He so rarely posts on the saints board that none of us pay any attention to him. Probably a pompey on a wind up.
There's been a bit of it in the build up to the game. Nothing too bad, though. Fairly understandable given the circumstances. Been the odd pillock, of course, but everyone's got them.
I think that team and that style of play, which I think of as the low press, may have a future. Energetic and one touch, but pressing far enough back we were able to hit on the counter. Good game and deserved win, but Saints played well, didn't deserve to lose by much, and are a good team.
MUch better performance by Spurs that gives me a bit more confidence in Poch. Most enjoyable Spurs game for a long time and it's all about the pace and the pressing. I also like the fact that he has settled on a first 11 and is sticking with it.
"I also like the fact that he has settled on a first 11 and is sticking with it." Could do with better sub use though (to keep the current cup sides in sync with the PL first XI) .
I think that, in terms of doing what Pochettino is looking for from us, that was our best performance of the season so far. The positives for me - the 3 behind Ade did very well, lots of movement and all three getting involved in the game. Chadli used his strength very well indeed and was unlucky not to score, and Eriksen and Lamela has some good plays throughout. They all worked hard too. Mason and Capoue did well in the middle too, which was really encouraging. Lloris was once again excellent. Rose was effective down the left too, at least going forwards. On a negative side, we looked shaky at times at the back, partly due to Southampton's good play and partly due to our own mistakes. We need to tighten up back there, although Kaboul looks to have resuscitated his form somewhat after a very poor start to the season. We also had some poor touches going forwards, particularly from Ade, who although he did work harder today than I thought he has been recently, is on borrowed time in this team for me. We were better in the first half than the second too, maybe players dropped off because they were working so hard. The ref was inconsistent and made odd decisions that benefited and detracted from both sides. I'm happy with it though. Potentially a very tricky fixture due to the form of Southampton, and a big game for Pochettino and his staff too. It was a very big game for us. We played our new system better than ever before, not perfectly, but definitely better. Lots to work on in the international break, and with any luck we'll have Naughton back by the next Spurs game so that we actually have a RB. We have a way to go on fitness too I believe, but that will come in time as long as we keep working this hard in games (and presumably training).
Took our guys a while to get up to Judas' fitness requirements too. By the end of the season, they were a bit burned out. Presumably, your bigger squad will accommodate that.
We quite often didn't press hard until they came into our half, but other times we were straight on them. I guess its a combination of trying to conserve some energy, and the fact that if you try to press from the wrong starting position (of your players relative to theirs from the initiation of the press) then the opposition just pass it around you and then you're out of position to defend. The effectiveness of this of course comes down to the players' decision making on the pitch. Interesting to hear that Pie
I hope so. We're literally switching out all of our outfield players for the cup games, leaving only Hugo Lloris in the team. Vorm replaced him against Forest in the League Cup too, so we can afford to make 11 changes for some games. Tricky balance to get right, though. Mixed blessing having so many options.
So much for Paul Merson who said we'd lose 1-3, I don't think think I'll listen to those closely involved with the game again. Frankly I didn't know what we'd do as it was after two home defeats. Against a team playing well that was a good result inasmuch as we stopped them scoring but whether that's the match to kick start us I'm not so sure.
Difficult I would have thought. We could easily get hammered again, it's very difficult to stop them scoring. A draw at best.
"Difficult I would have thought. We could easily get hammered again, it's very difficult to stop them scoring. A draw at best." At best, I agree. The organisation in the NLD was much better from us, and more like what lower-placed teams do to us (get their defence quickly organised into 3 rows of 3/4 - not desperate 11 behind the ball bus parking) . More of the same could hinder Citeh for a fair while.
So Saints had six straight wins before today's match and now a defeat so this could be the match which sees them start a significant drop down the table.
I thought the referee had a stinker today, constantly blowing up for soft free kicks and failed to send off Bertrand in the first half for what looked a horror tackle which injured Naughton. A decent performance from Spurs against a decent well drilled team in form, we restricted Saints to few clear chances and could easily have scored more ourselves. Saints` best chance was sliced wide when it looked easier to score.
