*** OMT: Mighty Spurs vs Scum ***

[Finney Is Back]

The most irritating thing for me is that Arsenal's goal shouldn't have stood. It wasn't a bloody failure of setpiece. It was a shocking decision. Two hands in the back of a defender and then blaming the opposing team for not complaining enough is silly.

That moment is why every other keeper in the PL comes to punch that cross delivered to the centre of our six yard box. Until we get ourselves a decent keeper we will concede goals to inswinging crosses with any fans blaming our defenders or the ref

 

[Kandi1977]

Angeball is average in the epl.

Too predictable. Easy defend and score against.

Because we play way too slow, and with too little movement. I'm 100% sure we're not supposed to play that slow for such long periods.

 

[Finney Is Back]

Defenders need to clear the space for Vicario if you want him coming out to collect that corner. There was no space for him to go anywhere because we let them all stand on top of us

He needs to clear space himself like any decent keeper does

 

[glasgowspur]

We neither have the pull to attract those sorts of players and neither does the club want to spend the funds required to pay the wages for those players.

The question here IMO is whether we want to do enough to stay around 4th to 6th place finishes for the next decade or so by signing a ‘big’ player or two wach window or build a talented, young squad that can perhaps really have a proper challenge in two or three years’ time?

I’d rather the latter. I think doing this perhaps risks missing out on Europe altogether but it is the only way for us to get to the summit. In 3 or 4 transfer window’s time we might then be at the point where we can just look for one really special first team player each summer window

On paper I don't think arsenal are that much better than us.
The two big differences are that they have had time to implement a system, buy players that are suitable and the players have bought into the system and are committed to it.
I don't think we have players that have committed to the system, maddison, Bentancur, son and Romero are playing a different game from Angeball.

 

[metalgear]

Sideways, backwards, sideways, backwards, slow passing, back, to the side, slow

BOORRRR-ING

You forgot the ultimate walking pace football at the back. I think it's some new tactic to bore the opposition into submission

 

[glasgowspur]

You forgot the ultimate walking pace football at the back. I think it's some new tactic to bore the opposition into submission

This time last year we were zipping the ball around like the harem globetrotters, drawing teams in and playing around them, where has that bravery gone?

 

[metalgear]

It’s predictable
It’s not easy to defend done well
We haven’t done it well
We have done it at a snails pace
It’s toxic when it’s like that as it builds up the opposition more and more

Pace is definitely 100% ange's responsibility and call. I only watch TV and get snippets of what happens on the touch line, but whenever it cuts to the bench I don't see ange urging the boys to play faster at all .

 

[metalgear]

For anyone interested (I know many aren’t);

We currently have an Xpts of 6.76. I’d say that’s about right - had we converted either Leic or Newc to wins then we would be on 6 or 7 points and today wouldn’t feel as bad.

The damage was done in those games imo.

We have the 3rd biggest descrepancy of any team in the league (actual vs Xpts) and easily the worst of any team from our position upwards. Saudi Sportswashing Machine for example have Xpts of less than 4, but they’ve massively over achieved in pretty much all of their games.

This stuff SHOULD even itself out, but it has to happen sooner rather than later.

Correct me if I'm wrong, i think the xpts ignores how many defenders are between the ball and the goal.

The way we play, slow and predictable, we end up having a lot more defenders in the six yard box than other teams. So that high quality chance isn't easy to put away.

Saudi Sportswashing Machine winning goal 2 v2
We lament not being sharp in front of goal when there are double th defenders in the box compared to strikers.

 

[metalgear]

Because we play way too slow, and with too little movement. I'm 100% sure we're not supposed to play that slow for such long periods.

Some needs to ask ange if it's his instructions or the players not following

 

[glorygloryeze]

I don’t think they actually do. They just put it on in front of others.

As with a lot of popular cultural slang ways of speaking, some will, many do it naturally

Whether put on or not I hear that kind of chat all the time around London.

Yep, it's a reflection of London's cultural mix and links to the Caribbean, where some of the slang is linked to what will often be spoken by some on those Islands. On 'the streets' there's an element of it being 'cool' - a bit like some of the slang way of speaking in Glasgow or Belfast..

Oh yeah, it happens, but like someone pointed out above, no way they talk like that in front of their mum.

Sometimes the mums will speak like that even more!

All a bit of slang, in some circles it's cool, in others you look an idiot. But for the target SM market of those videos, it's 'being down with the kids innit'

Anyway, back to the depression of yesterdays' game..

 

[Legohamster]

Sideways, backwards, sideways, backwards, slow passing, back, to the side, slow

BOORRRR-ING

Must admit, I'm struggling with the idea this is apparently entertaining

 

[glorygloryeze]

It was indeed like some of the way we played in the latter part of AVB's time: i got mad at how slow we were to get the ball forward in the few times when Arsenal had pushed up and had defenders out of their normal very disciplined positions: Johnson or Solanke in space but people like Romero, Son or Maddison hogging the ball and then passing (if they even did) far too late and then the Arsenal defence was back set in their solid formations. Grrr!

We can't afford to lose on Wednesday so i'd imagibe there'll be minimal changes to yesterday's line-up, but i'd drop Son, Maddison and Romero and bring in Dragusin (give Romero a rest seeing as he was so 'tired' after having to sort out his flight), Bergvall (he looks like he's quicker and has more physicality atm than Maddison, plus might actually take the ball forward or pass MUCH quicker) and Obebert who will actually take on a man.

Those i think will get some more solidity and thrust into the side. Keep the others, plus hopefully Bissouma will be available on the bench.

Well, one can only hope (it's all we've got atm)!

 

[glorygloryeze]

We neither have the pull to attract those sorts of players and neither does the club want to spend the funds required to pay the wages for those players.

We have a much pull as most apart from Emirates Marketing Project, Liverpool, Chelsea (at a stretch atm) and Man Utd. Arsenal have been more ambitous lately: remember how much ahead of them we were in league terms in the dying embers of Wenger and the few years after that? The fact they have overtaken us reecently isn't down to the fact they have more 'pull' than us...

The question here IMO is whether we want to do enough to stay around 4th to 6th place finishes for the next decade or so by signing a ‘big’ player or two wach window or build a talented, young squad that can perhaps really have a proper challenge in two or three years’ time?

I’d rather the latter. I think doing this perhaps risks missing out on Europe altogether but it is the only way for us to get to the summit. In 3 or 4 transfer window’s time we might then be at the point where we can just look for one really special first team player each summer window

These two questions really should have been made largely irrelevant when we moved into the new stadoum that everyone calls 'the best in the league' etc etc.
It comes down to lack of ambition and football know-how that we still have to have these two 'choices'.

We could have stayed at the old WHL if we just wanted to build a talented, young squad for two/three year's time.
That model is by far the most profitable though...

 

[glorygloryeze]

We’ve been sold this model for a long time. Never reaches fruition though.

Yes indeed. Very profitable though...going from 7/8th to 4/5th is more lucrative in terms of fan 'buy-in', sponsorship deals etc than going from 4/5th to challenging for the league...

Conte, Pochettino found that out....as did Redknapp, Jol etc

 

[metalgear]

Yes indeed. Very profitable though...going from 7/8th to 4/5th is more lucrative in terms of fan 'buy-in', sponsorship deals etc than going from 4/5th to challenging for the league...

Conte, Pochettino found that out....as did Redknapp, Jol etc

its the financial sweet spot for the football club.
just remember that levy has probably made more than a billion GBPs and is the highest paid chairman in the league.
the only ones suffering are the loyal fans who wish for a trophy

 

[SteveAWOL]

He showed more urgency than many other favoured players today

Werner and Johnson seem to perform well when they come off the bench but not so much when they start matches.

 

[DeanoAustin]

We’ve been sold this model for a long time. Never reaches fruition though.

This is the problem. When we had the new stadium, we had Kane and Son. Two generational talents and a great partnership. The problem is that by the time we sort out some of our other squad issues, one has left and the other is 32 and looks to be declining. It's like Mourinho said, we only have so much duvet and when we pull it up, our feet get exposed. Cover your feet and the rest of you is cold.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Werner and Johnson seem to perform well when they come off the bench but not so much when they start matches.

They do what Ange wants
No other wingers do
Yet…

 

[SpurMeUp]

That the margins are getting smaller, is both encouraging and deeply frustrating. Because we are starting to control games, doing 70% of what we are planning to, it is all the more disappointing when we don't convert and drop points. Getting closer to where we want to be is difficult when we don't make good on our improvement to take any points.

We need time, we need stability, and we need to keep building.

 

[Finney Is Back]

I do wonder about some people's tendency towards doom and gloom on here.

Its 4 games into the season, and we've had 63 shots on goal, 25 of which have been on target.

Anyone can see we're creating chances and not putting them away. Which is an issue, but if you want to have an issue then missing chances is better than not creating them. We were living on counter attack goals the season before last - now we're battering teams but not scoring (bar Everton).

Goals. Will. Come.

As for those saying we're not a very good team - we've beaten Arsenal, the Sky darlings and second coming of the Pep, on every metric you can find bar the result today. We stood toe to toe with them, and played our game, and for large parts of the game Arsenal couldn't live with it. Arsenal who are in their fifth season with Arteta, who joined them in Dec 2019, and who are in one of the veins of form of the last 20 years. If Solanki takes his chance in the first half, that could well have been a flood gates moment - and that is how we will be when the side clicks - we're going to smash teams by 4 and 5 to 1 or 2.

We can all berate the team for losing, we can moan about the manager being clueless, but if there's ever been a time to just hang in there as fans and let this team find its feet, then its now. We're not boring, we're not managed by a bellend with associations with another Prem team, and we have a squad that is rich in young players whose ceilings are really, really high.

I hate losing to Arsenal - it does my nut, but I am focussed on the bigger picture, and you play that game ten more times and we win it 9 times.

While I agree with much of what you say here, we dominated against Arsenal because their gameplan was to let us have the ball and try to play purely on the counterattack.

I don't think we do win that game 9 times out of 10. We didn't create many (if any) good chances and when you are as poor as we are at defending inswinging corners you are always likely to cough up a goal, especially against a team like Arsenal who are really well coached with their set pieces and execute them very well.