Spurs (A) - Post-Match Thread

[manimanc]

Ouch!

That's funny, if we can't laugh at ourselves then we need a word with ourselves.
And boy have we've pissed ourselves laughing at us over the last 35 plus years many a time.

 

[Eoiyflem]

You really are one of these doom & gloom merchants who cant wait to stick the knife in. I never miss a match so yes I have been watching over the past year.Teams are now finding ways to hit us on the break which is hurting us atm but I expect Guardiola to manage this.
We are looking at fine margins between being the best & where we are right now. Beleive or not Guardiola is one of the best managers in the world & I expect him to get it right.Over the last few years we have lost players who are difficult to replace like Yaya, Kompany, Silva & for many months Aguero. You can't just click your fingers & replace like for like it takes time.

I'm not a doom and gloom merchant, I'm a realist. We have been bloody awful for a year now. 13th after a quarter of the season, minus goal difference and there is absolutely no evidence that it's getting better any time soon. When you spend the money we spend there should be no such thing as "transition", that's why the players are so expensive. We're getting done by the exact same tactics every single game. We've stopped the press, we are so fucking slow to build any sort of attack, we have no zip at all - it's so lethargic. Leicester, spurs, arsenal cup semi, Lyon all the same and it's not good enough. Challenge for the league?? Absolutely no chance - the dippers without half their defence just caned Leicester 3-0, the same Leicester who destroyed us. We are in deep shit for top 4 this year, you can forget about the title cos theres no chance that we are winning another 70-75 points as it stands. We can't score and we can't defend, yet some think this will just magically get better overnight, beggars belief.

Rant over.

 

[Dax777]

Spurs fans are insufferable.

All giving it the Big i am on Twitter.

Not much between them, and the Candle Waivers.

Winning the game,fair enough i get it,they are buzzing.

But fuck me it wasn't a Maureen masterclass like they are making out.

Maureen plays one way....Pep plays one way,that is all.

Making out they set up to concede possession.and hit us on the counter.When they play like that every fucking week duhhhhhh.

In fairness, that's not how they play every week. Certainly not how they played United. They specifically played us this way. But it's hardly a master class.

Your average 12 year-old who can figure this out. Our possession lack cutting edge. Period. So a team who sits back can stop us on a decent day.

In the past, you had to be special defending and get lucky for it to work. These days, you just have to be okay :(

I haven't written the season off yet either. It just makes me laugh when people post things like this, there is only one table to take notice of, the actual PL table, not some meaningless post lockdown table.

I don't think we are miles off, I think/hope Pep will sort it out over the next few weeks.

In fairness, I believe that table was a rebuttal to those of us who believe we've been in decline for the better part of the last 18 months.

The table suggests it's more like the level of talent has balanced out rather than us being in decline. So fair point by @HelloCity there.

There's just something off with this team. And not to pile on Mahrez, but our whole squad seems to be suffering from the Mahrez syndrome.

Meaning, we are dependent on individual magic rather than cohesive and explosive team play that's buttrressed by individual brilliance.

We lack all the team stuff and are simply hoping for the individual magic to happen. It's a bit d

 

[hihosilva]

I'm not a doom and gloom merchant, I'm a realist. We have been bloody awful for a year now. 13th after a quarter of the season, minus goal difference and there is absolutely no evidence that it's getting better any time soon. When you spend the money we spend there should be no such thing as "transition", that's why the players are so expensive. We're getting done by the exact same tactics every single game. We've stopped the press, we are so fucking slow to build any sort of attack, we have no zip at all - it's so lethargic. Leicester, spurs, arsenal cup semi, Lyon all the same and it's not good enough. Challenge for the league?? Absolutely no chance - the dippers without half their defence just caned Leicester 3-0, the same Leicester who destroyed us. We are in deep shit for top 4 this year, you can forget about the title cos theres no chance that we are winning another 70-75 points as it stands. We can't score and we can't defend, yet some think this will just magically get better overnight, beggars belief.

Rant over.

I'll save this post till the end of the season

 

[bluegaz13]

It's not the strikers, it's the supply.

Rodri wasn't even the issue yesterday, he was one of the better performers, but you know you are in trouble when Harry Kane is leaving you for dead and he effectively gave up the chase after him.

The goals conceded yesterday were very reminiscent of the ones against Lyon last season, people not switched on, balls over the top and into the channels, exposing Ederson stood in no-man's land.

Until we get someone who can do the hard yards and allow De Bruyne to make more considered bursts of energy, where it serves us best, in the attacking number ten space, we are still going to be banging our heads against a brick wall.

Teams have always sat in against us, nothing has changed on that score.

The only difference is that opponents are asking their forwards not to press Eddie or our backline, essentially telling them to drop into midfield and create a further block in front of our own midfield, the supply is becoming more high percentage risk passing when aimed between the lines.

Those opposing forwards are happy to drop deeper because they now have the ambition and knowledge that there will be fifty yards of space to run in behind us because we are all on top of each other.

They wouldn't do that previously when Fern was able to physically defend the transition.

Teams want us passing out wide, especially to Mahrez, who is an absolute liability every time he plays.

A shirker, someone who wants the personal glory, but doesn't have the heart or the bollocks to earn it for either himself or his team-mates, floating aimless lofted passes to the non-existent back post.

Teams are evolving and modifying because they know we have some players who are soft touches or don't want to fight for the right to play.

That's on Pep, he is a person who refuses to evolve or modify his demands to play a certain way, so buys players previously suited to a style of play which has been not so much found out, but isn't the all-conquering conundrum it once was.

Agree with most of this......especially Mahrez who slows the attacks down, very rarely creates and is very predictable, cutting inside every time.....but I also think De Bruyne is a big part of the problem.
He is failing to do the very basics, is careless in possession which invariably then leads to a chance for the opposition......sometimes he draws a comparison with Gerrard, with other fans seeing his Hollywood style passing....but not seeing the many unsuccessful passes he makes.
In Pellegrinis last season we struggled fitting De Bruyne in the team even though we all realised we had a player on our hands.
We are weakened up front especially with Sterling not really pulling up any trees plus Bernardos loss of form.....although I’d still play him ahead of Mahrez who should never pull on a blue shirt again.
Although I was pleased to see Pep sign on again......I don’t think we should underestimate how good Kompany, Silva and Aguero were in the two league winning seasons and he was lucky to inherit those players and now he really needs to start to earn his money to turn us around because we are a long way from winning another league at the moment.
Really wish he would give the odd youngster more of a chance to freshen up what looks like a tired and unenergetic team.

 

[s1ty m]

I'll save this post till the end of the season

I don't think he's wrong, you obviously do. Please share what you are thinking, I'd love to know how you are seeing good things from what I see as a shit show. Genuinely, please share, I could do with uplifting.

 

[kwm1988]

Kun's replacement ?

He’d be amazing for us , I can’t see it though .

 

[Metalartin]

I don't think he's wrong, you obviously do. Please share what you are thinking, I'd love to know how you are seeing good things from what I see as a shit show. Genuinely, please share, I could do with uplifting.

So you don't think he's wrong by saying: "We're getting done by the exact same tactics every single game." That's interesting, can you please show the Manchester City win/loss percentage from the past year that backs that up?

 

[citymad]

In fairness, that's not how they play every week. Certainly not how they played United. They specifically played us this way. But it's hardly a master class.

Your average 12 year-old who can figure this out. Our possession lack cutting edge. Period. So a team who sits back can stop us on a decent day.

In the past, you had to be special defending and get lucky for it to work. These days, you just have to be okay :(

Or you need a coach who can change tactics according to the opposition. From thrashing the rags and Southampton one day to then playing a more defensive game against a possession based team by shuffling the back 6 across the park and therefore preserving energy for the second half to see out the game. He didnt even need Bale because he was so sure of his game plan. It was brilliant from Maureen and Spurs fans have every right to be cock a hoop right now.

 

[Metalartin]

The problems this season haven't been the same as last season, losing Laporte had a massive impact, more than it should have done, looking at how well Liverpool have managed. Leaving ourselves relying on Stones and Ota was a big mistake though, I'm not sure Klopp would have got Stones to step up or Ota to go back to the player of 2018.



This season, I think the defence has improved, although left back continues to be something that good opposition can target. The attack however, has gone blunt, we were still a team creating many chances per game and scored the most goals in the league by a distance. Some people say it's the supply where the current problem is, which might have some merit but for me, that definitely started while Aguero and Jesus were out. While Sterling was up front with Mahrez in support, we started to lose that belief that goals will come for me. Once we lost that air of inevitability for scoring, then the amount of good to clear-cut chances we were creating started to drop off too(we're no longer pointing at people missing sitters). Suddenly we went from a 3 goals per game average, to a 1 goal per game average. Maybe all the players really need, is one of those games where we score 5 or more, to get that belief back, here's hoping anyway.

I'm starting to think the club needs to recruit some new mental coaching staff(or whatever the correct term is), the mentality doesn't seem right for a such a talented squad. When is the last time we came from behind to win a tight game?

 

[Metalartin]

Or you need a coach who can change tactics according to the opposition. From thrashing the rags and Southampton one day to then playing a more defensive game against a possession based team by shuffling the back 6 across the park and therefore preserving energy for the second half to see out the game. He didnt even need Bale because he was so sure of his game plan. It was brilliant from Maureen and Spurs fans have every right to be cock a hoop right now.

Completely disagree with that, the gameplan he chose was an obvious one, it was classic park the bus Mourinho, nothing new at all. Neither manager had long to prepare for the game either, so everyone is overstating the Pep vs Mourinho edge to it(it's still 11-7 in Pep's favour to in that head to head). The press has done a number on our fanbase with that, how many Pep vs Mourinho articles were written towards the end of last week? And debates across social media too. I can see some fell right into their hands on that, wound them up good and proper with it.

When did the players get back from International duty, Thursday? Maybe even Friday for some players. That's 1 or 2 training sessions maximum. This was more about the players for me.

 

[Fordyboy46]

The problems this season haven't been the same as last season, losing Laporte had a massive impact, more than it should have done looking at how well Liverpool have managed. Leaving ourselves relying on Stones and Ota was a big mistake though, I'm not sure Klopp would have got Stones to step up or Ota to go back to the player of 2018.



This season, I think the defence has improved although left back continues to be something that good opposition can target. The attack however has gone blunt, we were still a team creating many chances per game and scored the most goals in the league by a distance. Some people say it's the supply where the current problem is, which might have some merit but for me that definitely started while Aguero and Jesus were out. While Sterling was up front with Mahrez in support we started to lose that belief that goals will come for me, we lost that inevitability and then the amount of chances we were creating started to drop too. Suddenly we went from a 3 goals per game average to a 1 goal per game average. Maybe all the players really need is one of those games where we score 5 or more to get that belief back, here's hoping anyway.

I'm starting to think the club needs to recruit some new mental coaching staff(or whatever the correct term is), the mentality doesn't seem right for a such a talented squad. When is the last time we came from behind to win a tight game?

No idea, one for the stattos but it's fucking ages ago. You just know now that if we do go behind in a game we're not going on to win it.

 

[u2fme2]

Every single stat is heavily in our favour (ten corners to their zero, five shots on target to their two, to mention just those!), except the crucial one, the only one that counts. Who puts the ball in the back of the net. This is not the first time this has happened. It has happened regularly over the last sixteen months. You can search around, you won't find one other club in the PL that that is true of. And I strongly doubt that you'll find it in Europe (although I'm on shakier ground there). What do we learn from that? That we have to change the way we play, at least in certain matches. Over to you, Pep. You're the man that gets paid for thinking, and you're the man who's just renewed his contract (something which I'm mightily glad about, lest there be any ambiguity). Rethink it, man, because the writing's on the wall — lesser teams than ours in terms of raw talent have got us sussed.

Apart from the most important one !!! Goals scored!!’nn

 

[stan bowles]

Spurs played with nine 20/30 million pound bus Parker’s and two 100 million pound strikers one of whom is very good at scoring against our rush goalie and one who proves that English players can dive every bit as well as Johnny Foreigner.

Hojberg and Jota have been the 2 signings of the summer. Do people like you still need reminding that Spurs have scored 11 more league goals than us so far (albeit having played one game more) ? Bus parkers...my arse.

 

[Eoiyflem]

I'll save this post till the end of the season

I genuinely hope you are able to rub our success in my face mate

 

[Metalartin]

Hojberg and Jota have been the 2 signings of the summer. Do people like you still need reminding that Spurs have scored 11 more league goals than us so far (albeit having played one game more) ? Bus parkers...my arse.

They did park the bus in that game though, 4 shots all game, 34% possession. Fair enough, in other games people have been harsh with that(they're a counter attacking team and they do it well), but you must have been watching another game to argue that they didn't park the bus against City.

If that Jesus goal would have been allowed, it had a draw written all over it. We'd have struggled to break through again and Spurs would have continued to wait for a City mistake/lapse in concentration, which would have been less likely with the game level.

 

[The Fat el Hombre]

Ouch!

Actually find it worrying the tweets from the official City admin account there. Seems that the denial and delusion runs right throughout the club, from top to bottom. We're going nowhere as it stands

 

[citymad]

Completely disagree with that, the gameplan he chose was an obvious one, it was classic park the bus Mourinho, nothing new at all. Neither manager had long to prepare for the game either, so everyone is overstating the Pep vs Mourinho edge to it(it's still 11-7 in Pep's favour to in that head to head). The press has done a number on our fanbase with that, how many Pep vs Mourinho articles were written towards the end of last week? And debates across social media too. I can some fell right into their hands on that, wound them up good and proper with it.

When did the players get back from International duty? Thursday was it? Maybe even Friday for some players. That's 1 or 2 training sessions maximum. This was more about the players for me.

Sorry we’ll have to agree to disagree. The point I’m making is he’s able to make changes according to the opposition so that takes planning and versatility. Maureen put a lot of thought into that performance. Pep on the other hand was obviously thinking let’s play like we usually do, they’ll eventually give. He even seems ok with Mahrez slowing up our attack because he didn’t hook him until it was too late and we were too knackered. I love Pep but I’m now starting to see his limitations in terms of getting the best out of these players. Maureen on the other hand is making Dier look a good player and that takes some doing.

 

[Metalartin]

Sorry we’ll have to agree to disagree.

Yep, that's fine. I don't think it was a Mourinho masterclass at all sorry, there was nothing new about those tactics, so they required very little thought and there was very little time to prepare for the game anyway, as I said.

That's another thing I've been thinking about, because of the congestion of fixtures and the international breaks, injuries, COVID cases etc. The amount of time Pep's had with the players this season, has been drastically reduced on last season. Pep is a very detailed manager as we know, so perhaps this is being overlooked by many of us. No doubt some will say: "Ah so he over manages the team, like Carragher said on Sly Sports" but it's not that simple. Each manager has there own way of doing things(no right or wrong way) and perhaps he's not been allowed to do it his way as much as he's wanted to, thus far. It could also be said, that the players need to look at themselves more, if there is anything to this.

 

[jimharri]

Actually find it worrying the tweets from the official City admin account there. Seems that the denial and delusion runs right throughout the club, from top to bottom. We're going nowhere as it stands

Imagine if they came on here and had a peek at the match thread during the game. Christ.