Match Threads Man City vs Spurs - Match thread - Carabao Cup Final 2021 - KO 4:30pm

[mickman]

What disappointed me today was the substitutions. The game was there for the taking, and if the correct changes had been made we could have won. But removing the thrust from deep of Moura, and the forward passing of Lo Celso handed the initiative back to City. Bale barely touched the ball and Sissoko was not as dynamic as Moura had been.
What angered me today was Winks. He is the worst player I have ever seen. When the centre backs have the ball he either hides or gives it straight back to them. On the rare occasions he looks to progress the play, he gives the ball away. Truly amazing that he stayed on the pitch.
To put him and Sissoko in the same bin is unfair. Moussa may have a limited skill set, but he can do a good job as long as you remember he’s a builder and not an architect.

 

[C0YS]

Winks was fine, losing to City was fine, what? Sorry you weren’t saying that when Mourinho was in charge. It’s hypocrisy and revisionist at the highest order, and no my blame is not with Mason nor was it with a Mourinho.

Im not getting into this because I have no want to make this a tedious argument about Winks.

What was I saying when Mourinho was in charge? I wasn't anti-mourinho despite what some might think (I was just anti- the amount of what I felt was cult-like defending of Mourinho but I asked for his sacking, maybe after the zagreb game but I'm not even sure then), and certainly did make comments not thinking you could really blame him when we lost to Man city 3-0. I dare you to find comments to the contrary.

Losing to City, is to be expected, we aren't good enough. There is some disappointment, we didn't make the most of the few times we did break, but it's just not a catastrophe, it's sort of what you'd expect. I do have sympathy for people frustrated by the nature of the performance, but I'm disappointed but not upset.

 

[Jamturk]

Wish I didn't come in here. I know we all love our club and get angry but come on. The way some of you are going on you'd think a bit of extra effort from the lads would have made up for the technical differences between the two sides. City haven't lost a final since being bought by oil money.

All this fuss about the ESL but football is already unfair. They bought great players and a great manager. 4 of these in a row. 3 PLs out of 4.

These near misses hurt but we're always going to be the underdog unless we luck out with an oil baron of our own. Certainly in a season like this one where the team has been poorly coached and has no identity.

Our best hope today was hanging in the game and getting a bit of luck (or a bit of quality from our forwards) to do it. We certainly weren't getting anything from the ref. It almost happened. I thought the effort was there, certainly was from Hugo, Toby and the much maligned (myself included) Dier. Yes Son had a 'mare but I'd never accuse him of not caring.

It sucks but that's just what I've come to accept from modern football now. Poch dared us to dream for a little while, came so close but just ended up getting mocked for it. We can knock ENIC all we want but unless we get an oligarch of our own we're always going to be fighting a losing battle these days.

I hoped the football gods were smiling on us today, it would have meant so much more to us than them.

Couple of points, we did match and beat Citeh with passion and good coaching a couple of years ago.

We do have an oligarch, the difference is that our oligarch has captive customers who he wishes to exploit and keep hanging by just being competitive.

 

[Lifelong]

We lost...did anyone in their heart of hearts expect anything else...that’s where we are as a club today...as much as it pains me to say it...

 

[C0YS]

Winks was fine, losing to City was fine, what? Sorry you weren’t saying that when Mourinho was in charge. It’s hypocrisy and revisionist at the highest order, and no my blame is not with Mason nor was it with a Mourinho.

Here is my comment after the 3-0 loss I was talking about.

In response to someone talking about how after the long game against Everton, and Everton also losing that week, the Man city result wasn't such a big deal:

Everton's form, as a whole, is not very good at all. The loss isn't very surprising. I do agree that Man city isn't the best game to judge where we are going, though.

 

[punky]

What disappointed me today was the substitutions. The game was there for the taking, and if the correct changes had been made we could have won. But removing the thrust from deep of Moura, and the forward passing of Lo Celso handed the initiative back to City. Bale barely touched the ball and Sissoko was not as dynamic as Moura had been.
What angered me today was Winks. He is the worst player I have ever seen. When the centre backs have the ball he either hides or gives it straight back to them. On the rare occasions he looks to progress the play, he gives the ball away. Truly amazing that he stayed on the pitch.
To put him and Sissoko in the same bin is unfair. Moussa may have a limited skill set, but he can do a good job as long as you remember he’s a builder and not an architect.

The subs completely baffled me and I think killed all hope of the game for us.

I really can't think of what Mason was seeing or was his thought process was. I can't even speculate.

 

[C0YS]

The subs completely baffled me and I think killed all hope of the game for us.

I really can't think of what Mason was seeing or was his thought process was. I can't even speculate.

I think the thought process was clear, I think it was a bad decision, but it's quite simple to understand I think. He wanted Bale, possibly because we needed a presence to get into the box. But the feeling is that if you put on Bale you leave us exposed so he wanted to balance the team with Sissoko, he wanted a balanced team because it was 0-0 we weren't chasing the game. I personally think that both Lo Celso and Lucas needed to stay on, and certainly, I wouldn't have removed both of them. But the decision had a clear logic, even if I think it was the wrong one.

 

[JayB]

The subs completely baffled me and I think killed all hope of the game for us.

I really can't think of what Mason was seeing or was his thought process was. I can't even speculate.

I suspect the idea was that Mason wanted Bale on at the hour mark to come up with a bit of magic, but felt that he could only bring him on if he also brought on another player to cover the right back. That's understandable as a far as it goes, but where it went wrong was that it could have been Lamela covering Aurier, or alternatively Winks who came off for Sissoko.

By hooking Lo Celso and leaving the midfield bereft of creativity the link between defense and attack became completely nonexistent and we were under siege again, just as we had been in the first half.

 

[mpickard2087]

I get that people will be extra emotional and reactionary after a cup final and that to be reflected in what gets posted, but really was any of that a surprise? I personally had zero expectations for the game. A very decent team, a well oiled machine that dominates 99% of matches, that is going to win the league……. against a team with fuck all in terms of form and confidence, doesn’t know it’s best team, doesn’t have a manager, and at a very low ebb.

I said in the week that our best chance was probably them getting distracted by the CL in terms of selection/intensity. Unfortunately for us they went nearly full strength and were bang up for it. Even more so then the game was going to be played in the fashion it went, City push back virtually every team and we were always going to have a hellish watch seeing us soak up pressure and try and stay in the contest.
Because of that it was imperative that we selected eleven players who could put in a shift and try to be resilient and battle through City’s dominance of the ball and territory. So I didn’t mind the starting line up really, truth be told I was pleased to see Moura over Bale – this wasn’t the game for him – and just hoped Kane was fit because we needed everyone to give for the cause in this one.


First half we did seem a bit rattled, we couldn’t play out and were obviously struggling and a little too passive at times. But although it wasn’t perfect and we rode our luck numerous times I wouldn’t say the players were lazy or worth hammering. We’re a team in limbo up against one of the best, I thought all our players tried to put in a shift and do their work, and all of the midfield/defence/keeper (especially Hugo, Toby, and Eric) scrambled when they needed to or got a block in and gave what they had to keep City out.

Second half wasn’t brilliant, but at least there were green shoots of, well, something to grab onto. Yes our goal lived a charmed life, but we did start to secure some possession, find Kane, Lo Celso broke the lines a few times, and had that one key chance we wasted when we cut through them and broke forward only for, if we’re being kind rather than berating them, the wrong people to be on the end of it and messed up the final part.


But then maybe the key moment happened.

I’ve said that I’ve got zero expectations re. Mason, I expect nothing and any wins/performances from now till the end of the season is a bonus. I stick to that and I’m not going to hold anything we see against him, but at the same time I will, as I have always done, call the games as I see them….. And unfortunately that double sub was an absolute shocker. Truly terrible and I can only assume was something that had been pre-planned that didn’t get adjusted for how the game was going.

It might have been slim pickings but Moura was the only one who looked capable of doing his opposite man 1vs1 and his directness was the one thing that seemed to panic and make them uncomfortable. So for that reason it was harsh, and even more so if you compared him to Kane & Son. Lo Celso had done his defensive work ok, had just started to get on the ball and break lines, and this robbed us of our ability to connect the dots and our craft in midfield, especially considering what was coming on…

Sissoko. Fucking Sissoko. I couldn’t believe it. Unless he was some sort of insurance policy needed in order to get Bale on the pitch. I don’t see how this helped and it robbed us of ability to break through the lines and ability on the ball. To cap it all he repaid the faith of his manager by dozing off for the goal. Great stuff all round. As for Bale, why he was pitched into proceedings at that point I have no idea. Against the smaller teams/ones we can outgun it is true that he is probably the best option on the right of the attack because of output, but anyone with double digit IQ knows also that he is a zero intensity ponce who needs the ball delivered up to the penalty area for him to do anything. That was hardly likely to be case in this game, so it wasn’t one for him, and unsurprisingly he did fuck all when he did enter the game.

Sorry Ryan, but I thought the subs were fucking bananas and took a lawnmower to the meagre green shoots that we were (admittedly very slowly) developing. A shame that.


In the end our play totally fizzled out, and the defence inevitably couldn’t hold out, and for those last few minutes you knew it was a done thing. Disappointing to lose the final, I doubt a shock to many fans even though you do hope it’s our day, but we’ve got to shake it off and finish the last 5 games strongly and secure whatever position/Europe we can for next season and hopefully put in a few performances and some decent football whilst doing so.

 

[gerishep]

I haven't watched us play all season until today. I then thought I'd read through the entire match thread. My final decision is to go to bed and fall into a very long sleep, the sort of sleep that completely wipes your memory cells clear.

 

[C0YS]

if we had a better player than winks that increases our chances of controlling the game, thus winning.

So yeah, he's partly the reason we lost

I guess, in the same way, it's the reason West Brom will never win the league. If we had better players it would definitely make our life much easier.

 

[Stamford]

People keep saying that we shouldn't expect a win as city are so good etc. While no one expected a win, we expected to see our best players on the pitch for longer and more than two shots at goal. I don't think that's a big ask

 

[YB123]

Mason give any reasons as to why n'dombele wasnt involved?
I completely agree with him not starting just odd he wasnt introduced instead of Sissoko.

 

[Serpico]

Today we saw Jose legacy. So glad he FO..

 

[1882andallthat]

hoped the football gods were smiling on us today, it would have meant so much more to us than them.

The football gods were smiling on us today, they gave it every conceivable effort to ensure it was going to go our way, to keep us in the game for 80 minutes when we should have been dead and buried was as much as we could have asked and wished for, if we'd put in 5-10 mins of concerted pressure we might have nicked it albeit against the run of play. We didn't even manage 10 seconds of pressure so the footballing god's did deliver, we were the ones who failed to turn up at all. That's what hurts the most about this one.

 

[RJR1949]

Anyway here is a much happier story.

My grandson has just turned 3 and when the game started shouted out excitedly “Harry Kane. Daddy. Harry Kane”.

This is the first time he’s taken an interest in football and I am stupidly proud that we are heading for a third generation of Spurs fans.

 

[j_walsh89]

Today we saw Jose legacy. So glad he FO..

I hope so, but I think the rot runs deeper than that....

 

[simsy886]

Anyway here is a much happier story.

My grandson is just turned 3 and when the game started shouted out excitedly “Harry Kane. Daddy. Harry Kane”.

This is the first time he’s taken an interest in football and I am stupidly proud that we are heading for a third generation of Spurs fans.

Mate, maybe give these boys a punt instead. Leyton Orient.

 

[Wizzy77]

Today we saw Jose legacy. So glad he FO..

Hmm. Harsh.

At least under Jose, 1) he will never play Winks. 2) chances we will celebrate a goal and a lead until opponent scores in the dying mins ?

 

[Grey Fox]

Anyway here is a much happier story.

My grandson is just turned 3 and when the game started shouted out excitedly “Harry Kane. Daddy. Harry Kane”.

This is the first time he’s taken an interest in football and I am stupidly proud that we are heading for a third generation of Spurs fans.

I'm reporting you to social services