What our opponents' fans are saying

[tdk101]

Prematch thread at Bluemoon is already 54 pages long
Are they panicking or is it normally that busy?

 

[greaves]

Prematch thread at Bluemoon is already 54 pages long
Are they panicking or is it normally that busy?

Neither. They are inarticulate...

 

[Mr Pink]

Agreed. Its a touch reminiscent of how we went into the game away to Man Utd last season. They looked vulnerable and we looked full of belief. Then they produced their best 45 minutes of the season and we just didn't turn up.

I don't fear us 'not turning up' anymore as we almost always do enough to at least match our opponents these days, but if City produce their best 45 minutes of the season against us then it'll be a big ask to come away with anything positive.

Agree and City will surely be pumped after last week.

That said I don't think we'll see any complacency like last season, just more of the same simple as that. Its a very intriguing game given their defensive struggles and the fact we've been so good defensively. A game I would normally dread, but certainly not now.

I'm not overly confident of winning, but I'm quietly confident that we'll get something from the game - if that makes sense.

 

[Hazardousman]

As well as agreeing with what @Spurger King wrote just above, I have to point out a habitual double standard here. People tend to cite every example of a Spurs player's missed chance as a failure by a Spurs player - "we would have won that game" - but a missed chance by an opposition player is a failure of the Spurs defence - "we were lucky".

We can't have it both ways. There were plenty of times that we could have dropped points this season, except that an opposition player skied a shot at an open goal or hit a post.

Given this major element of chance and randomness in football, all that our players - our team - can do is what it is already doing very effectively, which is to restrict the number of opposition chances while maximising the number of Spurs chances. Elsewhere on SC, a statistic was posted today or yesterday, to the effect (broadly) that we created about 160 clear chances and have permitted our opponents to create 75. I can't remember over what period this was. If we are able to perpetuate that proportion over our remaining matches, we will win most of them and finish high in the table.

Focusing so obsessively on individual moments in individual matches and how they affected results is not productive. We used to be able to say that "for every one great chance that we missed, there was one the the opposition missed". The objective now is to be able to say that "for every two great chances that we missed, there was one that the opposition missed". That's a key part of Pochettino's "philosophy".

Exactly, the reality is we can only keep doing what we are doing, luck is going to play it's part (every team requires some element of luck to win a title) football is random at the best of times, as long as we continue to put in the hard work as you have said above we will more often than not reap the rewards and hopefully we have some luck along the way as well.

 

[Hazardousman]

Agree and City will surely be pumped after last week.

That said I don't think we'll see any complacency like last season, just more of the same simple as that. Its a very intriguing game given their defensive struggles and the fact we've been so good defensively. A game I would normally dread, but certainly not now.

I'm not overly confident of winning, but I'm quietly confident that we'll get something from the game - if that makes sense.

I think we will sneak it 2-1, we will take the lead, City will nick one back and then we will score in the final 10 mins to win.

 

[dagraham]

I always try to think of the 'what if' moments in terms of cause and effect.

Maybe if we'd beaten Leicester we would have been more complacent in the games that followed? Maybe we learnt something from the Newcastle game that has made us generally more focussed and tougher to beat?

It's like when people say things like "if that goal had gone in we would have won the game 2-1 instead of drawing" without considering that the events that followed one incident (or result) wouldn't have played out in exactly the same way.

All we can say is that as a result of the performances and results we've had across the season, we're in the position we are now. Maybe in some alternative universe we thrashed United on the opening day of the season, and Kane broke both legs when out on the town celebrating!

Generally agree, but losing that Leicester game at home could prove to be a hugely pivotal moment.

 

[Mr Pink]

I think we will sneak it 2-1, we will take the lead, City will nick one back and then we will score in the final 10 mins to win.

Yep could certainly see that happening.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

Generally agree, but losing that Leicester game at home could prove to be a hugely pivotal moment.

I think I've said this before- but I actually agree- and I guess for a completely different reason. While the Leicester match was incredibly frustrating, as we should not have lost, I do think it stopped all complacency in the squad, and it proved to be a kick up the arse that has led to us playing more to our full potential. We've won 6 matches in a row (in all competitions) since the Leicester game. We've looked fantastic recently. If we had drawn the game, which would have been a better result, would we have produced the same reaction that has led us to the winning streak? It's speculation, but I do think that the Leicester result provoked a strong reaction in the squad, and we are now reaping the benefits of that reaction. Of course I'm not happy we lost, but it's worth considering the positive implications a result like that had, and it may, at the end of the season, prove to have been a blessing in disguise.

 

[Phomesy]

Generally agree, but losing that Leicester game at home could prove to be a hugely pivotal moment.

Winning the FA cup replay - having learned lessons - could be equally as pivotal.

 

[Snarfalicious]

I think I've said this before- but I actually agree- and I guess for a completely different reason. While the Leicester match was incredibly frustrating, as we should not have lost, I do think it stopped all complacency in the squad, and it proved to be a kick up the arse that has led to us playing more to our full potential. We've won 6 matches in a row (in all competitions) since the Leicester game. We've looked fantastic recently. If we had drawn the game, which would have been a better result, would we have produced the same reaction that has led us to the winning streak? It's speculation, but I do think that the Leicester result provoked a strong reaction in the squad, and we are now reaping the benefits of that reaction. Of course I'm not happy we lost, but it's worth considering the positive implications a result like that had, and it may, at the end of the season, prove to have been a blessing in disguise.

I couldn't agree more.

I think it says a lot that every single loss we have in the league this season feels like one we let slip as opposed to actually being outplayed.

 

[Pellshek]

I think I've said this before- but I actually agree- and I guess for a completely different reason. While the Leicester match was incredibly frustrating, as we should not have lost, I do think it stopped all complacency in the squad, and it proved to be a kick up the arse that has led to us playing more to our full potential. We've won 6 matches in a row (in all competitions) since the Leicester game. We've looked fantastic recently. If we had drawn the game, which would have been a better result, would we have produced the same reaction that has led us to the winning streak? It's speculation, but I do think that the Leicester result provoked a strong reaction in the squad, and we are now reaping the benefits of that reaction. Of course I'm not happy we lost, but it's worth considering the positive implications a result like that had, and it may, at the end of the season, prove to have been a blessing in disguise.

Totally agree. There was a bit of cockiness from us in that game that seems to have been stamped out since. Who's to say dropping those 2 or 3 points against Leicester didn't gain us 4 or 6 subsequently.

 

[Spurger King]

I couldn't agree more.

I think it says a lot that every single loss we have in the league this season feels like one we let slip as opposed to actually being outplayed.

Well let's not re-write history. This season we've had many poor 45 minutes. We had a run of poor performances around the time of the Newcastle match, where we looked like we were really struggling to break down the opposition.

The real difference is that those performances have become rarities, whereas last season the stunning pressing performances were the anomalies (pretty much Chelsea and Arsenal at home). Now we've been seeing astoundingly dominating performances all across the season. Not yet the 'norm' (which would be incredibly difficult to sustain anyway), but certainly an established high standard that is regular enough not to be a freak occurrence.

 

[Timberwolf]

Totally agree. There was a bit of cockiness from us in that game that seems to have been stamped out since. Who's to say dropping those 2 or 3 points against Leicester didn't gain us 4 or 6 subsequently.

It reminds me of when we lost to Pompey under Harry in the FA Cup semis. Everyone was slitting their wrists on here at the time, after an admittedly shocking performance (and pitch), but in the immediate aftermath we beat both Arsenal and Chelsea and secured Champions League with a win over City. Purely speculative, of course, but I wonder if we'd cruised past Pompey and made it to the final, would we have made the CL?

 

[DukeUSA]

The City forums are like the last days of AVB must have been like over here. The majority over there thinks we will win and some who deny that think that the best way for them to win to come out and attack us straight from the jump. With the way they played the counter against LCFC I really hope they do.

 

[Matthew Wyatt]

I can't see us losing. We never lose the big games, just the odd stupid one like Neecastle and Leicester. (I don't count United on the opening day because we weren't ready yet -- should replay that one really.)

And it's likely we'll score, because that's what we do too. I have Spurs for the win.

 

[ajspurs]

I feel confident enough in our solidity to say if we're clinical and take our chances we have a great chance of winning as we don't concede much. Even so if we play well and it's a case of dominating but not taking our chances like against Arsenal and Everton, when they have someone like Aguero we could easily lose still.

 

[eViL]

if we're clinical

This is where the cookie will crumble. Take our chances and we'll hammer them. Shoot like we did at Watford and Aguero may nick a single goal winner.

Son needs to play.

 

[dagraham]

A bit too much overconfidence in this thread for my liking. Yes we have a decent chance of turning them over, but it wouldn't surprise me in the least if we lost.

We will play a completely different game to Leicester, who crowded City out with numbers behind the ball and exploited City's complete lack of pace at the back.

If we press them we could overrun them, but just as likely leave space for our nemesis to punish us. Anything could happen really.

 

[MightySpurs]

Think this sums it up nicely.

 

[Real_madyidd]

I can't see us losing. We never lose the big games, just the odd stupid one like Neecastle and Leicester. (I don't count United on the opening day because we weren't ready yet -- should replay that one really.)

And it's likely we'll score, because that's what we do too. I have Spurs for the win.

Are you new to supporting Spurs? We don't talk like that, or even think it.

We always lose everything, and therefore we will lose. And we will all probably die as a result.