Match Ratings Ratings vs Man City

davidmatzdorf said:

So much bollocks posted here. We were OK. No one played dreadfully. For over an hour, we made a game of it, without playing negative football.

Trippier made a few unforced errors and was tortured systematically by Sané's pace. Other than that, it was all the relentless Man City press making us cough up the ball and making everyone look as if they were thinking and passing too slowly. Which they were.

They're just way better than everyone else. Including us. Blaming individual players for a loss such as this is just infantile. They are a better team, with superior, more expensive players, better organised by a more experienced manager.

We are where we are: a very good team. Man City are on their way to break records by the handful.

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Bus-Conductor said:

That was pretty much my worst fears realised. People are slaughtering players left, right and centre but the biggest culprit for that debacle was Pochettino. I love the burgundy headed one but, not for the first time this season, he's made a fucking complete tactical dogs dinner of that game.

There were two ways to play that game IMO, but neither of them should have involved pitting a glue factory bound Dembele and rooky Winks as a CM2 against one of the best CM3's in football right now, that alone was a hanging offence which set the tone for the game. The midfield is the engine room and it was like a Fiesta ST and Golf Gti Mk2 lining up on the grid next to Mitsubishi Evo, Audi RS4 and BMW M3.

The two tactical approaches were - my choice - be pragmatic, set up to be absorbent and to counter like we did against Real Madrid and Liverpool. Or go hard, try to play them at their own game and press the life out of them, stop them being able to build rhythm and try to force errors high up and get at their defenders, who can be suspect under pressure, but Poch just hasn't got us doing this well all season, even against shit teams at home, so why he would consider this for a nano second as an option against this City, away, is baffling.

I just do not understand how Poch could have watched City and thought he'd get away with the shite he pulled today. Against both RM and Liverpool he went with the deeper, 3CB/3CM systems, making us hard to pass round and through. And it was perfect. Why he's gone with this flimsy bullshit, first away at Arsenal and even more stupidly today is utterly baffling. Poch even played a 433 against Brighton, why the fucking hell does he think it prudent to switch to a CM2 against ManC away ? It's fucking bananas.

First half we kind of played a narrow 4222, and it left both CM's stretched and both full backs completely exposed. It mutated into a bog standard 4231 second half, but this was little better. Why Poch didn't rectify the midfield imbalance quicker is beyond comprehension, he should have dropped Eriksen or Alli back to make a CM3 and had Son and Alli/Eriksen protecting their FB's.

And to exacerbate (@Spurrific ) the poor tactical approach by making so many other tactical errors in terms of structure and personnel selections was just really piss poor. Trippier in forward areas is better than both Aurier and Walker, and as a RWB in the 3CB system, or at a push against most ordinary teams in a back four system I see his merits for sure, but away at City in a back 4 (and not our best back 4 either) was a big and, more importantly, unnecessary risk . We have the ability to rotate all our FB's, but Poch is making completely counterintuitive decisions, and has got the rotation all wrong for a couple of weeks. He even had the option of playing KWP in the dead rubber CL, which could have kept Aurier and Trippier fresher for the hectic Christmas fixtures. Trippier should have played against Brighton (where the game would e played in their half) and Aurier should have played today, where his pace and physicality would have been more useful because it was always more likely, especially in this set up, that our RB was going to be doing more defending than forward marauding.

We went wrong shape, wrong personnel, and completely wrong application. The trifector of tactical ineptitude.

The approach was very wrong because Poch just cannot get us to press any more. I have been saying this for a long time but I believe a major factor in that is Alli. Alli is just not conducive to a team that tries to hunt the ball back quickly and cohesively. He constantly flips it away cheaply, but rarely busts a gut to get it back when he does, leaving others, now short handed to recover. Son doesn't help much either. I watched today as Kane would move in on the keeper or CB, Eriksen would then push up on his man, but instead of Alli and Son squeezing up on their men too, they would instead stand off 5 yards and wait until the ball is passed to their man, which is the worst possible way to press, you take two of your own players out completely, they get big spaces to pass through and the already overstretched and outnumbered CM2 are being pulled all over the place, up, down, left and right to try and make up ground lost, and against one of the best tick tick passing teams in Europe that was just suicidal.

People will point fingers at midfielders and defenders, but they were to a large extent hostages to the misfortune of Poch’s tactical gruel, but the attacking group were by far the guiltiest offenders, the bunch of them were so fucking inept today it was painful. There were several times at 0-1 second half when were trying to get a foothold in the game, had good situations, but they just wanked them away with some reckless fuckery. The killer second goal come from Kane failing to control the ball and not chasing it back.

Of course, Poch is not helped by the absence of players like Wanyama and TA, but you would think in those circumstances it would force you to think more conservatively not more kimakazi . And I also have very little sympathy with his injury plight when he's wasted so many chances to rotate and integrate players from our academy and other squad players who could offer at least some temporary respite to some of these deficiencies. I was saying Alli needed benching weeks ago, he's 21, is playing erratically, and for the sake of him learning and not burning out, a rest might have had him back and firing by now, but no, he's was even played against Appoel - instead of maybe giving another squad or academy player a chance to progress a smidgeon.

Singling out Winks today is ridiculous. Dembele was no better. Gave the ball away more than Winks. This midfield problem we have now this season has been n the making for a coupe of years. Even in the "Leicester" season some of were flagging it up as a problem. We find ourselves in a situation where we have no fit 6's and only one fit half decent 8, and he's only made about 10 league starts because he wasn't deemed fit to start between December and April last season. I don't think Winks is wonder bread, I've tempered all praise of Winks with caveats about his game, but at the moment he's the only CM we have who shows for the ball constantly and moves it with any vim, and he's probably been one of the few success stories of this season, player wise, playing vital parts in our best performances, but today it was impossible

We desperately need to put aside the notion of prioritising any more erratic attacking twats, and go and buy a proper midfielder or two.

Poch needs to have a long hard look at himself. We didn't just get beat today because ManC have better players, we got mullered today because they have a manager who has the courage of his convictions and ours has lost his a little bit. And it's not the first time this has happened, we got out worked by Memit fucking Ozil at the Emirates.

Poch needs to get us back to basics, back to his supposed philosophy, he needs to get players doing the shitty stuff, working for the team and not just themselves, and if any of this lot can't or won't then he needs to walk his talk, fuck them out for a rest, pick players based on their ability to do what we need as a team, not what they need to get them a highlight spot by Alan fucking Shearer on MOTD.

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bigpalacios said:

Why the fuck did Poch play Trippier v Sane? Thats what is really baffling.

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Bus-Conductor said:

That was pretty much my worst fears realised. People are slaughtering players left, right and centre but the biggest culprit for that debacle was Pochettino. I love the burgundy headed one but, not for the first time this season, he's made a fucking complete tactical dogs dinner of that game.

There were two ways to play that game IMO, but neither of them should have involved pitting a glue factory bound Dembele and rooky Winks as a CM2 against one of the best CM3's in football right now, that alone was a hanging offence which set the tone for the game. The midfield is the engine room and it was like a Fiesta ST and Golf Gti Mk2 lining up on the grid next to Mitsubishi Evo, Audi RS4 and BMW M3.

The two tactical approaches were - my choice - be pragmatic, set up to be absorbent and to counter like we did against Real Madrid and Liverpool. Or go hard, try to play them at their own game and press the life out of them, stop them being able to build rhythm and try to force errors high up and get at their defenders, who can be suspect under pressure, but Poch just hasn't got us doing this well all season, even against shit teams at home, so why he would consider this for a nano second as an option against this City, away, is baffling.

I just do not understand how Poch could have watched City and thought he'd get away with the shite he pulled today. Against both RM and Liverpool he went with the deeper, 3CB/3CM systems, making us hard to pass round and through. And it was perfect. Why he's gone with this flimsy bullshit, first away at Arsenal and even more stupidly today is utterly baffling. Poch even played a 433 against Brighton, why the fucking hell does he think it prudent to switch to a CM2 against ManC away ? It's fucking bananas.

First half we kind of played a narrow 4222, and it left both CM's stretched and both full backs completely exposed. It mutated into a bog standard 4231 second half, but this was little better. Why Poch didn't rectify the midfield imbalance quicker is beyond comprehension, he should have dropped Eriksen or Alli back to make a CM3 and had Son and Alli/Eriksen protecting their FB's.

And to exacerbate (@Spurrific ) the poor tactical approach by making so many other tactical errors in terms of structure and personnel selections was just really piss poor. Trippier in forward areas is better than both Aurier and Walker, and as a RWB in the 3CB system, or at a push against most ordinary teams in a back four system I see his merits for sure, but away at City in a back 4 (and not our best back 4 either) was a big and, more importantly, unnecessary risk . We have the ability to rotate all our FB's, but Poch is making completely counterintuitive decisions, and has got the rotation all wrong for a couple of weeks. He even had the option of playing KWP in the dead rubber CL, which could have kept Aurier and Trippier fresher for the hectic Christmas fixtures. Trippier should have played against Brighton (where the game would e played in their half) and Aurier should have played today, where his pace and physicality would have been more useful because it was always more likely, especially in this set up, that our RB was going to be doing more defending than forward marauding.

We went wrong shape, wrong personnel, and completely wrong application. The trifector of tactical ineptitude.

The approach was very wrong because Poch just cannot get us to press any more. I have been saying this for a long time but I believe a major factor in that is Alli. Alli is just not conducive to a team that tries to hunt the ball back quickly and cohesively. He constantly flips it away cheaply, but rarely busts a gut to get it back when he does, leaving others, now short handed to recover. Son doesn't help much either. I watched today as Kane would move in on the keeper or CB, Eriksen would then push up on his man, but instead of Alli and Son squeezing up on their men too, they would instead stand off 5 yards and wait until the ball is passed to their man, which is the worst possible way to press, you take two of your own players out completely, they get big spaces to pass through and the already overstretched and outnumbered CM2 are being pulled all over the place, up, down, left and right to try and make up ground lost, and against one of the best tick tick passing teams in Europe that was just suicidal.

People will point fingers at midfielders and defenders, but they were to a large extent hostages to the misfortune of Poch’s tactical gruel, but the attacking group were by far the guiltiest offenders, the bunch of them were so fucking inept today it was painful. There were several times at 0-1 second half when were trying to get a foothold in the game, had good situations, but they just wanked them away with some reckless fuckery. The killer second goal come from Kane failing to control the ball and not chasing it back.

Of course, Poch is not helped by the absence of players like Wanyama and TA, but you would think in those circumstances it would force you to think more conservatively not more kimakazi . And I also have very little sympathy with his injury plight when he's wasted so many chances to rotate and integrate players from our academy and other squad players who could offer at least some temporary respite to some of these deficiencies. I was saying Alli needed benching weeks ago, he's 21, is playing erratically, and for the sake of him learning and not burning out, a rest might have had him back and firing by now, but no, he's was even played against Appoel - instead of maybe giving another squad or academy player a chance to progress a smidgeon.

Singling out Winks today is ridiculous. Dembele was no better. Gave the ball away more than Winks. This midfield problem we have now this season has been n the making for a coupe of years. Even in the "Leicester" season some of were flagging it up as a problem. We find ourselves in a situation where we have no fit 6's and only one fit half decent 8, and he's only made about 10 league starts because he wasn't deemed fit to start between December and April last season. I don't think Winks is wonder bread, I've tempered all praise of Winks with caveats about his game, but at the moment he's the only CM we have who shows for the ball constantly and moves it with any vim, and he's probably been one of the few success stories of this season, player wise, playing vital parts in our best performances, but today it was impossible

We desperately need to put aside the notion of prioritising any more erratic attacking twats, and go and buy a proper midfielder or two.

Poch needs to have a long hard look at himself. We didn't just get beat today because ManC have better players, we got mullered today because they have a manager who has the courage of his convictions and ours has lost his a little bit. And it's not the first time this has happened, we got out worked by Memit fucking Ozil at the Emirates.

Poch needs to get us back to basics, back to his supposed philosophy, he needs to get players doing the shitty stuff, working for the team and not just themselves, and if any of this lot can't or won't then he needs to walk his talk, fuck them out for a rest, pick players based on their ability to do what we need as a team, not what they need to get them a highlight spot by Alan fucking Shearer on MOTD.

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DCSPUR said:

mate, you are one of the 4-5 posters i look at consistently....am shocked at how reactionary you are today.
Citeh are fantastic, we are weakened by injuries and form at the moment and don't have the depth for reasons you know better than most. To agree with the poster who said Dier, Dele others are playing for their high light reel is beneath you. Dier has had some very good performances this season AND did not chuck his toys in the summer when Maureen was tapping him up. Dele is just in crap form but he is young and it was going to happen....

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Trix said:

Tbf the only one I actually said that about was Rose, and I firmly believe that. What I agreed with was as the fact Rose may well not be on his own in this respect.

Dele though is on the hype train and has been for some time. He really needs to get back to basics and quickly. Yes he's young and yes his form will be patchy. But as I have said numerous times... My biggest criticism from today was the zero effort to get back and defend once they had lost ball high up the pitch, and that happened numerous times with both Rose and Dele. Lack of form I can forgive, but a lack of effort I can not, and they were both guilty of that today.

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THOWIG said:

Alli has a new agent is that correct?

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Trix said:

Last I heard he had spoken to at least 2 but not signed with any. With any sense he will sign with Stellar, but I'm sure some of the alternatives are pretty persuasive.

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EastLondonYid said:

So glad there is no overreaction on here...as if our fans are fickle.

Most of the comments are embarrasing...if the new stadium is full of fans like this it will be a joy.

The same players that are being canned are the same players that thrashed RM ,Liverpool and Dortmund just weeks ago.and everyone thought we were world beaters.

Keep it real when we win and when we lose.

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Everlasting Seconds said:

Frankly, I don't care much for your high-horse moralism. We've been seeing some shit performances this fall, and it doesn't help much now that they had one good game 8 weeks ago. They are shit now and most importantly shit by effort and desire. No Tottenham squad ever gets off lightly if the issue is about effort.

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EastLondonYid said:

one good game 8 weeks ago?

We Topped our CL group with the most points in europe, and were 4th before yesterday....we did ALL that with ''one good game 8 weeks ago.''... wow is that all it takes.

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Everlasting Seconds said:

Frankly, I don't care much for your high-horse moralism. We've been seeing some shit performances this fall, and it doesn't help much now that they had one good game 8 weeks ago. They are shit now and most importantly shit by effort and desire. No Tottenham squad ever gets off lightly if the issue is about effort.

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EastLondonYid said:

Everlasting seconds sums up your loyalty.....i prefer an empty stadium than one filled with fickle fans.

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Everlasting Seconds said:

And I prefer a stadium full of realistic fans who knows how to separate a good from a bad performance, over people who convulsively force their moral and ignorant optimism on others.

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Bus-Conductor said:

That was pretty much my worst fears realised. People are slaughtering players left, right and centre but the biggest culprit for that debacle was Pochettino. I love the burgundy headed one but, not for the first time this season, he's made a fucking complete tactical dogs dinner of that game.

There were two ways to play that game IMO, but neither of them should have involved pitting a glue factory bound Dembele and rooky Winks as a CM2 against one of the best CM3's in football right now, that alone was a hanging offence which set the tone for the game. The midfield is the engine room and it was like a Fiesta ST and Golf Gti Mk2 lining up on the grid next to Mitsubishi Evo, Audi RS4 and BMW M3.

The two tactical approaches were - my choice - be pragmatic, set up to be absorbent and to counter like we did against Real Madrid and Liverpool. Or go hard, try to play them at their own game and press the life out of them, stop them being able to build rhythm and try to force errors high up and get at their defenders, who can be suspect under pressure, but Poch just hasn't got us doing this well all season, even against shit teams at home, so why he would consider this for a nano second as an option against this City, away, is baffling.

I just do not understand how Poch could have watched City and thought he'd get away with the shite he pulled today. Against both RM and Liverpool he went with the deeper, 3CB/3CM systems, making us hard to pass round and through. And it was perfect. Why he's gone with this flimsy bullshit, first away at Arsenal and even more stupidly today is utterly baffling. Poch even played a 433 against Brighton, why the fucking hell does he think it prudent to switch to a CM2 against ManC away ? It's fucking bananas.

First half we kind of played a narrow 4222, and it left both CM's stretched and both full backs completely exposed. It mutated into a bog standard 4231 second half, but this was little better. Why Poch didn't rectify the midfield imbalance quicker is beyond comprehension, he should have dropped Eriksen or Alli back to make a CM3 and had Son and Alli/Eriksen protecting their FB's.

And to exacerbate (@Spurrific ) the poor tactical approach by making so many other tactical errors in terms of structure and personnel selections was just really piss poor. Trippier in forward areas is better than both Aurier and Walker, and as a RWB in the 3CB system, or at a push against most ordinary teams in a back four system I see his merits for sure, but away at City in a back 4 (and not our best back 4 either) was a big and, more importantly, unnecessary risk . We have the ability to rotate all our FB's, but Poch is making completely counterintuitive decisions, and has got the rotation all wrong for a couple of weeks. He even had the option of playing KWP in the dead rubber CL, which could have kept Aurier and Trippier fresher for the hectic Christmas fixtures. Trippier should have played against Brighton (where the game would e played in their half) and Aurier should have played today, where his pace and physicality would have been more useful because it was always more likely, especially in this set up, that our RB was going to be doing more defending than forward marauding.

We went wrong shape, wrong personnel, and completely wrong application. The trifector of tactical ineptitude.

The approach was very wrong because Poch just cannot get us to press any more. I have been saying this for a long time but I believe a major factor in that is Alli. Alli is just not conducive to a team that tries to hunt the ball back quickly and cohesively. He constantly flips it away cheaply, but rarely busts a gut to get it back when he does, leaving others, now short handed to recover. Son doesn't help much either. I watched today as Kane would move in on the keeper or CB, Eriksen would then push up on his man, but instead of Alli and Son squeezing up on their men too, they would instead stand off 5 yards and wait until the ball is passed to their man, which is the worst possible way to press, you take two of your own players out completely, they get big spaces to pass through and the already overstretched and outnumbered CM2 are being pulled all over the place, up, down, left and right to try and make up ground lost, and against one of the best tick tick passing teams in Europe that was just suicidal.

People will point fingers at midfielders and defenders, but they were to a large extent hostages to the misfortune of Poch’s tactical gruel, but the attacking group were by far the guiltiest offenders, the bunch of them were so fucking inept today it was painful. There were several times at 0-1 second half when were trying to get a foothold in the game, had good situations, but they just wanked them away with some reckless fuckery. The killer second goal come from Kane failing to control the ball and not chasing it back.

Of course, Poch is not helped by the absence of players like Wanyama and TA, but you would think in those circumstances it would force you to think more conservatively not more kimakazi . And I also have very little sympathy with his injury plight when he's wasted so many chances to rotate and integrate players from our academy and other squad players who could offer at least some temporary respite to some of these deficiencies. I was saying Alli needed benching weeks ago, he's 21, is playing erratically, and for the sake of him learning and not burning out, a rest might have had him back and firing by now, but no, he's was even played against Appoel - instead of maybe giving another squad or academy player a chance to progress a smidgeon.

Singling out Winks today is ridiculous. Dembele was no better. Gave the ball away more than Winks. This midfield problem we have now this season has been n the making for a coupe of years. Even in the "Leicester" season some of were flagging it up as a problem. We find ourselves in a situation where we have no fit 6's and only one fit half decent 8, and he's only made about 10 league starts because he wasn't deemed fit to start between December and April last season. I don't think Winks is wonder bread, I've tempered all praise of Winks with caveats about his game, but at the moment he's the only CM we have who shows for the ball constantly and moves it with any vim, and he's probably been one of the few success stories of this season, player wise, playing vital parts in our best performances, but today it was impossible

We desperately need to put aside the notion of prioritising any more erratic attacking twats, and go and buy a proper midfielder or two.

Poch needs to have a long hard look at himself. We didn't just get beat today because ManC have better players, we got mullered today because they have a manager who has the courage of his convictions and ours has lost his a little bit. And it's not the first time this has happened, we got out worked by Memit fucking Ozil at the Emirates.

Poch needs to get us back to basics, back to his supposed philosophy, he needs to get players doing the shitty stuff, working for the team and not just themselves, and if any of this lot can't or won't then he needs to walk his talk, fuck them out for a rest, pick players based on their ability to do what we need as a team, not what they need to get them a highlight spot by Alan fucking Shearer on MOTD.

Click to expand...

davidmatzdorf said:

So much bollocks posted here. We were OK. No one played dreadfully. For over an hour, we made a game of it, without playing negative football.

Trippier made a few unforced errors and was tortured systematically by Sané's pace. Other than that, it was all the relentless Man City press making us cough up the ball and making everyone look as if they were thinking and passing too slowly. Which they were.

They're just way better than everyone else. Including us. Blaming individual players for a loss such as this is just infantile. They are a better team, with superior, more expensive players, better organised by a more experienced manager.

We are where we are: a very good team. Man City are on their way to break records by the handful.

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