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Match Threads Spurs v Everton - Match Thread - Day 1

Match Prediction

  • Our First Win of the Season

    Votes: 166 55.7%
  • Our First Loss of the Season

    Votes: 71 23.8%
  • Our First Score Draw of the Season

    Votes: 51 17.1%
  • Our First Goalless Draw of the Season

    Votes: 10 3.4%

  • Total voters
    298

spursfan77

Well-Known Member
Aug 13, 2005
46,680
104,956
Only just seen their goal. Shouldn’t VAR be disallowing that because it wasn’t taken from the right position. I remember us being undone by ward prowse moving the ball forward for a free kick by so much and scoring 2 seasons ago. VAR was brought in to amend official’s mistakes. If that wasn’t one then I don’t know what is.
 

Oh Teddy Teddy

Well-Known Member
Aug 10, 2017
5,126
12,060
No, but perhaps they didn't have as many international call-ups, didn't have any Covid cases, and didn't inherit a squad in huge decline far from meeting its expectations. Maybe they also just had a bit of luck. In another world, even if Richarlison scores, we go in 2-1 up after the Kane, Dele and Doherty chances and its a very different game. Shit happens. Negativity based on the opening match, especially in these circumstances, is just ludicrous.

Very disappointed about yesterday, but 100% agree with this. We’re only ever as good as our last game and two wins now against Plovdiv and Southampton will have everyone doing a 180.

Plenty of games to come so Jose’s excuses about lack of fitness and cohesion will run out quick. Then we’ll see where we are, for better or... the other one :unsure:
 

Matthew

Well-Known Member
Aug 29, 2012
4,597
15,867
As the weeks go by more & more of the sheep will wake up & realise what a monumental fuck up we made by appointing this ‘has been’ twat. Thank fuck we’re all still locked out of the ground & saving ourselves from watching this car crash football under him

what about last few months under poch? was the same type of football.
 

rupsmith

Well-Known Member
Jul 29, 2006
1,714
2,328
Here's the thing with the pressing game - all teams do it now, to varying degrees. To romanticize when we were one of a few teams that relentlessly did it is great. Hardly the now.

The issues are plain to see, so far as I am concerned. Most glaring, we do not have a player who routinely gets the ball from back to front. Lo Celso and Ndombele are not yet fit. Playing Winks and Hojberg together was always a bad idea. They are the same player (I believe Hojberg to be better). As a result, we had no driving force except when we bypassed the MF or were on the counter. This means we do not control the play. Everton's MF were not great. They were miles better than ours.

So, now we get it up to our top 4 and they are all in each other's way. My kingdom for a winger that will play the wing. Son, Dele, Moura have no desire to stay out wide. Thus compressing the game in the final third and making life so much easier for the opposition D. Can Dele just shoot instead of all of the flicks and tricks? Harry mad at Son for not giving him the ball? Was there ever a through ball possible? I didn't see it. Kane was always on the other side of the defender from Son. Yes, he could have tried a sublime chip, but that's really low percentage.

And then there's the goal. Why are we all switched off? Most players on other teams would be gesticulating when a player steals 5 yards on a free kick. Not nice Spurs. We sit back and let them do it and the complain after the fact. And whatever happened to attacking balls coming in to your area. Lloris rooted to the ground (Pickford three times punched out balls). Alderweireld and Dier playing the players not the ball. Just attack the ball.

So many fundamentals not being executed. Do we have a plan when we have corner? I fail to see any discernible plan? Son passes sideways when there was only one play remaining in the half rather than throwing the ball in to the box. What was that? Why do we not run at players? How many rash tackles do we force other teams to make? We seem to never have the opposition at full stretch.

This has been an issue since January 2019 where I feel we lost our mojo. We succeeded despite ourselves.

Mourinho has a lot to address. Yes, was not his team when he took over. That said, he is the man now. Where were Fernandes and Lamela? Lamela would have pushed from back to front (and he defends). Fernandes would have been a winger. Even Clarke would have stayed out there and caused Everton to spread out.

Sorry, pulling Dele for Sissoko was not going to improve the fluidity.

Now, the positives. Hojberg breaks up play as expected. Doherty's give and go with Kane was great. Pickford made himself big and Doherty may have deserved better. Dele, when playing direct, is great (needs to get rid of the flicks and tricks, which are 80% of his game). Ndombele (in flashes) shows how he moves the team when he gets the ball in and out of his feet fast (too many loose passes though). There is a sublime talent there. Can Mourinho coax it out of him for 90 minutes

Last positive, no title has been won or lost in the first week. Priority should remain, get through to the group stages of EL and first two rounds of Carabao Cup, without injuries, so that we may normalize our schedule and move forward with some sense of normalcy. Next two weeks are going to be brutal. When we have chances, we need to be clinical. Dele and Doherty score and it is a different game.

Top post if I may say - objective, clear and with a view on the ways ahead
 

fishhhandaricecake

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2018
18,702
46,941
I always try to ease the pain by comparing what Im seeing now to Spurs in the 90s - when every goal or clever pass in an almost inevitably poor result would be the things that would keep one warm in the bitter disappointment.

But I must admit this one hurt. I understand why Jose took off Dele - to get a more athletic presence in the middle. But then to see ball bounce off Sissoko, Winks doing a lot of pointing but then passing the ball sideways, and Everton look like Barcelona every time they touched the ball, a full strength Spurs squad but clearly off the pace and seemingly not hungry enough except for PEH and maybe Moura to a certain degree .... This one hurt. Feeling devastated for some reason.

Any silver lining fellow community members?
Ha yea I try and do that too but the more I think about it the more I enjoyed watching us in the 90's compared to some of these Jose performances at least we had a go and tried to win even if we were ultimately disorganised and a bit rubbish and also we had quite a few flair players, right now apart from son and lo celso our team is boring.

Agree with the middle bit too, once I saw Sissoko coming on to RW as our answer I knew the game was over :(
 

fishhhandaricecake

Well-Known Member
Nov 15, 2018
18,702
46,941
If you start the season bringing in Hart, Doherty & Hojbjerg to solve your problems, you know the season is going to very long.
To be honest I think that is unfair and they're good signings especially Hojbjerg but we do need much more quality in a creative perspective and attacking perspective we've looked pretty toothless for quite some time.

Partly lack of quality, partly Jose's tactics.
 

SPURSLIFE

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2011
1,578
2,132
We lost one match. This is the end of last season.

View attachment 73426

Can we not at least see a few more games in to the season before all this wrist slitting starts.
It's not just the one game we haven't been playing well for sometime regardless of the results of a half dozen games at the end of a very bizarre season. My worry is it's the same players with the same attitude. However lets have this conversation in another 6 games and I hope you prove me wrong.
 

Grapo2001

Well-Known Member
Jul 26, 2011
3,700
5,957
Let's be honest, we were shite yes, but Everton weren't exactly banging on the door with every attack. They scored a quality goal from a set piece and that was the difference.
 

rez9000

Any point?
Feb 8, 2007
11,942
21,098
I get where you're coming from but I just don't see how you fit them both in the same lineup right now (and thats not due to dumbele taking up too much room due to his waist line) given Ndombele's terrible fitness. Our midfield would just get overrun.

I think mourinho has to sacrifice one of dele or lucas to introduce more guile through bergwyn or ndembele (once he's actually lost a few dozen kilos tons)
FYP
 

Yiddo1982

Well-Known Member
Jul 4, 2006
2,602
6,330
The only way I'm going to feel any better is a comfortable win in Plovdiv with Ndombele getting solid minutes and looking better, and then a win against Soton next weekend. However, it can't be a turgid 1-0 win, we need a resounding 3-0 performance where we swarm all over them. Can't see it happening.
 

SPURSLIFE

Well-Known Member
Jul 21, 2011
1,578
2,132
Let's be honest, we were shite yes, but Everton weren't exactly banging on the door with every attack. They scored a quality goal from a set piece and that was the difference.
They passed and kept the ball a lot better than we did, that was the difference. They also seemed to want it a lot more than us.
 

Cochise

Well-Known Member
Aug 8, 2019
4,762
12,519
I hate to say it, but Jose has a point regarding our preseason. Harry having to quarantine coupled with the shit that is the Nations Cup ruined his pre-season and disrupted any chance we would've had settling in.

Regarding the game. In the first half, Dele was finding some space on the left channel and actually was a decent outlet at times, Moura was less useful on the other side however. What struck me though was how Everton just passed around our first line with ease. There were no issues there, whilst our back 3+2 CM couldn't cycle possession anywhere near as well.

We need to get Winks out of there imo and need someone who can control things, whilst we also need to find someone who offers more than Lucas and Dele. Neither of them do what we need of them well enough.
 

shelfboy68

Well-Known Member
Jun 14, 2008
14,566
19,651
I hate to say it, but Jose has a point regarding our preseason. Harry having to quarantine coupled with the shit that is the Nations Cup ruined his pre-season and disrupted any chance we would've had settling in.

Regarding the game. In the first half, Dele was finding some space on the left channel and actually was a decent outlet at times, Moura was less useful on the other side however. What struck me though was how Everton just passed around our first line with ease. There were no issues there, whilst our back 3+2 CM couldn't cycle possession anywhere near as well.

We need to get Winks out of there imo and need someone who can control things, whilst we also need to find someone who offers more than Lucas and Dele. Neither of them do what we need of them well enough.
[/QUOTE
There are appears to be excuses
 

GutBucket

Well-Known Member
May 26, 2013
6,808
11,492
Looks like Winks and Hojbjerg are basically the same player, not enough from Dele and Kane (who played deep). This always looks weird when Lo Celso doesn't play or when Sissoko does.
22d37a3.png
 

cjbyid

Well-Known Member
Jan 4, 2009
7,165
24,991
They passed and kept the ball a lot better than we did, that was the difference. They also seemed to want it a lot more than us.

Yep was quite sad looking at a team whos players where looking for the ball, happy to hold onto it and provide movement whereas our lads couldn't wait to pass it backwards or hoof it up field.
 

ginola007

Well-Known Member
Aug 31, 2012
880
1,142
You have to say our recruitment department hadn't been doing a good job. The fact we had hardly any net spent for several years is well known, but when we did spend, as per a year ago, the players we bought have, so far, been ineffective. Ndombele is not fit, Sessegnon not ready, Lo Celso, very good player, seems to be absent a lot. Poch was right. The team he built was at the end of their shelf life, and needed rebuilt, but alas, that wasn't forth coming. Levy seems to be paying more on managers' severance packages than on players.
 

PW24

New Member
Sep 14, 2020
2
0
Recruitment was definitely an issue for a good while. The balance in the team had been off for quite a long time. I don’t think Dele, Kane, Moura and Son should be playing at the same time.

We end up with lots of attacking threats in theory but no-one deeper in midfield to provide the service and we lose possession too often or go backwards and lose momentum. I feel sorry for the two in the middle. Dele makes chances more through his off the ball work and clever touches in the final third, he has never been one to control possession in midfield. Sissoko is a great servant but is not good enough in possession to ever play in a 2. We have not had the same control in midfield areas since dembele left.

Ndombele and GLC looked like the perfect recruits as they are so good in possession but not worked out so far, hopefully they will come good and I was hoping Hjoiberg was bought to let those two have more freedom. Fabinho did not look like a world beater for a good while at LFC before he came good so there is still some hope.
 
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