Match Ratings Ratings vs West Bromwich Albion

[zoneD]

"...he has been injured and clearly is still not 100%..."
...to how many players will this excuse apply if we don't make top 4???
COYS

 

[dynamoSpurs]

Fuck our piece of shit players

 

[Flashspur]

Fuck our piece of shit players

A glass of scotch and a bit of a lie down to calm the nerves and anger perhaps?

They are not shit. They have had a bad day at the office. Hopefully this does not carry into the midweek game. We need to get behind the lads. COYS!

 

[parj]

1 point in two games against the bottom team in the league for the entire season. Complete joke.

Even worse when you think we took 4 points of both champions league finalists !!!!

 

[mckenz]

In their last three matches West Brom beat Man Utd, Drew with Pool and now scraped a win with us.


credit to them, thats a great run of results.


I could only listen to the radio yesterday but I thought we had the selection and formation right and dominated the game. shame that Kane shot didn't hit Fosters head really

 

[gp13tot]

Was at the game. Poor performance, first half was turgid. Real end of season feel even though both teams needed the points. Second better but they defended well and we kept putting the ball in the air so their centre backs dealt with everything easily, we needed a lot more guile and quick 1-2s and such.

Everybody loves poch but there was a lot of criticism of him and a few suggesting he should or could leave this summer.

Lloris 6
Trips 5. Poor.
Rose 6
Sanchez 7
Toby 6
Jan 6
Wanyama 6
Alli 7. Too slow in his play but actually looked like he might create something.
Eriksen 6
Lamela 5. Lots of fans calling for him to be sold. I'm not one of them but he seems to be more effective as a sub.
Kane 5

Son 6
Moura 5
Llorente rubbish. Another rasiak, regardless of his previous pedigree.

 

[Gilzeanking]

I take no pleasure from the fact I announced to the room that we would concede before that last minute corner , you could see it coming a mile off .

We were so intimidated by WBA aerial power that we gave up taking direct corners ourselves !! We have
a lot of big , experienced players but were wobbly throughout for their corners and free kicks . Why ? . Their corners/free kicks were all dangerous deliveries , ours are rarely . Poor Eriksen (6) has so lost his free kick confidence that he handed the last one to Trips (5.5)

MPickard says Kane(5) wasn't running much . He certainly has lost the proactive dynamism he had and this is disastrous for us . Goal claim issues ? injured still ? lost Golden Boot hopes ? .This is the manager's job to sort . Its clearly not been sorted .

Son (4) looks to have just stopped trying for several games now..Its relatively easy to see if Son is trying . He gets the ball and carries it forward simple as that ..and he's stopped doing it . Mind already on the WC ? . Baffling that Moura (7)gets so little time .

We're just not in a good place atm. Will we crawl over the line to CL ? There has to be some doubt now .

 

[WexfordTownSpur]

I think some of our boys are trying to just not get injured before the WC. Hope super Jan is ok.
Wank wank wank 0 all round.
We ‘dominated’ but from 65/70 Mins we should be testing their tired legs a lot more, some poor touches today and as me and others have said for quite a while now when teams sit back like that and we don’t get an early goal, and are not quite clicking, we rely so heavily on Eriksenand we become very predictable. Alli again offered very little, Lamela even less. Kane looks tired. Son is off form. We have our flip flops on people.

They always looked dangerous from set pieces that was the only way they were going to score. Shit wank from them and I hope they still go down as we always struggle against them.

Seriously though the performance was ok... mabye 5’s and 6’s for most but some of our attacking players need to do more, I know we try and dominate possession but they need to do a bit more with their movement, turn and run and defenders a bit and get behind them, Alli, and Lamela in particular didn’t do that enough. That’s not Eriksens game but he produces and creates something pretty much every game but we can’t have 3 attacking players not offering enough.

Also Poch’s subs again confuse me, why bring on Llorente? The formation etc was working fine and we were turning them out, in heindsight putting Dier on for Jan would’ve been better.

Look they’ve got results against Man.U and Liverpool recently and they had to win to stay up so that was never going to be easy if we didn’t get an early goal but we don’t help ourselves.

I think I want lpool to beat Chelsea now so 4th is more secure, forget 3rd after that let’s just make sure we don’t fucking slip to 5th.

Luckily Leicester and Newcastle have their flip flops on also it seems so should at least beat one of them .

Problem is if Chelski beat Liverpool which I expect them to do we will then need to beat at least one of them and draw with the other. Can we really look at the way our team has played recently and have any sense of security in that happening?

 

[Streetspur77]

And fuck you too, you supercilious twat. And by the way, it's affects, not effects.

If you think I think I'm superior because I know how to spell our players names then you're right, although it's not a very high bar you've set.

TBH I was joking but I obviously touched a nerve considering you tried to use supercilious in your reply to prove your intellect.

 

[Japhet]

Pochettino was criticised when he first came here for his teams fizzling out at the end of the season. Last couple of years have been pretty good but this year is sounding some alarm bells. We haven't turned up since we bottled Juve.

 

[mpickard2087]

When a team sits deep like that I think inevitably AM’s will drop deeper at times, trying to pull their markers about, trying to find space, I don’t really have a problem with that.

And it’s rare when a team sits deep that fb’s (or anyone) gets to run in behind, even very quick ones, there’s just no room to open stretch their legs like that. The quality of what Trippier puts into the box is vastly better than what Rose ever has. Even from deeper areas.

I’m not saying we were perfect, but to a degree part of that is where we are at, quality wise - just below that top level, and I said in the match thread, even by their own standards Kane, Alli, Lamela were all a bit underwhelming, but this is often what happens when teams get the job of bus parking right.

In the last few weeks we’ve watched ManU come unstuck at home to West Brom, and away to Brighton, Liverpool at home to Stoke etc.

And again, we probably could do better at set pieces but I think only the one they scored from they actually had a clear header at, and that’s in the 93rd minute. And even then we kept that out.

What I saw today was not some of the stupid stuff I’ve been watching since City, where Poch has been getting his selections, tactics and application horribly wrong and it’s cost us.

There was no sloppy phases where the game got out of our control, no silly end to end stuff, no letting them have time on the ball.

I can be as fucking as hard to please as the next man, but I don’t think selections, tactics or application let us down today. A bit of top quality, a very efficient opponent, and a tiny bit of luck - even if it was their good, rather than our bad.

But then sometimes BC you can also be easily pleased by spells of sterile possession, and herald the 'control' that the opposition just gives us by default, and a line up more to your liking.....

Look I accept that you are going to have to spells in games like that where you just calmly keep the ball. But if you are doing the right things then whilst carrying out this 'slow probe' you are waiting and then identifying those moments/openings to go through the gears, pass-pass-pass, the right interlinked movements, and hopefully cut them open. Quality dictates whether these are successful, your attitude/intent though dictates whether you even try them in the first place. And in relation to this, I saw a distinct lack of effort. If I thought we'd really gone about our work well, constantly worked their defence and given them things to think about, and they still stood firm then I'd say fair enough and credit to them. But I don't think we did make things hard for them at all, far from it.

As for some of the other points:

I saw many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many occasions where Rose and Trippier received the ball one on one in a decent area. Did they do anything purposeful and with urgency and intent? No. Did they take the ball on the run, build up a head of steam, try to beat a man, make half a yard, and get in a cross? In Trippier's case, no, and in Rose's he did it so reluctantly and so slowly that his success rate from out wide was predictably zero percent. Another aspect of the game where we just lacked any bollocks, and just wanted to shuffle the ball back inside - and no, I don't count one good pass a game (as we got from Trippier) as an acceptable return.

And I don't really care what other teams have done and their bad results, this has to be one of the worst Man U teams I have seen and how they're 2nd in the league should be embarrassing to us and other teams. Whilst you will get aberrations over a season, for half a dozen games now I've been distinctly unimpressed with what we've done, and whether we win lose or draw I don't think we've played well enough or put in the effort or attitude that deserves to win games. Some of that is the players fault, some isn't, and likewise for the manager... But overall it's now a run of games that is completely unacceptable, and shows no sign of abating.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

But then sometimes BC you can also be easily pleased by spells of sterile possession, and herald the 'control' that the opposition just gives us by default, and a line up more to your liking.....

Look I accept that you are going to have to spells in games like that where you just calmly keep the ball. But if you are doing the right things then whilst carrying out this 'slow probe' you are waiting and then identifying those moments/openings to go through the gears, pass-pass-pass, the right interlinked movements, and hopefully cut them open. Quality dictates whether these are successful, your attitude/intent though dictates whether you even try them in the first place. And in relation to this, I saw a distinct lack of effort. If I thought we'd really gone about our work well, constantly worked their defence and given them things to think about, and they still stood firm then I'd say fair enough and credit to them. But I don't think we did make things hard for them at all, far from it.

As for some of the other points:

I saw many, many, many, many, many, many, many, many occasions where Rose and Trippier received the ball one on one in a decent area. Did they do anything purposeful and with urgency and intent? No. Did they take the ball on the run, build up a head of steam, try to beat a man, make half a yard, and get in a cross? In Trippier's case, no, and in Rose's he did it so reluctantly and so slowly that his success rate from out wide was predictably zero percent. Another aspect of the game where we just lacked any bollocks, and just wanted to shuffle the ball back inside - and no, I don't count one good pass a game (as we got from Trippier) as an acceptable return.

And I don't really care what other teams have done and their bad results, this has to be one of the worst Man U teams I have seen and how they're 2nd in the league should be embarrassing to us and other teams. Whilst you will get aberrations over a season, for half a dozen games now I've been distinctly unimpressed with what we've done, and whether we win lose or draw I don't think we've played well enough or put in the effort or attitude that deserves to win games. Some of that is the players fault, some isn't, and likewise for the manager... But overall it's now a run of games that is completely unacceptable, and shows no sign of abating.

I don’t entirely disagree with your assessment of the some of the symptoms, but I do with your assessment of some of the causes.

The truth is, we have attacking players who are often guilty of bumbling about a bit.

It’s incredibly difficult for fb’s to get in behind when the opposition fb’s are dug in 20 yards out. Rose has that burst that means he can do it sometimes but his delivery is usually then atrocious. Trippier just doesn’t have that, he has other qualities, but not that, so I don’t really expect it. I don’t see many fb’s (or attackers for that matter) who have the pace and trickery to beat a defending fb and then produce something of quality. But I also don’t see many fb’s who play the clever passes, or provide the consistent quality of crosses that Trippier does.

And it wasn’t just about having lots of sterile possession, it was about what we were doing the rest of the time too, there was much less lazy shit without the ball, whenever the ball was lost it was regained quickly, we didn’t allow them to counter at all, unlike the Watford game. We tried to keep the pressure on, and when a team sits deep like that, you have to keep shifting the ball back and side, trying to pull them about, but I also thought we did try to play the ball vertically into feet too, tried to make little give and goes near the box, they just didn’t yield anything, for various reasons (our bumbling, their profitency, difficulty etc)

You have to strike a balance between control and risk, because if you get impatient and careless, they win the ball with you piled forward and counter on you, as we know, counter chances are always more dangerous. (Watford, ManC etc)

Although Lamela had a meh game, I thought his selection made sense because he’s far more likely to improve our forward press - which has been abysmal lately and is crucial against the deep block, trying to catch a team before they are set - and he also is more likely to control the ball and see a clever pass than Son.

So I agree that aspects of our play lacked some of the required quality, but I thought within the limitations of the individuals we have, Poch’s tactics were good, selections made sense. I think we went about he game the right way - the only way you can a game like that really.

I think if Kane buries the great chance created by Trippier, the dynamics change as WBA have to win to survive. He didn’t and they didn’t.

I don’t think ManU are better than us overall but my point was that good teams can always be undone by a really proficient defensive performance.

 

[Shadydan]

Pochettino was criticised when he first came here for his teams fizzling out at the end of the season. Last couple of years have been pretty good but this year is sounding some alarm bells. We haven't turned up since we bottled Juve.

Chelsea game?

 

[Japhet]

Chelsea game?

OK, the one exception in a run of poor performances. No point beating Chelsea if you cough up 3 points v WBA.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Think you're really overstating the role Wanyama played today. Just going with Lamela in the line up gives us more defensive protection for the CMs, and we also went with a back 3/5. Dembele at least can get past his man when a defence is set up like West Brom were. If he runs out of gas, then substitute him. That's the way I saw it.

Think we were too cautious with our approach and line up. We needed energy and invention in our attacking play more than anything as we knew they were going to park the bus. It wasn't the goal we gave up from a set play that was the issue; that's a West Brom speciality after all. It was the fact we couldn't fashion much creatively to break down the bus.

Really didn't see the need for Lamela in this game, given the fact we had a back 3. Son, despite being out of form, can create havoc, and get his shots off from distance that can unsettle a defence. Moura showed in his brief cameo what he can do...

When has Dembele ever run past a bus park and set something up or done anything except slow everything down, taking 12 touches where two will do.

I think the idea of putting Eriksen into that role yesterday, with Wanyama, was clever and meant the ball moved quicker and with Eriksen there is much more likelihood of something incisive happening than with Dembele.

Just didn’t happen, but I applaud the tactical idea.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

Chelsea game?

I don't think we played that well against Chelsea. We didn't compete in that first half. We played with more urgency from the beginning of the second, and Alli's wonder goal changed everything. Not long after that, we were hanging on for dear life.

 

[whitesocks]

I thought we were tactically very poor.
We were stuck in AVB mode - lots of possession, but slow, no penetration, and no width.
The only time we looked dangerous was when Lloris hoofed it,
as we consistently won the second balls.

Losing Vertonghen is probably more significant than the result - Dier can fill in, but it means we have to rely on Wanyama in midfield for 3 successive games and he might not be up to it.
I thought Kane has looked much better these last 2 games and I'm hoping he does his thing in our remaining games.

 

[WexfordTownSpur]

Problem is if Chelski beat Liverpool which I expect them to do we will then need to beat at least one of them and draw with the other. Can we really look at the way our team has played recently and have any sense of security in that happening?

Not sure why people think this post is remotely funny. Seems a lot closer to reality than some people have been spurting out on this site. Anyway we will see in a week won’t we.

 

[tiger666]

Not sure why people think this post is remotely funny. Seems a lot closer to reality than some people have been spurting out on this site. Anyway we will see in a week won’t we.

You come across as someone who would rather win an internet argument than see their team succeed.

 

[WexfordTownSpur]

You come across as someone who would rather win an internet argument than see their team succeed.

No I promise I’m not, I really think we are playing shite at the moment and I just can’t understand these dreamers who are unable to admit it. They are the ones who are trying to win an augment rather than face the terrible truth.
We had a 10 point lead and were in the driving seat not only for fourth but even 3rd possibly 2nd and we blew it.
Why are people not able to admit the truth and just say it’s true instead of slagging me off all the time?
Listen I know we have a good chance of finishing 4th, and I want us to! All I am saying is based on our performances would you not agree that we are in trouble of blowing a 10 point gap and finishing fifth unless we change what we have been doing over the last few games?