Tottenham and our slow starts

[Everlasting Seconds]

Its legit

Agreed, they've been shown with the water marks of media outlets. (Getty images from the top of my head).

 

[stevenurse]

A black eye doesn't necessarily mean there's been a fight. A stray elbow in an aerial duel (hate that phrase), even taking a ball flush in the face could do it. Unless we have concrete evidence there's no point fueling the fire of a massive kicking off, especially before the NLD. I was as pissed off as anyone on Sunday but sulking isn't going to change it. Best thing we can do is be as together and as up for the game as they always are at home

 

[Hakkz]

A black eye doesn't necessarily mean there's been a fight. A stray elbow in an aerial duel (hate that phrase), even taking a ball flush in the face could do it. Unless we have concrete evidence there's no point fueling the fire of a massive kicking off, especially before the NLD. I was as pissed off as anyone on Sunday but sulking isn't going to change it. Best thing we can do is be as together and as up for the game as they always are at home

Even playing with his kids can lead to a black eye.

 

[Dougal]

A black eye doesn't necessarily mean there's been a fight. A stray elbow in an aerial duel (hate that phrase), even taking a ball flush in the face could do it. Unless we have concrete evidence there's no point fueling the fire of a massive kicking off, especially before the NLD. I was as pissed off as anyone on Sunday but sulking isn't going to change it. Best thing we can do is be as together and as up for the game as they always are at home

Even if it was a punch according to plenty of ex-players it goes on all the time in training. And if it was about football then it shows the players are charged and up for a fight. Bit of passion, lovely. Not put it to work against the likes of Newcastle.

 

[gavspur]

Fighting over the Eriksen situation?

Jan standing up for him? Kane not happy how he’s behaving? Kane plays and Jan doesn’t.

Yeah, sounds plausible. Too many players sit on the fence, not enough stick up for the club and what it all means to fans. I love Jan, but if this is the reason he has a shiner, then nice one Harry.. If you could get another sucker punch in on Sunday I’ll like ya even more. If possible.

 

[Stamford]

I'm glad we didn't have some of you lot in the trenches.

The most British thing I've read on here

 

[jamesinashby]

Because:

1. Its annoyed me for ages
2. It's getting progressively worse
3. I'm a sad ****

Looking back at the last 2 seasons, and the beginning of this season. We've played a total of 115 games, in which we've conceded first 45 times (39%). I'd be amazed if that is anywhere near comparable with City/Liverpool etc.

17/18 - conceded first in 18 games (33%)
18/19 - conceded first in 24 games (41%)
19/20 - conceded first in 3 games (100%)

* I know this season is only young, which makes the stat kind of irrelevant, but we shouldn't be going behind to Villa or Newcastle. Especially at home.

A real bugbear for me is the lack of goals in the first periods of games. In those 115 fixtures we've scored 22 goals in 17 (15%) games within the first 15 minutes. I know the first 15 minutes is a measurement I've just plucked out of thin air, and there will be multiple factors etc but it shows we don't aggressively approach games from the first whistle

It irks me too. In my humble opinion, this is entirely Poch's doing. He is the gaffer and the players presumably are dancing to his tune. He has done fantastically well in many areas, but I feel he is over zealously stubborn in one area. That is his insistence on a slow build up passing game from the start of the match (often much of it in our own half and finishing with the ball back with the goalie when the opponents quickly press). On rare occasions we play fast one touch football when the passes go forward and we slaughter the opposition. For me possession football doesn't win games or creates chances in packed defences. Poch's style appears to be ' show patience' and the opposition will make mistakes leading to goals. Our opening 3 games have been pitiful when it comes to ambition. Sadly, I am worried the bottom 14 clubs are now well aware of Poch's style and will all play like Villa and Newcastle defending in depth, never pressing but falling back and holding their positions knowing Poch doesn't appear to have a plan B to deal with such tactics. When I think of how we played beating City and the final 15 minutes against Villa when we were swarming all over them creating panic and mayhem, I struggle to understand why we can't play like that more regularly rather than infrequently. For me it is frustratingly annoying.

COYS

 

[Legacy]

Overall, for every premier league club, goals scored and conceded in the first 15 minutes of games according to soccerstats

2018/19
Goals scored in the first 15 minutes of games - 7
Only five clubs scored more goals than us in the first 15 minutes of games

Goals scored in the second 15 minutes of games - 14
Only ONE club scored more goals than us in the second 15 minutes of games


Goals conceded

2018/19
Goals conceded in the first 15 minutes of games - 4
Fourteen clubs conceded more goals than us first 15 minutes

Goals conceded in the second 15 minutes of games - 4
Fourteen clubs conceded more goals than us second 15 minutes

It’s worth comparing how we do against how other clubs start to see if it’s a misconception and I believe it is.

We don't do too bad really.

That obviously doesn't look too bad when comparing Premier League stats, but it makes for much worse reading when you add in our Champions League games. In the CL, we conceded 8 goals within the first 15 minutes in 7 different games, with 5 of them coming inside the first 5 minutes and 3 of them within the first 2.

So out of 51 PL and CL games last season, we were 0-1 down within 15 minutes in 11 of them. That's more than 20% of our games that was spent chasing a goal early on.

We only scored twice in the opening 15 minutes in the Champions League. And that was against Man City when we were already 1-0 down. And of the 7 Premier League goals we scored within 15 minutes, 3 of them were across 2 games against Cardiff. Our only early goal in a big match last season was at home to Chelsea, which unsurprisingly was also one of our best performances of the season.

It feels to me that no other team in the top 6 concedes early anywhere near as often as we do.

 

[Black]

So the fight was between kane and verts, apparently there was murders at the last training session before the Newcastle game.

 

[Gb160]

The most British thing I've read on here

He's French.

 

[Stamford]

He's French.

Then I'm more troubled

 

[stevenurse]

Last 3 games has seen a real continuation of this. Kane and the motd pundits are right. We can't keep giving our opponents an advantage

 

[Dougal]

Liverpool have shown the way to go. Get the points on the board and discuss other issues after.

 

[TEESSIDE1]

Burnley - we came flying out of the blocks and battered them
Next 3-4 games - utter shite

We may or may not get top 4 this season and we certainly won’t without investing at least 2 competent players in January. A full preseason with Jose and I believe we’ll see a disciplined, organised and a very good team/squad next season.