Spurs (A) | Post-Match Thread

[eyalluvitt]

Eddie thought it was going wide so couldn't be arsed diving.

 

[chaddblue]

If we could hit a barn door the match would have been over after 5 minutes

 

[willipp]

What excuses did Mendy, Ake and Cancelo have, certainly wasn't tiredness.

Horrible from so many but the glaring issue remains and a top striker would have made little difference today.

The defensive midfield is too slow when the ball breaks down.

Fern still sees the danger but his legs can't get him there.

Gundo, Rodri, nobody solves this issue right now, certainly when we want to front load the top half of the pitch.

Thought Grealish was a real positive.

Thought grealish was a shining light today in a pit of darkness. When kev came on as well I really felt a connection between the two of them.

 

[HarrytheBlue]

A very disappointing start to the season. I know that the Euro's have been on, but it wasn't great at all.

Surely we knew that going to Spurs with the Kane saga rumbling on was always going to be tricky. They would raise their game, the crowd would be up for it and apart from the early spell, we just bottled it. Sometimes I wonder if Pep just works himself up into a lather about some games. It's like he doesn't have the self confidence you'd expect. I love him to bits, but we never seem to have 1 or 2 players having ropey games, it's most of the team.

As others have said, the teamsheet didn't fill me with confidence at all. It had "hard game" written all over it. . We had 3 "reserve" defenders (Cancelo, Ake and Mendy). We had a debuting Grealish in midfield - he did well but we can't expect him to come into this team and dominate games. Up front Torres and Sterling have stunk the place out quite regularly.

It wasn't a game to bring Ake into, particularly if you've got Mendy with you. I do think Ake is probably a decent player but he needs a run of games and I just don't think he will ever get that at City. He's a strange one as we won't get anything like what we paid for him back, but he's also not done anything wrong either. I can honestly see him going to West Ham and becoming one of the best defenders in the league and then moving to Spurs for £50m!
or as though
There's not much more to say about Mendy. He's not the player we bought, he's never going to be a PL level player and I don't understand why we pick him at all. Someone half jokingly said about playing Jesus at left back - it's not a bad idea! To be honest, if Mendy is the best left back at the club after Zinchenko, ditch the rest of the ones at the club as they aren't good enough.

Cancelo is another one who can go for me. Far, far too inconsistent and unreliable. He can be amazing and useless in the space of 4 days. He's not a right back we can rely on like Walker and he's not left footed and can't play left back at the level we need. He's not even reliable like Zinchenko, a more limited player.

I hope it's a bad day at the office. It bugs me though that we've seen this game before - bright start, miss chances, lose confidence, concede a soft goal, make changes too late, make the wrong changes and have no "fire" in the bellies to do a 93:20.

Fingers crossed it's a lesson learned.

This season is going to be a MUCH tougher battle for the title - Liverpool and Chelsea will be very close and United will also make a challenge (they won't win it with the PE teacher in charge).

My take on it - ultra class first 15/20 minutes - Spurs chasing shadows and we had the four straightforward chances where we missed the target from close range. We went into some strange phases where we played at walking pace while losing - as though we were about to up the pace any second or were trying to draw Spurs onto us. So, overall we were poor by our standards (poor by less than our normal standards), but we were still the better team - albeit Tanganga was outstanding. The game had smash and grab counter attack written all over it. And despite the pundits saying Grealish had a poor game, he was actually immaculate - precision passes, work rate, going past defenders.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

A little dramatic but I do agree we won’t be afforded as much wriggle room to get into our groove this season.

Next two are home games.. win these and you would imagine we come back after the internationals.. within touching distance of the top and in full flow going into a tough fixture period.

We have a horrible run till October, but will ultimately have played 3 of the "big six" away by then. I think we will be chasing this year but if we hit our stride again we will be there or thereabouts.

 

[Blu3m00n91]

I'll say it again- Phil can't come back soon enough. I know everyone on here think's the world of him but I don't think some people realize just how important he's already become to this side. Behind KDB, he's the most influential player on the team imo. He creates a ton opportunities to score, he's a hell of a goal threat himself, he can receive the ball in pockets of space like it's nothing and turn. His defensive numbers from the wing last year were outstanding as well.. He's a rolls-royce of a player.

Couldn’t agree more. He’s an absolute gem and his intensity and direct running is such a threat in our attacking play. Mahrez Sterling Torres so predictable

 

[Damanino]

interesting point about fans being back is gonna favour us or no. lot of away games last season I think it completely helped us to play in empty stadiums. patient passing from City, wearing down opponents, without fans some of those teams accepted their fate easier so to say, City not being booed, no 10s of thousands of fans spurring our opponent onto counter us or fire them up through every ref decisions etc.

if you think about our defence they must prefer dead silence when being countered with no help from our midfield than 40-50K fans shouting and giving energy the countering team. easier to panic and make mistakes this way.

this season wherever we go we will be booed, Grealish and Sterling especially and imo Kane too media will make sure of that, it may die down after few games but may not.
whenever Grealish was fouled today there was a hostile atmosphere or kind of. you dont see that when Salah is faulted do you?

 

[HarrytheBlue]

Thought grealish was a shining light today in a pit of darkness. When kev came on as well I really felt a connection between the two of them.

Just said something similar. Pundits saying he had a poor game. Worked tirelessly, precision passing, interceptions, going past dfenders with ease.

 

[stan bowles]

Mendy still has 2 years left on his contract. We won’t sign a left back until he’s gone. We hope that will be next summer, but don’t bank on it.

He's on 110k a week. Going to be difficult to even loan out - we're stuck with him.

 

[Spurs quarter 69]

Ever since the fixtures came out I felt they had given us the hardest possible start other than perhaps Chelsea away. They wouldn't dare send us to Liverpool or Utd for fear we'd play well and win and upset their start to to the season. Same as last season it's a Utd, Liverpool two horse race and look how that turned out. F**k them both and f**k the media !

 

[Rammy Blue]

He's on 110k a week. Going to be difficult to even loan out - we're stuck with him.

It really isn’t difficult to loan him out, pay all his wages so he’s free to another club. What’s hard about that?

 

[Beanhead]

What excuses did Mendy, Ake and Cancelo have, certainly wasn't tiredness.

Horrible from so many but the glaring issue remains and a top striker would have made little difference today.

The defensive midfield is too slow when the ball breaks down.

Fern still sees the danger but his legs can't get him there.

Gundo, Rodri, nobody solves this issue right now, certainly when we want to front load the top half of the pitch.

Thought Grealish was a real positive.

This perfectly sums it up for me.. although Ake had a good first half and it can’t be easy playing on the same side as Benjamin (which unfortunately is often the case when he gets a start) so will cut him some slack.

Was difficult viewing watching Fern clearly acknowledging the danger (way before his teammates) but not having the physical ability to deal with it (particularly in the second half).

 

[Beanhead]

We have a horrible run till October, but will ultimately have played 3 of the "big six" away by then. I think we will be chasing this year but if we hit our stride again we will be there or thereabouts.

Exactly.. everything in bite sized chunks… win the next two whilst still getting into our groove and progress. Return from international break on song and navigate the next month keeping within 4-5 points and we will be in a good position imo as then it comes down to quality and squad depth and we have an edge.

Basically we need to adopt Whisky nose mentality this season I feel. just keep in touch.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

We always seem to be away 1st game and look at our start compared to rags, Liverpool, Chelsea.
I'm sure the league intentionally rig it to make It difficult for us.

They rig it by making us play one of the 19 other teams we would inevitably have to play at some point in the season, having won more leagues than anyone else in the last ten years??

 

[Corky]

We always seem to be away 1st game and look at our start compared to rags, Liverpool, Chelsea.
I'm sure the league intentionally rig it to make It difficult for us.

On paper spurs had a harder game. City chose to play a weaker team was needed.

 

[Sir Joe Aguero]

Alarming lack of pace in the team. We’re a great footballing side, but so susceptible to counters.

 

[Brightwell Bros.]

Exactly.. everything in bite sized chunks… win the next two whilst still getting into our groove and progress. Return from international break on song and navigate the next month keeping within 4-5 points and we will be in a good position imo as then it comes down to quality and squad depth and we have an edge.

Basically we need to adopt Whisky nose mentality this season I feel. just keep in touch.

Absolutely. If we ar five or so points at Christmas I'd back us. And agree with you, get a result by hook or crook against Norwich and Arsenal and then we can see where we are at.

 

[dom]

He's on 110k a week. Going to be difficult to even loan out - we're stuck with him.

Please, please keep him just for league cup games

 

[g180aj]

What excuses did Mendy, Ake and Cancelo have, certainly wasn't tiredness.

Horrible from so many but the glaring issue remains and a top striker would have made little difference today.

The defensive midfield is too slow when the ball breaks down.

Fern still sees the danger but his legs can't get him there.

Gundo, Rodri, nobody solves this issue right now, certainly when we want to front load the top half of the pitch.

Thought Grealish was a real positive.

After today there should be a meeting called for tomorrow morning about what left back we bring in before September.

 

[adam.marrett]

What excuses did Mendy, Ake and Cancelo have, certainly wasn't tiredness.

Horrible from so many but the glaring issue remains and a top striker would have made little difference today.

The defensive midfield is too slow when the ball breaks down.

Fern still sees the danger but his legs can't get him there.

Gundo, Rodri, nobody solves this issue right now, certainly when we want to front load the top half of the pitch.

Thought Grealish was a real positive.

All three of them had no excuse. Ake has complained about minutes and game time, but it would be hard to be a centre half with Mendy leaving a gaping hole on the left when he bombs forward, or gives the ball away in some sort of stupid way.

Mendy can't play with Grealish and Sterling, he just cluttered up the left where both of them were doing most of their work, hell based on that he can't play for us at all. Surely Ake offers more at left back, and can drop into the midfield to help out more then Mendy offering nothing.

Fernandinho is a concern, he looked like Father Time has caught up to him, but he has runs on the board so see how he looks when we have our full side back.

Expecting close to our full strength side for the Norwich game with another week of training which will do us the world of good.