Matchday discussion

It’s great to have 3 wins but the football could get better. It seems, as some have said already, the football is a little JM like with return of the long floating balls a little worrying. There are some positives, the team selection being better and somehow Dier and Sanchez both seem to have improved a little in terms of defending on last season.

That being said, we really need to sign a few in the next couple of days to have any chance of maintaining decent results. Traore to replace Bergwijn & Moura, Bissouma, another CB and if at all possible another RB.

To make that happen it would mean Aurier, Ndombele, Carter-Vickers, Doherty & Winks to be sold or swapped in the next 48 hours (wishful thinking to be fair). I think in this climate, swaps are the way to go…Brighton or Wolves could potentially me open to swaps. I’m not sure who will take Aurier or Ndombele though

I also agree that Kane seems to look very disheartened and lack lustre…it wouldn’t surprise me at all if despite what he has said, if he goes to City…if not now then in January.

The next couple of days are going to be massive for our season.

 

That's a no brainer. At any time of the season, I'll take that too.

What is to come is from our lack of creativity and over-reliance on Son and Kane worries me.

 

Early days but the match against Watford indicates that maybe Nuno has decided to go for a 4-3-3 formation instead of the 4-2-3-1 formation. If it is a 4-3-3 then possibly something might be learned from Liverpool:
-two of the front three will have plenty of goals
-the front three and the two FBs are expected to provide the assists and creativity
-the midfield three is about hard work

It might work well, it might also mean that a couple of players will have to adapt and change their game. Alli might get fewer goals and assists, Tanganga might need to improve his crossing.

Three wins out of three without conceding is a great start

 

Happy with the results but I definitely have concerns:

- not having a striker as a backup option and continuing to rely solely on an unhappy Kane who might want to move away again in Jan (he said he's staying for the summer, not for the season)
- hoping that Tanganga will grow into the role and having struggling Doherty or wantaway Aurier as backup (if we cannot offload him)
- not having creative playmaker who could orchestrate the attack but continuing to rely on CBs to pump the ball forward. It's pretty clear what Sanchez has spent his pre-season doing.

Unless something miraculous happens in the next 48 hours, I think we will still lack quality.

I am definitely happen with the status quo if the season ends now.. Otherwise in the absence of significant activity in the next 48 hours, I will be shitting my pants!

 

Winks again selected.I know we have injury and COVID issues but what is it with the managers who keep putting Winks in.Still puzzled why Rodon does not start.I prefer Tanganga as fullback not decisive enough at centre back.Wanted to see Gil.Have a bad feeling about today which would be spursy Let’s hope I am wrong and old habits have gone

 

My fears being give credence by a S*** show first half.This looks like Jose2 to me.Why oh why did we not go for a midfielder with skill instead of chasing defenders .Why loan back the most skilful buy we Made in the window.We seem to lack passion and commmitment and Kane is on holiday still.Come back soon Son.One goal from open play this season so far.So much for levy’s promise of returning to the Tottenham way

 

Awful to watch a loss against Crystal Palace.

No idea why Gil didn't get to play, Dele isn't that good as one of the front three in a 433.
One match in but I am not sure if the RB position was upgraded.
Kane.... Didn't look like he put in an effort, didn't see him bust a gut to get into the penalty area the few times Spurs went on the attack

The few positives:
The back four is young and can hopefully develop/improve. The new RB started against a very tricky winger, still I'd expect him to do a lot better
Moura always puts in a shift and causes chaos

 

Game over and all my pre game fears have come true.Once again no shot on target.No creativity no fight no shape .Why did we not buy Gallagher way above Winks andSkipp.The sending off did not help of course and Tanganga was like a bull in a China shop.The teamshape was wrong from the start and no changes made until the sending off.This was as bad if not worse than Jose’s rubbish.Please no more Winks even if we have all our midfielders injured.Davies just a waste of a squad place.Another performance against Rennes and we will be out of Europe early.I am fearing this season and will be gobsmacked if we finish top half.Why have we bought Gil if he is not better than Winks.

 

If you have no confidence in your centre backs, you will pack your midfield with defensive players. Winks pass sideways and backwards. Less likely to lose possession than Gil who can't help but attack . Can't blame Nuno. He's a goalkeeper and like to have plenty of defenders in front of him to block shots.

 

Not convinced he can keep this promise.

 

Guest why does he not have confidence in his centre backs after 3 games with no goals against and we have just bought a new one.I am afraid that that a leopard cannot change its spots and the promise of attacking football is just a pipe dream of Levy.The best thing Nuno can do is kick a few up the rear end and most importantly Kane who has about as much energy as a donut.Just watched Lukaku score for Chelsea and that is what a centre forward should look like.My god pray Son is not out for a long period.I thought Nuno had told Winks to look for another club yet continues to pick the wage stealer.I am at a loss with some of playersKane totally disinterested Ali never a midfield player and Moura who produces fantastic dribbles with absolutely no end product.Watching Crouch and Ferdinand on sky highlighting the attacking passes that were on but ignored by our scintillating midfield.I don’t particularly like Ndombeles attitude but he must play even on one leg.why did we let our exciting midfield buy go back on loan because he is young .So what he can play don’t remember Rooney not playing because of age

 

What is it that people can't understand about attacking football?

To carry it out you need quality attack minded players.

Our defence is still a shambles, our wing backs aren't good enough, our midfield is severely limited and our forwards barring Son & Kane are utterly woeful.

How many times its not the Managers it's the players ffs.

Seen elsewhere people saying why wasn't Gil played we're back to juggling players around and when said players don't perform its why didn't xyz play instead.
Only its the same result on repeat.

If you were naive enough to think the 1st 3 games were us turning a corner, or that we had a good window etc then I suggest you wise up n quickly.

It's a terrible squad p;ss weak, full of averageness and its already getting exposed after a couple of injuries.

It wasn't Poch, it wasn't Mourinho, it's NOT nuno it's the Kevin & Perry squad & the Elephant that's been in the room for 21 years.

 

Well that was pretty awful…Tanganga had red card written all over him when he got booked. Big decisions make a difference and he should have been hooked as his head had gone as soon as he got involved in the tussle with Saha and the pair of them were still going several minutes later.

Even without the red, we made a very average Palace side look good…very disappointing

 

Omg why didn't we buy Gallagher firstly he's on loan secondly Chelsea wouldn't loan/sell him to us tbf the result isn't much of a shock Lo Celso, Sanchez and Romero showed what they think of Spurs by jetting off for their international sides whilst others stay with their teams. The lack of quality in the squad is still there unfortunately what choice was there Ndombele who would have been too weak to do anything or Gil who would have probably struggled with the physicality of the game. Winks has been a passenger since that one good game against Real Madrid, Skipp looked off the pace, PEH was awful probably due to playing for Denmark and he struggles out on the right as for Royal poor bugger came up against Zaha who always plays well against Spurs Tanganga did ok but lost his head Lucas reverted back to his well known headless chicken role as for Kane and Dele pretty non plus I could go on but hey ho easy game next Lukaku against Dier(if fit) Sanchez or Rodon or Romero could be carnage but hopefully they will turn up at least

 

Royal was awful. Can we sign Aurier, please???
Emerson was embarrassing and that was a first domino of many to fall in the game. Next, Tanganga was forced to do Emerson's job, since Zaha was eating Royal alive. Both Zaha and Tanganga should have been given strait Red. But it were Spurs who got reduced to 10 and that was the beginning of the end. Davies is not a CB. He can play position, no question, but he doesn't know to keep his hands behind his butt. Once Spurs conceded from penalty, there was no way to avoid losing. Spurs had only two attackers. And none on the bench to help. Thank you, FIFA.

 

After another woeful performance from both team and manager I got to thinking did Levy do the correct thing not selling Kane.I would have snapped City’s hand off at 125 million because watching Kane over the last 6 months for both us and England I don’t think he will be the same threat he was.His appararent lack of interest for us is also reciprocated when he plays for England..On Saturday he did not have one touch in the opponents penalty area and for England he did score with a shot most keepers would have saved.Where is the closing down and marauding of the past,.I know he is surrounded by pretenders but at least a small effort would be nice.I don’t suppose he is helped by having a club manager and international manager who are only interested in defending.We could have bought Ings and a proper midfielder for the money

 

Seen the latest stats fo the season so far .We have conceded the most shots against and created the least chances for of any team in the premier league.We also created the lowest chances by a spurs team for 16 years on Saturday.How have we won 3 games.This bunch of players are heading for getting rid of their third manager in 2 years

 

We will regret not selling him for big money at some point soon. His form has dipped and when he gets his annual injury, we will be stuck without a striker again. Should have sold him and bought the fella Palace did for £14m

 

Important week coming up Rennes away and Chelsea at home.Lose both and the supporters will be on the back of Nuno early.This may be unfair but after 3 years of total dross we need to see some hope that we are at least going to play football with attacking intent.We signed 3 new outfield players and surely they need to be first choice not sitting on the bench.Not signing a midfielder and centre forward will haunt us for the rest of the season .We should have signed Ings and then we could have dropped Kane which may wake him up.How much longer will Southgate pick him based on his club form at the moment.I pray he gets back to his best but I have my doubts if we will ever see the top form from him again.The injury to Son is a major blow as we have no one to replace him in goal scoring just two head down runners who don’t learn how to utilise their ability for ttem .Surely this is a coaches job.

 

At the moment I am hoping for the steadying of the ship and for me that would be to find a formation and stick to it. Allow the players to get used to playing it and with each other in that formation.

If the 433 is the one to go for then the club with the greatest success when using the 433 plays with:
-two fast attacking players and a third who is useful (whatever that might mean)
-athletic FBs who can run up and down the field for 90 minutes and are good crossers
-one really good CB
-a confidence-inspiring GK
-three hardworking CMs who barely contributes with assists and/or goals

Against CP then there were only one fast attacker and that fast attacker was often helping out against Zaha. Zaha occupied Royal, Hojbjerg and Tanganga so there really shouldn't have been a need for Moura to also defend against that one player.
On the left there seemed to have been very poor communication between Winks and Regy leading to Gallagher having too much open space.

Crossing-ability can be improved through practice.
If Son, one of the fast attackers can't play, then play another fast attacker. Gil was available, not sure if Sessegnon was available and while I've not been impressed yet by Clarke then he might have been an option.

At the moment I'd rather play with untested youngsters in their preferred position than shoe-horning in the more experienced players into positions they are not suited for.