Match Threads Spurs vs Brighton & Hove Albion - Match Thread

[idontgetit]

For one reason or another I was following the match on the BBC website. The first positive mention Brighton got on there was in the 26th minute. Apart from their goal (which everyone seems to agree should have been ruled out), the only other notable situation of theirs that was described was Lallana not quite bringing down a ball over the top (in my head, this looks like the standard Toby to Dele move from a few years back - never an easy chance, no matter how Dele often made it look).

By contrast, we scored two goals - the first seemingly from nothing, the second from a good move. In addition, the Lamela post/Sanchez save situation seems, admittedly without viewing yet, at least the equal of the Lallana chance and Kane also contrived to hit the post from no yards out.

As Spurs fans you'd think we'd have seen the reverse of this game enough times to know that having lots of the ball, seemingly "dominating" in terms of possession and/or territory, doesn't actually equate to doing enough to win the game.

Many may not want to watch us play how we did today, but we've spent years "dominating" like Brighton did today and won bugger all. José in the other hand has spent years getting his teams to play similarly to how we have across the season as a whole so far and won everything. Food for thought, surely?

Or Kane's penalty could have been given as a foul against him by another ref for backing in, Brighton could and probably should have had a penalty and if it was given it could easily have been a red card as well. We then got outplayed for the majoirty of the match until we scored a proper goal.

Basically a hell of a lot of that was out of our hands and if you keep gambling you wont keep winning.

 

[Aleks]

We hit 2 posts, their goal shouldn’t have stood (maybe our first shouldn’t either mind) and they had 2 shots on target all match.

we deserved to win

 

[Col_M]

Feel very proud. I reported a tweeter because he called Kane a Mong. Some people have no self restraint

 

[Timberwolf]

Happy with the result and this and the Burnley game somewhat balance out the farce of the West Ham/Newcastle matches.

We need to play better than we have this week if we really want to achieve anything this season though.

We can't blame injuries or squad depth anymore - we should really be doing better with the tools at our disposal and if we keep playing like that we'll be lucky to get top 4, let alone higher.

I just hope this and the Burnley performance were a lapse in form rather than a signal of what's to come.

 

[Riandor]

I don’t f’ing care how, let’s keep going, coys!!!

 

[CowInAComa]

Lloris

Aurier Alderweireld Dier Reguilon

PEH Ndombele

Lo Celso

Bale Kane Son
​

It's time now to play the above team. People keep wondering what the issue has been with inconsistent performances: it's the personnel on the pitch. The above team consists of the best players at their respective positions. There's no argument for any other player to be included other than the above 11 when considering talent and performance this season (and if anyone wants to make the case that Winks or Sissoko make the above 11 far more likely to win matches than not, I'd love to read those arguments).

Play the above team against West Brom and go from there. If Mourinho starts more than 2 of Doherty, Winks, Sissoko and Davies, then we'll drop points against the better teams in the league.

​

That is probably our best side on paper but you dont get to play your strongest side every match in real life. Players have form, fitness, injuries, recovery that need to be managed.

 

[Ionman34]

I don't get the "daylight robbery" comments. They had 2 fucking shots on target.

It was tongue in cheek mate.

Brighton were the better side, but we’ve been there countless times before ourselves and got nothing out of it, twice this season no less.

Well chuffed with the 3 points, and doing it whilst we are playing poorly too.

One thing that does concern me though is that there seems to be an arrogance that we just don’t seem to be able to get beyond against these “lesser” teams. The World and his Wife were predicting a mauling, and I think the players bought into that, so much so that when we scored the first, it felt like they just arrogantly assumed Brighton would roll over and we’d stroll it. I love this team, but that attitude infuriated me.

In a way, I feel it was fortunate that the ref gave the goal to them when he did. It meant we had enough time to wake the Hell up and wrestle back some momentum. Their goal was coming, I said that from about the 30th minute as I saw their confidence increase more and more as we ceded space and allowed their momentum to build.

I wonder if JM thinks his 1st team choices are as straightforward now?

 

[jonnyp]

Is only 15 mil thereabouts and we are not even ¼ of the season. If you would like to bash a player, at least chose one who had been doing the same shit thing for the past 3 seasons at the minimum.

He wasn't the only one culpable of lapses today when Son and Sissoko were far worse. In fact Doherty improved later in the game when Bale came on, closing down the spaces better. Some of you may just have forgotten how Aurier could give away any stupid fouls or penalties or whatsoever under intense pressure. Doherty offers us a different RB/RWB which Aurier couldn't and that can only be a good thing.

Nothing you just wrote had anything to do with what I wrote. Keep ranting though.

 

[Wizzy77]

Yep. I cant remember us ever having an easy game against Brighton though. Always difficult and close matches.

Usually home 2-0 or 2-1 in the past too. As much as i"m pissed off with the farce of the ref decision, i'm glad Bale got us the 3 points.

 

[dagraham]

We seem to lose control of games. I'm not exactly sure why but it's definitely a pattern.

Midfield isn’t good enough and Jose’s idea of control isn’t what fans necessarily perceive it should be and doesn’t make for comfortable viewing.

1 or 2 more midfielders in the squad happy to receive the ball in tight areas, actually wanting the ball and also being able to carry the ball forwards would help. Never going to happen now, but we missed the boat big time with Grealish.

 

[DiVaio]

Wolves must be laughing their tits off getting us to pay for Doherty while they got Semedo in.

Semedo isn't that good and certainly not worth 2.5x price of Doherty

 

[waresy]

A home win! Kane scores again and Bale makes his mark.

With a further day off tomorrow it makes for a good Sunday and rounding the weekend off.

Discussion on 606 about whether we can win the league. Can we? Let's hope we can build to put ourselves with a chance of doing so.

Coys

 

[jonnyp]

Semedo isn't that good and certainly not worth 2.5x price of Doherty

He has been pretty damn great for Wolves in the games I've seen them play this season.

 

[morris25]

Why can't we hold onto the ball, why does every team dominate us.. Its so painfull to watch

 

[yankspurs]

We were poor today. Nobody can dispute that. However I think the team deserve credit for not suffering from the injustice of that moron referee. We’ve seen in the past how the team faltered after suffering a shit decision. This time we’ve wrestled the lead back and I actually think the way we handled the final 20 minutes of the game was excellent.

With that said, we do need to be way better than that. We’ve been poor in our last 2 PL games and that obviously needs to change with our horrendous run coming up.

Did well to see out the lead after Bale’s winner. But still some moments of worry. Dier really fills me with no confidence in these situations. Seems prone to these iffy plays that get us in trouble and today was no different. Luckily it looked outside the box. Then on a set piece the ball looked like it was floating over Hugo’s net, but it did not and Hugo did well to catch the ball. I think we did well in stoppage time. 6 minutes and didnt let them out of their half until the final whistle almost. But before that had some really scary moments.

 

[Timberwolf]

Semedo isn't that good and certainly not worth 2.5x price of Doherty

True, but it's easier to turn an attacking RB into a WB than vice verse.

Doherty is talented but we're shoehorning him into a position where he's fairly average. We had a really good transfer window but the Doherty transfer still has me scratching my head, cheap though he was.

 

[PrettyColors]

Think the early matches are catching up to our side in the legs now. I wouldn’t overlook that we’ve played teams who didn’t play mid week as well, even if we changed the side it still makes a difference.

But to me this match shows our desperate need to replace or upgrade Sissoko. A player in the middle who will actually play football and pass, look for the ball and show some strength is exactly what we need. Kongdogbia would have been excellent.

 

[Serpico]

I feel our CBs are too slow and team sits deep to protect. They can both play football but are not able to cover ground quickly. Its a problem and needs addressing.

 

[KikoSpurs]

1. I don't think we played well but we were the intelligent **** out there.
2. Kane doesn't look well. I wonder if he's carrying a knock or something.
3. Ndombele needs to play deeper. I wish there was a way to mix Sissoko work rate and Ndombele abilities
4. Terrible match from Son.
5. I really wanna know why we started so well and dropped later on.

 

[panoma]

I don't get the "daylight robbery" comments. They had 2 fucking shots on target.

This.

We had as many shots in the posts as they had on target. Did we win like we did at Old Trafford? certainly not, but we were the better side and we were the ones creating the chances.

Take away the VAR goal and they didn't create anything. We defended well against a team scoring plenty of goals.