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***Tottenham Hotspur v Everton*** - OMT

really?

it's another game in Grealish's career, where he again registers no goals or assists against us
I'd love Grealish in my squad though - we had porro and johnson to mark him and they barely managed to get any balls off him. three or four occasions he dribbled past BOTH of them in quick succession. everton have a bunch of brutes pretending to be football players - all huff and puff but no finesse. except grealish, ndiaye and maybe prickford
 
Large part of the game we were poor but think at times there were signs of some good link up play, albeit it briefly. It’s a slow process but by making us hard to beat we will have a good foundation to build on.

Hope in weeks to come we can keep hold of the ball better
 
This game is the epitomization of why I found Ange's point-blank refusal to train set pieces so strange, and time has not lessened that opinion.

When you can't create much in open play, you need to shut up shop and try to eke out points - especially against similar sides that will try to turn everything into a battle, which sums up both us and Everton right now.

Immediately - *immediately* - the investment on set pieces is paying off, and we found ourselves 2-0 up without particularly playing well, followed by a lot of pretty comfortable defending against their own set-plays at the other end. And eventually, the third.

I can see what Frank is trying to do, and I trust that it will come off once he gets players back and maybe gets a couple more in that suit his vision. But in these early days, when everyone is struggling to fully click, it's his focus on the basics - set pieces, defending, keeping a shape - that will see him get the time needed to implement his more grandiose ideas.

Ange, much as I love him, never figured that out. Well done to Frank for doing so. :)

I think to exploit set pieces you need to have a physically big team. Arsenal not only have big players in the positions you’d expect them to but their full backs are tall, their central midfielders are tall, and it means their investment in set pieces is more likely to pay off. With Ange playing more nimble central midfielders and smaller full backs who can invert, it’s just different. It might be that a focus on set pieces would hinder us. By contrast I would say the Bentancur and Palinha central midfield pays off not in terms of a pretty possession game but in terms of set pieces and knock downs. That’s likely a big part of the reason for their selection together.

What I liked today other than the result was a little more innovation in possession. It’s not much, but the Kudus / Johnson overload on the right was an interesting adaptation to the game which likely kept Grealish busy coming back and made it easier to double up on him the other way with Johnson while retaining the Kudus out ball threat. It’s the kind of game specific adaptation that I understood to be Frank’s calling card.
 
Large part of the game we were poor but think at times there were signs of some good link up play, albeit it briefly. It’s a slow process but by making us hard to beat we will have a good foundation to build on.

Hope in weeks to come we can keep hold of the ball better
Much how I don't overly rate him, Solanke can hold the ball up and will make a massive difference In that regard
 
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