Tottenham Vs Newcastle: Match Thread

[DEFchenkOE]

Surely he's allowed one aberration and a couple of missed wins? But I agree, this is too much now. We just look crap. He has to adapt to the league not vice-versa. He's making himself and us look bad currently.

Of course he is, but our problems at home were there last season too. It's just that Bale was there to save us, but our general attacking play was also poor and it was more like give it to Bale and let him do his thing.

I've said this before but last season we only scored in the first half of 6 of our home games and only 8 first half goals in total. This has to be down to the way we play and the slowness of our football and lack of counter-attack.

We're slow in possession often just knocking it about between the cb's and defensive mids, I would love to say that I'm seeing us progress and turn all this possession into clear chances but I'm not seeing it. And I mean from the beginning of matches not in the last 20 mins when we're desperate.

 

[jezz]

We've seen little evidence that Lamela would have made the difference today. One good performance against Sheriff is not enough. Yes he has played for Roma and Argentina but the Premier League is totally different to any of those games he has played before. I'm not convinced he would have been able to handle the physical side of Newcastle today.

Really.
They would have fouled the shit out of him.
He has been kicked off the park all his career
He would have been in and around the box and he can pick a pass better than most.
Sheriff parked the bus he destroyed it.
We will never know though, he would have contributed more than siggy, im sure of this.

 

[YiddoInPoland]

We've seen little evidence that Lamela would have made the difference today. One good performance against Sheriff is not enough. Yes he has played for Roma and Argentina but the Premier League is totally different to any of those games he has played before. I'm not convinced he would have been able to handle the physical side of Newcastle today.

I disagree with this, we havn't seen enough of him in the league to base anything from but even with that logic he can't be any worse then the players who have so far not produced anything of note in an attacking threat.

Sheriff are not the greatest team i grant you that but that was the his break through game one AVB should have allowed him to ride that confidence into this game and he wasted that oppornity. For me it wasn't his perfomance but the fact you can see he has a natural football brain which is what we are missing.

People keep saying that he hasn't proved it, he has played in several EL games where the whole team was poor and did ok in the cup games. But if you want him to get used to the league at least give him a chance in it, since west ham i don't think he had played one minute which thinking about is terrible in itself.

 

[rupsmith]

Our performance showed why we needed Bale to get us out of trouble so often last year. On winning the ball back, the emphasis does not seem to be on hitting the opposition in spaces before they can regroup (which given our pace and athletic ability would seem the natural thing to do) but on retaining the ball for almost the sake of retention giving them more than enough time to reposition defensively. And at this level all it takes is about 3-5 seconds if not sooner for teams to shore up defensively.

Last year Bale would score some amazing goals to get us points, but this year we have to move the ball forward more quickly with more attacking intent - our players seem almost petrified to make mistakes and seem more obsessed with conforming to a tactical set up rather than movement on and off he ball. This pace of play results in our full backs primarily initiating attacking play which they are simply not equipped to do - Vert and Walker try their best but those are not their natural roles.

So it is beyond me why we stroll around the park and pass the ball with no paticular objective from player A to B with almost minimal movement in front and then a long ball or attacking wing play with no support to Soldado. When players tend to "circulate" purely for the sake of ball retention, it tends to lose the basis of its philosophy. There were several instances when the player had the following choices
a) exploit space to drive into or
b) look up and consider expression of their creative ability (i.e. try a through ball or cross or shot) or
c) retain ball possession to "circulate"

And they chose C a majority of the time to adhere to the principle. The down side of this is as follows:

- a stifling of creative ability of the likes of Eriksen, Sigurdsson, Townsend etc.
- an appearance to an external viewer of an unnecessary sense of caution - particularly when there is a lack of creative quick movement and the ball inevitably has to go backwards to "circulate"
- player disillusionment and potential risks of "over coaching", a lack of footballing "common sense" etc. - the extinction of the street footballer instinct

2 things to fix - break quickly and with a degree of urgency and one guy in the midfield three almost always on Soldados heels (not Dembele based on evidence)

 

[mrlilywhite]

This analysis of our game today makes for some interesting reading.

The explanation was simple and a familiar one for fans who have bemoaned the fact Spurs have now scored only 34 goals in 25 home games under Villas-Boas. The inverted wingers of Townsend and Sigurdsson did not work as a tactic. Neither Townsend nor Sigurdsson played a single successful pass to former Valencia star Soldado in the game.

"I thought first half, for an away team, we were the better team. Second half, they changed it a little bit, stretched the pitch and caused us no end of problems. We had to really defend with our lives in the second half. That is what makes football great, that you can do that. Our goalie was terrific, our centre-halves were terrific. They were the stars today."

http://www1.skysports.com/football/live/match/295733/analysis

 

[Smokinhotspur]

If you believe that would happen against park the bus teams, you know jack about football.
Lennon cant cross to save his life and townsend would try and shoot from the byline.
I thought we had moved on from the rednapp era, so should you

If you were talking about Lennon of five years ago then I would agree but his crossing and decision making has improved no end since then and he has also developed a nice variety with it to suit game situations i.e. cut backs, dinks to the far post, fizz across the face of goal etc...

 

[Sweetsman]

He obviously hasn't been watching us this season. Can I ask if you honestly think we've been a good side thus far? Do you also think that on another day we would've won, and if so, what fact do you base this on. It pains me to watch us this season. We have so much attacking talent, so much speed and intelligence in this team and it's being wasted by negative tactics. If he showed signs of recognising mistakes and tried to put things right it wouldn't be so bad, however, I genuinely believe he still thinks the way we are going about our business is correct. How many more matches like this on our pitch will it take!

I rest my case about lack of coherence in the thinking department. I don't think the two halves of your brain are actually joined up, which does happen sometimes.

 

[chris_theo]

I rest my case about lack of coherence in the thinking department. I don't think the two halves of your brain are actually joined up, which does happen sometimes.

You're still avoiding my questions. Not sure what it is that you disagree with, but you continue your insults on a Spurs forum if that's what gets you through the day.

Enjoy your average week.

 

[Kendall]

More people have joined the AVB is a fraud brigade since Hull I see.

Come toward the light my children.

 

[JamieDaCosta]

I get ur a fan of him which is completely fine but u have to accept he isn't a top 4 striker n we have outgrown him

He's scored 13 goals in 86 matches against the top clubs n if he's really that good then how come the top teams aren't vying for his signature n its always the relegation threatened or mid table teams linked with him?

Not making him a scapegoat,we failed as a team today

The initial comment you made was ridiculous and it couldnt be any further from the truth, seriously

As for the 13 goals in 86 matches, how many of them were starts and how many were 1 minute appearances

Also, even our top, top strikers over the years, what were their goal returns against the top clubs?

There you go

 

[THFC 1882]

It is not just the tactics who are not working these days
It is been a mental thing, the lads have know played 11 games so far, and we
are not clinical enough in front of goal.

and i think this have turned out to be a mental thing for the players now
you can see it today, they are a bit affraid in front of goal, they start to think before they
send the ball against the target.

under normal circumstances we will have hit at least five balls in the net today.

The other thing is the tactics
Townsend and Gylfi is lacking from good crosses coming in to Soldado, how on heavens earth could he find the net, when the services are so poor.

And why cant AVB switch them over to the other side??

But the main thing is, we are struggling to score goals and this is becoming a mental thing out on the pitch.

We now face City and United in our two next matches, we need points and goals!!

COYS

 

[Blackrat1299]

Look I know we're all hurt here - nobody expected a performance like that from Krull the conqueror! Time to regroup, consolidate and face the truth that we need AVB now more than ever.

We don't need AVB more than ever. We need AVB to take a step back and look at himself. He needs to reconcile himself with the tactics that he has employed and have the courage of his convictions and break out of the system he is using and be bold and daring and use a system to the advantage of the players as a team.

 

[THFC 1882]

this system works perfect away from home
but not at the lane

 

[buttons]

Horrible result but having just watched the game, again, we did create more clear cut chances (particuarly second half) than we have all season. Krul was a freak today and if you played that match out 100 times we would have won 99 times.

Sure there are cracks, snd some dubious tactical decisions, but was today really that bad?

 

[parj]

I usually think Gary Neville is a crap commentator but compared to some of the crap on here he is a legend.

Even he said its a historical thing that Spurs show up for big games but the games they should win we usually mess up. Harry couldn't fix that either and before anyone harps on about champ league, AVB had the biggest points total.

First half was poor. Second half we need a kitchen sink to throw at Krul. We have spent fortune on good players. They need time. Problem is our wings with siggy and townsend. One does fcuk all apart from score goals and the other believes he is the new bale and refuses to pass, which leaves soldado without any service. And before anyone says defoe is better. ?. Kaboul had a pop at him for not moving. ?.. and then Vertonghen goes mad at him for tackling him. And soldado had scored against Europa league sides too.

 

[truebluespur]

We can count our lucky stars the results went our way this week, but what an opportunity missed...!

Now Man Utd have got the points and that makes the top third very congested.

AVB needs to sort things out now, otherwise we are going to slide down quickly...

 

[MiamiYiddo]

Rumoured to be a hacking incident

Soldado posted this on Instagram:

“Believe in yourself and all that you are. There’s something inside you that is greater than any obstacle. #COYS”

 

[Dharmabum]

The role of Krul was exaggerated indeed. He mad one really good save, from the Soldadao header, and the rest of them were very poor finishing from Spurs' side, as most of the shoot went straight at one of Krul's body parts.
What about having the Spurs players practicing a little bit of calmness when they basically have an open goal and only the keeper to beat...
Spurs should have won the game by 3-4 goals, but chances alone doesn't win games though.
Townsend need to learn how to pass. And it's not the first time Daws' been caught off guard.
And me who thought that Paulinho had more steel than that (how could he not challenge for the ball I don't understand!).

 

[Jimmypearce7]

The fact that Newcastle had a goal keeper was something we could not foresee apparently.

Lots of saves but the good chances were kicked straight at him.

 

[mawspurs]

The fact that Newcastle had a goal keeper was something we could not foresee apparently.

Lots of saves but the good chances were kicked straight at him.

http://www.haringeyindependent.co.uk/sport/10799716._/