Tottenham vs Swansea: Match Thread

[StockSpur]

I just thought id lay my 2p worth as well while we are moaning.

1.75% posession,26 shots and Poch was shit? Players score goals, not the manager, he put them in a position to take this game, they didnt hit the target enough.
2.Mike Dean, clearly had a remit that he wasnt going to be 'pressured' into giving spurs a penalty. Didnt give us half the free kicks we should have had, it seems to me opposing teams are allowed to kick spurs around at home without beng penalised. Guys an asshole always has been.
3.'Players are lazy', no they dominated possession and had all the chances, what they didnt show was maturity in front of goal and any thought in breaking down the other team, they couldnt get into a position to cross the ball into llorente either. I will grant that dier had an off day with his passing, and dele had his back to goal most of the game whilst having his calves raked by the dutchman.
4.Sissoko criticism, 2 sublime passes, one which we shouldve scored from, what the fuck are you on about?
5. Spurs community, put yer knickers back on! we are only 5 games in to the season I see enough to get CL footy again next season.

 

[bubble07]

Yep, I'm all for a solid defence, but I'm just not a fan of two sitting CM's. Particularly if neither of them have a good range of passing. And this is even more of an issue when playing against bus parking teams and considering we've adopted a 3 at the back approach.

Toby and Verts are great ball playing CB's, but they are still CB's and it's simply unnecessary to have 4 or 5 players just passing to each other in the centre circle.

In short, we need more creative players out there in these games in particular. Eriksen can't do everything on his own.

Correct. But this just seems too obvious for it not to happen. Poch is over cautious. I guess being a CB does that

 

[diamondlight]

I just thought id lay my 2p worth as well while we are moaning.

1.75% posession,26 shots and Poch was shit? Players score goals, not the manager, he put them in a position to take this game, they didnt hit the target enough.
2.Mike Dean, clearly had a remit that he wasnt going to be 'pressured' into giving spurs a penalty. Didnt give us half the free kicks we should have had, it seems to me opposing teams are allowed to kick spurs around at home without beng penalised. Guys an asshole always has been.
3.'Players are lazy', no they dominated possession and had all the chances, what they didnt show was maturity in front of goal and any thought in breaking down the other team, they couldnt get into a position to cross the ball into llorente either. I will grant that dier had an off day with his passing, and dele had his back to goal most of the game whilst having his calves raked by the dutchman.
4.Sissoko criticism, 2 sublime passes, one which we shouldve scored from, what the fuck are you on about?
5. Spurs community, put yer knickers back on! we are only 5 games in to the season I see enough to get CL footy again next season.

Excellent summary.

 

[Mullers]

Rarely have I seen a team just not want to play football like Swansea. They had their five across the back camped on the penalty area. Line and line of three closely in front. Playing Aurier and Davies would have helped stretch them more but they were never going to try to win. It was as anti football as you can get

I think many teams have played like that against us, we are the home side so it's up to us to break them down, the trouble is we don't have enough attacking options.

 

[spursfan77]

I have several friends who support other clubs who have said they've seen this before with us. Amongst my circle, Spurs, after Arsenal, are almost known for in fighting. It's weird as I've never seen it and always assumed it was bullshit but they don't say it about anyone else

The first was during the first half where I saw punches thrown down in front of me in block 135. It was to do with people standing up in front of people sitting down.

The second was at half time on the concourse by the food outlets. No idea why.

 

[spursfan77]

I just thought id lay my 2p worth as well while we are moaning.

1.75% posession,26 shots and Poch was shit? Players score goals, not the manager, he put them in a position to take this game, they didnt hit the target enough.
2.Mike Dean, clearly had a remit that he wasnt going to be 'pressured' into giving spurs a penalty. Didnt give us half the free kicks we should have had, it seems to me opposing teams are allowed to kick spurs around at home without beng penalised. Guys an asshole always has been.
3.'Players are lazy', no they dominated possession and had all the chances, what they didnt show was maturity in front of goal and any thought in breaking down the other team, they couldnt get into a position to cross the ball into llorente either. I will grant that dier had an off day with his passing, and dele had his back to goal most of the game whilst having his calves raked by the dutchman.
4.Sissoko criticism, 2 sublime passes, one which we shouldve scored from, what the fuck are you on about?
5. Spurs community, put yer knickers back on! we are only 5 games in to the season I see enough to get CL footy again next season.

Not sure about point 3. The lack of movement in the final third was stark. All the players were stood still for the majority of the game.

When we are like that we rarely win. It's been the common denominator with this team since Poch has been manager.

 

[Sweetsman]

I just thought id lay my 2p worth as well while we are moaning.

1.75% posession,26 shots and Poch was shit? Players score goals, not the manager, he put them in a position to take this game, they didnt hit the target enough.
2.Mike Dean, clearly had a remit that he wasnt going to be 'pressured' into giving spurs a penalty. Didnt give us half the free kicks we should have had, it seems to me opposing teams are allowed to kick spurs around at home without beng penalised. Guys an asshole always has been.
3.'Players are lazy', no they dominated possession and had all the chances, what they didnt show was maturity in front of goal and any thought in breaking down the other team, they couldnt get into a position to cross the ball into llorente either. I will grant that dier had an off day with his passing, and dele had his back to goal most of the game whilst having his calves raked by the dutchman.
4.Sissoko criticism, 2 sublime passes, one which we shouldve scored from, what the fuck are you on about?
5. Spurs community, put yer knickers back on! we are only 5 games in to the season I see enough to get CL footy again next season.

Poch wasn't shit, but he got it wrong when he took off Son instead of Trippier for Aurier. I think he realised that he was partly to blame, because he was tetchy in the post-match meeting. Dean was rubbish.

 

[DannyNZ]

Real pedestrian first half and while the second half started with a bit more urgency I struggled with the substitutions, Trippier was largely ineffective in his natural RB position and was a total waste of space at LB. Sissoko looked one of the better players in the first half but was ineffective at RWB, Aurier showed what was missing when he came on. Dier was an unnecessary luxury against Swansea and we needed to show a bit more ambition. Lorente brought on too late and with no change in plan of how we would utilise his skills.

 

[spids]

I just thought id lay my 2p worth as well while we are moaning.
4.Sissoko criticism, 2 sublime passes, one which we shouldve scored from, what the fuck are you on about?

Do you mean the one where he squared if for Kane who hit the bar? If so, all he had to do was play a 10-15 foot square pass along the floor but instead made the chance a bit harder by playing it off the ground so Kane had to take it on the half volley. Still an easy chance Kane would put away 9 times out of 10 but definitely not a sublime pass.

I do actually feel sorry for Sissoko as he needs to play in a central position with a remit to break lines through vertical, powerful running. He is a space maker and a line breaker and nothing else. I don't expect sublime from him I expect power and chaos. Playing him as a RWB is a cardinal sin and when we had Trippier on the pitch and Aurier on the bench it is even more puzzling. Poch needs to take a long hard look at himself.

I personally, assuming Davies has a knock and wasn't just getting a breather, would have done this at HT yesterday:

1. Not put Davies on the bench in the first place!
2. Switched to a back 4 at HT and moved Vertonghen to LB
3. Brought Aurier on for the ineffective Trippier at RB
4. Told both FBs to be as aggressive as possible
5. Brought on Winks for Sissoko to give us better incisive forward passing
6. Given Eriksen a free role to pull strings
7. Had Alli tucked in behind Son and Kane.
8. Llorente would have been plan B for the last 20 minutes.

Lloris
Alderweireld----Sanchez
Aurier----------------Dier-------------Vertonghen
Winks-----Eriksen
Alli
Kane------Son​

Disclaimer - Poch is an awesome manager and I am more than happy for him to do some learning as we progress. I recall it took Fergie a couple of years to get rotation right when CL first went to group format.

 

[coys200]

In all honesty yes there were some odd selections and tactics.But we easily could have won 2 or 3.Not starting Aurier probably cost us the game,but hopefully poch has learnt.has to be Aurier 75% of games not 50/50.
City are being hailed as world beaters today.yet they 2 offside goals and keeper mistake for first 3 goals.After Everton and Dortmund there's very little to worry about or question.It just wasn't our day much like Burnley.city and united will have these days.

 

[shelfboy68]

Not sure about point 3. The lack of movement in the final third was stark. All the players were stood still for the majority of the game.

When we are like that we rarely win. It's been the common denominator with this team since Poch has been manager.

Lack of movement is a factor and when you compare us to say city or Liverpool their pace in attack is so much better as a rule.
But I couldn't understand the slowness in the build up last night everything was sideways and backwards, it's so much easier for them to get bodies behind the ball when we take so long.
We are a possession based team but the ball was never moved quick enough or anyone making runs into space, and remarkably this continued into the second half with no plan to change it I thought I was watching an AVB team all over again.
Possession for the sake of it with little or no end product surely less touches could be sacrificed for getting it forward quicker.
The good news is we are sort of in touch with the top spot although 5 points could well increase to 10 and then we have no chance of closing that down.

 

[John48]

Tend to think putting Son at LB didn't work, just as it didn't against Chelski in the semi.

Thought Eriksen's balls into the box lacked quality & generally the team seemed hesitant in the attacking 3rd, with even Kane snatching at shots towards the end.

 

[sak11]

In all honesty yes there were some odd selections and tactics.But we easily could have won 2 or 3.Not starting Aurier probably cost us the game,but hopefully poch has learnt.has to be Aurier 75% of games not 50/50.
City are being hailed as world beaters today.yet they 2 offside goals and keeper mistake for first 3 goals.After Everton and Dortmund there's very little to worry about or question.It just wasn't our day much like Burnley.city and united will have these days.

I remember this time last year when we were drawing too many games and city (and to a lesser extent Liverpool) were being sucked off by everyone as champions elect....

 

[TEESSIDE1]

Poch confirms Davies was injured for Swansea so why not play KWP or someone who's apt at left back in Jan. Poch screwed up big time with this one.

 

[SugarRay]

What I wouldn't give for a nice early goal in these type of fixtures

 

[mpickard2087]

Poch confirms Davies was injured for Swansea so why not play KWP or someone who's apt at left back in Jan. Poch screwed up big time with this one.

He's started the season with a slightly bizarre dichotomy. We're getting a lot of tactical fluidity/experimentation (which I don't mind) - risk taking on one hand, but on the other a lot of risk averse stuff - the Dier/Wanyama/Dembele midfield vs. Chelsea, rushing players back from injury, to the detriment of the team on the day, almost zero trust in youth so far this season... Overall it's been very hit and miss.

 

[shelfboy68]

In all honesty yes there were some odd selections and tactics.But we easily could have won 2 or 3.Not starting Aurier probably cost us the game,but hopefully poch has learnt.has to be Aurier 75% of games not 50/50.
City are being hailed as world beaters today.yet they 2 offside goals and keeper mistake for first 3 goals.After Everton and Dortmund there's very little to worry about or question.It just wasn't our day much like Burnley.city and united will have these days.

Everyone has off days yes I agree but city and Utd will have less of them imo has they have better options and variety in attack.
City have just put five past a Liverpool pool team who are considered a direct rival to them, yes sending off helped but that is the ruthlessness you need to win stuff which is why at the start of the season there were my favourites for the title and remain so.

 

[Wheeler Dealer]

If we don't get an early goal against these type of teams then we struggle to open them up..

We lack a direct player like Mane, Sane or Martial who can pick up the ball and get past and beyond the defensive line.

 

[doctor stefan Freud]

If we don't get an early goal against these type of teams then we struggle to open them up..

We lack a direct player like Mane, Sane or Martial who can pick up the ball and get past and beyond the defensive line.

Which is what was needed in the window. In every other way our recruitment was good, but this element was seriously lacking

 

[jonnyp]

Our problem against sides who park the bus is we're so slow in possession. The passes need to be hit with more pace, there has to be more movement to draw opposing players away from their positions and make them run and tire. We didn't do that at all in the first half, Swansea had such an easy time in that first half. That's irrespective of our lineup and formation. We looked better in the second half and upped the tempo a bit more but we should do that from the kickoff.

We look good against sides that don't park the bus but we're clueless against sides that do.