Ratings vs Stoke

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Motm all ur mums

 

[Lufti]

Fans were great, just a shame they had to ruin it with the Wenger/Saville song imo

 

[CAPO]

I have voted Alli for two goals and a great all round performance but Lamela's progress since the first Stoke game is simply amazing. I was happy to see him go in the summer window (to the extent i texted my mate in celebration when i thought he was going Italy/Marseille!) he came on in that game on 65 mins for Kane and was woeful IIRC, couldn't keep hold of the ball and contributed heavily to us conceding 2 goals to draw 2-2. I couldnt wait to see the back of him. Now he's one of our most important players and we miss him badly when he doesn't play. Massive credit to the club for the change in him, but more credit to himself for not letting the boo boys beat him (myself included). I think he will continue to improve over the coming seasons. I would have accepted 10M for him in the summer window and wouldnt consider selling him at any cost now!

 

[Bus-Conductor]

The Twighlight Zone

Here's how football works. A cold (OK allow me some latitude here) monday night in Stoke. A crowd that represents the guiness world record attempt at feeding time at the chimpanzee house. Spurs turn up with their talented but flouncy team and get themselves shit kick bullied out of the points by a Stoke team, littered with 6ft 2inch hatchet men who's raison d'être is to leave as many stud holes in the opposition as possible.

Not this monday. We got a feisty Spurs team who kicked the shit (and forearm smashed in lamella's case) and then took the piss out of a talented but flouncy Stoke team.

da da da da, da da da da welcome to the twighlight zone.

I guess we were all getting a bit concerned that chance after chance was being fucked away in that slapdick way we can do at times. You start thinking surely we are going to pay for these wasted moments. It started early when Kane tripped over a lovely through ball from Lamela, Walker wasted two or three wonderful attacking positions, Lamela miss controls when through, Eriksen bounces a 1v1 off the bar, and even after we got the second, Alli missed a good chance and then an unbelievable open goal miss and Rose wasted another 1v1. Footballing law normally dictates that dues like that get settled quickly.

But this is the twighlight zone remember. And what happened in this episode was that instead of us rattling ourselves into paying the price, we kicked on. We were aided by an unusually tactically open Stoke team, but we played some absolutely scintillating football at times in this game. In between some of the omnipresent profligacy was some of the best attacking football we've played this season. Some of the interchanges were slick poetry. Everything good about this Spurs team was in the goals tonight. The first rifled in by Kane from a nothing situation - shift, shift, bang. The second the most sublime pass from Eriksen, finding the clever run and deft finish by Alli. The third starts with Kane winning a header from a Stoke corner then driving himself the length of the pitch to capitalise on the slick break interplay of Eriksen, Alli and Lamela. Then the crowning glory, a fourth goal that starts with some lovely ticky ticka as we move the ball through and round the layers, it finds it's way to Eriksen who dances like a Danish imp through the land of giants and then whilst all around is chaos he produces sweetness that floats inch perfect onto the boot of Alli, who once again found the perfect finish - this time a beautifully caressed volley. There were other sweet moments, including Alli's lovely flick into the path of Eriksen to put him through.

I don't think our CM's where great today (Stoke's CM's actually saw more ball than ours) but they were good enough and combative as ever. The FB's didn't contribute much offensively. The CB's weren't overly tested. This game was really all about the front four, who I don't think have all played collectively as well as the all did tonight with the ball. Every one of them contributed cold hard product. Made good choices and executed them when it mattered. And despite Kane and Alli grabbing the goals, Lamela doing his all round tenacity and creative (most key passes) thing, the MOTM gong surely goes to Eriksen, who once again made more successful passes than both CM's, set up two goals with sublime vision and execution and was at the hub of everything, seeing the ball all over the pitch (just take a peak at his touch chalkboard*), dropping deep (helping win the ball for the break away third goal) drifting both sides, playing a Hoddle-esque pass for one goal and a ghosting past players into the box to create another. This was a total performance.

Lloris - not much to do, some iffy distribution.

Walker - Defensively OK, offensively offended me.

Alderweireld - Alderweireld.

Vertonghen - Floats like butterfly, stings like bee.

Rose - Decent enough, competitive.

Dier/Dembele - Not a rampant day with the ball for either of these two. There was a spell in the middle of the first half when they were getting the run around a bit, but they dug in, and did enough to give the the front four a platform in the game.

Lamela - very good game, had one assist, deserved a couple more.

Alli - Ok, so there was some of the usual fumble stuff and that open goal…Poch wasn't the only one bagging the fucking floor.. but this kid, like Kane, has character by the shitload and a few minutes later he was burying a volley with panache - I've seen strikers (cough Soldado) take two years to recover from a miss like that, Alli took 5 minutes. There's something else about this kid that deserves a mention. He's got football intelligence. Not Iniesta intelligence, not Modric intelligence. A different kind, the intelligence of arrival. He has that ability to intuitively arrive in the right place at the right time.

Eriksen - The complete performance. More successful passes than the other midfielders. Two wonderful assists front he very top drawer, has a way of dictating without shouting it. He's here, there and everywhere, giving and going and then he pops up as a CF going clean through, or a playmaking trequartista playing the through ball, as the deep playmaker starting a break away goal then as an outside forward breezing past defenders and clipping a sweet ball to be caressed home by Alli.

Kane - I thought he was excellent tonight. Kane the uber striker at his very best. Trip over a sitter, fuck that I'll dust myself off and score two more. Worked his arse off, and like all the front four was all over the pitch, hustling, dropping and drifting to interchange and when not scoring was playing his part for the team with and without the ball.

* Eriksen pass chalkboard

 

[cliff jones]

Whilst the negatives in this thread don't match the ludicrous moaning and groaning in the match thread I'm still amazed people are taking the time to criticise Hugo's kicking, passing from the defensive four or even walkers final ball.

There were no errors worth noting, and perfection is out of reach. Defensively we were miserly and some of our combinations including one touch, movement etc.. were just a joy to watch.

Shawcross, Whelan, Adam, fck you all. And you Useless.

Pulls past to Pulis present. It will be a different game given they probably won't come out even if we do sneak an early lead.

But with this kind of pass and move we can do it I'm sure.

Great times for Spurs everywhere, young and old.

 

[cliff jones]

The Twighlight Zone

Here's how football works. A cold (OK allow me some latitude here) monday night in Stoke. A crowd that represents the guiness world record attempt at feeding time at the chimpanzee house. Spurs turn up with their talented but flouncy team and get themselves shit kick bullied out of the points by a Stoke team, littered with 6ft 2inch hatchet men who's raison d'être is to leave as many stud holes in the opposition as possible.

Not this monday. We got a feisty Spurs team who kicked the shit (and forearm smashed in lamella's case) and then took the piss out of a talented but flouncy Stoke team.

da da da da, da da da da welcome to the twighlight zone.

I guess we were all getting a bit concerned that chance after chance was being fucked away in that slapdick way we can do at times. You start thinking surely we are going to pay for these wasted moments. It started early when Kane tripped over a lovely through ball from Lamela, Walker wasted two or three wonderful attacking positions, Lamela miss controls when through, Eriksen bounces a 1v1 off the bar, and even after we got the second, Alli unbelievable misses an open goal and after the third Rose wastes another 1v1. Footballing law normally dictates that dues like that get settled quickly.

But this is the twighlight zone remember. And what happened in this episode was that instead of us rattling ourselves into paying the price, we kicked on. We were aided by an unusually tactically open Stoke team, but we played some absolutely scintillating football at times in this game. In between some of the omnipresent profligacy was some of the best attacking football we've played this season. Some of the interchanges were slick poetry. Everything good about this Spurs team was in the goals tonight. The first rifled in by Kane from a nothing situation - shift, shift, bang, the second the most sublime pass from Eriksen, finding the clever run and deft finish by Alli. The third starts with Kane winning a header from a Stoke corner then driving himself the length of the pitch to capitalise on the slick break interplay of Eriksen, Alli and Lamela. Then the crowning glory, a fourth goal that starts with some lovely ticky ticka as we move the ball through and round the layers, it finds it's way to Eriksen who dances like a Danish imp through the land of giants and then whilst all around is chaos he produces sweetness that floats inch perfect onto the boot of Alli, who once again found the perfect finish - this time beautifully caressed volley. There were other sweet moments, including Alli's lovely flick into the path of Eriksen to put him through.

I don't think our CM's where great today (Stoke's CM's actually saw more ball than ours) but they were good enough and combative as ever. The FB's didn't contribute much offensively. The CB's weren't overly tested. This game was really all about the front four, who I don't think have all played collectively as well as the all did tonight. Every one of them contributed cold hard product. And despite Kane and Alli grabbing the goals, Lamela doing his all round tenacity and creative (most key passes) thing, the MOTM gong surely goes to Eriksen, who once again made more successful passes than both CM's, set up two goals with sublime vision and execution and was at the hub of everything, seeing the ball all over the pitch (just take a peak at his touch chalkboard*), dropping deep (helping win the ball for the break away third goal) drifting both sides, playing a Hoddle-esque pass for one goal and a ghosting past players into the box to create another. This was a total performance.

Lloris - not much to do, some iffy distribution.

Walker - Defensively OK, offensively offended me.

Alderweireld - Alderweireld.

Vertonghen - Floats like butterfly, stings like bee.

Rose - Decent enough, competitive.

Dier - Dembele - Not a rampant day for either of these two. There was a spell in the middle of the first half when they were getting the run around a bit, but they dug in, and did enough to give the the front four a platform.

Lamela - very good game, had one assist, deserved a couple more.

Alli - Ok, so there was some of the usual fumble stuff and that open goal…Poch wasn't the only one bagging the fucking floor.. but this kid, like Kane, has character by the shitload and a few minutes later he was burying a volley with panache - I've seen strikers (cough Soldado) take two years to recover from a miss like that, Alli took 5 minutes. There's something else about this kid that deserves a mention. He's got football intelligence. Not Iniesta intelligence, not Modric intelligence. A different kind, the intelligence of arrival. He has that ability to intuitively arrive in the right place at the right time.

Eriksen - The complete performance. More successful passes than the other midfielders. Two wonderful assists front he very top drawer, has a way of dictating without shouting it. He's here, there and everywhere, giving and going and then he pops up as a CF going clean through, or a playmaking trequartista playing the through ball, as the deep playmaker starting a break away goal then as an outside forward breezing past defenders and clipping a sweet ball to be caressed home by Alli.

Kane - I thought he was excellent tonight. Kane the uber striker at his very best. Trip over a sitter, fuck that I'll dust myself off and score two more. Worked his arse off, and like all the front four was all over the pitch, hustling, dropping and drifting to interchange and when not scoring was playing his part for the team with and without the ball.

*
View attachment 22885

Always read your pieces, find they please and provoke in equal measure.

The main problem for me is the way you benchmark. You expect the world. You also don't take into account opposition strengths, writing as if they are passive, and just there to make up the numbers. Last week you were very critical because we were all square with fifth placed United after an hour. They'd had no chances and we'd created one platinum and two silvers.

Stokes record at home is pretty good. Whilst missing their keeper and left back they still had plenty of good players out there. Thought Imbula had a few good moments and so he should, but overall Mousa did him. Arne played on the left and he's a real threat. But Walker played him superbly, OK defensively?? Too grudging.

Yes, they are more open these days, but so are most teams at home when they fall a goal behind nice and early.

Keep up your positivity at what is a special time for the club and all of us, especially those of us who paid over the odds for mediocrity for at least fifteen years.

 

[guate]

B.C. I loved what you wrote this evening, particularly your thoughts on Harry's reaction to missing the sitter.
Simply excellent.

 

[jamesc0le]

was that stoke? felt like man city. lol

 

[Frozen_Waffles]

was that stoke? felt like man city. lol

Yes, but how many throw in's do we get - wasted season.

In all seriousness though that was pretty much top draw stuff, the more I watch Spurs the more I think this I am dreaming. Or I am dead, reality really has to come in to question, when one week we beat United 3-0 and the next we dispatch Stoke away from home like they were a conference team.

I went for Dier, as personally I thought his battle (winning of) with Imbula was instrumental to us eventually dominating the game. Eriksen was brilliant (again), Lamela and Alli impressive, but especially Kane, that was pretty much a perfect 10 from him, he did everything, he was only a goal away from that perfect score, immense performance as a striker.

But week in week out these match ratings threads are getting more and more pointless as we really are just one team.

 

[fortworthspur]

everyone was good but my word Alli is something special.

 

[EastLondonYid]

MOM ...ALL 11

Closely followed by Cesc wanker Fabregas....having to grit his teeth and discuss how brilliant we were ....fucking donut.

 

[EastLondonYid]

Always read your pieces, find they please and provoke in equal measure.

The main problem for me is the way you benchmark. You expect the world. You also don't take into account opposition strengths, writing as if they are passive, and just there to make up the numbers. Last week you were very critical because we were all square with fifth placed United after an hour. They'd had no chances and we'd created one platinum and two silvers.

Stokes record at home is pretty good. Whilst missing their keeper and left back they still had plenty of good players out there. Thought Imbula had a few good moments and so he should, but overall Mousa did him. Arne played on the left and he's a real threat. But Walker played him superbly, OK defensively?? Too grudging.

Yes, they are more open these days, but so are most teams at home when they fall a goal behind nice and early.

Keep up your positivity at what is a special time for the club and all of us, especially those of us who paid over the odds for mediocrity for at least fifteen years.

Well said M8


Walker has been a monster this season...i love the guy....yes does often play the wrong final ball, ......

But when was the last time he hasn't owned his direct opponent??...Walker deserves abit more respect and credit.

 

[TH1239]

What a fantastic performance. I absolutely loved seeing Poch's passion on the touchline when we missed a few easy chances. His reaction when Alli missed was absolutely classic. On the ground pounding the grass with his fist. I love that kind of passion in a manager and his players responded by killing the game off soon after.

We are undoubtedly the best team in the league. Had this starting XI played the whole season, we'd have won the title in a walk.

 

[alexis]

Fans were great, just a shame they had to ruin it with the Wenger/Saville song imo

dont like the shit song either its embarrassing

 

[Col_M]

Shout out to Danny Rose. Booed throughout the game and kept his chest puffed out and remained totally professional. Even his penalty trip passed relatively fuss free.

I also think he reached double figures in cheating the ball today. #ChestMate

 

[sparx100]

Absolutely fantastic performance from the lads. To go to Stoke and absolutely smash them up 4-0 is incredible.

My MOTM was Lamela. I think his attitude along with the other 3 in pressing and harassing the opposition was incredible. He has become one of the most important players in the team.

Special times.

 

[Col_M]

was that stoke? felt like man city. lol

shots on target faced? I hope that's the lowest score ?

Also some past. Ha pions hit 100 goals n a season didn't they, that's incredible.

 

[onthetwo]

For the first time in nearly 44 years of supporting Spurs I can't see a weakness in the first team. Best move of the match was the buildup to the Ali miss, ironically but the speed and power of the team is like nothing I've seen before.
I'm a nervous wreck....ffs

 

[THFCSPURS19]

The Twighlight Zone

Here's how football works. A cold (OK allow me some latitude here) monday night in Stoke. A crowd that represents the guiness world record attempt at feeding time at the chimpanzee house. Spurs turn up with their talented but flouncy team and get themselves shit kick bullied out of the points by a Stoke team, littered with 6ft 2inch hatchet men who's raison d'être is to leave as many stud holes in the opposition as possible.

Not this monday. We got a feisty Spurs team who kicked the shit (and forearm smashed in lamella's case) and then took the piss out of a talented but flouncy Stoke team.

da da da da, da da da da welcome to the twighlight zone.

I guess we were all getting a bit concerned that chance after chance was being fucked away in that slapdick way we can do at times. You start thinking surely we are going to pay for these wasted moments. It started early when Kane tripped over a lovely through ball from Lamela, Walker wasted two or three wonderful attacking positions, Lamela miss controls when through, Eriksen bounces a 1v1 off the bar, and even after we got the second, Alli missed a good chance and then an unbelievable open goal miss and Rose wasted another 1v1. Footballing law normally dictates that dues like that get settled quickly.

But this is the twighlight zone remember. And what happened in this episode was that instead of us rattling ourselves into paying the price, we kicked on. We were aided by an unusually tactically open Stoke team, but we played some absolutely scintillating football at times in this game. In between some of the omnipresent profligacy was some of the best attacking football we've played this season. Some of the interchanges were slick poetry. Everything good about this Spurs team was in the goals tonight. The first rifled in by Kane from a nothing situation - shift, shift, bang. The second the most sublime pass from Eriksen, finding the clever run and deft finish by Alli. The third starts with Kane winning a header from a Stoke corner then driving himself the length of the pitch to capitalise on the slick break interplay of Eriksen, Alli and Lamela. Then the crowning glory, a fourth goal that starts with some lovely ticky ticka as we move the ball through and round the layers, it finds it's way to Eriksen who dances like a Danish imp through the land of giants and then whilst all around is chaos he produces sweetness that floats inch perfect onto the boot of Alli, who once again found the perfect finish - this time a beautifully caressed volley. There were other sweet moments, including Alli's lovely flick into the path of Eriksen to put him through.

I don't think our CM's where great today (Stoke's CM's actually saw more ball than ours) but they were good enough and combative as ever. The FB's didn't contribute much offensively. The CB's weren't overly tested. This game was really all about the front four, who I don't think have all played collectively as well as the all did tonight with the ball. Every one of them contributed cold hard product. Made good choices and executed them when it mattered. And despite Kane and Alli grabbing the goals, Lamela doing his all round tenacity and creative (most key passes) thing, the MOTM gong surely goes to Eriksen, who once again made more successful passes than both CM's, set up two goals with sublime vision and execution and was at the hub of everything, seeing the ball all over the pitch (just take a peak at his touch chalkboard*), dropping deep (helping win the ball for the break away third goal) drifting both sides, playing a Hoddle-esque pass for one goal and a ghosting past players into the box to create another. This was a total performance.

Lloris - not much to do, some iffy distribution.

Walker - Defensively OK, offensively offended me.

Alderweireld - Alderweireld.

Vertonghen - Floats like butterfly, stings like bee.

Rose - Decent enough, competitive.

Dier/Dembele - Not a rampant day with the ball for either of these two. There was a spell in the middle of the first half when they were getting the run around a bit, but they dug in, and did enough to give the the front four a platform in the game.

Lamela - very good game, had one assist, deserved a couple more.

Alli - Ok, so there was some of the usual fumble stuff and that open goal…Poch wasn't the only one bagging the fucking floor.. but this kid, like Kane, has character by the shitload and a few minutes later he was burying a volley with panache - I've seen strikers (cough Soldado) take two years to recover from a miss like that, Alli took 5 minutes. There's something else about this kid that deserves a mention. He's got football intelligence. Not Iniesta intelligence, not Modric intelligence. A different kind, the intelligence of arrival. He has that ability to intuitively arrive in the right place at the right time.

Eriksen - The complete performance. More successful passes than the other midfielders. Two wonderful assists front he very top drawer, has a way of dictating without shouting it. He's here, there and everywhere, giving and going and then he pops up as a CF going clean through, or a playmaking trequartista playing the through ball, as the deep playmaker starting a break away goal then as an outside forward breezing past defenders and clipping a sweet ball to be caressed home by Alli.

Kane - I thought he was excellent tonight. Kane the uber striker at his very best. Trip over a sitter, fuck that I'll dust myself off and score two more. Worked his arse off, and like all the front four was all over the pitch, hustling, dropping and drifting to interchange and when not scoring was playing his part for the team with and without the ball.

* Eriksen pass chalkboard
View attachment 22885

What do you make of the statistic that Dele Alli is the youngest PL midfielder ever to reach 10 goals?

 

[tobi]

Well said M8


Walker has been a monster this season...i love the guy....yes does often play the wrong final ball, ......

But when was the last time he hasn't owned his direct opponent??...Walker deserves abit more respect and credit.

How can an offensive full back 'own his opponent' when he consistently wastes opportunities in the final third?

What many criticise him for is accurate, he's poor going forward.