Leicester vs Tottenham: Match Thread

Chimbo! said:

In the past two seasons there was an indestructible air to the team. They just didn’t got two down. And when they went a goal down, they roared back. There isn’t the same feel this season.

The sloppy defeat to Chelsea; the lapses in concentration against United and Burnley; the inability to handle Arsenal’s press; and going two down to Leicester in 45 minutes.

Now every game looks tricky. Watford away? Don’t fancy that.

We can analyse the reasons why to death but I think it was Ferguson who said teams go in three year cycles. We’re kind of at that point. It doesn’t require wholesale changes but perhaps some of the key players we relied on need refreshing.

It also hasn’t helped losing Wanyama and Alderweireld - whose negotiation position for a lucrative contract must have improved - to long term injury.

But for all the criticisms of our attack - which are overblown - it’s central midfield that’s a problem. We don’t move the ball in the midfield fast enough, making it hard for our attackers to carve out opportunities. We’re also not as imposing. Now whether that’s a personnel or confidence issue is for Poch to work out.

But either way this season is quickly falling away from high hopes to hopeless. The bigger budgets are starting to make the difference.

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One of the biggest problems has occurred because of Dier in my opinion. I'm pretty sure over the summer he and Poch had a chat and it was decided he was going to mainly be CM this season. This meant we spent big on Sanchez (all good) but it also meant we didn't look at getting a DM cover for Wanyama.

Personally I'm cool with Dier at CB but ever since that Chelsea battle away game that spark has gone from Dier in CM for some reason, he just isn't aggressive enough or mobile enough to fill in for Wanyama. That's bad enough but because Toby got injured it's meant Dier has gone back to CB and meant we literally have no proper DM.

Over the summer we should either have bought another CB who was ready to start so we had 4 for 3 spots or purchased another DM in case the scenario of now had occurred. Dier's ability to play CM and CB has caused us to try and be clever and get away with not having enough backup players and it's blown up in our faces.

Im glad the fans at the match were more supportive than the miserable fuckers in this thread. Imagine this much hatred and despair at the ground. The fans there were great tonight, vocal right to the end. On here there was moaning an hour before kick off.

Chimbo! said:

In the past two seasons there was an indestructible air to the team. They just didn’t got two down. And when they went a goal down, they roared back. There isn’t the same feel this season.

The sloppy defeat to Chelsea; the lapses in concentration against United and Burnley; the inability to handle Arsenal’s press; and going two down to Leicester in 45 minutes.

Now every game looks tricky. Watford away? Don’t fancy that.

We can analyse the reasons why to death but I think it was Ferguson who said teams go in three year cycles. We’re kind of at that point. It doesn’t require wholesale changes but perhaps some of the key players we relied on need refreshing.

It also hasn’t helped losing Wanyama and Alderweireld - whose negotiation position for a lucrative contract must have improved - to long term injury.

But for all the criticisms of our attack - which are overblown - it’s central midfield that’s a problem. We don’t move the ball in the midfield fast enough, making it hard for our attackers to carve out opportunities. We’re also not as imposing. Now whether that’s a personnel or confidence issue is for Poch to work out.

But either way this season is quickly falling away from high hopes to hopeless. The bigger budgets are starting to make the difference.

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Great post. Could not agree more. The point on central midfield - Dembele has done his time. Sissoko is an ok player but certainly not someone who can dictate play. Winks is very good but needs more games under his belt. Wanayama and Dier are breakers of play. Besides Winks no one else moves the ball forward or wide with any speed, allowing opposition defenders to reset. That is why it is a very simply successful strategy that works for most teams - defend en masses and counter. Either we move to a 4-1-3-2 with Lorente providing an arial alternative from kick off or we will continue to plod in midfield.

Poch got us organised and playing great football - despite having 'average ability' personnel up front. And I believe, hand on heart that this is now what is costing us - some of our guys are great on their day, but they also aren't the cream of the crop - they're Levy buys - cheap and cheerful 2nd and 3rd choices.

Dele was a League 1 box-to-box midfielder. Through the industriousness of his finishing he got moved out to the left wing where he needs to be able to beat a man - he simply doesn't have this ability, so falls over a lot. Eriksen blows hot and cold, and I don't know why. His corners are atrocious. Sometimes he comes up with the goods, but then other times he can go 5 games without having any influence. For me it's about natural ability and confidence. Natural ability being, the ability to control a ball. Confidence being the decisions players make like passing backwards, or taking the safe option instead of playing the killer throughball. And again that comes back to ability. There's good and bad, but ultimately today we lost this game because of our composure and ability in front of goal. De Bruyne wouldn't have missed Eriksen's chance, and any other striker worth his salt would've scored Llorente's. Sissoko is Sissoko. It is what it is.

Our formations are changing by the week, from Champions League to PL, our tactics are changing. The starting XI is tinkered with on a twice-weekly basis. Perhaps that's something to do with our form, compared to the last 2 years when we basically just had 2 formations and 2 ways of playing.

I thought they, once they scored first were set up to well to score the second. but we dominated them missed a lot of chances, and at the end it wasn't enough.
But I do believe we need freshing up, why buy llorente if you don't start him? Sissoko even if his heart is there, just isn't offering nothing. we are playing sat midweek sat, now since September a bit more of a option would be great.

Gaz_Gammon said:

When we do not press teams high, we are as good as any mid table side.

We lack creativity, leadership and commitment. This is what you get by playing a very young side, cheaply assembled and with a threadbare bench.

I believe that we have a very good manager but as always we fail to capitalize on our success by adding one or two more expensive, better skilled and more experienced players.

P.S.
If proof were needed Mahrez spelled it out to Poch today exactly what we need. Don't like to say it but something good may come out of this one sided game because that's what it was.

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Not sure if anything good will come from it because as you rightly said we never seize an opportunity and capitalize on it lessons don't appear to ever been learnt.
Again as you have noted threadbare squad cheaply assembled we are trying to take the big boys on with one hand tied behind our backs which is never going to work, even the Leicester fans were singing at the end " thanks for falling apart again" everyone knows that at some point we will and in that case we never let ourselves down.

gloryspur said:

I was heartened by our 2nd half fightback but the misses by Eriksson & Llorente Two corking goals were all Leicester offered which proved to be all they needed. Shame possession didn't win matches we would actually be in with a shout of the league! This result is further deflating after WBA on Saturday does feel like starting to get the old mid-table Tottenham back.

As some of you have written mentality is everything and nothing Tottenham have had in the years I've supported them with only flashes of amazement like our CL campaign. The blind panic in big matches in the Prem shows how pathetic we are e.g. this year Maunre and le Scum the crappy stats against the big 6. It's always in our DNA that if we do take the lead always say how long is there left. Then if we do miraculously win against them you know there is a WBA or Leicester or so called mid-table teams waiting to plant egg on our faces. Watford are a worry but surely a turning point!?! False dawns anyone just add it to our record. Buying players for an extortionate amount and getting f all back better put that on the slate as well got to love it though, don't you?

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It's fine to dominate the ball but it's what you do with it that is key and this is our problem we struggle to convert dominance into goals, in all honesty at times it's like AVB is back again passing it about for passings sake a bit tedious to watch with little end product.

southlondonyiddo said:

From reading most of these comments it looks like we’ve gone back 20 years!!

Seriously these match threads and comments during the games are embarrassing

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Well if you watched the game it's obvious we are hardly moving forward this season we just look to have stagnated CL games apart it's nothing to shout about.

For all the posts about how bad we supposedly were, we created enough really good chances to have won that game.

We didn't take them. That's why we lost. Not because of the line-up, not because Eriksen, Dier or Dele, the current scapegoats of choice did or didn't do this that or the other, not because we're suddenly a bad side and not because of any the 101 pet theories being floated about as SC's sport of choice, the blame game goes into overdrive.

We just didn't take our chances. That's it.

You know it's getting ridiculous when the kid on loan at Villa is being touted as our saviour

Still depressed...

But gonna take it as Leicester won the match... Their game plan worked. Give us the ball in midfield, get tight to Alli, Eriksen and Kane when they have the ball. Let us put crosses in, Leicester's defenders can deal with balls in the air.

Gutted.... But need to move on... Bigger teams ahead.

Chimbo! said:

In the past two seasons there was an indestructible air to the team. They just didn’t got two down. And when they went a goal down, they roared back. There isn’t the same feel this season.

The sloppy defeat to Chelsea; the lapses in concentration against United and Burnley; the inability to handle Arsenal’s press; and going two down to Leicester in 45 minutes.

Now every game looks tricky. Watford away? Don’t fancy that.

We can analyse the reasons why to death but I think it was Ferguson who said teams go in three year cycles. We’re kind of at that point. It doesn’t require wholesale changes but perhaps some of the key players we relied on need refreshing.

It also hasn’t helped losing Wanyama and Alderweireld - whose negotiation position for a lucrative contract must have improved - to long term injury.

But for all the criticisms of our attack - which are overblown - it’s central midfield that’s a problem. We don’t move the ball in the midfield fast enough, making it hard for our attackers to carve out opportunities. We’re also not as imposing. Now whether that’s a personnel or confidence issue is for Poch to work out.

But either way this season is quickly falling away from high hopes to hopeless. The bigger budgets are starting to make the difference.

Click to expand...

I think is tricky when you talk about “refreshing” some players. Why do I say this, well you only have to look at Walker. There were lot of people on here saying he is not at his best, he makes to many mistakes he doesn’t do this he doesn’t do that. So we let him go and refreshed that side of the team. Well I would be one who didn’t want him to go, I think he is class and proving this at City. The player we bought in has made us worse not better. So be very careful what you wish for in terms of Alli and Eriksen and I am now hearing Dier’s name mentioned a lot! These are 3 key players who would be brilliant in teams with bigger squads where they could play in their best position ( Dier at CM) or be rotated when needed. Because our squad lacks depth we have to play these players out of position or unfit and sometimes with other players who are not quite to the standard we would expect. So in short for me it is our squad depth that is and always has been the problem. Fine when the players are fresh and we have no injuries but after a while the lack of depth starts to take its toll and Poch has to play Dier in defense and start games with sososo and bring Llorente of the Bench to win us games!
Lamela back is a huge boost but if we are to get top four this season we need at least two more in and I don’t see us getting the class of player we need in the January window.
As I said on the vote I think we are now a top 6 team compared to the rest of the league.
Let’s face it everyone has stepped up their game from last year and we also have the likes of Burnley and Watford, and others to contend with for a top 6 spot.

I'm as disappointed as anyone following yet another sub standard performance where we have been making a recent habit of going behind by conceding early goals. I do however want to try to draw some positives from from this blip, Lamela's run out proved to be a good tonic, true we can't place too much responsibility on his shoulders to fire us back into a decent run of form on his own after such a long absence, but he will be like a new signing that could begin to provide us with fresh attacking options.

The other positive is this weekends game away at Watford, I'm not as fearful as many have commented on the outcome, they are not a team of bus parkers like West Brom were,they like to play open football so we have a chance if Poch can fire them up, we should have more time on the ball to pick passes out than we did against Leicester in the first half when their intensity was high and they won't press as much as Arsenal did. I'm not saying it will be easy by any means, and they will pose a goal threat going forward, but if we can break this mini run of going behind by getting our noses in front after 20 minutes I fancy us to get more opportunities, especially on the counter. Their game against Man Utd shows how sloppy and open they can be especially in defence. Son clearly needs to start this one and if we can get quick ball to Kane and attack them at corners and because we know that Gomes hasn't changed his habits from when he was with us in that he hardly ever attempts to catches crosses we have a chance to turn this around. They have shades of Dortmund about them and I'm not just talking about the colour of their shirts. In that they can look attractive and vulnerable at the same time. It's up to us to show we can bounce back.

So there you have it, if some think I'm being overly optimistic fair call based on recent performances, but that said I still remain quietly confident. There are a few players that need that kick up the arse to give Kane the decent service he thrives on to get us back on track, you know who you are and you know what you've got to do, so it's time to pull your fingers out COYS !!! The fans were great away at Leicester last night so take a bloody leaf out of their book......

SpursDave88 said:

We will be lucky to finish in the top 6 at this rate.

We are now very poor defensively, we concede in most matches.

We are also very poor as an attacking side, we rarely score more than one goal.

These things together mean we will win very few matches.

A hallmark of Spurs teams over the past two years is that we played with an incredible intensity and tempo, the Bournemouth, Utd, Palace, Arsenal, West Brom and Leicester games have all been very similar in the sense that we play with almost 0 intensity and let the opposition set the pace of the game, we don't press and are very easy to get behind and score against if the opposition tries to.

Part of the reason is that I think most or indeed all of our main players have had their heads turned. We let Kyle Walker go to City, he will walk the PL earning triple the money, our other players see this and (rightly) want that too.

Danny Rose was 100% right with everything we said at in the summer and the failure to heed his warning is coming home to roost. Walker, Rose, Dier and Alli are all friends, they will know what he is getting paid and they also know they won't get that at Spurs and because of that their heads have gone and their form has nose-dived. Eriksen too now looks disinterested.

I think Poch has lost control of this group of players, we will struggle in the league for the rest of the season and all of those listed, along with Eriksen and Toby will move on in the summer.

If we are lucky we will keep Poch, Kane, Jan and Hugo and have to rebuild again in the summer.

Being honest I am not sure I can really be bothered to watch another cycle that is set up to fail as we never invest when we are on the crest of a wave.

I really, really hope I'm wrong.

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N9t so sure about all if that but I do agree that we never seem to invest when things are going great. That investment could be the final piece to take us over the line and we always resist with the following season only highlighting the necessity of investing.

We were pretty much all screaming out for another attacking option to give us extra dynamism.

Chimbo! said:

In the past two seasons there was an indestructible air to the team. They just didn’t got two down. And when they went a goal down, they roared back. There isn’t the same feel this season.

The sloppy defeat to Chelsea; the lapses in concentration against United and Burnley; the inability to handle Arsenal’s press; and going two down to Leicester in 45 minutes.

Now every game looks tricky. Watford away? Don’t fancy that.

We can analyse the reasons why to death but I think it was Ferguson who said teams go in three year cycles. We’re kind of at that point. It doesn’t require wholesale changes but perhaps some of the key players we relied on need refreshing.

It also hasn’t helped losing Wanyama and Alderweireld - whose negotiation position for a lucrative contract must have improved - to long term injury.

But for all the criticisms of our attack - which are overblown - it’s central midfield that’s a problem. We don’t move the ball in the midfield fast enough, making it hard for our attackers to carve out opportunities. We’re also not as imposing. Now whether that’s a personnel or confidence issue is for Poch to work out.

But either way this season is quickly falling away from high hopes to hopeless. The bigger budgets are starting to make the difference.

Click to expand...

I also think teams play us better this season in the sense they are sitting back and hitting us on the counter. Nullify the wing back route to our attack, takes away our width and this where we exploited teams last season. Added to this Trippier & Davies are less threatening moving forward than Walker & Rose, so we struggling getting in behind.

Sweetsman said:

I think you're wrong on some things, especially the stuff about players having heads turned. The reason we don't press is that at Wembley that can exhaust you. Poch is having to adapt his tactics, the ones that have served the team so well. We are having a dip at the moment, and maybe that second half will serve us. The problem has been the poor first halves.

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Isnt new stadium pitch going to be same size?

DCSPUR said:

anyone seen a highlights clip? am curious to see how bad the misses were and to see Lamela's assist

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If I was you I wouldn't see it. Llorente and Eriksens misses were just shocking

Archibald&Crooks said:

For all the posts about how bad we supposedly were, we created enough really good chances to have won that game.

We didn't take them. That's why we lost. Not because of the line-up, not because Eriksen, Dier or Dele, the current scapegoats of choice did or didn't do this that or the other, not because we're suddenly a bad side and not because of any the 101 pet theories being floated about as SC's sport of choice, the blame game goes into overdrive.

We just didn't take our chances. That's it.

You know it's getting ridiculous when the kid on loan at Villa is being touted as our saviour

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Great post!.

Exactly the way I saw it. They scored 2 really well taken goals, we on the other hand were not clinical enough when we had goal scoring opportunities.

bubble07 said:

Isnt new stadium pitch going to be same size?

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Yes, which is worrying.

Armstrong_11 said:

Still depressed...

But gonna take it as Leicester won the match... Their game plan worked. Give us the ball in midfield, get tight to Alli, Eriksen and Kane when they have the ball. Let us put crosses in, Leicester's defenders can deal with balls in the air.

Gutted.... But need to move on... Bigger teams ahead.

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I'm still depressed too, more so than i have been after any other game. I think because now the realisation that we will be in a real scrap for 4th this season has hit home. I'm not so worried about Liverpool as I'm sure they will continue to drop stupid points too with their shit defence but Arsenal could potentially get stronger.
I have no shame in saying the other team deserved it, we've had a few games at Wembley this season in which we've been very fortunate but I still think Leicester got a bit lucky yesterday. Had only two real decent efforts at goal and they happened to both go in (albeit very good goals) but with the chances we missed in Sissoko, Alli and especially Eriksen and Llorente a draw at the very least should have been secured.

I just feel we need freshness in general and fresh creative minds in that team badly right now, Lamela coming on and looking like the biggest breath of fresh air to this stale looking team proved that.

Sweetsman said:

Yes, which is worrying.

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I think improved atmosphere will help at least a bit though. I would only know from how it sounds though the TV but Wembley sounds dead for the large parts of most our games unless it's the real top clubs that come there.