Tottenham Vs Sheffield United: Leg 1 Match Thread

[Kendall]

I don't think anyone covered themselves in glory last night and TBH, I blame Poch. Not proactive enough in changing things and his subs were just weird.

Ideally he'd have brought Soldado on with Lennon and given us some extra width, failling that, do the same subs but switch Townsend to the left and push Kane up with Soldado so that we can aim some crosses in - there was very little threat down our right, so Walker could've easily played more of a winger role on that side. It was far too narrow and stayed narrow.

Ultimately a pretty poor/lacklustre performance from the players, but Poch has to get better at changing things that are clearly not working.

 

[Spurs Lodge Kittens]

it was noticeable the little extra outlet in an attacking sense that came into our game once Soldado replaced Adebayor. We just couldn't get the ball forward with Adebayor up there and he seemed to isolate himself far too much

 

[prawnsandwich]

it was noticeable the little extra outlet in an attacking sense that came into our game once Soldado replaced Adebayor. We just couldn't get the ball forward with Adebayor up there and he seemed to isolate himself far too much

I disagree. Ade gave us the option of a long ball. All the subs were down to tiredness IMO. They actually came into the game more after the subs and were at their most dangerous in the last 5 minutes.
Keeping a clean sheet was essential last night so although in theory I agree we should have started Rose and getting Lennon on and Andros switching wings seemed a good option, in practice holding on to 1-0 will reap rewards.

 

[Kendall]

it was noticeable the little extra outlet in an attacking sense that came into our game once Soldado replaced Adebayor. We just couldn't get the ball forward with Adebayor up there and he seemed to isolate himself far too much

I don't know about that. There was marginally more space perhaps due to a tiring Sheffield United, but they both had maybe one chipped ball to them, Ade took his down well and blazed over poorly, Soldado took his down well and won a pen. Apart from that nothing really changed, Eriksen's passing was still poor, Townsend continued to run down blind alleys and we still moved the ball far too slowly to drag anyone around or create clear chances to work the keeper.

There's no point playing two strikers if you're going to play with little width, it's congested, easy to defend against and exactly what SU wanted.

 

[Spurs Lodge Kittens]

Fair enough. I just felt more confident of getting nearer to their goal with the ball once Soldado replaced Ade - but appreciate this might have been because Sheffield United were tiring

 

[Styopa]

I don't know about that. There was marginally more space perhaps due to a tiring Sheffield United, but they both had maybe one chipped ball to them, Ade took his down well and blazed over poorly, Soldado took his down well and won a pen. Apart from that nothing really changed, Eriksen's passing was still poor, Townsend continued to run down blind alleys and we still moved the ball far too slowly to drag anyone around or create clear chanes to work the keeper.

There's no point playing two strikers if you're going to play with little width, it's congested, easy to defend against and exactly what SU wanted.

This is an area in which we are seriously lacking. In our pomp, we could be terrifying to the opposition with Bale bombing down one wing and Lennon the other. As things stands, with Lennon not really doing it anymore, and Townsend, as you say, running down blind alleys, there is an overreliance on trying to play things through the middle via either Eriksen or Kane and when a team is as organised as Sheffield Utd were last night breaking them down can become seriously problematic.

 

[Kendall]

This is an area in which we are seriously lacking. In our pomp, we could be terrifying to the opposition with Bale bombing down one wing and Lennon the other. As things stands, with Lennon not really doing it anymore, and Townsend, as you say, running down blind alleys, there is an overreliance on trying to play things through the middle via either Eriksen or Kane and when a team is as organised as Sheffield Utd were last night breaking them down can become seriously problematic.

I think Townsend is trying to get wide, but he will always put those floaty chips in with his right foot, which isn't what we really need. He lacks confidence going wide on his right foot.

I'm not advocating we go back to the days of all out attack like under Redknapp, but I would like to see more proactive tinkering, I'd like to see it used more as an in-game option. I truly believe that just moving Andros to the left for 20 minutes last night at the begging of the second half could've changed things up. Davies was clearly lacking a bit of confidence on that left hand side to get forward and really get stuck into the attacks because Soup-n-rice had given him something to think about and Eriksen wasn't giving him much cover, it meant very little was coming down their right, so they could be quite compact.

 

[prawnsandwich]

Andros put in 3 or 4 great crosses into the right area and he also took a couple of corners/free kicks which gave Dier 2 good chances. He was our most productive player on a night when many were misfiring.

 

[diamondlight]

it was noticeable the little extra outlet in an attacking sense that came into our game once Soldado replaced Adebayor. We just couldn't get the ball forward with Adebayor up there and he seemed to isolate himself far too much

Agreed. And when Ade does touch the ball it always seems to bobble up in mid air, then he needs about 12 touches to bring it down again, during which time he bounds back towards the half way line, losing us about 20 metres of territory, not to mention a lot of momentum.

 

[ExpatFan]

Bottom line: would you rather be going there 1-0 up...
or coming back to WHL 0-1 down?
Personally, I'm happier with the former.

 

[TheGreenLily]

Strange reaction on here. They set up a block and were extremely professional, organised and disciplined and are no mugs.

Add that to the fact that we struggle to break teams down - at the moment - that put everyone behind the ball and it's a decent result.

They'll come at us at theirs and we'll get space to play our natural game.

Cheer up you bastards.

There are no excuses for poor passing, poor choices, lack of creativity. Yes they may have been well setup, but that doesn't stop us from being able to pass the ball 5 yards without cocking it up and giving it away cheaply.

We have a seriously problem the intelligence and passing ability of players, and the biggest culprets seem to be the English/British players. Walker, Rose, Townsend, Mason, Lennon... All of them are piss poor at passing.

 

[lukespurs7]

I think against Sheff.Utd the game panned out exactly as i expected it to.

It was the first leg of a semi-final cup tie so whilst we wanted to win it we also didn't want to go gung-ho and possibly lose the home advantage or let in a goal. Sheff.Utd put up a good fight and whilst 2/3-0 and a more convincing performance would've been ideal i think 1-0 was a good result and when they come out at us more in the 2nd leg hopefully we should be able to pick them off, if not then we don't deserve to be in the final anyway.

What i did notice was that once again we were a bit slow and predictable, what we could've done with is say a Sanchez or Hazard to produce a moment or brilliance or a clever 1-2 to unlock a tight defence or a winger with pace to really stretch them that is what we really lack and that is probably what Lamela was bought to be.

 

[slartibartfast]

Great result 1-0. If we score at their place they have to win 3-1 to go through (albeit after extra time.)
Is that our best defensive display of the season? Vorm did not have a save to make IIRC?

Edit: Great diplomacy from MoPo towards Clough last night around the Ade incident.

Their keeper hardly had a save to make either.

 

[WexfordTownSpur]

They do, they just don't end the tie in regulation time as in most competitions if they decide the difference. In the LC, you do get extra time on an even number of goals, but they do still count after that is played before going to penalties.

So if it is 2-1 to SU after extra time. We win and no penaltys? Wow I never knew that.

 

[WexfordTownSpur]

think they do after extra time

Great

 

[DaSpurs]

So if it is 2-1 to SU after extra time. We win and no penaltys? Wow I never knew that.

Yup, that's how it works. So obviously they're still not as important as they'd be in European competition, but it's still important not to give up those vital away goals. Especially important since now we've essentially forced Sheffield to come at us a bit, therefore opening up space for us on their bigger pitch. It certainly won't be easy, but we do fare far better in more open games on larger pitches than we do when people sit back at the cramped WHL pitch.

 

[slartibartfast]

Cramped whl pitch lol.
Really?
Jeez I didn't think anyone bought into that total bollox.
Obviously I was wrong.