Leeds Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[Dempsey2]

Unprofessional performance. Pressed for 30 minutes and unlucky, fair enough. But getting beat to balls all game, playing with nonchalance, lingering on the ball for too long. Expect to dominate the last ten minutes but a tired Leeds STILL got to every ball first. Abject defensive performance, not to blame single players but seeing Parker lose balls and not recovering again and again and again as the minutes ticked by was extremely frustrating. Gonna hope its only due to recovering from injury.

You saw who the tough guys, the fighters, were on the team today, and there weren't many.

 

[venablesphil]

I'm surprised at how many comments that I am reading saying 'its only the cup, concentrate on the league, etc'

One of the best days of my adult spurs supporting life was when we won the league cup against Chelsea in 2008. I was estatic at winning that and it was only the league cup. I would have loved us to win the FA Cup and I am very very disappointed we have gone out in such a limp fashion.

 

[Armstrong_11]

The team were woeful, totally no fire inside them, it was as if they just showed up and expected to win the match.

disappointed... but i guess our main focus is still the league. lets hope we wake up and bounce back from this against norwich.

COYS!

 

[UncleBuck]

I think this is becoming a bit embarrassing for the English game but your refs are a joke - bloody joke.
Michael Brown looks a bit unstable TBH..

just how long can Mickey brown look unstable for? I can think back at least ten years!

 

[jamaican_spurs]

has to be the poorist EFFORT ive seen this season, only 1 player deserves to pick up his wages this week and thats Parker

I like Parker just as much as the next man but I do believe Parker was also poor today. Definitely not the best player among a team of mediocre performances. Even BAE played better than him.
Cue neg rep from Parker apologists.

 

[zcaks15]

Poor performance but great result for us. we could now concentrate on the league. As for the Europa League, lets hope we could get out of that one soon, too. in my view i agree with harry that playing in the europa league is a joke as well as a punishment.

in today's game, we were poor defensively.there was lack of communication and misunderstanding all over the place. in my view the two centre backs should be more vocal. hence it's not wise to continue playing verts and culk together as they are too quiet. we need daws to lead the back line.

 

[kitchen]

That was simply a very poor team performance, littered with individual mistakes that cost us the game. I don't think you can blame AVB or even Levy for that one. The team that was put out should have been able to do better than they did - they just weren't up for it. A team with Bale, Lennon, Parker, Dempsey and Verts all starting should be able to beat a championship side or at the least get a replay.

No one can deny that we need more firepower up front but that isn't the reason we lost that game. We didn't exactly create a lot of chances that a top goal scorer could have got on the end of anyway. We just seemed bereft of ideas in the final third...again. The defense didn't do us any favors either, the defending for the first goal was shambolic and not a great deal better for the second. You can't defend like we did and expect to get a result.

Hopefully we will see some movement in the market in the next few days but more to the point I hope this is a wake up call for the players. We may be talented but sometimes you have to dig in and grind a performance out, you can't give away silly goals when your away from home. If we want to be back in the CL next year we need to go away to so called 'smaller' teams like Norwich, WBA, West Ham, Wigan and Stoke. If we play anything like we did today we will struggle away against these opponents and it will cost us dear. We need to show some passion and determination, things that were sorely missing from today's performance.

Mistakes were made I agree, but a top goalscorer could have made all the difference today imo.

Firstly they make the runs and move into the spaces that none of our players found today. There were several instances in the second half where Obika (not that I blame him for anything) simply stood still in between fullback and centre half when there was a load of space inside the opposite channel. By not moving at all, he also gives their defenders little to think about and nobody gets dragged around/out of position. With better movement come better chances created. Our movement up front today was pedestrian and predictable and easy to defend against.

Secondly, top goalscorers often convert the half-chances that none of our players could take today. That's why they're top goalscorers.

 

[Crash]

And AVB has stated there's no more incoming players

 

[chinaman]

If we are not making any meaningful signings in this window, we should demand Levy to come clean with us and tell us what are his plans and visions. Cannot accept that we be fooled all the time.

If needs be, those who are attending our next home game should make this demand visible and hearable by Levy.

 

[venablesphil]

Mistakes were made I agree, but a top goalscorer could have made all the difference today imo.

Firstly they make the runs and move into the spaces that none of our players found today. There were several instances in the second half where Obika (not that I blame him for anything) simply stood still in between fullback and centre half when there was a load of space inside the opposite channel. By not moving at all, he also gives their defenders little to think about and nobody gets dragged around/out of position. With better movement come better chances created. Our movement up front today was pedestrian and predictable and easy to defend against.

Secondly, top goalscorers often convert the half-chances that none of our players could take today. That's why they're top goalscorers.

Shame we are unlikely what difference a top goal scorer can make in the near future!

I still think we would have struggled today with a shit hot striker, he may have made a difference but we were so poor all over the park. I think it is probably likely that Obika isn't the answer to our striking options, like you I don't blame him at all for today's performance, he did try just maybe lacks a little quality.

Hopefully we will get our wish for the that mythical 'top striker' but I'm not holding my breath!

 

[Dempsey2]

I don't believe in this "concentrate on the league" - no better than saying we're going for the 4th place trophy. Even qualifying for the CL, does anyone expect to win it ? Didn't exactly bring the club to the next level last time. The Cups are the only legitimate chance of winning something. Not winning the 4th place trophy, not winning the "good run in the CL" trophy, not winning the "we have profits" trophy. But a proper "we are the champions" trophy.

 

[MikeCOYS]

I think we're a very good team, but we do sometimes go into matches seemingly thinking we'll win if we show uo, and there's no excuse for that. There are weaknesses in the squad but also very real character weaknesses that come out in matches like this

I agree. We underestimated Leeds far too much. We were second to the ball in the whole game. Diouf had an excellent game. He was every where and our defence couldn't cope with him all game.

It's not the first time we under-perform against lower oppositions. We seem to only step up our game against top teams. Hopefully this disastrous performance won't be a repeat of last season's downfall.

This performance felt like a Stoke team. Great defensively for most of the season, then self-destructs.

Even if our defense was poor, I didn't think we could have won any ways. Especially with no strikers...

 

[Crash]

I was at the 2008 league cup final and loved it. Wish I could have gone to Wembley to see us in a final again so I'm personally disgusted at that abject performance and shows some players do need to be shown the door.

 

[Mullers]

Definitely could have done with Defoe today.

 

[Bennys LOL]

Well our defending was wank. Some real class from Bale in the 2nd half and Demebele made a big difference but fuck me do we need a striker.

One thing about Bale i wish he would stick to the wing and cross and cross and cross that ball, its deadly when its right. I understand his frustration and wanting to come in to the middle but his crosses cause more problems than him trying to do it all through the middle.

We need a Suarez/ Tevez/ Aguero and i'd love to see Dzeko at the lane too. Dreaming lol

 

[paulcumpstone]

Are you kidding? Levys the best thing about this club, and how can you compare our bench to Utd? they make triple what Spurs do in a year, Compare us to similar size clubs like Everton and Sunderland

take the blinkers off, has the club really moved forwards??? when was the last time we won something, i remember not too long ago we sold defoe because he could barely get a game, hes about the only striker we have now so don't tell me hes working wonders!!

 

[Syn_13]

Been wanting to win the FA Cup in years. I know it's devalued but it's still a favourite of mine. Annoyed not only to be out of it but also the manner of it as well.

 

[venablesphil]

Definitely could have done with Defoe today.

We'll the side would have had a more balanced look that's for sure. I do agree with what Kitchen said above about how a strikers movement would have opened up more space and they would be in the better positions in the final third. I did seem that and Dempsy both thought they were playing the supporting role to each other at times.

Nice header by Dempsey though.

 

[rupert miller]

take the blinkers off, has the club really moved forwards??? when was the last time we won something, i remember not too long ago we sold defoe because he could barely get a game, hes about the only striker we have now so don't tell me hes working wonders!!

Has the club move forwards? from where? 20 years of mid table rubbish to top 4, behind 3 teams that pay 200k a week wages for the best players and can afford 35 million on a player? Have you gone mad because we are out of the FA cup? crazy

 

[DaSpurs]

We were second to the ball in the whole game.

The performance can be summed up in this lone sentence. Incredibly frustrating.