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OMT: Bayer Leverkusen vs Mighty Spurs

ledley's knee injections said:
Don't agree on Janssen. I thought he was really good and along with Rose one of our best players in the first half.

Held the ball up really well (even from long gk's/ball), movement excellent, unlucky not to score. His touch is sure and he's the right type of player for European game such as this and a big reason why we looked good in this half.

Was also really unlucky to not get an assist after his great touch spin and turn round their defender - keeper got a key nick on his cross.
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https://twitter.com/x/status/788482845362847745
 
King of Norway said:
The second half was terrible, and in the end we were lucky to get away with a point which puts us in a decent position with three matches to go. The home match against Leverkusen certainly won't be easy though. I take back what I said at half time about us being clearly the best team in the group. Leverkusen were good in the second half.

Once again we struggle when teams put aggressive pressure on us high up the pitch. I don't understand why teams so often just sit back against us and let us play. It's clearly a better strategy to get in our faces. In the second half we rarely managed to settle down with the ball. Dembele is usually a good player in such a game as he can keep possession in tight areas, but he is clearly far from where he was last season at the moment.

In terms of individual players I thought Wanyama played well again. He had some important defensive involvements. Tripper was good in the first half when we were on the front foot. His crosses created our two best opportunities. He struggled a bit more when he had to defend. The rest of the defence was also okay. Lloris made an important albeit slightly fortuitous save. The front five wasn't great. Janssen was decent in the first half. The other four weren't great, but Alli was the best of them.

This group will live until the final whistle on the last match day, I reckon. The teams are evenly match and take points off each other. It will be nervewrecking. I'm already dreading Leverkusen at home.
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Teams don't o,ay like that against us because they can't sustain it for 90 minutes and we get chances when they tire

Today for they first 15 Bayer looked good but we pushed them right back. Half time they brought on an extra midfielder and it changed the game. In the premier league you can make this changes but you still have to have a team capable of playing that way and very few can
 
If ever a draw felt like a win that was it. We somehow salvaged a point through sheer cussedness and in doing so denied them the extra two, which could well make the difference between CL heaven and Europa hell.

So yes, definitely three points gained :D.
 
Good point ultimately. Need to work out a way of counteracting teams which press us. Would like us to pick up cover for Dembele in Jan as it feels like we're trying to nurse him through at the moment and could do with a CM who is able to put his foot on the ball. Perhaps we're waiting for Winks
 
AdamB said:
Good point ultimately. Need to work out a way of counteracting teams which press us. Would like us to pick up cover for Dembele in Jan as it feels like we're trying to nurse him through at the moment and could do with a CM who is able to put his foot on the ball. Perhaps we're waiting for Winks
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Winks, we could shift Onomah deeper, or put Sissoko there....we have options in that deep-lying midfield role. Hell, we could just keep the 4-1-4-1 - while it hasn't led to us playing at our flowing best, it still seems like a solid enough system that gets us points.

Really, I guess we're waiting for the rest of the league to start feeling the dead weight in their legs, around December/January - that's when we'll kick in to gear, I'm guessing, once our fitness advantage allows us to be less tired than the opposition. The trouble with that is that we ourselves will burn out towards the end, if last season's any indicator...however, that's besides the point. Right now, the 4-1-4-1 works and we have options in Dembele's position. And, once our fitness starts showing around December/January, I think any formation we play will more or less allow us a lot of latitude, as it was last season. So I wouldn't worry on that count.

I do, however, hope Toby doesn't pick up more knocks. If he's out, we're out, no ifs or buts about it.
 
Have we played any matches this season with our first-choice 11? Have we played any CL with our first-choice back-four? It's worth pondering...Dele is very close to being a top top player; if he can start converting the chances he's getting even in tight matches (at the weekend one-on-one, last night with the free-running header from 8 yards) he will be the finished article. Unbeaten for ages despite having only hit top gear once this season...one question I do have is with regards to Eriksen. Is it asking too much to expect more from him on nights like this? And when he DID have a glorious chance at the end to dink a ball to the far post for a simple nod-in, he fluffed the cross!!!!
 
Perhaps Pochettino showed the team the opening post at half time, to show the team how much the fans care about the fixture. When they saw the brick storm of an opening post, a post so lazy that Berbatov tracked back harder, a post with so little creativity that stick men artists have become the new Picasso, a post so lacking in caring that it's children, the little child posts of this abomination, were given up for adoption before they were even a concept in the writer's mind. And I wonder why our performance dipped in the second half...

I expect more from OMTs in future than whatever the fudge this was!

Still, a hard working point is a solid result, especially with Monaco drawing against CSKA Moscow.
 
Dr Rosenrosen said:
Subs aren't solely a function of effectiveness, but also of the need to rest and rotate. I suspect VJ will be starting again at the weekend and in many of our upcoming run of matches.
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I was quoting it because of the pass completion stats because of the claim that he offered nothing.
 
thfcsteff said:
Have we played any matches this season with our first-choice 11? Have we played any CL with our first-choice back-four? It's worth pondering...Dele is very close to being a top top player; if he can start converting the chances he's getting even in tight matches (at the weekend one-on-one, last night with the free-running header from 8 yards) he will be the finished article. Unbeaten for ages despite having only hit top gear once this season...one question I do have is with regards to Eriksen. Is it asking too much to expect more from him on nights like this? And when he DID have a glorious chance at the end to dink a ball to the far post for a simple nod-in, he fluffed the cross!!!!
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Absolutely mate for me he was one of the most dissapointing players on the night along with Dier. Not sure what's happened to Dier. Thought the stand outs were lloris, Verts, Wanyama and Rose.
 
ledley's knee injections said:
Don't agree on Janssen. I thought he was really good and along with Rose one of our best players in the first half.

Held the ball up really well (even from long gk's/ball), movement excellent, unlucky not to score. His touch is sure and he's the right type of player for European game such as this and a big reason why we looked good in this half.

Was also really unlucky to not get an assist after his great touch spin and turn round their defender - keeper got a key nick on his cross.
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Get with the program, Janssen is this season s.capegoat he must take the blame for everything.
 
That Lloris save was insane! Super human. I was sure it was in and that hawkeye wasn't used in the CL. How come there are the extra officials behind the goal when there's hawkeye? What's the point?
I thought we looked good in the first half, but second half was very sloppy, we couldn't string two passes together, it seemed. Not necessarily because of the pressure from Leverkusen, we just passed it around poorly, and didn't move well enough for one another. Apart from Chicharito's chance, and Kiesslings miss wide late on, Leverkusen didn't really have too many big chances though, did they? A few shots from outside the box. By all means, they were the better side, and probably deserved to win it, but it's not liked they bombarded us with efforts.

Agreed regarding Janssen - one of our best yesterday no doubt. Had the best passing completion rate of our lads by a mile. Held up the ball well, found team mates (as is becoming a trademark) in good positions, unlucky not to score.

Not sure what happened in the second half though. They started pressing us in the first as well, but we managed the game well then. We just didn't look up for it in the second half. Will be a tough game against them at Wembley as well. Surprised that they've drawn all their matches. By far the best team we've played in the group, in my opinion.
 
thfcsteff said:
Have we played any matches this season with our first-choice 11? Have we played any CL with our first-choice back-four? It's worth pondering...Dele is very close to being a top top player; if he can start converting the chances he's getting even in tight matches (at the weekend one-on-one, last night with the free-running header from 8 yards) he will be the finished article. Unbeaten for ages despite having only hit top gear once this season...one question I do have is with regards to Eriksen. Is it asking too much to expect more from him on nights like this? And when he DID have a glorious chance at the end to dink a ball to the far post for a simple nod-in, he fluffed the cross!!!!
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I like Eriksen but he really needs to step up in games like this. We know he can do it - two seasons ago he was a great contributer from free kicks and shots from outside the penalty area. Last season , not so much. I gather we haven't yet scored a single goal this season from outside the penalty area. Eriksen is one of the biggest culprits in this. He needs to begin to deliver again .... and soon.
 
My only thought from last night was the Dembele substitution.
I can see the logic but we tended to start playing for a draw too early.............but it's easy to say, sitting on my sofa.
 
Was Janssen's ruled out goal him or Son offside? If Janssen was it a new phase of play, or was he rightly flagged?
 
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