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*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Watford FC ***

Just got back home. Crikey I forgot what a nightmare it is getting away from Pretoria Road and Bridport Road. Now I remember why we stopped parking on that side of the ground.

Happy with the points. It's nice to be top again, for 2 weeks at least, hopefully more. Was it me, or were we a bit laboured in our approach. Felt like we were in 3rd gear all game. Such a shame that Dele did not finish off that great move for 2-0, so the last 10 minutes were not as nervy.

Saying that pretty sure Kane should have had a pen, if the 1st minute foul wasn't one, surely that one midway through the 2nd half was.

Ah well. it was good to get back, a one stage on the M25 I thought we might not make kick-off, but a quick detour through some country lanes thanks to Ways, got us there in time
 
It's still too early to judge but I think we'll need to improve in central midfield or find more width in attack. I felt we were very narrow again, today. Then again, as others have mentioned, we're missing some players who could add something to the side if they stay. We'll probably have a clearer idea of what we can expect in a month or so. Watford ain't no world-beaters and we scored through a massive mistake from their keeper. I doubt this great run can carry on for ever but Nuno has made life easy for himself with these nine points.

On a side note, I didn't remember Dele's first touch was so poor. He lost a couple of balls because of it in the first half, which is a shame because you can see he's trying very hard to fit in in central midfield. His work-rate is ok but the time he spent away from the first team and the fact that he's playing further away from the goal seem to have taken the edge off his game. His attitude looks good though, so I really hope he's given a chance to improve on that in the next few weeks.

I can't say it's a fun side to watch at the moment (for me, at least) but at least, we're getting the job done. If we've got to be so boring, we might as well be top of the league. It sweetens the deal.
 
Mr Gogolak said:
It's still too early to judge but I think we'll need to improve in central midfield or find more width in attack. I felt we were very narrow again, today. Then again, as others have mentioned, we're missing some players who could add something to the side if they stay. We'll probably have a clearer idea of what we can expect in a month or so. Watford ain't no world-beaters and we scored through a massive mistake from their keeper. I doubt this great run can carry on for ever but Nuno has made life easy for himself with these nine points.

On a side note, I didn't remember Dele's first touch was so poor. He lost a couple of balls because of it in the first half, which is a shame because you can see he's trying very hard to fit in in central midfield. His work-rate is ok but the time he spent away from the first team and the fact that he's playing further away from the goal seem to have taken the edge off his game. His attitude looks good though, so I really hope he's given a chance to improve on that in the next few weeks.

I can't say it's a fun side to watch at the moment (for me, at least) but at least, we're getting the job done. If we've got to be so boring, we might as well be top of the league. It sweetens the deal.
Click to expand...
I am hoping that the “boring” is about making us defensively solid to build confidence, then we can gradually improve the creativity. As we know, all great sides start with a solid base. It’s early days so it will be interesting to see how we progress through the season.
 
Robspur12 said:
I am hoping that the “boring” is about making us defensively solid to build confidence, then we can gradually improve the creativity. As we know, all great sides start with a solid base. It’s early days so it will be interesting to see how we progress through the season.
Click to expand...

So I think this is a really important point

- This team in the end of the Poch era and right through Jose and Mason was shot, no confidence, no belief
- It's worst manifestation was the defense, any pressure and it crumbled, try to hold on to a lead, crumble ..

Nuno's compactness, the way we don't quite press, but close spaces once the opposition gets to a certain point, the way we force them in a direction we want, the results, has to build confidence.

And hopefully the squad refresh +results rebuilds that belief that we once had, because it's been gone for a long time.
 
Robspur12 said:
I am hoping that the “boring” is about making us defensively solid to build confidence, then we can gradually improve the creativity. As we know, all great sides start with a solid base. It’s early days so it will be interesting to see how we progress through the season.
Click to expand...

That is the way i see it, good teams are built from the back and has been a big problem for us over the last few years. I always remember my first coach Malcolm Allison telling us just that and it was/is so true.
 
Robspur12 said:
I am hoping that the “boring” is about making us defensively solid to build confidence, then we can gradually improve the creativity. As we know, all great sides start with a solid base. It’s early days so it will be interesting to see how we progress through the season.
Click to expand...
I don't think we are boring at all! There's a massive difference to last year. There is movement all the time, overlaps, changing positions, will to get forward and we actually have players in the box when crosses are delivered!
At the same time we are way more solid defensively, and it's just small adjustments that have made us so. Last year, our wide forwards were basically wing backs when we defended. Not so now. Most of the time the front 3 stay high up. This means that the opposition full backs can't just bomb forward, and they often also keep one CM back.
This in turn means that the opposition lacks width, so our midfield can stay compact and narrow.
All this just because our wide forwards are positioned 10 meters higher up the pitch. It makes all the difference!
 
Kandi1977 said:
I don't think we are boring at all! There's a massive difference to last year. There is movement all the time, overlaps, changing positions, will to get forward and we actually have players in the box when crosses are delivered!
At the same time we are way more solid defensively, and it's just small adjustments that have made us so. Last year, our wide forwards were basically wing backs when we defended. Not so now. Most of the time the front 3 stay high up. This means that the opposition full backs can't just bomb forward, and they often also keep one CM back.
This in turn means that the opposition lacks width, so our midfield can stay compact and narrow.
All this just because our wide forwards are positioned 10 meters higher up the pitch. It makes all the difference!
Click to expand...

Thank you, I sometimes think people equate what is in fact naivety with exciting for some reason, or worse yet, hitting the ball to runners over and over again.
 
parklane1 said:
That is the way i see it, good teams are built from the back and has been a big problem for us over the last few years. I always remember my first coach Malcolm Allison telling us just that and it was/is so true.
Click to expand...

You were coached my Malcolm Allison? What level did you play at?
 
i dont like santo, he's a negative manager that plays "nihilistic" football but this is a results business, for the next 2 weeks, tottenham are the only unbeaten team in the PL and all of europe will see who is top. It won't last of course but I will celebrate this, I am a betting man and a student of football, the 1960's Inter Milan team won half of their games 1-0. I love 1-0 scorelines, and can't really see this happening in this modern day league but football is a simple game, if u dont concede, u dont lose.
And the scum are bottom and in disarray, enjoy the international break lads, COYS
 
Kandi1977 said:
I don't think we are boring at all! There's a massive difference to last year. There is movement all the time, overlaps, changing positions, will to get forward and we actually have players in the box when crosses are delivered!
At the same time we are way more solid defensively, and it's just small adjustments that have made us so. Last year, our wide forwards were basically wing backs when we defended. Not so now. Most of the time the front 3 stay high up. This means that the opposition full backs can't just bomb forward, and they often also keep one CM back.
This in turn means that the opposition lacks width, so our midfield can stay compact and narrow.
All this just because our wide forwards are positioned 10 meters higher up the pitch. It makes all the difference!
Click to expand...

Absolutely agree!!!!!
 
Mr_B said:
i dont like santo, he's a negative manager that plays "nihilistic" football but this is a results business, for the next 2 weeks, tottenham are the only unbeaten team in the PL and all of europe will see who is top. It won't last of course but I will celebrate this, I am a betting man and a student of football, the 1960's Inter Milan team won half of their games 1-0. I love 1-0 scorelines, and can't really see this happening in this modern day league but football is a simple game, if u dont concede, u dont lose.
And the scum are bottom and in disarray, enjoy the international break lads, COYS
Click to expand...

Wtf is "nihilistic football"?
Sounds epic!!
 
Kandi1977 said:
I don't think we are boring at all! There's a massive difference to last year. There is movement all the time, overlaps, changing positions, will to get forward and we actually have players in the box when crosses are delivered!
At the same time we are way more solid defensively, and it's just small adjustments that have made us so. Last year, our wide forwards were basically wing backs when we defended. Not so now. Most of the time the front 3 stay high up. This means that the opposition full backs can't just bomb forward, and they often also keep one CM back.
This in turn means that the opposition lacks width, so our midfield can stay compact and narrow.
All this just because our wide forwards are positioned 10 meters higher up the pitch. It makes all the difference!
Click to expand...

Massively agree, I’m not sure why my interpretation of our play seems so different to what a lot of others are seeing, but I think we are better with the ball than the team is probably being given credit for right now.

Yea it’s three 1-0s, but I don’t think the intention is to grind out that result. We could have had more today - Dele missed a very clear chance. Berg missed a very clear chance against City. In time I think the Wolves result will come to be seen as the good win it was because when their luck changes they will cause a lot of teams problems.

It’s much different to Jose ball, which also I think was mischaracterised. When we needed to score, Jose teams throw men forward. But when defending, Jose teams sit back. Nuno teams are more controlled in all actions, with the ball there is structure, without it there is structure. But we are playing in the opposition half, we are finding spaces and showing good movement. I think goals will come.

There is a fair point on Dele. I think he’s adjusting to his new role which is defending more, so he just has to get used to when he needs to play it safer and when he can use his instinctive touches to create chances. I think they will come too. But I think Watford will cause teams trouble as I do Wolves. There will be some bad teams this season, and I don’t think we’ve played them yet. Our opposition has been well coached and up for it, we’ve just been better.

Not to say we are the finished article, but I don’t think good teams in this league just rattle off chance after chance against other good, well coached teams. I think you have the control the game, and that is what we have done. We imposed our will on Watford and we did against City too. Wolves we had to dig in but we were away against a top 10 side.

I’m really happy with how we look. I’d encourage people to see where this goes, I’m really confident we have another gear to click into but the signs we are seeing right now are really, really good. We look well coached, and the team looks like they are totally bought in and confident in the plan. I would dearly love to know what happened in the second half of last season, because for the first half of the year they looked confident in the plan too, and then they just looked shot. Now I think the plan more easily suits the players we have and can get, and I think Jose’s style of expecting players to take responsibility doesn’t work with the ones that still need a lot of coaching. I’d say Dier / Sanchez / Japh / Skipp / Berg all need that coaching and focus on shape, and they’ll be better for it.
 
I thought we were better against Watford than we against Wolves. (Obviously against City we were immense). Nuno is starting slowly but surely and we can't forget the clusterfcuk he inherited. By throwing Skipp into midfield we've become twice as solid when we haven't got the ball. Hugo hasn't had to make many saves this season. Once our front four click, which we know they can, we will be a different beast. MOTM for me was Hojbjerg, he was everywhere and has clearly allowed Skipp to find his feet quickly.
 
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