**** Tottenham Hotspur FC vs Fulham FC ****

[Jurgen the German]

I'm surprised you haven't blamed our loss yesterday on women.

Yeah it’s all their fault really

 

[Legohamster]

Villa was far more than a 20 minute burst, come on man..

Yesterday could have been a conditioning thing? Too many players needing recovery? Lots of factors to consider.

Ange's system is notoriously hard on bodies, can take the first season or more for players to fully acclimatise..

Villa aside, I stand by what I said, even V Villa it was a pretty poor first half by both sides, we scored twice early in the second half, then Mcginn lost his head and it's V 10.

We've had a week off, how will we cope with midweek games as well?

There at 10 games to go, is slogging the players at this stage a good idea?

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Villa aside, I stand by what I said, even V Villa it was a pretty poor first half by both sides, we scored twice early in the second half, then Mcginn lost his head and it's V 10.

We've had a week off, how will we cope with midweek games as well?

There at 10 games to go, is slogging the players at this stage a good idea?

We’re not slogging anyone
Watkins is on his 48th game on the Trot

 

[Jurgen the German]

Villa aside, I stand by what I said, even V Villa it was a pretty poor first half by both sides, we scored twice early in the second half, then Mcginn lost his head and it's V 10.

We've had a week off, how will we cope with midweek games as well?

There at 10 games to go, is slogging the players at this stage a good idea?

No you have to say we dominated or you’ll hurt his feelings

 

[jrh]

We’re not slogging anyone
Watkins is on his 48th game on the Trot

No but as I understand it, we're pushing to the limits and beyond physically, both in training and in games, to prepare for seasons ahead.

Some off days physically could be a side effect of that.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

No but as I understand it, we're pushing to the limits and beyond physically, both in training and in games, to prepare for seasons ahead.

Some off days physically could be a side effect of that.

Maybe
Hard to tell
The fitness maybe be an issue but that doesn’t excuse the poor passing and tracking yesterday

 

[jrh]

Maybe
Hard to tell
The fitness maybe be an issue but that doesn’t excuse the poor passing and tracking yesterday

Nah no excuses, just trying to understand why it was such a drastic reduction in overall performance.

 

[thfcsteff]

Another team has caused us problems by playing a system where they’re happy to let our two centre backs have the ball, that allows them to get tight to everyone else. I suspect all teams will do this now.

A massive issue again for us (and it was at Villa first-half too) is that Romero will carry the ball and either miss the early movement of one of our fasties, or see no decent moveent ahead of him anywhere. I actually think he has very decent ball carrying/passing skills for a CB. Add Madders dropping deep to pick up the ball half the time, and it adds up to issues. BTW, this is where most of my issues around Bissouma lie. He is our 6, and as such, has a role at which he is meant to be one of the best in the league. Currently he is not performing to potential or even level, which means we end up with Maddison feeling he needs to roll back and spark from deeper himself, when we really need him 10-15 yards up the pitch. It is why I think Ange still wants to see if Bentancur can develop into a 6 as well as the 8 he is, alternately, it is why I think this is another position we have to have world class quality at. The much-mentioned Rice proves that you get what you pay for.

 

[We are Tottenham]

Slightly different point

But there is Zero pressure from the fan base to win anything compared to United / Arsenal etc.

Footballers can come to spurs for an easy life

yep...no pressure with fans like we have on here!

 

[Bishop]

No I don’t
But you wanna argue
That’s fine
Possession in the right parts of the pitch is dominance
Shooting is a product that sometimes
Against Villa away we were dominant
The stats showed it. My eyes showed it
We didn’t just shoot on sight first half because they had 9 men behind the ball most of that half. They played a back 5 and 3 midfielders who never left their half. Same as palace
Like i say, if you want shooting go and watch Everton

Let's just say dominance of the ball is irrelevant if you don't actually do anything with it. It's just possession for possession sake.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Let's just say dominance of the ball is irrelevant if you don't actually do anything with it. It's just possession for possession sake.

Yeah I agree
But that’s not how we play
We play to draw the opposition out
Previously I’ve seen us murder teams on the half way line

 

[jrh]

Let's just say dominance of the ball is irrelevant if you don't actually do anything with it. It's just possession for possession sake.

You're arguing a moot point because no one is claiming possession for possession sake is dominance.

We're talking about working the opposition over with quick use of the ball while backing it up with an aggressive press. That fudges teams over, whether you or Carra want to admit it or not.

 

[Bishop]

You're arguing a moot point because no one is claiming possession for possession sake is dominance.

We're talking about working the opposition over with quick use of the ball while backing it up with an aggressive press. That fudges teams over, whether you or Carra want to admit it or not.

I did say "if you don't do anything with it" working the opposition over, moving their defence around and mentally fatiguing the opposition via intense pressure would count as doing something with the ball.

You see that as being the case Vs Villa in the first half, I can't say I really agree tbh. I'd have to watch the game again, but having watched it twice already I don't quite agree.

 

[Mr Gogolak]

Maybe another way to look at it is that 'dominating' doesn't really mean much in football. It's just something we use in our conversations to support a claim but we can't even agree on what it means. At the end of the day, football is about results: if you 'dominate' 38 games in a season and end up relegated, then there isn't much point to it.

Mid- and long-term trends are more interesting, I think. Even early in the season, we struggled against low-block teams (see Sheffield United at home). The main difference, for me, is that our movement off the ball has fallen down a cliff since December/January. Somtimes, Postecoglou has been able to find a solution by substituting players at the right times but I think his system is very dependant on stamina (our own and the opposition's) and despite a relatively light schedule (but also because of injuries), this team has left a lot to be desired in that department.

It's far from a disaster considering where we were in July. However, we may dominate as many games as we want by anyone's metrics over the next couple of months, if we can't work a way around our current problems, it will only add to the frustration.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Maybe another way to look at it is that 'dominating' doesn't really mean much in football. It's just something we use in our conversations to support a claim but we can't even agree on what it means. At the end of the day, football is about results: if you 'dominate' 38 games in a season and end up relegated, then there isn't much point to it.

Mid- and long-term trends are more interesting, I think. Even early in the season, we struggled against low-block teams (see Sheffield United at home). The main difference, for me, is that our movement off the ball has fallen down a cliff since December/January. Somtimes, Postecoglou has been able to find a solution by substituting players at the right times but I think his system is very dependant on stamina (our own and the opposition's) and despite a relatively light schedule (but also because of injuries), this team has left a lot to be desired in that department.

It's far from a disaster considering where we were in July. However, we may dominate as many games as we want by anyone's metrics over the next couple of months, if we can't work a way around our current problems, it will only add to the frustration.

What are the current problems?
last week there werent any, this week there is

 

[Jurgen the German]

What are the current problems?
last week there werent any, this week there is

No team is perfect but the biggest ones for me are we concede too many goals and gift teams chances. There’s been games where teams have missed gilt edged chances against us before scoring. More often than not, the games we have lost the teams scored and you could hardly say it was out of the blue as they had missed chances before they eventually scored. I think we all expect growing pains this season and to see improvements next season. We need to tighten up and be more solid at the back.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

No team is perfect but the biggest ones for me are we concede too many goals and gift teams chances. There’s been games where teams have missed gilt edged chances against us before scoring. More often than not, the games we have lost the teams scored and you could hardly say it was out of the blue as they had missed chances before they eventually scored. I think we all expect growing pains this season and to see improvements next season. We need to tighten up and be more solid at the back.

Fully agree
yet people say we need better attackers
teh way we concede goals is really really poor
i can always handle worldies but there mainly of our making
that’s a Huge issue

bit Before yesterday we had conceded only one open play goal in our last 6 games IIRC

 

[Bishop]

Fully agree
yet people say we need better attackers
teh way we concede goals is really really poor
i can always handle worldies but there mainly of our making
that’s a Huge issue

bit Before yesterday we had conceded only one open play goal in our last 6 games IIRC

We do need better attackers, but then we also need that DM that adds security along with the back up LB and the first 11 capable AM to compete with Maddison. I don't even think that's the limit of what's needed but those would the priority positions imo.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

We do need better attackers, but then we also need that DM that adds security along with the back up LB and the first 11 capable AM to compete with Maddison. I don't even think that's the limit of what's needed but those would the priority positions imo.

I think Bergvahl is the Maddison cover/replacement so not a new signing
deffo need that left back cover and right too (although we some youth players there who may step up)
the 6 role is an issue now
for me we need 5 players this summer
those for, above and another WF in addition to Werner on a perm
and a 4th CB a he will play

 

[Jurgen the German]

Fully agree
yet people say we need better attackers
teh way we concede goals is really really poor
i can always handle worldies but there mainly of our making
that’s a Huge issue

bit Before yesterday we had conceded only one open play goal in our last 6 games IIRC

We do need better forwards in addition to making the defence more robust and less leaky. None of the forwards are poor but the only one close to world class is Son.