mpickard2087
Patient Zero
- Jun 13, 2008
- 21,889
- 32,560
Ummm...
I had been looking forward to this game, I thought it would be a good test of where we were at under Poch so far and a game at home against a rival team, and also to right a few of the wrongs of the two thrashings they handed us last season. I wasn't necessarily expecting a win, but I did expect us to give them a game and make them really earn any points they got off us.
It seems my optimism was misguided. Another bad defeat, disappointing performance, lessons that need to be learned and more evidence (if needed) that things aren't going to turn around overnight.
I'll start with saying that I didn't agree with Poch's selection today. I can see why he did it, after the QPR performance, and that he is still getting to know the players and what they bring to the table, and that he has a very definite and clear idea of how he wants the team to set up and play... However I wish for once we would be a bit pragmatic, even humble, in these bigger games and set up with defence in mind first rather than some of these selections we have seen over the last couple of years. In games like these we need to be able to compete and win the midfield battle, yet an all too common theme is that we get blown away.
I'd have gone with Sandro and Capoue in this game, proper defensive protection in front of the defence. In hindsight, and given the poor performances, that may not have been enough and three centre mids would probably have been needed actually. People will say it is negative but we have tried the other ways and obvious picks and gone to attack and it rarely works... I'd just for once like to see us try not to lose these bigger games and if that means a dull game that gains us vital points over the course of a season then so be it. 0-0 draw and getting something is much better than these repeat thrashings we have put up with over the last year.
As for the game itself, the main problem for me was that on the day individuals just didn't rise to the occasion. When Adebayor, Lamela, Eriksen and Capoue (the four who really get us playing and who most stuff goes through) are all below-par, some of them badly so, then you are not going to get anything from the game. Defensive mistakes or not.
Right from the start Liverpool just looked that half a yard sharper than us all over the pitch and there is no excuse for this given it was a completely changed team and it is early in the season. They worked harder and were just quicker to every second ball. With the ball they passed and moved and we looked rattled and were often forced into possession in our half of the pitch, which allowed them to press and invited pressure on ourselves.
As we struggled to gain a proper foothold in the game, I thought our passing and particularly movement went completely off the boil, and some of the struggling players were at times not showing for the ball. This again led to deep possession and us struggling to play our way out, before we even thought of trying to create anything.
Despite all this I didn't think Liverpool were great, and its so annoying to see us gift them a lot of their chances and really things were made too easy for them. We didn't match them for desire or workrate. Indeed in the second half it looked as if we were about to give up all together and things were about to get really ugly, yet 'Pool decided to drop for the last 15-20 mins and show us a bit of mercy. This is the most worrying thing, yet can possibly show Poch that he still needs to do something about the lack of fight and character in the squad.
All three goals conceded were pretty farcical.
The opening goal I blame mostly on Capoue. Yes we have turned over the ball playing out from the keeper/goalkick and players are out of position, but he finds himself in the left back position and three times he looks left for the man running through. At no point does he decide to break into a sprint and match the desire shown by the Liverpool player until it is far too late. I also don't think Kaboul or Dier are in great positions but that goal doesn't happen if Capoue shows a bit of urgency to drop in 5 yards further so that pass cannot get through there.
The second is again Kaboul and Capoue. Kaboul makes an awful pass, the ball comes out to our right hand side, gets played inside for Allen and I really don't know what Capoue is doing diving in that side, it really is an ultra brain-dead decision that defies logic. There is no reason to sell yourself there and dive in. Dier is silly in the heat of the moment, but that situation comes about because of the poor pass and then even poorer piece of decision making.
The third is just a comedy show. Townsend's first act is to lose it, he once again shows he has lost all his pace trying hopelessly to track back, Capoue fails hopelessly got get across, and then there is Kaboul... Following in the finest traditions of his nations armed forces and retreating at great pace, so much so he escorts Moreno all the way to the edge of our box and helpfully shows him a clear path to goal... Just absolutely woeful all round.
There are a lot of things I hope Poch takes from this game. He will hopefully be able to make better, possibly final decisions on some of these players, and also I would hope can see where we are lacking still. For starters a central midfielder who can take the game by the scruff of the neck, and more pace and threat in the four attacking positions. I'm not even going to comment on the defenders...
Much to do, the hard work starts now.
Individual appraisals:
Lloris - Innocent bystander for the most part. A couple of smart saves, most notably from Balotelli. However is his distribution was a little iffy and there was one moment he came out, gave it straight to them and should have been punished.
Dier - Found things a bit tougher today, especially second half. Maybe a bridge too far at this stage.
Kaboul - What needs to be said? Quite clearly isn't going to go back to the presence of old. Tentative, making silly mistakes and seems to have regressed back to his first spell at the club in terms of reading the game.
Vertonghen - Didn't really inspire confidence but hard to critique, my eyes were on others fucking up left, right and centre to be honest.
Rose - Solid game. Didn't have a great deal to do down his flank for the most part. Was about the only one who showed any desire to pass and move (he ended up in the No.10 position edge of the box to receive the ball on three occasions), if only others had done the same. I wouldn't say he was at fault for the first goal, he was out of position after pushing forward to compete in the air for the ball and there was at least three players covering across behind him to mop up.
Capoue - A very, very poor game. Goals one and two I feel he is mostly culpable. There were warning signs from early on, the Balotelli headed chance he failed three times in the build up to take up a position in front of the defence to snuff out any danger and to track runners, and it carried on from there. From that game today it would be hard not to form an impression that in the easy games where he can stroll around, play a few passes and make a few interceptions he will look fantastic yet in the harder games and when the going gets tough he goes missing... We'll see and its up to him to prove otherwise. Could be an important member of this team, but has to step up to the plate in games like this.
Bentaleb - Whilst I thought he was ok I don't think he really had any great impact. Better than Capoue in my opinion. Wasn't the game for him though, as I said I would picked a more conservative and defensive central midfield so that we were primarily defensively solid.
Eriksen - Awful in all aspects of his play.
Lamela - As bad as Eriksen. As I have said a couple of times on here today, he is as bad as Townsend when it comes to his dribbling. Throughout his Spurs career so far whenever he has tried to dribble and take on the opposition he has usually lost the ball because he doesn't have the strength to hold them off nor the bit of explosiveness to get away from them. This might go against the widely held view of him, but I don't think he is a good dribbler. Especially not in tight spaces. He needs to stick to pass and move, quick interchanges and clever movement. You cannot fault his workrate but we shouldn't hide away from the fact that his decision making needs to improve and he needs to be more selective and at times hold on to the ball better.
Chadli - Should probably have scored, although he had to readjust for the bounce of the ball. At times did ok, not really involved enough though in my opinion. Who was for our team though...
Adebayor - There wasn't a problem with his workrate, but he seemed to have completely lost his head and was making bad decisions throughout and silly errors and was a frustrating figure. Another who could/should have scored with one of the few real chances we created.
Subs:
Townsend - His own worst enemy really. His dribbling ability has lost most threat because he has lost some of his pace. Aside from getting fitter and sharper, he has to knuckle down and be more of a team player if he wants a future here. Time is running out...
Dembele - I'm not going to read too much into his game, 'Pool sat back for the last 15-20 mins and just let us have the ball.
Davies - N/a.
I had been looking forward to this game, I thought it would be a good test of where we were at under Poch so far and a game at home against a rival team, and also to right a few of the wrongs of the two thrashings they handed us last season. I wasn't necessarily expecting a win, but I did expect us to give them a game and make them really earn any points they got off us.
It seems my optimism was misguided. Another bad defeat, disappointing performance, lessons that need to be learned and more evidence (if needed) that things aren't going to turn around overnight.
I'll start with saying that I didn't agree with Poch's selection today. I can see why he did it, after the QPR performance, and that he is still getting to know the players and what they bring to the table, and that he has a very definite and clear idea of how he wants the team to set up and play... However I wish for once we would be a bit pragmatic, even humble, in these bigger games and set up with defence in mind first rather than some of these selections we have seen over the last couple of years. In games like these we need to be able to compete and win the midfield battle, yet an all too common theme is that we get blown away.
I'd have gone with Sandro and Capoue in this game, proper defensive protection in front of the defence. In hindsight, and given the poor performances, that may not have been enough and three centre mids would probably have been needed actually. People will say it is negative but we have tried the other ways and obvious picks and gone to attack and it rarely works... I'd just for once like to see us try not to lose these bigger games and if that means a dull game that gains us vital points over the course of a season then so be it. 0-0 draw and getting something is much better than these repeat thrashings we have put up with over the last year.
As for the game itself, the main problem for me was that on the day individuals just didn't rise to the occasion. When Adebayor, Lamela, Eriksen and Capoue (the four who really get us playing and who most stuff goes through) are all below-par, some of them badly so, then you are not going to get anything from the game. Defensive mistakes or not.
Right from the start Liverpool just looked that half a yard sharper than us all over the pitch and there is no excuse for this given it was a completely changed team and it is early in the season. They worked harder and were just quicker to every second ball. With the ball they passed and moved and we looked rattled and were often forced into possession in our half of the pitch, which allowed them to press and invited pressure on ourselves.
As we struggled to gain a proper foothold in the game, I thought our passing and particularly movement went completely off the boil, and some of the struggling players were at times not showing for the ball. This again led to deep possession and us struggling to play our way out, before we even thought of trying to create anything.
Despite all this I didn't think Liverpool were great, and its so annoying to see us gift them a lot of their chances and really things were made too easy for them. We didn't match them for desire or workrate. Indeed in the second half it looked as if we were about to give up all together and things were about to get really ugly, yet 'Pool decided to drop for the last 15-20 mins and show us a bit of mercy. This is the most worrying thing, yet can possibly show Poch that he still needs to do something about the lack of fight and character in the squad.
All three goals conceded were pretty farcical.
The opening goal I blame mostly on Capoue. Yes we have turned over the ball playing out from the keeper/goalkick and players are out of position, but he finds himself in the left back position and three times he looks left for the man running through. At no point does he decide to break into a sprint and match the desire shown by the Liverpool player until it is far too late. I also don't think Kaboul or Dier are in great positions but that goal doesn't happen if Capoue shows a bit of urgency to drop in 5 yards further so that pass cannot get through there.
The second is again Kaboul and Capoue. Kaboul makes an awful pass, the ball comes out to our right hand side, gets played inside for Allen and I really don't know what Capoue is doing diving in that side, it really is an ultra brain-dead decision that defies logic. There is no reason to sell yourself there and dive in. Dier is silly in the heat of the moment, but that situation comes about because of the poor pass and then even poorer piece of decision making.
The third is just a comedy show. Townsend's first act is to lose it, he once again shows he has lost all his pace trying hopelessly to track back, Capoue fails hopelessly got get across, and then there is Kaboul... Following in the finest traditions of his nations armed forces and retreating at great pace, so much so he escorts Moreno all the way to the edge of our box and helpfully shows him a clear path to goal... Just absolutely woeful all round.
There are a lot of things I hope Poch takes from this game. He will hopefully be able to make better, possibly final decisions on some of these players, and also I would hope can see where we are lacking still. For starters a central midfielder who can take the game by the scruff of the neck, and more pace and threat in the four attacking positions. I'm not even going to comment on the defenders...
Much to do, the hard work starts now.
Individual appraisals:
Lloris - Innocent bystander for the most part. A couple of smart saves, most notably from Balotelli. However is his distribution was a little iffy and there was one moment he came out, gave it straight to them and should have been punished.
Dier - Found things a bit tougher today, especially second half. Maybe a bridge too far at this stage.
Kaboul - What needs to be said? Quite clearly isn't going to go back to the presence of old. Tentative, making silly mistakes and seems to have regressed back to his first spell at the club in terms of reading the game.
Vertonghen - Didn't really inspire confidence but hard to critique, my eyes were on others fucking up left, right and centre to be honest.
Rose - Solid game. Didn't have a great deal to do down his flank for the most part. Was about the only one who showed any desire to pass and move (he ended up in the No.10 position edge of the box to receive the ball on three occasions), if only others had done the same. I wouldn't say he was at fault for the first goal, he was out of position after pushing forward to compete in the air for the ball and there was at least three players covering across behind him to mop up.
Capoue - A very, very poor game. Goals one and two I feel he is mostly culpable. There were warning signs from early on, the Balotelli headed chance he failed three times in the build up to take up a position in front of the defence to snuff out any danger and to track runners, and it carried on from there. From that game today it would be hard not to form an impression that in the easy games where he can stroll around, play a few passes and make a few interceptions he will look fantastic yet in the harder games and when the going gets tough he goes missing... We'll see and its up to him to prove otherwise. Could be an important member of this team, but has to step up to the plate in games like this.
Bentaleb - Whilst I thought he was ok I don't think he really had any great impact. Better than Capoue in my opinion. Wasn't the game for him though, as I said I would picked a more conservative and defensive central midfield so that we were primarily defensively solid.
Eriksen - Awful in all aspects of his play.
Lamela - As bad as Eriksen. As I have said a couple of times on here today, he is as bad as Townsend when it comes to his dribbling. Throughout his Spurs career so far whenever he has tried to dribble and take on the opposition he has usually lost the ball because he doesn't have the strength to hold them off nor the bit of explosiveness to get away from them. This might go against the widely held view of him, but I don't think he is a good dribbler. Especially not in tight spaces. He needs to stick to pass and move, quick interchanges and clever movement. You cannot fault his workrate but we shouldn't hide away from the fact that his decision making needs to improve and he needs to be more selective and at times hold on to the ball better.
Chadli - Should probably have scored, although he had to readjust for the bounce of the ball. At times did ok, not really involved enough though in my opinion. Who was for our team though...
Adebayor - There wasn't a problem with his workrate, but he seemed to have completely lost his head and was making bad decisions throughout and silly errors and was a frustrating figure. Another who could/should have scored with one of the few real chances we created.
Subs:
Townsend - His own worst enemy really. His dribbling ability has lost most threat because he has lost some of his pace. Aside from getting fitter and sharper, he has to knuckle down and be more of a team player if he wants a future here. Time is running out...
Dembele - I'm not going to read too much into his game, 'Pool sat back for the last 15-20 mins and just let us have the ball.
Davies - N/a.
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