.
Well i watched the game, very much a case of squeezing out a result. We didn't play well and i think SU did, credit to them. The Ade experiment was worth a shot, but it didn't work. Credit to Poch for not being stubborn enough to stick with it, Bobby did "win" the pen after all. I thought Mason had a bit of a stinker. Pretty much every medium to hard difficulty pass he attempted failed. Again, good decision to bring him off by Poch. Just back from injury so hopefully just a blip. Ditto Eriksen, tired? He's a class above so he still did some good stuff but he looked off the pace. I still like Dier at CB. Kane needs to play up top. He does good work in behind but Eriksen is better than him there and Kane is our biggest box threat. Oh, and how anti-Spurs did Andy Hinchcliffe seem? What did we ever do to him other than get destroyed by his corners?
I'm not specifically referring to last night. My post states that that's two matches running that we've dominated and not had the goals to show for it, the first being Sunderland when a sitter was missed. In previous matches we've had more possession and missed sitters. No, not last night but my post remains correct ok.
He's Vice Captain. If the Captain or other Vice Captain isn't playing then he's Captain, I think it's as simple as that. People may be reading too much into it, and it's certainly not a "weak" reason. I think we will go through in this tie, though SU played really well I thought. I don't think they sat back as much as I thought they would, and their right winger was really good. They may get carried away at their place and enable us to hit them on the counter. I don't think they had a shot on target though did they? Not exactly the evidence to suggest we will lose 3-1 eh TMT ;-)
It seems that M.P. Very much goes by what he sees in training. As Danny Rose has said, under this coach, if you don't train hard, you don't play. I can only assume that Ade has been putting in the work on the training ground and M.P. Thought he warranted a look at.
