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*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur FC v Brentford FC ***

Bullet said:
I'm still frustrated at Frank's use of subs. He waits far too long, several players blowing out their arses in the red zone, then the subs get 10 minutes which is pretty crap for them too after a week of training.

And it is bizarre to use only 4 subs, why not give a run out to one of Bergvall, Johnson, Tel? For one of Xavi/ Richie/ Gray? I guess Frank feels they were all vital and playing well, but Richie in particular was so deep into his red zone he'd gone into the crimson, then purple, then was edging into the violet.
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Feels good to post here only after we win, for a change. ;)

Can't ask for much more than that, really. The keys to our success, I thought, we threefold - two of them seemed a result of system changes, and the third was just luck.

1. We started a couple of yards higher up, in terms of pressing. Even though we ran about the same amount of miles as Brentford did, the result was that we looked a lot more aggressive in the duels - faster to the ball, faster to snap into challenges, and much quicker when closing down passing options. This absolutely strangled Brentford's buildup, as typified by Damsgaard being anonymous all game.

2. We had a pretty good buildup, courtesy of Gray. Simons will get a lot of the plaudits for a good performance today (as he should), but to me, Gray really stood out in his role as an 8. Constantly linking play, showing for the ball, dropping in to help create overloads, and helping us play our way through Brentford's press in a way that a Bentinha pivot could not have managed by themselves. I feel like he gets a bit overawed as a 6 - as of now, he doesn't have the build or the tactical discipline for it. But as an 8, linking play, he really impressed me today.

3. The ball broke our way on a lot of duels. Having said the above, it's also a game of fine margins - and today I felt like the ball fell kindly for us a lot, like on those last-ditch challenges on Thiago by VdV and Romero, or the instances where it kindly fell to a Spurs shirt in midfield to get us away on the counter. Part of it could be our better starting positions, but also there's an element of luck there it's important to acknowledge.

On the whole, I wasn't too discouraged even during the slump we've gone through. A lot of football boils down to confidence, and it's clear we didn't have much in us up until recently. But as I've said, I've seen what Frank is trying to do, and I don't mind it - the patterns are there, if not the execution. Hopefully we get a few more wins under our belt and the confidence sets in, which should help him get there faster.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Feels good to post here only after we win, for a change. ;)

Can't ask for much more than that, really. The keys to our success, I thought, we threefold - two of them seemed a result of system changes, and the third was just luck.

1. We started a couple of yards higher up, in terms of pressing. Even though we ran about the same amount of miles as Brentford did, the result was that we looked a lot more aggressive in the duels - faster to the ball, faster to snap into challenges, and much quicker when closing down passing options. This absolutely strangled Brentford's buildup, as typified by Damsgaard being anonymous all game.

2. We had a pretty good buildup, courtesy of Gray. Simons will get a lot of the plaudits for a good performance today (as he should), but to me, Gray really stood out in his role as an 8. Constantly linking play, showing for the ball, dropping in to help create overloads, and helping us play our way through Brentford's press in a way that a Bentinha pivot could not have managed by themselves. I feel like he gets a bit overawed as a 6 - as of now, he doesn't have the build or the tactical discipline for it. But as an 8, linking play, he really impressed me today.

3. The ball broke our way on a lot of duels. Having said the above, it's also a game of fine margins - and today I felt like the ball fell kindly for us a lot, like on those last-ditch challenges on Thiago by VdV and Romero, or the instances where it kindly fell to a Spurs shirt in midfield to get us away on the counter. Part of it could be our better starting positions, but also there's an element of luck there it's important to acknowledge.

On the whole, I wasn't too discouraged even during the slump we've gone through. A lot of football boils down to confidence, and it's clear we didn't have much in us up until recently. But as I've said, I've seen what Frank is trying to do, and I don't mind it - the patterns are there, if not the execution. Hopefully we get a few more wins under our belt and the confidence sets in, which should help him get there faster.
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Nice to see you back
 
Also, big props to Simons for finally learning to power through the initial moments of being dispossessed, as opposed to crumpling to the ground and looking for a free kick that usually doesn't come.

It's the Premier League - physicality is higher here than anywhere else, and part of bedding in is learning to ride tackles and keep pushing even when you've been outmuscled initially, so you can win that next header or challenge, or drive past that player when the ball comes back to you.

Glad he's learning to do this - his goal was entirely down to this tenacity, to get back up and keep going after initially being disposessed. :)
 
DubaiSpur said:
Feels good to post here only after we win, for a change. ;)

Can't ask for much more than that, really. The keys to our success, I thought, we threefold - two of them seemed a result of system changes, and the third was just luck.

1. We started a couple of yards higher up, in terms of pressing. Even though we ran about the same amount of miles as Brentford did, the result was that we looked a lot more aggressive in the duels - faster to the ball, faster to snap into challenges, and much quicker when closing down passing options. This absolutely strangled Brentford's buildup, as typified by Damsgaard being anonymous all game.

2. We had a pretty good buildup, courtesy of Gray. Simons will get a lot of the plaudits for a good performance today (as he should), but to me, Gray really stood out in his role as an 8. Constantly linking play, showing for the ball, dropping in to help create overloads, and helping us play our way through Brentford's press in a way that a Bentinha pivot could not have managed by themselves. I feel like he gets a bit overawed as a 6 - as of now, he doesn't have the build or the tactical discipline for it. But as an 8, linking play, he really impressed me today.

3. The ball broke our way on a lot of duels. Having said the above, it's also a game of fine margins - and today I felt like the ball fell kindly for us a lot, like on those last-ditch challenges on Thiago by VdV and Romero, or the instances where it kindly fell to a Spurs shirt in midfield to get us away on the counter. Part of it could be our better starting positions, but also there's an element of luck there it's important to acknowledge.

On the whole, I wasn't too discouraged even during the slump we've gone through. A lot of football boils down to confidence, and it's clear we didn't have much in us up until recently. But as I've said, I've seen what Frank is trying to do, and I don't mind it - the patterns are there, if not the execution. Hopefully we get a few more wins under our belt and the confidence sets in, which should help him get there faster.
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I was actually going to make a point on duels, I thought it was waaaaaaay better today. Maybe it was luck, but I do wonder if there’s been some coaching focus on that in the last week.

Like…it wasn’t as if players were inherently stronger than Brentford’s. And it wasn’t like we were busting into outrageously hard tackles. But I think all of our players were using their body in really smart ways. So perhaps we were creating our own luck,

Otherwise, a really good, complete performance. I’m a little confused as to why we couldn’t have seen this in other home games save for Burnley, but I’ll take it. I think really simply it just looked like there was intent to counter when we won possession. And it wasn’t only playing for crosses. Maybe there was the sense that this was a must win game and we dialled up the intensity. Regardless of what it was, here’s hoping this week represents the turning point and the upswing.
 
Good overall game and a welcome result.

Kudus my MOM but special mentions to Xavi, DJ and Gray.

Let's not get too excited by one result but we looked more solid, appeared to have been playing further up the pitch and we were more compact in midfield as a result.

Brentford were poor, but I think they played as well as we allowed them to.

COYS!
 
It was just night and day compared to what we’ve seen recently.
I don’t know what was behind it but we were confident in attack, fluid in passing, had more movement up front (though that still needs work).
Admittedly it’s a bit of a low bar in terms of comparisons with previous performances but there were certainly many more “up out of seat” instances today.
Still need to do it against a good team though. But very promising.
 
As much as I've been pushing for patience re Frank i wont get too excited over todays performance as i think Brentford were really quite poor, especially wrt standing off our midfielders. If everyone gave us time and space on the ball we'd have looked better in previous matches too. Today was encouraging, but we need to see how we cope when the opposition are battling more - i have reservations about our options for a CM2 and the ability to handle that, i liked what I saw from Gray and would like to see how he fares in this setup against a team more on it
 
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