****OMT - TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR vs WOOLWICH ARSEnal****

[paxtonwolf]

Solid enough performance I thought. Arsenal deserved the win, but we weren't outplayed and all in all I find it hard to complain about what the players did.

Think Eriksen might need a slight break, haven't been at his best lately. Bentaleb was very good I thought, massive positive. Rose had a real off day.

On the whole they did, I dont think we can really argue on that score, but we certainly had 2 'what-if' moments with Eriksen's early miss at 0-0 and Adebayor's half-chance at 1-0.
Even at 2-0 with 10mins left I still actaully thought we werent out of it

 

[Kingdawson]

Solid enough performance I thought. Arsenal deserved the win, but we weren't outplayed and all in all I find it hard to complain about what the players did.

Think Eriksen might need a slight break, haven't been at his best lately. Bentaleb was very good I thought, massive positive. Rose had a real off day.

It's really weird how peoples opinions differ. I thought Eriksen was good and Bentaleb was rather poor, minus the final 20 minutes when he improved.

 

[paxtonwolf]

As I said previously, it all depends on the prism you are looking through. I must say mate some of your hyperbole in this game is perplexing. Take a step back and look at it objectively for a moment. This was nowhere near as bad a performance as you and others make out. Certainly MUCH better than the 0-1 defeat there earlier this season where we never created a single chance.

So we lost away against one of, if not, the best sides in the country, who are currently top of the league and boast the best defensive record. Were we seriously outplayed? Not in my view. We created plenty of chances and half chances. If Ade and Solly had their shooting boots on, we win that game. We lost to two defensive errors - one a complete mistake. An open game that, while the **** deserved to win, could have gone either way with a bit of good fortune on our side IMO.

Taking all the other factors into account ( as have been dealt with at length on here by others) really not too bad at all. Cheer up. Only three days previously we had beaten the reigning champions on their own patch. Buy a top striker this window (i have only said that for the last three january windows!) to compete with Ade, and a left back, and when our injuries recover, we are good to go. Hang on. The future is bright.

This is the annoying thing with Spurs. We as fans can see this,but the heirarchy either cant or can and choose not to address it

 

[braineclipse]

It's really weird how peoples opinions differ. I thought Eriksen was good and Bentaleb was rather poor, minus the final 20 minutes when he improved.

Bentaleb and Dembele were more or less 3 against 2 in the centre of midfield all game. Not sure what people are expecting from them?

They kept us ticking, we didn't give away possession as cheaply as we have in some recent games against worse opponents and we weren't wide open defensively through the middle. Always going to be tough for a central two to do all that work whilst also making telling contributions in the final third.

Eriksen has more freedom, I expect him to do more in the final third, get up there and create or finish chances. I felt that when he had the opportunity to do something a little bit special he very rarely took that opportunity and his touch let him down much more than I feel it does when he's at his best.

 

[indianspur]

Solid enough performance I thought. Arsenal deserved the win, but we weren't outplayed and all in all I find it hard to complain about what the players did.

Think Eriksen might need a slight break, haven't been at his best lately. Bentaleb was very good I thought, massive positive. Rose had a real off day.

agree with all that

disappointing we didnt engage the strikers more.....they really look to be in form. Ade has so much power, pace and confidence right now, and Soldado again impressed me with moments of real quality on the ball, the way he bamboozled vermaalen was superb as was the defenders recovery tackle i guess. Soldado is so good on the ball, its a peasant surprise. just needs to find that form in front of goal [-o<

 

[braineclipse]

agree with all that

disappointing we didnt engage the strikers more.....they really look to be in form. Ade has so much power, pace and confidence right now, and Soldado again impressed me with moments of real quality on the ball, the way he bamboozled vermaalen was superb as was the defenders recovery tackle i guess. Soldado is so good on the ball, its a peasant surprise. just needs to find that form in front of goal [-o<

Yeah, we did struggle to get them involved. Shame Lamela was injured I think he could have done some good in that second half when we looked short on creativity as we tried to push forward.

----------------

Has there been a consensus on the first goal btw?

I thought it started with Rose getting his positioning way wrong, that left Chiriches and Dawson alone with Gnabry and Walcott, Walker rushed in to help, but that left Cazorla all alone. Potential for every defender to do better, suppose Walker gets most of the blame? But for me it started with Rose getting lost on the left.

 

[Jordinho]

Yeah, we did struggle to get them involved. Shame Lamela was injured I think he could have done some good in that second half when we looked short on creativity as we tried to push forward.

----------------

Has there been a consensus on the first goal btw?

I thought it started with Rose getting his positioning way wrong, that left Chiriches and Dawson alone with Gnabry and Walcott, Walker rushed in to help, but that left Cazorla all alone. Potential for every defender to do better, suppose Walker gets most of the blame? But for me it started with Rose getting lost on the left.

Dawson and Walker sharing the blame for me, Dawson oblivious to what's happening behind him as usual and Walker drifting in too centrally. Chiriches and Rose pick up the two Arsenal players on their side of the pitch. Our two CMs should perhaps take some of the blame as well.

 

[Mumorn]

Looking at the gif. I have no idea what Chiriches is doing, no idea why Dawson is following Walcott, he was going AWAY from goal, **** poor awareness from a Premier League centre half and yeah, not sure why Walker is driftign too centrally, caught it too minds there as you can see he tries to force Gnabry into passing by pretending to tackle but in the end its too late.

I hope we can learn from this.

 

[indianspur]

Walker was culpable imo.....he shouldnt have allowed fatty so much space on the left side, Walker should have spotted the danger

 

[braineclipse]

Mumorn: I'm not sure what you're saying about Chiriches. When Rose leaves Gnabry I think Chiriches should try to deal with him. What would you have him do there?

Jordinho: Yeah, I think you could say Dawson shouldn't drop that deep, he has the chance to play Walcott offside, but drops deep instead. Then again, if he doesn't track Walcott and Gnabry finds the releasing pass in time then Dawson gets blamed for not tracking Walcott.

I still feel it starts with Rose though. He leaves himself marking no one and Gnabry (his man) if 5 yards infield of Rose with Eriksen in control of Sagna. Rose is effectively taking himself out of the game by marking no one. At that point it's 3 against 3 with Chiriches, Dawson and Walker against Gnabry, Walcott and Cazorla. There are errors being made, but anyone that has played football know that if you're 3 against 3 defensively against good players with space to be exploited it's going to be really difficult to make perfect decisions so I'm finding it hard to be super harsh on Daws or Walker.

 

[Offtowembley]

Dawson and Walker sharing the blame for me, Dawson oblivious to what's happening behind him as usual and Walker drifting in too centrally. Chiriches and Rose pick up the two Arsenal players on their side of the pitch. Our two CMs should perhaps take some of the blame as well.

No wonder Kings knees were ****ed having to carry Dawson for most of his career .

 

[BrainOfLevy]

As I said previously, it all depends on the prism you are looking through. I must say mate some of your hyperbole in this game is perplexing. Take a step back and look at it objectively for a moment. This was nowhere near as bad a performance as you and others make out. Certainly MUCH better than the 0-1 defeat there earlier this season where we never created a single chance.

So we lost away against one of, if not, the best sides in the country, who are currently top of the league and boast the best defensive record. Were we seriously outplayed? Not in my view. We created plenty of chances and half chances. If Ade and Solly had their shooting boots on, we win that game. We lost to two defensive errors - one a complete mistake. An open game that, while the **** deserved to win, could have gone either way with a bit of good fortune on our side IMO.

Taking all the other factors into account ( as have been dealt with at length on here by others) really not too bad at all. Cheer up. Only three days previously we had beaten the reigning champions on their own patch. Buy a top striker this window (i have only said that for the last three january windows!) to compete with Ade, and a left back, and when our injuries recover, we are good to go. Hang on. The future is bright.

I know the future is bright, I believe in Tim to be honest. I think he knows what he is doing, and I think we have a good squad that is still well within touch with our top 4 objective.

But I'm talking specifically about yesterday's performance. I'm not saying that because we lost to a top side we have no hope for the rest of the season, I'm merely querying why people think yesterday was, objectively, pretty good. I do think we were rubbish. Arsenal looked far and away better than us, and I don't think we had any redeeming qualities from the performance. I certainly don't think that it was much better than the 1-0 - not that we were really any good in that game, apart from at least being able to impose the possession on Arsenal. Yesterday we imposed nothing - not possession, not a threat on the break because the passing let us down, and rubbish defensively when it mattered.

If yesterday we created 'plenty of chances and half chances' then I'm sorry, but we've been doing it all season where people have said that we haven't created any. It can't go both ways. Aside from the Eriksen chance, I've not had anyone give me a chance that would have 'counted' in the analysis of the previous games earlier in the season. The rest of the chances would have been laughed off two months ago as an example of relying on turgid attacking play.

Again, I'm not worried about the future of the club. I'm not over-reacting based on this loss. I understand the reasons for it, I don't blame the manager and we're still on track to do what we need to do. But the performance was rubbish IMO, and I just find it strange that people are pretty happy with this while absolutely slaughtering much better performances earlier in the season. Taking away the fact it's a cup game, and talking purely about the performance, I really don't think it was good. Certainly not as good as some of the performances I defended earlier in the season, to be told how turgid they were.

 

[Mumorn]

No wonder Kings knees were ****ed having to carry Dawson for most of his career .

:lol:

 

[indianspur]

I know the future is bright, I believe in Tim to be honest. I think he knows what he is doing, and I think we have a good squad that is still well within touch with our top 4 objective.

But I'm talking specifically about yesterday's performance. I'm not saying that because we lost to a top side we have no hope for the rest of the season, I'm merely querying why people think yesterday was, objectively, pretty good. I do think we were rubbish. Arsenal looked far and away better than us, and I don't think we had any redeeming qualities from the performance. I certainly don't think that it was much better than the 1-0 - not that we were really any good in that game, apart from at least being able to impose the possession on Arsenal. Yesterday we imposed nothing - not possession, not a threat on the break because the passing let us down, and rubbish defensively when it mattered.

If yesterday we created 'plenty of chances and half chances' then I'm sorry, but we've been doing it all season where people have said that we haven't created any. It can't go both ways. Aside from the Eriksen chance, I've not had anyone give me a chance that would have 'counted' in the analysis of the previous games earlier in the season. The rest of the chances would have been laughed off two months ago as an example of relying on turgid attacking play.

Again, I'm not worried about the future of the club. I'm not over-reacting based on this loss. I understand the reasons for it, I don't blame the manager and we're still on track to do what we need to do. But the performance was rubbish IMO, and I just find it strange that people are pretty happy with this while absolutely slaughtering much better performances earlier in the season. Taking away the fact it's a cup game, and talking purely about the performance, I really don't think it was good. Certainly not as good as some of the performances I defended earlier in the season, to be told how turgid they were.

we played away against the club who are top of the PL table. Defensively fantastic, pass masters in midfield, and always dangerous in attack.

what are the away games earlier in the season where we played well against such strong opposition?

 

[BrainOfLevy]

we played away against the club who are top of the PL table. Defensively fantastic, pass masters in midfield, and always dangerous in attack.

what are the away games earlier in the season where we played well against such strong opposition?

At least in the 1-0 we had some redeeming quality in that we were able to go there and impose ourselves in a possession sense. I'm not saying it made it a good performance because we didn't create much from it (although Soldado had a chance from a Townsend cut back, which if happened yesterday people would be calling it a great chance that if we had scored it would have turned the game. We also had Defoe from 20 yards forcing a stretched save from Chesney, and we also had the ball bounce up for Walker which if he connected with better could have rifled into the net from inside the box...) but at least you could see what we were trying to do.

Yesterday I saw nothing. I'm not even saying we were necessarily better against similar opposition earlier in the season, but people are so positive about what they saw yesterday compared to games where we were much better getting absolutely slaughtered. I was defending these games, listing chances that were much better than what we had yesterday and they were written off, we played turgid football and those chances weren't real clear chances so they didn't count. But yesterday, these half chances are the ones we are hanging our hat on, as they supposedly could have changed the game.

Emirates Marketing Project score at the Etihad and Lamela immediately misses from 6 yards up the other end. Could have been a lot different...

 

[Libero]

Walker was culpable imo.....he shouldnt have allowed fatty so much space on the left side, Walker should have spotted the danger

I think that is both harsh and wrong tbh. I think the initial fault lies with Rose and Chiriches not communicating and one of them (preferably Chiriches) getting tight to Gnabry. If that happens then Rose tucks in and narrows the back line with Dawson holding centre ground and Walker not sucked in and towards the ball. As a full back it is really difficult not to try and engage a player that looks like and will outrrun your team mate with the ball at his feet and then be in on goal. You will try to go across and narrow the angle meaning they have to continue going across the face of the area rather than into it if they have the run on a centre back but it is about finding a balance with the angles.

Walker was between a rock and a hard place really and the only thing I can criticise him fully for is that he perhaps didnt need to go quite as close to the ball and he could have tried to maintain a positions that would have made it hard for Gnabry to pass or get a shot off cleanly if he got round Dawson.

 

[Ganter]

two defensive errors cost us the match. Also our squad looked very fatigued.

Hate loosing to those ****ers but some relief that we can now focus on the league and Europe. Doesn´t winning the Europa League give access to CL ?

 

[Libero]

two defensive errors cost us the match. Also our squad looked very fatigued.

Hate loosing to those ****ers but some relief that we can now focus on the league and Europe. Doesn´t winning the Europa League give access to CL ?

Not till next season. Winning it however would be a very big moment for us.

 

[SteveAWOL]

No wonder Kings knees were ****ed having to carry Dawson for most of his career .

This.

Dawson is a good lad to have in the squad but he's never going to be in the same class as a King, Woodgate, Kaboul or any of the other immensely talented but injury ravaged CBs we've had at the club in recent seasons.

 

[thfcsteff]

The thing is mate, those numpties are the same numpties as to why we never got the full 15% allocation and it justifies the reasoning behind it - that we would cause trouble. Its giving those ****s ammunition to turn around and continue to give us a measly 10%

Again on the money. With their stupid actions they have cost us more tickets in the future. Spot on Sir.