Tottenham Vs Stoke: Match Thread

[Gaz_Gammon]

I tell you what, if the guy wasn't such a self-serving, undignified dick'ed, people might have had more time for his spoutage.

I'd take one of them and another boring sixth place finish over what is approaching a relegation battle to be quite honest. At least Sherwood (and i don't like the guy) got us scoring goals, and winning.

This season has been our worst start since 2008, oh and it took a 130 million spend on players and a new shiny manager to achieve that. To suggest giving Poch money to spend in January is plain stupid. He appears to have lost the plot, the changing room and respect of the fans.

 

[spud]

That was one of the most lacklustre, inept, disorganised performances that I have ever seen from a Spurs team.....and you can trust me when I say that I have seen some lacklustre, inept, disorganised performances over the years.

It's difficult to know where to start when describing what was wrong with the performance, but the thing that is most worrying to me is that we seem to have no idea about how to defend. At times it's like watching a team of eight year olds. They all seem to be watching and/or chasing the ball and seem to have no conception of where they should be on the pitch or where their opponents are. The second Stoke goal saw Kaboul ambling out of defence ten yards in front of the rest of the back four - who had the foresight to stay in position (or were too lazy to move up) until they were sure that the ball had been cleared. This is our captain, the man who is supposed to be organsing the defensive line. Where is the Kaboul we used to know? This one would have trouble getting into a decent pub team.

There doesn't seem to be much point in criticising individual players, but a few stand out as being particularly deserving of it. In spite of Capoue being on the team sheet for every league game, I don't think that he's actually playing. I think we're projecting a hologram. We might as well be; it would be equally as effective at stopping opposition attacks. The same could be said of Dembele after he came on, although he was at least noticable in the fact that he kept giving the ball away.

Andros Townsend continues to be the player that I think he is and not who I would like him to be. I once played with a winger of whom the manager said that if the pitch were a circle he would run around it all day. That could have been said about Townsend, who continues to contribute nothing meaningful to the team. He clearly has ability; he just seems to be incapable of using it.

I could go on but I'm too disappointed to do a full-scale rant. Suffice it to say that the only players to emerge with any credit were Lloris (as usual) and, to a lesser extent, Mason, Kane and Chadli (and not just because of the goal). Rose wasn't too bad - unless you compare his performance to that of a good left back.

We seem to be getting worse. I haven't mentioned coaching, but I would have thought that a former international centre-back who is supposed to be good at his job would be able to assemble and instruct a competent back four from the players we have (centre backs anyway). Dropping Kaboul would be a start.

I'll just have to hope that we've reached rock bottom. I fail to see how we can be any worse than we were today. Although I also thought that after the hopeless display against Villa last week, so I'm sure Spurs will find a way to make it happen.

 

[arunspurs]

Where to start ?

Good players playing badly. Bad players playing even worse. And worse players finding ways to get red card & get sent off and handicap the team further.

I said Lamela was worst winger in our squad.
I said Chriches was worst CB in our squad

Now there are players like Townsend, Eriksen & Fazio trying to outplay them (in a negative way) and have won the worst players tag IMO.

Complete utter $hit;

 

[yiddo23]

Positive.... The future days of basking in glory and beautiful football will be more enjoyable because of days like these. We wouldn't know what up was unless we had down

 

[arunspurs]

Fazio - My God, is this the player who was captain of Sevilla & won EL twice ? Biggest failure of this season so far.

Kaboul - Captain Brainless. Does everything a captain shouldn't do. Doesn't deserve a starting place in XI let alone captaincy

Townsend - Most frustrating player in squad. Plays well in EL, talks well in press; Come the match day in PL, gives the worst performance of all.

Adebayor - Second most frustrating player. We are 0-2 down, need some inspiration. It's Substitution time. Not for him though. Its time for shoe change. Wastes 3 minutes. 3 minutes later he comes in - first touch - a superb pass to Stoke City and after 2 corners for Stoke, we get the ball after 7 minutes. So, thats 10 minutes wasted with just one touch. Well played

Rose - Nothing will ever change him. He will always be a liability at left back. Play Ben Davies FFS

Eriksen - Missing.Where is the real Eriksen ? The one who played yesterday, couldn't take a free kick or corner. He is ruined this season

Dembele - We were crying out for him at HT. He comes in to replace Eriksen & made look Eriksen better. How many times he lost the ball, how many misplaced passes ?

Lamela - Lame duck Lamela; Seems to try hard but nothing ever happens in PL.

Capoue - Cannot shield the defense; Cannot pass the ball; Cannot hold the ball; Lost every single aerial challenge ? Whats the point of starting him ?

Naughton - hard luck. Did well most of the game, but sent off after a mistake from Mason

Chadli - has his usual moments of getting missed in the game, but atleast scoring regularly to warrant a starting place

Mason - not the greatest of game, but still was 5 levels above the performance of others

Kane - Tried his level best

Lloris - Only player of any class. Better run now & find a team that deserves you

 

[shelfboy68]

No, we haven't and the comparison is incorrect. The only thing is that Levy thinks he's learnt some valuable lesson from that experience by insisting that MP speak without an interpreter, which makes him look stupid especially to those single IQ wankers in the the tabloid football press. MP will turn it around if he's given time.

At this stage i cant see MP turning it round he looks completly clueless and out of his depth and i cant see him being here Long.
That said i of course would Love for him to prove me wrong and i Will be the first to admit i was wrong if he does.

 

[NeverRed]

Who is he, fucking Moses?? lol

He's not the messiah, he's a very naughty boy.

 

[scottlag10]

Gaz_Gammon, post: 4323926, member: 4349"]I'd take one of them and another boring sixth place finish over what is approaching a relegation battle to be quite honest. At least Sherwood (and i don't like the guy) got us scoring goals, and winning.

This season has been our worst start since 2008, oh and it took a 130 million spend on players and a new shiny manager to achieve that. To suggest giving Poch money to spend in January is plain stupid. He appears to have lost the plot, the changing room and respect of the fans.

Gaz do you truly believe that our 'Head Coach' has a say in signings? One of the reasons Sherwood did not get the job is because he wanted to be Manager eg be in control of everything including signings, which is not happening under DL's DOF system.
Fans have not lost respect for Poch yet, but I believe now have Levy firmly in their sights! On that point he quickly had the 'Levy Out' banner in the East stand removed yesterday and boy did he have that volume button upped on the tannoy at the final whistle attempting to drown out the boos.
We sure know which one of the three, Poch, Baldini, and Levy, will not be the fall guy for the mess we are in on the pitch.

 

[ClintEastwould]

How funny are Townsend's stepovers? He really throws his legs out in front of him.

Haha yeah that did occur to me yesterday

 

[ClintEastwould]

Not that it probably would have mattered but was anyone else as pissed off as I was when the ref blew for a foul by Lamela on Shawcross when he just out muscled and out jumped him? What got me so pissed off is that Shawcross did exactly that to Kane for their 2nd goal but I suppose that's classed as good old fashioned centre half wanting it more.

And to think he has been accused of not putting in the work. His work rate is on another planet compared to the likes of eriksen/paulinho etc. he owned shawcross on that header. Not even our CBs would have a hope of winning one against him.

 

[Strikeb4ck]

And to think he has been accused of not putting in the work. His work rate is on another planet compared to the likes of eriksen/paulinho etc. he owned shawcross on that header. Not even our CBs would have a hope of winning one against him.

It's one positive I can take from his play right now. It's not happening for him, but at least he goes out there trying to make things happen and influence the game. He is one of the only ones running and closing players down. I think he feels obligated to repay the faith the fans showed in him.

He will either turn out great or be on his way back to Italy...he has talent, but it's 50/50 for me on whether or not he'll be able to cut it in the Prem. There's signs he can do it, but there's signs he just won't be effective enough. It's hard to judge amongst the shit we play though. Many respectable people within football considered him one of the biggest talents in the world, so I will wait to reserve full judgement on him until we start playing well (if we ever do is another story).

 

[Kendall]

Look at you all brave now, brandishing your COT status.

One word: Waco.

Cult of Tim preceded Cult of Poor Bobby.

 

[GazzasMateBazza]

Just read the last 10 pages of this. Seems like its all been said.

Positionally some of our players are making unbelievably naive choices. Danny Rose plays like he has a free role and at any point expects to play a one two before rifling in a screamer. Mason and Capoue are so quick to vacate space in the middle of the park all it needs is one missed pass (which we are frequently offering up) to run straight at our rabbit in headlight defenders.

I am genuinely worried for the first time in a long time.

 

[KingKay]

Awful performance yesterday. Can't even be bothered to dissect it.

 

[thinktank]

Cult of Tim preceded Cult of Poor Bobby.

I know mate, I came up with it.

 

[Smokinhotspur]

Interesting listening to Comolli on TS this morning. Apparently it is a running joke in Europe that amongst the top 20 clubs, Spurs is the only one without a scouting network in place. For those wondering how we ended up with such crap, spineless players after selling Bale - at least now we know. Prob Levy and Baldini picking them from Football Manager stats - much cheaper than hiring scouts who know what they are doing....

 

[Amo]

Who is he, fucking Moses?? lol

Now if you just placed that comma onee more word to the right..

 

[Gassin's finest]

Was at the game, can't express my feelings. Suffice to say I was just laughing by the time Naughton got his marching orders. Moses was a **** but he stitched Naughton every single time.

If there is a moment in this season, where Pochettino has to really go back and seriously reconsider his approach... from team selection to shape to psychological approach... that game was it. Next home games that I'm at are Palace and Man Utd. If he can sort things out by the time Di Maria, Falcao, Van Persil etc come to town then I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about this current form. But right now, each game I've seen has seen us regress, regress and regress. Right now no one out there has the balls or the composure to take a chance, they're all terrified of fucking up.

Look at Newcastle. Pardew on his way out the door after a shocking run... now they've just won their 5th game on the bounce, climbing the table and the players and fans are all as one, the morale is soaring. If that team can put those performances together, then this squad is more than capable of playing that well or better.

It's in the fucking mind, and it's Pochettino's job to sort it. It's why we hired him. To turn a bunch of nowt nor summat's into a fucking team.

Can I also say that while boos rang out at half time, and justifuably so this time, the Park Lane and Shelf were brilliant in the second half, there was a lot of noise, clapping, stomping, plenty of singing. Impressed with that.

 

[CosmicHotspur]

Sad footnote that Danny Rose needing oxygen at the end of the game may be due to a collapsed lung after being kneed in the chest. Much worse than it looked at the time if so.

If it's true, all credit to him for playing on for the whole game.

 

[SlunkSoma]

Was at the game, can't express my feelings. Suffice to say I was just laughing by the time Naughton got his marching orders. Moses was a **** but he stitched Naughton every single time.

If there is a moment in this season, where Pochettino has to really go back and seriously reconsider his approach... from team selection to shape to psychological approach... that game was it. Next home games that I'm at are Palace and Man Utd. If he can sort things out by the time Di Maria, Falcao, Van Persil etc come to town then I'll give him the benefit of the doubt about this current form. But right now, each game I've seen has seen us regress, regress and regress. Right now no one out there has the balls or the composure to take a chance, they're all terrified of fucking up.

Look at Newcastle. Pardew on his way out the door after a shocking run... now they've just won their 5th game on the bounce, climbing the table and the players and fans are all as one, the morale is soaring. If that team can put those performances together, then this squad is more than capable of playing that well or better.

It's in the fucking mind, and it's Pochettino's job to sort it. It's why we hired him. To turn a bunch of nowt nor summat's into a fucking team.

Can I also say that while boos rang out at half time, and justifuably so this time, the Park Lane and Shelf were brilliant in the second half, there was a lot of noise, clapping, stomping, plenty of singing. Impressed with that.

It's a pity we can't play ourselves to give us some confidence, just at like Newcastle did.