Ratings vs Monaco

npearl4spurs said:

Pussy phrase. I absolutely hate it.

I always imagine Poch taking the team out for an ice cream cone after the match when he says this shit.

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Did you not think we did enough to deserve something out of the game?

My opinion is we were pretty crap but could have easily still won the game with a bit more luck/composure.

buttons said:

Did you not think we did enough to deserve something out of the game?

My opinion is we were pretty crap but could have easily still won the game with a bit more luck/composure.

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I know the post wasn't aimed at me but in all honesty does it matter whether we deserved to get something out of the game or not...

We still lost

DIEHARD said:

I know the post wasn't aimed at me but in all honesty does it matter whether we deserved to get something out of the game or not...

We still lost

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Not really, the bottom line is we lost. Just my opinion in the face of a lot of very downbeat posts last night!

We were exposed to a lack of pace from front two and inability of 3 X ATM's to get ahead of the ball. Far too static for long periods of the game. If teams block the attacking width of our two fullbacks, we become pedestrian and predictable and easy to defend against. This was a problem last year and has continued this year. Whilst Janssen may prove to be shrewd signing, I worry that we don't have anyone with that electric pace in the final third. if you look at City ( Aguero), Arsenal ( Wellbeck, Sanchez, Walcott), Utd ( Martial, Rashford) and Chelsea ( Batshuayi) all have strikers with pace to burn.. We don't

Wheeler Dealer said:

We were exposed to a lack of pace from front two and inability of 3 X ATM's to get ahead of the ball. Far too static for long periods of the game. If teams block the attacking width of our two fullbacks, we become pedestrian and predictable and easy to defend against. This was a problem last year and has continued this year. Whilst Janssen may prove to be shrewd signing, I worry that we don't have anyone with that electric pace in the final third. if you look at City ( Aguero), Arsenal ( Wellbeck, Sanchez, Walcott), Utd ( Martial, Rashford) and Chelsea ( Batshuayi) all have strikers with pace to burn.. We don't

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Presumably that's why we bought Nkoudou and Sissoko. Wide players rather than strikers but if one or both is in the line up then it gives us extra pace and width.

My twopeneth says this. We didn't play that badly today but were very naive. I don't often say it but we missed Rose today. This was mainly because without him we really lacked width. Both Lamela and Son are not natural wide players and getting to the touchline is not their main game. This would be ok but Davies looks very uncomfortable when required to move forward. To me Walker is a very frustrating player. He has speed to burn but too often comes to a complete stop. Walker standing still on the ball usually represents a loss of forward momentum. We were wasteful today against a compact side who were effective on the counter attack. Kane is off form but then so are Dier,Lamela, and Eriksen. Today only Alli provided any spark and while many of his runs were ultimately fruitless he was our main hope of pulling it back.Going forward I would say we need to be a bit more direct and take more shots around the box for today too often we almost resembled them from N4 overplaying

One of the issues that we have is that Dele is at his most effective centrally in the attacking third . The worst thing Poch did yesterday was to bring on Janssen and pull Kane deeper. Not only does Kane contribute very little there but it also affected Dele's game who had a good period of 20 minutes or so after Dembele came on . Either switch to 4-4-2 when Janssen comes on or take off Kane.

I think Lamela does his best work at RM. When he appeared on the right he played some effective passes in the final 3rd including of course the corner for the goal and the ball from which Dele almost equalized on the stroke of half time.
Eriksen too can influence the game most at CM and last season the fluidity of our 3 attacking midfielders was a big part of our success. I have seen less of that so far this season. I would definitely play Sissoko in one of those 3 positions at the weekend, probably in place of Eriksen who is really not playing well.

We missed Rose hugely yesterday from an offensive aspect and Vertonghen is another one that maybe needs to be rested.
I really do believe that Son should only play in away matches where he doesn't have to deal with packed defences. Or come on when we get in front. He is great as part of a counter attacking unit.

Lloris 6
Walker 7
Toby 7
Verts 4
Davies 4
Dier 4
Alli 6
Eriksen 4
Lamela 5
Son 5
Dembele 7
Janssen 6
Sissoko NET

In a thread where Alli is getting MOM shouts, I do wonder what game I'm watching.

His positional indiscipline, his lack of press, his pissing away every half decent opportunity, his showboating, his habit of running straight into people. Apart from that, he was fantastic..

We've got a squad now, I hope Poch starts to utilise it and not just keep picking his favourite XI. New players need blooding and not just 15 mins here or there.

Be disappointed if we don't get some bench time for Kane, Alli, Dier and Vertonghen soon.

I'm not going to rate anyone really badly. We just played a better, more experienced side who knew how to stop us from playing. Monaco pressed well, defended with great organisation and took their chances. We created enough chances to draw or win, but we didn't take them calmly, Alderweireld's header aside.

For the first 10 minutes and for much of the second half, we played the better football, but Monaco know how to defend a lead

Lloris 5.5 Not much to do about the goals, but multiple instances of wasteful distribution when we were trying to get a point.

Walker 6.5 Excellent in the first half, largely pinned back after half time.

Alderweireld 6.5 Great header. Pity about the first goal (a comment that goes for just about everyone who didn't track or tackle the man with the ball EDIT: it was mainly Vertonghen).

Vertonghen 6 Competent, but not notable.

Davies 5.5 Played some good stuff for much of the match, but made the initial error for the second Monaco goal.

Dier 5.5 A bit out of his depth, perhaps a bit naive.

Alli 7 Spurs MotM. He was up for it and played well in two roles. Made some unmarked runs that teammates did not notice.

Eriksen 5 As in the early games of this season, set up potentially threatening positions and then botched the final ball.

Son 5.5 After an early chance, marked out of the game. I suspect that his half time replacement with Dembélé was pre-planned.

Lamela 5 Not one of his better nights. Lost the ball for the first goal and, except for some very good corner kicks, didn't really make anything happen until right at the end. Worse, his chasing down and tackling looked ineffective against Monaco's movement of the ball.

Kane 5.5 Very much involved throughout, but hesitated over all of his best chances.


Dembélé 6 Created an immediate improvement, but lost the ball an unusual number of times and never embarked on any driving dribbles.

Janssen 6 Worked hard, held the ball up well, but always heavily marked.

Sissoko 6.5 One good driving run, doing what Dembélé never did. He needs to be on earlier.

Wheeler Dealer said:

We were exposed to a lack of pace from front two and inability of 3 X ATM's to get ahead of the ball. Far too static for long periods of the game. If teams block the attacking width of our two fullbacks, we become pedestrian and predictable and easy to defend against. This was a problem last year and has continued this year. Whilst Janssen may prove to be shrewd signing, I worry that we don't have anyone with that electric pace in the final third. if you look at City ( Aguero), Arsenal ( Wellbeck, Sanchez, Walcott), Utd ( Martial, Rashford) and Chelsea ( Batshuayi) all have strikers with pace to burn.. We don't

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I actually think we had space for our fullbacks to get into at times but we were too slow to release the ball for good portions of the evening.

Having reflected thought it was time to add my tuppenceworth.

We made some silly mistakes and got punished. In the other hand we have many good chances and failed to take them. Overall we were the much better team but really need to improve our finishing. Had we had, say, Aguero, we would have won by several goals. Kane is good but the very, very best teams have world class strikers which we do not. Had we taken one of the clear chances created before we gifted them a goal the whole game would have had a different take.

My MOM is Toby and I remain hopeful that Kane will hit some form, that Janssen will settle in and that we will move on from this disappointing game

The Apprentice said:

In a thread where Alli is getting MOM shouts, I do wonder what game I'm watching.

His positional indiscipline, his lack of press, his pissing away every half decent opportunity, his showboating, his habit of running straight into people. Apart from that, he was fantastic..

We've got a squad now, I hope Poch starts to utilise it and not just keep picking his favourite XI. New players need blooding and not just 15 mins here or there.

Be disappointed if we don't get some bench time for Kane, Alli, Dier and Vertonghen soon.

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Who was your MOM then?

It wasn't Ali's best game, but at least he didn't seem like he pissed his pants like most of them out there. Yeah, he runs into people ( although plenty of times he actually managed to beat players and open up space but we'll forget them I suppose), because he tries to spark something. Christ knows no one else was, unless you count some magnificent slow and ponderous sideways passing.

As for pressing, no one did it apart from Lamela.

Agree what you say about the squad though and Poch just picking his favourites. He has to be brave with his team selection on Sunday.

We weren't hectic on the night but I think we deserved a point. Thought Harry started brightly but became anxious after our pair of clownshoes moments at the wrong end. Probably should have pulled the trigger first time on a couple of occasions instead of coming inside. I think his confidence is low; a tap-in at Stoke is not necessarily a turning point.

Vertonghen for me has to be taken out, the man cannot defend.

Eriksen is, for lack of a better term, powder puff. Watch Silva for them last night, that's what Eriksen should be like for us but he hasn't got the guts/character/personality call it what you may, I also personally believe he hasn't the quality.

Lamela should be played at 10 with Janssen up top next game

Thought our worst player was Dier. He's made a worryingly poor start to the season. So far he's reminding me of Mikel at his worse. Is it a matter of fatigue? What's happened to his up and at them style of play, he's looking so lethargic. 100% should start Wanyama ahead of him right now.

There were a number of times when, while the FB's pushed on, Dier dropped in as a 3rd CB, and that's when he looked most effective/comfortable.
Maybe a 3-5-2 is something Poch needs to look at if he wants to persist with Dier in his current form.

dagraham said:

Who was your MOM then?

It wasn't Ali's best game, but at least he didn't seem like he pissed his pants like most of them out there. Yeah, he runs into people ( although plenty of times he actually managed to beat players and open up space but we'll forget them I suppose), because he tries to spark something. Christ knows no one else was, unless you count some magnificent slow and ponderous sideways passing.

As for pressing, no one did it apart from Lamela.

Agree what you say about the squad though and Poch just picking his favourites. He has to be brave with his team selection on Sunday.

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Alderweireld was MOTM. Wasn't responsible for either goal, scored at the other end, and was otherwise his usual self in that back 4.

I find the Vertonghen is shit and Alderweireld is perfect tendency that so many posters allude to after this match really strange.
Alderweirelds goals was executed perfectly, and Vertonghen could have handled the first Monaco goal better. However, he wasn't solely at fault for the first goal, at least 3 other players must split the blame. It was an objective defensive error from Vertonghen.
Those two moments aside, both CB performed more or less to the same degree, both nailing some decisions. I see a few posters saying that Vertonghen can't defend, which is the purest shit from the bull that I've ever seen. But both can do far better than yesterday, too. I'd give them both a 6.5 for their actual defensive contribution.

Everlasting Seconds said:

I find the Vertonghen is shit and Alderweireld is perfect tendency that so many posters allude to after this match really strange.
Alderweirelds goals was executed perfectly, and Vertonghen could have handled the first Monaco goal better. However, he wasn't solely at fault for the first goal, at least 3 other players must split the blame. It was an objective defensive error from Vertonghen.
Those two moments aside, both CB performed more or less to the same degree, both nailing some decisions. I see a few posters saying that Vertonghen can't defend, which is the purest shit from the bull that I've ever seen. But both can do far better than yesterday, too. I'd give them both a 6.5 for their actual defensive contribution.

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One of my issues with Vertonghen is what he does with the ball. I started pointing this out about a year ago, and it's only got worse in this time. No longer do we have the confident player who is willing to stride out of defence with the ball and take the game forward, like was seen at Ajax and when he first came to us. Now I recognise that he might have tactical instruction to just keep it simple when playing out of the back and how/when he pushes forward (that doesn't stop Alderweireld though...), but what we see now is someone who is indecisive, unable to pick a pass a lot of the time, and will just play it ultra safe. And these 'safe' passes aren't even that sometimes... he's very prone to hitting some dribbly under hit pass, rather than a crisp weighted one, that puts his man (usually the left back) in trouble.

For someone who came in to such fanfare about his ball playing skills, and started with such promise, he's almost becoming a weak link when we have possession.

St José Dominguez said:

Thought our worst player was Dier. He's made a worryingly poor start to the season. So far he's reminding me of Mikel at his worse. Is it a matter of fatigue? What's happened to his up and at them style of play, he's looking so lethargic. 100% should start Wanyama ahead of him right now.

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Absolutely astounding he is undroppable for Spurs and England, must be a ripping bloke.