Tottenham Vs Stoke: Match Thread

[Good Doctor M]

Sounds Classic spurs in charge and take foot off pedal allow opposition back in and nearly lose the game.

Watching Spurs has always been a little like watching a film you've seen before.

 

[Wsussexspur]

Pochettino on Kane: "He was tired, had to come later into pre-season. He's better but needs time."

He needs help! He can't be expected to lead the line on its own! Thought he was very quiet today. Did wonder if his subsitition was a message to Levy from Potch about the urgent need for another proven striker. Reading these quotes it kind of feel that it was.

 

[Hoddle&Waddle]

I seem to remember we finished above Southampton that year and beat them twice!!!

Yeah but it's all relative to budget of course.

 

[robin09]

It's the WAY we concede that does my head in. A tackle in a stupid position and it lets them into the game.

A bad pass last weekend, the list goes on and on.

Then we compound it by not taking our chances.

 

[SpartanSpur]

From what I saw we were awful for the first 15 of the second half, so we'll have to agree to disagree on that point. Yes we got worse, but we lost all momentum from the first half. And to be completely honest it should really have been 2-2 at half time, so weren't even that good first half considering how shit they were.

You're a cheerful person aren't you?

Kane scores to make it 3-0 in that period after half time and you're bored with nothing to moan about this evening.

 

[homer hotspur]

I'm not normally one for knee-jerk rants, but I'm so fed up now. We're boring, lack winning mentality and leadership and have no proper understanding about creating chances in open play and keeping goals out at the other end. And now we have a weak, imbalanced squad. We'll finish top 6/8 again, but that's not good enough. The football we play is awful.

6/8th is optimistic at the moment and don't bet on us making any more signings

 

[only1waddle]

It seemed to me that the substitution that did us the most damage was Mason for Bentaleb. We seemed to lose all forward momentum after that. Dier and Bentaleb don't work whereas Dier and Mason did.

For me, the wiser choice would have been Alli, as he has similarities to Mason, more dynamic.

As I posted earlier Mason is an organiser too, players just strolled about after that sub.

 

[Good Doctor M]

Perhaps if he did not ostracise half the squad he would have more to chose from. I am sure Lennon could have come on and do a job today!!

I'm sure he ostracised Lennon because Lennon was being a fucking dick. Same with Ade. It's all fine and well having foresight but if we'd have held on and won, anyone coming on here and saying, "We really missed Lennon," would rightly have been laughed at. Actually, they should be laughed at anyway.

 

[Phn3Xta5]

the fact that people STILL think we are playing boring football really amazes me! what do you all want? goal attempts in 4 passes from minute 1-93? we played some really nice, attractive, intelligent football until mason went off and it gave us 2 goals. the problem is bentaleb offered nothing and basically gave stoke midfield control by being useless. Chadli at striker is not the issue, dembele on the right is not the issue. (it was actually quite productive) he played like a man possessed today and tried to play forward passes and shoot.

fact is we cant afford to have bentaleb being a passenger and lamela destroying the fluidity of our play, and the blame has to be on Poch for being overconfident with our 2 goal cusion and subbing them in, and on the players for playing like total trash and bringing the good work of the entire team down.

 

[ilikeost]

Perhaps if he did not ostracise half the squad he would have more to chose from. I am sure Lennon could have come on and do a job today!!

You are suggesting that it was Pochettinos fault that he fell out with Ade and Lennon. As far as I understand it Lennon and Ade were undermining him, he did the right thing by telling them to find new clubs and removing them from the squad. Not replacing them fast enough is not Pochettinos fault.

 

[KenTHFC]

This is the last thing is say about Lamela. He's a European player. What I mean by that is that he can only perform in Europe. He cannot do it domestically at all, and it's why he performs best in the group stage of the EL. I think we should give him this season, then if he doesn't perform, he's gone.

 

[hodsgod]

I think it's quite reasonable to suggest that had we got our main targets secret earlier in the window and allowed then to have a preseason together we would secured between 3 and 4 points instead of the 1 we find ourselves with now

Those extra 2-3 points could be very costly come the end of the season

Worse still is it potentially puts pressure on us if we lose our next match or fail to win in the next 2-3 games

Ramos suffered like that after a poor transfer window

Is that you harry?

 

[Tomdon]

I have lost the passion of watching Spurs live matches...now days I look for the results.. we have transformed to a grey mid table club.

 

[joelstinton14]

Ha yeah it is torture. There were positives for a long spell of the game, we have to try and pull some of them out of the wreckage.

Yeah i just been reading some of the stuff around the page 25-30 mark to get some perspective on the game. Seems like we played some good stuff before the last 25 minutes.

We just have to pick our heads up and go again. Young team, will make mistakes, but should learn from them. As well as a CDM (although dier is playing well at the moment) and Striker , perhaps a couple of players with experience wouldn't go amiss.

I thought Schweinsteiger was superb when he came on for utd last night. Could do with someone like that.

 

[Wsussexspur]

Watching us down the years we've always had that one player that could do the spectacular, that one player that would get in any team in the league. Under 'Arry we began to become more than that, we had quality in almost every position, we were nearly there.

Now I'm just craving that 'one player' again.....

said exactly this to the guy I sit next to today. As he said Lamela is meant to be that player! Sadly it just doesn't look like it's going to work out for Lamela!

 

[KeithStone]

Don't understand why people are blaming Lamela wasn't his fault we conceded two goals if anyone to blame it is the defence. I thought Mason had a decent game too. Shame Harry went off injured it did changed the way we played quite a lot. We need a defensive midfielder and another striker. I say we need to go all out next week and sign Berahino, not sure who the other player is we need to sign but we need to sign him pretty quick.

No, he wasn't directly responsible for the goals conceded, but he came on and immediately conceded two free kicks in dangerous situations, which put us under additional pressure.

Winning or losing football games is very rarely a binary circumstance. So no, he wasn't completely and solely responsible, but he was part of a second half display which was completely unacceptable. Along with numerous others on the pitch, and Pochettino and Levy off it.

 

[EnfieldYiddo]

Kane is so physically weak in the air when trying to hold it up, reckon he had 7-8 aerial duels today and easily lost all of them.

Not sure we can attribute being bullied in the air on tiredness or fatigue.

At 6'2 he needs to beef up a bit.

Also less said about his pace the better (or lack of)

 

[For the love of Spurs]

How on Earth does a team supposedly challenging for top 4 have only ONE striker. It's not just about scoring goals, it's the balance of the team, the movement, when Kane went off we went flat. Yes Lamela played baldy but even if he played well he can't replace Kane because he is not a striker.

Against Man United we needed pace, only after the game did we get Clinton, today we needed a back up striker for Kane and probably we will get Berahino in a week or two. We have lost points most likely by not sorting out our issues in good time.

Season after season the same issue going into a seadon with an obvious weakness and having that bite us on the bum. Yes Poch maybe should have kept Mason on but I blame this farce on Levy.

We are like a builder going into a house with half a tool set hoping we don't need the other half all to save a few pence. I really like Poch I hope it works out for him here.

 

[Phomesy]

¡Ay, caramba!

In English.

Apparently people have been warned...

 

[WiganSpur]

It's the WAY we concede that does my head in. A tackle in a stupid position and it lets them into the game.

A bad pass last weekend, the list goes on and on.

Then we compound it by not taking our chances.

They were well in the game before the penalty.

Even if they hadn't gotten it they probably would have scored another way, as we weren't dealing with the threats.