Liverpool Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

[Hercules]

The stick Davies is gettting on here... If you go back a couple of years the same characters would have been giving it out to Danny Rose.

Davies is out of form, low on confidence, and didn't play very well, but there simply aren't many in the PL who have a better reserve LB.

The issue I have with him is that he's such a different type of player to Rose, especially since he started playing at CB for Wales. I really like it in a squad if you have players of similar characteristics to come in for your 1st choices, even if they aren't quite as good. So for Rose, I'd like his understudy to have some pace, be tenacious, and a good engine for getting up and down.

His biggest flaw is he has zero-zilch pace. That is needed as a FB, moreso anything else.

 

[danielneeds]

His biggest flaw is he has zero-zilch pace. That is needed as a FB, moreso anything else.

We've know that ever since we signed him, tbf. He's still done a pretty decent job in the last couple of years as a reserve. I just think the problems last night all stem from Poch's lack tailoring our approach to Liverpool, not the players.

 

[Hercules]

We've know that ever since we signed him, tbf. He's still done a pretty decent job in the last couple of years as a reserve. I just think the problems last night all stem from Poch's lack tailoring our approach to Liverpool, not the players.

When we signed him from Swansea I seriously didn't want the deal to go through. Only reason for that is he has no pace. FB's need to have at least decent pace. You cannot for one minute underestimate how important this is.

 

[1882andallthat]

If someone had told me we'd get two thirds of the way through the season only losing at anfield, Stamford bridge and old Trafford, I'd have taken that.

Whilst it's difficult to disagree with you, if we had to lose 3 games up to this point, Arsenal apart, I'd have picked anyone else other than these three to lose to.

What's clearly annoyed many on here and rightly so about this loss is that there does not appear to be any learning curve against Klopp and Liverpool's tactics, as Henry Ford said, do what you've always done and you get what you've always got. It was extremely frustrating that we weren't able to capitalise and expose any of their current defensive frailties yet they consistently seem to expose ours nearly every time they play us in recent seasons.

Poch and the coaching team must take a fair share of the blame for this particular loss. We all knew how they would set up and play and we all knew that Mane and/or Coutinho would probably pose us the greatest threat, and there appeared to be no evidence that we had learned anything or set ourselves up in a different way against them to avoid getting turned over by them yet again. Surely they must have studied dvd's of our recent games against them and studied how teams that have fared better at Anfield and they should have taken a leaf out of their book in their set ups against them. It may not look as nice but frankly who cares as long as it's more effective. Ironically , Swansea were able to give their midfield the right run around with two of our ex players in Sigurdsson and Carroll. Granted, Mane wasn't playing in that game a couple of weeks ago and Rose and Verts weren't playing in this one but it can be done, it's high time we started to figure out how to do it or gave ourselves a chance.

It's not all doom and gloom and we have the time to get back on track and we're still very much in the hunt for top 4 and silverware but it won't be easy and we have to adapt, and there really will be no excuses in failing to get the set up and tactics better and doing our homework on Liverpool next time around.

 

[Bulletspur]

The stick Davies is gettting on here... If you go back a couple of years the same characters would have been giving it out to Danny Rose.

Davies is out of form, low on confidence, and didn't play very well, but there simply aren't many in the PL who have a better reserve LB.

The issue I have with him is that he's such a different type of player to Rose, especially since he started playing at CB for Wales. I really like it in a squad if you have players of similar characteristics to come in for your 1st choices, even if they aren't quite as good. So for Rose, I'd like his understudy to have some pace, be tenacious, and a good engine for getting up and down.

Never been fan of Davies but supported him as he played for us. I always felt that we should get a better 2nd LFB to under study or challenge Rose for 1st pick. When you have to adjust your tactics to accommodate a player because of his weaknesses you are in trouble, for example Dembele protecting him from Traori last week, when he would not have had to do it for Rose. Davies in my opinion is an average player who would never be 1st choice FB in most EPL teams, and that includes Swansea where he originally came from. Obviously these are not facts, but only my opinion

 

[SPURSLIFE]

I read statistics yesterday of Poch's results in away games against the top 6 since he's been here and it's pretty poor really. Played 14 won 1 drawn 6 lost 7. We obviously need to win more of those games to have any real chance of challenging for the title.I know we all want a trophy but I personally want a top four finish to ensure that we don't lose any players or our manager next season.
If we finish 5th or 6th and next season it's EL I think the likes of Ali, Lloris, Rose and Poch could be tempted by some big offers and then we're back to middle table and looking at a long way back.
I know I'm bound to get a few negative hits for my thoughts from the "Don't say anything bad " brigade. However Top players wont stay at a club that can't make a serious challenge for titles on a regular basis and there are a few top clubs that would like the players I mentioned above.
So lets hope we get back on track and that the Liverpool result was just a blip. A win against Fulham at the weekend and we are in the last 8 of the Cup. I just hope Poch takes it seriously and puts out a strong side unlike the way he threw away our chances of progressing in the CL. I still can't get over the way he seemed to have no interest in the CL by resting players for the PL. It wasted all the hard work of getting there last season. I find it hard to work out his logic.

 

[whitesocks]

Eric Dier, who endured a fraught evening at Anfield, admitted Spurs’ development into genuine title challengers is far from complete. “I think we still need to improve in all areas,” said the England international. “We have never not said that. We still have a long way to go and we need to keep improving and working hard. There is lots of stuff we can still improve on. We can’t just talk about it, we need to do it.”

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/12/mauricio-pochettino-spurs-premier-league

I like what he says, but unfortunately this week Kane and MP were getting the headlines saying we were genuine title challengers.
But he is right with his final point. They could sit around all day talking, passing resolutions, making clever speeches. It's completely pointless and it's getting us nowhere!

Meanwhile MP is sounding more and more like AVB.

We are a club fighting for the Premier League with different tools in a different project. We will see if we can cope. If we have the squad, we will see. It is important that our project is long-term and we can see if we can cope with all the competitions now.”

Very worrying...

 

[Shadydan]

He can sound like whoever he wants, it's the results that matter on the pitch.

 

[Wsussexspur]

https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/12/mauricio-pochettino-spurs-premier-league
https://www.theguardian.com/football/2017/feb/12/mauricio-pochettino-spurs-premier-league
I like what he says, but unfortunately this week Kane and MP were getting the headlines saying we were genuine title challengers.
But he is right with his final point. They could sit around all day talking, passing resolutions, making clever speeches. It's completely pointless and it's getting us nowhere!

Meanwhile MP is sounding more and more like AVB.

Very worrying...

I cringe every time I hear Potch or one of our players talking about us being title challengers. As Saturday proved we are along way off being title challengers.

 

[SpursDave88]

I cringe every time I hear Potch or one of our players talking about us being title challengers. As Saturday proved we are along way off being title challengers.

Talk is cheap, good teams do their talking on the pitch.

 

[lukespurs7]

You can they tactics left us susceptible to pressing and mistakes I'm sorry but Poch has to take some blame here he should have set up differently

The manner of this loss was really difficult to take because it concerns me that Poch hasn't learnt from that last 4x we've played klopps l-pool and been outplayed everytime, this was also similar to how man.utd played against us at old Trafford and also Monaco and Leverkusen and Dortmund last year. When we get pressed like that and not able to play out from that back we have no plan B. On their day at home Liverpool under Klopp are a world class team and most teams struggle against them, losing is one thing and putting it into perspective it's only our 3rd loss of the season which is bloody good going, BUT it was the manner we lost which was so so hard to take. We created absolutely fuck all chances, seemed to lack fight right from the start and more concerningly a tactical plan B to play against this kind of approach.

The team and manager are young, & hope they learn from this and fast.
Let's bounce back vs Gent. We're still on for an excellent season.

COYS

 

[lukespurs7]

The manner of the loss at weekend was really really difficult to take because it concerns me that Poch hasn't learnt from that last 4x we've played klopps l-pool and been outplayed everytime, this was also similar to how man.utd played against us at old Trafford and also Monaco and Leverkusen and Dortmund last year.

When we get pressed like that and not able to play out from that back we have no plan B. On their day at home Liverpool under Klopp are a world class team and most teams struggle against them, losing is one thing and putting it into perspective it's only our 3rd loss of the season which is bloody good going, BUT it was the manner we lost which was so so hard to take. We created absolutely fuck all chances, seemed to lack fight right from the start and more concerningly a tactical plan B to play against this kind of approach.

The team and manager are young, & hope they learn from this and fast.
Let's bounce back vs Gent. We're still on for an excellent season.

I know having no Jan and Rose was a big loss and perhaps stopped Poch going 3 at the back but I personally think he should've done it anyway, it couldn't have ended up any worse that on Saturday when we were lucky that didn't finish 5/6-0.

I hear Hugo and Poch after the match saying we weren't aggressive enough etc but they said this after the CL games, it can't always be down to attitude and agressitivity surely tactics must have a big part to play.
Wolves and Swansea and Chelsea worked out how to play against l-pool at Anfield and all either won or deserved to win but we yet again played straight into their hands.

Any thoughts apart from formation change how else can we adapt our game to play against teams like this?

COYS

 

[Krafty]

Disappointing result and performance, undoubtedly, but I am hopeful this is just part of the learning curve.

At home, we can take on teams and simply be the better team with little tweaking to how the opposition plays. Away from home we need a little less ego. A front four of Kane, Alli, Son and Eriksen is far too offensive, and even more so when the full backs are not told to reign it in a little and keep the back four tight. But if you manage a young, hungry team, fuel them with high tempo, pressing, attacking play and then suddenly go all defensive, it can lead to mixed messages.

What I hope Poch is doing is saying is "yes, on our day we can beat anyone, but away from home against the top teams you need to have more responsibility, more maturity, realise you cannot just attack attack attack. You must sacrifice your preferred way of playing to help the team, and that means one or two of the more attacking players will have to sit on the bench as we add numbers to central midfield".

Given that our record away to the top 6 has been pretty crap for two years, maybe I am being overly hopeful, but Rome wasn't built in a day and neither will this Spurs team.

 

[michaelden]

The manner of the loss at weekend was really really difficult to take because it concerns me that Poch hasn't learnt from that last 4x we've played klopps l-pool and been outplayed everytime, this was also similar to how man.utd played against us at old Trafford and also Monaco and Leverkusen and Dortmund last year

Yip, even Chelsea drew Liverpool onto them to force Liverpool to play through the defence not on the break. Then Chelsea played on the break & won. We needed to drop deeper and let LIverpool attack thriough the bodies, not press ahead granting them space behind

 

[glacierSpurs]

Our front 4 are supposed to be great, but they did not troubled the lousy back 4 of Liverfools AT ALL... That is what I am very worried...

 

[Shadydan]

Our front 4 are supposed to be great, but they did not troubled the lousy back 4 of Liverfools AT ALL... That is what I am very worried...

Our forward players have caused more trouble to Chelsea who have the best defence in the league alongside us which suggests that that wasn't the problem...against Liverpool we failed to get the ball to them consistently which was the real problem.

 

[slartibartfast]

The manner of the loss at weekend was really really difficult to take because it concerns me that Poch hasn't learnt from that last 4x we've played klopps l-pool and been outplayed everytime, this was also similar to how man.utd played against us at old Trafford and also Monaco and Leverkusen and Dortmund last year.

When we get pressed like that and not able to play out from that back we have no plan B. On their day at home Liverpool under Klopp are a world class team and most teams struggle against them, losing is one thing and putting it into perspective it's only our 3rd loss of the season which is bloody good going, BUT it was the manner we lost which was so so hard to take. We created absolutely fuck all chances, seemed to lack fight right from the start and more concerningly a tactical plan B to play against this kind of approach.

The team and manager are young, & hope they learn from this and fast.
Let's bounce back vs Gent. We're still on for an excellent season.

I know having no Jan and Rose was a big loss and perhaps stopped Poch going 3 at the back but I personally think he should've done it anyway, it couldn't have ended up any worse that on Saturday when we were lucky that didn't finish 5/6-0.

I hear Hugo and Poch after the match saying we weren't aggressive enough etc but they said this after the CL games, it can't always be down to attitude and agressitivity surely tactics must have a big part to play.
Wolves and Swansea and Chelsea worked out how to play against l-pool at Anfield and all either won or deserved to win but we yet again played straight into their hands.

Any thoughts apart from formation change how else can we adapt our game to play against teams like this?

COYS

Look, I gave you a winner rating for your first post but you've cleary copied it on your 2nd post to add more weight and I'm not falling for it

 

[Gaz_Gammon]

...Poch should have started a back 3 with Wimmer supporting Dier/Toby, and also should have started Sissoko over Son...it was embarrassing how easily they turned us over and exposed our lack of defensive support...

...and anyone with half a brain can see that Sissoko is 10 times the player Lamela is, but couldn't care less - if his lack of motivation is preventing him from being an effective starter or impact sub, it's squarely on Poch...

COYS

Wimmer would have had a new ass torn by Mane as well, and as for Sissoko helping to cover well thats plain bloody daft.

Fact is like it or not without our starting eleven all being fit, we simply can't cope with sides the play toe to toe with us.

All very well playing at home with seventy five percent of the ball playing against a back nine side who defend, but when a team comes out to play we are pretty average and have been really since Poch has been here.