What's new

Tottenham/West Ham: Some Final Thoughts

Gaz_Gammon

Well-Known Member
Apr 16, 2005
16,047
18,013
Naughton jumped in front and flung his hands up in the process of moving, his head was looking away and it was clearly accidental. Debatable penalty but no way a red card. In the end justice prevailed.

Loris was excellent and Dier had a great debut but no-one else was overly impressive. Maybe Kane....

Adebayor looked isolated. Erickson gave the ball away too much but also didn't really see him link up with Ade. I think he tends to play too deep behind the striker. Lamela busted his gut but his style seems to look for the flick ons and short passes that would work much better as a number 10. I'd like to see him play behind the striker as that would better suit his style and allow Erickson to be creative and control the tempo of the game in the middle.

IMO the set up was too defensive reminded me too much of AVB with the first 15 minutes we were holding lots of possession but not doing anything with it. The team needed holtby on from the start instead of one of Capoue or Bentalab just to move things along and push the midfield up in support of Ade.

I was impressed with how the team responded though when down to 10 and MP kept his head and you could see he had ideas even then which was really encouraging.

Sure there was luck but you also need to take the opportunity and they did that.

Here's hoping the team starts to take shape. Poch certainly seems like an excellent coach.


Some very good points.

So many times last season the striker became isolated and often dropped back into the midfield area to get the ball. For me Eriksen has to play more centrally and i'd put Lamela on the wing.

Very early days yet, but on Saturday at times i thought it was indeed a re-run from an early AVB managed game.

it will be interesting to see what happens when Chadli, Verts and Paulinho are fit enough for selection.
 

Mattspur

ENIC IN
Jan 7, 2004
4,885
7,257
Having seen the penalty incident a few times now I'd have to say it was a penalty. I don't think he threw his hands up with the intention to obstruct the ball from the goal but rather to protect his face from the ball hitting it. So I think it was an intentional handball because if the ball was going to hit him in the face he wanted it to hit his hands/arms instead.

I don't think it should have been a sending off because I can't believe that the ref or linesman was 100% sure that the shot was on target, but there must be a camera angle somewhere where you could see if it was or wasn't. If it wasn't then it should be overturned and if it was then it was the right decision.
 

vigospur

Well-Known Member
Dec 10, 2006
1,115
807
Having seen the penalty incident a few times now I'd have to say it was a penalty. I don't think he threw his hands up with the intention to obstruct the ball from the goal but rather to protect his face from the ball hitting it. So I think it was an intentional handball because if the ball was going to hit him in the face he wanted it to hit his hands/arms instead.

I don't think it should have been a sending off because I can't believe that the ref or linesman was 100% sure that the shot was on target, but there must be a camera angle somewhere where you could see if it was or wasn't. If it wasn't then it should be overturned and if it was then it was the right decision.
The red card is for denying a goal scoring opportunity. I don't think it makes any difference whether the shot was actually goal bound. It has to be no penalty or a penalty and a red card. Only my opinion of course.:)
 

Mattspur

ENIC IN
Jan 7, 2004
4,885
7,257
The red card is for denying a goal scoring opportunity. I don't think it makes any difference whether the shot was actually goal bound. It has to be no penalty or a penalty and a red card. Only my opinion of course.:)

But surly if the ball is going wide or over their is no goal scoring opportunity.
 

spursram

Well-Known Member
Aug 3, 2013
1,910
2,904
I liked the fact that Poch didn't panic over the sending off of a defender. You normally see the coaches throwing on a sub defender and taking off a midfielder or striker. Despite peoples low opinion of Daws, I think most would prefer him to Capoue at Centre Back! But being so early in the game Poch was obviously thinking of energy levels later on. It meant we could make 3 key subs in the 2nd half. It worked. Poch has obviously learned the famous saying "Keep Calm and Carry On".
 
Top