** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton ** Sunday 15 December 7pm.

[braineclipse]

Most boring second half I can remember in ages. Great stuff.

Difficult to say how good we were. Southampton were poor and we got several early goals. But we were at least good. Got some debuts and full debuts. Thought both Spence and Bergvall did well. Got some rotation and players rested.

Some great goals too.

For me a special mention for Sarr who I thought was excellent, particularly until the game was effectively over.

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

I know Maddison got 2 goals but I thought he was poor in second half, he looked like he was after a hat trick rather than control the game, it might have been told to get forward more but I think he left too much work for Sarr and Bergvail.

 

[braineclipse]

Something really satisfying about that win today. Been critical of Ange and his use of the squad in recent weeks but I liked his fight this week in the press conference and was happy too see some changes to line up today.

Southampton are clearly in a bad place but was a strong first half, a sensibly managed second and was really great to see young players like Dorrington and Lankshear joining Gray and Bergvall on the pitch at the end. Positive day for sure.

I'm happy to see him use the squad more too.

Think starting with the Roma game we've not rotated enough. But at the same time Ange seems to really value putting young players in with circumstances they can thrive in and not because we lack other options.

I respect that, particularly at a time of such trouble.

A month or so ago Bergvall was being talked about as someone who perhaps should be getting loaned out in January. Now he's started his first PL game and come through with a good performance and a win. I think Ange knows what he's doing with developing young players.

 

[Yiddo]

Joint third best defensive record in the league, second top goal scorers and the second best goal difference but currently 10th in the table. The most Tottenham thing you will see.

 

[Mr Gogolak]

Most boring second half I can remember in ages. Great stuff.

Difficult to say how good we were. Southampton were poor and we got several early goals. But we were at least good. Got some debuts and full debuts. Thought both Spence and Bergvall did well. Got some rotation and players rested.

Some great goals too.

For me a special mention for Sarr who I thought was excellent, particularly until the game was effectively over.

Everything went right this time and it's nice to see underutilised players having a good game but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've had quite a few 'statement wins' this season already and we're still looking for some consistency. Also, this Southampton team was the best opposition we could hope for: a weaker team that can't defend.

You can only beat the team you play against but I think ManUre will be a massive test. If we get through to the semis and if we continue to rotate the squad cleverly, then we may have turned a corner, regardless of what happens against Liverpool. We got the job done yesterday but I'm much more excited about the cup game on Thursday (first time in a long, long time...).

 

[Kompakted]

Nice win. Of course, we have consistently shown that when we come up against a side struggling for form, that aren't well organised or that are just having an off day that we can put them to the sword.

The challenge comes in being able to emerge victorious or get a point in a tough game against decent opposition that are at least organised or on top of their game.

So the test is whether we can now show something enough against Forest and Liverpool to show we've turned a corner in terms of consistency of performance at least even if we happen to lose both games given the injuries and fixture congestion.

Roll over and have our bellies tickled and any relief in doom and gloom brought about by last night's game will rapidly evaporate.

 

[braineclipse]

Everything went right this time and it's nice to see underutilised players having a good game but let's not get ahead of ourselves. We've had quite a few 'statement wins' this season already and we're still looking for some consistency. Also, this Southampton team was the best opposition we could hope for: a weaker team that can't defend.

You can only beat the team you play against but I think ManUre will be a massive test. If we get through to the semis and if we continue to rotate the squad cleverly, then we may have turned a corner, regardless of what happens against Liverpool. We got the job done yesterday but I'm much more excited about the cup game on Thursday (first time in a long, long time...).

For sure the cup game will be a massive test. We'll hopefully go into that game with a bit more confidence after this one, but an entirely different game.

To the extent that the Southampton game was a "test" of anything it was a test of things we already know the answers to.

 

[Muttley]

Nice win. Of course, we have consistently shown that when we come up against a side struggling for form, that aren't well organised or that are just having an off day that we can put them to the sword.

The challenge comes in being able to emerge victorious or get a point in a tough game against decent opposition that are at least organised or on top of their game.

So the test is whether we can now show something enough against Forest and Liverpool to show we've turned a corner in terms of consistency of performance at least even if we happen to lose both games given the injuries and fixture congestion.

Roll over and have our bellies tickled and any relief in doom and gloom brought about by last night's game will rapidly evaporate.

Yep, you can bet your bottom dollar that Nuno will have something to prove to the Spurs fans. We only really get Bissouma back as well so will not be stacked with players.

 

[harr1984]

Nice win. Of course, we have consistently shown that when we come up against a side struggling for form, that aren't well organised or that are just having an off day that we can put them to the sword.

The challenge comes in being able to emerge victorious or get a point in a tough game against decent opposition that are at least organised or on top of their game.

So the test is whether we can now show something enough against Forest and Liverpool to show we've turned a corner in terms of consistency of performance at least even if we happen to lose both games given the injuries and fixture congestion.

Roll over and have our bellies tickled and any relief in doom and gloom brought about by last night's game will rapidly evaporate.

Right, there's always excuses as to why we beat a team isn't there? Even beating Emirates Marketing Project 4-0 found people playing that down as if everyone has gone to their ground and done that. We have beat some good sides this season, drew with a good Fulham side after Europe when our squad is decimated but that was apparently awful. It's funny you mention Forest, had we played them a few weeks ago people would have said we should easily beat them blah blah the facts are there are no easy games and any win is a hard earned one. 'Useless' Southampton lost 3-2 to Liverpool so let's have it right, we were fudging good last night and it's a real talent that we are often capable of winning really well.

We haven't lost by more than one goal all season, and our defensive record is good yet apparently that is just down to luck and when we win games and by some margin it's just because the opposition is rubbish - people just want like a good old whinge about this team. Goal difference ends up usually being very telling and ours is ridiculous, it's extremely likely come the end of the season especially with more of the squad (hopefully) available we will be much higher in the table....

 

[Kompakted]

Right, there's always excuses as to why we beat a team isn't there? Even beating Emirates Marketing Project 4-0 found people playing that down as if everyone has gone to their ground and done that. We have beat some good sides this season, drew with a good Fulham side after Europe when our squad is decimated but that was apparently awful. It's funny you mention Forest, had we played them a few weeks ago people would have said we should easily beat them blah blah the facts are there are no easy games and any win is a hard earned one. 'Useless' Southampton lost 3-2 to Liverpool so let's have it right, we were fudging good last night and it's a real talent that we are often capable of winning really well.

We haven't lost by more than one goal all season, and our defensive record is good yet apparently that is just down to luck and when we win games and by some margin it's just because the opposition is rubbish - people just want like a good old whinge about this team. Goal difference ends up usually being very telling and ours is ridiculous, it's extremely likely come the end of the season especially with more of the squad (hopefully) available we will be much higher in the table....

While our defensive record is good in terms of numbers of goals conceded if you watch our games we always look stretched defensively and often give soft goals away and that is reflected in the number of losses we suffer. As we often dominate the ball we do limit the number of goals conceded due to this but there's been so many occasions where we have 60%+ possession, dominate the play and concede the winner on the break due to suicidal defending. Saudi Sportswashing Machine away set the tone early in the season. Dominate the ball, get an equaliser and push so far up pushing for the winner that one straight ball sends them clean through to score their winner.

 

[harr1984]

While our defensive record is good in terms of numbers of goals conceded if you watch our games we always look stretched defensively and often give soft goals away and that is reflected in the number of losses we suffer. As we often dominate the ball we do limit the number of goals conceded due to this but there's been so many occasions where we have 60%+ possession, dominate the play and concede the winner on the break due to suicidal defending. Saudi Sportswashing Machine away set the tone early in the season. Dominate the ball, get an equaliser and push so far up pushing for the winner that one straight ball sends them clean through to score their winner.

Yes we do often 'look' yet our xGA tells us we actually often aren't giving up the quality of chances that is being made out. It's fine margins, if the system was that bad we would lose matches by more than one goal - bigger teams would steam roll us but they don't. Our biggest problem is injuries, and yes there may well be a point to what Ange is doing being a part of that but that is now being analysed. If we find a solution for that then we will be in a much better place....

 

[Kompakted]

Yes we do often 'look' yet our xGA tells us we actually often aren't giving up the quality of chances that is being made out. It's fine margins, if the system was that bad we would lose matches by more than one goal - bigger teams would steam roll us but they don't. Our biggest problem is injuries, and yes there may well be a point to what Ange is doing being a part of that but that is now being analysed. If we find a solution for that then we will be in a much better place....

I disagree that our biggest problem is injuries. Out of all of our losses this season in 5 of them we put either our best XI out or minus x1 player. Against Bournemouth we had both of our 2nd choice centre backs playing but a very strong team otherwise that was more than capable in theory of overturning the one goal they scored if our overall play hadn't been so limp. Chelsea for me was down to very poor decisions made by regular first team players under defensive pressure so again not down to injuries. Injuries have become an excuse.

 

[Muttley]

I disagree that our biggest problem is injuries. Out of all of our losses this season in 5 of them we put either our best XI out or minus x1 player. Against Bournemouth we had both of our 2nd choice centre backs playing but a very strong team otherwise that was more than capable in theory of overturning the one goal they scored if our overall play hadn't been so limp. Chelsea for me was down to very poor decisions made by regular first team players under defensive pressure so again not down to injuries. Injuries have become an excuse.

It's probably one of those situations where there is no single root cause. We've had lots of individual errors, we've had lots of injuries and it's clear that the transition to this amount of games has been hard. I still believe that the tactical system throws up some problems as well.

I don't really see Ange over using any of these as excuses though. In fact, his narrative last week as that we're in a "battle". He is using all of those things to channel his players. He won't even talk about prospective changes like when asked about recalling Phillips. His answer was purely focused on the December games.

 

[Kompakted]

It's probably one of those situations where there is no single root cause. We've had lots of individual errors, we've had lots of injuries and it's clear that the transition to this amount of games has been hard. I still believe that the tactical system throws up some problems as well.

I don't really see Ange over using any of these as excuses though. In fact, his narrative last week as that we're in a "battle". He is using all of those things to channel his players. He won't even talk about prospective changes like when asked about recalling Phillips. His answer was purely focused on the December games.

I agree that our poor form is a combination of factors. I'd also point out that it's a continuation of the form from last season and therefore I'm unsure about how significant the transition to playing Europa League games has been.

I don't think Ange is using injuries as an excuse, I'm more referring to people such as posters on here citing injuries as the root cause of why we are way off where we'd all want to be.

 

[Pandy]

I disagree that our biggest problem is injuries. Out of all of our losses this season in 5 of them we put either our best XI out or minus x1 player. Against Bournemouth we had both of our 2nd choice centre backs playing but a very strong team otherwise that was more than capable in theory of overturning the one goal they scored if our overall play hadn't been so limp. Chelsea for me was down to very poor decisions made by regular first team players under defensive pressure so again not down to injuries. Injuries have become an excuse.

The injuries affect squad rotation. So the same quite decent team plays twice a week and ends up being fatigued, makes silly errors, can't see out a game, etc. Suddenly that decent team is actually quite poor despite containing good players.

Of course there are other factors as well but injuries have been a big one.

 

[Kompakted]

The injuries affect squad rotation. So the same quite decent team plays twice a week and ends up being fatigued, makes silly errors, can't see out a game, etc. Suddenly that decent team is actually quite poor despite containing good players.

Of course there are other factors as well but injuries have been a big one.

Have we been playing "the same quite decent team" in most of our Europa League and cup matches so far this season?

 

[glorygloryeze]

WE KEPT A CLEAN SHEET!!

 

[K.D.D.D.D.Soc]

Right, there's always excuses as to why we beat a team isn't there? Even beating Emirates Marketing Project 4-0 found people playing that down as if everyone has gone to their ground and done that. We have beat some good sides this season, drew with a good Fulham side after Europe when our squad is decimated but that was apparently awful. It's funny you mention Forest, had we played them a few weeks ago people would have said we should easily beat them blah blah the facts are there are no easy games and any win is a hard earned one. 'Useless' Southampton lost 3-2 to Liverpool so let's have it right, we were fudging good last night and it's a real talent that we are often capable of winning really well.

We haven't lost by more than one goal all season, and our defensive record is good yet apparently that is just down to luck and when we win games and by some margin it's just because the opposition is rubbish - people just want like a good old whinge about this team. Goal difference ends up usually being very telling and ours is ridiculous, it's extremely likely come the end of the season especially with more of the squad (hopefully) available we will be much higher in the table....

Right well you're not playing Scrooge in our Christmas Show

 

[Bedfordspurs]

The injuries affect squad rotation. So the same quite decent team plays twice a week and ends up being fatigued, makes silly errors, can't see out a game, etc. Suddenly that decent team is actually quite poor despite containing good players.

Of course there are other factors as well but injuries have been a big one.

Massive massive issue that people can’t see
We can’t rotate Sonny out because the only fit alternative is Werner
We can’t rotate Solanke because the only fit alternative is a kid
We have one actual back up full back and a guy who wants to play CM… not playing CB instead of full back
It’s nuts issues we have had but some of it is also on Ange not rotating enough imo

 

[Kompakted]

W

Massive massive issue that people can’t see
We can’t rotate Sonny out because the only fit alternative is Werner
We can’t rotate Solanke because the only fit alternative is a kid
We have one actual back up full back and a guy who wants to play CM… not playing CB instead of full back
It’s nuts issues we have had but some of it is also on Ange not rotating enough imo

We can't rotate Sonny out because the only fit alternative is the player the club and Ange actively chose to provide squad cover for Sonny?

One back up fullback? Last i counted we had Spence, Davies and Reguillon in the squad plus Gray who played right back all season for his last club.