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

[Baleforce]

But it's just reality mate. If Romero had complained more, if the team had reacted more, or if Romero had hit the deck when shoved, that goal would have been disallowed.

But Postecoglou himself said, multiple times, he doesn't like players making a meal of things and trying to influence the ref that way. I don't doubt that this, among other things, is why we just shrugged and looked to the ref hoping he'd disallow it, and he obviously didn't because there wasn't a strong enough reaction there. Just like when Vicario was bullied last season - we didn't react enough to get that called off, and we didn't again today.

It's a quixotic belief to think that you can ignore the dark arts and just outplay the opposition and somehow it works out.

I agree with the wider point, but I’d much rather Romero just go up and win the header as well.

 

[Danishfurniturelover]

Was my first north London Derby for 15 years.

Bit tinkled off, not a season ticket holder and have not been for years.

I don't think we are a very good team and I think we will struggle into 10 to 12th this season.

 

[SpurMeUp]

We’re work in progress. Who knew?

Once we didn’t take the lead in the first 15 you could feel the game waning. By 40 mins we’d let them take control. Up until then we were at least controlling the game.

Wanted us to play some cutbacks to the corner of the box, as well as make pretty predictable crosses. Son was free in that corner for a cut back and Poro at times too. We needed a bit more cute (coordinated) attacking play to unlocked them, but had chances. Mainly from pressing (Solanke needed to get a shot away), but also openings for Johnson.

We weren’t well beaten. We’re still developing. Solankes first home game. And the goons are one of the top sides. Romero should have dived to the floor and appealed the push for their goal.

Whilst the same issues remain (not clinical in either box) we are getting incrementally better. We asked more questions in attack and only f.ed the one goal, and there was a clever subtle push.

In attack, we need more from players. There is trepidation in our front line. Whether Solanke taking too long and too many touches or Johnson’s fragile confidence. I was heartened by our first half performance. Miffed we didn’t score when we had them floundering.

 

[thfcsteff]

He's not a good lone striker. But Postecoglou has not yet tried to pair him with a physically dominant striker to see what he can do, and to me it's baffling because that is the role he excelled in when playing with Harry.

But, of course, that would mean a change in formation to play him with another forward in Richy/Solanke. And of course, Postecoglou doesn't change his system, even if it means fitting square pegs into round holes like having your wing-backs play inside (and offer zero threat), while one of the greatest goalscorers in the Premier League era is relegated to being a bog-standard wide man for zero reason.

A good manager finds the system that best suits his team. A mediocre manager settles on a system and then tries to twist the players to fit it.

Agree on how we're playing Sonny versus when he's been most effective. In this current system, he needs very very quick service, or else it all breaks down. But yes, with a dovetail/as part of one, he'd still be excellent.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Solankes all round game was impressive I thought. His hesitation to bang the ball into the back of the net when presented with the ball hugely disappointing. A top forward needs to be ready to take one touch and hit the corner of the net rapidly - from that range.

Everything else in his game was positive however.

 

[markysimmo]

Saka winning headers over our LB was the final straw for me

 

[stratnumberone]

Was my first north London Derby for 15 years.

Bit tinkled off, not a season ticket holder and have not been for years.

I don't think we are a very good team and I think we will struggle into 10 to 12th this season.

I think you’re right. I think a lot of us are convincing ourselves that we are better than we are. As I said earlier in the thread, I see zero positives from the game today. I thought we were very, very poor and showed many of the hallmarks of Team Ange 2024 so far. Most noticeably lots of possession with no end product and conceding a cheap goal.

I really really hope I’m desperately wrong but I can’t help the growing feeling that he’s out of his depth. I don’t think we have progressed for 6-8 months (actually I think we have regressed since last autumn). Worst of all, whatever coaching is happening on the training pitch isn’t fixing the problems we are experiencing every single match day.

Arsenal are indeed one of the better teams in the league but they were missing arguably their two most influential players and we were at home. After about the first 20 mins I don’t think we looked like scoring. Neither did they. However, we all know that it’s irrelevant if an opponent looks like scoring against us because Ange’s team will always offer up a freebie. All they had to do was stay in the game (which they did, comfortably) and then accept their gift (which they did) and walk away with yet another three points from Tottenham. We offered next to nothing. It was embarrassing.

 

[SpurMeUp]

One thing we are often culpable of: is a lack of movement. When chasing the game we improved. But we are not dragging defenders around or opening spaces enough in many phases: playing out and when in the final third.

We also tend to not take quick set pieces. Rarely do we take a quick throw in, or goal kick, preferring to get into a formation. Also the goon clams tracked us effectively, but would like us to show more confidence to play out quicker.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Just the highlights on sky

Few observations

That’s a red for Timber. Yellow for the foul, yellow for the grab on Vicario. Not sure that was missed

Romero was so weak on the corner but there is no way their defence would let the ref not give a foul if that was them. Their man would hit the deck and scream murder

Saw the Timber one during the game. If Vic is getting a yellow for running up to timber with no physical contact, the ref MUST dish out a second yellow for grabbing his shirt with both hands aggressively. Made no sense. Ref ducked it.

Romero really missed a trick. It wasn’t a sure VAR overturn but two hands in the back pushing him away - it’s a 50-50 decision for them to make - if we make a lot out of it. Why Romero didn’t register is bemusing. For a poster to suggest he didn’t appeal because of Postecoglou is utter nonsense as well.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Saw the Timber one during the game. If Vic is getting a yellow for running up to timber with no physical contact, the ref MUST dish out a second yellow for grabbing his shirt with both hands aggressively. Made no sense. Ref ducked it.

Romero really missed a trick. It wasn’t a sure VAR overturn but two hands in the back pushing him away - it’s a 50-50 decision for them to make - if we make a lot out of it. Why Romero didn’t register is bemusing. For a poster to suggest he didn’t appeal because of Postecoglou is utter nonsense as well.

The shirt grab was a Yellow for both men
The foul was a yellow
Can’t see how it was missed

 

[Bedfordspurs]

One thing we are often culpable of: is a lack of movement. When chasing the game we improved. But we are not dragging defenders around or opening spaces enough in many phases: playing out and when in the final third.

We also tend to not take quick set pieces. Rarely do we take a quick throw in, or goal kick, preferring to get into a formation. Also the goon clams tracked us effectively, but would like us to show more confidence to play out quicker.

We move quicker when the pressure is on
When we’re in “command mode” it’s fudging draining its that slow

 

[spurspinter1]

We couldn’t get through as they are well organised, so attempted some crosses which were abysmal.

One thing I’m scratching my head about is the Odobert signing. Not saying I don’t rate him or he won’t come good but we had 2 for the left and 2 for the right.

His end product looks very questionable to me - so will be interesting to see what data was used to spend 30m.

Bergval and Gray not deemed good enough for minutes today - what was the point of those signings. Just for the manager after Ange?

All very confusing to me.

Edit: Just to add. The players just don’t look good enough, and when you lose when you’re the better team (Leic/Newc) it doesn’t give you any margin on games like today. It’s a bad recipe when you’re losing both.

Odobert makes sense to me as he can beat a man with the ball. The plan only issue is placing so much importance on the young player making a step up plus Johnson looking a bit meh so far this season doesn't help.

We do look brick though, apart from Solanke the team looks pretty much the same as last seasons with the same problems. There doesn't seem to be the quality required to get the best out of the young signings and if we're picking up a point a game it's not going to be a particularly positive environment for them either.

I would say it's a bit much to be asking what the point of certain transfers 4 games in to their career though, calls for patience are occasionally annoying but probably fair enough in this situation!

 

[Surfless]

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.

 

[SpurMeUp]

The shirt grab was a Yellow for both men
The foul was a yellow
Can’t see how it was missed

I didn’t think Vic even touched him? Maybe he did. But not to give a yellow for Timber when practically stars a fight, and Viccario gets a yellow for barely touching the man, didn’t seem right.

 

[Daisuk]

So, for someone who didn’t watch the game (thank GHod) and don’t want to watch the highlights - anyone with a summary of the game? Was it really all bad?

 

[Jurgen the German]

Solank will be fine
We can even use him for long balls which We never do… but are useful
But we need two players whipping crosses in
So far we have seen Johnson do sometimes
Werner did it today
Son did it first half vs everton
That’s it
It all fails there and Ange has to fix that
He can fix some of it with faster progression up the pitch which means doing something with the players who keep it safe.. Romero and Maddison

We need them to do it consistently and I fear they will won’t be able to do it. We need better players IMO. Not just the forwards but they are the main area of concern for me, we need more creativity as Maddison just isn’t cutting it since he returned from injury.

 

[SpurMeUp]

So, for someone who didn’t watch the game (thank GHod) and don’t want to watch the highlights - anyone with a summary of the game? Was it really all bad?

Frustrating. Same kind of loss we’ve seen before. We dominate long spells but don’t penetrate or finish, and leak a relatively simple goal. So take the performance as you wish:

- we’re work in progress and slowly getting better (better attacking chances with Solanke and only one mistake defending)

Or

- we’re consistently not making the most of attacks and conceding simple goals.


Both are true imo

 

[Surfless]

So, for someone who didn’t watch the game (thank GHod) and don’t want to watch the highlights - anyone with a summary of the game? Was it really all bad?

we had more possession, more shots, more shots on target, more shots blocked, and they scored from a corner where Romero got knocked out of position and lost Gabriel.

Neither keeper was tested enough, and the defensive structure Arsenal imposed made for a tough time to break them down.

 

[glasgowspur]

So, for someone who didn’t watch the game (thank GHod) and don’t want to watch the highlights - anyone with a summary of the game? Was it really all bad?

No, arsenal came to smother the game and succeeded.
I didn't see it but I'd gather that this game was similar to the one Arteta got pelters for at City towards the end of last season where he made little attempt to win.
Only difference was a set piece goal.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

We need them to do it consistently and I fear they will won’t be able to do it. We need better players IMO. Not just the forwards but they are the main area of concern for me, we need more creativity as Maddison just isn’t cutting it since he returned from injury.

We need everyone to be better
Maddison is worryingly spending too much time doing a Poor man Scott parker
Hands like today show me why son isn’t a winger
Romero again just switched off at the wrong time (de ja vu)
They are senior players
They are the leaders apparently
But I never seen leadership
The rest are all still players who can go and up and down but some are also developing
Ange has big, brave calls to make