Manchester United Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

Doctor Dinkey said:

That's what pre-season is for.

Click to expand...

If only - you can't beat competitive games to get proper fitness - preseason is a jolly

Anyone who thought we were bad today must be super deluded. We played decently in a tight game. We lost, but bar Chelsea away this is probably our hardest fixture, and if football was fair we would have drawn.
This is not the fixture to predict the outcome of our season. The performance today left me enthused about our season. I think we'll do well.

DaSpurs said:

Dembele is a wonderful footballer, but it produces absolutely nothing. He learned the game on a futsal court with no goals, and that is so incredibly and blatantly evident that it baffles me he's still even tried in attacking positions. Such a smooth and gifted player, but it amounts to nothing because he has no sense of the goal and how to play his teammates toward it. He possesses flash and is a brute, and it suckers people into the belief he possesses efficiency, when that is just not the case. He is a niche player, a player who works brilliantly in certain scenarios (see Spurs v Chelsea 1/01/15), but a filler in an attacking position he should not be.

Click to expand...

I think Poch is giving him his last chance this season for the very reasons you said " he is wonderful footballer"

Swansea look good and have shown that they're not scared of big teams. They've got stuck in and played some decent, quick, incisive football. Shelvey has looked very good.

Limiting Utd to one shot on target at Old Trafford AND they still need to go to corner flag to waste some time actually just told the whole story was it not?

If anything, our collective performance today was actually superb.. Was the individual one letting us down.. Unlucky overall..

Just hoping we can have a couple more pacy signings sooner than later to be integrated into our team..

If I knew I was getting spoilers for Suicide Squad I wouldn't have come this thread.

DaSpurs said:

Dembele is a wonderful footballer, but it produces absolutely nothing. He learned the game on a futsal court with no goals, and that is so incredibly and blatantly evident that it baffles me he's still even tried in attacking positions. Such a smooth and gifted player, but it amounts to nothing because he has no sense of the goal and how to play his teammates toward it. He possesses flash and is a brute, and it suckers people into the belief he possesses efficiency, when that is just not the case. He is a niche player, a player who works brilliantly in certain scenarios (see Spurs v Chelsea 1/01/15), but a filler in an attacking position he should not be.

Click to expand...

Dembele naturally drifts back into the middle and retains possession. He's generally strong under pressure and can bring the ball forward. I prefer him in the middle of the pitch and next to Bentaleb against Chelsea, we saw a very decent double pivot with those two. No he will not always immediately instigate some amazing attack, but he will protect the ball out from our keeper and win it back when we are defending. Ideally he needs to play next to a more visionary, but similar CM and unfortunately we don't have one. Someone who can pass, put balls over the top, release the ball early... Mason is not good enough at that, nor is Bentaleb. Carroll is the best at releasing the ball, but too weak and Bentaleb is having a crisis of confidence after his recent pay rise I reckon. Kramer and Dembele would boss the middle, but not likely to happen apparently.

Unlucky today (though, apparently, according to the post-match interviewer United have put down a marker today - by having one shot on target and outplayed in lengthy patches and scraping through at end LoL).

It was a poor pass from Bentaleb, and he does deserve some stick for it - he hasn't been at it so far as I can see since coming back from his hols (maybe he's still there). But that doesn't make him the worst player to ever wear the shirt.

Otherwise, we were pretty solid defensively, created the better chances, and had the shots on target (I think United had 1 shot on target all game, so, really, we had the shots on target).

The problem, as others have pointed out, was that we went into our shell and gave them a confidence boost, with the goal. I can see the argument for having an older head in there - especially at moments like this. Can anyone imagine Davids letting the heads drop at that moment. The problem is, we have so many promising you players that we may stifle ourselves by doing so. I don't want to sound like too much of a fantasist but I was around to see the United team of the early nineties develop. They got a lot of stick, not least for making silly mistakes and showing poor judgement. Hence the comment by Alan Hansen that you don't win anything with kids. I'm not necessarily saying that our younglings will be as good as that United team (nor saying they won't, either ) but the most notable thing about their development was that Fergie was prepared to let them develop and make mistakes even when it led to calls for his dismissal. It's got to be Pochettino's call as it is on his head.

It was at OT, it was first game of the season, and we certainly deserved at least a draw IMHO.

@Danners9 - The twat Moss started giving them everything the crowd called for before not after the goal Did anyone else see what I saw? After another one of our attacks, Rooney and Moss were walking out of their area and Rooney had a little word with Moss. Almost immediately, Moss began giving them decisions that were not only wrong but also based solely on how loud the crowd called for them = TWAT.

@Bus-Conductor - Yeah, there were plenty of players giving the ball away. I personally counted three times Eriksen gave the ball away after Bentaleb's sloppy pass - one of them was in an almost identical position to his. The fact that none of them were punished the way his was doesn't alter the fact that they were sloppy passes. I'm not making excuses for him. It was poor, he's been poor since pre-season started and was really poor today and deserved to be subbed. But the vitriol and double standards are incredible.

I can't believe the whiners saw the same game.

United were well and truly underserved winners. Up until the goal we hammered them. After the goal we played a man down as Bentaleb just disappeared.

Buy they were still restricted to their first and only shot on target until the 70th minute. We didn't collapse like we would have.

All played well. Dembele had good game. He was strong on the ball and when we had movement he was passing well. Dier was good, good challenges and did a nice simple role of shield the defence.

First game of season. We will get better.

I'm not suicidal and we did OK but this season I was hoping to see a bit of flair, a bit of creativity, and a bit of for want of a better word , oomph
All this sideways, backwards stuff may keep position but where's the cut and thrust and excitement.

Unless we have some inspired signings to come, it's all a bit meh

Gbspurs said:

Maybe, but then VDV had Sandro to shield, Lennon and Bale overlapping and Modric bringing it all together. We need something a bit different to get the best out of Eriksen not just people standing around him stationary.

He is a clever player, he works hard and his end product is usually quite good but the players around him don't help him one bit imo.

Click to expand...

Parker played not Sandro?

SPURSLIFE said:

Mason is 24 by the way. What I am saying is that they have both had a season and not really delivered consistently and if we are not going to bring anyone of note in then why not play Alli, Pritchard or Carroll. It's not really working with the others so what have we got to lose. In Bentelebs case what does he really offer. As others have already said He doesn't score or create chances and is prone to mistakes with his passing. We are very predictable with the way we play at the moment and easily to suss so lets try another way and style.

Click to expand...

So chuck them aside and then put next batch of youngsters in?

And if they don't play well we'll chuck them aside after one season too?

barry said:

Anyone who thought we were bad today must be super deluded. We played decently in a tight game. We lost, but bar Chelsea away this is probably our hardest fixture, and if football was fair we would have drawn.
This is not the fixture to predict the outcome of our season. The performance today left me enthused about our season. I think we'll do well.

Click to expand...

"bar Chelsea away" - really! I would say out of Chelsea, Arse, City, Pool and Man U, Man U away will be the easier game this season!

I'm not getting too upset about the result today though. We were a bit unlucky and the team is still finding its feet. Hopefully a couple more signings (soon hopefully!) and we'll really get this this season under way!

JAYSTAR said:

Dembele naturally drifts back into the middle and retains possession. He's generally string under pressure an did and can bring the ball forward. I prefer him in the middle of the pitch and next to Bentaleb against Chelsea, we saw a very decent double pivot with those two. No he will not always immediately instigate some amazing attack, but he will protect the ball from out from our keeper and win it back when we are defending. Ideally he needs to play next to a more visionary but similar CM and unfortunately we don't have one.

Click to expand...

Yeah I would actually agree with that. I'm not sure if he would work in the double pivot in general, as it was really just that game he worked so well, as Chelsea's frustrated diminutive attackers continuously collapsed on him in utter vain, thereby allowing us to play out. If a side doesn't press on him specifically, then he's not as effective.

BUT, I think he would do alright next to a playmaker, and you're right that we don't have an established one (Carroll could be this if given time IMO). As such, I struggle to see where he fits in this squad. I'm just not of the conviction that we need a ball retainer in the high positions. A striker should be able to establish that, and of course if your team is more dynamic/athletic, then you can more easily escape pressure anyway. Part of our current need for more possession has been due to our lack of that dynamism and inability to make our own space. We solve that, not so much need for a ball retainer, and especially at the expense of a more dynamic or creative attacker.

Encouraging defensively, Toby in particular.

Worrying offensively. We looked nice & neat in the first 20 mins with some good movement and should've taken the lead. After that though we offered very little. The 3 behind Kane were poor, not one of them looked to work with him or, more importantly, get in behind him.
Doesn't bode well, especially up against teams that sit back. Déjà vu.....

And it doesn't look like our strange pre-season has worked well; we looked absolutely out of steam with 20 odd mins to go. Playing training ground friendlies, a match in the States then two matches 4 days before the season does not look a stroke of genius.

Sweech said:

Plus in the NHL some players do put their first names on their jerseys instead as well. Typically the Russians or Czechs I believe.

Click to expand...

This isn't true at all. In fact, the only sport in America that allows first names on jerseys is MLS.

Chad Johnson (nee OchoCinco) was required to purchase all inventory of his current jerseys before it was legal for him to put OchoCinco (a name he legally changed his to) on the back. Hasn't happened in any other sport here.

Looks like we are last on MotD, tough to argue with that decision really.

Can't possibly quote everyone on here referring to Townsend as an option so I'm just going to make this post as patronising as possible by typing the next bit with the CAPS lock on:

TOWNSEND IS INJURED. HE HAS A SHOULDER INJURY. HE WAS NOT AVAILABLE FOR SELECTION TODAY.

Today was frustrating but we looked much better than we did in the same fixture last season with largely the same team. Anyone suggesting there was a gulf between the two teams over 90 minutes must have been watching something else. Did we create enough? No. But we created more than they did. We defended better than they did. We had as much of the ball as they did and they've spent millions on their midfield while we fielded two kids. Unfortunately luck just wasn't on our side at the crucial moment and that happens in football. Next week it might work in our favour. If you're still feeling crap about today's game take a walk, treat yourself to a takeaway and a beer, and watch MOTD later feeling glad you ain't a Sunderland fan, because they're shit every week!

Football is back - be happy.

glacierSpurs said:

Limiting Utd to one shot on target at Old Trafford AND they still need to go to corner flag to waste some time actually just told the whole story was it not?

If anything, our collective performance today was actually superb.. Was the individual one letting us down.. Unlucky overall..

Just hoping we can have a couple more pacy signings sooner than later to be integrated into our team..

Click to expand...

I think just one real pacy outlet up top will have a big influence on our game. Throw in an experienced central midfielder and we will be laughing. I know virtually nothing about the lad from Lyon we are being linked to so cannot comment on him, but Berahino would be a good purchase and would give us that much needed 'lively' body upfront. Relying on Bentaleb, Mason and Dier all season for the deeper midfield slots could be a pretty painful experience.
Dier performed quite well but he cannot get us going and shouldn't be expected to either. Nabil and Mason will contiue to be up and down for a while yet.

I was impressed by the runs from deep by the fullbacks today, a real weapon.