*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Everton (Goodison Park, Sun 3rd Nov @ 13:30) ***

[BucurestiSpur]

Does anyone realise this is an Everton that are unbeaten at home (including beating Chelsea) and has only lost 1 game so far this season, we're not talking about an Everton from 3 or 4 seasons ago that would've rolled over and let us win.

I think the complaint is more that we handled them comfortably even though this isn't the old Everton.

We could also then have possibly won the game if we knew wtf we were doing in the final 3rd of the pitch, without that in anyway having an impact on our defensive solidity, in fact it would have contributed even more to that tightness.

Its not that we didn't stick 3 past Everton + a clean sheet its that we didn't even look close to scoring and that had nothing whatsoever to do with the "new" Everton.

 

[suffolkspur]

Soldado is disappointing because we are not giving him any service to feed on. He is making runs off the defenders and we are holding on to the ball, playing it to the wings or take a shot from 20 yards out. Feed him and he will finish. Until we improve this aspect to our play he has no chance and neither will Defoe.

 

[nerdved]

Honestly don't mean to be disrespectful but who cares? At the end of season if we finish outside the top 4 again who will celebrate that?

Honestly don't mean to be disrespectful, but you can take your negativity and stick it up your ****.

What ****ing stat did you want to see? "We are now guaranteed to finish second or better. First time we've achieved that in November."

 

[Bonsaiboy]

Benteke in January please.

Soldado is the wrong player in the wrong league.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Sandro was INJURED and wanted to come off.

Weird. He showed absolutely no sign that he was injured, and the commentators repeatedly referred to it as a tactical change, right up to the end of the game when Sandro was clearly shown sitting on the bench with no strapping on his leg or anything. Considering that AVB has preferred the Dembele-Paulinho axis over Sandro before (understandably given Sandro's fitness issues earlier in the season), 'tactical change' is the natural assumption to go for, surely.

 

[We are Tottenham]

No I don't think Everton are a small team but they are beatable - when are we going to move away from this attitude that we cannot beat a good team away from home and we should be happy with a draw. That's why we have only won a league cup and champs league once in recent years. We need to move on and be ambitious isn't that why we brought in AVB and spent £100million in the Summer?

Agreed 100%....we need more bite upfront....
.....still.....................................how many goals now?

100 mill spent.....wont come around again in a hurry....

anyway........................................................................oh well..and all that!

 

[Joesh]

Apparently, we're much better away than we are at home. And the frustrating thing is, for the first thirty five-odd minutes we looked every inch the perfect away side: fast, purposeful, relentless, utterly unflappable. Then came half-time, and after that, AVB taking off Sandro, which completely changed the game and handed the initiative to Everton on a plate.

Strange sub, and considering that we could have gone 2nd as well, it's hard not to feel at least a little bit put out, especially when considering our fantastic display for the first thirty-five minutes.

As Jordinho said and I expected there was an injury that forced this decision. I think AVB is quite a safe coach and wont make rash calls just for the hell of it. I also believe that he'd have taken a point before the game and you could see how the game ended that we were not going all out to win.

 

[Yiddo]

So angry we didn't collect all 3 points, Townsend needs to learn when to pass and when to shoot, holtby offered nothing all game can't understand why eriksen wasnt on a lot sooner, soldado disappointing again can't keep going on

So Holtby done nothing all day because he didn't score or get an assist? Football is alot more than just scoring.

 

[braineclipse]

By the way did anyone else think that Lukaku should have done more to get out of the way against Hugo?

And did anyone else think that the Everton fans were ****ing dingdongheads for booing Hugo even after they had seen Lukaku have to come off with a knee injury from that collision?

 

[colin fishwick]

Benteke in January please.

Soldado is the wrong player in the wrong league.

Benteke is not the right type either. Has had one good season. We need a skillful forward . Remy would be better than Benteke or Soldado .

 

[diego_maradona]

Shame we lost Sandro. Thought we bossed that. Good result, overrall I'm still disappointed. Shows how far we've come.
Think Arsenal would have won that tbh. But I'm concerned with us, that defensive record is phenomenal. Just that freak west ham result

 

[Mulletperm]

Sandro was INJURED and wanted to come off.

According to who?

 

[VolSpur]

Honestly don't mean to be disrespectful but who cares? At the end of season if we finish outside the top 4 again who will celebrate that?

Well to be fair if we continue on that form we'd end up somewhere around 27 clean sheets on the season... 2 more than the best ever total put forward by league winners Chelski in 04-05 with 25....

And i always forget his name but the announcer who is famous for saying "my word" (one of my faves mind you!! always reminds me of our champs league game vs AC Milan) put forth the idea that maybe this was AVB's plan all along. Set up with a sturdy side which knows how to defend and over the year as confidence and familiarity grows, the goals will start to flow in.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Benteke in January please.

Soldado is the wrong player in the wrong league.

Not willing to write him off that easily. He needs service, which will hopefully come once Lamela adapts enough to be starting games ahead of one of our two out and out wingers (probably Lennon). Arsenal use playmakers out wide to give them penetration and guile down the middle: with a midfield trio of, say, Townsend-Eriksen-Lamela, we should have few problems doing that ourselves.

It would be nice to have another option, though: someone big and powerful who we can bring off the bench if Plan A isn't working. Defoe is too similar to Soldado to be anything but a 'bench filler', unfortunately, and Ade is evidently so far from the first team he might as well be on holiday in Togo or something. And we definitely need a left-back if Rose doesn't return quickly.

 

[braineclipse]

Weird. He showed absolutely no sign that he was injured, and the commentators repeatedly referred to it as a tactical change, right up to the end of the game when Sandro was clearly shown sitting on the bench with no strapping on his leg or anything. Considering that AVB has preferred the Dembele-Paulinho axis over Sandro before (understandably given Sandro's fitness issues earlier in the season), 'tactical change' is the natural assumption to go for, surely.

I think the natural assumption to go for is that AVB wouldn't do anything outright stupid and wait to see what is reported after the game personally.

Not surprising considering Sandro's recent injury and recovery history that we would be careful with him even if he just felt a slight tightness or similar. Far from shocking that the commentators have no clue what's going on and just make up whatever story fits what they feel like saying.

 

[BucurestiSpur]

Everton could have gone 2nd today and are no easy 3 points. We barely beat Hull at home in the last 2 games at home so its not like we are playing at our best. I am quite pleased with the performance and result tbh.

The parts of the team responsible for defence though ARE playing at their best, defensively this is one of our best starts to a season if not the best we have had in decades. This is what makes things so frustrating.

The fact that we are not a "defensive" team per se or even set up to be specifically defensive minded (i hope everyone knows what i mean) makes it abundantly clear that there is a categorical problem in the attacking aspects of the team. Its just not working, in my opinion its not even close to working.

 

[Rorschach]

absolutely. If you want to bring on Dembele why not take off Paulinho who was contributing nothing?

I agree with this. Although Dembele looked a little lost in the middle, a lot of this was largely down to Paulinho being fooked and contributing very little. A platform of Demeble and Sandro would have wrested back control of the middle of the park. Wrong sub - mistake.

The other subs were OK I thought. Holtby faded out of the 2nd half and should have got the hook earlier, as should Lennon who to me doesn't look ready for this level of challenge. Townsend has lapsed back into bad choices mode and was lucky not to be subbed himself.

I think AVB needs to alter the approach of our attacking 3 midfielders. Lets put three ball players in there and see how that changes our chance creation. Lets forget about raw pace as it not really working. Soldado in front of Eriksen, Lamela and Siggy maybe.

We need players running inside the full backs and none of our players seem willing to do this. Soldado occasionally but that's not where he should be. Maybe it's because they know no pass will be forthcoming nobody does it.


A good result though the usual problems are still there to see.



Edit: Sandro injured? Fair enough. Subbed was forced on him then.

 

[DubaiSpur]

As Jordinho said and I expected there was an injury that forced this decision. I think AVB is quite a safe coach and wont make rash calls just for the hell of it. I also believe that he'd have taken a point before the game and you could see how the game ended that we were not going all out to win.

I hope so, because like I mentioned earlier, there was no sign that Sandro was even uncomfortable before he came off. I agree that AVB is a safe coach, which is why I called that decision 'strange': it seemed so utterly self-defeating.

One thing's for sure: Capoue's 'one month' injury (which has now turned into two months, in another dazzling triumph for the Spurs medical department) needs to clear up soon, so we can have a more defensive option on the bench to complement one of Dembele or Eriksen.

 

[Armchair Expert]

The parts of the team responsible for defence though ARE playing at their best, defensively this is one of our best starts to a season if not the best we have had in decades. This is what makes things so frustrating.

The fact that we are not a "defensive" team per se or even set up to be specifically defensive minded (i hope everyone knows what i mean) makes it abundantly clear that there is a categorical problem in the attacking aspects of the team. Its just not working, in my opinion its not even close to working.

Some people seem to think 9 goals, three of them penalties, from 10 games is a good return. :lol:

Don't worry, the stats say we had 1,035 shots again in this match. Just a shame 99.9% were from 40 meters and landed in Anfield.

 

[diego_maradona]

Such a shame how the modern fan have such unrealistic expectations now. It's not unrealistic to want us to be better going forward but there is no patience afforded anymore. It's incredible. The defensive record is very impressive.