***TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR v Crystal Palace OMT***

[PochettinoPochettinoPochettino]

Hang on these are the same players who were ****e last season, and Sherwood labelled gutless. Seriously there are not great options everywhere. Paulinho has not played well from the beginning, Chadli has been inconsistent, Soldado cannot score, ADe doesn't play, Chiriches is woeful, Capoue is woeful, Walker is injured Lennon, with his injury problems, has played 2 games in a row and we have a game on Thurs which is crucial to determine where we finish. Every time Lamela plays he gets slated by fans. Ok Poch could play stambouli more, but he is giving bentaleb and mason a run. So what are the options?

Resign.

 

[Pirate55]

I pretty much never have a go at the manager, but what the hell was that today? I don't blame team preparation, and every time someone has said Poch has made bizarre subs I've never agreed with it. But that was absolutely ridiculous today.

I said already that we need, on our pitch or any other similar small one, some pace with a winger playing on their 'proper' flank to move the ball away from the congested areas that inevitably happen when teams with no ambition come to WHL to stop us. Last weekend we played superbly against Everton with Lennon starting. He gave us that missing dynamic.

I love Paulinho but how the hell was he required today? I also love Chadli, but putting him on the left is going to create the same problems that Lamela had on the right. Pointless sub. And then giving Lennon 7 minutes. Absolutely ridiculous. I have no idea what he was thinking.

The only explanation I can possibly think of is that Poch wanted to use this game to see whether it really was Lennon making the difference last week, or whether the team can prevail with the system he wants. Not that I would agree with that, but I can almost understand it. For any other reason, I just think he performed terribly today. He tried to overcomplicate what was required when it was plain as day to everybody what we actually needed.

agree with this - apart from the quite absurd suggestion that he left Lennon out as an experiment!! As far fetched as that is, even if true, it just doesnt wash as we desperately needed threee points today. He could have experiemented on Thursday ffs.

 

[Jimmy-g]

Good old 4-2-3-1, will he ever learn.

Soldado,Lamela,Paulinho and Capoue all not good enough at present to start a game, who the hell buys our players Lamela today was awful.
Our back five were good I thought, Bentaleb and Mason passable, the rest rubbish, I still think its the formation, oh well played Palace!

 

[Robspur12]

Usually I'd completely agree with you that the fans know nowhere near as much as the manager, but today was a complete joke to be honest.

The issue of dire home performances, trying to play eye of the needle football on the most congested pitch in the league has been happening for over 2 years now. It's not a Poch specific thing. But he cost us today by not making the most obvious play. I firmly believe that.

So who do you drop to give that width? Eriksen? so we play Lamela wide left and Lennon wide right? Because it looks like we do not press the ball well enough to not have 2 defensive midfielders at the moment and soldado cannot play on his own.

 

[shaney]

Im disgusted by that performance but no Poch doesnt HAVE to go. Poch was poor today and worse than the players but ill give him time. The issue I have is he is AVB MKII - reminds me so much of AVB.

But thats just it. He is worse then AVB. Thats the scary thing.

 

[harr1984]

Chiriches at least offers width and some skill on the right, something Dier doesn't. Those complaining about Lennon not starting, he needed to be rested just like many others who actually played clearly did. Was just a jaded performance...


Sitting on my porcelain throne using Fapatalk

 

[scaramanga]

Mate rubbish I watch a lot of Italian football and a little from other clubs and I see all teams making crosses. I would not want us to be an old fashioned up and under style team but being able to mix and match a tactics it keeps the opposition under pressure.

It's all here mate:
http://2plus2equals11.wordpress.com/category/crossing/

Crossing is pretty much a waste of time other than once or twice a match to keep the oppositions guessing.

 

[DHSF]

In what way do you think that he reminiscent of AVB?

Stubborn,
Eye of the needle type stuff
Stubborn
Boring football
Stubborn
Narrow football
Stubborn
Poor Subs
Stubborn
Crap tactics at home
Stubborn
Good away from home


Its evident. That was diabolical and whilst the majority were sucking the team off last week I dont think we played that well. We defended for our lives last week, its like we are not in control. Where is our identity yes I understand it takes time but the frustrating thing here is progress or lack thereof... one step forward two steps back and so on...

 

[Baleforce]

I loathe the "I've been saying for months" line, but I'm gonna go with it anyway, no point blaming MP in my view, the problem
is (obviously) that most of our players are crap, they were crap last year, we've not signed any PL ready players this year, what do people expect?

this is going to take a long time to sort out unless our resources change dramatically

 

[Stouty]

Turdgid

Turdyid, am I allowed to say that?

1 point from 3 home games v Wba, Stoke and Crystal Palace is **** poor. That is all.

 

[Rossi22]

Don''t see what sacking him would achieve. We sacked a manager who finished 4th, his replacement finished 5th and his replacement finished 6th. If Levy's going to sack anyone it should be himself and yacht boy.

 

[shaney]

While I am obviously dissapointed, If there was one shred of anything to convince me that Poch is building and working towards something here then I would agree he should stay. But there is'nt. As much as some people here wont be able to stomach it, I believe he WILL be sacked, and its just a matter of when.

 

[Modric THFC]

Good old 4-2-3-1, will he ever learn.

Soldado,Lamela,Paulinho and Capoue all not good enough at present to start a game, who the hell buys our players Lamela today was awful.
Our back five were good I thought, Bentaleb and Mason passable, the rest rubbish, I still think its the formation, oh well played Palace!

Our defense is the main problem. Vertonghen Fazio and Dier were all poor today.
And 4231? Why obsess over a formation?
Who's top of the league? Chelsea. Formation? 4231

 

[GrimsbyYid]

Similar to AVB. Except under him were solid, won games, always challenging for the top 4. Plus he had to have his best players sold both seasons. Poch has the most settled squad we've had in years.

Poch is a ****ing amateur compared to AVB.

I also don't sgree with our squad being awful. But if you don't play the best players and play the likes of mane, mason, the worst Kaboul of his career, the worst ade of his carrer etc then yeah. Awful. On,y one man to blame though.

 

[Hemant]

We are missing a good defensive midfielder in front of the back 4 Paulinho just not good enough and there is too much pressure on Bentaleb.

The wrong sub was not just Paulinho coming on but exarcebated by the removal of Mason, it should have been the left sided crab who should have gone.

 

[milo]

Stubborn,
Eye of the needle type stuff
Stubborn
Boring football
Stubborn
Narrow football
Stubborn
Poor Subs
Stubborn
Crap tactics at home
Stubborn
Good away from home


Its evident. That was diabolical and whilst the majority were sucking the team off last week I dont think we played that well. We defended for our lives last week, its like we are not in control. Where is our identity yes I understand it takes time but the frustrating thing here is progress or lack thereof... one step forward two steps back and so on...

I don't get this stubborn thing. He is changing things from game to game. He is picking players based on form. His subs didn't work today but that is not always the case, he got them right last weekend. I am also pleased that he is will to change things early. The problem we have is the squad is average, a bit samey and lacks experience.

 

[elltrev]

I have only read the abstract but it seems pretty conclusive

I disagree - a) they're only measuring goals scored directly from a cross (e.g. a half-clearance followed by a shot that goes in wouldn't count), and b) they don't take into account that teams might be more likely to cross in games where it is more difficult to score full stop (e.g. if a team is defending deep and in numbers).

And in any case width isn't just about crosses - it's about stretching teams and getting behind them, to create space and chaos elsewhere (appreciate that's a different point).

 

[BrainOfLevy]

agree with this - apart from the quite absurd suggestion that he left Lennon out as an experiment!! As far fetched as that is, even if true, it just doesnt wash as we desperately needed threee points today. He could have experiemented on Thursday ffs.

I'm not saying it's my suggestion, it's just it's the only reason I can possibly comprehend to leave him out as long as he did today. If he was only fit for 7 minute he shouldn't have been taking a place on the bench.

 

[the dza]

It's all here mate:
http://2plus2equals11.wordpress.com/category/crossing/

Crossing is pretty much a waste of time other than once or twice a match to keep the oppositions guessing.

We barely seem to do that though, except near the end of matches when we start to panic. Utd under Fergie used to get it wide and cross it a lot. Even that article says that:

Let’s consider an example of a team that both crosses more than average and converts those crosses into goals more efficiently e.g. Manchester United in 2011/12. They averaged 22 open-play crosses per game and scored 19 goals, which works out at 43.5 crosses per goal. So even a really good crossing team in terms of their goal return could only manage a goal from an open play cross every two games. The caveat to this last point also is that I don’t have the data to look at whether that is a sustainable level of goal production from crosses.

So he counts goals direct from crosses, but how about where a quick counter leads to a crossd that is half-cleared, then one or two quick passes from that bad clearance lead to a goal? The speed of the attack and cross caused the chaos to give the passers space. Dry stats alone can often be b0ll0cks, although I do like stats.

If you take it too fa and go like Moyes, then it doesn't work. But getting it wide quickly and scrambling the opposition defence is something that worked for Fergie year after year.

 

[ringo]

It's all here mate:
http://2plus2equals11.wordpress.com/category/crossing/

Crossing is pretty much a waste of time other than once or twice a match to keep the oppositions guessing.

That isn't quite waht it says to be fair:
"That isn’t to say that crossing is pointless – as a part of a varied attacking approach and against an opponent who isn’t dug in and ready for them, they can be an effective source of goals.."

And I'm sure AVB read every stats book on football going and had the finest back room team of match analysts and match stats resources money could buy. And look what good it did him.

It may be that cross that only converts once every two/three matches (according to your source - whose data source was fairly limited and who, as far as I could see, didn't define "cross", which you might think was quite important) that turns out to be the winner in the CL final.