Spurs (A) | PL | Post-Match Thread

[Taylor]

Bang on this. League is as good as gone now in my eyes, so for better or worse now he needs to pick a preferred back 4 and hopefully that can help us in the cups. I'd consider giving Ortega a run too, not as good as Eddie with his feet, but for me is a better shot stopper. I love Gundo, been a great servant but times time his lack of pace has caught up with him and when he was coming on at the end it felt all Meh for me. Start the Argentinian kid Perrone involved. Lastly I can't get my head round people saying Haaland is a problem, or more specifically people saying playing with a 9 is the problem. Last season I watched us a few times in games constantly crows the ball into the box to no one, this season we get to the edge if the 18 yard box and go back and sideways. Big summer ahead

Completely agree. I'm not sure if losing Eddie's distribution is a good thing but Ortega is a good shot stopper for sure.

We lack the zip and quick transitions from years gone buy, this was glaringly obvious in minute 1 when Bernardo held the ball too long instead of sliding the ball through to Haaland.

Perrone played a lot of left footed passes in Argentina (granted not as high a level)

Big summer ahead for us, I've heard so many people say this is a transitional season. Next year will be even more transitional if a big overhaul is made.

Any team should play to their strengths and for us that's getting Haaland on the end of balls and crosses instead of passing sidewards and backwards.

Only positive from this weekend is Arsenal dropped points to Everton whilst we lost to spurs away as normal, but even that doesn't feel like a wim given we could of closed the gap.

 

[richards30]

Sadly I do too. He’s missing an Arteta to put an arm around players. The assistant we have seems lost to me & disconnected from players. Arsenal players are running for Arteta.

Fucking hate saying it as well mate but there is no leader on the field either? Unless there is a reason Dias still isn’t fit then it’s nuts he’s not in there at the minute! Not just for his playing quality but leadership of the team and how he can galvanize his teammates?! Everyone looks completely fed up, lacking of energy and worse any fight to change the situation? Grealish and Ake have shown it in fairness but the rest seem so disconnected it’s unreal!

 

[come-on-barney]

If that’s the case, and we don’t know it is, they’re a disgrace. A few big egos having their noses put out of joint by home truths.

If Pep senses that I’m sure he’d walk anyway… and then we become Chelsea.

Agreed, in terms of the first paragraph. Chelsea haven’t done that badly though in changing managers to be fair. Not saying I want that, but Pep now has to show the players are playing for him. Dias, Laporte, De Bruyne, and Foden back in the side. Lewis back on the subs bench along with Akanji.

 

[madloaf]

Laporte is our best distributor from the back and can switch the play and Dias can speed the tempo up.

Yeah, ok. Dias is a stopper. Stones if anything is better at making things happen. Laporte is a better passer for sure, but he plays raking cross field balls to mahrez and the other team have already got a line of 6 ready to defend by the time mahrez invariably cuts inside.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

I don’t disagree with that.

I’ve said in the Pep thread, I think our current side would lose to our 2012, 2014, and 2018 and 2019 teams. I think that 2017-18 team would beat our current side about 4-0.

We aren’t as good as we were and 2nd would be a good season for this team.

Yaya running at Rodri and a young Rico who has dropped in would be a bloodbath, but Haaland up against Lescott would be some sight to behold.

 

[balotelli's back pocket]

I have a feeling come Monday morning a very big meeting will be planned, players, manager, coaches, the board, will all be there, they will bash out a plan and pep will have to eat humble pie and revert to the old system, players that have a status at the club will have to play at the start, laporte dias foden Kdb gundogan all have to play

That will never and should never happen.

 

[Legal Alien]

I'm fucking pissed off that we didn't take advantage of Arsenal's slip up yesterday.

Ake and Bernie had a great games i thought, but why isn't Dias, Laporte and Foden playing? We need some defensive stability and have gifted them all three goals this season!

We looked so unbalanced and are miles off where we were and where we need to be.

 

[PPT]

Foden got sick in the hotel, and even before that it was clear his mind hasn’t been fully focused on football lately. Cancelo left because he has an awful attitude when he’s not playing and that has nothing to do with Pep (Also Cancelo has played more mins than any of our defenders this season)

The coach is the one who trains the players and sees things you and I do not. He’s pretty good at reading body language, and what people ignore is that Cancelo was playing awfully as well

I asked you who you would prefer to replace the best manager this club will ever have because you clearly think his qualities are not the best for the job.

Football is cyclic. It doesn’t matter who you are or what you have won. It eventually comes to an end. For me it’s starting to look like we are coming to the end of our cycle. It has been the best cycle in the history of our football club and it has changed the way football is played in this country for the better. But all good things eventually come to an end and it’s hard not to get the feeling that this is the beginning of the end of this cycle. However, the end of one cycle is the beginning of another. We are an exceptionally well run club with vast resources so it isn’t necessarily the end of the world. Just the start of a new one.

 

[hilts]

I'm not saying anyone didn't look up for it, but in previous seasons we had a level above that we could shift gears into when required.

We'd turn defeats into draws & draws into wins. It just seems this season we've hit a performance glass ceiling & are unable to go beyond the levels most opposition teams present us as we've been able to do previously.

It's a personnel & mentality issue as Pep's alluded to & hopefully those in power will be hell bent on changing the necessary personnel & the 'I'm tired' culture which has crept in this season.

We are just guessing what the problems are. Greatness doesn't last forever or sometimes it needs a break. That isn't just the players.

 

[Taylor]

I'm fucking pissed off that we didn't take advantage of Arsenal's slip up yesterday.

Ake and Bernie had a great games i thought, but why isn't Dias, Laporte and Foden playing? We need some defensive stability and have gifted them all three goals this season!

We looked so unbalanced and are miles off where we were and where we need to be.

Grealish was our best player to be fair.

 

[trumpton]

No upset here mate. To be honest, on the basis of recent performances, I'd be more than happy just to finish top 4 this season.
Our football has been painful to watch in the majority of matches this year, and today we showed just how poor we are.

I'll give you a like pal, just so you're not on your own when the happy clappers pile in!

I'll get pilloried for this as always, but the usual staggered 1-0, 2-0 and 2-1 bet came in. Shite line up and shite performance.

Need to get Dias and Laporte back in defence, kev ambling back on one of their attacks, blowing out of his arse 5 minutes after coming on is not a good sign. Mahrez and Grealish have one good game in every 4.

 

[Jesus H Gabz]

A lot of people talking about false nines or playing with a striker and we’ve just played with two! For that to work we’d need similar players to Raz & Leroy in their pomp or two overlapping quick fullbacks, that’s two-three new signings away and a period of implementation

 

[aka blue jambo]

A lot of drunken entitled posts tonight
Basically one fuck up as ever cost us

 

[Tolmie scores]

Looks like a great plan if our clubs new ambition is to win nothing the next few years.

Possibly is, look Newcastle would hace bigger pockets, Rags looking hungry, us.. we need to slowly evolve as we aee winning nothing with the meekness we show, on off field, not fighting back etc. My guess is as you say slow decline Chelsea style and NOT win for well x years?

 

[David White]

I can’t even see what we’re trying to do to be honest. Sideways, backwards, sideways, invite the pressure, under hit a pass.

Is Pep trying to make a point to the board? If so what is it? Does he want them to sack him? Something doesn’t sit right for me and it’s not results, it’s performances that I’m bothered about. If we come off the pitch losing 1 nil but we’ve had a go that’s all I can ask, but coming off the pitch again today after a gutless, not even half arsed display like that is what pisses me off.

I actually thought we started reasonably well without creating too much and then very momentarily when kev came on. Other than that it was completely shite with the exception of Jack who put in another committed performance.

Players don’t seem happy. They seem to be playing in shackles and it shows. We couldn’t string 2 passes together today and why Rico played left back when Ake has done well there AND when we have 2 centre backs on the bench is baffling. Rodders was badly exposed today in that midfield, he was isolated when we didn’t have the ball and when we did he had one of his poorer games for us.

Haaland is a total passenger unless we serve him. We didn’t.

Last season we seemed to put 4000 balls across the opposition 6 yard line. We’ve stopped doing it. Kev has played some wonderful forward passes to Haaland this season. We’ve stopped doing it. We can break very quickly and decisively and we have bags of pace in the team. We’ve stopped doing it.

I’m convinced the extent of our training sessions is rondo and absolutely nothing else. We don’t defend, we don’t attack. We wait for interceptions or mistakes and then try to score the perfect goal. It’s magic when it works, and it has served us very well, but it isn’t working now and we look incapable of changing it.

We need bollocks now. Big ones. This team/squad and manager have to step up and show some fight.

Then we need a fucking massive clear out in summer. If they don’t want to be here they can fuck off. No exceptions.

 

[Fiikso]

Why? Maddison is exactly what this squad needs, he's a hungry english player that wants trophies he'd bring goals and assists as well. Bellingham the same wants to win.

Plus he can play those passes to Haaland nobody else in this city team seem to be able to see!

 

[madloaf]

Yaya running at Rodri and a young Rico who has dropped in would be a bloodbath, but Haaland up against Lescott would be some sight to behold.

Haaland could be running up against a mannequin and it wouldn't fucking make a difference coz he wouldn't get the ball anyway.

 

[bondsman]

Fucking hate saying it as well mate but there is no leader on the field either? Unless there is a reason Dias still isn’t fit then it’s nuts he’s not in there at the minute! Not just for his playing quality but leadership of the team and how he can galvanize his teammates?! Everyone looks completely fed up, lacking of energy and worse any fight to change the situation? Grealish and Ake have shown it in fairness but the rest seem so disconnected it’s unreal!

I agree Grealish and Ake playing well at minute and giving their all but sadly I don’t think they’re as good as players we’ve had in the past. I’d still take Sterling or Sane over Grealish. Both hurt teams

 

[john blue]

Been poor this season something isn't right players used to run like fuck now they give the ball away and trot around

I'm not one of these negative commenters but something is seriously wrong
We have a clinical finisher that doesn't get the ball

pep came out with " we started well " well my telly is on the blink , after t en minutes it was obvious the mid -field was shite, , we are nothing like we used to be, pep picks players that he thinks deserve to be playing, fair enough, but he does not have the bottle to make changes that can alter the game, kdb, might not be what he was , but he is citys best midfielder, he should have played all the match. and what the fuck is going on with foden, thought he would have gone on and on this season, wont suprise me if , when it comes out, and it will , that pep has a part in it. would not be suprised to see pep bow out at the end of this season.

 

[Tolmie scores]

A lot of people talking about false nines or playing with a striker and we’ve just played with two! For that to work we’d need similar players to Raz & Leroy in their pomp or two overlapping quick fullbacks, that’s two-three new signings away and a period of implementation

Agreed we dio not have personel for no 9