Tottenham Vs Crystal Palace: Match Thread

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Tetchy in here this evening.

Get

Out.

 

[markiespurs]

Just got home

Certainly no where near our best today, Palaces spoiling tactics and a shit Ref did'nt help things, but thought we were unlucky not to score in the first half.

2nd half was a weird one and thought we were just going through the motions after 70 minutes, almost as if we did'nt want to score and force a replay.

 

[Cinemattis]

Well that was hugely disappointing - I'm gutted- I love the FA Cup.
And for the first time in a long time I think MoPo's selection and tactics were nothing short of awfully wrong. We seem to have suddenly believed that full-on rotation is the only way to succeed and we came a cropper today with that philosophy. It's too easy to point fingers and blame individual performances - Vorm, Bentaleb, Onomah and our back four today, to name the obvious.
But the bigger point is that MoPo abandoned a winning formula and tried to make up for it with panic substitutions that had absolutely no impact at all.
For my money - There is a reason (though we had no choice today) that Vorm is a second-rate keeper - he doesn't command anything and I never feel confident with him between the sticks.
Other errors of MoPo judgement : Changing the back four and omitting Alderweireld just multiplied our insecurities at the back. For the first time in an age we had no "unit" working together to clear our lines - we were disorganised and vulnerable.
In midfield, I'm all for giving youth a chance but giving 90minutes to Onomah was a step too far. Frankly Chadli should be getting a lot more game time than Onomah when fit - he's accomplished and mature and must be chewing at the bit.
I don't get Bentaleb - I did - last season - but he offers nothing positive in the middle of the park and dumping Demebele (our player of the season) for Erisksen at half time, when we needed a leader in the middle of the park to drive us forward, again proved to be an unbalanced piece of management.
We didn't deserve to go in one down - but it seemed to fry MoPo's brain. That ridiculous Rose cross field pass proved to be our demise.
Our only shining light today was Son - who I thought was excellent - with him we had a chance of making something happen - but MoPo took him off and Mason came on?
There's a reason why Mason, Bentaleb, Onomah and Vorm are back up players, of course injuries make them required but that shouldn't be at the expense of our fluidity and the good things we have been doing this season. I thought for the last 20 minutes we didn't have a clue.
So, down to two competitions now - time to play our best starting XI in every game and just top them up with our reserves for the last 20 as and when required - these reserves should not be starting at this crucial part of the season.
Not a good day at the office for the management team or a number of our players.
I remain gutted.

I mostly agree with you, mate. But (there´s always a"but"), Son wasn´t our only outstanding player. Yes, he created some chances, but he laso showed a tendency to hold on to the ball for too long imho. And, quite important, his backchecking on Zaha was terrible: he lost two chances to tackle Zaha before the pass leading to the goal. And because of his half-assed pressing, Rose didn´t get close enough in the situation (wating for Son to do his job). For som reason, Son and Eriksen doesn´t seem to really hit it of at the same time. Especially when Lamela and Dembele both are missing.

But to keep Bentaleb on and take Dembele off - wtf?
Mason was terrible after he came on. And Chadli mostly invisible - as he most often is (when not scoring).
Omonah keeps showing promise imo, but there were too many weak players around him today, placing too much responsibility on his young shoulders perhaps.

The big, big mistake today was to keep Bentaleb in the deep central role. He´s too impatient and thus our wing backs don´t get involved as much as we are used to. It changes our rythm - to the worse.

 

[Doctor Dinkey]

No, we would have played Reading as we would have been the same number ball as Palace.

No. The universe doesn't work like that. If we had won tiny differences could have altered the drawing of the balls. For instance, Graham let saux might have been pleased at spurs being eliminated, and therefore increased sweat on his fingers might have caused him to select a different ball. Things are infinitely complex.

 

[ClintEastwould]

Coming home now. I have the game recorded. Worth the watch?

 

[Cinemattis]

Anyone know what´s happened to Lamela? Can´t find any info on the official site. Wasn´t in the squad against Fiorentina, and not today?

 

[DenverSpur]

What?

How can you say Bentaleb wasn't shit? Are you Algerian?

The game statistics don't back up your opinion.
59 passes from 69 touches, 88.1% success rate. 2 key passes, 8 long passes, 4 successful. 1 bad control but never dispossessed.
3 tackles, 2 interceptions,1 clearance, 1 blocked shot

 

[2bearis2do]

I mostly agree with you, mate. But (there´s always a"but"), Son wasn´t our only outstanding player. Yes, he created some chances, but he laso showed a tendency to hold on to the ball for too long imho. And, quite important, his backchecking on Zaha was terrible: he lost two chances to tackle Zaha before the pass leading to the goal. And because of his half-assed pressing, Rose didn´t get close enough in the situation (wating for Son to do his job). For som reason, Son and Eriksen doesn´t seem to really hit it of at the same time. Especially when Lamela and Dembele both are missing.

But to keep Bentaleb on and take Dembele off - wtf?
Mason was terrible after he came on. And Chadli mostly invisible - as he most often is (when not scoring).
Omonah keeps showing promise imo, but there were too many weak players around him today, placing too much responsibility on his young shoulders perhaps.

The big, big mistake today was to keep Bentaleb in the deep central role. He´s too impatient and thus our wing backs don´t get involved as much as we are used to. It changes our rythm - to the worse.

It's nice to get an insightful reply - thank you for that - as opposed to the modern day urge to dislike or press Doh!
One thing we definitely agree on - it was shit!

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

The game statistics don't back up your opinion.
59 passes from 69 touches, 88.1% success rate. 2 key passes, 8 long passes, 4 successful. 1 bad control but never dispossessed.
3 tackles, 2 interceptions,1 clearance, 1 blocked shot

Oh my god, you're like 2 hours late man, move on.

Stats mean fuck all, we dominated stats and guess who lost?!

 

[tttcowan]

It has been a generation, 25 years, since we last reached a FA cup final yet alone win it. To say I am gutted is a understatement. Anyone who says this is a blessing is disguise can fuck right off, 'The Game Is About Glory' not finishing 2nd. 3rd or 4th

No... But given the choice between 2nd and the FA CUP or winning the flipping league??? No contest. And people are right to think we probably have more chance to win the league if we're completely focused on doing so. Nothing wrong with that line of thinking.

To dare is to do? Given our situation the balls out move is to believe we can win the league and put all our eggs in that basket. I think that's what Poch is doing. And I'm happy about that.

 

[2bearis2do]

The game statistics don't back up your opinion.
59 passes from 69 touches, 88.1% success rate. 2 key passes, 8 long passes, 4 successful. 1 bad control but never dispossessed.
3 tackles, 2 interceptions,1 clearance, 1 blocked shot

It's very easy to quote "sideways" stats that look OK - it's the actual impact of his play that is the true measure of his performance - and his impact seems to always be short sideways passes.

 

[bobby soldier]

You haven't been around here long enough to 'banter' my username, you have absolutely no idea where the joke comes from.

However, whilst we talk about usernames...

Ah of course better get back in my box then. Haven't been around long enough to see how insulting people encourages a worthwhile conversation... Thought this forum was for swapping opinions not personal insults.

 

[dondo]

If people are going to insult somebody's intelligence online, they shouldn't type the message like they're riding the sybian, imo. I'm not going to call somebody a "fat fuck" while knocking back lard sandwiches

It annoys me people correcting people grammar and spelling on forums when they clearly get what the person is trying to say as in there or their as some people have
dyslexia and other learning problems where they struggle to put down in text what they are thinking ( obviously I am one of those)

 

[dondo]

If people are going to insult somebody's intelligence online, they shouldn't type the message like they're riding the sybian, imo. I'm not going to call somebody a "fat fuck" while knocking back lard sandwiches

And how exactly have I insulted anyone's intelligence?

 

[millsey]

Playing Thursday was NOT the reason we lost. We just couldn't score whatsoever, whether wasteful or unlucky. I'm not putting this loss down to the Fiorentina game.

Maybe. But if we didn't have Thursday or play such a strong team, we would have played full team today, rested and week to go over tactics. Thursday football makes a big difference

 

[Japhet]

It annoys me people correcting people grammar and spelling on forums when they clearly get what the person is trying to say as in there or their as some people have
dyslexia and other learning problems where they struggle to put down in text what they are thinking ( obviously I am one of those)

Use some punctuation FFS!

 

[JayB]

Anyone know what´s happened to Lamela? Can´t find any info on the official site. Wasn´t in the squad against Fiorentina, and not today?

People keep saying that he's come down with an illness, but I have no idea where that's come from. Let's hope that's all it is.

 

[SargeantMeatCurtains]

Ah of course better get back in my box then. Haven't been around long enough to see how insulting people encourages a worthwhile conversation... Thought this forum was for swapping opinions not personal insults.

Lol? You literally tried to take the piss out of my username, you're absolutely no better than me and yet you try play the pity card.

 

[dondo]

Use some punctuation FFS!

Aaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh
Ffffffuuuuuccckkkkk
yyyoooouuuuuuu.

 

[voxy28]

Ok good to drop one cup game.... Don't flame me but we need the first eleven for all league games.

I think it was a strong squad so Poch did put priority in the cup games... We lost let's move on.