OMT - Tottenham Hotspur vs Bournemouth

[Jurgen the German]

And as I’ve said previously, very few clubs have achieved what we have achieved in terms of regular CL football while building a new stadium, training ground etc, and signing most of our key top players to longer term contracts. If ‘most of football’ hasn’t done it before, my argument would be that most of football hasn’t achieved what we have. I like the fact that we have acted differently, and acted with clarity of purpose. And frankly I think if we had let’s say 2 less injuries this season, 3rd would have already been sewn up a while back.

We will buy players this summer. I think we will make some pretty big moves whether we finish 3rd or 6th. I’m not advocating not signing players. I’m saying in the context of last summer, with all the variables we had to deal with, I can see why we did it and I think we benefited from it in certain respects. For one thing, that team spirit which we have so carefully cultivated may well be the thing that got us to a CL semi when we looked dead and buried.

Think we will have to agree to disagree mate. I don’t think we’ve benefitted in any way from signing no players. I’m not sure why you think signing no one would improve the team spirit. Surely signing players would lift the squad as Danny Rose alluded to? Unless we sign a real bad egg then i don’t know signing someone would potentially hurt the team spirit

 

[NoLimits01]

If he’s waiting for another club or his wages are unrealistic then you move on and pursue other targets, you have a plan b. You don’t not sign anyone in two windows. Even Emirates Marketing Project miss out on players from time to time. They didn’t get Sanchez as his wage demands were too high even for them! Granted they are at the top of the food chain but the principle is the same. You have targets in mind that are your first choice, if they don’t come to fruition then you go to your next choice. If you don’t have backups then you’re basically AVB when we didn’t sign Moutinho and Hulk.

If only life was this simple.

I’ll reiterate what I’ve said before that I think Levy has been brave by not wasting money on plan c -z as he has done in the past.

Why should the club buy dross at the expense of the club just to appease sky deadline day theatrics and a few fans that need their next high

 

[Baleforce]

I can still easily believe that we couldn’t afford anyone who was a definite upgrade on what we already have.

 

[Jurgen the German]

If only life was this simple.

I’ll reiterate what I’ve said before that I think Levy has been brave by not wasting money on plan c -z as he has done in the past.

Why should the club buy dross at the expense of the club just to appease sky deadline day theatrics and a few fans that need their next high

It’s not about appeasing fans. It’s about getting players in who would improve the club. We’ve lost 13 league games so it’s just wrong to suggest if we can’t sign our first choices then it’s impossible to improve the squad. We are not that good.

 

[Baleforce]

It’s not about appeasing fans. It’s about getting players in who would improve the club. We’ve lost 13 league games so it’s just wrong to suggest if we can’t sign our first choices then it’s impossible to improve the squad. We are not that good.

But we should be, our current squad have, with the exception of Sissoko, turned in an abysmal season of form, we have seen much much better from every single one of them in previous seasons.

 

[Legohamster]

If only life was this simple.

I’ll reiterate what I’ve said before that I think Levy has been brave by not wasting money on plan c -z as he has done in the past.

Why should the club buy dross at the expense of the club just to appease sky deadline day theatrics and a few fans that need their next high

Have you seen the state of the squad?

Why are people still saying we shouldn’t make signings to appease fans, it has nothing to do with that and everything to do with fans wanting the team to improve.

 

[Baleforce]

I think the squad is fine, the problem is individual performances have been poor and we have badly handled rehabilitation and preparation.

We have done this to ourselves.

 

[Legohamster]

I think the squad is fine, the problem is individual performances have been poor and we have badly handled rehabilitation and preparation.

We have done this to ourselves.

The squad is unbalanced We have no stand out RB, injury hit/end of career CMs plus lamela then throw in wasters like Janssen/nkoudou

I agree with have done it to ourselves.

 

[SubZero]

What won't go away for me is the absurdity of decisions deciding the league. Not bettered by seeing Liverpool getting away with dive no. 846 last night. And even though the clips are circulating the web over and over and over again, they get no retrospective reactions. Nothing is done about it. Cheating has become an accepted part of the game, if you're popular. It's like saying it's ok for Lance Armstrong to consume drugs to his heart's desire cause he's such a good guy and have a long schlong, but anybody else caught will get banned until the year 2050. And if we appeal Son's red card and it fails, it's the FA saying it's ok to cheat, to instigate and to push/strike/stamp, but not ok to react. I can't remember who, but it was probably Ferguson as always, who said they never would accept a particular ref again and got banned for it. But it was probably worth it, you put the ref on the spot. The refs are human (except a couple of individuals), and making decisions against Tottenham choir boys who never complain is probably often seen as the easiest way out. The VAR decisions in the CL quarters did little more than to show that for all their dirty oil money stemming from crimes against humanity, City still aren't very popular worldwide and UEFA doesn't regard them as one of their big boys quite yet. In the premiership, VAR will be a disaster.

The extremely low level of refereeing is especially notable in the EPL as the league is so competitive, it doesn't stand out as much in other leagues as it's mostly 1 or 2 teams against a bunch of peasants. Yes we have been the merchants of our own demise (if we drop out of top 4), but I maintain that if we had Liverpool's decisions over the season and they had ours, our league positions would be switched. I'm not afraid to say that my interest in football, which has become more of a semi-rigged spectacle and less of a sport is quickly diminishing, and if not for Spurs would be gone altogether. I'm so tired of being angry with football, and not for the results. My wish for next season is that we become more nasty, more diving, more clipping ankles, more time wasting, more surrounding the referee and more hurting people back. I absolutely hate it, but it is what works. At least against us. Enough with this nice guys sh*t. *

* this may or may not have been a slight overreaction.

 

[AdamB]

I think the squad is fine, the problem is individual performances have been poor and we have badly handled rehabilitation and preparation.

We have done this to ourselves.

Re the squad

- we didn’t replace Dembele, which has backfired on us given Winks injury problems

- we only have 6 players in attacking areas who Poch is happy to start with (ie excluding Llorente, Janssen and GKN) unless we don’t have enough fit players and Poch is forced to play Llorente. Given our best formation is 4-2-3-1 and a top team should have two players per position, that makes us 2 bodies light in those positions




Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

 

[Baleforce]

The squad is unbalanced We have no stand out RB, injury hit/end of career CMs plus lamela then throw in wasters like Janssen/nkoudou

I agree with have done it to ourselves.

Aurier has the tools, Tripps has played consistently well in previous campaigns, we need to get better performances from them.

It’s only Wanyama at the end of his career, Winks and Dier have both had injury issues, possibly some of which were down to being rushed back, Sissoko has been excellent.

Neither N’Koudou or Janssen have had enough minutes to prove what they can do, if they do leave is as wasters, it’s primarily because we have wasted them.

 

[glasgowspur]

I watched the game through a pain and drug haze, but what did Eriksen do to justify a nomination for MOTM? I recall a couple of decent passes and a half arsed shot, I ho dele was better.

 

[Baleforce]

Re the squad

- we didn’t replace Dembele, which has backfired on us given Winks injury problems

- we only have 6 players in attacking areas who Poch is happy to start with (ie excluding Llorente, Janssen and GKN) unless we don’t have enough fit players and Poch is forced to play Llorente. Given our best formation is 4-2-3-1 and a top team should have two players per position, that makes us 2 bodies light in those positions




Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app

I think Dier/Winks/Sissoko/Wanyama should be enough.

On your second point, I think that’s a failing of Poch, we could get more from those players and they should have been part of regular rotation from the start of the season, even more so when you consider how many of our players went deep in the WC.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Think we will have to agree to disagree mate. I don’t think we’ve benefitted in any way from signing no players. I’m not sure why you think signing no one would improve the team spirit. Surely signing players would lift the squad as Danny Rose alluded to? Unless we sign a real bad egg then i don’t know signing someone would potentially hurt the team spirit

To use Chelsea as an example. You have Cahill today giving interviews saying that Sarri doesn’t respect members of the squad that have achieved so much with the club. You have a keeper directly disobeying orders in a Cup Final. You have players like Kovacic signed, trying rabonas when they are getting absolutely battered and when they have perfectly good players like RLC not getting a game. And you have players like Drinkwater just moping around that club with no hint of ever being able to get on the pitch.

In comparison to us, every single player in our squad knows their role. Every single player feels they are at our club for a reason. Every single player has no reason to suspect any other player is getting any preferential treatment unfairly ahead of them, and every single player knows the standards that are expected and the system that we play. Chelsea have talent, they have good players and a good Manager but they aren’t above us despite spending lots of money signing players without thinking about the things we think about.

To use United as an example, they were so delighted with getting Sanchez ahead of City that they didn’t think or care about the future implications of paying one player significantly more than the rest of the squad. How that would impact contract negotiations for other first team players. How that would block a path for Martial or Rashford, or create the odd situation of having the biggest earner not getting on the pitch. They now have the bad situation of having players they want to sell earning too much to sell easily, players they want to keep asking for too much, and no clear strategy around who they should try and sign and why. They also have talent. They have also spent a lot of money, and they are also below us in the League.

I think the talk of no signings for 18 months is a red herring. Whether we made one, two or three and suffered the same amount of injuries we would still be where we are now, because there’s only so many places in the squad and some would have been sold. Not withstanding the fact that Llorente aside we have mostly young players who could be trusted to get better or had time to recapture their best form. But when I talk about team spirit, I’m comparing us to a club like Chelsea, who look a bit of a mess. And when I talk about clarity of purpose and a clear strategy, I compare us to United, who just don’t have one. They’ve spent money, but it isn’t the most important thing.

I think we will be fine and continue to progesss whether we finish 3rd or 6th. Because what we have, in terms of a clear strategy, in terms of a clear way of working and a team spirit where everyone feels that this is currently the right place for them, it’s very hard to replicate and one of the hardest things to achieve. It takes time and it takes patience. It takes doing something that may not look good for the short term because it’s better for the long term. So whatever happens, we have something that will enable us to keep on progressing to where we want to be, which is to be regular CL and PL challengers. One season with ridiculous injuries doesn’t alter that.

 

[Jurgen the German]

What won't go away for me is the absurdity of decisions deciding the league. Not bettered by seeing Liverpool getting away with dive no. 846 last night. And even though the clips are circulating the web over and over and over again, they get no retrospective reactions. Nothing is done about it. Cheating has become an accepted part of the game, if you're popular. It's like saying it's ok for Lance Armstrong to consume drugs to his heart's desire cause he's such a good guy and have a long schlong, but anybody else caught will get banned until the year 2050. And if we appeal Son's red card and it fails, it's the FA saying it's ok to cheat, to instigate and to push/strike/stamp, but not ok to react. I can't remember who, but it was probably Ferguson as always, who said they never would accept a particular ref again and got banned for it. But it was probably worth it, you put the ref on the spot. The refs are human (except a couple of individuals), and making decisions against Tottenham choir boys who never complain is probably often seen as the easiest way out. The VAR decisions in the CL quarters did little more than to show that for all their dirty oil money stemming from crimes against humanity, City still aren't very popular worldwide and UEFA doesn't regard them as one of their big boys quite yet. In the premiership, VAR will be a disaster.

The extremely low level of refereeing is especially notable in the EPL as the league is so competitive, it doesn't stand out as much in other leagues as it's mostly 1 or 2 teams against a bunch of peasants. Yes we have been the merchants of our own demise (if we drop out of top 4), but I maintain that if we had Liverpool's decisions over the season and they had ours, our league positions would be switched. I'm not afraid to say that my interest in football, which has become more of a semi-rigged spectacle and less of a sport is quickly diminishing, and if not for Spurs would be gone altogether. I'm so tired of being angry with football, and not for the results. My wish for next season is that we become more nasty, more diving, more clipping ankles, more time wasting, more surrounding the referee and more hurting people back. I absolutely hate it, but it is what works. At least against us. Enough with this nice guys sh*t. *

* this may or may not have been a slight overreaction.

When it comes to the darker side of the game we’re fine. We have plenty of players who dive, Kane, Alli, Son etc.

 

[Jurgen the German]

To use Chelsea as an example. You have Cahill today giving interviews saying that Sarri doesn’t respect members of the squad that have achieved so much with the club. You have a keeper directly disobeying orders in a Cup Final. You have players like Kovacic signed, trying rabonas when they are getting absolutely battered and when they have perfectly good players like RLC not getting a game. And you have players like Drinkwater just moping around that club with no hint of ever being able to get on the pitch.

In comparison to us, every single player in our squad knows their role. Every single player feels they are at our club for a reason. Every single player has no reason to suspect any other player is getting any preferential treatment unfairly ahead of them, and every single player knows the standards that are expected and the system that we play. Chelsea have talent, they have good players and a good Manager but they aren’t above us despite spending lots of money signing players without thinking about the things we think about.

To use United as an example, they were so delighted with getting Sanchez ahead of City that they didn’t think or care about the future implications of paying one player significantly more than the rest of the squad. How that would impact contract negotiations for other first team players. How that would block a path for Martial or Rashford, or create the odd situation of having the biggest earner not getting on the pitch. They now have the bad situation of having players they want to sell earning too much to sell easily, players they want to keep asking for too much, and no clear strategy around who they should try and sign and why. They also have talent. They have also spent a lot of money, and they are also below us in the League.

I think the talk of no signings for 18 months is a red herring. Whether we made one, two or three and suffered the same amount of injuries we would still be where we are now, because there’s only so many places in the squad and some would have been sold. Not withstanding the fact that Llorente aside we have mostly young players who could be trusted to get better or had time to recapture their best form. But when I talk about team spirit, I’m comparing us to a club like Chelsea, who look a bit of a mess. And when I talk about clarity of purpose and a clear strategy, I compare us to United, who just don’t have one. They’ve spent money, but it isn’t the most important thing.

I think we will be fine and continue to progesss whether we finish 3rd or 6th. Because what we have, in terms of a clear strategy, in terms of a clear way of working and a team spirit where everyone feels that this is currently the right place for them, it’s very hard to replicate and one of the hardest things to achieve. It takes time and it takes patience. It takes doing something that may not look good for the short term because it’s better for the long term. So whatever happens, we have something that will enable us to keep on progressing to where we want to be, which is to be regular CL and PL challengers. One season with ridiculous injuries doesn’t alter that.

Chelsea have always had a rotten set of players for as long as Abramovich has been there. They go crying to their daddy every time the manager hurts their feelings. Even some of the Chelsea fans I know are getting fed up of the player power at that club and would like to reset and give their youth a chance.

 

[Hotshot-Tottenham]

If he’s waiting for another club or his wages are unrealistic then you move on and pursue other targets, you have a plan b. You don’t not sign anyone in two windows. Even Emirates Marketing Project miss out on players from time to time. They didn’t get Sanchez as his wage demands were too high even for them! Granted they are at the top of the food chain but the principle is the same. You have targets in mind that are your first choice, if they don’t come to fruition then you go to your next choice. If you don’t have backups then you’re basically AVB when we didn’t sign Moutinho and Hulk.

I get what you’re saying, I really do.

But - if you find yourself in the situation where you’re into your third it fourth choice back up (for any number of external reasons), then there is an argument for keeping your powder dry and going back to market next time when opportunities might be different.

I’d rather the right one than any one.

 

[Bullet]

When it comes to the darker side of the game we’re fine. We have plenty of players who dive, Kane, Alli, Son etc.

Disagree massively. All 9 of our players should have gone down yesterday to win freekicks, to feign injury, with cramp etc. to kill the spirit/mood/pressure that was building up. So naive, so poor, so ignorant of how to win a game.

Just a bunch of nice kids, getting thumped.

 

[Spurs7891]

Very annoyed with this defeat. Never thought we would lose to Bournemouth ! This is the first time ever we have lost to them ! The fact we had 2 players red carded should not be used as an excuse for this defeat.We created enough chances to wrap up this match even before Son and Foyth got red carded. But as usual we wasted all our chances and continued our bad habit of conceding late goals ! For some reason, we looked nervy for whole match.

All our attacking players should take the blame for not making use of our chances early on. I think Moura has to take his share of the blame for this defeat. He really should have scored the 2 one-on-one chances he had in the first half. If he had scored, we would have won this match comfortably. Moura was also unlucky when his shot from the midfield went inches wide. Eriksen had another poor match while Alli should have done better with his goal scoring chances a few times. Son has been in bad form ever since scoring 2 goals against Emirates Marketing Project in the CL. And he continued his bad form by not only wasting 2 chances but got himself stupidly red carded as well. It was really stupid of Son to react like that.

Our midfield were poor in this match. Dier and Sissoko failed to control the midfield. Dier made too many mistakes and was lucky not to get red carded and concede a penalty. Sissoko worked hard as usual but was not at his best. I think Pochettino made a big mistake to replace Sissoko with Davies late in the match. That seemed to unsettle our midfield and defence which cause us conceding that goal in injury time.

It was a strange performance by our defence. With Sanchez and Alderweireld starting in defence, we looked nervy and made too many mistakes early on. Alderweired got the yellow card but thought it was a big mistake to replace him with error-prone Foyth early in the second half. Foyth was really stupid to go into tackle like that, getting himself red carded. We defended better after that until conceding the late goal. Maybe Lloris should have reacted faster for the goal.

Spurs can be real passion killers ! They can really make you hate PL, football and sports in general by consistent poor performances and results like these. Spare a thought for all the young fans who have been heart broken by Spurs over the years ! My 12 year old nephew who has been a Spurs fan for 5 years now said he gets demotivated to watch us play because we are losing non-stop ! We started the season well but are finishing it very poorly. We have lost 7 of our last 11 league matches which is relegation form. We have now lost 13 league matches which is our most defeats since 2009. We have simply lost to too many shyte teams like Watford, Wolves, Burnley, Southampton and now Bournemouth. We have also lost 6 consecutive away matches in the league now. We used to have great record but suddenly our away record has become shyte. Pochettino better do something to improve our away record or it will affect us next season as well.

 

[Jurgen the German]

Very annoyed with this defeat. Never thought we would lose to Bournemouth ! This is the first time ever we have lost to them ! The fact we had 2 players red carded should not be used as an excuse for this defeat.We created enough chances to wrap up this match even before Son and Foyth got red carded. But as usual we wasted all our chances and continued our bad habit of conceding late goals ! For some reason, we looked nervy for whole match.

All our attacking players should take the blame for not making use of our chances early on. I think Moura has to take his share of the blame for this defeat. He really should have scored the 2 one-on-one chances he had in the first half. If he had scored, we would have won this match comfortably. Moura was also unlucky when his shot from the midfield went inches wide. Eriksen had another poor match while Alli should have done better with his goal scoring chances a few times. Son has been in bad form ever since scoring 2 goals against Emirates Marketing Project in the CL. And he continued his bad form by not only wasting 2 chances but got himself stupidly red carded as well. It was really stupid of Son to react like that.

Our midfield were poor in this match. Dier and Sissoko failed to control the midfield. Dier made too many mistakes and was lucky not to get red carded and concede a penalty. Sissoko worked hard as usual but was not at his best. I think Pochettino made a big mistake to replace Sissoko with Davies late in the match. That seemed to unsettle our midfield and defence which cause us conceding that goal in injury time.

It was a strange performance by our defence. With Sanchez and Alderweireld starting in defence, we looked nervy and made too many mistakes early on. Alderweired got the yellow card but thought it was a big mistake to replace him with error-prone Foyth early in the second half. Foyth was really stupid to go into tackle like that, getting himself red carded. We defended better after that until conceding the late goal. Maybe Lloris should have reacted faster for the goal.

Spurs can be real passion killers ! They can really make you hate PL, football and sports in general by consistent poor performances and results like these. Spare a thought for all the young fans who have been heart broken by Spurs over the years ! My 12 year old nephew who has been a Spurs fan for 5 years now said he gets demotivated to watch us play because we are losing non-stop ! We started the season well but are finishing it very poorly. We have lost 7 of our last 11 league matches which is relegation form. We have now lost 13 league matches which is our most defeats since 2009. We have simply lost to too many shyte teams like Watford, Wolves, Burnley, Southampton and now Bournemouth. We have also lost 6 consecutive away matches in the league now. We used to have great record but suddenly our away record has become shyte. Pochettino better do something to improve our away record or it will affect us next season as well.

Computers have nephews?