Spurs (A) | PL | Post-Match Thread

[2infinity&beyond]

If we played at home to spurs today and lost 1.0 would the fans have booed at half-time and full-time,
pep ego needs a wobble and OK I was wrong to everybody ? a young Rico Lewis is being asked to step up to the first team and play week in week out, then asked to play invert left back ? letting Cancelo go and then saying ok son your at left back today,

the whole back line is a complete mess and forget being a world cup season shit ? we have Laporte and Dias fully fit and sat on the bench, Gomez a left back pep signed in the summer, Foden with a mystery illness or a heel problem, What we need right now, is a good run of game with the same setup and a leader and the form and results will come,

Whatever is the problem between the manager and players has got to be sorted enough is enough,
Pep ego will be the death of him, being wrong is not hard to say ? respect will also be seen in holding his hands up and saying i was wrong to the players

Nought wrong with Foden. Its a behind the scene issue. I dont believe hes "not feeling well". Although hes not the answer to our current problems.

 

[the blue panther]

Tad disappointing today, but, not unexpected as it is our bogey ground. I hope we can recover from this bout of Cityitis quickly while we're still within touching distance of Arsenal.
Everything else has been discussed in the last 116 pages, but I'll just say that we've played them twice lately and had inadequate protection both times with thugs kicking lumps out of us.

 

[Roachy]

Pedestrian, predictable, dull. That's what we are at the moment sadly. The possession stats mask a problem. We are passing to a static player in a safe position, offering no threat virtually all the time. Haaland's no Aguero who can create his own goals out of nothing. The consequence is no service=no goals. Too many players offering no threat too regularly now as well. Thought Mahrez was ok, then gets subbed. Team, Pep included, is way off beam atm.

 

[lazerblue]

pep's ready for a re build, next season we will be awesome, expect big changes, ITK

 

[Gray]

One fuck up didn’t really cost us though did it. The half arsed 90 minute performance cost us far more. People are perfectly in their right to criticize after what’s been frankly a pretty piss poor few months by our standards.

Winning the Champions League?

I don’t think so.

 

[Lavinda Past]

Here we go sky wankers “ erling picked the wrong club”

But are they wrong?

Real will almost certainly have him lined up as Benzema's replacement and will pay whatever is necessary to get him.

Erling Haaland knows that. Alfie Haaland knows that.

It won't take much to unsettle him, and Pep's ridiculous tactics aren't exactly going to make him want to stay any longer than he has to.

A waste of talent.

 

[Millwallawayveteran1988]

Hindsight is 20/20 and all that. He's been crap like the rest of them previously and still looked like he couldn't run when he did come on.

True but at least he may have an assist in him. They are all crap at the moment like you say so changing the side weekly isn’t working as players are coming in to a side that isn’t playing. When we are shite I’d still rather him in that not, particularly when players like Bernado clearly don’t want to be here any longer.

 

[Shaffer92]

My two cents:

I honestly don't think Pep likes to have a straight #9 on the field. All those Barcelona teams - he had Messi play deeper. Haaland can't do that. He's just not that type of player. Against the top 6-7 teams in the PL, they have him covered. Instead of a 4-3-3, we should be using a 4-2-3-1.

Pace of play. Possession should bring some order to the game. But when we lose the ball - we are absolute panic stations in transition. Every time Spurs got the ball and pushed, I was holding my breath. Conversely, when they lose the ball, there is no urgency. No dynamic movement. And as it relates to Haaland, there is only "how am I going to get him the ball". What we really should be thinking is "how can my movement and passing open things up not just for him but for my teammates".

Its frustrating for us. I can only imagine how frustrating it is for Haaland. Its enough for teams to 2 man mark him. Just stay tight on him and teams will gladly take other players to create something outside the box. That's what Spurs did today.

I don't know what the answer is. I think the PL is gone. Pep is trying new tinkers every week. I think today he got it wrong in the back. It should have been Walker-Dias-Laporte-Ake. Rodri had a bad game. He was dead on his feet in the last 15 minutes. Bernardo and Grealish were solid and showed urgency. I can see how Pep wanted to try and get Haaland free with putting Alvarez in but it didn't work. Not sure this system is right for Haaland.

Agree with all that.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

As per usual at Spurs - 70 per cent possession, most shots, most shots on target and yet we manage to lose. To be honest, it's pretty bad for a megabucks club like Spurs, elite coach, some elite players and yet at home they park the bus against other big hitters - but it's alright because it's against us.

I'm not as worried about the tactics as others on here - if we gift-wrap a goal to Spurs that's not tactics - it's a bad mistake by a player who is monumentally brilliant for us and makes few mistakes - two mistakes in recent weeks and two goals. What bothers me is that we seem incapable of hitting killer passes at the moment. Erling's running his bollocks off - some brilliantly timed runs and the ball he wants isn't coming. We seem to want an extra touch before delivering the pass - by that time the opposition are back in shape - ten back in their own box. Then the opposition launch the ball at us and we only have two or three players in our own half - the hoof that went past Kevin reminded me of the Cancelo/Salah moment.

Massive, massive opportunity lost today. But having said all that, our game is mostly a precision exercise and at the start of every season it takes us about a month to find our groove. Pre World Cup we weren't great, but the tournament break has left us looking like we're starting the season again but from a lower start point.

 

[paulchapo]

I love Pep but I'm sorry he has lost it this season.

He hasn't figured out how to play with a traditional 9, his weekly tactical shenanigans have proven to be utterly mid at best and downright suicidal at worst. And he has not delivered good results (meaning a couple Ws in a row for example) for about 3 months now.

This season is going to be a big fat pile of trash in both current City and Pep CV.

Sniff. It's a transitional season, three big squad players left, a few came in. The players and Pep are adjusting. Four titles in five years, nine major trophies, the man is entitled to an off season. Also in spite of all this if Arsenal weren't having an exceptional season, which has surprised even them, we'd still be top of the league. Oh and the season isn't over yet.