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Match Threads PSV Eindhoven vs Tottenham Hotspur FC - Match Thread

ajspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 7, 2007
22,987
31,167
Watched five minutes of Liverpool now, I made the comparison for us with Chelsea and Arsenal the other day, throw them and City in as well, but just look how quickly these teams move the ball compared to us, at one or two touch, lots of runners and people on the move, and done with clarity of thinking. Most of the passes/passages of play aren't even remarkable, but do it at enough tempo and you still cause opposition defences problems and don't let them set. There is also a base level of urgency in the play.

I think, even when we've had better seasons than some of these teams, that our pass and move and one/two touch play has been weaker in all truth than other teams (but our collective and overall play has meant it doesn't matter, we win in other ways), but right now whilst we struggle to find form the differences are showing up even more.

I said the same thing after one of our other games, the Inter game I think, when I switched to PSG and Liverpool. Made our game look like it was being played in slow motion. I thought the same when watching Napoli a bit now too.

With Liverpool for instance, there is so much more urgency on the ball, even when you look at just the body language of the players. You won't see a player like Dier (don't mean to bash but just the best example) strolling around the midfield.

I don't know what needs to change, if it's mostly personal or instructional, probably both but I do tire of seeing the slow build up and aimless passage of passing.
 

stevenurse

Palacios' neck fat
May 14, 2007
6,089
10,022
Decent performance once again until we went ahead. I can't get my head around this team. Get ahead and it's like we stop playing, take an age to do anything but do it all blindly too. The sloppiness and the unprofessionalism of them is staggering.
 

stevenurse

Palacios' neck fat
May 14, 2007
6,089
10,022
Love a Poch interview after a bad result. He gets obviously less able to speak English and instead just resorts to a mumble
 

SugarRay

Well-Known Member
Jul 6, 2011
7,984
11,110
I said the same thing after one of our other games, the Inter game I think, when I switched to PSG and Liverpool. Made our game look like it was being played in slow motion. I thought the same when watching Napoli a bit now too.

With Liverpool for instance, there is so much more urgency on the ball, even when you look at just the body language of the players. You won't see a player like Dier (don't mean to bash but just the best example) strolling around the midfield.

I don't know what needs to change, if it's mostly personal or instructional, probably both but I do tire of seeing the slow build up and aimless passage of passing.

I think it’s both. Poch isn’t known for free flowing attacking football. His sides have steal and a bit of resilience (well, his good sides do )
He has too much of a liking for the ‘dog’ players imo. They are needed to a degree, but they can also come with technical ability and great movement. Wanyama, Dier, Dembele, Sissoko....these chaps will never play the sort of football you’re talking about.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,513
Technically, our side is below all of these. We simply don’t have the players with the technical ability to play such football. Dembele, Dier and Wanyama will never ever move the ball quick enough. We’d be asking too much of Dele, Son and Moura too to be honest. All class players in their own right of course but count how often them three misplace a pass or miscontrol a pass. They’d all slow City and Liverpool down.

We don’t play like these teams of course but it’s be nice if we could just rediscover some of that verve from couple of seasons ago. Seems like we are regressing as a side.

We might not be quite as good technically, but I still don't think they, on the whole across 90 minutes, do many more remarkable things than us. A lot of our players are just too fond of taking an extra five touches of the ball rather than one/two touch and part of it is not having it coached out of them. When we do have moments where we play like this, we look infinitely better, always have, even when we've been at our most rampant in recent seasons.

If you watch games, win lose or draw, we also have far too many players standing still - this is something that when I watch matches with my old man he is always going ballistic about, even more so this season, and when you start watching for it you see it does happen. Which is why, allied to the lack of quick passing, I think sometimes it becomes a struggle for us to construct play through the centre of the pitch. We need to rethink, and evolve, as a team (and that doesn't just mean sign new players).
 

Bobbins

SC's 14th Sexiest Male 2008
May 5, 2005
21,548
45,031
Actually forgot all about this game, just got home and seen the result.

Amazing how much I don’t care these days, feels fucking weird.
 

Metalhead

But that's a debate for another thread.....
Nov 24, 2013
25,351
38,294
I said the same thing after one of our other games, the Inter game I think, when I switched to PSG and Liverpool. Made our game look like it was being played in slow motion. I thought the same when watching Napoli a bit now too.

With Liverpool for instance, there is so much more urgency on the ball, even when you look at just the body language of the players. You won't see a player like Dier (don't mean to bash but just the best example) strolling around the midfield.

I don't know what needs to change, if it's mostly personal or instructional, probably both but I do tire of seeing the slow build up and aimless passage of passing.
Poch keeps acknowledging that the tempo is slow and that we need to kill games off and one assumes that he relays this to the players but they don't seem to be getting the message.
 

rossdapep

Well-Known Member
Aug 25, 2011
21,906
78,642
Poch keeps acknowledging that the tempo is slow and that we need to kill games off and one assumes that he relays this to the players but they don't seem to be getting the message.
Not getting the message or not responding they were originally?


This all boils down to freshening the team up so that players are kept on their toes and don't get sick of the same voice. Levy has a lot to answer for.
 

SpursSince1980

Well-Known Member
Jan 23, 2011
4,732
14,441
Lloris is starting to piss me off. Talk about his future beige tied to Poch and such bollocks not worth a shite when he makes a seasons worth of mistakes by the end of October.
I recall thinking at the end of last season, that Lloris might be a problem this season. Little mistakes started to creep into his game. And when that happens with goalies, it often can spiral from there -- as confidence is probably more important for goalies, than any other position on the field.

That's not the first time he has hurt us badly this season, and most certainly won't be the last. I love the guy, but predict things might get worse for him this year, which in turn, could force us to make a change next season.
 

Gassin's finest

C'est diabolique
May 12, 2010
37,353
87,819
Hugo lost us the game, I'm really sorry to say. Individual mistakes at these levels are so decisive.

We need to stop playing like ****s.
 

waresy

Well-Known Member
Mar 22, 2004
2,421
1,569
I didn't think we were as poor as some of our performances have been this season. Not killing off games is a problem and getting exposed for individual errors which we are not used to and needs eridaticating.

We're not as bad as we are showing, we know we can be better. This wasn't the worst result but as we only have 1 point from 3 it looks terrible.

Qualification is out of our hands even with home wins as you would expect inter to get at least 9 pts now.
 
D

Deleted member 27995

Sad to say, as important a game it was made out to be, some of our more experienced players didn't seem to get the memo.
 
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