Match Threads Spurs Vs Olympique de Marseille

[rossdapep]

For the longest time watching Spurs I'd see us play well but lose. We now have the opposite - better players? Better manager? Luck?

Dunno but going to enjoy it while I can.

Mentality

 

[C0YS]

Positives and negatives. Marseille are a good team. We defended well but largely attacked poorly. As I've mentioned previously the same ball playing defense couldn't ball play as well as they did against fulham because Marseille have a lot more steel than fulham.

We were never really troubled, but the attack isn't yet connecting. At the moment we are getting results, we also know that this team can attack better than they have, we saw that last season. But it still has to click.

 

[C0YS]

Davies played a major part in the (vital) opening goal. He burst into the box, allowing Perisic to pick his cross.

I do really like the look of Lenglet and think he will be the better option generally but credit to Ben for making things happen - not many of his team-mates made runs like that all night.

Well that's why he and tanganga were brought on. We needed willing runners into the box.

 

[Nick]

3 assists already this season from Perisic. That's exactly what you want from your full backs!

 

[muppetman]

Love this

 

[14/04/91]

Oh and the ref was shocking.
Constantly giving fouls for nothing more than innocent collisions, falling for Marseille’s gamesmanship/time wasting and brandishing some baffling yellows.
Sometimes European football can be a frustrating watch.

 

[Dirtysanchez6]

Davies played a major part in the (vital) opening goal. He burst into the box, allowing Perisic to pick his cross.

I do really like the look of Lenglet and think he will be the better option generally but credit to Ben for making things happen - not many of his team-mates made runs like that all night.

He also nearly cost us a goal within a few mins of coming on

 

[robotsonic]

Even if it's in his contract or something ridiculous like that you'd figure at some point he'd realise it's in the team's interest (and therefore his interest too) to let someone else take.

I believe he's currently on the longest run of direct free kicks without a goal in PL history.

He's, quite literally, historically shit at them.

It's not even that it's in just the teams interest, as much as...who would you want in the box other than himself to put away a glancing header or a loose ball from a deflection or a save?! He'd probably have 5-10 more goals if he'd decided when the rest of us did that he's awful at them.

Another unknowable mystery is, why does one of the PLs greatest ever strikers not get better at this thing, given how he's improved in every other way immeasurably over his career? And why, when you know having watched as many as three Tottenham games that Harry Kane can't take a free kick, does a commentator never mention that he's shit at them? Shame him off of them!

The whole situation is just...I'm at a loss with it. He's watched too much Ronaldo growing up I think.

 

[JCRD]

You're right.

I think we planned to let them come out a bit and play through it as we often do.

The issue was we simply weren't sharp enough and Marseille were quick to shut down avenues and prevented players from turning.

It then looks like we are a little directionless.

I think we need to find ways to stretch the pitch as most of our play goes inside or to the 2 wide players as they drop inside.

Which probably shows why Kuksevski came on at RWB, allowed us to stretch their defence and meant the balls were now going all across the frontline.

Need to work on it.

We played way too deep even after they got a man sent off.

We always look better when I seePEH beyond the half way line and the wing backs pushed up and youre right, we stretch the pitch... thats how we should be playing but its safety first and that hinders our performance and our players look just dont look like footballers.

Also it was so pedestrian until we sped it up at around 70 mins. Anyways we won but my concern is that at some point the results are going to match the performances.

 

[Cavehillspur]

Hats off to Emerson tonight. Not his biggest fan but kudos, he was brilliant. Showed passion, urgency and was solid

I love him seems a great character and been very consistent for us since the second half of last season. Gets a lot of unfair flack imo.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

Fuck we're hard to watch live right now.

But it's working, let's be honest. I'm not a great admirer of Conte as a coach, but we keep winning games, and it would be nice to win something this season. If that happens, I'll put my hands up. If it doesn't, then I don't think I'll want another season of this.

 

[Frank Blank]

The only thing potentially saving Son's starting place this weekend is his record against City. Otherwise there's no way he should be starting.

Son functions best when the opposition

Oh and the ref was shocking.
Constantly giving fouls for nothing more than innocent collisions, falling for Marseille’s gamesmanship/time wasting and brandishing some baffling yellows.
Sometimes European football can be a frustrating watch.

And that, my dear friends, is precisely why we won't win the CL. Too many refs on the Continent seem to believe that football is no longer a contact sport. Never mind the group stages, we are bound to come up against one of these idiots in the latter stages of the competition. It won't end well.

 

[Barrd10]

Positives and negatives. Marseille are a good team. We defended well but largely attacked poorly. As I've mentioned previously the same ball playing defense couldn't ball play as well as they did against fulham because Marseille have a lot more steel than fulham.

We were never really troubled, but the attack isn't yet connecting. At the moment we are getting results, we also know that this team can attack better than they have, we saw that last season. But it still has to click.

But we have been really poor attacking all season and have not found a solution yet. I think Conti couldn’t care less how we play as long as we don’t lose. I would rather have a manager who wants to win!

 

[Gassin's finest]

This game is ending in frustration, mark my words.

My words mean shite, thankfully!

 

[Gassin's finest]

Who else saw the flare going into the home fans after the whistle. The Marseille fans had a full on meltdown.

 

[ero1x]

Davies for Lenglet actually worked perfectly. Ben does make quite a few runs into the box from his LCB role and that helped lead to the opener. Lenglet doesn’t (yet) do that.

I think Tanganga was brought on as hybrid RCB/RB as we didn’t have a RWB on the pitch. Romero wasn’t having a particularly great night (he wasn’t alone) so it sort of made sense.

The subs worked very well… Have to give the manager 10 out of 10 for making such insightful changes. Most of us SC experts thought he’d lost the plot!

 

[Timberwolf]

We played way too deep even after they got a man sent off.

We always look better when I seePEH beyond the half way line and the wing backs pushed up and youre right, we stretch the pitch... thats how we should be playing but its safety first and that hinders our performance and our players look just dont look like footballers.

Also it was so pedestrian until we sped it up at around 70 mins. Anyways we won but my concern is that at some point the results are going to match the performances.

Yeah sooner or later we'll definitely come unstuck if we keep playing this below-par. We very nearly lost at West Ham and Chelsea, while Wolves could've easily taken the lead against us. We've ridden our luck a bit this season.

I do feel that our style of play does give us a very solid foundation, even when we're playing badly, though. During our bad spells under Jose and at the end under Poch, we just felt flimsy and soft-centred - like teams could cut through us at will. That style of play genuinely felt like a lottery and I never went into any game feeling confident.

Under Conte, even when we're shit, I'm still genuinely surprised when we concede a goal because we so rarely give up big chances due to the system.

It might not be pretty but that's exactly why Conte is such a good league manager - his teams are fantastic at grinding their way through seasons and hardly ever losing due to the defensive base the system is built on. It's no coincidence that we haven't lost a game this season, even though we haven't been at our best.

 

[C0YS]

But we have been really poor attacking all season and have not found a solution yet. I think Conti couldn’t care less how we play as long as we don’t lose. I would rather have a manager who wants to win!

Yeah but Im sure Conte wants us to attack better than this. Conte ball isn't always exciting stuff but this is far from what he would like us to be playing for sure.

But, solidity comes first and we have that and that's a positive thing.

This is also a very good victory Marseille were unbeaten before tonight at finished second last season. They are a very good team and they have to be respected. So I'm very pleased with the result. I wouldn't have found a draw catastrophic either, particularly considering how poorly British teams have performed this week so far.

 

[C0YS]

It's not even that it's in just the teams interest, as much as...who would you want in the box other than himself to put away a glancing header or a loose ball from a deflection or a save?! He'd probably have 5-10 more goals if he'd decided when the rest of us did that he's awful at them.

Another unknowable mystery is, why does one of the PLs greatest ever strikers not get better at this thing, given how he's improved in every other way immeasurably over his career? And why, when you know having watched as many as three Tottenham games that Harry Kane can't take a free kick, does a commentator never mention that he's shit at them? Shame him off of them!

The whole situation is just...I'm at a loss with it. He's watched too much Ronaldo growing up I think.

He's probably very good at them in training. But the psychological aspect of taking them during a game is an entirely different thing. I also think it's a vanity thing.

I remember an interview he had with Henry when he was just breaking through and Henry told him why he didn't take free kicks. Part of me thinks that stuck in his mind much more than it should have.

 

[mark87]