Match Ratings Ratings v Stoke

[Bus-Conductor]

That was a real throwback of a game. That was vintage Stoke, their shitty bus parked, a little bit of boot left as a memento with every challenge, a crowd of menstrual baboons wearing electric shock pants with the on button seemingly connected to any blast of the referees whistle and linesman's flag.

Hard to enjoy these games, you have to scrap for everything, things don't roll smoothly, and the ever-present flirtation with the unbearable injustice of not getting three points through some skanky moment of misfortune has it's hold on your sphincter until the referee eventually blows the final whistle.

But these games, if not more, then at least as much as games like last week, are what evidence our arrival as a serious team. Serious teams come through these games, go away to the baboon cages, stand toe to toe with the shitkickers, don't get bullied, earn the right to play football and still find a way to make that superior football count for points.

It would have been utter travesty if we'd let Stoke pick our pockets today, they didn't get out of their half for 80 minutes. Even their goal came from inside their half, yet another gift from Lloris.

It's always hard to shine on the shitkicker days, but Eriksen once again was exceedingly good. Saw more ball than both CM's, scored one, made one and was just the hub for most things that happen.

I thought both CM's were decent, Dembele even playing a collectors item - a through ball that - that led to the opening goal.

Poch's subs as ever baffled me. The first one was fine, and putting Dier on was fine when trying to protect a game, but why an earth you take off your busy ****, and not Kane or Alli who were now chugging around on fumes is just daft.

Individual

Lloris - what the fuck was he doing, there was only one place he can't kick that ball, and he choses that place.

Walkier - Marks for up and downedness, but what happens in those up and down areas is not always so good.

Sanchez - Decent day overall.

Vertonghen - Good game.

Rose - Loves to bate the baboons.

Dembele - Decent game, great ball for the first goal to set Alli away.

Wanyama - Decent game.

Alli - Cool head for the first goal, worked pretty hard and involved in some good moments. Pretty good game.

Eriksen - Quietly enormous. It's not just the pure amount of ball he sees, seeing more than our (and most PL) CM's whilst playing primarily more as an 10 than an 8 technically, it's that that quantity doesn't come at the cost of quality, as well as conducting everything he's creating, assisting, scoring. It's like he's playing all the instruments in the orchestra as well as conducting it. MOTM.

Son - Eyes a bit bloodshot, like a samelar hound with distemper.

Kane - Pretty poor game. Didn't work hard enough, his hold up play was a bit weak at times.

 

[Flashspur]

Our fans love a moan don't they? We went away to a tough and desperate and grinded out a solid result. If Lloris completes his clearance like he should have we wouldnt have even been bothered. Get a grip of yourselves.

He didnt clear it, did he. He royally fucked it up.

 

[Flashspur]

That was a real throwback of a game. That was vintage Stoke, their shitty bus parked, a little bit of boot left as a memento with every challenge, a crowd of menstrual baboons waring electric shock pants with the on button seemingly connected to any blast of the referees whistle and linesman's flag.

Hard to enjoy these games, you have to scrap for everything, things don't roll smoothly, and the ever-present flirtation with the unbearable injustice of not getting three points through some skanky moment of misfortune has it's hold on your sphincter until the referee eventually blows the final whistle.

But these games, if not more, then at least as much as games like last week, are what evidence our arrival as a serious team. Serious teams come through these games, go away to the baboon cages, stand toe to toe with the shitkickers, don't get bullied, earn the right to play football and still find a way to make that superior football count for points.

It would have been utter travesty if we'd let Stoke pick our pockets today, they didn't get out of their half for 80 minutes. Even their goal came from inside their half, yet another gift from Lloris.

It's always hard to shine on the shitkicker days, but Eriksen once again was exceedingly good. Saw more ball than both CM's, scored one, made one and was just the hub for most things that happen.

I thought both CM's were decent, Dembele even playing a collectors item - a through ball that - that led to the opening goal.

Poch's subs as ever baffled me. The first one was fine, and putting Dier on was fine when trying to protect a game, but why an earth you take off your busy ****, and not Kane or Alli who were now chugging around on fumes is just daft.

Individual

Lloris - what the fuck was he doing, there was only one place he can't kick that ball, and he choses that place.

Walkier - Marks for up and downedness, but what happens in those up and down areas is not always so good.

Sanchez - Decent day overall.

Vertonghen - Good game.

Rose - Loves to bate the baboons.

Dembele - Decent game, great ball for the first goal to set Alli away.

Wanyama - Decent game.

Alli - Cool head for the first goal, worked pretty hard and involved in some good moments. Pretty good game.

Eriksen - Quietly enormous. It's not just the pure amount of ball he sees, seeing more than our (and most PL) CM's whilst playing primarily more as an 10 than an 8 technically, it's that that quantity doesn't come at the cost of quality, as well as conducting everything he's creating, assisting, scoring. It's like he's playing all the instruments in the orchestra as well as conducting it. MOTM.

Son - Eyes a bit bloodshot, like a samelar hound with distemper.

Kane - Pretty poor game. Didn't work hard enough, his hold up play was a bit weak at times.

Now this is poetry

"Hard to enjoy these games, you have to scrap for everything, things don't roll smoothly, and the ever-present flirtation with the unbearable injustice of not getting three points through some skanky moment of misfortune has it's hold on your sphincter until the referee eventually blows the final whistle."

Now when you imagine this said in a sweaty accent, that's getting into Sean Connery territory

 

[mpickard2087]

Nothing really enjoyable in that at all, in terms of our performance and all the other factors such as Stoke's tactics, the fans etc etc. First half was just flat and devoid of all tempo. Mainly us with the ball, struggling to move it upfield with Eriksen reasonably well marshalled whenever we tried to move it into the final third. Stoke managed a couple of moments of bluster, we sporadically moved them about and created openings, but they were barbecued - Son's chance in particular, whilst Aurier was played in two or three times in wonderful positions and fashioned the square root of fuck all from them.

Second half started off plodding along much the same. Then there was a scrappy phase or two that dragged a couple of their defenders out of position, the ball runs loose, is sprung forward into the vacated space, Alli gallops onto it, waits for support, 1-0. At last.

You're thinking at 1-0 that maybe that's resistance broken and we now go on to a comfortable and comprehensive victory, but no. Almost immediately we are caught a bit open (more on that later...) and they play through us, and then Lloris, again, commits a fairly inexplicable error and it's 1-1. Thankfully we got our noses back in front shortly afterwards with a bit of luck as Eriksen's freekick evaded everyone and found it's way into the far corner, and that was the way it stayed - but only after we had to endure what I felt were fairly piss poor attempts at managing the game through to the final whistle. Often in those last minutes we were left open and vulnerable to counter attacks with for example fullbacks stranded way upfield, I don't think we kept the ball particularly well, counter attack opportunities were rather wasted, and we got away with one amazing moment where a freekick for us is two seconds later turning into a 5 v 1 baring down on our goal that was somehow not cashed in.

It was three points, but that game can fuck off and is hopefully never mentioned again.

Lloris - Incredibly lucky that the two consecutive errors have ultimately cost nothing. Needs a serious kick up the backside.

Aurier - Wasteful.

Sanchez - Pretty solid.

Vertonghen - Ditto.

Rose - Ok. Top marks for really embracing his role as pantomime villain.

Wanyama - Reasonable game.

Dembele - Ditto.

Eriksen - Some moments good, some I thought a little slow and/or wasteful, I felt he was poor in the latter stages and had completely ran out of steam. Ultimately though was our matchwinner.

Alli - Busy enough and by far the liveliest of our attacking trio. Calm assist for the opening goal.

Son - Poor.

Kane - Piss poor.

Subs:
Lamela - Neat and tidy, but felt he was a bit wasteful in some of those counter attack opportunities late on.

Dier - Didn't really get firing on all cylinders coming off the bench.

Sissoko - N/a.

 

[Flashspur]

I watched this whole game me on a really clear streaming service. I think we knew we were in for a game from the first 5 minutes or so. The niggling kicks and pushes in the back etc. Shawcross reminding Dele early doors he was in for an interesting afternoon.

I was quite impressed by what Lambert has done in a short time he has been there. They looked compact and attacked on the counter really well. The side looks motivated as well to remain in the PL. I thought we were subdued. Son's early one on one miss was telling. If he had put that one in, it may have been a different game. But give Stoke their due, they scrapped to the very end.

I thought Dembele, Sanchez and Vertonghen had good games. Eriksen was vital for the goals but faded in and out of the match. A scrappy return to form for Rose and Aurier found some good spaces on the right. Sanchez again fairly commanding in his position if he can get his positioning right he will be a beast. The front four didnt really cover themselves in glory and it was only with the injection of Lamela that the urgency picked up. Otherwise they were fairly lethargic. We scrapped away at it and stayed in the game and took the chances we had. A wicked freekick by Eriksen was all that stood between us and two points however. Did Harry get a touch? Its hard to ell although his movement does the most to upset the Stoke defence. Pity with the Lloris clearance. I thought he made the right decision to come forward but could have been quicker in his movement and then more decisive in the act of kicking it away. It was an awful result after the flapper at Chelsea.

This was the classic cold Wednesday night at Stoke type of analogy. You go up there, you get kicked and bullied and it shows how strong we are mentally that we keep plugging away. This was an important 3 pointer for us. A solid if uninspiring performance but then, there are times when you have to scrap for your dinner, its not always served up a la carte.

 

[yusrisafri]

Eagle - verts
Birdie - dembele, eriksen
Par - alli, wanyama, sanchez
Bogey - son, kane, rose, aurier, lloris

Aurier's defensive positioning is really poor. He constantly gets on the wrong side of his opponent, showing a lack of the most basic of defending awareness.

Lloris continues to scare me.

Kane was awful. If someone was watching him play for the 1st time and was told that this was england's great hope, he wouldve laughed and felt pity for england.

Son has suddenly lost his mojo. Poor touches and seemed lost.

Rose is no longer the same player who tormented right backs and defended majestically. Sad.

Wanyama was average.

Sanchez his usual confident self.

Alli was average but as always, made it count when it mattered most. Typical Dele Alli.

Eriksen was busy all night long. Not his best game, yet contributed 2 goals.

Dembele was majestic. Long may this continue

Vertonghen was superb. As always. Hes already a legend for Spurs, possibly in my greatest spurs 11 (since 1981) together with King Ledders at CB.

.

 

[yankspurs]

Im sick of the Lloris hate. He made a mistake. Oh well. Stop this shit already. He’s still one of the best keepers in Europe. Get a hold of yourselves, SC.

Aurier and Rose were good i thought. Dembele, Vertonghen and Sanchez were great. Eriksen was vital for our goals. Dele was decent. Wanyama, Son and Kane were poor.

 

[yusrisafri]

Im sick of the Lloris hate. He made a mistake. Oh well. Stop this shit already. He’s still one of the best keepers in Europe. Get a hold of yourselves, SC.

Aurier and Rose were good i thought. Dembele, Vertonghen and Sanchez were great. Eriksen was vital for our goals. Dele was decent. Wanyama, Son and Kane were poor.

No ones hating him dude. People just said he had a poor game. Huge difference

 

[Gilzeanking]

Ahh , MPickard has noted something I expected people to pick up on ,but no .

We moved into our terrifying ..not high press...but not compact defence mode towards the end . A horrible middle ground where neither are accomplished . We could have easily drawn this match .
Stoke hit the woodwork and had a 4 attackers vs 1 Spurs defender situation which they miraculously fucked up . City won't .

It is a hole in Poch's game plans . We often don't have an effective 'seeing the match out mode' in sticky situations like this (or Juve) .
Its a major defect imo if we are to seriously compete for honours . Total compact defence or continued high press plz

Yes , a horrible Stoke match vs rugby players . That the ref missed Verts being clearly rugby tackled to the ground in the area is truly bizarre . Well done the lads , but Poch...seeing out difficult matches.... Sort it Out will ya .

 

[Anurag Jo]

Eagle - verts
Birdie - dembele, eriksen
Par - alli, wanyama, sanchez
Bogey - son, kane, rose, aurier, lloris

Aurier's defensive positioning is really poor. He constantly gets on the wrong side of his opponent, showing a lack of the most basic of defending awareness.

Lloris continues to scare me.

Kane was awful. If someone was watching him play for the 1st time and was told that this was england's great hope, he wouldve laughed and felt pity for england.

Son has suddenly lost his mojo. Poor touches and seemed lost.

Rose is no longer the same player who tormented right backs and defended majestically. Sad.

Wanyama was average.

Sanchez his usual confident self.

Alli was average but as always, made it count when it mattered most. Typical Dele Alli.

Eriksen was busy all night long. Not his best game, yet contributed 2 goals.

Dembele was majestic. Long may this continue

Vertonghen was superb. As always. Hes already a legend for Spurs, possibly in my greatest spurs 11 (since 1981) together with King Ledders at CB.

.

A bit over the top mate. Kane wasnt his usual self but he was not awful.

I thought Alli had a decent game. It was not just the running but his passing was great.

Wouldn't call Wanyama average as well.He put in a much better shift than he has in recent times. Looked closer to his original self.

Also disagree with Rose assessment. A good performance from him after a long time. Have seen much better performances from him but he showed glimpses of why on top form he'd play ahead of Davies.

Son could have finished better but he definitely hasnt lost his mojo. He tends to go through these short patches. He'll be back firing next game.

Also have to say Aurier's crossing was much better in this game. He generally tends to hit it aimlessly. But this time (although the crosses didnt find our players) he was putting more thought into it.

 

[BringBack_leGin]

Im sick of the Lloris hate. He made a mistake. Oh well. Stop this shit already. He’s still one of the best keepers in Europe. Get a hold of yourselves, SC.

Aurier and Rose were good i thought. Dembele, Vertonghen and Sanchez were great. Eriksen was vital for our goals. Dele was decent. Wanyama, Son and Kane were poor.

I wouldn’t say anyone hates him. I personally love the guy, but this season he has probably made more errors leading to goals than every other season combined. Perhaps it’s just a bad season and come August he’s back to his best, but perhaps it’s a sign that with Vorm’s contract up this summer we should take the opportunity to buy genuine competition, not just a reserve, for Lloris...

 

[blackburn]

Agree entirely, Lloris has been fantastic for us but he is making far too many mistakes. If we are going to kick on to the next level we need to be ruthless, I would sell Vorm and bring in direct competition to Hugo, after all we have it in every other position.

Yesterday was ugly to watch but in the not too distant past we'd have succumbed, the spirit at the club is the best I've known. Looks like a good time to play City next week.

 

[danielneeds]

Im sick of the Lloris hate. He made a mistake. Oh well. Stop this shit already. He’s still one of the best keepers in Europe. Get a hold of yourselves, SC.

Aurier and Rose were good i thought. Dembele, Vertonghen and Sanchez were great. Eriksen was vital for our goals. Dele was decent. Wanyama, Son and Kane were poor.

I've yet to see anyone here having "hate" for Lloris, however questioning his current performance level is perfectly natural. He's now 2nd for errors leading to goals by goalkeepers in the PL, and he's made a couple of high profile gaffs for France this season too.

Something is not quite with his game, that is for sure. It's not his general reflexes slowing, or anything like that, it's purely that his decision making that has become scrambled. He's making poor choices, which is leading to him second guessing himself. That's something that Toni Jimenez should be able to work on, although for me, Lloris' form was much better when he worked under Tony Parks.

In the end though, while I think we need to buy a young keeper, to groom, and come in and challenge Hugo, he's earned our support through this rough patch. In the dark times under AVB and Sherwood, he would have been well within his rights to sod off somewhere better, but he stuck with us, and that loyalty needs to be reciprocated the other way too.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Im sick of the Lloris hate. He made a mistake. Oh well. Stop this shit already. He’s still one of the best keepers in Europe. Get a hold of yourselves, SC.

Aurier and Rose were good i thought. Dembele, Vertonghen and Sanchez were great. Eriksen was vital for our goals. Dele was decent. Wanyama, Son and Kane were poor.

Yankspurs telling everyone else to 'Get a hold of yourselves'. What a moment.

 

[danielneeds]

Yankspurs telling everyone else to 'Get a hold of yourselves'. What a moment.

It's akin to the boy who cried wolf deciding, on a whim, to join on a 6-month conservation project in the Yukon, to protect wolf populations.

 

[parj]

MotM Eriksen. If he didn't score then it was Dembele but the importance of composure when you not playing well to take the first goal and then put in the perfect cross that still bends into the far post. That's when top players stand up.

Dembele, Verts and Sanchez were standout performers today.

Front 4 were poor for most of the game, apart from 3 moments. Alli assist to Eriksen, Eriksen free kick and Son chance.

Rose and Aurier were poor. I can't believe professionals can't put crosses into the box in between 6 yard box and penalty spot. It's shocking

Lloris is going through a tough patch but that's how the best goalies are made. They get through this patch.

We won playing shit. I'm happy.

 

[parj]

Lol...I swear shadydan must be watching me for posts. Usually first one to rate me "wtf" within a minute ?

 

[Shadydan]

@parj Mate i dont even know who you are, gave you a heart in your next post, that better?

 

[yankspurs]

It's akin to the boy who cried wolf deciding, on a whim, to join on a 6-month conservation project in the Yukon, to protect wolf populations.

People are killing one of the best keepers in Europe because of a howler. It’s absurd. I’m not wrong on this.

 

[parj]

@parj Mate i dont even know who you are, gave you a heart in your next post, that better?

Id rather you tell me what was "wtf" about the post?