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*Official OMT Tottenham v Fulham*

Man of the match

  • Total voters
    58
  • Poll closed .
I think Poch keeps Llorente around because he probably trains hard and because he’s earning a lot of money as an experienced player, so as long as he is showing the standards expected, he makes the squad.

I think we had to pay a decent whack to get him ahead of Chelsea and it was an example of Levy trusting Poch big time, but it just hasn’t worked out even though I think the logic was conceptually sound. I don’t think Llorente suits us and I think Poch knows it, hence never playing him unless absolutely forced to. I think we will have expected better and probably messed up on understanding how suited he would be to our style of play (I’m guessing we assumed he had done fine in more patient sides like Juve and Spain rather than the pace we push forward, so should be fine with quality players) but I feel bad for him. If he went to Chelsea they would have played more to his strengths.

He doesn’t deserve to be treated like the laughing stock he is by some of our fans because he’s better than that. I just think he is a bad match.
 
BrainOfLevy said:
We tried the signing a young striker willing to wait for his chance and that didn’t work,
so we tried signing an experienced professional who could do a job when called, and hopefully rub off positively around the place.

I think the logic was totally sound, and I think Llorente is a good player. I just don’t think he looks suited to our game and it means we suffer for it. He doesn’t seem to run in behind or probe forward with the ball. He’s all about quick touches off the ball to feet or getting on the end of crosses. We do like the occasional diagonal which in theory he should be good for but it just never seems to work for him.

This summer we need a wide forward who can play upfront when required. It’s also a tough one because after today’s performance I wouldn’t start Llorente at Chelsea, and yet you risk upsetting him if you don’t and would probably need to sell him this month rather than lose any benefit we have having his professionalism rub off on the rest of our squad if you don’t play him even with Son and Kane out. We can’t have someone earning 100k a week feeing like he’s adding no value.

He just looked totally unsuited to me. I rarely offer up a ‘play a yoof player, they can’t be any worse’ type of take but in this case, I think our general team performance would probably have been better with Sterling or Parrott on the pitch. Maybe Moura upfront for Chelsea with Eriksen and Lamela in behind, Dier and Winks in midfield at the Bridge.
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I don't mean that signing an older, experienced head is baffling (I was very excited when we bought Llorente and thought we'd finally solved the issue of what we'd do when Kane was injured/ needed a rest).

What I'm saying was baffling is we bought a player that is, ultimately, a target man and one who was quite old as well so not likely to change his ways in his mid 30s. If we're not going to change the way we play to play to his strengths (which I don't think we should necessarily do tbh, as the overall impact on the team and its performances may be negative) then it seems baffling to have even purchased him in the first place.

Agree about the summer target. We've got quite a few players who contribute very little to the actual squad who really need to be moved on this summer, in any way possible. We're already at a financial disadvantage compared to our competitors and now with the stadium, without carrying Llorente, Wanyama, Janssen etc etc and their wages too.
 
I'm watching a replay now, was busy for the match. First half just finished and oh my word that was poor.

The first five mins were good, midfield were flowing. Then Llorente got involved. He was really, unfortunately bad. Every time the ball went to him it bounced off and ended up with an opponent, then the own goal. Dear me.

Eriksen was invisible, Trippier still telegraphing passes and midfield basically overrun (no surprise there) .. Holding on for dear life at the end.

Don't even get me started on our set pieces too, I'm typically optimistic but fudge me. Hope Poch works magic at the break.

To add insult to injury Ryan fudging Babel could have had a hat trick!

COYS!
 
Anyone seen what Toby did after the goal?
I saw him get the ball out the net rather than celebrate... seen footage now of him coming up to the rest of the players then booting the ball out the ground
 
Normally I cringe when football fans in general, not just Spurs fans bemoan injuries as every club gets them but ours are just feckin ridiculous. You can set your watch by a Kane ankle injury on a yearly basis. Ok Dembele and Wanyama are injured a lot so can’t bemoan those too much but our players have been dropping like flies since November ish.
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Anyone seen what Toby did after the goal?
I saw him get the ball out the net rather than celebrate... seen footage now of him coming up to the rest of the players then booting the ball out the ground
Click to expand...

Yeah, I saw that too. Trying to delay the restart? He's visibly happy at the final whistle, smiling and high fiving Winksy and Dier, so I wouldn't read anything negative into it (not implying that you did though). :p
 
Bedfordspurs said:
Anyone seen what Toby did after the goal?
I saw him get the ball out the net rather than celebrate... seen footage now of him coming up to the rest of the players then booting the ball out the ground
Click to expand...

I saw the ref showing him a yellow card but didn’t know what it was for as everything went mental when Winks scored. I thought it must have been something to do with the celebration. Didn’t realise he’d kicked the ball out.
 
Second half now over and wow! Get the fudge in there. Love a last minute winner. GKN with the asssist, who'd a thought eh?

Overall that was much better, so relieved to get a vital win. You cannot fault the mentality Poch has instilled in this group, we just keep going, going and going.

Fairly assured and dominant performance helped by the early goal. Best performers for me were Toby, Rose, Sanchez, Winks and Lamela who was unlucky to be subbed. Oh and also our away support, they were fantastic all the way through.

Great assist from Eriksen for Alli's goal but both were a bit too quiet otherwise, in general play I mean.

Thought Winks was very, very good. Lacked support in central midfield but made things happen and got the crucial goal, fair play.

Great to see Dier back available, he'll be important to have supporting alongside Harry moving forward. It also frees Eriksen up.

Rose was MOTM for me though. Cracked the cross bar, solid defensively and always a menace marauding forward. He's back to his best.

Shout out to Lloris for his denial of Mitrovic when through on goal, also back to somewhere near his best, could do nothing for the goal.

Llorente; the less said the better. One to forget.

PS. Mitrovic is a clam who I wouldn't want anywhere near my club. Sanchez had the clown shoe in his pocket. Also really hope Dele's injury isn't as serious as it seemed.
 
Lamela was his usual self in terms of his tireless work rate but I wouldn’t say he was unlucky to be subbed at all. I’d still start him on Thursday with Eriksen and Lucas Moura dat.
 
DeanoAustin said:
I wanted him to do well today but he was terrible.

And I disagree on us not playing to his strengths particularly in the first half. We spent a lot of time trying to work the ball into positions to cross. He also had two great opportunities and made a mess of them both.

Maybe he needs a run of games but he was given a good chance today and it couldn’t have gone much worse.
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How many did Kane miss last week? And those where MUCH bigger chances than the two Llorente got today! There was 4 decent balls into the area all game, and we scored from 2 of those. And Llorente being the obvious threat for those, the defenders where close to him, leaving Dele space at the back post.
Llorente didn't have a good game, but to slate him the amount some of the tossers here do, is ridiculous. It's his PL start for ages!
 
BrainOfLevy said:
I think Poch keeps Llorente around because he probably trains hard and because he’s earning a lot of money as an experienced player, so as long as he is showing the standards expected, he makes the squad.

I think we had to pay a decent whack to get him ahead of Chelsea and it was an example of Levy trusting Poch big time, but it just hasn’t worked out even though I think the logic was conceptually sound. I don’t think Llorente suits us and I think Poch knows it, hence never playing him unless absolutely forced to. I think we will have expected better and probably messed up on understanding how suited he would be to our style of play (I’m guessing we assumed he had done fine in more patient sides like Juve and Spain rather than the pace we push forward, so should be fine with quality players) but I feel bad for him. If he went to Chelsea they would have played more to his strengths.

He doesn’t deserve to be treated like the laughing stock he is by some of our fans because he’s better than that. I just think he is a bad match.
Click to expand...

I think we've gotten used to brilliance, tbh. We rely on Harry to be brilliant - either as a goalscorer, or as a tireless creator and facilitator of play upfront.

When he's out, I think, whether we like it or not, we place abnormally high expectations on his replacement - and that just happens to be Llorente.

Being in that position is hard for any player - it's impossible to live up to those expectations. And it doesn't help that Llorente doesn't play much either. So he does the best he can, which is pretty standard stuff that a lot of Prem strikers also do. Just not at the level of Kane - and he'll never be at that level.

I don't blame him, and I agree with you - we're treating him too harshly.
 
Not a great game, no real surprise with our injuries.

Re Llorente, mentioned in his thread, brick day at office, his confidence took a big hit with the OG.

Trippier however was worse for me, after an appalling game against United, he was retained (for his crossing to Llorente), he was still poor defensively and really didn't give Llorente any amount of service more. Back to the sideways passing at top of box (I remember one early cross).

Dier back will help, Eriksen needs to play higher when we don't have as many scorers in team.

Old Spurs would have lost this one.
 
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