Up to second but draw not enough. Sunderland V Spurs Ratings

Well, we've been here a fair few times haven't we! A must win game, don't drop any points. Are nearest rivals dropping points. A great chance to take but Spurs fail to step up to the plate.
Now before we all go getting too over upset and start saying Spurs are rubbish etc, etc, let's remember that we have still gone second and are just about still in the title race.
In reality though, a point tonight is not enough.
Still, we can revel in the fact that Arsenal lost!!!

Vorm - 6. Not a great deal to report.

Walker - 7. Tried to get things going but ultimately was facing a brick wall of eleven.

Alderweireld - 7. Solid as per usual.

Dier - 6. Looks happier in a back 3. Very nervy at times.

Rose - n\a. Off injured on 38 minutes. Replaced by Davies who could have given Spurs 3 points.

Dembele - 6. Not his best game but was recklessly brought down by Rodwell who saw yellow. Should have been red.

Wanyama - 6. Had a good chance to head home but wasted the opportunity.

Eriksen - 7. Found it difficult to break Sunderland down but kept plugging away.

Son - 5. Can get goals in games but was at his frustrating worse tonight.

Kane - 6. Struggled to get much space as he was crowded out by the Sunderland back 11 in the second half.

Alli - 6. Again struggled to get a major impact in the game but worked hard to find a way through with little success.

Sissoko - 4. Here lies a major issue for Spurs. When he is the best we can bring on to change a game, it's an should sue that needs to be addressed. But won't be because it never is.

Davies - 5. Not good enough to be back up for Rose.

Janssen - N/A pointless bringing him on for 5 minutes. Do feel sorry for him. His confidence must be shot.

Pochettino - 6. Frustrated but had nothing to offer from the bench.

Must do better to win the title. Let's move on and go again.

As ever Come on You Spurs!!!!

 

Most of them got a rest Saturday only to churn out this dross.
18 minutes to buy some winners Daniel.

 

Eriksen 7!!!!!
For heaven's sake, he was simply abysmal and I was hoping he was hooked at half time. How he managed to survive the full game is best known by Poch.
Our most ineffectual player by a margin... and there were several candidates.

 

Simply it was a bad day in the office; Lack of determination and pace...poor performances by Kane, Alli, Eriksen= nil goal....Only a smile in the night: Gunners Lose. As ever COYS!

 

Nothing really wrong with Wanyama's performance, but when we are dominating and striving for the win, a nightclub bouncer does not help in the middle of the field - Winks' crisp passing would have been a much better option. Changing like-for-like, Sissoko for Son, lots of intent without any direction, was never going to be a game changer.

 

Agree with most but giving alli a 6 is generous for me, he didn't do a thing, looked pretty uninterested. Was a frustrating game to watch, all we seemed to do was pass it from side to side and seemed a little too patient rather than trying to force our way through and should have been a lot more aggressive in attack. Credit to Sunderland they were organised and solid at the back, but when our team is so superior to theirs it amazes me how in 90 minutes we can't beat them. Never mind, can't see us winning the league now but we havnt lost any ground which is good, top 3 this year would still be incredible

 

Was a frustrating game to watch. Felt we had the wrong formation to start the game. I don't understand why Poch won't play Davies in 3 at the back. I am sure that he must have observed him at euros and seen what he can do. Rose and Walker playing as wingbacks allows us to break defensive minded teams a lot easier. It also provides roaming freedom to Alli and Eriksen. I felt Son overshadowed Alli's influence on the game. I believe Son should be coming off the bench, which actually gives a little more depth than Sissoko, man is hopeless at the moment. I hope he figures out where he fits within the squad.

 

well we huffed and puffed and not too much else. if we had scored perhaps they would have come out a bit more and given us the opportunity to score more. BUT teams like that (before the game) see one point as a victory.
It's a game we simply should be winning.

Top 4 is tough....but we have the squad to do it. having said that....we'll be back in the CL money making nonsense. we have good squad who all seem to want to stay....so getting CL will buy which players?? ...the one thing we can hope for...is that we turn up.
.....I'd like to see us push for the FA Cup this season.

as for Arsenal....personally I don't take any pleasure from them losing. I don't take anything from them doing anything. I don't care how they get on or where the finish....or anyone else for that matter! ....I only care about us and what we do and where we finish.
.....having said that....the Payet situation at West Ham is funny! ...never that club's fault for anything that happens.

 

Never tried to get to see it, never seems to work for me. Missing it sounds like the best result of the night, along with the Gooners loss.
As Matt says, we've been here before. Must win, lower level side......all the usual stuff.
At the end of the day this was us against a packed defence, plus JD. Three at the back, Davies in the side would have given us width and pace, as our recent results have shown......Bum.
So no more wringing of hands, we got a point, we are second. Move on to Boro, play better. Our away form will dictate our chances of finishing high this season. Sounds like a 5/10 from me and a must do better..?
COYS

 

Okay, time for my second viewing comment. As you will know, whenever I can, I always watch Spurs games, in full for a second time after the event. Once I've had chance to get the initial disappointment out of my system.
Much of my opinion hasn't massively changed but in the second half we really did lay siege to the Sunderland goal and it was wasteful finishing that cost us. Wanyama and Davies both should have done much better from inside the box, with Wanyamas miss being particularly poor. Great work from Son and an easy header made to look far more difficult than it was.
Eriksen played better than I initially gave credit for and in the second half was trying to pull the strings. He wasn't brilliant but he wasn't pathetic by any stretch of the imagination.

The fact that Mannone was man of the match also says a lot. But we do need to be more clinical. In some games we have been, in too many we haven't.

The referee had a shocker though. Dembele grew into the game but the challenge from Rodwell was a disgrace. The referee is right next to the challenge which verged on assault and is right up there as one of the worse challenges of the season. It was a leg breaker, cynical and a clear red card. Refs should face bans for ignoring tackles like that.

Spurs look less comfortable with a back four than a back three.

In hindsight it was not a terrible Spurs performance but we simply didn't have the cutting edge that has been so prominent on recent matches.
The lack of quality on the bench is a clear issue that hasn't been addressed and will need to be in the summer should Spurs wish to win that league title. There is no reason why we can't win it in the coming seasons. But we need better players to change games. Right now we just don't have them.

 

Last night just got a whole lot better.....Matt's second viewing input and me watching MOTD

Gooners 1 ......Kaboul and Gomes 2.....Get in......

How well did they play. They did that for us, no doubt.

COYS

 

Missed it also but were all playing for 2nd spot now it seems. Were in the box seat and I'd have taken that preseason. Truth is we had 37m pounds worth of summer transfer business and they got less than twenty mins between them such is thier current form and MPs faith in them. Nkoudou cannot make the bench which sums the summer window up. Could we have spent the full budget on a Mane, lacazarette or a reus would be my question??
Still think v a team like Sunderland parking the bus at home could have gone with two up top for the last half hour personally. Onwards to boro and 3 points. Coys.

 

Poch lost those points, not his lads. There was no need to play 3-4-3 against Moyes. 4-2-3-1 would be a more attacking formation with larger number in MF. We still could have it our way, but after Rose injury 3 back lost its sense entirely, cause Davis is no wing-back. So it became, in fact, 4-3-3 , since Walker, who had a good game, was up in midfield. That just simply didn't work well. Poch should have acted sooner to tinker the situation. He was late with second substitution. Son must have been kept, since Davis was non-existent ..His solution to direct Eriksen from right to left did not help, as left side became entirely numb after Son's withdrawal, due to Eriksen's inability to play well when team needs points, the man plays well on his own schedule. To Posh defense his bench is just deplorable, no game changers there. So after substitutions Spurs became worse than they were. We could be lucky to have a toothless opponent playing for a draw. Otherwise, we might have gotten no points at all.

 

Damn it ...

Was one of them torturous games I'm afraid , it was predictable how they were going to approach it and if they got it right and got through the first 20 mins without conceeding , it was going to become a struggle ... It's a difficult type of game for all teams but it's one we have to improve on if we,re to get to that next level ... We just never built up a full head of steam for whatever reason and ultimately it was a wee bit to easy for Sunderland to keep us at bay I.m.o.... Credit to them for doing it of course but one would hope to make it more difficult for them over the 90+ mins ... For such a big side we,re pretty **** at corners , corners and dead ball situations are crucial in these type of tight games .. Was a huge opportunity missed with everyone around us dropping points ... Won't be much margin for error if the Manc sides win tonight , think there'll only be 3 points between 2nd & 6th ... As for catching Chavski , it's going to take a collapse of fairly epic proportions for anyone to catch them ... Injuries are mounting up again I'm afraid , just when we were really starting to rock and while our squad isn't the worst , it's nowhere near as strong as others yet ... For me , and I know plenty won't agree with this , but it justifies leaving out so many first teamers in the domestic cups , we couldn't afford to lose one of our top players in them games ... At this stage we are only an injury to Toby or Harry away from big trouble ..... On too the weekend , hopefully 3 points in the bag and no more injuries ... C.O.Y.S ......

 

Have to say Kane and Alli are getting away with things a bit.
Both were pretty rubbish.
Read somewhere that Kane touched the ball 7 times in 90 minutes.
Wanayama should have scored, but his primary job is stopping the opposition.
He is slowly becoming a must have in the middle of the park
Poch is the one who is most to blame, we have zero backup to players like Kane and Alli, therefore they are not getting pushed.
Janssen for 5 minutes, what is the point ?
N'Koudou should be at the very least on the bench.
I am starting to think Poch plays not to lose first and foremost.

BTW, not a dig at Kane and Alli, just think had they got hauled off at half time then perhaps the next game they may show more desire.

Still, another point, imo we were never in for the title but 2/3 ...natural progression you could say.

However, next season at Wembley could be a real deal breaker to us if we continue to struggle there .

 

1 point in it from 2nd to 5th, these are the games we need to capitalise on if we want to stay in the CL spots come end of season.
3 dubious performances on the bounce after 2 great performances is like a boxer admiring his shots rather than finishing the job, always leaves an opportunity for other to creep back in.
Kane has been pretty anonymous last few games he's played fitness/form/supply? who knows but if we want to stay in the mix we need better from him and the team going forward.
Alli and Eriksen need to create more also.

It does seem unfair to single them out as 9 times out of 10 they are our only goal threat so that's why we complain at them. Really the issue is lack of competition or back up and that's both transfers and management that are the issue.

Poch needs to get the likes of Nkodou and Janssen involved more regularly if they are to succeed or help the cause. We also need to not spunk 60+ mil on dross like Sissoko and Lamela, both need moving on pronto!

 

I think there are fundamental differences in how mediocre clubs and top clubs spend when it comes to talent acquisition. We should not be afraid or timid to bring in a talent if we believe he'll be good for our club. Man City's Jesus looks like a steal; they've only gotten him for 27 mil and some add-ons performance wise. We get caught in the middle and end up overspending at the end of transfer windows to get players like Sissoko.

Liverpool got Wijnaldum from Newcastle last year for 25 mil, and I repeat; we picked up Sissoko for 30. We need to change our mentality, we're a club that has lots of potential and should be able to acquire top level talent on those merits alone. One hope I have is that we try and get Sigurdsson back, what a mistake it was to let him go.