Spurs (A) | PL | Post-Match Thread

[cityboy1]

A component of our drop in form is Haaland.

He's world class - but he's no false 9.

IMO - Pep needs to change his footballing philosophy to accommodate Haaland.

In past seasons - Pep has relied on ball control and deft passing. If we have the ball... they can't score.

This tactic, however, breaks down - if you have a true striker - and especially a striker who isn't particularly gifted at ball retention/passing - e.g., Haaland.

IMO we need to be much more risk adverse in our passing - willing to turn the ball over - hopefully temporarily - passing much, much, much more often to Haaland, even if this leads to a turn over.

In the risky pass to Haaland style, our press will likely need to be much more aggressive. We'll still play a high line - except that we'll now turn the ball over much more often. If we're not to be destroyed on the counter - our press will need to be immediate - fast players at every position.

This style of play is 100% not the way Pep prefers - but with Haaland - this style seems, if not mandatory, at the very least, best.

Does he need to change everything for haaland tho? I think just having fast wingers who can actually cross would help more. He didn't need to change his style for lewandoski when he was at bayern?

 

[Maldeika]

Does he need to change everything for haaland tho? I think just having fast wingers who can actually cross would help more. He didn't need to change his style for lewandoski when he was at bayern?

Oh - he did not need in Lewy's first season as there were Robben and Müller performing. Lewy did not have more goals than Robben did even if Robben was injured for awhile. But he had to adapt the match more to Lewy and Müller in his second year with different wingers as Robben was missing.

I think the whole three years in Munich meant adaption for him. He had a totally new league, new team with new players, a new system etc. I think the biggest change was a league as the opponents might not have been less technical but a lot more intensity, a lot more team and tactics etc. I think at first he wanted to make us to be a "new" Barcelona - until he remarked that that was not smart in a league like the Bundesliga with this set of players.

About strikers - in the first year he had a lot of trouble with Mandzukic because he often tried to go without real striker - with a big bang at the end.

 

[Bluemart]

whats odd, is that we were banging them in at the start of the season. 4 against palace, 6 against forest, 6 against united. teams just seem to have sussed us and our levels have also dropped off massively.

Exactly..... we now don’t get the ball into the box quickly enough, if we don’t start doing this again the Haaland won’t score. At home to Wolves & Spurs w e did and scored goals

 

[jrb]

Another match, frustratingly lost, looking to day’s result, Leicester 4 - Spurs 1.

 

[applejuice]

whats odd, is that we were banging them in at the start of the season. 4 against palace, 6 against forest, 6 against united. teams just seem to have sussed us and our levels have also dropped off massively.

PL has found Halaand weakness. At the start of the season most of team tried to put one or two CB closely mark Halaand neck to neck. Then someone found out that the best way was keeping a short distance behind Halaand rather than closely mark him. Then his number dropped massively. I think that the first game did so Liverpool away if I remember correctly. u

 

[applejuice]

Another match, frustratingly lost, looking to day’s result, Leicester 4 - Spurs 1.

They could not defend without Romero and Lloris.

Sadly we only took them out of the match until the very last minutes of the game.

 

[RayCTID]

Another match, frustratingly lost, looking to day’s result, Leicester 4 - Spurs 1.

Mahrez hit the bar

 

[dajd1984]

Mate, apart from sharing the same surname, there is nothing connecting them as (even as similar) players. Gundogan is 10x more similar to Merlin's style of play, but Pep stopped playing him further up front eons ago.
It is all about fitting Haaland in and it became salient issue since almost ever other player was hit by injury or catastrophic fall in form. He is a goal machine when presented with chances, but when not it is like playing with 10 men. He offers next to nothing and it is make or break for Pep. Cancelo thing and Rico becoming out of nowher the standard eleven player, and no less than playing with Rodri in the MF on the most important game of the season after Arsenal losing, is telling me Pep is tiptoeing that line dividing a madman from a genius.

That assist for the assist tonight from Bernardo was just like a bit of Dave.

They definitely have a lot of similar attributes.

 

[mcfcphil]

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