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Tottenham Hotspur v Sheffield Utd League cup semi Final first leg

and thats a shame. theyre no mugs and we saw that. well organised and hoping to nick a goal. Some people just saw "league one side" and thought we should win as if football is played on paper or a game of FIFA. To get a win with a slightly weakened team against a team that played well, having the advantage going into the second leg which benefits us is a good thing. Was I happy with the performance? no. Did I expect to batter them? no. Did I expect a win? Yes, so im happy.

We don't batter anyone these days so I'm not entirely sure why anyone thought it would be comfortable. We got outplayed by Palace TWICE and Leicester FFS!
 
and thats a shame. theyre no mugs and we saw that. well organised and hoping to nick a goal. Some people just saw "league one side" and thought we should win as if football is played on paper or a game of FIFA. To get a win with a slightly weakened team against a team that played well, having the advantage going into the second leg which benefits us is a good thing. Was I happy with the performance? no. Did I expect to batter them? no. Did I expect a win? Yes, so im happy.

We don't batter anyone these days so I'm not entirely sure why anyone thought it would be comfortable. We got outplayed by Palace TWICE and Leicester FFS!
 
I thought we would win by more, about 10 minutes in you could see how well drilled and organised they were. Should be higher than 7th in League 1 wonder about them mentally that they perform better against bigger teams. But havent seen enough of them to comment.

There are very few teams that can pick apart a team that are setup to have 11 men behind the ball. Same at international level now as well, these players arent mugs, the manager is Nigel Clough not some bloke from non-league who hasnt played at a high level.

The balance between defence and attack under poch does seem much better, far less worried we will get picked off on the break, or lose 3 in 5mins (burnley apart).

The reason we were better away from home early on is that the players were given more patience. Now we have won so many late on i think they are getting that more at home as well.
We were not as crisp tonight, however i am 99% sure that if sheff utd had opened up we would have won by 3
 
So not one single criticism of Poch, which was obviously what I was expecting. But thanks for answering the questions mate.




To be fair, he listed plenty of things which arent well with us.

I would PERSONALLY have liked to see Lennon on second-half, Townshend on the left to whip the ball in around the back, Nobby on for Ade earlier and a shift to classic 4-4-2 at least for the last 30 minutes of the game when Sheff Utd were tiring and we clearly could've got around the back of them and hopefully hammered them even harder ( a League One formation for a tiring League One side...I think generally-speaking, 4-4-2 is a dead end).

PERSONALLY, that last 30 would've seen (for me)

Lennon Paulinho Stambouli Townsend

Kane Nobby

I'd have given Eriksen a rest.

But that's me. I'm not the manager. And we got the win. To my eye, Poch knows what he wants and how he wants to get it. he doesn't change shape very often and is (IMO) waiting for more speed in wide positions (I still think we could yet see Yedlin developed to play further up the pitch). If you want to count that as criticism, go ahead.
 
This place is hilarious, a few weeks back there was a discussion on Kane where people were being lambasted for suggesting he should play up too because 'He's obviously a number 10'. Now Poch is being criticised for not playing him up top. You couldn't make it up.

****e performance, I Davies in particular was awful, Sheffield United played well. I mentioned in work today that if they come to defend in 2 banks of 4 and maybe sneak a draw or 1-0 we would struggle, and unfortunately I was right.

Should really still be heading to Wembley, but we're still Spurs, it can still be f*cked up.
 
Stuck 5 and 4 past Chelsea and Saudi Sportswashing Machine so swings and roundabouts. If we were cleaning up in the games we've struggled to perform in (home to lower teams) we'd probably be right up Chelsea and Cities arses - so ask yourself is that the marker we're setting for the team this season? If not then perhaps where we are is and the inconsitent results are a sign of a work in progress...
 
I'm glad we won and didn't let in an away goal. If we score 1 a their place, they'd need 3 to knock us out, so that bodes well.

We didn't play well enough in attack though. Eriksen, Kane, Adebayor and Townsend didn't win individual battles where it counts. Somewhere along the line, an attacker has to show that moment of quality and skill that unlocks a team who are focused on defending.
 
Am I missing something?

Spurs won and kept a clean sheet into the bargain.

Sets us up very nicely for the second leg.

Leicester City up next in the FA Cup.

Onwards & upwards!
 
My thoughts on tonight and of the season in general I guess;

Why do we have so many defenders who take so many chances in our final third and make so many brainfarts? Are we actually working in defending during training sessions? I would like to know why we take as many unnecessary risks as we do.

Tonight wasn't so bad, but why does every team we play create more chances than us and look more threatening going forward ane better defensively than us?

Our squad is very weak at the moment. We like to mock Liverpool on this forum, but they are only one win behind us in the league and they've missed their best player all season. Where would we be without Eriksen or Kane injured for half a season? Too many mediocre/crap players; Paulinho, Chiriches, Fazio, Davies, Townsend, Adebayor etc. We need a new centre half, a centre forward and a winger at the minimum. Poch's hands are tied to an extent until we sign better players.

I predicted 2-1 before the game as we don't beat anybody convincingly, except QPR. I still reckon we will go through and actually think we will win the 2nd leg, but a LOT better is required if we are to hopefully win the trophy and finish in the top 6.
 
I think it's just a culmination of people becoming frustrated with how much work we have made of teams that park the bus. Tonight was very much like some of the early EL games.
 
My thoughts on tonight and of the season in general I guess;

Why do we have so many defenders who take so many chances in our final third and make so many brainfarts? Are we actually working in defending during training sessions? I would like to know why we take as many unnecessary risks as we do.

Tonight wasn't so bad, but why does every team we play create more chances than us and look more threatening going forward ane better defensively than us?

Our squad is very weak at the moment. We like to mock Liverpool on this forum, but they are only one win behind us in the league and they've missed their best player all season. Where would we be without Eriksen or Kane injured for half a season? Too many mediocre/crap players; Paulinho, Chiriches, Fazio, Davies, Townsend, Adebayor etc. We need a new centre half, a centre forward and a winger at the minimum. Poch's hands are tied to an extent until we sign better players.

I predicted 2-1 before the game as we don't beat anybody convincingly, except QPR. I still reckon we will go through and actually think we will win the 2nd leg, but a LOT better is required if we are to hopefully win the trophy and finish in the top 6.

And Chel53a

Edit: Just that little bit slow
 
I think it's just a culmination of people becoming frustrated with how much work we have made of teams that park the bus. Tonight was very much like some of the early EL games.

Yep, pretty much every EL away game is like watching paint dry. Tonight was similar.
 
Such a shame to see the same old negativity trotted out...'not good enough'...'should be opening up'...'failing to get it done'...'things aren't right'...no context, no consideration, no scope, no overall perspective.

Still, whatever makes people 'happy' I suppose.

Some of it is negative. I happen to think it's realism more than negativity for the most part to be truthful. I think a lot of people just realise we've gone backwards in the last two seasons and most don't enjoy the football.
 
I haven't seen anyone offering "context and factual balance" to my arguments. I have seen Mumorn saying: "did we we draw or lose or did we win?" and "a win is a win". Hardly the most convincing of arguments.

I think I have stated quite clearly what I don't think is well in my original post. I don't need to repeat myself.

Here you are then.

1) The manager came in asking for specific players. He got none of them.
2) The manager has had to deal with a long-standing issue of dressing room hierarchy and a 'relaxed' mentality, neither of which are what he is about. That has taken the better part of 6 months to correct.
3) He would happily move on at least 7 of the current first-team squad, but due to previous 'high-wages' we are finding it hard to get people to buy these players. it isn't just the fee you ask, it's the wages they are on. This bottles up the squad in terms of what he really wants versus who he has.
4) He is determined to build a young side. It is why you have seen Mason and Bentaleb as the central midfield, and it is why Kane has been chosen above all upfront. It is why you saw Onuha make his debut last week and why a couple more will be seen in the first team squad before the season is done.
5) He has several players out right now for a variety of reasons.
6) Given that he is trying to work on systems and trying to put into place a lot of preparation, three games a week for X amount of weeks/months does not give him or the squad an ideal amount of time to work on things.
7) If you cannot see that he has absolutely tightened us up at the back, improved our focus over 95 minutes and instilled a late winning mentality in our play, then I would suggest you are extremely biased. It is undeniable.
8) Where he, and we, are suffering right now, is with lack of pace. We need more of it. He knows it and wants it.
9) Pochettino joined us in June. 8 months ago. As of now, despite having to go through all the work described above, we are still in three cup competitions and within touching distance of the top 4 (I don't think we will get it BTW).
I think when you balance the facts and put things into context (who, exactly, has he bought for any REAL money that he actually wanted?) it is hard to criticize him.
 
Why did the center back panic? What results are relevant to your arguments? Can we count our league position, our placement in the Europa, our LC semi-final first-leg lead or our impending 4th round FA Cup tie as relevant to your argument? I am just trying to gauge the rules here ;-)
Why the center back panicked I don't know. There was no need to as Soldado would never have got to the ball. It was a good pass by Vertonghen and a good run by Soldado, though. But you would expect us to threaten their goal a few times during the game.

Honestly, are you happy with the way we have performed in the majority of our games this season? Have you watched us play and thought: "we are really onto something here"? Do you see any improvement in our performances compared to last season, bar perhaps in games against the top teams?

Our results haven't been awful, but we've been lucky in a lot of games. We have put in mediocre/poor performances and been rewarded with more than we deserved.

West Brom at home
Saudi Sportswashing Machine at home
Palace at home
Villa away
Hull away
Leicester away
Palace away

All games where we have been very poor indeed. We hardly ever look like we are a better team than our opponents, no matter who we play.

I think we played well against a very poor QPR side.
We were good away to Sunderland.
We were good in end-to-end matches against Everton and Chelsea.
We weren't spectacular against Southampton, but they are a good team, so that was a good result.
Arsenal away was a professional and solid performance.
Swansea away was a great result, but I am not sure we can say we deserved it.

The trend seems to be that we are poor in games where you'd expect us to have a bit more quality than our opponents, and that comes down to what I said in my original past. We seem to lack a collective plan in our attacking play.
 
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