veryoldspur
Kevin Scott
Beating Liverpool at home is a very different thing to winning away. Liverpool are my most hated club for a few reasons, but I fear the worst
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Welcome Ange: To Dare is to Didgeridoo
- Thread starter tommysvr
- Start date
IulianSteaua
Didier Zokora
We don't need to win away. We can also lose and go through on penalties.
veryoldspur
Kevin Scott
LOL clutching at straws. Hope you are right, but I think we will be out of it by half time
IulianSteaua
Didier Zokora
Look mate. We got ourselves în a decent position. It's only half time of course but anything can happen.
indospurs
Young-Pyo Lee
I was at the Liverpool game, I was really impressed by how composed we were at the back. However, it'll be vastly and completely different at Anfield imho, so will the outcome.
Tonight was an important win, good to see Lolo back and Son scoring. Son is our captain, a loyal player and anyone having a go at him are spineless and so unthankful, they can do one. Levy and recruitment going for werner in the summer is not on him. Odobert being injured is not on him. Sonny must be knackered with no rotation atm.
Ange's tactics are fine, the number of games and demands on players isn't imho and then international breaks, it's downright ludicrous. But our backline coaching leaves sooo much to be desired, That's where the problem is for me.
Tonight was an important win, good to see Lolo back and Son scoring. Son is our captain, a loyal player and anyone having a go at him are spineless and so unthankful, they can do one. Levy and recruitment going for werner in the summer is not on him. Odobert being injured is not on him. Sonny must be knackered with no rotation atm.
Ange's tactics are fine, the number of games and demands on players isn't imho and then international breaks, it's downright ludicrous. But our backline coaching leaves sooo much to be desired, That's where the problem is for me.
veryoldspur
Kevin Scott
In actual fact I ask myself "do we have back line coaching". I sometimes imagine the players asking guidance on defensive tactics, and Ange just saying "don't worry about that guys, just score more goals than them". That's great in theory, unfortunately it rarely works in practice
braineclipse
Terry Dyson
I think a lot of the backline issues are a result of fatigue in the squad leading to problems with our pressing and intensity/aggression in midfield and the front line.
If course being without a lot of key players defensively doesn't hurt either.
Our defensive record was quite decent before the injuries really took their toll.
Silly McSilly Face
Ilie Dumitrescu
We need Van der Ven's pace to cover behind our aggressive pushing up and high line. When VDV isn't there, a simple ball cuts us open too easily. It's not just that he can recover a situation quickly, it's the fact that once he's swept up in that manner a couple of times early on, the opposition stop trying to do it...its a psychological thing in the opponent knowing you'll never beat him for pace.
braineclipse
Terry Dyson
Fully agreed. And similar for Romero. His ability both to push up aggressively when we press and defensive ability one vs one when we get into trouble is a big miss.
It's almost like our two clear cut first choice centre backs are quite a bit better for us in this system than our other centre backs.
tommysvr
Dean Richards
Ange was a defender. I'm pretty confident that wouldn't be his answer.
Baleforce
Vinnie Samways
We’ve been conceding stupid goals all season.
I didn’t watch the game live yesterday, but wasn’t surprised to see where their goals and notable xG chances came from on the highlights.
Muttley
Jose Dominguez
Fatigue is one, players is two and tactics is three in my opinion. Not in any order.
Said this a lot, but would really like to get it back to just tactics. Then we can really see what this manager is all about. The more I watch, the more I see the defence is all about the defensive line. If you sprint back, you don't go past it, you join it. It pushes up very quickly, even to the half way line. These boys keep their nerve when their instinct is telling them to drop. They stay in their line and use the offside trap very well. It's just that nagging issue that sometimes they're so busy forming the line rather than marking players. It's interesting stuff.
veryoldspur
Kevin Scott
So why are we always so bad at it, even when we have a full squad?
Yiddo
Tom Huddlestone
Because he wasn’t a very good defender?
braineclipse
Terry Dyson
Because we weren't?
We had the 3rd-4th best defensive record in the league this season before our injuries started getting real bad iirc. Comparable to all of the top teams except Liverpool.
Stats on points gained with and without Romero and VdV playing have repeadly been posted and repeatedly showed a marked difference, this season and last.
NaijaSpurs
Les Ferdinand
I refuse to join the Ange out phalanx because I do not think he is the problem. Rather, our main problems lie higher up the management totem poll. Jose moved on, Nuno moved on and Conte moved on. Look where they are now.
If ever a manager needed support during a January transfer window it was this one but once again the powers that be are found wanting.
If ever a manager needed support during a January transfer window it was this one but once again the powers that be are found wanting.
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Bishop
Jimmy Neighbour
We undoubtedly had a better defensive record with the main two but more so because like you say their qualities fit the system better than the replacements however I would never say we had a good defensive structure. There was too much last ditch tackles, too many recovery runs from VDV too much defending on the back foot or defending our own goal. That's why we still conceded silly goals and had very few clean sheets. When the main guys are back we will improve but not to a level that's really good enough.
The switch ball from one wing to an overload FB will still be an ever present (the amount of goals we conceded to this tactic is ridiculous). Will the desire to play the offside trap repeatedly on the edge of our box go away? 18 months in and I'd have to say no.
Ultimately what will improve the defense and improve our goal concession numbers is an enhanced ability on the ball. Ange is never going to pilot a right defensive ship, we need controlled possession and goals and lots of them to kill the hopes of our opponents.
Muttley
Jose Dominguez
I guess the million dollar question is whether that relatively short term trend in the defensive stats can become a permanent thing? When we hopefully return to normal times (Mar-May), can we get back to that?
Right now our 35 goals over 22 games extrapolates to 60 goals conceded over a season. That makes it flat year on year. When the season ends, I'd love to see us finish on about 51 goals. That's a goal a game from now on. Then you know happy days will appear as we always score at least one.
Finney Is Back
Colin Calderwood
You're the first Spurs I've seen wanting us to lose in the Cup semi final. Very strange!
braineclipse
Terry Dyson
I think it quite clearly can. Underlying numbers (xG) were good over what is then a decent sample for xG, but still a small one for pure goals numbers. Same for the eye test for me.
For me the big questions are:
-Do/will we have a good enough squad to play like that with "normal" injuries and two games a week.
-How much of our injury problems are inherent to the system and methods
-Can Ange survive to see if it happens.