Match Threads Fulham vs Spurs

[Spursberg]

Wow was it really a year ago today?

I only got to see the higlights of this game, but it has been the same for a long time now. We lack the hunger and dicipline to press like a team. They are all 20% off, many jogging back and not taking any responsibility, just like Conte complained about.

And when Ange comes out and says it is a process, it scares me a bit, because we have seen many times that the quality is there, but when the lazyness kicks in and dicipline drops, it just looks like something Spurs are not able to fix
Sometimes i think the players have to good facilities at hotspur way and just strolls to training, smiling and bantering. Think Ange need to take out the stick and beat the shit out of them when someone is cheating.

Atleast sub them of quick to show that jogging and cheating is not acceptable no matter the name on the jersey!

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

His predecessors have done exactly what you suggest (give youth a chance and experiment) and that’s part of the reason why we’ve never performed well in those competitions.

I’d argue our academy has never looked this good possibly since the likes of Kane, Townsend, Mason etc came through. Our U21s are flying and there is obviously a clear emphasis on signing young players with high ceilings. We’ve already signed Bergvall and supposedly still want to do a deal for Nusa. You’d think if we guarantee him starts in the EL, that would be enough to convince him to join.

 

[PaulM]

I agree that we want to finish as high as possible, always, but I don’t think fourth should have any special status if fifth also qualifies for the Champions League. Fourth is better than fifth for sure but then third is also better than fourth. We tend to reify fourth because we associate it with that Champions League spot.

For me the most important thing is to keep on improving and there are different ways to measure that. For example, I think in hindsight Arsenal were on a better trajectory than us even though they lost out on the Champions League spot to us. We all had a great laugh at their expense then but they were playing a different game to us.

Good post and I agree. Sorry, should have said qualification for CL rather than 4th/5th given the ambiguity around it.

And your point regarding Woolwich is a fair and good one.

 

[Westmorlandspur]

That's not weak mentality. I think we'd be better off entering a competition we could genuinely win- no drop down from CL next year- than scraping into one we don't have the depth or quality to perform well in. If it's all about the long game then surely easing ourselves into international competition, and maybe even winning a cup, is better for us long term.

Remember the team that won the League Cup in 2008. What a team. Finished 11th in the league , following season 8games. 2 pts bottom of the league. Is that where we want to be.
We had a bit of luck for the two goals in the final, dodgy pen and lucky rebound off woodgates head.
I think you would find that all the players want to play Champ Lge.

 

[Styopa]

I’d argue our academy has never looked this good possibly since the likes of Kane, Townsend, Mason etc came through. Our U21s are flying and there is obviously a clear emphasis on signing young players with high ceilings. We’ve already signed Bergvall and supposedly still want to do a deal for Nusa. You’d think if we guarantee him starts in the EL, that would be enough to convince him to join.

It sounds like we have some really brilliant players in our academy. But for me the test of how good those players are is when those players are playing adult football. It’s just all hypothetical up to that point.

I remember Wenger playing some really great youth teams in the League cup but for whatever reason the majority of those players never made it at Arsenal. And these were players who were outplaying adult men in proper competitive matches.

I’m probably a bit cynical, but I think for most clubs if you produce two or three important players every ten years you are doing ok.

 

[greaves]

You pogue, you!

Happy St Patrick’s

 

[Fredo]

bissouma is just not cut out for the job, sadly.

Sarr is a much better player overall and requires a competent DM destroyer with an eye for a pass beside him

 

[allatsea]

I am amazed in this Ange's first season we are as high in the table as we are. It was clear last season big changes were needed both in the coaching staff and perhaps more importantly in the first team squad. That we are challenging for a CL place is unexpected (IMO) for many at the club particularly bearing in mind we lost our worlds best striker in Harry Kane last summer.

Yesterday confirmed that what Martin Jol called "top mentality" is still lacking in some in the squad. A further clear out is required and more clever buys are needed. But our team can dominate matches as proved against Aston Villa so there is much to build on.

 

[Johnny J]

bissouma is just not cut out for the job, sadly.

Sarr is a much better player overall and requires a competent DM destroyer with an eye for a pass beside him

Bissouma is a strange one because for the first ten games he was one of our standout players. He was playing through the press with ease and breaking up play everywhere.

Since his red card and Afcon he's been wildly inconsistent and hasn't hit his early heights.

But I do think he's good enough. It's just whether he can show that consistently in games.

 

[gloryspur]

You know what's even worse is we go into an international break having to wait until they sort themselves out. After yesterday's game you want another one to quickly turn it round.

Be like a horrible hangover for two weeks. I'm still seething from that performance and as mentioned hope Ange drags them in and pulls no punches although cotton wool wrapped players can escape this on international duty.

As for Conte a year ago you have to agree with what he says about the way we are but also take into account the football under him was like Mourinho, turgid.

Unfortunately Woolwich have got the work rate and style nailed down to the point where the hope we have is putting one over them when we play which says much about where we are at the moment.

 

[Monkey boy]

Remember the team that won the League Cup in 2008. What a team. Finished 11th in the league , following season 8games. 2 pts bottom of the league. Is that where we want to be.
We had a bit of luck for the two goals in the final, dodgy pen and lucky rebound off woodgates head.
I think you would find that all the players want to play Champ Lge.

there was nothing dodgy about that penalty and with the tenacity and bravery of how we played in that final despite being massive underdogs you could argue that we deserved the lucky winner.

 

[homer hotspur]

there was nothing dodgy about that penalty and with the tenacity and bravery of how we played in that final despite being massive underdogs you could argue that we deserved the lucky winner.

We also had to play a Uefa cup knockout match 3 days before on the Thursday night

 

[Hazelton]

As a club, you want Champions League football. Doesn't matter if you can win it or not, it's money, stature, the ability to lure a better class of player.

The club's motto is To Dare is to Do, Ange believes it and it's time some of our fans started believing it. This result means nothing, the same way the Villa result meant nothing. It's one game and it's the way it goes sometimes.

 

[NEVILLEB]

I love Ange and am behind him but this statement is absolute bollocks in my view. And the problem with it is that it allows the club and the manager a subjective out if we don’t get CL football.

What he’s saying is “if I think I’ve got a team to challenge next season and we finish 5th instead of 4th, I’ll be happy.”

CL football isn’t the be all and end all for me. I said from the start that top 6 would be a good season and stick by that. Top 4 would be amazing.

But, at the end of the day, while a lot of what Ange says about having a single season in the CL is right, you cannot spin that finishing 5th might be better than finishing 4th. Allowing a manager to spin things that way is a very, very dangerous precedent to set IMO.

Football management is about outcomes and managers get judged on them - not on subjective, potentially self serving judgements about where the manager believes we are.

It’s got nothing to do with where we finish this season.

It’s about the players building a winning mentality and yesterday was a massive mark against that. They need to have a meeting and realise that they need to individually evolve and mature if they want success. Players like Roy Keane were never happy. They always want more. You need this character to grind out winning performances regularly.

 

[gibbospurs]

The media narrative is that we play exciting football. I've not really bought into that - it has looked to me like we are what we are (and what we have been for many years) - a work in progress.

Played well until the Chelsea game imo. But looked very ordinary ever since. And pretty awful in between.

 

[Bobbins]

Sometimes I just feel like throwing in the towel with this club, but we are a team in progress in the boss's first season. Just don't know how we drop in mentality like that. Next season we can allow very few slip ups

I finally got enough interest generated in me over the last few months to actually buy a ticket, got one to go and See the Forest game, on my own (since I can no longer buy tickets for anyone who isn't a member - fuck you Spurs).

Not sure I'm feeling it on a Monday night now. Just don't have the passion for the club anymore, and the moment I feel something stirring, they slap you round the chops with a performance like that again. And do it after announcing that they essentially don't care about their retired fans any more.

Not blaming Ange or any particular players, I have just completely lost that connection with the club, maybe forever. I used to care so much. I remember being in tears beating United at Old Trafford under AVB as it had been so long. Now I barely even cheer goals anymore.

 

[michaelj70]

This may not be fair to put this on todays match forum, but its something ive been thinking about for a while and i dont like it. For me there is way too much back slapping going around. I'm aiming this mainly at the PR machine, which the club really seem to have upped this year. There's all sorts of nonsense posted on ig and now there is a club hosted 'tactical analysis' where Clive Allen or another ex-player blows smoke up our arse.

Thinking exactly same thing
I look at it but FAR too much
Btw who lost the Jenga ??
Whole team ?

 

[Gassin's finest]

Wow was it really a year ago today?

Kinda right though, wasn't he? We still don't like playing under pressure. Expectations of moving 4th and taking control of our destiny, and as ever we fold.

Doesn't change he was an absolute thunder **** though.

 

[whenstevewentup]

Conte was totally right , it comes from
above where coming 4th or 5th is totally acceptable . Wenger got hounded out when he thought 4th was a trophy . Until that mentality changes we will always be competing for 4th at best .

 

[Styopa]

Kinda right though, wasn't he? We still don't like playing under pressure. Expectations of moving 4th and taking control of our destiny, and as ever we fold.

Doesn't change he was an absolute thunder **** though.

Yeah but you can say this about virtually every team in the league, other than maybe Man C and Liverpool. The only difference is those teams don’t like the pressure of trying to win to move into the European places, or avoid relegation.

Any idiot can point that out. There’s thousands of people in the stadium who can tell you that. I don’t find it an interesting or insightful comment at all since my dog could probably figure it out.

The more interesting question is how we fix it. Someone like Klopp got on with doing something about it whereas Conte moaned about how hard his job was and basically resigned.