Spurs (H) - Post-Match Thread

21 shots and almost 80% possession. We didn’t play bad but Foden and especially Cancelo were awful today. A point would have been okay today, losing like that could be a title changing moment of the season.
Dont know whats happened to foden, every ball he plays is a 3 yard safety first pass.
 
It’s amazing how Chelsea can play them 4 times and not concede, but we play them twice and concede 4 goals, funny game this football lark :)
 
It’s amazing how Chelsea can play them 4 times and not concede, but we play them twice and concede 4 goals, funny game this football lark :)
It's hilarious. How many goals would 'Arry have scored yesterday playing for us. I would think he wouldn't have got a sniff, not a shot, and subbed on 70mins.
 
Sounds like the midfield/defence weren’t on their game. How did Rodri play? Thanks for the brief.
A flashback to the horrors of his first season with us. The worst he has been for some time truth be told. Couldn't get a basic pass in the first half, and was overrun a few times. To be fair to him there wasn't much space at all, and Conte had clearly done his homework that isolating him is how you get joy, but it was one of those games that you made you realise why Pep didn't fancy him in the CL final last year.
 
We always struggle against teams who are clinical on the break, perhaps we should adopt different tactics against these type of teams. It was a masterclass from Kane, that's why we should have bought him in the summer. Not sure why we didn't start with Mahrez, and it should have been Foden or Silva who got hooked, not Sterling. To throw the game away in injury time after getting back level was just criminal. We really need to beat the Scousers now when we play them.
 
After a long day yesterday and getting back home to Cardiff at 1am, had a chance to think about the game and the next few weeks.

As much as losing in that way hurt, there are a couple of lessons to take now which can benefit us for the rest of the season.

We are vulnerable to a particular attack at the moment. A striker drops off the front and immediately plays the ball around the corner for the onrushing winger or midfielder. Fulham scored the exact same goal a few weeks ago. Dias also made the error of jumping forward and we also got caught with the same pressing error as the CL final, our full back going up against their wing back.

One other move that Spurs benefitted from at times was something we do well. Centre back dribbling the ball forward rather than just passing and allowing us to press hard - it disrupted our pressing. Each centre back used the ball differently - Davies often clipped it, Dier would dribble and Romero played a couple of good diagonal passes that allowed them to use the width on the other side.

Perhaps that's the main benefit of having a full week to prepare.

However, we did do well to take control back from about 20 minutes onward and deserved to be level at half time.

The first lesson is managing the tempo of matches and controlling the counter attack opportunities. In games where we've gone behind this season to win, we haven't made the errors we made yesterday. This version of City is reliant on control of games. Part of what makes us 'boring' is we don't get involved in punch for punch contests - we methodically work the ball and opposition. Where we've come unstuck is the likes of Palace and yesterday where we push the attacking tempo too high and start playing a lot of crosses and high risk passes. This then allows teams counter opportunities, or to kill the game through slow goal kicks and laying on the ground etc.

Spurs did sit extremely deep, like all our opponents. But we have to just keep working them for 2-3 minutes at a time. That's our game.

They scored with their first attack in the second half. Dias header was ridiculous on review - he had two City players in Rodri & Laporte to head it to, or Walker could've likely headed it to Ederson.

We did well to get back in the game. The attacking play wasn't our best, but we kept going. There's then a debate about having a striker etc. We'll encounter this game 3 or 4 times a season where we're chasing late on into the game against a 11 man wall. We play a parked bus requiring technical build up etc nearly every week.

What followed the equaliser was a mess. Cancelo missed the ball, Walker played a stupid pass and then Cancelo dives in and leaves the space for the ball into the corner. It did sum up our defending at times.

It hurts but heading into the most important part of the season it may serve as a reminder. We need to stick to our principles and cut out the sloppiness. Pep said it on Tuesday, too many balls given away. I'm sure we can do it and let's hope yesterday is the last time we get caught like that again.
 

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