Match Threads Sporting CP Vs Spurs

[worcestersauce]

I'm sorry. None of us know if Spence is good enough yet to play RWB at this level. Playing well in the championship doesn't prove anything really. It's a massive step up.

But we know what kind of a player he is and that is different to Royal and for that matter to Doherty so however good or bad at it he may be he is a different option.

 

[FibreOpticJesus]

Spence

He is not the Messiah

 

[Serpico]

This was a good defeat-we were waltzing through games without any meaningful commitment. Sometime you need this to happen to bounce back. It’s s group game and we a lost a point at best. We will come back stronger I’m sure. They played s good game - last ten minutes they picked up the pace and we couldn’t react. Sucker punch if ever I saw one.

 

[Spurslove]

Kulu is our best attacking player right now and he needs to get back into this team , he gives us a much better balance . I like Richarlison but I’m not quite at the stage where I see him as the player some on here do , plenty of work for him to improve on . In the short one of Son or Kane has to be rested / dropped for the next game .

Is Harry 'un-droppable'?

 

[14/04/91]

Kulu is our best attacking player right now and he needs to get back into this team , he gives us a much better balance . I like Richarlison but I’m not quite at the stage where I see him as the player some on here do , plenty of work for him to improve on . In the short one of Son or Kane has to be rested / dropped for the next game .

Mainly because he’s the only one capable of retaining possession. Kane & Son are so wasteful right now it’s untrue.
The ball isn’t sticking when it goes up front and the flicks, tricks and link ups aren’t working either. When we play teams that sit deep, this is a problem.

 

[spursfan77]

I think we have. The reason being purely because we have Conte, so the lads are essentially riding the Conte wave and believing the hype. Racking up points and winning games, not caring about how it's achieved, but getting the results.
It was always going to end with a loss at some point as others have previously mentioned, it's not sustainable to keep playing the way we have been. We needed that defeat to knock some sense into us.

If the guys kept grinding out results and being content with that way of playing, it wouldn't have changed anytime soon, that's how I see complacency. We needed this to reset and start over this weekend.

I agree, but it's easy to get complacent when things are going well and your winning games playing a certain way even if its boring and unsustainable, the lads know we have an elite manager behind us so it's definitely easy to believe the hype and ride the wave.

I'm confident things will get even better now and this may be the defeat we needed to really kick start our season.

Let’s hope so. I can see us sitting deep against Leicester again though because their only way of attacking is on the counter. We need to be braver and try and get on the ball.

 

[Spurslove]

I’ve woken up pissed off, lets be honest Sporting are pretty pony, some decent counters but there is no way we should be losing that game 2-0, the first English team to lose to them in the CL says it all.

I want to see changes on Saturday.

You say Sporting are 'pretty pony' but others are telling me they're a very decent side. Personally, I couldn't care less what kind of side they are, and to be honest, I couldn't care less about detailed tactical discussions, all I want is for my team to play with more pace, intensity and threat going forward, with the ball being moved about faster from the back into midfield.

Perhaps I shouldn't say this on here, but I watched the Liverpool v Ajax match last night and I was very impressed with the pace of their game and the aggression right through the side and I wished we could play with the same level of urgency, and ball possession. Their passing was crisper and faster and the ball was being played forward far more freely than we do. This is crazy.

We've got the players to deliver it but for some reason, they're just not doing it and haven't done it much at all this season. Djed Spence must be thinking WTF he's done coming here. Please God let there be no 'issues' developing behind the scenes. That'd be the very last thing we need right now.
.

 

[bigfrooj]

Looking back at that lethargic and pretty stale display the problem lies in the core of the team. Son, Kane, Bentancur, Holjbjerg, Emerson, Davies and Perisic could justifiably be replaced. They all have redeeming features that make Conte reluctant to replace them, particularly Son and Kane, and we understand that - but the lack of energy is alarming.

 

[max cady]

The biggest disappointment for me was that SP weren't that good and the defeat feels like 3 points wasted. The team as a whole were a shambles but the one that stood out was Royal. He reverted back to how he was when he first came. The second goal, his effort to stop the guy was laughable. Anyway onwards and upwards we're still in it and until we are out we must keep going it will come good sooner rather than later.

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

You say Sporting are 'pretty pony' but others are telling me they're a very decent side. Personally, I couldn't care less what kind of side they are, and to be honest, I couldn't care less about detailed tactical discussions, all I want is for my team to play with more pace, intensity and threat going forward, with the ball being moved about faster from the back into midfield.

Perhaps I shouldn't say this on here, but I watched the Liverpool v Ajax match last night and I was very impressed with the pace of their game and the aggression right through the side and I wished we could play with the same level of urgency, and ball possession. Their passing was crisper and faster and the ball was being played forward far more freely than we do. This is crazy.

We've got the players to deliver it but for some reason, they're just not doing it and haven't done it much at all this season. Djed Spence must be thinking WTF he's done coming here. Please God let there be no 'issues' developing behind the scenes. That'd be the very last thing we need right now.
.

To be fair, they are pretty pony 7th in the league 8 points behind Benfica already so i don't think they are a very decent side although they beat Frankfurt they shouldn't be a team that rolls us 2-0, but as typical with us in Europe in games we are favourites we shit the bed. City beat these 5-0 last year without so much as breaking a sweat. Now obviously we aren't City but i expect better.

 

[spurmin]

The biggest disappointment for me was that SP weren't that good and the defeat feels like 3 points wasted. The team as a whole were a shambles but the one that stood out was Royal. He reverted back to how he was when he first came. The second goal, his effort to stop the guy was laughable. Anyway onwards and upwards we're still in it and until we are out we must keep going it will come good sooner rather than later.

Jump on the It’s all Emerson’s fault. He wasn’t good but did you watch Harry Kane? He had the touch of an elephant last night and if anyone needs a rest it’s him.
I would like to see Son Richarlison Kulusevski as a front three.

 

[spursfan77]

The biggest disappointment for me was that SP weren't that good and the defeat feels like 3 points wasted. The team as a whole were a shambles but the one that stood out was Royal. He reverted back to how he was when he first came. The second goal, his effort to stop the guy was laughable. Anyway onwards and upwards we're still in it and until we are out we must keep going it will come good sooner rather than later.

Didn’t Man City spank them at home something like 5 nil last season? We won’t get through if we lose all our away games, which has become quite a pattern in Europe over recent years. If someone was to look back through our away results in Europe over the last 4/5 years in all competitions, I bet there aren’t many wins.

 

[spursfan77]

Jump on the It’s all Emerson’s fault. He wasn’t good but did you watch Harry Kane? He had the touch of an elephant last night and if anyone needs a rest it’s him.
I would like to see Son Richarlison Kulusevski as a front three.

Nobody needs a rest 6 weeks into the season. If they do then something has gone badly wrong with the players’ training regime.

 

[Timberwolf]

Well that was a shitshow.

Seemed like we'd managed to eke a point out of another sub-par performance - and I think a draw would've been relatively fair as neither team dominated - but then we totally shat the bed at the finish line.

My main concerns with this game were 2 things:

1. Does Conte not see how important Kulusevki is to us? We've been much more incoherent as a front 3 without him providing balance on the right. Plus he's actually in good form and playing well - was amazed he was benched for the 3rd game running.

2. Royal. I don't want to pile in on him, but when Conte is going ape-shit at his poor crossing and wasted opportunities, why not...change it? We've got Spence, Doherty and Kulusevski who could all provide genuine attacking threat at RWB, and Sporting weren't a constant attacking threat on that side so I think we could've got away with losing a little bit of defensive solidity. I've actually been positive about Royal recently as he's a good defender, but yesterday we were screaming for a more attacking option down that side and it was like a dead end as he constantly passed backwards or made poor decisions.

I think if we'd started with Kulu and Spence/Doc on the right side and actually given Son a rest, we would've won that game. Conte needs to start using the squad more and take a risk at RWB.

 

[spurmin]

Nobody needs a rest 6 weeks into the season. If they do then something has gone badly wrong with the players’ training regime.

Take a look at the best teams and how they rotate (rest) players.
What we should be aiming for? Not got the squad for it at the moment though.

 

[worcestersauce]

Didn’t Man City spank them at home something like 5 nil last season? We won’t get through if we lose all our away games, which has become quite a pattern in Europe over recent years. If someone was to look back through our away results in Europe over the last 4/5 years in all competitions, I bet there aren’t many wins.

They apparently sold 22 players and bought 9 so they are a completely different side to last year.

 

[Archibald&Crooks]

Jump on the It’s all Emerson’s fault. He wasn’t good but did you watch Harry Kane? He had the touch of an elephant last night and if anyone needs a rest it’s him.
I would like to see Son Richarlison Kulusevski as a front three.

I agree with the Emerson thing, it's pretty lazy but he's got previous scapegoat status hanging around his neck so people will always return to that as a crutch.

As right as you are about Kane's performance last night, playing badly does not always = needs a rest. If you take notice of people in here, that makes at least six players who 'need a rest' and i'd also add that as bad as Kane was last night, he was no worse than pretty much all of them. It really is strange how people can look at that game and pick out individuals for more stick than the others. All of them were poor.

One more thing i'd like to add. Bringing in Spence for Emerson or whoever, Kulusevski for whoever and all of that, does not mean we'd get a different result. People post as if it does. We've played exactly like this with all of those players. The assumption or inference that these changes will mean a positive result is just a convenient stick to use. Especially when brought into a team with so many players who aren't good enough/need a rest/are off form

 

[VoteMe4Prez]

If Kane and Son were on form we would have put Lisbon to bed very quickly. Instead they were both out of sorts and we end up choking.

 

[IfiHadTheWings]

Emerson is a strange one as his performances have been some of our best but its clear that most of our attacking goes through the RWB and he just does not have the attacking instincts to take full advantage of it.

I feel like it would be harsh to drop him but at the same time i don't think we will turn it on until RWB is sorted, give Doc a run out and see if that improves our attacking play. Maybe it doesn't but surely we need to try something different.

 

[Timberwolf]

I agree with the Emerson thing, it's pretty lazy but he's got previous scapegoat status hanging around his neck so people will always return to that as a crutch.

As right as you are about Kane's performance last night, playing badly does not always = needs a rest. If you take notice of people in here, that makes at least six players who 'need a rest' and i'd also add that as bad as Kane was last night, he was no worse than pretty much all of them. It really is strange how people can look at that game and pick out individuals for more stick than the others. All of them were poor.

One more thing i'd like to add. Bringing in Spence for Emerson or whoever, Kulusevski for whoever and all of that, does not mean we'd get a different result. People post as if it does. We've played exactly like this with all of those players. The assumption or inference that these changes will mean a positive result is just a convenient stick to use. Especially when brought into a team with so many players who aren't good enough/need a rest/are off form

I know what you mean.

There are definitely occasions when SC collectively decides 'we just need to bring in X player or play Y and Z together and everything will be fine'. Then when the manager eventually makes those changes...we still play shit. I know I've done that myself countless times - the Ndombele/Lo Celso/Hojbjerg midfield being a classic case that seemed incredible in theory but was awful in practice.

I think it's fine to point out weaknesses and suggest alternatives, though, provided you don't assume it will be a magic pill and make the team click perfectly. Like, surely anyone watching last night could see that Royal was rubbish going forward, or that Kulusevski is wasted on the bench after how well he's played recently.