Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Sheffield United

Literally nobody passing to Kane!
Son and Bergwijn playing in the same position, while Lo Celso plays as an attacking midfielder and Sissoko's on his own with no touches.

 

Surely if we see these statistics the coaching staff can see it, every time Kane got the ball in the area he netted , I remember son actually putting a ball into Kane only for Lucas to run into it , I know it's not as simple as " feed kane" and we score but it's got to be better that the tripe we are serving up lately

 

It's also yet another piece of evidence that Lucas Moira is where possession goes to die

The other day he was mentioned as a makeweight in a deal to bring Milinkovic-Savic to the club. Would anyone be that upset if that actually came to pass?

...oh, wait, knowing our fanbase they would be

 

I will drive him to the Airport ......no actually I will happily drive him to Italy

 

Just remember to drive SM-S back with you...

 

A quick note about pass maps: arrows only appear once there have been a minimum of five passes between players

In regards to the Sheffield United match, this shows that
a.) Lucas only passed the ball to Kane, Lo Celso, Sissoko or Aurier a maximum of four times each, which is utterly pathetic considering Lucas, Lo Celso and Kane all played 90 minutes
b.) Nobody managed to get the ball to Kane more than four times, so playing Lo Celso behind a bank of three wingers worked out well didn't it?
c.) Hugo managed to complete five passes to Sanchez, and not that many to anyone else
d.) The thickness of some of the lines, notably Davies/Dier and Dier/Sanchez (and vice versa), really drives home just how sideways and/or backwards our passing was - although credit is certainly due to Ben Davies as he kept finding Lo Celso time and again, something the rest of his teammates (especially Dier, Sissoko and Moura) couldn't or didn't

 

While I also think Mourinho should go, I don't think the problem with the squad is easy to diagnose and may not be easy to fix. The same group of players who are playing poorly under Mourinho also played poorly under Pochettino, a very different manager. A squad which last year got to the CL final and a few years ago led the PL in goal difference two years running is now ninth in the league. The usual cause for teams' rapid decline is aging, but that's not the case here on the face of it. Most of the key players are at or near their best years, with the important exception of the defenders. The aging of Dembele, Vertonghen and Alderweireld has clearly had a significant effect.. Eriksen's disaffection and departure has also been an important contributing factor.

I would like to see a new, young manager with an attractive style, and an effort to sign a top young player or three. Clearing out some of the veterans while they still have value may well also be a good idea, IMO.

 

As I've said before, Steptonho was a human shield - after all, can you imagine the response if the club sacked Poch and replaced him with (to pick a name out of the air) Chris Wilder? It would have been about as civil as lunch with the Donner Party

When the club sacked a manager that nobody was sad to see go they were able to bring in who they wanted, be it moving Jol up the bench when Santini was jettisoned or being able to take their time after Villas-Boas was sacked to bring in Poch, and it has to be said that even The Humble & Honest Saint Harris of Redknapp was pretty easy to replace as enough fans soured on him either due to his public flirtation with the England job or the nosedive in form that coincided with it

On the other hand, when getting shot of popular managers the club needed to act quickly and bring in a Big Name™, most obviously Ramos of Jol and (to a lesser degree) Santini for Hoddle, and we're certainly in the middle of the same pattern now - even though both Santini and Ramos were disastrous in their own unique ways and we're currently staring down the barrel of three for three

Now there are potential advantages with having Steptonho, after all his name value alone could be a potential clincher for signings (at least that was the plan before the world went to ****...) and if he gives us solidity that is something that can be built on...but the thing is the same could certainly be said for Ramos and Santini, and likely was, yet the irony was in both both cases they were working under a DoF (Arnesen for Santini, Comolli for Ramos) which changed the situation compared to us currently having a manager and no DoF, and the solidity they offered the team came at a cost with Santini dishing up football that made George Graham look like Rinus Michels while Ramos' was more to cover for the fact he thought tactically preparing for teams outside the Sky 4 was beneath him

 

Burnley 1 Sheff U 0 before I switched over. Everyone doing the dirty on Sheff except us!
Seems we are in need of hungry players!!!? Hell,if desperate (and we are!) go get Dunk and Duffy from Brighton......not the greatest pair,but they will die for their club....unlike ourboys who are more worried about the tax taken out of their wage packets than their performances!

 

When we were singing "We want our Tottenham back" we didn't mean Dr Tottenham returns to practice, FFS!

 

They're changing the handball law because of us, again:
https://www.skysports.com/football/...and-riyad-mahrez-goals-under-new-handball-law

 

unless its against a team wearing red I guess

 

It had already changed but the old rule applies in the remainder of the season. The old rule also didn't make the Kane goal an offence.

 

But the interpretation did. The refs clearly thought that the law was something else, for some reason.

 

There was no scope for interpretation. To make it an offence Son had to gain possession of the ball via his hand and then create a goal and he did neither. Local versions of the Laws are banned.

 

Tell that to the officials.