Spurs vs Toronto FC

[eddiebailey]

My mate was at the game and saw the incident from close range.

The thing that encouraged me most in the first half was not so much the way we played as that we were seemingly playing in the way Poch wants us to play. In this respect Poch may have been fortunate in that the US tour to an extent replicates the situation he inherited at Soton, a young squad eager to do their manager's bidding. Of the more senior players, Kaboul's indiscretion apart, Dawson clearly struggles outside his tactical comfort zone, while Holtby continues to merrily do his own thing, any tactical instructions leaving his head the moment he steps onto the pitch. But Lennon, ever the team player, is at least trying to do what is asked of him, while Capoue is doubtless just glad to be playing in a system he understands. Soldado continues to look angry and exasperated, but I suspect that might just be his personality. Roberto has the potential to become the new Robbie Keane, but not necessarily in a good way. Too early to say with Eriksen, but I have concerns he may not be a good fit; after struggling under AVB, Tim got him going by giving him almost a free role (which caused problems elsewhere on the pitch); not sure he will get that under Poch.

But the real test for Poch will be getting his message across to the likes of Vertonghen, Chiriches, Assou-Ekottu, Sandro, Dembele, Paulinho and Adebayor: players who know their own strengths and have strong ideas on how they like to train and play, and what their role in the team should be.

I reckon it could take a season or so for the dust to settle, by which time some of them will be gone.

 

[worcestersauce]

Didn't catch the game yesterday so watching it now. Really impressed with Lamela, Soldado and Lennon interchange. Suprised at Lennon almost playing in the hole and doing it well.

I posted a while back in another thread that I thought Lennon was one player very much suited to Pochettino's way of playing and I have been saying for years that Lennon is not a natural winger but he is fast and nippy so managers have always seen him as one. I have been saying that he is always better more centrally; when he runs at people out wide he is left with only one way to turn but running at them in the middle they don't know where he is going and he terrifies them, yesterday he was playing like when he cuts in from the left but he was starting 15 or 20 yards inside so was cutting across the middle pulling defenders with him, him Lamela and Soldado seemed to be rotating like a wankel engine allowing, if I read it right, Eriksen playing across the park, I'll watch it again but it all seemed pretty dynamic to me.

 

[Grapo2001]

Eriksen seemed to be sticking more to the right and looked a little off the pace IMO. Fist game back for him though

 

[thinktank]

Eriksen seemed to be sticking more to the right and looked a little off the pace IMO. Fist game back for him though

Definitely off the pace, he'll cotton on though. He's gonna be playing at a pace he's never played at before. Gonna be a curve for him.

 

[worcestersauce]

Eriksen seemed to be sticking more to the right and looked a little off the pace IMO. Fist game back for him though

Perhaps that's what it was, he seemed to be on the right a fair bit so I guaged he was playing across, but first game back what you say makes sense.

 

[Spurs 1961]

What was noticeable in the game was the way Lamela came and took the ball from the central midfielders. Closing down this gap between the midfield two and the front men is vital...plus poor passers are not left with the creative job

 

[JerryGarcia]

Jermain Defoe is a Yiddo!

http://www.torontofc.ca/video/2014/07/23/jermain-defoe-july-23-2014

Journo: Are there any other Premiership teams you'd like to play against for Toronto FC?

Defoe: I'd like to play Arsenal, I used to enjoy playing against Arsenal for Tottenham.

It's a nice interview, he only has good things to say about us but he seemed a little sad not to be part of our team anymore.

 

[Mr Pink]

http://windycoys.com/2014/07/toronto-fc-match-some-thoughts/?

 

[rich75]

Well he's not gonna get picked anymore....

You must lend me your crystal ball sometime.

 

[thinktank]

You must lend me your crystal ball sometime.

ok

 

[mano-obe]

So went to the game and despite there being a lot of gooners (they are like roaches) it was mostly promising. Couple of things still concern me with the mentality of the team though. We looked good in the first half but in the second half the defense once again fell asleep and we let Toronto dictate the pace giving up a 2 goal lead in a pretty short space of time. Same thing that happened all to often last season. The other is that we lack a real killer instinct.

I played rugby for many years and it never mattered if it was a friendly or league match, how many points we were ahead or behind. We went out to destroy the opposition and were always pushing for more points. Spurs seemed totally content to sit back on a 1 goal lead and the 2nd just came about more from opportunity due to nice passing play than lots of attacking. If we want to be a top team, we need to address that and always keep pushing for more goals. If we are 8-0 up, we need to try for 9-0.

That said, we had some great moments. Heavy passing game though it looked a little like the team hasn't quite gelled yet as many quick and back heel passes were going the wrong way instead of to where the receiver was heading but once that comes together it will be very nice indeed. Some of the players looked like they were afraid to take on a defender and would rather pass to a team mate instead.

It was nice to see Lamela still going into challenges even though he occasionally got muscled off the ball and he really looked much more confident than last season.

I was pretty shocked to see how much of his speed Lennon has lost. Can't recall seeing him really try to outpace anyone yesterday.

Ceballos seemed to do little but lose the ball or consistently get into an offside position

Overall though, Spurs in the first half played some very nice football and I am optimistic about the upcoming season.

That's the first thing I noticed with Lennon with his pace, maybe he just wasn't pushing it?

 

[Bulletspur]

I'm very excited for Ceballos and not a big Lennon fan at the moment, but if you really are basing it off of yesterday's game alone, how in the world is Ceballos starting ahead of Lennon???

Bias I suppose!

 

[Gilzeanking]

Just watched our 'good' first half vs Toronto . Firstly one must'nt read too much into this game . The space in the Toronto half was way bigger than most Prem matches . The tackles were much lighter than the intimidating crunches in the Prem ( we look to have lightweight forwards too) . Seemed a fair amount of back passing going on when the opportunities to turn and attack were greater than will be found in most Prem matches .

Very sorry to hear of any player disrespecting Poch . This is a weak point for him . He's not had to work with players that mebbe think they know better than him . The multimillionaire 'fuck you' from a player not willing to listen to him has to be dealt with . Its the area of his CV where LVG , by contrast , is strongest and is a worry .

Ah well , only a friendly , glad I didn't stay up to watch it mind.

 

[TorontoYid]

That's the first thing I noticed with Lennon with his pace, maybe he just wasn't pushing it?

If that is the case then it still shows a poor attitude. EVERY game imo should be treated like a cup final with the team going for as many goals as possible for the full 90 minutes

 

[Spurs Lodge Kittens]

That's not true.

We always pressed well under AVB, the problem was once we had the ball in posession, there was no movement, no urgency. Teams just sat back and got results.

With the Poch system, teams aren't allowed to settle. On attack, 3 players stay back, everyone else bombs forward.

We really didn't. We were never winning the ball high up the pitch. If we did we might have been able to penetrate quicker - rather than having to pass sideways for 20 passes before either Bale or Townsend smashed it from 25 yards towards goal.

AVB spoke a better game than he was able to get us to play

 

[chinaman]

Didn't catch the game yesterday so watching it now. Really impressed with Lamela, Soldado and Lennon interchange. Suprised at Lennon almost playing in the hole and doing it well.

Lennon in the middle will be found out soon enough. Even against the rather slack marking of Toronto, he could only turn one way. In the EPL where the middle is congested, he'll go nowhere.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

Just watched our 'good' first half vs Toronto . Firstly one must'nt read too much into this game . The space in the Toronto half was way bigger than most Prem matches . The tackles were much lighter than the intimidating crunches in the Prem ( we look to have lightweight forwards too) . Seemed a fair amount of back passing going on when the opportunities to turn and attack were greater than will be found in most Prem matches.

I think the other thing is that they are in the middle of a battle for the playoffs, have two absolutely crucial games coming up, and have 1/5 of their entire schedule in 28 days of July. The first team was only out on the field out of respect to the friendly/club relations. They didn't try a leg which is understandable - the youth team did, and we buckled, which isn't a good sign. That's why 1) I'll wait until we play Celtic/Schalke to see if we can get that sort of attacking play and 2) I'm not sure why people are making long posts about what to take out of this tactically. We would have won that 1st half clearly with Sherwood or with Pochettino, the Toronto first team just didn't care at all.