Spurs (H) | PL | Post Match Thread

Thoughts on Trafford: he did really well last week, I felt that the defence had confidence in him, although I'd still take Ederson at the moment.

Yesterday, though, that second goal? A keeper needs to have proper character, to rule his area. For example, if he needs to clatter through his own defence to reach the ball, then he should have the confidence to do it.

That same character should also give him the balls to just put his foot through the ball when necessary, irrespective of what he's been coached to do.

The fact that he had the best view of anybody, yet still chose the suicide pass suggests to me that either he's terrified of Pep, or in such awe of him that he'll do whatever he's told, regardless.

Neither makes a top keeper, in my opinion.
 
chickaroon said:
At times the keeper has to make the decision to just get rid of the ball. You have seen Pep telling his keeper to play long near the end of matches. It was a minute before half time. Just use your head and be aware of the danger.
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Trafford looked nervous at times with the ball at his feet against Wolves but he looked worse yesterday even before the cock up. They are definitely being asked to get him used to it but I’m just not convinced. Has he got the mental strength to put this behind him? He’s going to need it.
 
Kompany Car said:
The main thing that stood out was we have a team who no longer has any physicality. Our players were bullied off the ball, time and time again. This you can live with to a certain degree if you have an out ball and play the ball quickly. Playing back to Trafford isn't like playing back to Eddie, who is like playing with another outfield player. He might have been subject to the odd brainfart but Walker provided that aggressive nastiness which we are missing, we are all too nice.

The game is clearly being refereed differently over the last few seasons where more physical players (unless its Haaland) are allowed more leeway yet we dont start players like Kushanov. We need someone in the middle, who is an alternative to Rodri who brings a bit of bite to the team, Nico isnt that player.

Im sure we will look a different team when we have Rodri and Gvardiol back but we are far from complete.

Finally can we get someone who can head the ball, or at least train someone who can because Ive never seen a tall striker like Haaland be so bad at it.
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It’s not so much his heading ability with Haaland, his problem is, he doesn’t get set properly and invariably rises for the header too early, hence 99% sail over the bar ..
He needs to practice getting into position at the right time and jumping for the header later so he’s on top of the ball when it arrives, not the other way round .. Thats my take on it anyway ..
 
ONTHERUNWITHTHAKSIN said:
We went With a too attacking team

It was like Keegan was back
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We did. The midfield was way too attack minded. As we have seen before González is actually better going forward a la Lampard. Just like Reinjders. Although the latter as a better footballer can play the 6 role as he did on his debut in the US
The problem is who to play as the 3rd midfield er. Bernardo is all there was and we saw how slow he is now later in the game. Pep lets Rico help out in midfield but that causes problems further back.

Rodri and Foden returning should help but I feel we need someone like Fernandinho in there given the athleticism a lot of teams are showing.
 
robbieh said:
We did. The midfield was way too attack minded. As we have seen before González is actually better going forward a la Lampard. Just like Reinjders. Although the latter as a better footballer can play the 6 role as he did on his debut in the US
The problem is who to play as the 3rd midfield er. Bernardo is all there was and we saw how slow he is now later in the game. Pep lets Rico help out in midfield but that causes problems further back.

Rodri and Foden returning should help but I feel we need someone like Fernandinho in there given the athleticism a lot of teams are showing.
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Pep thinks Bernie is Bernie of 3 years ago

Love Bernie and his in your face attitude but he is not the player we once knew
 
To be honest we always seem to struggle against Spurs so wasn't too surprised to see them go ahead. Normally it won't be Son ripping us a new one though!! No matter what is said, Richarlison and Johnson aren't anywhere near as good as Son and Kane but they caused us all kinds of problems.

I thought we looked like we did for large parts of last season - slow, unfit and a bit weak. As others have said they just pressed and bullied us - nothing tactically clever - then hit us with pace. I hope it's just a new season blip, but it didn't look like it.

Pep has to figure out how to adapt his system to the new reality. We cannot expect to play 30 passes for fun and score. Haaland gets barely any service!

Personally I do wonder why we try to play a system that relies on Rodri being world class when he cannot play, Walkers pace when he isn't with us, a high line with slow defenders like Dias. You set up to struggle. Gonzalez doesn't look good enough to me to be honest.

I really hope it's just one of them silly early season results, but it's worrying how much it looks like last season too.
 
Blue Til Death said:
It’s not so much his heading ability with Haaland, his problem is, he doesn’t get set properly and invariably rises for the header too early, hence 99% sail over the bar ..
He needs to practice getting into position at the right time and jumping for the header later so he’s on top of the ball when it arrives, not the other way round .. Thats my take on it anyway ..
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I love him, but what a wasted weapon in the air - like having the biggest gun, but loading it with blanks.
 
skillman said:
This went to Doku, not Haaland.

Hopefully not a continuation of last season’s trend!

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This is exactly why Haaland doesn't get any criticism from me. He doesn't get enough supply and gets ignored many times in favour of a pass to a winger. Other than KDB, nobody seem to have the confidence to make the through ball or is instructed not to.
 
OL2Blue said:
Not sure if I was just imagining it but before the game I said to my son that it looked like we'd narrowed the pitch quite significantly which I thought was odd as we usually like to use the full width to make space through the lines.
I also then noticed that the play seemed congested and we were playing very narrow which allowed Spurs to close down all the spaces. Does anyone know if this was the case and we've altered the pitch dimensions because if so then this is a huge tactical change which will take a while to get right and embed?
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I don't know. Last season I watched the game from up high, and this season I moved to close to the pitch so I didn't notice any change.

I missed the first 20 minutes. What I noticed was that Spurs won all the attacking / defensive duels with the exception of Bobb who dominated his opponent. Marmoush was completely ineffective on the left. Doku flickered as he does but by the time he came on Spurs were very comfortable. Doku was on the far side to me, and I was quite low down, but it looked like he always had 2-3 defenders on him, and it was too much for him. We did not have enough midfield control at that stage of the game to move the Spurs defence around.

I have seen some comments from other users complaining about negativity but what are you supposed to say after that game? There really was only Oscar Bobb and possibly Stones who played well. Collectively, it was a very bad defeat that should dent morale amongst City fans. It would be stupid to ignore a home game when you are outplayed. I can't say that was lack of effort either. Spurs had better players. Van der Ven and Paulinha were the dominant players in the game.

It is too soon to make firm predictions but I have lost a lot of confidence after that game. I knew it was going to be a difficult match because Spurs are defensively much stronger under Frank. I was very disappointed in Trafford and Cherki. I haven't seen the game back on MOTD and have avoided all TV coverage.

I moved to a position much lower in the stadium. I was very disappointed with the level of abuse towards Rico Lewis. Some people seemed to enjoy doing this, and thought they were the bees knees for doing so.
 
Just had another look at the highlights on YT after a night to sleep on it, to see if I could find any redeeming features for Trafford in that second goal.


Nope. I really don't know what he was thinking of, passing to a team mate (Gonzalez, wasn't it?) who had a Spurs player breathing down his neck. Stick it in row Z.
 
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