Swansea Vs Tottenham: Match Thread

jezz said:

When your team isn't playing well you work your arse off.
It's a team thing, something you should know being a pro.

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jezz said:

I didn't say he had a good game, I said he worked his socks off.
Can you tell the difference?

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he was poor. He contributed nothing to the team apart from he ran around a lot and fouled constantly... You or I can run around and work hard. But when you pay 30 million quid you want something else. A bit of magic ? A goal ? An assist? Something eriksen and Kane are constantly giving us. When did lamela last co tribute on this front ? He's in the team to do these sorts of things. He's not in the team just to work hard ? That should be a given in any footballer

DEFchenkOE said:

With Ade gone and Soldado being so poor we have no choice. I think he can handle it, certainly won't do any worse than Soldado.

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I think for it to work, we have to move a false 9 433. Like we played in the youth team with chadli playing as well

Spurger King said:

There's no denying it was a good result. Maybe it's just me but I'd actually be more encouraged by a point and a good performance, than another poor performance and all three points. It's the absence of signs of improvement that prevents me from being filled with optimism for the future. Keep performing like that and the results will soon reflect it.

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What we lack is confidence and belief in our abilities: points give you both.

You know what, Soldado proving to be a dud is probably one of the biggest disappointments I have felt as a spurs fan, which says a lot as a fan through the mid 90s

Really wanted him to be great. Kinda felt when we signed him that he was the striker we have been looking for since Berba.

Sweetsman said:

Do you mean that they ruined the argument you had been preparing and now you feel like a chump?

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I don't bother with lengthy posts when we play like shite because it's not worth my time.

You actually feel optimistic after watching that?

iluvsteffenfreund said:

he was poor. He contributed nothing to the team apart from he ran around a lot and fouled constantly... You or I can run around and work hard. But when you pay 30 million quid you want something else. A bit of magic ? A goal ? An assist? Something eriksen and Kane are constantly giving us. When did lamela last co tribute on this front ? He's in the team to do these sorts of things. He's not in the team just to work hard ? That should be a given in any footballer

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In his first season in La Liga, Modrić was rated as the worst midfielder in the league. He cost about the same, I think. No one thinks that about him now.

Strikeb4ck said:

I don't bother with lengthy posts when we play like shite because it's not worth my time.

You actually feel optimistic after watching that?

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What's optimism got to do with it? We got three points; optimism won't give us four.

Three disagrees and a doh thanks for your insight gents!

My overall thoughts of the game....

To my untrained eye it looks to me that we just don't work as hard as the opposition, and when we do (albeit in 5/10 min bursts) we tend to see what could be in terms of ability and quality if we could sustain it for 80% of a game.
We started well through our high pressing and energy, we scored, then it was like 'over to you'. And unsurprisingly we were 2nd best for the remainder of the first half.
Why do we do this????
I can't and won't believe this is a directive from the manager. Are the players playing with an element of fear as soon as they have something to hang onto??
At times Swansea were able to pass round us with alarming ease, with barely a challenge or a semblance of one. Verts and fazio were exposed time and time again because of this imo.

And the tempo. What gives there??
We pass slowly, laboriously, even stupidly at times. Swansea were popping it around nicely, and routinely getting round the back of us. On the occasions when we won the ball on the halfway line or higher the attacks were slowed, passed sideways and back allowing them to get back into shape, defend in numbers, etc etc.

It's still painful to watch, I wasn't enjoying it at all, and it's clear that half the squad we have can't or won't do what Poch wants.
2 or 3 player won't change a thing imo. Certainly not this transfer window anyway. Imo Poch will need 3 or 4 transfer windows, full backing from Levy and the board, and a shit load of patience from us fans to achieve something and to get us playing exciting football that gets us out our seats. Bit depressing really.

beats1 said:

I think for it to work, we have to move a false 9 433. Like we played in the youth team with chadli playing as well

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Chadli offers a goal threat so should start, but I just think Soldado is offering so little it's madness to keep persisting with him. Same could be said of Lamela, both need to hit the bench. Kane up front isn't ideal but what other options do we have?

Sweetsman said:

In his first season in La Liga, Modrić was rated as the worst midfielder in the league. He cost about the same, I think. No one thinks that about him now.

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Hahaha what's your point !? There's a lot of players who take a while to settle and like I said in a previous post I hope we give lamela time and he comes good. But we can't play him at the minute when he is as bad as he was today. Should we play him just in case ala modric he turns out brilliant !?!? The difference is in 90 per cent of Madrids games they can afford to carry a player or two. We cannot.

tiger666 said:

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Have a look at his posting history in general - every matchday comes in saying he predicts us to lose, slates everything for the whole game, then disappears when we win until the next game when he starts all over again.

Trolls from ArsenalMania are at least supposed to pretend they're Spurs fans.

spurslenny said:

My overall thoughts of the game....

To my untrained eye it looks to me that we just don't work as hard as the opposition, and when we do (albeit in 5/10 min bursts) we tend to see what could be in terms of ability and quality if we could sustain it for 80% of a game.
We started well through our high pressing and energy, we scored, then it was like 'over to you'. And unsurprisingly we were 2nd best for the remainder of the first half.
Why do we do this????
I can't and won't believe this is a directive from the manager. Are the players playing with an element of fear as soon as they have something to hang onto??
At times Swansea were able to pass round us with alarming ease, with barely a challenge or a semblance of one. Verts and fazio were exposed time and time again because of this imo.

And the tempo. What gives there??
We pass slowly, laboriously, even stupidly at times. Swansea were popping it around nicely, and routinely getting round the back of us. On the occasions when we won the ball on the halfway line or higher the attacks were slowed, passed sideways and back allowing them to get back into shape, defend in numbers, etc etc.

It's still painful to watch, I wasn't enjoying it at all, and it's clear that half the squad we have can't or won't do what Poch wants.
2 or 3 player won't change a thing imo. Certainly not this transfer window anyway. Imo Poch will need 3 or 4 transfer windows, full backing from Levy and the board, and a shit load of patience from us fans to achieve something and to get us playing exciting football that gets us out our seats. Bit depressing really.

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3/4 transfer Windows is about 2 years quite a while to wait to see if pochs system will work not sure i can hold out that long.

iluvsteffenfreund said:

he was poor. He contributed nothing to the team apart from he ran around a lot and fouled constantly... You or I can run around and work hard. But when you pay 30 million quid you want something else. A bit of magic ? A goal ? An assist? Something eriksen and Kane are constantly giving us. When did lamela last co tribute on this front ? He's in the team to do these sorts of things. He's not in the team just to work hard ? That should be a given in any footballer

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So you never encountered bad form?
You were brilliant every game?
Who do you play for again?
Do you need an agent? I'm free, how hard can it be?
Heres my pitch to levy, You've never had bad run of games, in fact you played to perfection every game.
100% stats every game, no misplaced passes, win every tackle, every shot on target.
Come own up your Messi and Ronaldos love child (adopted of course)

jezz said:

So you never encountered bad form?
You were brilliant every game?
Who do you play for again?
Do you need an agent? I'm free, how hard can it be?
Heres my pitch to levy, You've never had bad run of games, in fact you played to perfection every game.
100% stats every game, no misplaced passes, win every tackle, every shot on target.
Come own up your Messi and Ronaldos love child (adopted of course)

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Ok so you admit he's in bad form ?

DEFchenkOE said:

Chadli offers a goal threat so should start, but I just think Soldado is offering so little it's madness to keep persisting with him. Same could be said of Lamela, both need to hit the bench. Kane up front isn't ideal but what other options do we have?

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The thing is chadli has put in some soldado performances like today

TH1239 said:

I should've just deleted the entire thing save the Eriksen portion. You're absolutely right and I was totally wrong in my prediction.

As an aside, what do you think of the January transfer window? Any continental players you believe can comfortably come in and play in a Bielsa/Sampaoli style high press?

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Oh, come now, don't take it to heart so
No need to delete it, just didn't understand why you felt the need to quote it as though what it said mirrored what happened.

If you had just made a post saying that Eriksen is our main source of creativity and goal-thread and we need to add more match-winners, I would have agreed with you

As for the January window - it is not so easy to call as some on here are saying. I certainly don't think we need a complete overhaul, and neither do I think a flood gate/sluice gate policy of selling and buying is desirable in any abstract way. We are set in goal. We saw what looks like our first choice back four FOR THE FIRST TIME today. Maybe folk should give that a bit more time. Walker's return underlined today just how important it is for Poch's system having a genuine RB with pace. We have Yedlin arriving in Jan and plenty of cover. On t'other side, Davies is starting to show what a good defender he is, and Rose is not as bad as some make out, and can benefit on some tutoring while playing second fiddle. And the pure Poch system doesn't require lightning pace from both wing-backs at the same time. I would be inclined to leave the centre of defence for now, see what partnerships can be built up and which of the bench can be redeemed - I still harbour a sentimental dream that Vlad can be But at least part of that is because I think incomings should be kept to absolute necessity in January.

The main concern for me is in the centre of midfield and up front.

I love that we have two youth products in there and have championed our youth set-up and product for quite some time. But I don't feel that they have the experience or that that they complement one another enough to be our permanent pairing ATM. We need someone with experience who can take hold of the game, IMHO. And that isn't anyone we have just now so far as I can see.

And we need to totally rethink the front line. I've made a suggestion in my post about Lamela...don't want to quote the whole thing: Swansea Vs Tottenham: Match Thread While a very different type of player, Paulinho might actually make a perfect competitor to Lamela (or someone else) have a midfield three with one playing a forward more aggressive role. Likewise, I would be loath to say we should get rid of Dembélé - he is frustrating as hell, and spends too much time jogging around looking comfortable with his elbows tucked into his side, but he also showed himself at his best when he held onto the ball out wide, under strong pressure, burst through and whipped a tasty looking cross in, and we all know that when he finally works himself up to let go (about once every 17.4 games ATM), he can lash one hell of a shot in. Who knows what Poch can do with these guys with regular training/head work.

And that's it, really. Don't go mental as there is still more to be revealed by this squad, on terms of playing together regularly, accommodating to Poch's methods and preferences, and, who knows, maybe gaining confidence if they can put a run of some kind together. Maybe a genuinely dominating central midfielder* and another goal-scorer of some variety. *Not from overseas, someone with EPL.

Spurger King said:

Yeah I'm positively bouncing off the wall at the amazing football Pochettino has got us playing. What a manager! What tactics! What a desire to win he's instilled in the team!

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Odd. It's nice to win, especially after the relentless barrage of miserable bullshit in this thread today.

I love match days when we win - everyone is in such good spirits, the positivity is overflowing, and I just come in here and soak in all the positive vibes.

Cheers, Mates!!

davidmatzdorf said:

There's not really a great deal of point in having 8+ posts that announce that Lamela is shit and then ... don't say why. Indeed, they don't say anything else at all, just 8+ ways of wording a sentence that Lamela is crap and loses the ball too much. Seriously, guys, we don't give a shit what you think unless you tell us why you think it. It's just spam. Or perhaps the modern word for spam is 'opinion'.

Lamela is gradually working through his shortcomings as a player in English fooball, but two of them seem to be intransigent, resistant to improvement. He's addressed the body-strength issue and improved his closing-down enormously.

Unfortunately, the first hasn't been effective because he still lacks the judgment to know when to pass - he will reliably try to beat one too many opponents - often trying to dribble through a crowd of three opponents - and that is why he loses possession so often and thus ruins so many promising attacking moves.

And the second isn't effective because his tackling, while enthusiastic, is too often wild and reckless. He was fortunate to avoid a couple of yellow cards today.

The result is that he remains a net liability in our squad. We usually play better when he leaves the pitch. He is being played regularly despite this and the reason is unlikely to be because he was expensive, it's because he is talented and young. There's a post some pages back on this thread that recommends giving up on Soldado and Lamela as a pair of expensive mistakes, as if they were comparable. They aren't: Soldado is nearly 30 and Lamela is only 22. Even if Soldado does overcome his brain-block and recover his finishing ability, he's still never going to be a long-term success in England, because he hasn't got enough upside, enough future. I wouldn't be upset if we cut our losses on Soldado, but we have to persevere with Lamela because of his age and visible talent. Most of what's wrong with his game is in his head: bad decisions.

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Just one thing David regarding lamelas upper body strength you have this wrong it wont be addressed until he bulks up like bale did.
When he gained more strength his game got better and so the team benefited from it.