We've been sussed

[dagraham]

5 senior players out drinking on Saturday night Didn't help the cause

Really? Where are you getting that info from?

 

[ostrov]

Yeah I know. I just don't think the lunch with Ferguson has anything to do with it.

If anything, I think his comments pre match about not worrying about being ahead of Arsenal were more damaging.

No problem. Contract though could do. And I agree about irrelevance of arsenal was not very good idea for the fans. All in all Poch made a wrong move in chess terms somewhere along the line in the end.

 

[CheeseGromit]

I can't blame absentees. We were poor against West Ham, Arsenal, Liverpool, WBA etc with them in the side. Even Utd was a bit of a freak as they had been marginally the better side until we got the first.

I am not saying anything about absentees and not sure if you are saying I am
I agree the season got a bit long for us, you cant play well the whole season.
Overall a good season Some additions will improve the opportunity

 

[hodsgod]

I said as much at the time but Bilic has shown the world how to stop Spurs. That defeat against West Ham was when we started to crumble.

Ironically the way to stop us, is to press us higher up the pitch and stop us playing it out from the back. Primarily press Dier and Lloris when they're in possession. Our whole strategy then crumbles.

In isolation it's been a great year. We just finished in our highest league position since 1990. You can't argue with that. In context it's been a strange year generally and not just because Leicester won the title. I still maintain that up until Xmas we hadn't played very well. We had spells in games where we were excellent and awful. In the New Year it seemed to click. Until West Ham.

Poch's vision is obvious and effective. The problem I can see is that when it's not effective we struggle. Poch sets his teams up with one formation, one style of play. And if that doesn't work? Then we lose or draw. IMO he doesn't have the tactical flexibility required to be a top manager (yet, he is still young). What concerns me more is that his formation and style are mimicry. They aren't something he personally came up with. It's something he has seen done, believes to be successful and adopted as his own approach. With this in mind does this make him nothing more than a glorified motivator? Time will tell.

I have to be honest, I have come to quite a similar conclusion. We can not play against the press very well.

 

[Maske2g]

Something I dont think Ive seen is how badly we've played in Pivotal games.

Particularly for me West Ham away and Leicester at home.

The importance of those games were massive at the time, I dont believe all 38 games have equal importance.

Damage was done by the time we played Chelsea we were never making up 8 points.

 

[thfc1973]

Pressing Dier and Hugo would make no difference and should make no difference if the rest of the players make themselves available as an outlet to pass to AND moreover have the skill to work the ball out to other players once they get it and expose the opposition in return.

Thats how we are supposed to play. We didnt do it on many occasions this season and didnt get the result. If you look at the way Barca play thats how they do it, the whole team passes themselves out of trouble and quickly counters to put pressure on the opposition. If you dither on the ball and arent concentrating 110% you will get caught out and your brain wont think fast enough and your body wont act fast enough to get yourself out of trouble.

 

[adamsky]

We got 'sussed out' because Ali and, more importantly, Dembele got suspended. Simple as that, the stats prove it

 

[am_yisrael_chai]

I said as much at the time but Bilic has shown the world how to stop Spurs. That defeat against West Ham was when we started to crumble.

Ironically the way to stop us, is to press us higher up the pitch and stop us playing it out from the back. Primarily press Dier and Lloris when they're in possession. Our whole strategy then crumbles.

In isolation it's been a great year. We just finished in our highest league position since 1990. You can't argue with that. In context it's been a strange year generally and not just because Leicester won the title. I still maintain that up until Xmas we hadn't played very well. We had spells in games where we were excellent and awful. In the New Year it seemed to click. Until West Ham.

Poch's vision is obvious and effective. The problem I can see is that when it's not effective we struggle. Poch sets his teams up with one formation, one style of play. And if that doesn't work? Then we lose or draw. IMO he doesn't have the tactical flexibility required to be a top manager (yet, he is still young). What concerns me more is that his formation and style are mimicry. They aren't something he personally came up with. It's something he has seen done, believes to be successful and adopted as his own approach. With this in mind does this make him nothing more than a glorified motivator? Time will tell.

Yesterday aside our recent defeats were down to individual errors by some of our best players. I think Lloris should not have been beaten at his near post from a corner against West Ham, shouldn't have been beaten by Sanchez against Arsenal, shouldn't have flapped at the corner against WBA and should have saved both goals against Southampton and Toby was responsible for both goals at Chelsea. The only tactical issues we have are 1) we can't play without Dembele as we lack an ability to create space in midfield and 2) we are susceptible to being hit on the break by teams that sit deep because we lack pace and dribbling ability to get in behind packed defences and Poch's favoured method of FBs bombing on doesn't work against teams who sit deep as neither Walker or Rose have enough quality in their delivery.

 

[SpartanSpur]

Yesterday aside our recent defeats were down to individual errors by some of our best players. I think Lloris should not have been beaten at his near post from a corner against West Ham, shouldn't have been beaten by Sanchez against Arsenal, shouldn't have flapped at the corner against WBA and should have saved both goals against Southampton and Toby was responsible for both goals at Chelsea. The only tactical issues we have are 1) we can't play without Dembele as we lack an ability to create space in midfield and 2) we are susceptible to being hit on the break by teams that sit deep because we lack pace and dribbling ability to get in behind packed defences and Poch's favoured method of FBs bombing on doesn't work against teams who sit deep as neither Walker or Rose have enough quality in their delivery.

Agree with so much of this, absolutely love Hugo and he earns many points but both gooner equalisers this season were sooooo soft, and late on too. Agreed about Soton and Wham too. Talk about picking your moment to drop a clanger, same with Toby vs Chelsea although they were not purely down to him.