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Match Ratings Ratings vs City

MOTM

  • Lloris

    Votes: 34 9.3%
  • Walker-Peters

    Votes: 25 6.8%
  • Sanchez

    Votes: 32 8.7%
  • Alderweireld

    Votes: 19 5.2%
  • Rose

    Votes: 5 1.4%
  • Sissoko

    Votes: 3 0.8%
  • Ndombele

    Votes: 17 4.6%
  • Winks

    Votes: 3 0.8%
  • Eriksen

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Lamela

    Votes: 91 24.8%
  • Kane

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Moura

    Votes: 36 9.8%
  • Lo Celso

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Skipp

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 10 2.7%
  • None deserved

    Votes: 9 2.5%
  • VAR

    Votes: 81 22.1%

  • Total voters
    367

joelstinton14

Well-Known Member
Aug 23, 2011
1,295
3,429
Harsh assessment of Ndombele, hes 22 and that is the hardest fixture he will play all season. Give him a break!

How was Modric after 2 games?

Thought he did pretty well today. Quiet for a majority of the game, but his passes in the first half were decisive and set up little that we had going forward, then 2nd half like Sanchez everything fell his way and he broke up play well and got us out us of a few messy situations. Effective but showed me another side of his game today
 

coys200

Well-Known Member
May 22, 2017
8,436
17,403
Hugely confusing game as I don’t think anyone played really badly apart from eriksen and Kane. Somehow we had 48% of the ball felt like 20% lol. Definitely need to watch the game back to understand how we were so overrun.
 

whitesocks

The past means nothing. This is a message for life
Jan 16, 2014
4,652
5,738
Other than VAR, motm has to be a defender as hardly anyone else got a touch.
KWP was targeted and looked like a novice which he is. Shame on MP for not giving him more gametime last year. But the result is everything and he has to take his fair share of the credit too.

The goals came from the other wing anyway, but Rose had a good game and probably had the most possession - admittedly with the ball in his hands on the touchline.

I'll give it to Sanchez. He is more of a RCB, so was out of position. Didn't put a foot wrong.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,512
It was mostly a carbon copy of this fixture in the last couple of seasons.

City's whole MO are those triangles on either side between their fullback, the outer central midfielder, and the winger. They manipulate both the ball and the opposition, and work in harmony in order to release one of them as the spare man and look for the pass/cross/shot and expose a destabilised defence. It's advanced tactical stuff pretty much perfectly drilled into them, 'them' being already extremely talented footballers, and every week we see teams almost powerless to stop it.

But......

Every time we rock up against them it seems like we've paid no special attention to how they play, and then get cut apart. No attempt to block the half spaces, make these interchanges difficult, we seem to get quite awkwardly trapped in retreat behind the ball but with no real organisation, particularly in those aforementioned half spaces and towards the flanks, and the end result is our fullbacks hung out to dry whilst the likes of De Bruyne just run riot.

And again today this is exactly what happened, for 70 minutes at least (the end of the game we half dug in, their performance level dipped and seemed to tire). People rave about City but I don't think they were having to work for it that hard. I gave up counting on the 20th occasion that KWP was left either 2, or even 3, versus 1 in the first half and it wasn't much better on Rose's side either and he got hung out to dry maybe for the first goal and definitely for the second. None of the midfield did a good job in their positioning or desire/willingness to get back and help out, and there was little in the way of organisation.

Both goals aren't great from our point of view, but were inevitable because of how exposed we were. Yes it's brutally efficient work from City, but the first is just a calamity all round - De Bruyne picks it up unattended beyond our midfield, feeds it wide, all of our players belatedly get back but all get sucked towards the ball, popped back to him for a cross, and the whole right hand side of our defence is asleep as two of them steal in at the back post. The second is just a perfect example of the tactical issues, Rose is left overloaded, but then the pass goes in behind him and midfielders still cant be bothered to track runners and you could question some of the centre back work after that.

Also with the ball we aren't finding any solutions to a good high press and how to get out. What we always see are the back four + cm2 really deep trying to get out of our third, and the other four attacking players all stood up front waiting for the ball to be worked up to them, the problem is though when there is no way out, the ball gets lumped forward, we don't win it and the second ball falls into a huge gap for the opposition to then attack us again. Compare this to how City work, they move the ball, often at one touch, and the shape everchanging and players dovetailing to what others are doing. If say the fullback has gone to the inside for a pass, the central midfielder might come to the outside angle that's been opened. They do this across the pitch. It's one area where we, and Poch's coaching and ideas, looks some way off and needs to take a quantum leap......

There really wasn't anything positive to talk about, there was a lot of utter bollocks and failing out there. And yet, despite this, we somehow managed to keep it down to two goals, and out of almost nothing steal an equaliser out of nowhere twice. For the second week in a row a goalkeeper gets his angles wrong (and then is a little unsighted) and a fairly harmless shot finds its way in, and then a midget Sub just on the pitch finds himself unmarked and leaps to head home with the aplomb of someone twice his size.

And after that we just about clung on. It did take some more help from VAR, after yet more evidence of our set piece vulnerabilities, to come to our rescue in stoppage time, but we eventually fell over the line and demonstrated yet again that this Spurs team will scrap and find a result from somewhere even when it looks impossible.

A great point in the end in the circumstances, and a very decent one always away to the best team in the league. Lets try and learn from it though please, if we want to make even greater improvements as a club one aspect would be to find the solutions against a team like City. Too many repeat failings that we wont, usually don't (despite the last couple of games...) get away with and yet aren't learning or trying to adapt.



Lloris - A few good stops in amongst it all, but did help put us under pressure numerous times and in scenarios like this I don't see any marshalling of the backline/team and getting some organisation.

KWP - Wasn't perfect, made a couple of silly errors on the ball and switched off for the opening goal, however got hung out to dry by the tactics and some of his team mates and had a thankless task when often totally overloaded and under constant bombardment. Just about got through it though and kept going, and hopefully a game like that is worth the equivalent of like 20 games against the also-rans sat behind the ball doing nothing.

Alderweireld - A bit slow on the ball at times and often needs to move it one touch. Defensively was ok, but flatfooted for the Aguero goal. In fact he was as asleep as KWP was for the first too, thinking about it, so question both goals. And, like Lloris, I'm not seeing much evidence of marshalling or organising those around him which is what you're wanting from senior players.

Sanchez - Shaky first half, got better in the second.

Rose - As with KWP, not perfect and some errors, but mainly let down by the system and his team mates (especially for the second goal).

Winks - Defensively really bad. With the ball not much beyond basic.

Ndombele - A few flashes here and there, but I think he needs to offer himself more at times. Often just trotting around not really making an angle to be an option, this is probably one of the ways fitness issues manifests itself... Defensively, like Winks, was also not a good screen in front of the back four.

Sissoko - Got a bit better when he went into centre mid, as he held his position. On the right, and so for the vast majority of the game, he was absolutely terrible. Work rate was really poor and didn't offer any help to KWP. Seemed unable to get about the pitch, a real cynic would suggest too many birthday beers last night......

Eriksen - With the ball one of his quietest games I can recall, what with us under the cosh most of the time. Without it at times tried to muck in and get back behind the ball, but often wasn't that diligent and I think he was one of those at fault for the opening goal.

Lamela - Worked hard as per and was one of our better players at getting back in behind the ball, but not always to good effect. With it a little wasteful in the few key moments we had. The goal was a bit fortunate too, but very welcome to get us back into it.

Kane - Piss poor effort. Too many of these games where we're under the cosh and he's just going through the motions. Yeah a game like that is hard, but to me they're the ones that are the measure of you. Ambling about with token pressing and offering no hold up play isn't good enough.

Subs:
Moura - Great header, mugged Zinchenko after that and caused panic, but that was about it and it was like someone flicked the off switch. One burst he wasted playing left to Lamela too early when he should have kept going, and then seemed reluctant to run at all and his defensive work wasn't great. There were three opportunities for him to relieve pressure and counter attack in the dying minutes where he did the totally wrong thing.

Lo Celso - n/a.

Skipp - n/a.
 
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SpursSince1980

Well-Known Member
Jan 23, 2011
4,731
14,438
Most were poor today and lacked bite. Showed City too much respect. And again, Poch’s system was seemingly wrong, and he made very few adjustments. It’s starting to worry me that he does this a bit too often. We did not look like a cohesive unit out there. And had no plan how to track their players when off the ball.
Someone on here mentioned Eriksen off the ball work was great but on the ball poor. Can’t agree with that. Defensively he was turgid and static. There’s a reason why both goals came from Danny’s side of the field. Not cos Rose is vulnerable, but they knew he’d get piss poor support from Eriksen.... which from what I could see is absolutely true.

Toby and Davidson and Danny all did well defensively. Midfield was chasing shadows and when they did get the ball they were easily squeezed and rushed off the ball by the City players. Showed a distinct lack of composure.... which to be fair most would playing City away. That said, if you are losing that part of the battle, show some steeliness. Bite back. It’s no coincidence that they bossed the middle, and you see we only committed like three fouls. Says a lot.
As for our attacking players.... no service, and when they did get the ball they were easily swatted away or swarmed by five or six of their busy little bastards.

Bottom line for me, is that we were lucky. However, if City is the yardstick by which our championship credentials are measured.... well, it’s clear to see from today’s performance, we come up way short.
 

Jospur

Well-Known Member
Jan 21, 2011
1,213
2,290
Very lucky to get the point - but we shouldn’t forget that we had some key players missing. Alli, Foyth and Son - suspended or injured. Lo Celso still bedding in. Vertonghen - who knows why?

City at full strength.

Next time we play I suspect we’ll give a far better account of ourselves.
 

jamesc0le

SISS:LOKO:plays/thinks/eats chicken like sissoko!
Jun 17, 2008
4,974
944
apparently idk had confirmed VAR will be back on the bench as soon as SON is available
 

Living Legend Colm G

SC Supporter
Jan 30, 2011
1,639
6,242
Lloris - 6
Made a vital stop from the deflected shot in the 2nd half but back to his usual terrible self in possession.

KWP - 4
I said this last week...

"I've been critical of him in pre-season and on still have big concerns over him with bigger tests to come."

This was one of those bigger tests, and he failed it miserably. Got absolutely battered by Sterling in 1st half. Improved slightly in the 2nd half, but far too ponderous on the ball. He still has much to improve, but still glad to give him a full season to do that.

Rose - 5
Very poor today. Gave the ball away numerous times, although some important challenges and clearances.

Toby - 6
Could have been better for the Aguero goal but actually thought he and Sanchez were more let down by the rest of the team. One of many who attempted the disastrous playing out from the back.

Sanchez - 7
Sky blamed him for the Aguero goal which I thought was harsh. Thought he made numerous blocks and was one of the few who did well.

Winks - 4
Another of my comments from last week......

"I'll say this now, I love Winks, but, he has to be more positive if he is to step up to that next level. As a previous poster suggested, far too many sideways balls and gesturing for others to go backwards. This boy is gonna be an absolute beast once he realises how truly good he can be."

If anything, far worse than last week. I'm angrier with him than any of the others today, because he is far too talented for the shit he put out. Again, negative with his passing. Constantly backwards. He also lost De Bruyne for both of their goals. He needs to be dragged to one side this week and told in no uncertain terms that, if he wishes to be the main recycler of the ball in midfield, he HAS to be more postive and give more drive! Otherwise there is no point wasting a place on him. May as well have Dier in the role, doing nothing with the ball, because at least he would give his centre backs more protection.

Sissoko - 6
The guy was absolute turd for 3 years on the right of midfield. He was an absolute beast last year in central midfield. So why have we gone backwards with him? Stinks to me of putting square pegs in round holes. A decent couple of bursts from him, and I blame Poch totally for his performance.

Ndombele - 5
Completely ineffective. Not sure he knew what role he was supposed to be playing. He is gonna take time to get the pace of this league, but when he does, he will boss it.

Lamela - 6
Very well taken goal, but didn't see much else positive. His typically rash challenge should have cost us a penalty, and wasted one of the few good breaks we got.

Eriksen - 4
Awful. Has really lost his way since January and will only truly recapture some form once his future is finally sorted come September. Playing him on the left didn't help one bit.

Kane - 5
Lack of service and barely touched the ball. We simply have to find a way of getting him into the game more because Kane is not just a scorer. Whilst he is one of the best forwards in the world, he is also a superb footballer who can spray magnificent passes. Today was a game he could have come deeper and used Lucas' pace if the correct team was picked.

SUBS:

Lucas - 8
Last weeks comment...

"He will struggle against teams who park the bus because there is no room for him to hurt them with his pace."

So Poch drops him against a team who play a high line in defence. Baffling! This was one of the few games we will see in the Premier league where a team will afford us a lot of space to run into. Shocking that we didn't utilise that with Lucas' pace today. Came on, scored a very good goal, and also beat Zinchenko to set up another chance.

Skipp & GLC - not enough minutes.

I've left doing this a few hours so I could calm down and reflect, but, this was one of the worst performances I've seen under Poch. He is to blame for much of that performance today. The line-up was wrong. As mentioned above, we should have used Lucas' pace today to pen them back and so we wouldn't have had wave after wave of them coming at us. His presence would have given their backline something to worry about. The formation was also terrible. Sissoko and Eriksen were completely wasted out wide. As for this debacle of the way we keep trying to play out from the back, I've seen better in Sunday league. It was an absolute shambles.

I love Poch to bits, I honestly do. But, for me, I feel he is too negative going into some of these bigger games. It's as if we set up just to try and contain City, as we did with Liverpool in the past, and I think we have to be more positive than this. We want to compete with the "Top 2" so let's play like we mean that! His comments after the game angered me. I know full well that he says these things just to temper expectations, but I just feel it must leave some of the players with a negative mindset. He said you can't compare us to City and that we can't compete with them. Well why do we bother than? Isn't the point to believe that we CAN close the gap and win big trophies? We just came off a Champions League final ffs!

I should be delighted tonight, coming away from City with a point, but I'm not. I want better than what we saw today. I want to go to these places and give the best account of ourselves we possibly can. Yes, we got a valuable point today, and that's what the record books will show.....but let's not kid ourselves, we should probably left that stadium today with masks on, cos that was a point robbed.
 

Supersi32

Well-Known Member
Jul 23, 2008
2,525
2,754
Watched that with my arsenal supporting brother. Both had the same opinion. Sanchez, easily the best player on the pitch, not just on our side.
Watxh the game back of you need to but he was positional and tactically great

I thought he played well apart getting caught in no man's land for City's 2nd
 

Lenn0n

Well-Known Member
Jan 9, 2011
244
342
Lucus : For a guy of his height he has no right to win headers from corners - but his jumping (timing and height achieved) is superb. What a dream of a player to have in the squad. He doesn't sulk when not in the starting 11...he seems to be happy to do whatever he is asked. He has pulled us out of the fire several times now.

We are missing Son's pace and energy and Deli's craft.
 

stormfly

Well-Known Member
Dec 6, 2006
4,584
11,990
I really struggle with Lamela. I reckon he lost the ball more than anyone else today but not sure if it’s because he’s trying to be brave with the ball or just being stupid? I love his work rate in defence but get so frustrated with his use of the ball in attack sometimes. I was moaning about this to myself whilst watching it today and then he goes and scores a goal haha.
 

Bulletspur

The Reasonable Advocate
Match Thread Admin
Oct 17, 2006
10,690
25,246
We weren't great.. We rode our luck.......... But embarresment??? You taking the piss?
I used the word embarrassment as I was thinking that the footballing world were (are) expecting us to run both Liverpool and City closer this season, but with a performance as poor as that shows that we are nowhere as good as we have been led to believe. So in that context I was embarrassed. So no, not taking the piss. Saying that and reading the various posts, the majority seem to think it was not as bad as I thought.
 
May 17, 2018
11,872
47,993
Two conflicting thoughts:

We were sloppy, dawdled on the ball, looked distinctly average - miles behind City. You could say they played well, you could also say we made them look good/helped them play well. VAR saved us from losing.

On the other hand, we took the very few chances we had (clinical), and managed to draw a game (or, prevent a rival from taking 3 points) that we had no right to get anything from. That's what trophy winning sides do - they don't always play well, but they also don't lose when they are crap. I also thought we were in for a hiding, so a better result that I think we were expecting.

As for the players...

Player Pros: Ndombele doing well, Lamela back on his best productive form (someone can take a bloody corner), Lloris did well. Lucas will be wondering how he earns a start.
Player Nones: KWP struggled against Sterling, but it's gold shiny form Sterling, so can't judge him too harshly.
Player Cons: Kane and Eriksen mostly anonymous. Sissoko and Rose haven't started the season too well. We need Jan back in defence.
 

Locotoro

Prince of Zamunda
Sep 2, 2004
9,326
13,915
It's funny how many people are underrating the performance of Ndombele for us today.
- got an assist.
- most dribbles (100%)
- most tackles (80%)
- most duels won (100%)

Astounding that so few recognise he was one of our best today
 

Bulletspur

The Reasonable Advocate
Match Thread Admin
Oct 17, 2006
10,690
25,246
KWP - 4
I said this last week...

"I've been critical of him in pre-season and on still have big concerns over him with bigger tests to come."

This was one of those bigger tests, and he failed it miserably. Got absolutely battered by Sterling in 1st half. Improved slightly in the 2nd half, but far too ponderous on the ball. He still has much to improve, but still glad to give him a full season to do that.
KWP had a fairly good game despite his few mistakes and despite what you may think.

Man City's front line have made mugs out of seasoned right backs in both the premier League and in Europe, much less KWP who is still learning his trade. I for one am encouraged by his performance considering the opposition
 

Living Legend Colm G

SC Supporter
Jan 30, 2011
1,639
6,242
KWP had a fairly good game despite his few mistakes and despite what you may think.

Man City's front line have made mugs out of seasoned right backs in both the premier League and in Europe, much less KWP who is still learning his trade. I for one am encouraged by his performance considering the opposition

It's about opinions and I gave mine. I don't mind anyone disagreeing with me cos the world would be boring if we all thought the same way, but no need to be condescending about it (y)
 

bigpalacios

Well-Known Member
Jun 7, 2009
2,769
6,980
I wish everyone would stop saying VAR saved us, it was a fucking scrappy goal anyway. If they were that good they would have smashed us 5 nil like they did West Ham. They have a massive financial advantage on us and they scored as many as we scored end of.
Alot of positives to take forward...
Fuck off city you twats
I'm pissed?
 

@Bobby__Lucky

Well-Known Member
Aug 20, 2013
2,933
3,982
I gave mom to Kyle. Thought he did a very good job first half against a red hot in form sterling. First 3 big duals Kyle was up 3-0. Ball watched for the goal though. However was an amazing cross, weight, placement and timing. KdB was the main factor we struggled. I don't think there's a huge amount between us. But he is special.


Lloris was decent

Kyle impressed against possibly his hardest adversary. Doesn't look scared anymore and tried to trick sterling a few times and did. Though once he got into trouble. He looks stronger and has improved defensively. Bravo. Bit biased and skewed but I'm really glad for him mainly.

Toby. Do we call him at fault for the second goal? Or is it the defensive unit at fault. His step out led to aguero being able to get goal side and further this with his gan sau (wing chun style) push. It did look a little offside anyway, but wasn't studied. But had the defenders pushed up with him. Deffo offside.

Sanchez thought did well. Maybe if he reacted a bit quicker could have stopped the cross. Sorry pass according to neville.

Rose was OK mainly no more no less.

Winks and ndombele. Working in a 2 was difficult for them both. Many have said the tactics were poor and I agree. We played like a redknapp narrow 442 which he often deployed against 433 teams or teams with 3 in the middle. Neither shone for me. Someone posted stats on ndombele and that was informative, though my eye say he was well within himself and at present is still adjusting to the pace big time.

Sissoko better in middle but another victim of tactics.

Eriksen.looked distracted in the moments before kick off and never left that cloud. Poor.

Lamela, if only he could make more of his turnovers. Won possession high many times but made a meal the moment after. Good performance and I love the guy. Did one amazing pass over the top which was very hoddleesque. Was lovely. Nicy taken goal. The coms all declared was bad positioning from the GK. However it was the run to lamelas right which caused that position. The likely pass was right the obtuse was left. Lamela executed his goal perfectly and was not by accedent or error.

Kane. Worst player on the pitch even worse than Eriksen.i honestly don't like kane when He plays like this. I miss the old version so much.

Lucas. Baller who is growing in confidence and stature. Came on with a point to prove and did. Such a talent if we can draw it out of him. Superstar level talent.
 

Dillspur

Well-Known Member
May 18, 2004
3,747
9,926
2nd game of the season away at city and we nick a draw, I'll take that all day long!

It usually takes us until October to really get into our stride, so I'm not worried about how we play right now, we just want points on the board.
 
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