****OMT - TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR vs LAZIO**********

[ArcspacE]

Surely with 3 disallowed goals, there's plenty of stuff out there for some new AVB gifs?

I thought Caulker's was legit - they were both 'pushing' - 50/50, etc.

Draw falttered them, imv - and they were quite happy with that judging by the constant time-wasting and late substitutions


10/10 for their fans though!

 

[thfcsteff]

Ok i'll say this on record now so i'm not accused of jumping on the bandwagon or just being over critical later on.

I touched on this last week but if we continue to play how we've been playing so far we're going to encounter big big problems at the Lane. This structured, disciplined style where we're pressing 90 minutes of the game allows for the opposition to get in behind us and nick goals. Away from home it's perfect but at the Lane we simply can't play like that and be successful. We need to give the opposition more space, give them more time on the ball, let them feel comfortable and then stretch them with wide balls to Bale or Azza. We're not creating enough clear cut chances now and we're not taking the game to the opposition. I can see a lot of 0-0 , 1-1 and 0-1 losses if we continue this game.

Adebayor needs to start.

So what you effectively want is to give others the ball at home, invite them on, and then hit them with fast counter attacking football? The problem is when a side comes to the Lane with the intention of playing for a draw from the start, that doesn't stack up because, well, teams won't take the bait. The onus will remain on us breaking them down. Another area where we miss Luka for sure, but I will say it looks like Dembele could waltz through sides and feed people on his own!

We scored two goals tonight and arguably missed two more pretty easy chances (Sandro had a clear header in the penalty area, unchallenged, which he should've stuck in, Lennon opted to pass when a shot would've broken the net). I think we're OK there, we just didn't have the luck tonight.

I think Ade will start soon (like Lloris to be fair) but Ade didn't have a pre-season and is still obviously trying to regain full fitness (I heard he was out with a hamstring tonight).

I thought defensively, we looked pretty tight tonight. It's different for sure, but once we've got it fully functional, I think the long-term prognosis is great. I still cannot believe the game didn't end 2-0. If Platini saw that and doesn't say anything, he's a bigger muppet than I thought!

 

[thfcsteff]

I thought Caulker's was legit - they were both 'pushing' - 50/50, etc.

Draw falttered them, imv - and they were quite happy with that judging by the constant time-wasting and late substitutions


10/10 for their fans though!

A return to old school Italian football flimflam for me in terms of cynicism. As for their "supporters" yeah, loud, etc, but Lazio have always had a strong facist edge to their support (like Chelski) and it doesn't seem to have dimmed sadly.

 

[chicken_badge]

I thought Caulker's was legit - they were both 'pushing' - 50/50, etc.

Draw falttered them, imv - and they were quite happy with that judging by the constant time-wasting and late substitutions


10/10 for their fans though!

Sorry but how can you give their fans 10/10 when a significant number were making monkey noises at Bale?

 

[chicken_badge]

I meant Defoe!!!!

 

[ArcspacE]

I didn't hear that on TV (despicable if true) - but from my general observation they were contributing to 90% of the noise for most of the game

 

[markysimmo]

http://www.footytube.com/video/villas-boas-praise-team-effort-130602?ref=hp_newsvids

 

[Kingdawson]

I don't understand what it is you want.

You want us to give them more space and time on the ball. Alright, so we stop pressing and sit back a bit.

Let them feel comfortable, sure, sit a bit deeper.

Then stretch them with balls to Bale and Azza...

How did we get possession? Are you saying that we should sit back and counter attack and that's the solution?

We need ways to open them up when they have 10 men behind the ball and are organized. Teams like these won't come to WHL and just let themselves be counter attacked on.

No.

I'm definately saying we should give them more time on the ball in positions that are not considered dangerous. What exactly is the point in 2 of our boys closing down one of theirs that has the ball in their half (just giving an example). What we're doing now is closing them down everywhere which makes the opposition think "fudge it then lets just sit back". Then too much pressing leads to sloppiness on our part which then leads to a chance or 2 for them (usually ball over top or one of ours is out of position because of the pressing). It isn't sustainable at Home and we're going to get hit with sucker punch goals time and time again.

Possession means fudge all if you're not creating clear cut chances. We could have 80% possession but who cares when you're creating nothing? that's the point i'm making. Let them have the ball at times, don't close them down, i guarantee we're going to have far more openings doing that.

 

[ArcspacE]

No.

I'm definately saying we should give them more time on the ball in positions that are not considered dangerous. What exactly is the point in 2 of our boys closing down one of theirs that has the ball in their half (just giving an example). What we're doing now is closing them down everywhere which makes the opposition think "fudge it then lets just sit back". Then too much pressing leads to sloppiness on our part which then leads to a chance or 2 for them (usually ball over top or one of ours is out of position because of the pressing). It isn't sustainable at Home and we're going to get hit with sucker punch goals time and time again.

Possession means fudge all if you're not creating clear cut chances. We could have 80% possession but who cares when you're creating nothing? that's the point i'm making. Let them have the ball at times, don't close them down, i guarantee we're going to have far more openings doing that.

Sorry but I disagree here

Possession is 50% of the game - any manager who's worth his socks would tell you that. Controlling the game you control the tempo, your opponent is always chasing, tiring, becoming frustrated and inevitably leading to mistakes on their part.

Look at teams like Barcelona - quite possibly the most vivid example in recent years. Their 5 second rule has become painfully efficient and yet so simple.

Yes, we might be a little sloppy at this early stages of 'implementation' but in 6 months time (estimate) it could be a ruthless, well-oiled machine. We scored 3 goals last night and dominated the game - so to say all this possession didn't lead to any chances is vastly off the mark.

 

[Kingdawson]

Sorry but that is simply not true

Possession is 50% of the game - any manager who's worth his socks would tell you that. Controlling the game you control the tempo, your opponent is always chasing, tiring, becoming frustrated and inevitably leading to mistakes on their part.

Look at teams like Barcelona - quite possibly the most vivid example in recent years. Their 5 second rule has become painfully efficient and yet so simple.

Yes, we might be a little sloppy at this early stages of 'implementation' but in 6 months time (estimate) it could be a ruthless, well-oiled machine. We scored 3 goals last night and dominated the game - so to say all this possession didn't lead to any chances is vastly off the mark.

No point using Barcelona as an example. For one they have the possession AND create clear cut chances galore and they play in a slow paced league which relies heavily on technical ability and the ability to keep the ball...we don't(well not nearly as much anyway).

No we scored 1 correct goal that should have stood and that was from a set piece. Dempsey was offside and so was Bale and both those 'goals' were from simple crosses into the box and a finish..not no 100 pass move where we kept the ball, dictated play, tired the opposition, etc etc..simple wide ball to Bale and cross into the area and goal.

 

[ArcspacE]

I'm not quite following - are you suggesting we didn't dominate or create many chances last night?

Barcelona play exactly the same way against English opposition (and embarassingly well in fact) who are also part of this mega-paced physical league that is supposedly the PL. Keeping possession would be fruitful (in the long run) against any opponent - the next evolution from that would be our movement and finishing in the final third - look at Real Madrid the other night - quick, one touch passing in and around their opponent's box, all at pace - that is the conclsuion to our possession/pressnig play and hopefully would soon be implemented to a reasonable success.

 

[scaramanga]

I don't understand what it is you want.

You want us to give them more space and time on the ball. Alright, so we stop pressing and sit back a bit.

Let them feel comfortable, sure, sit a bit deeper.

Then stretch them with balls to Bale and Azza...

How did we get possession? Are you saying that we should sit back and counter attack and that's the solution?

We need ways to open them up when they have 10 men behind the ball and are organized. Teams like these won't come to WHL and just let themselves be counter attacked on.

As the last couple of seasons have proved, almost nobody will come to WHL and attack. We can compress and move the ball around the back all we want, they'll chase us with one striker and everyone else will just wait behind the halfway line.

We're great on the counter attack, problem is that only the top teams will give us the chance to do that. It's very promising to see movement towards being able to break teams down that are stubborn.

 

[ArcspacE]

It's very promising to see movement towards being able to break teams down that are stubborn.

And therein lies the rub

So many times over the last 3-4 season would we see cloggers parking the bus, and us wasting 90 minutes trying to pick the lock, only to lose to a deflected shot in the 88th minute from a Rory Delap or equivalent

Hopefully our new system can find a solution to this.

 

[Hully]

Lazio got what they came for.
Nothing wrong with Caulker's disallowed goal, the other two fair enough decisions. Pity would have topped a good performance for Caulker.
Lazio were happy to sit deep and contain so didn't really comit numbers going forward, they played quite narrow which suited our system defensively. Would have been interesting to see how they would have changed it had we scored.
Our best performance so far, disappointed we didn't win it. Lennon's substitution was a bit odd, unless he'd picked up a knock.

 

[markysimmo]

Another amazingly bad write up on Spurs by a journo in the Sun today, laughable really, obviously one of Harry's mates

 

[Spurs7891]

We should and could have won this match. Apart from the 3 disallowed goals of which 2 were legitimate goals, we had enough chances to score goals. We had 7 shots on target compared to 1 by Lazio. Lennon and Townsend should have scored. They only had the goalie to beat but wasted their chances ! Lennon should have shot at the goal instead of trying to pass. Townsend should have headed to Sigrdson who was unmarked instead of trying to score from difficult angle.

Despite the disappointment, happy about us keeping a clean sheet. Maybe Lloris can help us stop conceding goals in the league. With this draw, we are now unbeaten in our last 4 matches. But we are still waiting for first home win under AVB. Hopefully we can get that against QPR.

 

[mattls]

And therein lies the rub

So many times over the last 3-4 season would we see cloggers parking the bus, and us wasting 90 minutes trying to pick the lock, only to lose to a deflected shot in the 88th minute from a Rory Delap or equivalent

Hopefully our new system can find a solution to this.

I wanted to touch on the system and the blend of players we have right now.. Was at the game last night and i thought there was positives mainly in our wing play and the defence as Caulker and Vertonghan hadn't played much before but Lazio rarely pressurised us apart from when they hit the bar. Didnt think Dempsey did much, still not sure long term if he'll turn out to be a good signing or just a last minute panic buy from Levy.

The problem i see at the moment is we dont have the right blend of players in midfield. I think Dembele is a great buy but neither he or Sandro can spot a pass like Modric or VDV used to do and last night Defoe had nothing to feed off. So i'm concerned we wont score enough goals this season as we've struggled so far apart form when we played a poor Reading side. I'm hopeful Mourthino will come in Jan though.

As for the system, the jury is still out for me on it playing one up when i've always thought Spurs are at their best with 2 up top.

I think Levy should take some blame here on the blend of players we acquired in the last window as we all knew Modric was leaving and he should have signed Mourthino immediately to supply the bullets instead of haggling. Also, the other priority for me was another striker to compete with Defoe and Ade and nothing happened there and we ended up with Dempsey. Let's hope we can stay in the top 6 til jan and then hopefully bring in a few to give us a better blend.

 

[DHSF]

Lazio fans at liverscum street were singing I'm forever blowing bubbles.

I am 100 % certain there were West Spam fans amongst them.

 

[Pirate55]

We should and could have won this match. Apart from the 3 disallowed goals of which 2 were legitimate goals, we had enough chances to score goals. We had 7 shots on target compared to 1 by Lazio. Lennon and Townsend should have scored. They only had the goalie to beat but wasted their chances ! Lennon should have shot at the goal instead of trying to pass. Townsend should have headed to Sigrdson who was unmarked instead of trying to score from difficult angle.

Despite the disappointment, happy about us keeping a clean sheet. Maybe Lloris can help us stop conceding goals in the league. With this draw, we are now unbeaten in our last 4 matches. But we are still waiting for first home win under AVB. Hopefully we can get that against QPR.

Add Sandro's open header to that list.

So three "goals" in the back of the net and three clear cut chances. Surely even the most hardened critic of AVB would think we should have won this game.

Is AVB an unlucky manager?

We have had goals in the last 10 minutes against us in all our league games so far. Three of them cost us five points. Tonight we had at least one legit goal chalked off. His time at Chelski cant exactly be said to be littered with good fortune - unlike for example Di Matteos.

Apart from the odd game under HR (Gomes's balls ups or Foys f***ups), I dont recall a sequence of games where we had nae luck. Apart from the Reading game, we have had no "good" fortune in 4 out of 5 games this season.

 

[markysimmo]

Lazio fans at liverscum street were singing I'm forever blowing bubbles.

I am 100 % certain there were West Spam fans amongst them.

There was, they have some sort of tie up with West Spam, a lad I work with some of his pals went in the Lazio end, Hammers ST's