What's new

Match Ratings Ratings vs Newcastle

MOTM

  • Lloris

    Votes: 87 23.1%
  • Aurier

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Sanchez

    Votes: 38 10.1%
  • Verts

    Votes: 140 37.1%
  • Davies

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Dier

    Votes: 10 2.7%
  • Sissoko

    Votes: 4 1.1%
  • Lucas

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Eriksen

    Votes: 2 0.5%
  • Dele

    Votes: 86 22.8%
  • Kane

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Dembele

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • Son

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Amos

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Undecided

    Votes: 1 0.3%
  • None deserved

    Votes: 0 0.0%
  • Levi

    Votes: 5 1.3%

  • Total voters
    377

Cravenspurs

Well-Known Member
Jul 31, 2011
2,864
3,680
Auier through him under a bus, he had to do the foul, not sure Kane would have got there.

Due to his physical limitations, yes he had to foul. This all started from my point that Dier lacks lateral quickness. The rebuttal was that he was one of the fastest players we have in short bursts. I again said that is not what agility and quick feet mean. He is relatively fast in a straight line, but his hips are tight. Thus he reached instead of sliding his feet and positioning himself for a tackle.

Watch the play again. He has plenty of time to move into the space Kennedy was running into. You can blame serge for being beaten or for what Dier was complaining about, not getting a foot on it and passing it to him, but I would argue serge was beaten physically by a dynamic dribbler with nice upper and lower body strength and that Dier didn’t position himself well enough to just take the ball away.
 

LexingtonSpurs

Well-Known Member
Aug 27, 2013
13,456
39,042
Someone stepping up and leading may, just may, even rein in someone like Aurier and give him a bit more direction to his play.
Well, instead of putting in Toby - which is what this is implying - why not take out Aurier???

I don't think Aurier was as bad as people want him to be, but both Sanchez and Dier had words with him at times today. So, clearly there is work to be done.

I think the next few weeks will be interesting. Poch said after the match that he will be rotating players over the next few weeks. I think there are still questions to be answered about Rose - and those answers may dictate what happens with KWP - does he stay on the left?

And, do we switch to the 433?
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,513
Well, instead of putting in Toby - which is what this is implying - why not take out Aurier???

No it wasn't actually, I've never seen Toby as any sort of leader really. My point purely was that, win lose or draw, we often have little spells where we'd see a few less daft things if someone was talking, organising and martialling the troops. A small point, but it's something I often see/think watching matches, and it's all part of marginal gains to improve as a team.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,513
On the whole it was standard opening day fare. You expect the two teams to feel their way into the new season and it to quite possibly be lacking a bit of quality. This year we've got the added complications of a very disjointed pre-season, players with minimal rest who will need to be carefully brought up to speed, and a few injuries to contend with. So I don't think anyone would be surprised that we weren't at our best.

The first half followed the script really. All three goals were a little soft and symptomatic of players not being up to speed. 1-0 is us winning first and second ball at a corner, 1-1 is a good cross aided by some soft defending, and then the winning goal is basically a carbon copy up the other end.

The rest of the game, particularly second half, though was a bit scrappy. Too scrappy, even for opening day for my liking. We were often forced onto the back foot, stuck behind the ball, and having to clear our lines. Ok 12 months down the line this Newcastle team had a bit more belief and gumption about them, but contrast today to last season when we just kept and controlled the ball and strolled it. That was lacking today. In the end we rode our luck a bit and thankful to get the three points.

The result was the main thing, and I think we are going to have to ride it out in the next few weeks, and build some momentum whilst trying to stay in touch at the top whilst we get the squad back to somewhere near 100%. On to the next one......

Lloris - Couple of smart stops when called upon.

Aurier - Provided an absolute peach of a cross for Alli. That one moment was about as good as it got. His game in general is just so messy and chaotic, and shows no signs of settling down. And the errors are frequent. Whether that is with the ball, or without it. Extremely lucky to not get punished and pegged back to 2-2, what the actual fuck was that header all about?

Sanchez - Positionally has got to tighten up a bit at times. Him and Aurier in this aspect is far too loose on the right hand side. Scrambled well a couple of times though and generally was on hand to clear his lines.

Vertonghen - A couple of minor errors, but defended well on the whole and popped up with a goal.

Davies - Ok at best. Didn't really offer much going forward, and his defending wasn't always rock solid, got to do more to stop the (admittedly decent) cross for the goal. His golden period of Spring-Autumn 2017 is a long time ago.....

Sissoko - I don't think there were that many howling errors, but..... When he plays in the cm2, and this weird holding right hand side role as the full back bombs forward, it's so limited and conservative in what he does. You could almost imagine yourself doing it yourself, it's that basic and reduced a role. In this role he also completely failed in his defensive remits, because I assume he holds fort to cover in the defensive transitions... Well I invite people (especially those who claim he is in the team because he has such prowess in the transitional phase of the game) to watch some of the counter attacks today, because time and again he made a poor choice in these situations and completely did the wrong thing again and again. He's keen, he's not a bad lad, but someone put him, and us, out of our misery. Please.

Dier - usually very critical of him in midfield, but thought, at least in the defensive aspect, he had a pretty decent display today. Especially first half. Looked sharp and plugged gaps and was getting his foot in quickly. A more progressive partner next to him and this was a perfectly competent anchorman display.

Eriksen - A few good set pieces, but thought he was way off his best in open and play.

Alli - Worked fairly hard, settled down after a ropey start. Popped up with the all important winning goal.

Moura - Seems Poch/whoever have decided to try and emulate the 'turn erratic winger Raheem Sterling into a Number 9 or 10' experiment. That one didn't really work for England, this one didn't work for us today. Was trying, but just looked lost and couldn't get involved.

Kane - In all aspects, a fairly pathetic display. People should, quite rightly, expect much much more than that from him. Come on, H....

Subs:
Dembele - Ok.
Son - Ran a bit.
Amos - n/a.
 

Flashspur

Well-Known Member
Jul 28, 2012
6,882
9,068
The Dier love I just don’t understand.

He is slow with no agility. Can’t one touch with accuracy. Can’t get out of tight spaces which is what the CM positions are all about.

Yes, he hit a couple diagonals and put in some good tackles in the first half. He is a great shield when they are running at him...his CB traits. He is strong and powerful...his CB traits.

If he starts against the likes of Pool, City and other press heavy sides, he will be found out and will make an inevitable Dier like brain fart.

Towards the end of the match today he jogged around and for a CDM that is not acceptible. He was with England but barely played so the tank shouldn’t be that empty.

When surrounded by winks and Dembele he looks better cause all he has to do is drop deep and basically play a back 3. But in CM2 he is a liability.

Neg rep away, but don’t let one game glaze over the fact that he is not world class and is not top 4 DM. He would not make it into any of the teams we are competing with.

Well well, it’s didn’t take long for BC to get back :D
 

Living Legend Colm G

SC Supporter
Jan 30, 2011
1,639
6,242
Lloris - 8
Aurier - 4
Sanchez - 8
Vertonghen - 8 (MOM)
Davies - 7
Dier - 7
Sissoko - 5
Eriksen - 6
Lucas - 5
Dele - 8
Kane - 6

Dembele - 6
Son - 6
Amos - 6
 

ohtottenham!

Well-Known Member
Aug 15, 2013
7,497
13,029
[
Sanchez - Positionally has got to tighten up a bit at times. Him and Aurier in this aspect is far too loose on the right hand side. Scrambled well a couple of times though and generally was on hand to clear his lines.
Agreed with some of your assessment, MP, but didn't understand this. Thought Sanchez had a great game. Newcastle had a perfect storm for their goal. A quickly-delivered cross which should have been cut off at the source.

They took advantage of a retreating, scrambling defence, and the cross just hit the perfect spot. I really don't think Sanchez can be blamed too much for that.

Sanchez is young, but it's great to see he's developing in all areas of his game. He also has far more defensive and positional awareness than Aurier. Sanchez had far more covering work to do because we had Aurier and Sissoko on our right.

Our whole back line was stretched and pulled out of position because of what was happening on the right side of our defence.
 

Paolo10

Well-Known Member
Apr 6, 2004
6,179
7,621
When I read things like 'lateral quickness' I can automatically tell that someone's talking 'soccer'.

Dier's one of the 1st names on the team sheet with good reason.
 

guiltyparty

Well-Known Member
Sep 21, 2005
9,023
13,524
Pleased to kick off with a win. Obviously sluggish considering how many World Cup players started and Newcastle had us on the ropes a bit, there were some real keystone cops moments of “what are we doing?!”, but we dug in and got the result. This has become all too regular that I think some take it for granted but not so long ago we would have lost that game.

Lloris 8 - good, saved us a couple times with some quick stops. Looked very confident

Aurier 6 - assisted the winner with an incredible cross but all over the place a lot of the game (Altho the racist commentators kept mistakenly blaming him when it was Sissoko)

Vertonghen 8 - MOTM. Best at the back as ever, his block saved us a goal and generally looked slick and composed

Sanchez 7.5 - good very mostly but a couple of iffy moments (which he made up for)

Davies 6 - fine. Didn’t have the match winning assist of Aurier but didn’t look completely at sea either

Dier 7 - decent game. He’s very slow so is always prone to be caught but he knocked it about nicely enough

Sissoko 5 - I mean, I’ve defended him for ages but the guy can barely control a football and is starting for us, so go figure. Should have scored

Eriksen 6 - off the boil, looked tired and nothing really came off for him. Lost the ball a surprising amount

Dele 8 - good game, good header, our biggest threat.

Moura 6 - his speed gives us a good outlet but too often looks like his brain can’t keep up. Hopefully will have more end product

Kane 6.5 - worked tirelessly but wasn’t quite on it. Did his ‘drop into midfield when I’m knackered’ thing too much and the one time he was in miscontrolled

Subs

Dembele 7 - oozed class and helped calm things down

Son 6 - didn’t really get into his stride. He pressed their keeper well ?

Amos N/A - good to see him get on
 
Last edited:

Flashspur

Well-Known Member
Jul 28, 2012
6,882
9,068
This was a game of collywobbels and fuckbumery as well as some sublime moments when we showed we can play a bit. The tiredness was a factor along with players still on vacation. Football isn’t just physicality but mindset and there were periods when we seemed to have collective lapses of concentration which got worse with lack of fitness. This was a game where 80 mins would have been enough for both sides and surprisingly even Newcastle looked leggy towards the end.

A hard fought win with two relatively well taken goals. I thought Dier had a good game along with Dele, Sánchez, Jan and Hugo. Dier held it together for large parts of the game with his positioning when others were getting pulled every which way, so we kept our shape.

People in the match thread were going ballistic with Sissoko and Aurier on the right side but I thought the former played well if uninspired in CM. I don’t think Aurier is necessarily the constant liability people make him out to be. He is a pretty dynamic right back and he can play but it’s his decision making that’s gash from time to time. He is another Kyle Walker mentally and there are moments when you simply go WTF? However I can see how Poch favours his physicality over KWP when we play against hard men. I think discipline can be coached into him but it will take a while still a superb cross for Dele’s goal which you will never see from KW.

I thought as a unit the defence performed well, Hugo and Jan in particular were solid. Davinson Sanchez is still learning the ropes. He is a beast of a player who has that speed of thought and movement to recover when he slips up and he made a few poor decisions early but got into the groove and was our best defender later in the match. Ben Davies kept his side relatively tight but his lack of turn and pace means wingers will always fancy themselves against him.

I gave MOM to Dele because overall he showed commitment, moved the ball well and found space when Eriksen and Moura struggled. His goal was another classic ghosting run which was timed to perfection. Moura was disappointing. He struggled to get into the game and his timing of his runs were hit and miss. Eriksen has a poor match. He looks rusty and needs game time to get into the groove. As for H, it was another ambling performance where he looked off the pace. However he did well dropping deep to help out in MF and stretched Newcastle’s defence at times with his positioning enabling Dele and Moura through. After one weeks training and a new daughter all in the last week or so he must be a little knackered. He’ll need his usual 2-3 weeks to find his shooting boots.

Glad to see the Moose back to bolster the MF and maybe Poch plans to use him more strategically this season. But I think people may be writing him off too early.

All up a well deserved 3 points and a chance to shake off some rustiness. It’s never easy playing the Toon especially with a wily old manager like Benítez. I thought he set his side up well to press us and with a little more luck they could have shared the points.

I think Poch did well with the team structure and subs. I don’t think he had too many options with the injuries and lack of fitness but it’s 3 points he’ll take. Once we have everyone up to speed we should see a better performance then this. I am looking forward to Fulham.
 
Last edited:

cliff jones

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
4,059
6,512
I went for Dele, looked dangerous and pressed well considering he only had a very short break. Lovely winner.

Elsewhere, surely no surprises at all. People posting he's improved or he hasn't just laughable.

Aurier lacks positional sense and concentration, but a threat going forward. Sissoko is a physical presence nothing more. Lucas appears lost in the system and unable to find space.

IF we can tie Toby and Eriksen down to extensions the 352 looks the be the best use of our resources, albeit at home against lesser teams I think we could afford to play without a proper LWB.

Dembele still has a major part to play although Poch must avoid overplaying him in should-win home games, where he often gets scapegoated for "not moving the ball on quickly enough". In reality there's no enough for him to aim at when we play 3 behind, Dier and the wing backs are tightly marked.

COYS
 

Nerine

Juicy corned beef
Jan 27, 2011
4,756
17,217
We won the game.
It was the first one.
Let's not nit pick it.
Job done.
COYS.
 

mpickard2087

Patient Zero
Jun 13, 2008
21,886
32,513
[
Agreed with some of your assessment, MP, but didn't understand this. Thought Sanchez had a great game. Newcastle had a perfect storm for their goal. A quickly-delivered cross which should have been cut off at the source.

They took advantage of a retreating, scrambling defence, and the cross just hit the perfect spot. I really don't think Sanchez can be blamed too much for that.

Sanchez is young, but it's great to see he's developing in all areas of his game. He also has far more defensive and positional awareness than Aurier. Sanchez had far more covering work to do because we had Aurier and Sissoko on our right.

Our whole back line was stretched and pulled out of position because of what was happening on the right side of our defence.

Both of them tend to get caught bit too touch-tight at times, and susceptible to things like balls knocked down the channel taking them out of the game and then leaving us scrambling for that phase of play. I also don't think Sanchez, though it's understandable as he is young and still learning, works all that well in harmony with his fullback and covers across so well yet. He's often relying on his raw athleticism to get him there rather than being in the right places.

I didn't even mention the goal actually, but that was a little soft. Decent cross but Sanchez never has the location of Joselu at any point in time.
 
Top