Spurs (H) | PL | Post Match Thread

It's not the loss so much, but yea the loss sucks, but if someone brainerier than me could perhaps explain what our plan was today? Not just what we hoped our attackers might do, but ourrplan to stop them pressing /attacking/scoring..
 
ninjamonkey said:
Not watched any of it back to see what you're saying about Lewis but it comes as no surprise to me. I've commented on that very thing numerous times in the last few seasons. If he showed as much desire to get back into position defensively as he does in sprinting to get himself upfront as quickly as possible, he'd be a substantially better player. Its a problem and one that is inexcusable.

With Trafford, as with 99% of keepers i just dont think it's natural for him so he's following instructions on runned training patterns and not going off instinct in real time. This is where Ederson is unique, he sees the game before him whereas trafford is just trying to replicate training drills and make the game play like it should.
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Rico just isn’t a right back. Doesn’t smell danger. Not his fault he is continually picked there mins
 
IrishBloodEnglishHeart said:
I see Trafford is being hung out to dry by whoppers like Chris Sutton. All adds to the pressure he'll have at every game now. They know what they're doing
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He created his own pressure after that awful pass that lead to the 2nd goal. The decision making after that was terrible and he got away with it a couple of times
 
simon23 said:
Agreed but why would Pep think that Spurs would sit deep after watching them play PSG?

Now we dont have Ederson, teams will push higher and higher up the pitch....we dont have athletes in this team to play over bigger areas...players like Cherki,Foden Bobb, Doku are all techincally excellent and better than that BUT when the pitch is spread out like its going to be when teams start to press usand the keeper has to kick long then they become less effective as physically dominant players like Papa Sarr and others use their physical attributes to get to the ball first...

Weidly - Cherki, Foden, Bobb etc are the players you want against a team that sits deep...we have just brought in a keeper who means teams will come at us more in our half which they havent done since Ederson arrive. The players Im mentioning arent going to run half the length of the field on a break away....

I think at this point (and this isnt blaming Trafford who is definitely the better shot stopper of all the keepers) but we are stuck in between styles and dont have the players to play the physical side of the game ...Id knock Riico Lewis off the ball if I was shoulder to shoulder next to him and Im 50 years old.

You saw it today when Trafford did kick long...half the team was still in our defensive third expecting him to play it short as thats what we have done for years (muscle memory and old patterns of play).

Id also say the likes of Reijnders are not upto prem speed and need to be aware of the defensive side of the game more....that balance in midfield prior to the game today was commented on as not being right...
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Actually, if teams do start to press, and we can leave Erling up, with a single midfielder ready to receive the ball when we win it, that could change the dynamic drastically. His pace and power is worthless, when we're plodding around 30m off their goal-line with no space anywhere.

Obviously it wouldn't satisfy Pep's aesthetics, but might at least make teams second-guess themselves. At the moment, it does feel that opposing coaches have 'worked out' how to play City and are happy to give up the ball and await the inevitable chances.

It's felt like that since Christmas, really. It was never just about old legs in midfield. I think we have huge potential going forward, but you can't paper over defensive cracks for the whole season.
 
The game has changed, Pep hasnt. Now teams are so direct, full of running, closing, pace and power. We still have small technical slow players.
We wasted huge money in January after other poor windows. Every team finds scoring v us easy as most shots on target hit our net which says the players and tactics are not good enough. Still no proper RB, a keeper who wants out and a replacement not good enough. Injury prone defence needs overhauling yet we give a underperforming defender a contract extension instead.
Eras come and go and ours has been nothing short of sensational but i feel we are on a downwards spiral and a real fight for 4th spot this season. The Wolves score hugely flattered the performance last week and any team with pace and energy will do what Spurs did today
 
Have we forgotten how to just shoot at goal, or has Pep trained it out of them?

The amount of times we oculd have had a player just take a chance but instead looked for that perfect 'slotted pass' was infuriating.
 
KS55 said:
Despair not. This is a new team and will take time to develop. We need to just keep working at it and not panic. The potential is there. Are those calling for Pep’s head for real?
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It’s not the players it’s the system. The squad is chock full of good players. The system nullifies them and doesn’t play to their strengths. The manager and coaching team need to own that. If they can’t change it and find something that is more suitable then thats on them
 
jimharri said:
All that positivity from last week disappeared.
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The result last week flattered us a bit and we were lulled into thinking we were better than we are atm. Wolves had sold their three best players but even then with a bit more luck they might have scored a couple themselves at least.
We started brightly today but lost our way after they scored. Second best, outmuscled and some very sloppy passing. Some players heads went down a bit. Early days and a lot of new players still settling in but not surprisingly we're miles off the last few years standards.
 
prestonibbo_mcfc said:
He gives them too much respect. Re their counters. Fucking go for it, go 4 -0 up and then their counters won't count as much. If we get countered anyway, what does it matter, we lose as ir is.
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pep really is a coward when it comes to teams who play on the counter, it's disgusting to see
 
noseve said:
Actually, if teams do start to press, and we can leave Erling up, with a single midfielder ready to receive the ball when we win it, that could change the dynamic drastically. His pace and power is worthless, when we're plodding around 30m off their goal-line with no space anywhere.

Obviously it wouldn't satisfy Pep's aesthetics, but might at least make teams second-guess themselves. At the moment, it does feel that opposing coaches have 'worked out' how to play City and are happy to give up the ball and await the inevitable chances.

It's felt like that since Christmas, really. It was never just about old legs in midfield. I think we have huge potential going forward, but you can't paper over defensive cracks for the whole season.
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“Wouldnt satisfy peps aesthetics”

And there lies the problem
 
You couldn't even maintain an illusion beyond 1 game.

Tell me, who is responsible for this, because someone is. If it is Pep, then perhaps it is time for him to go. When you are on top of the world, and you lose your place, questions have to be asked. This performance was off the scale.

Is this our new level? If it is, then that is deeply depressing. I fear it might be because Trafford looked exactly like the player I saw in the Premier League for Burnley. We've lost too many top players and we haven't replaced them. I will say that Reijnders looks class, and so does Bobb. But no one else played well and Trafford, and Cherki were very poor.
 
That wasn't in the script and even though we had chances in the first half, Marmoush should've scored from Erling's through ball and Erling should've buried his header, we were outfought and almost bullied and were definitely second best. They knew how to play against us and it worked perfectly.

I like Rico but fuck me, we've conceded that goal at least half a dozen times now!

As for Trafford's fuck up, wow that was brutal!

We never recovered after that, but why didn't we go for it in the second half?
But we never really upped our game, never looked like scoring, yet they looked dangerous every time they attacked.

It's only one loss but it was ugly and there's plenty of work for Pep to do this week.

A few notes:

That we don't have a proper right back is real lack of judgement from the club and we surely need to fix that this week.

As for goalkeeper, if we're going to play out from the back like Pep wants, then we have to keep Ederson or get someone in his mould. I'd keep Trafford and hope he improves this skill throughout the season.

This week, I'd sell Ortega, Akanji, Gundo and Doku.
I would keep Savinho and play him on the left, recall Echeverri and buy a fucking right back!
 
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