Post-match thoughts v Spurs

Forcing Rothwell into the covering midfield role has been a tad unfair on him. Several of the goals we've conceded this season could, in some way, be blamed on him not being a good fit there, but that isn't his fault.

Next week I hope fitness allows us to finally start with Cook at the base, Rothwell in the middle and Billing (or Christie) further forward.

I've said it many times but I'd also love us to give Semenyo a go leading the line. It might ruffle Solanke's feathers a touch and could even bring out better performances from him if he knows there is competition for the place.
 
sam adams said:
I have to admit to being an old fart in my 70's and have been watching football since the late 1950's ,but it is becoming more and more difficult to watch any football these days. Refereeing and VAR protecting the big six is taking most of the enjoyment out of the game. Spurs players were falling down like drunken sailors in a soft breeze, the game is becoming quite pathetic.

OK, now I am off to change my bed sheets. :throw:
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Ref stopping the game for a Spurs player laying on the ground holding his leg then gives a drop ball to them thus giving them a break from being under pressure. I thought the ref only stopped the game for head injuries.
 
Neil Dawson said:
A disjointed performance from an imbalanced
Squad. There were elements of good play today, like others have said after Cooks arrival but we’ve ended up in a situation where we have ten players - Semenyo, Brooks, Outtara, Tavernier, Christie, Traore, Moore, Anthony, Kluivert and Solanke vying for three forward spots and just three players vying for three midfield spots.

On top of that despite the vast amount of money spent on Kluivert and Traore they don’t seem up to the physical rigours of the English game and the rest of them who also cost a fortune rarely looking like scoring. Al has given his verdict on them and has asked for an eleventh player in this slot!

Meanwhile three fit players vie for three midfield positions.

Bill got the cheque book out… shame he gave it to dumb and dumber…
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Bingo! Neill rubbishing the players after three games!
 
kirsikka said:
It wasn't about major decisions. It was about giving the softest of soft free kicks whenever we had the temerity to challenge a Spurs player in the high press, but letting "robust" challenges go in the other direction. Watch the match back and watch how our press completely changes after about the fifth soft foul given to them. After that, they tear through us because we're afraid to get close.
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Tbf,we've had a lot of those kind of decisions for a few years now , irrespective of these new 'more robust and physical' challenges rule?
There's plenty of ìncidents where opposition players have fouled over and over and recieve a yellow after their fifth foul.As soon as one of our players makes his first tackle then the yellow comes straight out.
 
We need Adams to be fit as our midfield is as soft as butter…

How was that not a free kick for the the tackle on Semenyo…appalling decision from another useless referee

Solanke and Billing should have been hooked…early in the second half…Semenyo and Christie being withdrawn was a big mistake…but Andoni is learning what PL football is all about?

Anthony not looking up to it so far this season IMO

Neto looking less than last season too

Kerkez and Zarbarnyi good signings and are doing well
 
Neil Dawson said:
You don’t think we have an unbalanced squad?
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If we do, I don’t think it played a factor in the game we played today. The one sitting midfielder was Rothwell and he played reasonably well first half.

Performance in the final third of the game was down to the loss of Christie. Once he was removed we lost the engine of the side.

If we could clone him and sign him then the recruitment team would really be on to something.
 
The best players are the ones we never signed or didn't get selected.
The best coaches are ones who don't employ their mates.
The best footballing directors choose a player, click their fingers and they sign.
Other teams players never get injured.

Being an expert critic is a piece of piss.
 
DJ said:
If we do, I don’t think it played a factor in the game we played today. The one sitting midfielder was Rothwell and he played reasonably well first half.

Performance in the final third of the game was down to the loss of Christie. Once he was removed we lost the engine of the side.

If we could clone him and sign him then the recruitment team would really be on to something.
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He never scores and never assists. We’d be on to nothing if we cloned him other than having another player who mesmerises some fans with a turn or dribble in his own half that can run all day to little effect.
 
Neil Dawson said:
A disjointed performance from an imbalanced
Squad. There were elements of good play today, like others have said after Cooks arrival but we’ve ended up in a situation where we have ten players - Semenyo, Brooks, Outtara, Tavernier, Christie, Traore, Moore, Anthony, Kluivert and Solanke vying for three forward spots and just three players vying for three midfield spots.

On top of that despite the vast amount of money spent on Kluivert and Traore they don’t seem up to the physical rigours of the English game and the rest of them who also cost a fortune rarely looking like scoring. Al has given his verdict on them and has asked for an eleventh player in this slot!

Meanwhile three fit players vie for three midfield positions.

Bill got the cheque book out… shame he gave it to dumb and dumber…
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10 for three roles where you're counting the injured Dango so then it's seven for three roles in the midfield: Cook, Adams, Rothwell, Scott, Billing, Traore and Christie.

Yes, we have injury issues to resolve but at least we've taken action on that front with our new American chap.
 
We are work in progress and for our new system who knows what will be our best line up when all are fit and available for selection. However, I wil add my concern that we still use zonal marking and that is our weakest line but that is just my view.
 
As predicted. No surprise here. With reference to my comment after the Liverpool game. You don't win football matches with half your first team eleven sat in the main stand. Nothing will change until key players return to the pitch.

Be prepared for the same fare at Brentford next week.

Here we go again! Defeat after defeat, after defeat, after defeat! There seems to have been no improvement since the end of last season.

Yet there are still those who don't see a problem here!
 
Queue to get into the north stand at 12.15pm was huge ! I got in just in time but again many would have missed the start of the match which is just out of order two home matches in a row. This really needs sorting out more than just saying get there earlier. The ' pat down ' was ridiculous. I literally had to empty my pockets and hold everything in my hands before he'd pat me down. Ridiculously ott. The red wardrobe selling the merchandise next to the queue looked seriously tinpot .
We started brightly for about 5 minutes and then let spurs in have the game. We were levels below in quality. When Spurs attacked they purred , when we attacked it's was ugly chaos . Spurs threatened with every attack. We would get high up the pitch and have no options. Why was Kelly playing ? Did Senesi have a knock? If so why put him on the bench. Some of Kelly's passing was awful and he's just not good enough for this level. Kerkez gave 100% and is stamping himself as my favourite player over Billing at the moment. Aaron's again gave a fairly decent performance. Kluivert faded before being taken off. Semenyo was great. Direct, Powerful and aggressive and then taken off. Very odd.
We are sh1t upfront. Our biggest Achilles heel is Solanke and this needs addressing before the window closes. Offered absolutely nothing in the way of goal threat today. I shake my head in bewilderment at how this guy gets the praise he does. He's useless.
So it seems that our season won't start until our tens of millions injured signings make their appearance or at least that the excuses I'm hearing. I'm glad everyone is so convinced that Adams and Scott will comfortably between them keep us up. At the moment the only things that will keep us up are Luton, Sheff Utd, Wolves and Everton.
 
I thought the ref made one genuinely bad decision today, which was the foul on Semenyo. The rest were par for the course. That aside, I think you have to give credit to Spurs. For me, they were much the better side. We ran around a lot but there was never any end product, there were so many times we got into the final third and lost the ball or gave it away that it was just really frustrating. The only players who've stood out under the new manager have been Semenyo and Christie but it's early days and it looks like we have the sort of young, fit, players who can come good in time. Much to my surprise even Billing has bought into the system and has definitely upped his workrate, although I'm not sure he fits into it yet.
I have to say Solanke definitely doesn't, not yet anyway. Despite scoring against the Hammers he's often been anonymous and surely was today. Kelly was very disappointing too, not great defensively and his passing was awful. Neto didn't have a great game either and if Travers main failing is that he doesn't command his area I can't see that Neto's any better.
I didn't really enjoy today's game, I thought we were outplayed, lacked creativity and, but for a couple of occasions, never looked like scoring.
 
Red_till_im_ded said:
Queue to get into the north stand at 12.15pm was huge ! I got in just in time but again many would have missed the start of the match which is just out of order two home matches in a row. This really needs sorting out more than just saying get there earlier. The ' pat down ' was ridiculous. I literally had to empty my pockets and hold everything in my hands before he'd pat me down. Ridiculously ott. The red wardrobe selling the merchandise next to the queue looked seriously tinpot .
We started brightly for about 5 minutes and then let spurs in have the game. We were levels below in quality. When Spurs attacked they purred , when we attacked it's was ugly chaos . Spurs threatened with every attack. We would get high up the pitch and have no options. Why was Kelly playing ? Did Senesi have a knock? If so why put him on the bench. Some of Kelly's passing was awful and he's just not good enough for this level. Kerkez gave 100% and is stamping himself as my favourite player over Billing at the moment. Aaron's again gave a fairly decent performance. Kluivert faded before being taken off. Semenyo was great. Direct, Powerful and aggressive and then taken off. Very odd.
We are sh1t upfront. Our biggest Achilles heel is Solanke and this needs addressing before the window closes. Offered absolutely nothing in the way of goal threat today. I shake my head in bewilderment at how this guy gets the praise he does. He's useless.
So it seems that our season won't start until our tens of millions injured signings make their appearance or at least that the excuses I'm hearing. I'm glad everyone is so convinced that Adams and Scott will comfortably between them keep us up. At the moment the only things that will keep us up are Luton, Sheff Utd, Wolves and Everton.
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Hmm maybe foley is right about age dynamics of our fans, old moaning men
 
Where are the goals going to come from?

We were third lowest scorers last season and haven’t really done anything to address this. We worked our way into some decent areas today but never really looked like creating anything, in fact I don’t think we’ve actually created anything of note yet this season, excluding a late surge against ten man Liverpool.

We are still just as reliant on Tav as we were last season, without him we rarely look like doing anything. Dango looked like he could step in as an inferior understudy, but with both out we severely lack any form of creativity.

I’m not sure that this way of playing is particularly exciting from an attacking perspective, having a high press is all well and good but you actually have to be able to create on the ball too. I wasn’t expecting many points from the first few but I was at least expecting us to pose more of a threat to the opposition than we have.

Solanke is an issue too, let’s not pretend otherwise. He’s a decent player but his main strength is his ability to drop deeper and create for others, he does not look comfortable being asked to stick to the last man for the entire game. This system needs a more natural out and out number nine, and it certainly isn’t Kieffer Moore.

I hope the reports of us still being after a winger and a striker are true, because I feel like we desperately need a bit of creativity and a more natural centre forward. I know it’s only three games in but I’m not so sure that the early signs are too promising. We generally look less threatening going forward so far than we did under GON imo.
 
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