Our style of play

[goughie1966]

Phil Neville mabye summed it up that we lack that game changing player who can win a game or take a player on the likes of: Hazard,Pedro,Mikatayren,Pogba,Sanchez,Walcott,Coutiniho,Mane,De Bruyne,Sterling,Toure,Silva,Payet etc!!! Basically a Bale!

Walcott

 

[DJS]

The frustration is we have a top class goalkeeper, back four, two good options for defensive midfield, an e,edging talent in Winks to play alongside them and a fucking top notch centre forward.

But our attacking midfielders are kinda meh, fed up with Eriksen's inconsistency and shitty spells and none of the others really set the world on fire aside from maybe Lamela, who I'm really really missing at moment lol.

 

[dagraham]

The frustration is we have a top class goalkeeper, back four, two good options for defensive midfield, an e,edging talent in Winks to play alongside them and a fucking top notch centre forward.

But our attacking midfielders are kinda meh, fed up with Eriksen's inconsistency and shitty spells and none of the others really set the world on fire aside from maybe Lamela, who I'm really really missing at moment lol.

The truth is neither does he. He flatters to deceive with the ball far too often, although I will concede that we definitely miss him and he does possess the ability to play those through balls that the likes of Eriksen should be doing.

I think often when things aren't going well we as fans can pine for those not around, forgetting that when they were playing we were quite often a bit crap as well.

As you say, in general our attacking midfielders are not that great and even when performing I don't think have the greatest balance. For example, I'm not convinced that long term Eriksen and Lamela can play in the same team. We have a lot of number 10's or wannabe number 10's.

We were crying out for a player who can carry the ball at speed, but what we got was a player who is only fit for a brief cameo and one of the strangest panic buys we've ever made.

We also bought the wrong type of striker imo. Kane can't always play well and sometimes you need an alternative (even possibly to play with him). We simply don't have that other striker to play on the shoulder and to run in behind and frighten defences.

 

[Japhet]

When we get to the edge of the opposition box, everything gets played to feet. Players need to make runs and find angles and the one on the ball needs to be brave enough to play it into space. It's the same scenario that made Soldado look so hopeless.

 

[DJS]

The truth is neither does he. He flatters to deceive with the ball far too often, although I will concede that we definitely miss him and he does possess the ability to play those through balls that the likes of Eriksen should be doing.

I think often when things aren't going well we as fans can pine for those not around, forgetting that when they were playing we were quite often a bit crap as well.

As you say, in general our attacking midfielders are not that great and even when performing I don't think have the greatest balance. For example, I'm not convinced that long term Eriksen and Lamela can play in the same team. We have a lot of number 10's or wannabe number 10's.

We were crying out for a player who can carry the ball at speed, but what we got was a player who is only fit for a brief cameo and one of the strangest panic buys we've ever made.

We also bought the wrong type of striker imo. Kane can't always play well and sometimes you need an alternative (even possibly to play with him). We simply don't have that other striker to play on the shoulder and to run in behind and frighten defences.

I'd just love a couple of wingers in the mound of Robben - pure wingers the attack the fuck outta the opposition

Defo agree about too many wannabe number 10s, leaves us so flat and no balance / width.

 

[talkshowhost86]

I'd just love a couple of wingers in the mound of Robben - pure wingers the attack the fuck outta the opposition

Whilst everyone does love a good winger, they aren't really the answer for most top teams these days.

Yes you need players with pace, which I think is something we're lacking a bit, but not out and out wingers necessarily. Someone like Mane would be perfect for us right now but I'm not sure where we're going to get that from.

 

[lukespurs7]

We need two pacey wingers, proper pacey attacking wingers who support Kane up top.

Especially on right side as without Lamela we have nothing on that side really.

On left we have Son, although he needs to get some consistency and also Ndokou who could prove to be a gem.

Completely agree. Even when shitsokko came on he caused trouble down the right. I think one of Eriken or Alli needs to be dropped, probably Alli and then play someone on the right to give us more balance.

 

[yido_number1]

Hate to admit it but I love the way liverlol are playing at the moment. Main difference between us and them is they 3 strikers in Origi, Sturridge and Firmino and a lot of options in behind. We just lack real competition in the front 4 positions. Kane is class but you need that real option. If Janssen and Sissoko had been doing better I think we'd be a lot higher than we are. Lamela is also a massive loss, are pressing and quick forward play comes down a peg without him. When we aren't winning the ball high up the pitch we are really slow to tranisition. Hope we can bring in a player or two in january.

 

[yido_number1]

Completely agree. Even when shitsokko came on he caused trouble down the right. I think one of Eriken or Alli needs to be dropped, probably Alli and then play someone on the right to give us more balance.

A couple of games with one not both would be good. Either that or drop Dembele back into Wanyama's slot and let Eriksen start from deeper. We should be able to do that against hull and burnley. I also think Dier offers more dynamism than Wanyama and would give him another run out.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Kane conceded that after Spurs’ superb 2015-16 campaign, when they pushed Leicester for the title before finishing third, opponents had found ways of disrupting their style.

The England forward told Standard Sport: “People didn’t expect us to play so well last year, and press so high with such intensity. Now teams are maybe dropping off a bit more, letting us have the ball – and we have to find different solutions to unlock the door.

http://www.standard.co.uk/sport/foo...ideas-to-reboot-title-challenge-a3418276.html

 

[TottenhamMattSpur]

As far as i can tell our style is to try and force errors and score from them.
Which means we don't have too many clear cut chances in a ot of games.
We do get a lot of penalties and a lot of blocked/deflected shots and own goals/chances.

It's not the most compelling viewing at times.

 

[JW_Spur]

Hate to admit it but I love the way liverlol are playing at the moment. Main difference between us and them is they 3 strikers in Origi, Sturridge and Firmino and a lot of options in behind. We just lack real competition in the front 4 positions. Kane is class but you need that real option. If Janssen and Sissoko had been doing better I think we'd be a lot higher than we are. Lamela is also a massive loss, are pressing and quick forward play comes down a peg without him. When we aren't winning the ball high up the pitch we are really slow to tranisition. Hope we can bring in a player or two in january.

Agreed. At one point in the 2nd half Alli had the ball on the far side, around the same area as the penalty spot. Within 8 seconds the ball went from there all the way back to the half way line. Why not put your foot through it? This endless recycling of the ball drives me nuts.

Liverpool would never take the ball from 10 yards in front of the opposition goal and work backwards to the half way line within 8 seconds. They get within a sniff of the goal posts and they just go for it.

As much as it pains me to say it, if they had Hugo they would probably win the league.

 

[Shadydan]

Agreed. At one point in the 2nd half Alli had the ball on the far side, around the same area as the penalty spot. Within 8 seconds the ball went from there all the way back to the half way line. Why not put your foot through it? This endless recycling of the ball drives me nuts.

Liverpool would never take the ball from 10 yards in front of the opposition goal and work backwards to the half way line within 8 seconds. They get within a sniff of the goal posts and they just go for it.

As much as it pains me to say it, if they had Hugo they would probably win the league.

I'm sure they'll probably bemoaning their defence on some of the basic errors they made and saying that our defence would never make those errors. If we had a player like Mane we'd probably win the league

 

[Everlasting Seconds]

Simples, we bought players to physically defeat opponents with pure muscle, but we are trying to outwit, not outfight opponents.
Result is that we are the ones being out-smarted. As soon as the collective intelligence of our opponent's players reaches 3, we are completely defeated through smartness.

It's a very simple, basic two-step way to defeat the Pochettino system this season:
Own the flanks
Give us the ball and have us make the errors

All the teams, every team who has beaten us lately (maybe except Chelsea?)
has done the same thing. Populate the flanks, render control of the ball, wait for the victory. Utd and Monaco each had a 30-40% ball possession and virtually no presence in the centre, only on the flanks.

Going further back in the season, even simple teams like Leicester hold what it takes to defeat us in this way. They completely stifled our wing backs. Bournemouth, scary shit, such a mundane team, they basically had 11 players on their right wing (our left). Danny Rose out of play ---> smooth draw.

We are the simplest team to stop in recent history. Pochettino must believe heavily in keep it simple. Well, he makes it simple for the opponents, that's for sure.

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

We have one system, high press, that works well but only against teams that play against us in a certain way, ball playing teams that try to attack us. As Kane says we struggle with teams that sit deep and give us the ball and/or press us high up the field and disrupt our playing out from the back. Our problems with this are only exacerbated by Lloris' absolutely dreadful distribution, which means when pressed high we generate a large number of unenforced errors. I'm not a football coach but the answer tactically seems fairly simple to me. Firstly, if teams press us high we need to become better at going from our box to theirs much quicker. If we do this we create negative consequences to the opponents high press and force them to stop doing it or get spanked. Right now we never seem to vary our ponderous, retain possession at all costs progression from box to box. Secondly, for the teams that sit deep and give us the ball we need to massively improve our quick passing and interchange around the edge of their box. Right now this is where we are really poor and why the entirety of SC cries out for pace and trickery. The truth is we don't need individual brilliance to achieve this, although it definitely helps, we can practice this on the training pitch, it is all about creating space and crisp first time passing, again something our team is currently very poor at.

Bottom line is that while our Plan A is good when circumstances permit it, teams are wising up to it and we need as effective Plans B and C so we aren't so predictable. This should happen on the training ground and I'm confident Poch will be able to make the necessary tactical adjustments. If Kane is talking publicly about it you can bet the work is already happening.

 

[danielneeds]

I think there are a number of factors that have seen us struggle offensively this season. The disappointing end to last season seems to have taken some swash out of our buckle, confidence is not what it was last season.

A few players are suffering from sophomore slumps. We bought poorly in terms of giving ourselves a different dimension, and countering the opposition negating our style.

Overall it's hard to put one's finger on it, it's very nearly last year's team, but it's like it needs a good tun up and service to get everything working again.

 

[djw1973]

Apart from the odd game, we are very boring to watch. In most games we get to the 60th minute and you find yourself thinking we are never going to score. How do we fix it? More pace, width and a creative player behind Kane.

Dembele, Dele and Erikssen are not combining well together. As a team we look strong on paper, but we just fall to bits in the last third. Very reminiscent of an AVB team at the moment.

The best example is the Chelsea game, We looked great in the first half, but the only way we scored was from distance, we never realky got behind them. As soon as they got in front it was fame over. Man U did the same.

 

[double0]

I for one believes in our style of play, the only thing I that gets me we ain't clinical. we create chances against anyone but we just haven't got that killer instinct.

 

[shelfboy68]

Why do we struggle to score against the better teams?

Because their better than us?

 

[shelfboy68]

I agree with what a lot on here have said regarding our style of play predictable, lack of pace etc.
Without doubt we lack sparkle and are imo in desperate need of some quality to provide it because of our predictable and slow football we are a dream to defend against.
But I can't help thinking about Poch and after watching him regularly it seems to me that he has lost a bit of sparkle, last year he always seemed to have a bit of a smile but this time out he looks as flat as our attacking and creative options.
Now it may just be me but I'm wondering whether he looks a bit disappointed that we haven't moved on as much as he and some of us expected, now we are not going to win the league that's obvious for the foreseeable but secretly I hoped we might have been tucked in maybe third keeping the top two occupied.
But so far with one thing or another we just haven't hit our stride due to not a great summer recruitment, injuries to an already lacking squad and a predictability about us that has made us a bit sterile again imo.
We don't have a bad team and on it's day is capable of doing well against the best but so far apart from a city team that doesn't know it's arse from it's elbow our results against the teams around us have yielded little in the way of wins or points.