Can someone explain to me what I'm missing with the Alli penalty, please? Phil Neville's banging on about him dangling his leg, but Davis kicks his other leg. Why's it even vaguely debatable? It seems that he's being judged on his reputation, which he's gained from one dive. Absolutely ridiculous when you compare it to some of the consistent divers that have plagued the division over the years. Echoes of Gareth Bale. I'm absolutely against diving and those that do it, but I'd like to see some bloody consistency. It seems to be ok for some teams to do it all the time and some sort of horrific crime if others ever do it.
"No, it's true. I think that. Yes! We focus on important things...". I don't know if it's genius or if it winds me up
You are missing nothing. This is just Narrative (TM) against Spurs (although as with Bale - partly justified) , but with the usual media/pundit hypocrisy/cowardice whenever tis their darlings and their institutional antics in the spotlight.
Pochettino is basically telling the questioner what an utter prat plank-ton they are, in his relatively limited English, without saying it outright. As I repeatedly say, regardless of on-pitch matters, I absolutely love the guy for refusing to give the media any crumbs with which to build a Narrative (TM) .
We got three points against a good team without our best player, which is the main thing. We failed to put the game away when we had chances to, and ended up looking nervy. The last part of the game we did well seeing the game out, thanks in part to our subs, Winks and especially Janssen. I haven't looked closely at either our pen or their shout, but from what I saw it looked like Dele's was fair, and is generally called. I was pretty sure Davies just barely redirected the ball before kicking Tadic, but it's uncharted territory to me. All I know is that I haven't seen many pens awarded to players who never touched the ball, and I've watched any number of players get kicked or even rugby tackled without getting one. No doubt if I were a Southampton fan I'd think neither or both, though. As to Son vs. Janssen: I think it would be too harsh to drop Son to the bench based on one game we won where he contributed meaningfully. I'd bring in Janssen earlier and see how he does. He's shown at least we're better defending a lead late in games with him on. He must have won four or five set pieces and did very well providing an outlet.
Why is there universal outrage about anything Alli does, while Sterling gets a free pass, from what I've heard? For what it's worth, what's remarkable about this year is that we've had a remarkable absence of either points gifted to or robbed from us, while there have been loads of points robbed from others (usually smaller teams) and given to some (usually the big teams). It looks to me like the one rich team which hasn't benefited much if at all has been United, but I've seen too few games to be much of a judge. If so, I think it's because Mourinho finally overplayed his hand his last year at Chelsea.
Same comments made by Souness and Redknapp on Sky - definitely a narrative issue, as wouldn't have raised a note if happened elsewhere on the pitch as it was a clear foul.
Souness, Redknapp and Murphy? Too many ex-Scousers that've been pissed off by their time at Spurs, clearly! Given that the other pundit on MOTD2 started his career at Southampton, I think I might see the problem. Shearer seemed to be saying that Alli made Davis kick him, so it wasn't a foul. What the **** is that supposed to mean?
Much like the foul on Mousa for the penalty at The Emirates. It was called "soft" and "unnecessary" as if only blatantly cutting down a forward who is bound to score is allowed to be punished. Granted, it was a really poor piece of play by Davis, the sort of undisciplined challenge Spurs players used to make where they aren't in a proper position to make a tackle and are sticking their leg out in hope as much as anything else. Thankfully, such challenges are rare from our players these days. Under MP we prefer to make the forwards beat us by producing an excellent piece of skill or playing a pass rather than jump in and offer the possibility of running into a trailing leg and falling down or being genuinely caught and tripped. Dele was moving away from goal but that's not his problem. I thought the penalty against Swansea was tantamount to a dive by Dele but this one wasn't.
Souness and Redknapp swing from one minute praising Spurs, to calling us a one man team and highlighting supposed cheating the next. Listening to them makes me realise what good value for money Sky got: 4 pundits for the price of 2. They should make recruiting schizophrenics a company policy!!
It was a clever move, I think. It gave him time to consider each answer and he can blame a misunderstanding if there's any controversy. Not ideal for the fans or media though, admittedly. Still needs to work on his English, for me.
If I was Pochettino, I would WUM the UK press to death by asking any UK resident press hacks for Spanish media (El Pais etc) to come to the pre-match ones and ask him long questions in Spanish.
While Levy's at the helm, we'll never need a written release clause in our players' contracts. Based on Wanyama's performances for us, £150m would be a bloody bargain anyway!
A bit. He's fine with some stuff, then gets caught up a word or two and stumbles. Tends to just avoid the obvious media traps though, so his comprehension's got better.
