mcfcbill91
Well-Known Member
- Joined
- 7 Jan 2015
- Messages
- 116
Having just put myself through the goals again, it's impossible to not feel a huge sense of frustration at the moment.
Personnel aside (although it definitely plays a role) we are consistently shooting ourselves in foot. It isn't acceptable at any level to concede the goals we do, whilst also allowing teams away with their own errors.
Prior to the opening goal we've missed two gilt edged chances (Haaland now on 2 goals from 8 XG after Arsenal)
First goal - Walker cedes possession when there's a simple ball inside to Lewis by fizzing it at Foden, who is brushed aside. When they recycle and pump it down the line, Gvardiol's 'defending' is laughable at best. He can tackle Kulusevski, put the ball out or just pull him over. He does zippo. It's pathetic and infuriating to hand the incentive away like this.
Second goal - Another clear error from Gvardiol, poor pass inside.
At this stage you can see the panic set in for 10 minutes afterward, we were all over the place. Yet Spurs make two or three mistakes and come out of it - like Porro looping it at the goalie etc.
Third goal - Walker weight of pass again, Foden blams it into a Spurs defender, then loses the ball again. Then it's all a mess - just flatten one of the Spurs players and take a card! It's just panicky defending but it can be stopped through a simple yellow card foul.
Fourth goal - Grealish hideous square ball and it all unravels from there.
Spurs must've been laughing their heads off, the same way Sporting were. They've been given the game through our own ineptitude by 20 minutes. It would be hard enough to recover with our best teams, let alone the patchwork ones we keep putting out at the moment.
The fixes are there with players returning, but there's a distinct lack of confidence not helped by routinely giving up these idiotic goals. Brighton was the same too - the first goal is playground stuff.
If we were hideously bad, we wouldn't be in the positions we had at Sporting & Brighton. It's like a throwback to Pep's first seasons, not strong enough in the boxes and when it goes wrong, we start flapping - like in CL campaigns against Liverpool and Tottenham.
One of the clearest fixes is to get a more stable footing when we attack, KDB showed this in his 15 minutes - three clear cut chances.
Taking these chances would also help (5 goals from 12 XG in last 5 PL games, alongside Haaland's lack of form) How we attack plays a significant role in how we defend, as we'll always have the majority of possession.
It's then showing a bit more grit & aggression - even if we go back to the 4 centre back set up for a while. I've not really analysed the structural issue yesterday, which was mostly when Spurs built up down the left side, but there were a few times we could've just knocked one of them over facing their own goal and got into shape. Plenty of teams will do this to us.
I feel like we may now have the chance to bring Rico & a couple of others out of the team for a few weeks. This may help as although he's a great prospect, he works best complimenting the side at the moment, not being a key factor. Gvardiol needs time out of it too, he's played too many minutes.
Personnel aside (although it definitely plays a role) we are consistently shooting ourselves in foot. It isn't acceptable at any level to concede the goals we do, whilst also allowing teams away with their own errors.
Prior to the opening goal we've missed two gilt edged chances (Haaland now on 2 goals from 8 XG after Arsenal)
First goal - Walker cedes possession when there's a simple ball inside to Lewis by fizzing it at Foden, who is brushed aside. When they recycle and pump it down the line, Gvardiol's 'defending' is laughable at best. He can tackle Kulusevski, put the ball out or just pull him over. He does zippo. It's pathetic and infuriating to hand the incentive away like this.
Second goal - Another clear error from Gvardiol, poor pass inside.
At this stage you can see the panic set in for 10 minutes afterward, we were all over the place. Yet Spurs make two or three mistakes and come out of it - like Porro looping it at the goalie etc.
Third goal - Walker weight of pass again, Foden blams it into a Spurs defender, then loses the ball again. Then it's all a mess - just flatten one of the Spurs players and take a card! It's just panicky defending but it can be stopped through a simple yellow card foul.
Fourth goal - Grealish hideous square ball and it all unravels from there.
Spurs must've been laughing their heads off, the same way Sporting were. They've been given the game through our own ineptitude by 20 minutes. It would be hard enough to recover with our best teams, let alone the patchwork ones we keep putting out at the moment.
The fixes are there with players returning, but there's a distinct lack of confidence not helped by routinely giving up these idiotic goals. Brighton was the same too - the first goal is playground stuff.
If we were hideously bad, we wouldn't be in the positions we had at Sporting & Brighton. It's like a throwback to Pep's first seasons, not strong enough in the boxes and when it goes wrong, we start flapping - like in CL campaigns against Liverpool and Tottenham.
One of the clearest fixes is to get a more stable footing when we attack, KDB showed this in his 15 minutes - three clear cut chances.
Taking these chances would also help (5 goals from 12 XG in last 5 PL games, alongside Haaland's lack of form) How we attack plays a significant role in how we defend, as we'll always have the majority of possession.
It's then showing a bit more grit & aggression - even if we go back to the 4 centre back set up for a while. I've not really analysed the structural issue yesterday, which was mostly when Spurs built up down the left side, but there were a few times we could've just knocked one of them over facing their own goal and got into shape. Plenty of teams will do this to us.
I feel like we may now have the chance to bring Rico & a couple of others out of the team for a few weeks. This may help as although he's a great prospect, he works best complimenting the side at the moment, not being a key factor. Gvardiol needs time out of it too, he's played too many minutes.