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OMT * Tottenham Hotspur v Leicester City *

The way I see it is we need players that can make things happen. We can pile on the likes of Maddison, but he provided an assist last night, he made something happen. Porro is a player that makes things happen. Lovely to see Bergvall, mind you we only paid 10m for him and I can already see he has that ability. Gray looked one-dimensional and not being able to pick up a sparkling pass or take on his opponent. Kulusevski should have started and he needs to play on the right wing. If you want someone to cover Maddison's position, let Bergvall be the one. He has the pass and the dribling ability. As for Son, we all know he has good periods and bad ones during the season. He will come good at one point, he always does. We shouldn't be so reliable on a player, especially when we spend 130m în the transfer market. That would have been enough for Olmo and Williams.
 
People saying we lack the killer instinct. I don't think that's the case. Not being able to put the ball in the net more than once with the chances we created first half against a team playing a low block is not a definition of lacking the killer instinct.

What does worry me, however, is how we react when a team is on the ascendency. You would think that our playing style is suited to exactly that, what with the spaces that the other team leaves open. Yet we fail to capitalize. Part of it seems to be sloppy play and part of it seems to be lack of urgency to exploit those spaces while they're still available. We need to be relentless and we're not. It's something that Ange wants to become innate to the players, but it's still not there. This being the first game of the season you can cut them some slack, but if it continues to be the case 5-10 games in, there's going to have to be some shaking up. What form that will take, I don't know, though.
 
DubaiSpur said:
I expect things to steadily improve, yes. What you have failed to see is that since game 10 of last season, we have gotten *worse* - settling at a pretty mediocre level that has continued into this season.

I expect a coach to fix problems, make his players better and adapt to issues.

He has done none of this. We are the same 45-minute wonders we were last year.

Either we show improvement, or he's back in Melbourne by Christmas and we get a better coach in. Like I said, no more excuses for the guy, nowhere to hide. This is his team now, in his image.

Do better.
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It took Klopp and Arteta 3 years to get their teams humming, and with more resources than us. But if Ange doesn't do it after one and a half seasons he should be sacked. Do you have any perspective???
 
IulianSteaua said:
can pile on the likes of Maddison, but he provided an assist last night, he made something happen. Porro is a player that makes things happen.
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I think Maddison needs players like Porro to make some runs so he can get the ball into them. He did miss some, but we were still quite static at times just going sideways to side.
 
Goose said:
that's the point i'm making i suppose. Ange's tactics worked in a lower European league, but in the English top flight where even the "lesser" teams have significant financial/management/playing resources, well i'm not so sure. Vardy will be shown up against most of the defences in this league, yet he nearly won them the game today.
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They also worked in Japan and Australia, where there's parity from top to bottom. If anything, he has an advantage managing Spurs in the PL.
 
Chrissivad said:
I think Maddison needs players like Porro to make some runs so he can get the ball into them. He did miss some, but we were still quite static at times just going sideways to side.
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It is quite normal for a team to go side to side when faced with a low block. The whole point of the low block is that it makes it really difficult for the opposition to create good chances. The ball is moved from side to side while looking for a chink in the armour.

I thought we actually did OK to create some reasonable chances in the first hour or so.

As has been the case ever since Ange arrived the problem with this Spurs team is the lack of ability to keep a clean sheet and not a lack of ability to score goals.

At least we are good to watch however so going to games is a decent spectacle watching a team trying to win the game playing exciting football. After the last three managers (not including the caretakers) that is something to be glad about. I for one am looking forward to the Everton game this weekend, whereas going to the game had started to become something of a chore previously.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
The biggest takeaway is how badly conceding a goal affects us.

It was noticeable a fair bit last season as well.

Weird. As men against boys up until that point.
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For sure.

Changed Leicester as much as it changed us, but we failed to react well. We do want to play with bravery on the ball when pressed, this should be good for us. But we have seen in the past how we struggle at times.

I thought we were a bit sloppy overall though too. Imo could see it in the first half too. Not sure if overconfident or a result of this being the opening game or what. But we weren't as sharp as we can be imo. Difficult to get out of that after conceding and when the high press really requires us to be sharp and on our game.
 
Robspur12 said:
Also concerned he is not making use of additional coaching resources such as set piece coaches which is something other teams are doing to gain those additional margins.
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Defensive set pieces are coached by the defensive coordinator. Set piece coaches are brought in for the offensive set pieces. If you watch the game again, we did quite well and mixed it up with our offensive set pieces and I don't think we were in danger from the opposition's set pieces. So we may already be taking care of this, for all we know.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Yep, exactly. Pep Guardiola has a set piece coach. Arteta has a set piece coach. I think about half the clubs in the league do at this point.

Postecoglou thinks we don't need one.

If he wants to be more dogmatic than the world's greatest managers, that's his right. If he ends up getting sacked over it, that's our right, and unless things change, that's where he's heading unfortunately.
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You really think he's that naive? Really? And look at my earlier post about set pieces. We do work on them and it was obvious in yesterday's game that we do.
 
alekaras said:
Defensive set pieces are coached by the defensive coordinator. Set piece coaches are brought in for the offensive set pieces. If you watch the game again, we did quite well and mixed it up with our offensive set pieces and I don't think we were in danger from the opposition's set pieces. So we may already be taking care of this, for all we know.
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Fingers crossed (though it seemed that Leicester hit outswinging corners instead of inswingers (which were our undoing last season).
 
alekaras said:
Defensive set pieces are coached by the defensive coordinator. Set piece coaches are brought in for the offensive set pieces. If you watch the game again, we did quite well and mixed it up with our offensive set pieces and I don't think we were in danger from the opposition's set pieces. So we may already be taking care of this, for all we know.
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Depends on the set piece coach and team I think.

Agreed that we looked quite good on set pieces, hopefully that's a good sign for what's to come. We're obviously working on it.
 
alekaras said:
You really think he's that naive? Really? And look at my earlier post about set pieces. We do work on them and it was obvious in yesterday's game that we do.
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I'm not sure whether he is naive, or whether perhaps he is merely dogmatic? Or whether perhaps his public demeanor differs from his actions behind the scenes and what he says and does are different things.

What I did see last season was that we had the same problems with set pieces for quite a long while. Could be coincidence of course.

We'll get a better idea as this season unfolds as it is far too early to tell at the moment. Hopefully the weakness has been addressed.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Personally I think this system needs better players. We’re not clinical enough to put teams away when we’re on top. And we’re susceptible to counter attacks. We’re not gonna get many 1-0’s or clean sheets in general so we need to be bang on it every game going forward which I don’t think is sustainable for anything other than top 4 and maybe a cup which I will be happy with this season. Whether this system is built to have us challenging for the title is up for debate. I expect a similar points total and outcome to last season tbh.
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All systems need very good players to really work. Sitting deep to counter attack perhaps to some extent the exception, and that shouldn't be an option for us.

We're obviously looking to improve the playing squad. Mostly through signing younger players with loads of potential and seemingly with the plan of trusting them quite a bit even early on. Imo a very good strategy.

Will take some time though as you say. We won't get the best version of Gray, Bergvall, Odobert etc this season, but give them some time and hopefully they'll be better than any player we could realistically sign.

Meanwhile some patience. Our issues aren't solved by having Solanke as the striker or Gray and Bergvall on the bench. It's a step in the right direction imo, but some of the systemic issues will continue to be an issue. As it would with any system.
 
On the performance. We were one quality pass, strike or move away from a comfortable 2-3 goal win imo. If that had happened very few would have had any issues with the performance and the performance would in effect have been no better. Underlying issues like defensive vulnerability and ability to respond to setbacks would have been no more solved.

Let's give it some time and see how the start of the season plays out.
 
glasgowspur said:
We need someone who is going to own it. I want someone to pick the ball out the net, march to the centre spot, stick the ball down and play with the attitude of this doesn't change anything, we've dominated you and we will continue to dominate you because we are the better team.
It's us that should be getting riled up, us that should be responding positively, man the fudge up.
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Ange is probably trying to instill this in everyone. It's gonna take some time though.
 
ricky2tricky4city said:
The biggest takeaway is how badly conceding a goal affects us.

It was noticeable a fair bit last season as well.

Weird. As men against boys up until that point.
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It affects all teams. It's just that it seems to take us much longer to snap out of it than most teams.
 
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