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OMT *** Tottenham Hotspur vs AFC Richmond/Crystal Palace - Sunday 27th October 14:00 ***

On the second point I think Ange is in a bit of a damned if you do position.

From the way Werner has been finishing in particular it seems almost cruel starting him, but then you've got a 17 year old without a goal or assist to his name in senior football coming in. Whilst he obviously hasn't had a lot of chances and it's very early days, it's not an immediate upgrade in end product. It doesn't need to be said but it's different looking good with some mazy runs in Europa league compared to a tough away day in the premier league.

Agreed on the first point but it's easy to say in hindsight, and you very well may have thought it and / said it in foresight. I couldn't watch the game today so I'm only going on what I've read...
I think starting Mikey but playing such an open midfield was a huge error
Have him bringing wide to work with and we lost everything in midfield
 
Indeed mate.
For me, Ange has made two big mistakes.
1) This was a match to start Pape. We knew what Palace would bring, and that midfield is not the right one for such a scrap.
2) Resist the clamour to start Mikey. I fully expected Werner to start and Mikey to appear as a sub. I was really surprised to see Ange do that...

Moore deserved the start today Steff. I don’t see starting him as the massive knock to Moore’s development that some are making it out to be. If we had won today, not a single poster would be saying we’re harming his development. 17 year olds have started in the PL before. Lamine Yamal is the same age as Moore and he is starting every week for one of the best teams in the world and the best nation in europe.
 
I don't see the loss as coming from either a lack of hard work @Bedfordspurs or doing the 'wrong thing' @billyiddo

We lost today for two reasons primarily: we didn't play through their press. But more of an issue: we were not firing in attack with too many players who lack a bit of cut throat believe/determination/confidence/ability in attack. That is to be expected though, we are a developing team using a 17 year old on the wing.

In hindsight, Ange didn't get it right. Not just playing Moore away from home (which every fan seemed to want), but by not bolstering our midfield. Kulu, Maddison, Moore are not players who are equipped to out fight a team kicking chunks out of you. Easy to say now, but getting Bentancur in the middle with Bissouma probably would have given us more control. And then we could have brought on Maddison fresh later in the game.

Everyone's an expert after the event.

One of the key fixture questions, which no one seems to pick up is whether to get to play sides who've been in Europe (after you've also been in Europe). Playing Brighton and Palace when they get a full week of rest and prep, is always going to be hard. And this side are not strong enough yet to assert themselves, and dominate away. We did first half at Brighton to be fair. Baby steps.
 
On the second point I think Ange is in a bit of a damned if you do position.

From the way Werner has been finishing in particular it seems almost cruel starting him, but then you've got a 17 year old without a goal or assist to his name in senior football coming in. Whilst he obviously hasn't had a lot of chances and it's very early days, it's not an immediate upgrade in end product. It doesn't need to be said but it's different looking good with some mazy runs in Europa league compared to a tough away day in the premier league.

Agreed on the first point but it's easy to say in hindsight, and you very well may have thought it and / said it in foresight. I couldn't watch the game today so I'm only going on what I've read...
Problem comes from transfer policy.

We all knew that Werner was a levy special.

Our problem last season was never strikers... rather our in ability to create.
 
Possibly
But I’ve seen us play many many away games against inferior opponents and bottle it because we did what we did today
Not fight
Nor press
Not run
That’s what I saw
For me it was lazy because as soon as it got physical we crumbled
And a lot of it is complacentcy.

How many will be dropped for the next game?

None. No fear at all.

We are never ruthless with players and we need to be. Players need to know their job is on the line and that no one is safe.
 
I don't see the loss as coming from either a lack of hard work @Bedfordspurs or doing the 'wrong thing' @billyiddo

We lost today for two reasons primarily: we didn't play through their press. But more of an issue: we were not firing in attack with too many players who lack a bit of cut throat believe/determination/confidence/ability in attack. That is to be expected though, we are a developing team using a 17 year old on the wing.

In hindsight, Ange didn't get it right. Not just playing Moore away from home (which every fan seemed to want), but by not bolstering our midfield. Kulu, Maddison, Moore are not players who are equipped to out fight a team kicking chunks out of you. Easy to say now, but getting Bentancur in the middle with Bissouma probably would have given us more control. And then we could have brought on Maddison fresh later in the game.

Everyone's an expert after the event.

One of the key fixture questions, which no one seems to pick up is whether to get to play sides who've been in Europe (after you've also been in Europe). Playing Brighton and Palace when they get a full week of rest and prep, is always going to be hard. And this side are not strong enough yet to assert themselves, and dominate away. We did first half at Brighton to be fair. Baby steps.

I said I thought we were set up incorrectly which you go on to say was the case in your post?
 
Possibly
But I’ve seen us play many many away games against inferior opponents and bottle it because we did what we did today
Not fight
Nor press
Not run
That’s what I saw
For me it was lazy because as soon as it got physical we crumbled
We started poorly before a tackle even went in. It was so obvious even before kick off the sort of performance we'd turn in. The manager has been here long enough and knows enough about the players and the club in general to be trying to counteract it.

This is where he can't manage in isolation like it's a computer game. You're in charge of a team that don't turn up against team in poor form cause mentality they switch off, so fudge it do something to spark the players to dial in their focus whether tactical or personnel. You know Madders can't control games, you know Johnson even when scoring doesn't get involved in retaining the ball, that Udogie is playing brick, that Romero has been half boiled. Play Sarr, Bentancur and Bissouma for the battle, switch Kulu back outside for the work rate, VDV go left back and left Dragusin have a battle. Play up to your target man to get through a rough period.

Or ignore all that and just do exactly the same that wasn't working before you changed it a week ago.
 
Which is why he needed sarr

Agreed, although the gaffer seems to believe that if he keeps persisting with the same players they’ll eventually develop the mentality to deal with any situation.

Hopefully youngsters like Moore will eventually reach that level but Postecoglou surely must’ve realised after the Brighton collapse that someone like Maddison is not the sort of player who’s going to assert control of a game after our opponents have gained the upper hand whilst Sarr showed his composure when dealing with Kudus last week.
 
Moore deserved the start today Steff. I don’t see starting him as the massive knock to Moore’s development that some are making it out to be. If we had won today, not a single poster would be saying we’re harming his development. 17 year olds have started in the PL before. Lamine Yamal is the same age as Moore and he is starting every week for one of the best teams in the world and the best nation in europe.
He did deserve the start today.

He didn't deserve the rest of the shyte he was playing with.
 
Moore deserved the start today Steff. I don’t see starting him as the massive knock to Moore’s development that some are making it out to be. If we had won today, not a single poster would be saying we’re harming his development. 17 year olds have started in the PL before. Lamine Yamal is the same age as Moore and he is starting every week for one of the best teams in the world and the best nation in europe.

calm down mate, nobody's talking about 'massive knock to Moore's development' it's more (boom!) about managing a young body versus the specific conditions of certain games. Deserving the start or not, I would rather be protecting both him and us. He was not the right choice to start today IF you're playing a midfield with only one ball winner/carrier. Palace are physical and they were always saying they would be. Allow the game to slug out and make that change on 70 minutes.

You mention Yamal. One, I'd suggest that the quaity of touch and possession around Yamal are infinitely better than what we have consistently right now (how many of our passes and touches were again 'off' today?)...secondly...

 
Possibly
But I’ve seen us play many many away games against inferior opponents and bottle it because we did what we did today
Not fight
Nor press
Not run
That’s what I saw
For me it was lazy because as soon as it got physical we crumbled
I don't know if I buy the idea that we didn't work hard, that's not what I saw. Bissouma, Maddison, the various defenders etc, Solanke as well all ran around and put the yards in. All their running wasn't particularly effective because what I saw was a team that constantly tried to play the ball around the back and due to poor choices kept playing the ball either directly to the opposition or to a Spurs player in a brick position.

Palace pressed really high up and forced the passing mistakes and just kept coming at us. We didn't actually give up, just that tactically we didn't react, we didn't instead pass the ball behind the press. We kept playing in front of it and trying to entice Palace on and play around them, which we failed at all game.

Busy work is just that, busy work it's the quality of the work that matters. Today we had too much busy work. Ange really does need to tailor his lineups, strategy and tactical setup to the opposition we are facing. We don't currently have the quality of player to enforce his preferred way of playing against all comers. I watched the Real Madrid - Barcelona game and Barcelona are basically a very good version of what we are trying to do and it's frankly a night and day difference between the technical qualities of the players we have versus what they possess. It's going to continue to be painful if we don't tailor at all but lack the players to actually play it well.
 
I don't know if I buy the idea that we didn't work hard, that's not what I saw. Bissouma, Maddison, the various defenders etc, Solanke as well all ran around and put the yards in. All their running wasn't particularly effective because what I saw was a team that constantly tried to play the ball around the back and due to poor choices kept playing the ball either directly to the opposition or to a Spurs player in a brick position.

Palace pressed really high up and forced the passing mistakes and just kept coming at us. We didn't actually give up, just that tactically we didn't react, we didn't instead pass the ball behind the press. We kept playing in front of it and trying to entice Palace on and play around them, which we failed at all game.

Busy work is just that, busy work it's the quality of the work that matters. Today we had too much busy work. Ange really does need to tailor his lineups, strategy and tactical setup to the opposition we are facing. We don't currently have the quality of player to enforce his preferred way of playing against all comers. I watched the Real Madrid - Barcelona game and Barcelona are basically a very good version of what we are trying to do and it's frankly a night and day difference between the technical qualities of the players we have versus what they possess. It's going to continue to be painful if we don't tailor at all but lack the players to actually play it well.
Fair comments
We may have ran around a lot
But we didn’t run intelligently or effectively and we have a major issue with passing the ball well
 
On the second point I think Ange is in a bit of a damned if you do position.

From the way Werner has been finishing in particular it seems almost cruel starting him, but then you've got a 17 year old without a goal or assist to his name in senior football coming in. Whilst he obviously hasn't had a lot of chances and it's very early days, it's not an immediate upgrade in end product. It doesn't need to be said but it's different looking good with some mazy runs in Europa league compared to a tough away day in the premier league.

Agreed on the first point but it's easy to say in hindsight, and you very well may have thought it and / said it in foresight. I couldn't watch the game today so I'm only going on what I've read...

I absolutely agree it's a 'damned if you, etc' situation for Ange with Moore, but these are the big calls, and unless he secretly misjudged what Palace would do, then I was still surprised TBH.

I didn't say either way re: Sarr before the match simply because I thought it would not be a question at Palace. I was surprised when he didn't start TBH.
 
I don't know if I buy the idea that we didn't work hard, that's not what I saw. Bissouma, Maddison, the various defenders etc, Solanke as well all ran around and put the yards in. All their running wasn't particularly effective because what I saw was a team that constantly tried to play the ball around the back and due to poor choices kept playing the ball either directly to the opposition or to a Spurs player in a brick position.

Palace pressed really high up and forced the passing mistakes and just kept coming at us. We didn't actually give up, just that tactically we didn't react, we didn't instead pass the ball behind the press. We kept playing in front of it and trying to entice Palace on and play around them, which we failed at all game.

Busy work is just that, busy work it's the quality of the work that matters. Today we had too much busy work. Ange really does need to tailor his lineups, strategy and tactical setup to the opposition we are facing. We don't currently have the quality of player to enforce his preferred way of playing against all comers. I watched the Real Madrid - Barcelona game and Barcelona are basically a very good version of what we are trying to do and it's frankly a night and day difference between the technical qualities of the players we have versus what they possess. It's going to continue to be painful if we don't tailor at all but lack the players to actually play it well.

This is an exceptionally important point. And is somewhat not on Ange...
 
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