It would help this discussion if you’d listened to Kane and not written it off before hearing. He made the point clearly (it was actually a self-criticism of the team!)...
The main thing we can agree on is the overall ineptitude of the FBs, neither of whom is up to the task against the two best and most aggressive FBs in club football right now. The idea would certainly have been to push them back, but yes, they don’t have it anymore.
I believe we went with that midfield three dialed in to play. That we didn’t was down to the early goal provoking a massive response from Liverpool, our inability to keep bringing the game to them as we did in that first minute (this was the general point/complaint Kane had) and when we did get the ball, being far too conservative/wasteful with it. Eriksen was awful; we can both agree he should not be playing these days, and I think had Lamela been fit he wouldn’t have.
Again we come to details and fine margins; had Sonny scored, we win the game. Had Rose and Aurier not farted, we stand a great chance of seeing it out. I know, if my Auntie had balls, etc...
Back to your final point and “logic”. I am not employing a metric, we all saw it. Compounded by what Kane said (you’d have to read/listen to evaluate if you believe him) it stands (for me) as a fact.
Lets be honest Steff, you are more interested in shouting down any naysayers than actually having a discussion. I get it, youre fired up, but whats to be gained?
Anyway, I assume you mean these comments?
“I don’t think [there were positives],” said the England captain, who stunned the League leaders by giving Spurs a 47-second lead.
“Whenever you lose, you can never be encouraged. We battled, but you expect that at this level in every game. It’s disappointing being 1-0 up at half-time, being ahead and not being able to see it through.”
“When you lose a game, it’s not a step forward. It showed we’ve got to work hard to win in the Premier League. It’s disappointing, so we’ll assess it this week and see where we can improve and take it into Everton next week.”
Kane has been increasingly forthright about Tottenham’s malaise this season and after the 2-2 draw at Olympiacos last month he demanded more maturity from his team-mates and said he could not understand why they keep making the same mistakes.
His downbeat demeanour on Sunday suggested he is no closer to answers eight matches later.
“I felt, especially [in the] second half, we could have kept the ball better, which would have allowed us to take the pressure off ourselves instead of getting pinned deep,” Kane said. “Balls in the box kept coming and coming. I felt we could have been a bit braver in that aspect. When we went 2-1 down, we started to do it better, create two or three chances towards the end, but it was too late.”
Kane’s double against Red Star took him to 18 goals in 22 Champions League appearances, but there is already a danger of Spurs being cut adrift from the top four, after impressive wins for Leicester and Chelsea this weekend moved them both eight points clear of
Mauricio Pochettino’s side.
“Not at this stage,” Kane said. “There’s a lot of football to be played. A winning run has got to be the aim, but we’ve got to turn it around quick. When you’re in form like this, where you can’t get a run of wins together, it’s difficult. It’s down to us to stick together, to do more and make sure we come out of it.”
I dont see a point of scoring early changing the game for the worse.
And I do also question that rather naive notion of " provoking a massive response from Liverpool". Lets be honest, its not like Liverpool went into the game thinking "We'll give it 6/10 today, oh no! They scored! Better go full 10/10!" is it?
Liverpool are chasing the title, they were going for it regardless. There was also little difference between their performances first or second half, look at Klopps HT comments:
Dejan Lovren has now revealed what Klopp told his players at half-time. He said: ‘We came in at half-time and the boss said: “Usually I never say this, but I am satisfied even though we are 1-0 down. But we need to continue like that and keep our nerve”.
‘We knew we would have another chance and we did it. It’s a massive, massive win.’
Rather annoyingly, they were also entirely predictable in that performance. Which means things should be mitigated.
Where I agree with you is that re really under performed. Whatever good intentions we went with clearly didnt manifest.
And it would seem Kane thinks the same as well. And its notable that its not a one off, but an ongoing thing.
Doing the dreaded reading between the lines - Id suggest he is deeply unimpressed, and unhappy, with how the team is going this year.
The only question becomes - how long before he too looks to the manager as the reason why?
