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*** Superspur vs Leicester OMT: The Sequel ***

braineclipse said:
This kind of average formation paints a distorted picture when players interchange as much as our 3 attacking midfielders do. If a player completely hugged the right side touchline for 22.5 minutes then switched sides and hugged the other touchline for 22.5 minutes the "average formation" would put him dead centre I believe...

Of course none of our players hug either touchline for extended periods of time. But interchanging between the right side, central position and left hand side with Kane sometimes dropping deeper or wide with midfielders making runs beyond him while at some times coming deeper to interchange with a central midfielder means that looking at an average becomes pretty much pointless.

Did we have a lack of width yesterday? I didn't think so. We found our full backs well in attacking positions and our attacking midfielders stayed wide (or made runs wide) enough to make that happen.

Eriksen (in the PL), Lamela (Serie A) and Alli (for us this season and League One) are capable of racking up goals from those attacking midfield spots. Lamela is the only one still not showing that fully in the PL, but I think there's a good chance it's coming. This was the first time I've seen Lamela as the one furthest forward on one of those average position maps, think it's probably somewhat coincidental. Alli seems to be the one that gets that most often, and that makes sense as he's a good goalscorer it seems.
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To be honest, I don't care about the players being narrow, that's just incidental. My main point was that the most advanced attacker, on average, was Lamela. I think that we'd be better served with a more natural forward player being the most advanced, which is why I hope we buy Berahino and look to get him in the team with Kane and one of Eriksen or Lamela.
 
Haven't read through the thread, but has that freekick in a shooting position out on the right side in the second half been mentioned? Eriksen and Lamela over it and Lamela does that little run over he always does, just for Eriksen to hit the THREE man wall? whats the point? Doesn't it just take out one of our attacking players for absolutely no reason? At least both run at the ball at the same time to add a bit of unpredictablity.

I really thought that set up was crying out for a left footed Lamela shot, it looked like the keeper had left that side of his goal a little exposed and it was a great distance for a curling shot round the wall and into the top corner or a very powerful low shot around the wall towards the center of the goal in the hope it slipped in or the keeper was unable to hold it.

I've been a big supporter of Lamela i just wish the guy would have a crack more often, or we limit Eriksens shots to central and the leftside from free kicks.
Anyway, its a minor point but it really irked me for some reason

Gutted about the result as i had "settled" for a 0-0 by about the 65th minute mark and was disappointed about that, so to walk away 0-1 felt way worse than it should have.

COYS.
 
Last year we were better in the second half of games. This year were better in the first half and taper off. Maybe we should start conserving our energy for the tail end of games rather than coming out the gate like gangbusters?
 
alekaras said:
Last year we were better in the second half of games. This year were better in the first half and taper off. Maybe we should start conserving our energy for the tail end of games rather than coming out the gate like gangbusters?
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Or at least score when we're on top.
 
Hidden said:
That is the weekest EPL for many-many years and ALL EPL recognized leaders (maybe except Arsenal and still it's disputable) are perfoming below expectations.
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Did you sit to consider that this is the more evenly matched EPL in years, rather than the weakest, meaning any side can beat any other side? Which wouldn't make us exempt from being on the losing end of some of these matches.
 
"Tottenham's Jan Verthongen clings to positives from frustrating Leicester loss"

“They played their same game,” Vertonghen said. “They play the ball up to their strikers and are good from set pieces. We knew they would do that. They play that game very well.

“They always approach every game in the same way, so we knew what to expect – they kick every ball they get long and run. And when they don’t have the ball, they all defend. But it works for them.”

“We had a lot of corners and it is true we maybe need to do more with them,” he said. “We have had a great season and scored a lot of goals, and it is just in the last couple of games things have not gone so well. Normally we don’t succeed from set pieces. It might be something we have to look at.”

“We wanted to win, so I am very disappointed,” Vertonghen said. “We have been playing very well this season so every time we don’t win it becomes an ‘incident’. That’s a very good sign, I think.

“We know we will be ready again come Saturday, when we will be doing everything we can to win again. Revenge is not a word I use but we have a chance to beat Leicester next week. But let’s concentrate on Saturday first.”​

http://www.theguardian.com/football/2016/jan/14/tottenham-hotspur-jan-vertonghen-leicester-city
 
DubaiSpur said:
Or at least score when we're on top.
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Probably easier to score at the tail end of the game when the opposition has tired, than at the start when they're fresh and more alert.

So here's my new tactic. Play the first halves of games like the teams play against us: park the bus, give them the initiative, and conserve energy. And if we get a goal on the counter, super. Then in the second half slowly take the initiative and start pummeling them like we currently do in the first halves. I'm sure we'll get more goal-scoring chances this way. Problem with going all-out from the start is that, if we don't take our chances (which is what is happening), we're too tired later to create more. If we were going up 2- 3-0 early, I wouldn't change a thing, but we're not, so maybe worth a try.
 
alekaras said:
Probably easier to score at the tail end of the game when the opposition has tired, than at the start when they're fresh and more alert.

So here's my new tactic. Play the first halves of games like the teams play against us: park the bus, give them the initiative, and conserve energy. And if we get a goal on the counter, super. Then in the second half slowly take the initiative and start pummeling them like we currently do in the first halves. I'm sure we'll get more goal-scoring chances this way. Problem with going all-out from the start is that, if we don't take our chances (which is what is happening), we're too tired later to create more. If we were going up 2- 3-0 early, I wouldn't change a thing, but we're not, so maybe worth a try.
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That was AVB's approach too, all through the 2012-2013 season - play a boring, controlling style of football for 75-odd minutes before ramping it up for the final fifteen, usually via increasingly giving the ball to Bale. I agree with you in that attacking late is a better idea because it plays into the opposition being more tired and leaving spaces to move into, but I'm not sure if a team as young as ours can manage a game well enough to be able to turn up the tempo at will when the time comes. AVB's side had an awful lot of seasoned pros who were versed in the intricacies of controlling games in stages: this team's young enough that the possibility of them just being exuberant and then fading away is actually a semi-realistic one.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Or at least score when we're on top.
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Well this is the next obstacle to overcome in our development. We've struggled in this regard throughout the season, early fixtures were similar - on top but still dropping points, if we can improve on this to the same degree in which we have improved on last seasons defensive performance then I'd make us one of the favourites for the title - no joke... if we had half the points we dropped in games we should have won (by way of being the dominant side creating the most chances) I'm sure we'd be sitting clear at the top right now.

Rome wasn't built in a day and it's no real surprise that the leagues youngest team isn't consistently winning all the points it should
 
Bullet said:
Against Leicester, defending a corner, our defender (Toby?) is blocked off and Wasilewski powers home a free header.

3 days later the same thing happens for Huth. This is not coincidence it is brilliant corner planning.

They will try it again in a week, we need to be ready for it AND do it back to them
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LCLC said:
I think eriksen's form has nothing to do with carroll. Carroll has had a couple of bad games and about 4 good/very good ones. Eriskens lacklustre displays have rumbled on since feb last year.
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Agreed in a sense, but it affects Carroll's game, because if Eriksen is playing with confidence he will push on and into those areas and allow Carroll to do what he can do very well, cycle the ball quickly and forwards!
 
billyiddo said:
Well this is the next obstacle to overcome in our development. We've struggled in this regard throughout the season, early fixtures were similar - on top but still dropping points, if we can improve on this to the same degree in which we have improved on last seasons defensive performance then I'd make us one of the favourites for the title - no joke... if we had half the points we dropped in games we should have won (by way of being the dominant side creating the most chances) I'm sure we'd be sitting clear at the top right now.

Rome wasn't built in a day and it's no real surprise that the leagues youngest team isn't consistently winning all the points it should
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This is undoubtedly true, but I doubt there's as easy a quick fix for our ineffectiveness as a side as just buying someone like Toby and letting the Toby-Jan chemistry do the trick (with a little DM help from Dier, of course). @alekaras argues for a change of tactics that I think is well thought-out, but I don't think it's feasible for the simple reason that I don't think our team are experienced enough to start dictating the tempo of games at will. Save for a short spell under AVB, I actually don't think we were ever able to accomplish that through the PL era, and it's a minus mark against us when compared to the best teams like Ferguson's United (who were absolutely, positively masters of the art of controlling the flow of a game) and Ancelotti's Chelsea.
 
DubaiSpur said:
This is undoubtedly true, but I doubt there's as easy a quick fix for our ineffectiveness as a side as just buying someone like Toby and letting the Toby-Jan chemistry do the trick (with a little DM help from Dier, of course). @alekaras argues for a change of tactics that I think is well thought-out, but I don't think it's feasible for the simple reason that I don't think our team are experienced enough to start dictating the tempo of games at will. Save for a short spell under AVB, I actually don't think we were ever able to accomplish that through the PL era, and it's a minus mark against us when compared to the best teams like Ferguson's United (who were absolutely, positively masters of the art of controlling the flow of a game) and Ancelotti's Chelsea.
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'Just'? Those are two very important elements to a team.And then you compare this side to Ferguson's United and Ancelotti's Chelsea? I mean Dubai. Come on. Do I need to break that one down? It's the context thing again my friend...
 
thfcsteff said:
'Just'? Those are two very important elements to a team.And then you compare this side to Ferguson's United and Ancelotti's Chelsea? I mean Dubai. Come on. Do I need to break that one down? It's the context thing again my friend...
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I'm not denigrating what Poch has done with our defense, mate. I loved the signing of Toby, and I held my hands up a long time ago when it comes to Dier's effectiveness as a DM (which I doubted all the way up until October). And I'm sure that took work. But fixing our attacking potency and inculcating an ability to control games at will like United and Chelsea will take much, much more work, and solutions that are far more demanding than what he's done with our defense so far: that was my point. Compared to that, a buy and a positional shift seems like a quick fix, especially since they together achieved nearly instantaneous results.
 
billyiddo said:
Reading it back that isn't quite what I meant - what I meant is I don't think we're heading towards Kane + a Kane lite as backup I think we'll end up with two contrasting forwards, capable of playing together or in different roles or instead of one another - I don't think there's anything to suggest Poch wants a backup just to make do like some are in favor of - in fact there's probably a fair bit over this last 18 months which would suggest the opposite and I think we can take those quotes about Son and N'jie being able to cover CF as well as our clear interest in signing Berahino in the summer as a sign that he'd rather wait for the right player and use what's available in the squad than just buy a backup Cf that has no use other than to be back up
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I don't want a poor man's Harry Kane, but if the club/Poch believe it's a good idea to persist with 1 out and out striker then I believe that to be a big mistake, considering how many times this has cost us in seasons past it's incredible how naive the club as a whole are with regards to this issue. I don't expect our scouts to magically find a like for like for Kane who is available and happy to do an Ole Gunnar Solsjkaer play as a supersub, but at the same time, I don't think think it's being unrealistic to believe that there must be at least one striker in world football who is out there that would fit into our system and would be willing to join us.

I can't think of many other teams that have only 1 striker in their squad. When teams like Leicester and Saudi Sportswashing Machine come to the Lane and have more options on the bench than us then I see that as a problem. If Kane were to get injured on Saturday, we would have Son and that's it. Njie is still injured.

If you look at what has cost us points, I would say goals personally. Think about it; the defence? Well we have the best defensive record in the league so that's clearly not the issue. We have a goalkeeper who bar a handful of costly errors, has been very good. Kyle Walker makes too many brainfarts for me but that's another issue. Other than Alli, we don't score enough from midfield and we have no one to play alongside Kane to freshen it up and go 4-4-2 for example every once in a while, not every time we need a goal, just to mix it up and keep the other team honest. Either someone with pace or someone who is a physical presence. Not so long ago, we had Defoe, Keane, Crouch, Pav etc. Granted, they weren't world beaters, but we had variety.

And just to echo Robspur, the fact that Poch wanted to sign Berahino suggests to me that he is looking to get Kane some cover/help to share the load.
 
I'd like to point out that 'sh.it happens' to every team. It is not sexy, it is Footbally.

For example, the team that is about to win the league just let in a late equaliser at Anfield, it happens!

Liverpool late levellers v Arsenal
Joe Allen, 90 mins: 13 Jan 2016
Martin Skrtel, 97 mins: 21 Dec 2014
Dirk Kuyt, 102 mins: 17 Apr 2011
Yossi Benayoun, 93 mins: 21 Apr 2009
 
Bullet said:
I'd like to point out that 'sh.it happens' to every team. It is not sexy, it is Footbally.

For example, the team that is about to win the league just let in a late equaliser at Anfield, it happens!

Liverpool late levellers v Arsenal
Joe Allen, 90 mins: 13 Jan 2016
Martin Skrtel, 97 mins: 21 Dec 2014
Dirk Kuyt, 102 mins: 17 Apr 2011
Yossi Benayoun, 93 mins: 21 Apr 2009
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That is so Arsenaly!
 
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