Relaxed, casual play

[nav007_2000]

Why are we playing in this way. No urgency, taking our time, passing it back and forth between the defenders, it's so frustrating.

Thank god we signed Holtby. He shows class and presses the ball in the way barca players do it. It shows his class. We have a lot of average players. Hope we get rid of majority of them in the summer

 

[Lufti]

Why are we playing in this way. No urgency, taking our time, passing it back and forth between the defenders, it's so frustrating.

Thank god we signed Holtby. He shows class and presses the ball in the way barca players do it. It shows his class. We have a lot of average players. Hope we get rid of majority of them in the summer

I love Holtby, and I think his work rate is great, but sadly, when he's the only one pressing it only serves to harm us rather than help us. By being the only one pressing it means he just goes out position and leaves space behind him. If everyone did it then great, we might win the ball back quicker, but we have to do one or the other as a unit.

On a side note, Holtby's celebration with Bale was brilliant today. Always the first one to celebrate, and just floored Bale and lay on him

 

[Chris12]

I love Holtby, and I think his work rate is great, but sadly, when he's the only one pressing it only serves to harm us rather than help us. By being the only one pressing it means he just goes out position and leaves space behind him. If everyone did it then great, we might win the ball back quicker, but we have to do one or the other as a unit.

On a side note, Holtby's celebration with Bale was brilliant today. Always the first one to celebrate, and just floored Bale and lay on him

Thing is Holtby is doing the correct thing with the pressing up and the energy, whilst the others are giving the other team space.

 

[Lufti]

Thing is Holtby is doing the correct thing with the pressing up and the energy, whilst the others are giving the other team space.

Yeah, but you either press or stand off. The team has to all do one or the other or it's pointless. If only one person presses the ball it's easy to just pass around them and take them out the game. However, given we're playing a high line it'd be nice if the whole team pressed then we could win the ball and counter in some better areas

 

[ClintEastwould]

this. we dont seem to up the tempo until its blatantly apparent that the game/season is drifting away from us

i think around the 75 min mark it finally hit the players that this season could yet be another dragged out heartbreak and started showing some fight

 

[Ghost Hardware]

I just get the feeling the entire team are mentally drained, I really don't think they have the willpower to fight for a whole 90mins anymore. Off the back of the last 3 games I really don't know how we are going to beat Chelsea. And yes I am including the Man City match, yes we played very well for the last 15 mins but not only where we uninspired for the other 75 mins there was also a complete implosion in City's defence after our first goal went in. We can't count on Chelsea doing the same thing. Ether way knowing us we will beat Chelsea then loose our last two games anyway.

 

[spudtrader]

this. we dont seem to up the tempo until its blatantly apparent that the game/season is drifting away from us

i think around the 75 min mark it finally hit the players that this season could yet be another dragged out heartbreak and started showing some fight

Frustrating for sure.

Ade bought a lot of energy on with him i thought. Didnt exactly spark us into life, but well done, more of the same against Chelsea.

 

[kazzah9]

I'm trying to repress this match, these kind of threads aren't helping!

 

[Spurz]

How many get out of jail cards do we have left? We used it far too many times this season

 

[chinaman]

Who cares how we perform at this stage of the season. The only important thing is to get the wins.

 

[archiewasking]

How many get out of Bale cards do we have left? We used it far too many times this season

Fixed.

 

[DEFchenkOE]

We won't get wins performing like that against Chelsea, or Stoke. And it didn't work out to we'll last week either.

We're basically limping to the end of the line, or on the ropes if you like. Let's see if we throw in the towel against Chelsea, wouldn't bet against it.

 

[Flashspur]

The tiredness is the thing that worries me. The team seems to be playing with concrete in thier boots and that sense of urgency has disappeared completely. Maybe its too much for them and the pressure is getting to them finally?

 

[Locotoro]

The team is missing some key players in Sandro, Kaboul and potentially Dembele. Lennon is returning from injury of course we're not going to be playing the way we could. But like has already been said its the points that count right now.

Let AVB restructure the team in the summer and hopefully we will have more fluidity in our play next season

 

[neogenisis]

Im worried its a tactic, I think i heard Bale say in his post match when having been asked *Did you feel like you would score* he said something like
*Yes we did, the manager told us to keep playing and chances would come.* the truth is Man City and here (i didn't see the Wigan game) we started getting the ball forward and showed urgency, an urgency that was conspicuous by its absence up until that point.
As well as Saints played it doesn't take a genius to see when we needed to get the ball forward and camp in there half we did, for me Saints were pegged back and trying to play on the break. The irony is if they had scored from either of there gilt edged chances we would probably have gone bat shit crazy and battered them.

 

[Paolo10]

We're playing this way as we lost two players with real invention, movement and incision in their play (in Luka and Rafa) and didn't really adequately replace them as we did it on the (comparatively) cheap (Holtby, Dembele, Sigurdsson, Dempsey). I don't feel it's all at the manager's door (again!), he's not been given all the tools to do the job and as such his hands are somewhat tied.

If we fluff it again and then fail to address our issues in the window yet again for next season then I might proper freak out. We are crying out for someone that will play with their head up and be direct and quick with their passing, it's one of the reasons Carroll has looked so good when he's came on.

We're playing more of a possession game at the moment and I'm not sure it suits our personnel, especially up front. We don't have enough cutting edge to create things at the moment and it shows, I'd give pretty much anything to have a Silva, Santi, Mata or Luka in our midfield and someone with a bit of consistent guile, strength and work rate up front.

Not having a ball winner against a team who can keep the ball yesterday just made us look even more ropey, no one to get it back and then when we had it (barring Bale), no one to create or make something happen.

Without him making those decisions to affect the game we would be proper fucked this season, that's why I gave him man of the match. They were all pretty poor, but when we REALLY needed it, he stepped up to save our bacon again...as he's been mostly doing all season.

The level of character he's showing when other heads are noticeably dropping only make what is a World Class player that bit more special. At the moment, he is far too good for us and without the right backing for the manager we'll not be able to keep him for too much longer.

Until he can achieve what he wants with us, realistically we will be holding him back...in a better side he would be even better than he is now, which is a frightening thing. Heroic this season, even if it is in flashes.

He wins games, end of.

 

[The Spurs Lad]

Who cares how we perform at this stage of the season. The only important thing is to get the wins.

You don't get many wins with one shot on target at home to a relegation threatened team playing 442 though. It's alright to say that afterwards but you can't go into games being happy enough with playing awful and hoping we get a break.

 

[Lufti]

You don't get many wins with one shot on target at home to a relegation threatened team playing 442 though. It's alright to say that afterwards but you can't go into games being happy enough with playing awful and hoping we get a break.

I agree that we should by no means be happy with the performance, but I try to look at it in a positive way. In previous years we've played well but been unlucky and in the end missed out on our goals, namely the top 4. This time round however, it seems different. We're not playing well, which, although isn't exactly reassuring, we're still coming up with the points. Maybe we finally have that bit of luck which in previous years has escaped us. Also, it could show that bit of mental strength to keep going until the final minute, despite the fact that most the minutes before that we're poor.

 

[Chris12]

I agree that we should by no means be happy with the performance, but I try to look at it in a positive way. In previous years we've played well but been unlucky and in the end missed out on our goals, namely the top 4. This time round however, it seems different. We're not playing well, which, although isn't exactly reassuring, we're still coming up with the points. Maybe we finally have that bit of luck which in previous years has escaped us. Also, it could show that bit of mental strength to keep going until the final minute, despite the fact that most the minutes before that we're poor.

A good sign of a good team, is not to look at their results when they are playing well, but to look at their results when not playing well. Recently we haven't been on top of our game, yet we are still grinding out some results. That truly does show how good we are as a team, and whilst yes its not good to play badly, its good to win when playing shit because shows our true quality.

 

[Lufti]

A good sign of a good team, is not to look at their results when they are playing well, but to look at their results when not playing well. Recently we haven't been on top of our game, yet we are still grinding out some results. That truly does show how good we are as a team, and whilst yes its not good to play badly, its good to win when playing shit because shows our true quality.

Completely agree, though i'd be lieing if I said I wasn't worried by the fact we probably haven't really played well since the win over Inter Milan.