What Our Opponents' Fans Are Saying About Us 22/23

[tommo84]

Another thread where he's just vomited words onto a keyboard

And this

I don’t disagree with the second part. However, assuming he’s making a dig at us, a look at our XG would tell him that we’re creating a lot more chances than we’re allowing.

 

[Parklane Spur]

I love the revisionist history of Leicester fans that we have won nothing, and can only say that due to fairly recent Prem and FA cup wins.

Lets go proper history and say going back to 1960 we have 13 trophies to their 5. Wow they are really tinpot.

See that was easy.....

There was a group of lads walking down the High Road on Saturday, Leicester fans no older than about 18. They were all signing "Champions of England, you'll never sing that".

I was embarrassed for them. If you're going to try and mock, at least be accurate.

 

[Timberwolf]

I don’t disagree with the second part. However, assuming he’s making a dig at us, a look at our XG would tell him that we’re creating a lot more chances than we’re allowing.

I mean the guy's chatting guff, but there's an element of truth to it (I genuinely thought this guy was a joke account before but apparently not?).

I don't think we do have one of the best 'technical' squads in the league. Some of our players are very good on the ball like Kane, Kulusevski, Bentancur, Romero, Lenglet, Perisic, etc, but not in the lithe way that teams like Arsenal and City prioritise when they sign players (and the way I suspect this guy is chatting about). All of our players I listed are proper units and 6 foot+ and none of them have the pure silk of say a Bernardo Silva.

Arsenal have built their front line around those types of players, and Jesus, Odegaard, Saka and Viera are all relatively small and agile, while our forwards are, in comparison, big, strong athletes.

I don't think this makes us worse, per se, but certainly different to a team like Arsenal in a way that suits our style of play. I don't think we'd be as good trying to play Arsenal's style as we'd give the ball away too much, just as they'd be worse playing our style as their players aren't as strong or clinical as ours.

I think it's true that there are teams currently sitting in the bottom half right now that can knock it about in a way that we can't. Even a team like Wolves with Neves, Moutinho, Podence, Nunes etc has more pure technicians than we do. But then they can barely score goals...

 

[PrettyColors]

Another thread where he's just vomited words onto a keyboard

And this

Eh I actually agree with the second one. There’s no benefit to allowing clear cut chances to your opponent, I refuse to believe that no matter how much I read to the contrary. Obviously no manager in the world is going to have that as the desired outcome - it is an implementation flaw - but I will never in a million years buy into the idea that it’s actually good to have Hugo sprawling to make fingertip saves, or allowing lots of crosses and thus chances for deflections, handballs, fouls,,, there’s just too many things that can go wrong when you’re pinned back.

 

[leffe186]

I thought his stuff was funny at first, now it’s just tiresome.

 

[Timberwolf]

Eh I actually agree with the second one. There’s no benefit to allowing clear cut chances to your opponent, I refuse to believe that no matter how much I read to the contrary. Obviously no manager in the world is going to have that as the desired outcome - it is an implementation flaw - but I will never in a million years buy into the idea that it’s actually good to have Hugo sprawling to make fingertip saves, or allowing lots of crosses and thus chances for deflections, handballs, fouls,,, there’s just too many things that can go wrong when you’re pinned back.

Yeah I think that, cos we've been poor on the ball this season, we've taken on more shots than Conte would like. The plan is to allow the opposition a degree of possession and control to open up space, but we wouldn't be allowing quite this frequency of shots if we were playing how Conte intended us to play in possession.

However, you mention 'clear cut chances'. We actually have some of the best stats for this in the league and hardly give up many clear cut chances at all. We just give up a lot of long range shots and poor/half chances which eventually add up. We gave up a couple decent ones against Leicester, but even then their goals were a penalty and a bit of a worldie from Maddison.

 

[rossdapep]

Tbh I bet everyone on here was saying the exact same thing about Conte's Chelsea the season they won the league, myself included.

In the run in that year they were not the prettiest team to watch and regularly gave up chances but they continually ground out results week after week. It was quite similar to what we're doing now.

It seems to be a Conte thing - his style is such an outlier among top teams in modern football that people can't get their heads around it. Everyone just assumes it's not sustainable because of it's very nature: not possession-focused, concedes lot of shots, etc which are qualities we usually attribute to bad teams. Under Conte that's kind of the entire point as it creates the space for us to create high quality chances

That said, we've been off our best this season and have been poor in possession in quite a few matches. That in itself shows the power of the system in a sense, though. It's so defensively solid we can still win games while playing average/poor.

Even the coaches who seem to figure us out still lose.

Tuchel had one over Conte this season but still couldn't beat us. Lage seemed to have us sussed in the first half but Wolves couldn't create any meaningful chances.

That's a big problem for others.

 

[spurs mental]

Eh I actually agree with the second one. There’s no benefit to allowing clear cut chances to your opponent, I refuse to believe that no matter how much I read to the contrary. Obviously no manager in the world is going to have that as the desired outcome - it is an implementation flaw - but I will never in a million years buy into the idea that it’s actually good to have Hugo sprawling to make fingertip saves, or allowing lots of crosses and thus chances for deflections, handballs, fouls,,, there’s just too many things that can go wrong when you’re pinned back.

I don't disagree but, Chelsea and West Ham aside, we've conceded very few high quality chances. Leicester for a while has Hugo working but in general we're not allowing the opposition a huge amount of high quality opportunities.

 

[wadewill]

I don't disagree but, Chelsea and West Ham aside, we've conceded very few high quality chances. Leicester for a while has Hugo working but in general we're not allowing the opposition a huge amount of high quality opportunities.

Exactly this, along with it I feel like we have been missing a few decent chances ourselves, many times through a poor final ball

 

[Romulus]

So many people saying we are a very negative team but seem totally oblivious to the fact we have already scored 18 goals. 18!

exactly. only city have scored more

 

[Jgplk1]

KUMB

• Peresic playing out of position at RWB, actual right sided Doherty and Emerson on the bench with new signing RWB Djed Spence dropped from the squad.Very odd.Son dropped as well, his form has dropped off a cliff since last season.
• Son dropped for Spurs.He, like Bowen, not quite reaching their heights so far this season
• Spurs can go joint top? What kind of joke league is this?
• No lover of Spurs obviously but how is that a penalty? VAR is truly shocking! Player tripped over his own feet outside the area
• Didn’t Conte say he basically has no plans for Spence in a presser? Something along the lines of ‘good signing for the club but not for me right now’.That along with digging out Bissoma for not being good enough tactically and the trademark Conte implosion may happen sooner rather than later
• Leicester are looking like 1970 Brazil compared to us
• They are an awful watch
• They were really poor against us as soon as they took the lead. They just dropped off completely. All the Tottenham fans I know hate it.
• you don't need an incisive forward like son if you're just going to play like burnley and grind out set pieces.
• Brendan Rodgers is going to need a lie down in a dark room after this one.
• some finish from Son.. can't stand the guy but cracking strike.
• Spurs keep playing like **** for 60 to 80 minutes a game yet still get results. Must be a tactic to lull the opposition into a false sense of security
• 4-2 up and hearing Spurs fans for the first time
• Sons first for a stunner, his 2nd was even better. Wow
• two class finishes from Son, I have to say
• Son very good today
• Son is benched and responds with a hat trick, time to bench Bowen, Dave!
• f*** off Tottenham

 

[taidgh]

KUMB

• No lover of Spurs obviously but how is that a penalty? VAR is truly shocking! Player tripped over his own feet outside the area
• f*** off Tottenham

Two funny ones for entirely different reasons.

 

[animalmom]

Villa Talk
So much fun to read Spurs fans reactions.

• They were ecstatic when Conte first came, a world class manager!
  Results picked up, give him whatever he wants!
  Then after a year when he’s turned them into a typical Conte side, very defensive, they’ve had enough: ”get this fraud out!”

WAT?

 

[taidgh]

WAT?

Pure wishful thinking!

 

[worcestersauce]

Eh I actually agree with the second one. There’s no benefit to allowing clear cut chances to your opponent, I refuse to believe that no matter how much I read to the contrary. Obviously no manager in the world is going to have that as the desired outcome - it is an implementation flaw - but I will never in a million years buy into the idea that it’s actually good to have Hugo sprawling to make fingertip saves, or allowing lots of crosses and thus chances for deflections, handballs, fouls,,, there’s just too many things that can go wrong when you’re pinned back.

But how many clear cut chances do we allow? Chances maybe but shots on goal statistics aren't clear cut chances and neither are shots that Lloris saved, chances maybe, efforts maybe but not really that many clear cut chances.
We probably sense a lot more danger than there really is.

 

[ComfortablyNumb]

But how many clear cut chances do we allow? Chances maybe but shots on goal statistics aren't clear cut chances and neither are shots that Lloris saved, chances maybe, efforts maybe but not really that many clear cut chances.
We probably sense a lot more danger than there really is.

How many 'clear cut' chances does anyone create. Son's first two weren't. We've had Deki, even PEH scoring goals this season that you wouldn't call clear cut chances. Would you call Dier's header a 'clear cut' chance?

 

[FibreOpticJesus]

How many 'clear cut' chances does anyone create. Son's first two weren't. We've had Deki, even PEH scoring goals this season that you wouldn't call clear cut chances. Would you call Dier's header a 'clear cut' chance?

Yes I would. Clear sight at goal, attempt on target, goal keeper to beat. Ticks all boxes. Not hit shot at goal, many from distance. with numerous players in the way to block.

 

[$hoguN]

I don’t disagree with the second part. However, assuming he’s making a dig at us, a look at our XG would tell him that we’re creating a lot more chances than we’re allowing.

The point is that allowing teams space in non-dangerous areas and controlling that space to make them shoot early etc. isn’t actually playing Russian roulette, it’s just different. The key thing is that this tactic plays into how we want to attack which is to move the ball quickly and use our side players to overload.

The game against Leicester was the first time in the PL we had a spell where actually that tactic broke down for a bit and Conte brought on Bissouma.

 

[thekneaf]

I think how you define chances is really key to this. And most people can't be arsed with it.

Son's second is a chance I would not be happy us giving up. No pressure on the ball, they stood off. In that situation, all you'd need to do to change that is engage him. That makes it so much more difficult. We don't defend those areas passively, so shots from that far out are way more speculative.

The next bit I'm making up off the hoof. But having an populated midfield could be encouraging teams to attack us through the middle, except we actually have a packed defence in the middle to deal with that. Like I said, just a thought.

 

[Trix]

How many 'clear cut' chances does anyone create. Son's first two weren't. We've had Deki, even PEH scoring goals this season that you wouldn't call clear cut chances. Would you call Dier's header a 'clear cut' chance?

The point is if you were told a team had 30 shots in a game you'd expect them to have scored quite a few. If you were then told all 30 shots came from behind the halfway line then how many would you have expected them to score? Conte's system isn't about limiting possession or chances it's about denying opportunities in certain higher risk areas.