Ratings vs Leicester (FA Cup)

[danielneeds]

Son - I thought he did fine, especially for a guy making a rare ad hoc start, against a Leicester sat deep, and we've all seen Kane bumble about pretty unproductively so lets not pretend the chasm was that wide in what he offered compared to Kane. His energy was good, his work of the ball was good and he saw plenty of it in approach play and build up. And when Kane came on absolutely nothing changed and we looked no more like creating anything of quality.

Don't want to be too harsh on Son, who's obviously a little low on confidence at the moment, but I do feel you're just reaching here to support your argument that we don't need to buy another striker (unless it's an "uber-striker") we can play Son or Chadli there.

He did OK, but he was just playing like a midfielder most of the time, no real movement into dangerous areas, or movement in the box.

 

[SoulDog]

Football is a strange game....

We started this game really well. Looked lively, comfortable on the ball, pressed well, keeping the ball,passing the ball around lovely.etc etc We were absolutely dominating this match just like we was against Everton in the first half.

We got the goal early on and and we looked totally in control. Leicester were happy to sit back and it seemed like we were playing 2 at the back with Dier dropping back at times for most of the first half. Rose and Trippier were really pushing forward down the wings but then all of a sudden they get a corner out of nothing and score from there first chance at goal.

We carried on playing well absolutely dominating the game, without really creating any clear cut chances if only we had a striker. I really liked the way we kept the ball , carrol was really spraying the ball around nicely making some lovely balls. I felt we made some decent moves but Lecister were defending well.

Again when the whistle went for half time I was asking myself how the hell we were drawing this and not winning.

2nd half was basically the same they got a lucky early goal, I dunno how the hell it went in...., poor defending and It looked like from where I was sitting Vorm could of done better? But we looked the better side, played all the nice football but just lacking that creativity we never looked like we were going to score. Lecister had a little spell in the 2nd half but I felt we were the better side.

Vorm- Not a great game, looks dodgy everytime the ball comes to him. He does not come of his line fast enough, bad kicking and I thought he could of done better for the 2nd goal. Dont think hes good enough.

Rose- good game one of the better players tonight got forward well, made some decent runs if only he had a better final ball. good game though

Toby- rare mistake for there first goal, lost his man, made some strong challenges, gave it away once of twice, one of his poorer games

wimmer- done well enough, some decent balls.

Tripper- got forward well, some sloppy ball at times, did ok

Caroll- Really good game I thought, made some lovely balls. dunno why he was subbed?

Dier- OK

Onomah- I like the look of him, you can tell hes a good football, done well for the first goal some nice touches, passes etc.I think he should of subbed him in 2nd half but good for him to get 90 mins I guess. Love his close control

Eriksen- took his goal well, didnt notice him again. Poor game

Chadli- showed a couple of glimspes of good skill in the first half done nothing else, Poor

Son- poor game tried hard but gave it away alot, his hold up play was not good enough, poor movement , gave it away cheaply at times but hes NOT a striker, he showed some good skill, hes quite good with the ball at his feet but hes not a striker. Prefered it when he went back into ARM

 

[GioW]

Onomah. Boys gonna be huge for us. Classy performance today.

 

[THFCSPURS19]

It's like you get 60 minutes of Bielsa light and 20 minutes of fucking Roberto Martinez tactical surrealism every game.

What about the other 10 minutes?

 

[mpickard2087]

I think people saying Vorm should have done better for the second goal is harsh. He's hitting a shot from point blank range, 6 maybe 8 yards out max. It's just hope you get something in the way when they are getting a shot away from that close and Okazaki was lucky it bounced back to him for a second bite at scrambling it in the net.

If you want to see someone making a hash of pushing the ball clear it was Schmeichel for the opening goal. I have to say I think any criticism of Vorm for that is just looking to complain because he isn't Hugo.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

Don't want to be too harsh on Son, who's obviously a little low on confidence at the moment, but I do feel you're just reaching here to support your argument that we don't need to buy another striker (unless it's an "uber-striker) we can play Son or Chadli there.

He did OK, but he was just playing like a midfielder most of the time, no real movement into dangerous areas, or movement in the box.

My argument isn't that simplistic and you know it. My argument is that we aren't going to buy another top quality uber striker who's gong to give us what Kane does, who'll be happy to come here and sit on our bench, and we have others already who can play in other areas and can do the type of job Son did today (you seem to have forgotten Son scored tow goals in one of his rare starts as a striker this season). Kane doesn't always give is wonderful stuff. We were playing against a deep sitting team all out to defend and do fuck all else.

I wouldn't pick Son as my first choice but for the odd cup game I really don't see the point in spending any money on a player who in all likelihood isn't going to be any more proficient or fit our style than Son does, or more money on one who would but won't be first choice.

 

[SoulDog]

I think people saying Vorm should have done better for the second goal is harsh. He's hitting a shot from point blank range, 6 maybe 8 yards out max. It's just hope you get something in the way when they are getting a shot away from that close and Okazaki was lucky it bounced back to him for a second bite at scrambling it in the net.

If you want to see someone making a hash of pushing the ball clear it was Schmeichel for the opening goal. I have to say I think any criticism of Vorm for that is just looking to complain because he isn't Hugo.

I have just watched it back and yes I have to admit I am not sure he could do much about the goal maybe could of spread himself a bit more but it came at him very fast but he just worries me when he's in goal. What was he doing when he pushed that ball over the crossbar he should of caught that. Maybe I was a bit harsh on him watching it back but I still dont think hes a great keeper.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

What about the other 10 minutes?

Cut me some slack, even Poch only thinks games last for 60.

 

[mpickard2087]

I have just watched it back and yes I have to admit I am not sure he could do much about the goal maybe could of spread himself a bit more but it came at him very fast but he just worries me when he's in goal. What was he doing when he pushed that ball over the crossbar he should of caught that. Maybe I was a bit harsh on him watching it back but I still dont think hes a great keeper.

The ball was above the crossbar and on the replay looked like it would have dropped on it, and two Leicester players were in the vicinity. He took no chances, no problem with that.

 

[jonathanhotspur]

My argument isn't that simplistic and you know it. My argument is that we aren't going to buy another top quality uber striker who's gong to give us what Kane does, who'll be happy to come here and sit on our bench, and we have others already who can play in other areas and can do the type of job Son did today (you seem to have forgotten Son scored tow goals in one of his rare starts as a striker this season). Kane doesn't always give is wonderful stuff. We were playing against a deep sitting team all out to defend and do fuck all else.

I wouldn't pick Son as my first choice but for the odd cup game I really don't see the point in spending any money on a player who in all likelihood isn't going to be any more proficient or fit our style than Son does, or more money on one who would but won't be first choice.

That's why we're lining up a loan deal for Remy, @Bus-Conductor . Levy and co. have obviously taken your views on board. It had to happen. It just had to fucking happen.

You do realise you've only gone and cost us the title, you daft twat?

 

[Flashspur]

Some harsh comments on here for Wimmer, Onomah, Rose and Son I think. I thought it was a good team performance overall by the lads without busting a gut. We should never have been 2-1 down as we dominated the game. Son did not have a bad game. However, Son is not a CF and he just does not know how to lead the line. I think he can sort of adjust to the role but it is not his oeuvre. So I think Poch is having himself on if he thinks he can spend the back end of the season relying solely on Son to replace Kane. Anyway that's a discussion for another thread.

I thought Rose (7.5) did well. End product wasn't always the best but showed drive, aggression and a will to fight for the cause. I give him MOM on that basis shading Carroll.

Carroll (7.5) was also very good. Some nice incisive passing but you can see he isn't completely confident in himself yet. You always think the lad has some thing left in the tank and this was a nice enough performance to suggest that if he progresses, he could be a surprise package for us and possibly Hodgson. Another cultured Spur coming off the assembly line. I thought the subbing of Tom was a bit daft but then Poch does not do subs well does he?

The other player that stood out was Wimmer (7). I thought he looks very comfortable with the ball at his feet. He is a big lad and needs to throw himself about a bit more when challenging in the air. Otherwise he looks like he could be another nice find for us at a bargain price.

Toby (6.5) had a little bit of a mare to be honest around the goals but was OK otherwise. Dier (6.5) always does a job that most don't appreciate until he isn't there and when he went off we lost shape quickly. Chadli (6.5) was part threatening and equal part Chadliesque where he becomes invisible, pops up for a cameo and then goes invisible again. Erisken (7) apart from the goal moved the ball around well but put in some average corner kicks. We missed Lamela's drive up front and pressing. Chadli and Eriksen don't have the same intensity or aggression.

I like the look of Onomah (6.5). He was very nervous and tried too hard. Tied himself up in knots at times including falling over his own feet. Was played out of position and did well regardless. One for the future most definitely and an exciting prospect in his regular role in CM.

Tippy (6) was frustrating. He isn't the most confident player defensively and we didn't see the range of crossing he is capable of. A subdued game for him. Vorm (6) was OK most of the game. His distribution could have been a little better. Unfortunate for the first goal but could have done a little better for the second perhaps.

Subs: NET except for Kane doing the business when required.

Poch: Not a bad starting selection based on squad restrictions and availability but poor substitutions. I knew what he was doing throwing Kane and Alli up together for the equalizer but sacrificing Carroll exposed our lack of inventiveness in MF and removing Dier further comprised our shape. Probably a little lucky with the penalty.

 

[eddiev14]

Trippier MOTM for me. He was really positive and I'm starting to really like him as a player.

Everyone else gets a 7 or 6. I thought we looked average to be honest, which is understandable given the number of changes we made.

The key takeaway (and don't we all know it!) is that we badly need a reserve centre forward.

Son 'can play there', but he's not a centre forward so he just doesn't make the runs or occupy the defenders like a centre forward should. And, to be fair, t's unfair to expect him to suddenly know how to be a number 9. He isn't one.

10 minutes into the second half I had basically just given up any hope that any more than one of our attacking players would get themselves into the box at the same time, look to make a nuisance of themselves and get on the end of a cross.

Without Alli and Kane there it just wasn't going to happen, and it was no wonder Leicester weren't too bothered about Tripper and Rose having so much joy down the flanks.

Hopefully we can get someone in soon. This game just made me worry even more about how stale we'd look if Kane gets injured.

Good to be in the hat for the next round though, and good to see some fringe players getting some time in the first team.

 

[mpickard2087]

I know they all rotate, but I'd have preferred to see Chadli as the No.9 rather than Son. He's got a bit more presence to act as a focal point and Son is better getting involved in play as part of the am3 behind the striker and takes up better positions.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I know they all rotate, but I'd have preferred to see Chadli as the No.9 rather than Son. He's got a bit more presence to act as a focal point and Son is better getting involved in play as part of the am3 behind the striker and takes up better positions.

I wouldn't have minded that either to be honest.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

That's why we're lining up a loan deal for Remy, @Bus-Conductor . Levy and co. have obviously taken your views on board. It had to happen. It just had to fucking happen.

You do realise you've only gone and cost us the title, you daft twat?

Shit what I have done, back up striker to last years champions for free when we could have the back up striker to Rondon for 25m. Will you ever forgive me JH ?

 

[glospur]

I think the team selection today was pretty good and I don't have too many grumbles with it. This was a game we just thoroughy dominated, and I know we didn't create too much of real quality, I don't really think it was much to do with our team selections as we haven't created much of quality in the last two games either. It was as much to do with the way Leicester set up and our usual wasteful carelessness, especially the full backs who repeatedly got into good positions - which applies to the first choice group as well most weeks - and of course Son isn't Kane, but considering the guy has only had a couple of starts, I thought he did a very acceptable job. Worked hard, pressed well, saw a fair bit of the ball in build up and was generally very involved. Sure, he wasn't foot perfect but what do we expect from a guy who's hardly played any regular football, up against a bus park, and lets not pretend that Kane's foot perfect every week either.

Generally speaking it was a very good performance. Until Pochettino did his usual fuck himself up the arse tactical substitutions and turned the game into a fucking mess. The simplest and most obvious sub to make with us trailing by a goal with 20 minutes to go would surely have been to just swap the fairly moribund Dier for Alli? Leave Carroll on there who was spraying the ball about really well, tell Alli to do his bombing on from deep thing and support the attack and maybe, if Rose could possibly hit a barn door with one of the fucking banjos he kept swinging with, he might have got on the end of something. Taking Carroll off was utter tactical lunacy. We ended up with a kind of 4114, Alli ended up being shunted up next to Kane again as a result Kane barely has any influence and they just bang around in the same spaces, Onomah, who had been having a good game gets shunted out to the left and disappears from the game, Eriksen ends up somewhere in the nether land of CM and AM, it was just a fucking mockery of three shams.

It's like you get 60 minutes of Bielsa light and 20 minutes of fucking Roberto Martinez tactical surrealism every game.

I thought both goals were just silly fucking goals that we haven't conceded much this year. Really unlike Alderweireld to get done at a corner, and the second the guy fools him with a body swerve that I don't even think he meant and then gets lucky with the rebound.

There's no way we deserved not to win that game, we might not of created much but neither did they, and they only touched the ball about 12 fucking times. Now we end up with another game we could do without

I thought Carroll was easily our best player on the day, sprayed the ball about well and split lines with some incisive stuff too, I thought Wimmer looked very comfortable, Onomah for an 18yo having his second start was also very good, fluffed his lines a couple of times when close to the goal, but other than that saw plenty of ball, kept a cool head, played a lovely little cushioned pass for Chadli that lead to the first goal and worked hard off it to win it back. I though Chadli was very Chadli, looked very threatening at times and very unthreatening at others.

Individual stuff:

Vorm - OK

Trippier - Bit disappointing really. Not just his inability to get something decent into the box, but a few times he wasted chances to play good passes when people had made runs down the channel for him.

Alderweireld - The two goals aside was OK. But a part in both so not his best day at the office.

Wimmer - Very decent and solid performance for a guy who rarely plays I thought.

Rose - Ok defensively but offensively was fucking woeful. gets into good positions but didn't do the composed thing once. Either crosses the ball without looking or when he did try to find someone he'd whack it at them so it was impossible to control (Chadli I think).

Dier - OK, but I would have swapped him for Alli as my first sub.

Carroll - Was the man pulling strings against the Leicester Bus park, taking him off was daft.

Eriksen - Again, seemed to be pushed right quite a lot, which really doesn't suit him but when he interchanged and drifted in he was OK. After the subs he just got lost in the chaos.

Onomah - Very decent game for an 18yo having only his second start and for me is a much better fit for that ACM role than Alli in terms of his all round game, or certainly will be with games under his belt, but Alli does have more belief, presence and conviction when he's bombing into the box.

Chadli - Your pretty standard Chadli really, some very promising attacking moments, not a bad game all in all and I would have probably left him on.

Son - I thought he did fine, especially for a guy making a rare ad hoc start, against a Leicester sat deep, and we've all seen Kane bumble about pretty unproductively so lets not pretend the chasm was that wide in what he offered compared to Kane. His energy was good, his work of the ball was good and he saw plenty of it in approach play and build up. And when Kane came on absolutely nothing changed and we looked no more like creating anything of quality.

Subs - None really changed the game for the better, but the way they were tactically applied and players they replaced just made that inevitable.

I would guess that Carroll was taken off with an eye on his fitness and the league game against Leicester on Wednesday. As a game in isolation, I agree that he shouldn't have been taken off as he as our best player but I think Pochettino has to consider who he plans on starting on Wednesday and where their fitness levels are.

 

[Bus-Conductor]

I would guess that Carroll was taken off with an eye on his fitness and the league game against Leicester on Wednesday. As a game in isolation, I agree that he shouldn't have been taken off as he as our best player but I think Pochettino has to consider who he plans on starting on Wednesday and where their fitness levels are.

It's not like Carroll's played a lot of football lately.

 

[JonnySpurs]

BBC coverage minus a million

Thank god someone said this.

Absolute gargbage from the BBC who couldn't have hung out of the back of Leicester more if they tried. Embarrassing. Not to mention Jonathan Pearce, who is an embarrassment of a commentator. I mean we had a debate about the physical build of Demarie Gray, willowly or wirey and the comparison of Wasilewski to Grizzly fucking Adams. I mean really? FML.

 

[JonnySpurs]

The most frustrating thing about this game for me was the amount of praise Leicester were getting before, during and after the game and the fact that they somehow managed to blag 2 goals out of a game that they spent camped in their own half because they KNEW that if they actually tried to play football with us that we'd have torn them to pieces. By the end of it the reports are all saying how fortunate Spurs were to get the draw because of the somewhat dodgy penalty decision, when the reality is that we largely dominated possession and had twice as many attempts on goal.

I'm just a bit sick of Leicester. I realise they've had a good season but to me their a bunch of phonies. I don't believe they are as good as their league position suggests and whilst Vardy, Mahrez and Kante have been good, I think luck has had a lot to do with it and they've just sucker punched teams by sitting in and using speed on the break. Don't get me wrong, whatever works and all that but I look forward to the inevitable fall from grace. It's gonna happen.

Anyway ratings......

Vorm - 6 - I like him but for me he's giving off an aura of low confidence which is largely unavoidable when you don't play for months on end. For me this was felt by the back 4 and we looked unusually ropey as a result when defending.

Trippier - 6 - Meh. Again I like flashes of what I see but he played more as a right winger today than a RB and whilst his crossing was fine, nothing ever really hit it's target. I worry about him defensively. I think KWP could replace him next season.

Rose - 7 - Fine overall. Really needs to work on his final delivery and more so on the decision making in that moment in terms of the type of cross to make.

Toby - 7 - Not at his best but the change of GK and other 3 defenders played a part I feel.

Wimmer - 7 - Showed a willingness to hit good long range passes and defended well overall. I'm a fan.

Dier - 6.5 - Sloppy start with his passing. Should've been given a rest with Nabil given the start. Fine overall but looks tired to me.

Carroll - 8 - MOTM. Nice passing, tidy work in there but I'm concerned at his defensive positioning, particularly for the 2nd goal. Really good work offensively though.

Chadli - 6.5 - Always been a Chadli fan. Showed some lovely skills at times but made poor decisions when it came to crossing or shooting and did the latter too often. Clearly needs more match sharpness.

Eriksen - 7 - Lovely cool finish for the goal. Tidy passing but something is still missing for me.

Onomah - 7.5 - Impressed. Looked confident and eager to get on the ball. Nice first touch throughout and always willing to try and make something happen. Bright future ahead.

Son - 6 - Not great from Sonny but he's not a striker. I would actually have sooner started Chadli up top as I think he's more eager to get in and score. Son wants the ball to feet and wants to be involved in play. Needs match sharpness like Nacer though.

Subs:

Kane - Good pen, great character to take it when he'd barely had a touch.
Bentaleb - Looked lively when he came on, would really like to see him getting more game time now.
Alli - No real time to get involved.

Overall we still struggle against teams that sit in against us so i'm expecting them to do the same on Wednesday. Hopefully with our settled back 4 and the likes of Lamela, Alli and Kane to come back in we'll have too much for them and get ahead early again but this time without conceding rubbish goals like we did last night.

We're better than Leicester, we need to put them in their place.

 

[Spurs 1961]

Not the best of performances. I wonder how much was left out in terms of tactics, as well as players, with the League game in mind; meaning that Poch was using the game more to suss out what we need to do on Wednesday.

Anyway nice to see Rose and Carroll doing well with, importantly, other players given a run out as some clearly are not quite match fit ... Chadli and Bentaleb come immediately to mind but am I not sure Carroll yet can sustain 95 minutes in the way Poch wants