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Ratings Vs Limassol (H)

Who was your MOTM?


  • Total voters
    255

BringBack_leGin

Well-Known Member
Jul 28, 2004
27,719
54,929
Lloris had little to do but his presence is a constant assurance for any defenders in front of him.

Naughton tried and was neat in possession but he gave away too many fouls throughout. Our new young fourth choice centre back is most certainly ahead of him as back up right back on current evidence.

Kaboul was solid, won everything and looks to be getting fitter and more confident.

Chiriches did not look like a man returning from injury. Good on the ball, good off it. Not sure he's here much longer but I do like him.

Davies was very impressive in both directions. Looks a very able player. With Rose improving too, it looks like we have a decent battle on for the left back slot.

Sandro was generally good (one sloppy pass aside) and for a man recovering from injury he looked fairly sharp, but he seems to have lost a yard of pace which means that he's coming off second best in situations that he used to dominate. I hope this is to just rustiness but, if he stays, I think he'll have some trouble getting back in.

Dembele was composed and looked to drive forward more than we're used to, and seemed to take responsibility throughout. Pretty happy, think he's one who has loads to offer if Pochettino taps into his enormous talent.

Townsend tried very hard, showed constantly and always wanted to do something positive, but he made a few poor decisions and lack in end product. Talent is there, but needs work.

Paulinho was very impressive, and if he can carry this kind of performance into more difficult fixtures then he'll be a serious candidate for the there AMs. The freedom of playing in that position certainly suited him and his passing, dribbling and goal threat was intelligent, aware and productive throughout. My man of the match.

Lennon played very well in my opinion. Involved far more than usual, good off the ball, offered a genuine goal threat and was purposeful (which is something that's lacked for ages). Like Paulinho and Dembele, if he can transfer this to harder fixtures then he's genuine competition for the three AMs. Like Dembele, the ingredients are there, if Pochettino can tap into them then he's a very useful player to have. Unlucky not to score with the chip, and attempted some lovely passes even if they didn't all succeed.

Kane I just can't help but like. Penalty was predictable but he picked himself up, continued playing well and working hard and scored a lovely goal. His passing, hold up play and work rate are all top class, and for a guy who's not that quick he gets many chances which is testament to his intelligence and movement. Once his finishing sharpens up (which it will with experience) he'll be a huge threat. Superb pass for Paulinho too in the build up to the Lennon chip.

Very happy. This was a second string XI and it performed very well, not just as individuals but as a unit, against a side who might be low quality but aren't as bad as one might think (they certainly looked better than QPR). Nobody played poorly and off the ball all pressed and fought and moved as they should. Not sure who was in the shop window and who is being given a chance to show they are first team ready, but I enjoyed that match a lot.
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
The only bad point of the game was having to listen to Clarke Carlisle, what an absolute berk of a man he is. He came out with this gem at one point:

"There are white rhinos around the world that would love to be goalkeepers, they're a protected species..."

Absolute ****.

Bandwagon jumper par excellence.
The White rhino quote was clearly pre-prepared
but he couldn't quite read his own handwriting
hence the poor delivery
 

JimmyG2

SC Supporter
Dec 7, 2006
15,014
20,779
Bandwagon jumper par excellence.
The white rhino quote was clearly pre-prepared
but he couldn't quite read his own handwriting
hence the poor delivery.
 

poc

Well-Known Member
Aug 6, 2004
3,235
3,652
Dembele,
Is it just because he is so good that the expectation of him is unrealistic? I mean rarely does a footballer have everything but what Dembele does possess is fantastic imo. His ability to retain possession under pressure is invaluable and yet in so many threads I see he is expected to have everything and people want to get rid of him before any of our other CM's. I think it says a lot when you hear other professionals and former players talk about him in such a positive way, yes a few always say he should deliver more but again that is because he is so good.

I think he set the tone early in the game yesterday and bossed it, later on the whole team sat back a bit.

Kane was impressive I really like his style of play needs to improve his finishing but for someone so young and just starting to get more first team games like bentaleb hes done really well.
 

davidmatzdorf

Front Page Gadfly
Jun 7, 2004
18,106
45,030
It's the pressing that has been making this work in the past 2 games. We scarcely did it against West Ham and in Cyprus. But we've done it near-continuously since the start of the QPR match and neither opponent could cope with it at all. In both matches, I lost count of the number of times we won the ball in midfield. Last night, winning it high up the pitch created 2 goals, which is exactly what Pochettino's approach is supposed to be about.

Sometimes we were a bit passive and unadventurous for 5 minutes at a time, but that had an impact on the entertainment, not on the result, and it's a bit understandable given the match situation. I don't mind if we pass the ball around defence and midfield for a minute or two, as long as there's an incisive attacking move at the end of it. The passing was generally precise and to a purpose, not aimless retention of possession. My main criticism of our attacking play in the first half was that Kane wasn't getting any support: he was generally the only man entering the penalty box and was holding up the ball for no one, because there were no runners. That changed immediately after half time and promptly produced Paulinho's goal.

It was a compact, easy win, playing within ourselves and scoring 3 goals while keeping a clean sheet, with a number of squad players showing that they understand the new system and are prepared to play it effectively.

Lloris - 6.5 not a great deal to do, did it well, raced off his line to good effect a few times and magically kept himself in the box when he looked certain to handle outside it.

Naughton - 6.5 solid, constructive, conservative but won a penalty.

Kaboul - 6.5 also reliable and unthreatened; took the ball forward well.

Chiriches - 7.5 a good foil for Kaboul and a very good performance, with a key assist to show for it as well; I really rate Chiriches and think, once he cuts out the occasional ill-advised risk-taking, that he can become a top-rank defender; I hope we don't sell him.

Davies - 6 quite defensively minded by habit, but looked good on the one occasion when he took the initiative to attack.

Sandro - 6.5 started slowly, improved steadily as the game progressed, looked like the old Sandro by the end.

Dembélé - 7 a good game from him; he looks more purposeful and runs less frequently into culs-de-sac under Pochettino's system.

Townsend - 6 I thought his passing was better than many others did - he did actually help with our control of midfield, especially in the first half - but he lost patience as the game wore on and started shooting from unlikely locations again; one of his pot-shots was actually on target, but the difficulty with Townsend is his decision-making; if he could calm his mind down and improve his awareness of what is around him, he could be more than just a pacy impact substitute, but I'm not sure he has the capacity to do that; good penalty, for which he gets an extra half point.

Paulinho - 7.5 my MotM by a slim margin over Chiriches; once he started to press the ball in our new style, he won it repeatedly and he has the skill and vision to make things happen when he wins the ball; somehow goals and assists follow Paulinho around, even when he looks semi-involved; last night he was involved in everything - perhaps he has worked out that you can't stroll around for 30 minutes of a game in England.

Lennon - 6.5 despite the usual chorus of scorn, Lennon had a good game, passing and running all over midfield; he was a key component of our control of the game and would have finished off the best move of the match with his excellent chip, were it not for a brilliant goal-line clearance; he was busy and effective throughout, on the ball far more often than he would have been last season.

Kane - 7 more promising, productive and intelligent play from an ever-improving footballer; despite the penalty miss (which was a bit fortunate for the goalkeeper, who just spread himself and hoped for the best and it cannoned off his leg), Kane was the focus for nearly all of our attacking play - to a fault in the first half, when he lacked support; once Paulinho and others started to apply more pressure on the box after half time, Kane had teammates near enough to pass to and he made more and better chances.


Holtby - 6 industrious, but brief

Veljkovic - 6 NET
 
Last edited:

minesadouble

Drove my Chevy to the Levy
Jul 27, 2006
749
2,933
Was going to post but, frankly, Le Gin's and Matzdorf's posts between them have said it all. Paulinho my MoM by a short margin. No bad performances, everybody working as a team, and getting better as the match progressed, until it ran out of steam on 70 mins. Frankly, I'm starting to think that we should keep most of the players who appeared last night at our club, at least until January or for this season. I'm not sure there's much better out there available to us at sensible prices when we are starting to show so much improvement and potential.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
You look at the way we won the ball in midfield against QPR for our first goal. Swarming all over them - high intensity stuff.

Didn't see that level of intensity last night at all - but we didn't really need to I suppose. We held the lead etc...professional display was all that was required and that's what we got IMO.

Some good displays though, no doubt. The biggest positive is Pochettino looks like he can improve and influence players.

What's so impressive about winning the ball in midfield against a team that weren't even trying to get out of their box ? two of our goals last night came from pressing them in their third. Not letting them play out. And there were several other examples.

I thought the difference for me was against QPR we only really did it collectively for about 15 minutes high up, then people like Adebayor and Eriksen just got lazy. Second half there were long phases where we didn't press at all until they got into our third and we were sitting deep and breaking.

Last night Kane, Paulinho, Lennon, Sandro and Dembele and even Townsend - who still isn't great at it but who I have never seen work harder without the ball I don't think - were all pressing high up, and that went on for much longer in the game until eventually after an hour or so it did fade a bit, but even then we still kept a higher line.

As with QPR it's hard to gauge where our "good" and their "shit" begins and ends, but I think off the ball we were more coherent last night than we were against QPR for longer of the match.
 

NEVILLEB

Well-Known Member
Nov 6, 2006
6,733
6,335
Townsend lost the ball too many times but he is coming back after last season's injuries and the winger position takes some time to adapt to. He showed glimpses of the skill he's developing and I'm still hopeful we've got a great player in our ranks.

I remember Ronaldo always trying the complicated stuff and frustrating his team mates but eventually his positivity and self confidence came off.
 

TheGreenLily

"I am Shodan"
Aug 5, 2009
12,023
8,699
Todays rating is -

9ptsGif.gif
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,776
99,338
What's so impressive about winning the ball in midfield against a team that weren't even trying to get out of their box ? two of our goals last night came from pressing them in their third. Not letting them play out. And there were several other examples.

I thought the difference for me was against QPR we only really did it collectively for about 15 minutes high up, then people like Adebayor and Eriksen just got lazy. Second half there were long phases where we didn't press at all until they got into our third and we were sitting deep and breaking.

Last night Kane, Paulinho, Lennon, Sandro and Dembele and even Townsend - who still isn't great at it but who I have never seen work harder without the ball I don't think - were all pressing high up, and that went on for much longer in the game until eventually after an hour or so it did fade a bit, but even then we still kept a higher line.

As with QPR it's hard to gauge where our "good" and their "shit" begins and ends, but I think off the ball we were more coherent last night than we were against QPR for longer of the match.

Vlad pressed well for Paulinho's goal, right on the edge of their box...that was impressive. For the first goal though it was just a terrible pass that Paulinho latched on to and had an ocean of space to slide the ball into Kane.

Maybe their work rate was higher at times, I think Paulinho's certainly was as the game wore on and he did remarkably well to tee up Lennon.

Just think overall we played with a higher intensity against QPR - the first half anyway. And whilst we did some good things last night it just felt it was a bit of a stroll for the most part and we didn't need to intensify our play that much.

Just my opinion.
 

Led's Zeppelin

Can't Re Member
May 28, 2013
7,333
20,178
I, too, hope we don't sell Chiriches, and
What's so impressive about winning the ball in midfield against a team that weren't even trying to get out of their box ? two of our goals last night came from pressing them in their third. Not letting them play out. And there were several other examples.

I thought the difference for me was against QPR we only really did it collectively for about 15 minutes high up, then people like Adebayor and Eriksen just got lazy. Second half there were long phases where we didn't press at all until they got into our third and we were sitting deep and breaking.

Last night Kane, Paulinho, Lennon, Sandro and Dembele and even Townsend - who still isn't great at it but who I have never seen work harder without the ball I don't think - were all pressing high up, and that went on for much longer in the game until eventually after an hour or so it did fade a bit, but even then we still kept a higher line.

As with QPR it's hard to gauge where our "good" and their "shit" begins and ends, but I think off the ball we were more coherent last night than we were against QPR for longer of the match.

I agree with this, but it must be hard to keep pressing with intensity when you already have a match comfortably under control. But that must be one of the manager's toughest jobs, to get them to keep up the intensity, because we've seen often enough that few games against top level teams are truly under control because one goal to the opposition can change everything.

So, very encouraging signs last night that not only is there a growing club style that's consistent throughout the large squad, but that even the "lesser" players are learning to use their talents more effectively, and keeping up the intensity for longer than we are used to seeing. They are definitely learning. You can see why Soton did so well last year, and I think this is all very positive for us, with our bigger and more talented squad.
 

CowInAComa

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
7,293
18,237
Paulinho, Sandro and chiriches were our best tonight. Kane did well too

Lennon and townsend were the poorest on the night

Thought Lennon was alright and showed a good understanding ofwhat was required under the Poch system.

Andros didnt do himself any favours.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
Vlad pressed well for Paulinho's goal, right on the edge of their box...that was impressive. For the first goal though it was just a terrible pass that Paulinho latched on to and had an ocean of space to slide the ball into Kane.

Maybe their work rate was higher at times, I think Paulinho's certainly was as the game wore on and he did remarkably well to tee up Lennon.

Just think overall we played with a higher intensity against QPR - the first half anyway. And whilst we did some good things last night it just felt it was a bit of a stroll for the most part and we didn't need to intensify our play that much.

Just my opinion.

But the terrible pass came because their were players in and about them.

I just think the biggest difference was the consistent intensity of work off the ball shown by Kane and Paulinho compared to Adebayor and Eriksen. There's no doubt who the better players are, but I thought in the QPR game Ade and Eriksen were quite lazy off the ball and that just breaks down any collective cohesion to the advanced pressing.

I remember Schniederlin in that interview (talking about Pochettino's methods) saying how vital it was that Lambert "lead" the pressing charge, when he did it others followed.

That's what I saw more of last night than Sunday. Kane and Paulinho were definitely more vigorous and harmonious and others supported well, including Lennon, Sandro (was superb), Dembele and even Townsend.

I actually think Limassol showed more spunk in the opening 10 minutes than QPR did at any time, I just think we ground the life out of them for 60 minutes, or almost until the third goal went in.
 

Supersi32

Well-Known Member
Jul 23, 2008
2,525
2,754
But the terrible pass came because their were players in and about them.

I just think the biggest difference was the consistent intensity of work off the ball shown by Kane and Paulinho compared to Adebayor and Eriksen. There's no doubt who the better players are, but I thought in the QPR game Ade and Eriksen were quite lazy off the ball and that just breaks down any collective cohesion to the advanced pressing.

I remember Schniederlin in that interview (talking about Pochettino's methods) saying how vital it was that Lambert "lead" the pressing charge, when he did it others followed.

That's what I saw more of last night than Sunday. Kane and Paulinho were definitely more vigorous and harmonious and others supported well, including Lennon, Sandro (was superb), Dembele and even Townsend.

I actually think Limassol showed more spunk in the opening 10 minutes than QPR did at any time, I just think we ground the life out of them for 60 minutes, or almost until the third goal went in.

Yet Eriksen covered the most distance of any Spurs player in the game against QPR.
 

Bus-Conductor

SC Supporter
Oct 19, 2004
39,837
50,713
Thought Lennon was alright and showed a good understanding ofwhat was required under the Poch system.

Andros didnt do himself any favours.


We had the full Townsend gamut last night, but the one plus for me (and it's more a Pochettino plus) is that we saw Townsend work harder off the ball than usual.

AVB had a similar effect on Lennon but couldn't get Townsend doing it. Very impressed that Pochettino got that out of Townsend.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,776
99,338
But the terrible pass came because their were players in and about them.

I just think the biggest difference was the consistent intensity of work off the ball shown by Kane and Paulinho compared to Adebayor and Eriksen. There's no doubt who the better players are, but I thought in the QPR game Ade and Eriksen were quite lazy off the ball and that just breaks down any collective cohesion to the advanced pressing.

I remember Schniederlin in that interview (talking about Pochettino's methods) saying how vital it was that Lambert "lead" the pressing charge, when he did it others followed.

That's what I saw more of last night than Sunday. Kane and Paulinho were definitely more vigorous and harmonious and others supported well, including Lennon, Sandro (was superb), Dembele and even Townsend.

I actually think Limassol showed more spunk in the opening 10 minutes than QPR did at any time, I just think we ground the life out of them for 60 minutes, or almost until the third goal went in.

Well fair enough...I know what you mean about Kane and Paulinho. I don't think the pass was misplaced because of pressure for the first goal, I think it was just sloppy - as was most of their possession for the night.

I just didn't see the high intensity press per se. Perhaps we were more aggressive in our pressing in patches against QPR first half...but pressed in a more measured way last night - maybe.
 

Spurs_Bear

Well-Known Member
Jan 7, 2009
17,094
22,286
Well fair enough...I know what you mean about Kane and Paulinho. I don't think the pass was misplaced because of pressure for the first goal, I think it was just sloppy - as was most of their possession for the night.

I just didn't see the high intensity press per se. Perhaps we were more aggressive in our pressing in patches against QPR first half..but pressed in a more measured way last night.

Don't give it up Mr P, he's just trying to grind you down.
 

Mr Pink

SC Supporter
Aug 25, 2010
54,776
99,338
Don't give it up Mr P, he's just trying to grind you down.

Not changing my mind! We played with more tempo, urgency and verve in the first half against QPR. And our pressing was more aggressive and tenacious.
 

CowInAComa

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
7,293
18,237
I don't get to many matches, but I did this one, so I wonder if the fact that I saw it so different to some is down to that?

The main thing to say is the comments I and others (season ticket holders) made during the match was we were disappointed by the lack of press. Indeed we lacked any urgency at all. We seemed very lakadaisacal all around, very AVB. I just put it down to being an easy match, against nothing opponents, and so hard to get any fire in the belly, so I'm genuinely surprised to see people waxing lyrical.

My rating is a nothing performance, workmanlike, but got the job done.

Genuinely surprising opinion
I was finding the spurs swarm particularly stirring at points last night.
 

Spurs_Bear

Well-Known Member
Jan 7, 2009
17,094
22,286
Not changing my mind! We played with more tempo, urgency and verve in the first half against QPR. And our pressing was more aggressive and tenacious.

Totally, you wouldn't get any Gary Neville comments about our pressing last night! Much better in all ways against QPR, and you're right about the first goal too, was just a genuine shite pass which went to Paulinho!
 
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