Spurs (H) | PL | Post Match Thread

[Kippax Street 1880]

The stick Raz gets is insane. People have short memories

Think you have a short fucking memory if you want Sterling back

 

[paulchapo]

Great player for us but my abiding memory is his miss of the century at Burnley

That was beyond belief. Not as bad as the three one on ones he missed in the first half against the rags though which would have put us 5-0 up at halftime and won us the title. Still we only had to wait another week.
Sterling was a great buy for us though as his stats prove.

 

[Pingu the Penguin]

Think you have a short fucking memory if you want Sterling back

I don’t want Raz back. What I’m saying was he was excellent for us. If you disagree, fine!

 

[Father Paul]

He has the bottle to ride it out, do you?

Interesting question. I think we will get at least a draw tomorrow but how many defeats before Pep would start to come under pressure?

 

[Roachy]

The other contenders have only won the league once and the other none in 20 seasons. Meanwhile the team that everyone is hammering is just off the back of another title.

The squad has plenty of leaders who have proven themselves over numerous years by winning everything.

The contenders can come back and gloat once they have achieved the same feats.

I think leadership on the whole in the PL is in short supply tbh. I think in simple terms it's a case of teams being better than others rather than one or two players taking charge and it having an effect. We've been very lucky over recent years with the likes of Kompany, Ferny etc. who we'd probably class as the more traditional type leader. We do have some now, and this is when the team needs them when the chips are down. There was next to none on Saturday though. I watched the players immediate reaction after the goals, especially the third, and it was total deflation. The players just looked at each other extremely glumly and trudged back towards the half way line.

 

[heslops barnet]

Great player for us but my abiding memory is his miss of the century at Burnley

One of many, still appreciate his contribution though

 

[Father Paul]

Rightly or wrongly it seems to me that the comments on this thread and related ones fall into two camps. Either we have a short term problem with various fixes being suggested or we have a club at the end of its cycle. If the first can be accomplished, then well and good. It'll be done. If the second is the issue then as far as I'm concerned it's fine. Given what we have been privileged to see from this team since we first won the PL if we're going to have to have a couple of seasons "off" then I'm not overly concerned. I trust the overall management of this club to handle any rebuild effectively.

Nobody knows if we are innocent, yet. But I agree that the charges will not impact on our players. The announcement of the charges brought everyone together and won us a treble if anything.

It brought the squad together most certainly but this thing has dragged on and on, a kind of death by a thousand cuts in terms of the never ending storm of negativity and nastiness. It has sapped my energy and must be having some underlying impact on the players at this stage.

 

[supercity88]

It brought the squad together most certainly but this thing has dragged on and on, a kind of death by a thousand cuts in terms of the never ending storm of negativity and nastiness. It has sapped my energy and must be having some underlying impact on the players at this stage.

The players will not give a shit as long as they're getting paid. I'm sure their contracts cover the doomsday scenario anyway.

This is just a season too far for us. We've not been bold enough in the transfer window, we've looked to bolster the squad and add players to the core from years gone by rather than inject proven quality to give them a challenge and keep the hunger going. But after 4 years of dominance, with a World Cup during one season and a Euro's last summer and a CWC tucked in as well they've shown incredible hunger and effort to achieve what they have.

It's a year too many and perhaps we should have anticipated it better, but we're not that far away from being the best again. A RB, a DM, a CM and another FWD and we're in excellent shape.

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

The players will not give a shit as long as they're getting paid. I'm sure their contracts cover the doomsday scenario anyway.

This is just a season too far for us. We've not been bold enough in the transfer window, we've looked to bolster the squad and add players to the core from years gone by rather than inject proven quality to give them a challenge and keep the hunger going. But after 4 years of dominance, with a World Cup during one season and a Euro's last summer and a CWC tucked in as well they've shown incredible hunger and effort to achieve what they have.

It's a year too many and perhaps we should have anticipated it better, but we're not that far away from being the best again. A RB, a DM, a CM and another FWD and we're in excellent shape.

Yet another post where sadly the issue of pay and resultant attitude become totally confused and used as a weapon of criticism.

The players are professional and I consider so many of ours have proved many times to be professional in attitude, ambition, and personal integrity, so I find your statement ignorant of fact and stereotypical.

I don't accept that they do not care because of their exorbitant wages received.

We are in a difficult stage at the moment, where the true state of fitness amongst the squad is not known, but I suspect that there are fitness issues with a few,

 

[wolviedinho]

Interesting take from a Spurs perspective.

Dejan Kulusevski: “Because #ManCity have a lot of the ball sometimes, we can rest when we defend. There’s also so much space up there, we play one against one and then it’s always dangerous because we have a lot of quality..."

The old city would suffocate teams with our passing and press. Leading to only maybe 1/3 counters per game, maybe only 1 real chance would be given up.

Now tho we attack slower, don’t score and don’t press effective. Leading teams to take the ball off us and brush the midfield aside leaving them through to score.

 

[Sky Blue]

Kulusevski is a bit of a mouthy ****. Maybe mouth off if you win something. Playing for Spurs seems unlikely though.

 

[heslops barnet]

Most fans could see the decline in squad last season, seems the management didn’t?

 

[Colin Bells Boots]

Kulusevski is a bit of a mouthy ****. Maybe mouth off if you win something. Playing for Spurs seems unlikely though.

Maybe a mouthy ****, but he played a massive part in that Spurs performance and was excellent imo.

 

[shevtheblue]

The problems we have, you could see coming last season and the fact that Txixi is leaving shows he knew himself he was running out of steam. After the treble winning season, obviously there wasn't a lot of time to turnover but that was never a surprise so it was insane to go into that season without Gundo, Mahrez and Laporte without having big names already lined up. Last season when Rodri got suspended, we all saw how shit we were, it was clear as day. That's 4 transfer windows we haven't done what's needed, we've obviously had a lot of luck with injuries in the last few seasons which has meant Pep's preference for a small school had been vindicated. His genius also got us out of a lot of problems, players stepped up to the plate and delivered when top performers were out. All of this has come to a head now, loads of injuries condemning a small squad that needed a rebuild. There's not one thing to blame here, just loads of calamities that have created a perfect storm. There are players like Bernardo who you with trust with your lives not to give the ball away, that seem to be different people all of a sudden. The spaces between lines are fucking huge, and we're just not able to make the required changes. Really not sure what the answer is right now, maybe we go back to how it was in Pep's first season with 3 at the back?

 

[spacecadet]

The problems we have, you could see coming last season and the fact that Txixi is leaving shows he knew himself he was running out of steam. After the treble winning season, obviously there wasn't a lot of time to turnover but that was never a surprise so it was insane to go into that season without Gundo, Mahrez and Laporte without having big names already lined up. Last season when Rodri got suspended, we all saw how shit we were, it was clear as day. That's 4 transfer windows we haven't done what's needed, we've obviously had a lot of luck with injuries in the last few seasons which has meant Pep's preference for a small school had been vindicated. His genius also got us out of a lot of problems, players stepped up to the plate and delivered when top performers were out. All of this has come to a head now, loads of injuries condemning a small squad that needed a rebuild. There's not one thing to blame here, just loads of calamities that have created a perfect storm. There are players like Bernardo who you with trust with your lives not to give the ball away, that seem to be different people all of a sudden. The spaces between lines are fucking huge, and we're just not able to make the required changes. Really not sure what the answer is right now, maybe we go back to how it was in Pep's first season with 3 at the back?

Exactly how I saw it in the summer. We have sleepwalked through four transfer windows.

 

[GaudinoMotors]

Most fans could see the decline in squad last season, seems the management didn’t?

Shhhhhhhhhh, reading the "crisis" thread it's a foreseen unforeseeable.

 

[thismeansfour]

It brought the squad together most certainly but this thing has dragged on and on, a kind of death by a thousand cuts in terms of the never ending storm of negativity and nastiness. It has sapped my energy and must be having some underlying impact on the players at this stage.

Yeah but in the 18 months prior they won a treble and a 4th title on the spin. Whilst O don't doubt it that it might be in the back of their minds, does that mean Walker can't run anymore? Does that mean Gundog has been awful since returning, does that mean we play as we do without Rodri? It is a combination of things and our charges I would imagine is a very small percentage of the problem.

 

[East Level 2]

Prime Sterling walks into this team.

Prime Sterling would run down blind alleys, try to go through gaps that weren't there and miss sitters. And he'd still be a better attacking option than Savinho, Doku, Nunes and possibly Grealish. - Though Grealish gives us more control.

 

[nellyonthewing]

Interesting take from a Spurs perspective.

Dejan Kulusevski: “Because #ManCity have a lot of the ball sometimes, we can rest when we defend. There’s also so much space up there, we play one against one and then it’s always dangerous because we have a lot of quality..."

Doesn’t take a genius to figure out our method has been figured out.

 

[Pingu the Penguin]

The problems we have, you could see coming last season and the fact that Txixi is leaving shows he knew himself he was running out of steam. After the treble winning season, obviously there wasn't a lot of time to turnover but that was never a surprise so it was insane to go into that season without Gundo, Mahrez and Laporte without having big names already lined up. Last season when Rodri got suspended, we all saw how shit we were, it was clear as day. That's 4 transfer windows we haven't done what's needed, we've obviously had a lot of luck with injuries in the last few seasons which has meant Pep's preference for a small school had been vindicated. His genius also got us out of a lot of problems, players stepped up to the plate and delivered when top performers were out. All of this has come to a head now, loads of injuries condemning a small squad that needed a rebuild. There's not one thing to blame here, just loads of calamities that have created a perfect storm. There are players like Bernardo who you with trust with your lives not to give the ball away, that seem to be different people all of a sudden. The spaces between lines are fucking huge, and we're just not able to make the required changes. Really not sure what the answer is right now, maybe we go back to how it was in Pep's first season with 3 at the back?

As I think you can see from Pep’s post match comments about trust I think we are probably slightly guilty (as I have been as a fan) in assuming they could just all go again. Bill Belichick the great American football coach said it was better to let a player go a year early rather than a year late and with players like walker that’s probably right.

Couple the aging with a horrendous glut of injuries and you have some problems. Recent transfers haven’t really worked out (Phillips obviously and probably Nunes). Too early to say on Doku and Savinho for me. Kovacic has been solid but is not a “great” player for me.

Interesting times!