PLAYER RATINGS: Spurs 1:2 Newcastle

Tottenham produced a spineless second half to hand Newcastle just their second three points of the season at White Hart Lane.

On a day where Spurs pulled out all the stops to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of our greatest ever manager, Bill Nicholson, the players failed to match the expectations of the passionate watching fans and legends.

The first period was completely different, with Spurs dominating possession from the off and taking the lead through Emmanuel Adebayor who headed home from Ryan Mason’s cross. But Spurs failed to capitalise on later chances and went in at the break comfortably in the lead.

The second half signalled all change. Just 7 seconds after Newcastle had kicked off, Sammy Ameobi had the ball in the back of the net as Eric Dier was caught napping.

Dier was then beaten once more as Mousa Sissoko picked out young striker Ayoze Perez who headed home his first Premier League goal.

Pochettino was slow to react to the deficit and the side failed to create any significant chances before the introduction of Harry Kane late on. Pardew’s men were able to run down the clock as Spurs slumped at home once more.

Player Ratings

Hugo Lloris - 5 – Wasn’t called into action at all other than to pick the ball out of his net – twice. Didn’t make a single save ad only one punch, mainly because Newcastle only played for 20 minutes in the second half.

Danny Rose - 6 – He was consistently our only outlet, and the only player to give us any kind of width. With Lamela, Eriksen and Chadli all fighting for space inside, he was the only one to make life difficult for Janmaat.

Younes Kaboul - 5 - Spent most of the game covering Eric Dier who had a real stinker. But what frustrated me most was why Kaboul resorted to hoofing the ball up towards our striker(s) in the dying embers of the game. Roberto Soldado and Aaron Lennon weren’t ever going to get there. Much the same as his fellow defenders.

Jan Vertonghen - 5 – Another of our players who seems to play without a care in the world. There’s no way I want to see Jan leave, but today he seemed so disinterested. No bursting from the back, no attempt at creativity. It’s not his job but it’s the Vertonghen we know and love(d). Nowhere for Perez’s goal.

Eric Dier - 3 – Have to feel sorry for Dier who had an absolute nightmare second half. Just 7 seconds in he was burned by substitute Sammy Ameobi and the injection of pace took him out of the game. He’s a centre-back and that showed so blatantly today.

Etienne Capoue - 4 – This season we’ve become accustomed to Capoue controlling the game and becoming a metronome for our entire philosophy. Today he went missing and was subsequently pulled from the game midway through the second half. The first half probably made him think that defensive duties wouldn’t be needed, he was wrong.

Ryan Mason - 6 – Could be a decent shout for MOTM thanks to his commanding first half display, but in the second period he created little. Certainly looks comfortable with Premier League football and almost every highlight of the first 45 involved him – including the goal.

Erik Lamela - 4 – This display came at the worst possible time for Erik. After his showing in the week expectations were SO high for the Argentine who performed brilliantly against poor opposition, but looked so unbelievably one-dimensional today. If next week’s opponents see a video of what he did today they’ll have him summed up already.

Christian Eriksen - 4 – Another performer who failed to stand up and be counted. Tried to get on the ball but ultimately did nothing with it, and should have scored too. But my biggest problem is something so simple – how can you not beat the first man from a corner? Schoolboy.

Nacer Chadli - 4 – Failed to provide the width we needed, especially hen out on the left. Sice joining Spurs he’s actually turned into more of an inverted winger/second striker – something we already have in abundance. Could see his place nicked in coming weeks…

Emmanuel Adebayor - 4 - …But not before this guy does. Scored the goal he so desperately needed to silence those who claimed he should never be starting, but then continued to show them exactly why they argued it in the first place. Not exactly “lazy”, just always in the wrong place, coincidentally.

SUBS

Harry Kane - 5 – Things actually happened when Kane came on, and he presented much more of a goal threat than Ade. Had he started the game he would have undoubtedly score Adebayor’s goal and added more, so Poch surely has to start him at Villa.

Aaron Lennon - 4 – Was brought on to provide the width that we screamed out for, but Pardew reacted excellently by bringing on another fullback at the same time. Lennon literally had nowhere to go.

Roberto Soldado - N/a

If there was a noise that summed up that game it would be “aaaarrghhhhhh”.

The first half seemed so comfortable and it seemed like we might actually pick up an easy 3 points – however it was hat exact mentality which caused the likes of Eric Dier to leave their brains in the dressing room.

The decision not to bring in DeAndre Yedlin at the start of the season still frustrates me unendingly. Dier is a wonderful prospect but he’s 6ft 2” and built like an Eddie Stobart, so even Alan Pardew could exploit his weakness.

But the biggest sickener from today’s game has to be who was there to see it. The likes of Cliff Jones and Graeme Roberts watched that from the sidelines, players who love the club to death. The bunch on the pitch didn’t play for them at all.

Not the most fitting of tributes for Bill Nick, so let’s do it all over again on Wednesday.

Come on you Spurs.

 

Oh dear. Awful. Awful. No tactics, no style. This is very poor.

I said in the summer that one of my concerns about Pochettino is that At Southampton, he showed little signs of having a plan b, and sadly that is already the case. We played okay in the first half but ultimately, I have seen very little of the supposed pressing game he was bringing with him. The rubbish that we don't have the players to reform that way is a bloody joke. They are professional footballers.
It is time to start worrying. The substitutions were too late and poch is starting to look out f his depth.

 

What a shower, absolute cr@p.
As ive had to repeatedly say there are too many sub standard passengers in this team.
I dont think Poch is helping himself either but the cold hard facts are until Levy gets the cheque book out and buys players of the quality we deserve this will continue to go backwards.

 

Said it after avb and after Sherwood
and I'm gonna say it again. Where do we go from here. It looks another bad appointment. The quality is there undoubtedly. What we are lacking is a manager. These coaches don't cut it for me!! They do not manage. They rotate and where is the skill in that. What do they manage. We all would be capable of ratating a group of players to keep them happy whilst picking up zero points. Dembele was our best performer midweek along with Kane. What is their reward. Answer -the bench and dembele our most complete player doesn't manage to get off it. What message does that send out to the rest of the squad? We have seen Sandro replaced by stambouli who can't make either starting 11. Dawson replaced by fazio who is no better and certainly doesn't offer the same leadership skills.

 

Tottenhan never fail to amaze me as to how they can snatch defeat from the jaws of victory! We somehow give teams confidence to go and beat us even if they are useless in the first half. Newcastle hardly had a touch, yet we couldn't put them to the sword. This was woeful to watch, we had no idea once they equalised. Why play one up front at home, and Adebayor at that - he needs to be sold asap, although he did run about a bit! Kane needed more of a chance earlier as did Soldado, who im afraid looks like being sold in january. What a waste of talent, the guy lacks confidence because hes always warming the bench. We never look like scoring in a million years, and the goal difference is minus again!! We need a top goal scorer in january.?? Martinez. The worry for me at the moment is that poch has no idea how to change it up to secure victories, and although still early days into his rein, the spurs faithful are going to get restless. No hope at present. Disgruntled.

 

No option to get Yedlin at the start he didn't even have a passport let alone a work visa to come across. But that's such a small discussion compared to our recent performances

 

New manager and same old story, starts well and we get hopeful only for the same pattern to keep happening again and again! same with AVB and Tim and now Poch, 1 win in 7 is woeful, we are so predictable in our play every game, slow to get forward, everything through congested midfield? no width, no quick midfield balls forward for the strikers to run onto! nobody making runs or with the vision to pass forward quickly, inverted wingers, no options when our player gets the ball and the worse of all the crosses that dont clear the first man or go to the goalie or are overhit? FFS nobody seems to be on the same wavelenth! Levi is a failure and the buck stops with him! Levi employ's all these managers but doesnt back them with the players that they want and brings in his own bargain basement players, Levi employ's Baldini who brought in this dross and i am at a loss to why he is still there after blowing £100 million on failure's, Levi has never got it right and needs to go, he has turned us into a circus!

 

Pochettino had no plan B at Southampton. He got the sack at Espanyol when they ended up as relegation candidates after a good season the year earlier. Another useless manager Levy has signed! He's got RAMOS written all over him! We would be doing better if we had kept old mouth and trousers, Sherwood. Sad, but true!

It's not just a question of getting out the cheque book; we did that with Lamela. £30m for a player who showboats against poor opposition, but has no end product in the Premier League.

 

Nobby. Spurs have spent money. However they can't compete against the Top clubs like Man Utd, because they haven't got the revenue stream to pay top players wages; namely £200k per week!! It's the manager, Pochettino, who is dross. He has good enough players at his disposal to beat the likes of WBA and Newcastle at home, but he can't!! WBA and Newcastle have far poorer squads than Spurs!
Pochettino has no plan B. The team has no natural width apart from Rose at the moment. We desperately need Walker fit and playing.
Pochettino is clueless and will ultimately be sacked. His Premier league win record so far is far worse than that of Sherwood.

 

I've been saying it for weeks now, and every week it seems that I am right, Pochettino was not the reason why Southampton did so well last year, it was the players and the club structure at ST Mary's that helped them to secure such a high position in the Prem, and their position this season is proving that, Poch went out and spent money on supposedly strengthening our defence instead of buying a couple of strikers, and what happens, we can't score enough goals when we're on top and leak goals for the rest of the game, on top of that he makes one of our worst defenders club captain and Adebayor vice captain, (what a joke) and then wonders why there is no passion and drive in the team, he says he picks players on their current form, then leaves out Soldado, Kane and Fazio, the blokes a joke himself, it looks like we will need ANOTHER new manager before the next transfer window, we will be able to tell how long he's got in January by how much he's given to spend by Levy, any odds on zero???

 

Same old , same old .. Depressing and so predictable .. Doesn't matter what the names , people say he should have played this fella instead of that fella and he should have played that fella instead of this fella ,we just get the same turgid **** .. Its early days for the manager to be fair to him & he took over a very messy situation .. He has to be given a chance , even if he turns out to be **** we have to give him a chance to prove it .. What do you do with them , spineless bunch , i don't have a clue .. Poch really has his work cut out to turn this around .. I think Lamela,s past week sums him and our whole team up at the moment .. Have achieved or done absolutely nothing for this club but all think they,re superstars .. Sick of them all i am .. Jeez we get some torturing as spurs fans ..

 

Watched on a good stream for once.
Would have been happier if it dropped the connection at half time so that I would have seen less of this.
Adebayor is past his sell by date. We can't keep hoping that he turns up. Sorry, but he needs replacing in January with a striker that balls don't bounce off who only becomes interested now and again. This could have been said of Berbatov except that he at least scored from some of the half chances that came his way.
Eriksen, Chadli and Lamela can't play in the same team while all trying to play the number 10 role thus offering us no width and allowing the opposition to crowd us out. Lamela in particular must learn what a winger is supposed to do. A few tricks followed by a step inside (predictable) leads to either a hurried pass back or one straight to the opposition. Probably should try Kane and Soldado together as options in the box have been poor given that I think we have one of the worst % possession to actual goals ratio in the league. This will mean Eriksen and Lamela taking turns. I'd keep Chadli as at least he runs past people, provides extra height, does track back, and can score in the Premier League. Lennon seemed a shadow of himself and it was too easy for Newcastle to keep him out of the game. Why did he not switch wings when the RHS was congested? Dier obviously needs a rest but only Kaboul could take the right fullback position at present leaving a problem in who plays in central defence alongside Vertonghen. We need Walker back badly.

 

Spot on. I want Poch out. I'm serious. Dembele and Kane were two of our best players on Thursday and he drops them. Unbelievable. I was behind AVB because he'd had a past of being successful. Poch has nothing of the sort. Now he's blaming our mentality. THAT'S YOUR JOB TO SORT OUT. Clueless berk.

 

For those that read my comments after the Asteras (village utd) - about Lamela people thought "erm no" - but YET AGAIN and ive said it too many times on here now... we did not spend £30m on a player to showboat against village teams in the Fish n Chips Cup.

Yet again, another premier league again and yet again absolutely zilch from him. People say give him time but surely at this stage in his career he knows what a pass should be. Gave the ball away again many times, can't find a pass against semi decent opposition and above. Out-muscled easy. Cuts in and does a step over and is as predictable now to mark as townsend and that's saying something!

Ade again, i think i could have scored that goal, just walks and barely musters up a jog in the whole game. I really am not sure if poch actually is watching the games 95% of fans are watching.

Just too many bang average players in the entire spurs squad. Bar LLoris we have no world class players. A few good and promising ones within the squad but only ONE world class player. What does that say about us. I'l go as far to say after LLoris we only have a couple of very good players and after that just a much of a muchness of so called talent.

Capoue, Chadli, Lamela, Adebayor, (them four in particular) I just do not for the life of me see how they justify continually getting picked in our first XI in the premier league.

 

can't understand what's going on? so incredible to see the same woeful display's under different managers! Said in may when poch was installed that I couldn't understand why we are going down the same road as AVB with the high pressing game, that the world and his brother can all see. that it doesn't work in the premiership! Why o why do we keep employing managers that are so pig headed and stubborn and so fixated on just their way of playing and are totally inflexible. That being said there is something lurking beneath the scenes at spurs, why won't these players perform for any manager? They seem to act like a bunch of spoilt kids! We are only going one way, how can we give the manager time if come Christmas we are in the relegation zone! I for one have no idea just what's going on and how to remedy this, it just seems to me that the players have had enough of yet another manager and want him out.

 

Agree, a lot of the players need to take responsibility. Eriksen just not the same player as last season, but the only one who can pick a pass, but who to? Adebayor gives us nothing in this system. Need to kill teams off with more incisive passing. I was listening to Danny Murphy on one stream and how stupid of us all! He should be our next manager and will undoubtedly win the Champions League within 2 years!!!!..........What complete diatribe of a commentary. I hope we get rid of adebayeeeyoor and sign a striker that can get at least 20 goals a season. Dembele and Stambouli should start every game, and go 2 up top with Kane and Soldado. How year on year we turn some quality players into mediocre ones is beyond me. Keep the faith.

 

More good news for us suffering Spurs fans, Report is that the new stadium will now NOT be ready until the 2020-2021 season! on top of that Levi is dragging us 50 miles away to MK to a capacity of 30.000??? 6000 less that WHL where is the logic or financial sense in that? if i didnt know better i would think Levi is a gooner by the decisions he makes! he is totally screwing us up and needs to hand the reign's over to someone that knows what the hell they are doing, he is very much part of what's going wrong at our beloved club!

 

I have been a Spurs fan since 1963and have been watching all the games on Sky. There has been no shape on our games since Gareth Bale was sold. A hundred million wasted on second rate players, Lloris is the only one that is class , and we will lose him in the January transfer window because he hasn't got any good defence players in front of him apart from Ben Davies who is always on the bench. The manager has no plan B to change the game . The second half was the worst 45 minutes of football I have seen. We need to get rid of the players that don't play play with pride and passion for the privilege of wearing the jersey and playing for the club!!

 

What really frustrated me today, as so often in the past, is that when things go wrong on the pitch we don't have a leader there to pull the team together and react. Yes, we do have a captain, but there wasn't a single player on the pitch who was a leader. Ok, it's not easy to find players of that calibre, but surely we can do better than this?
To agree with some of the things that have already been said, Dier had a poor 1st half and after the goal looked to be in shock. He is young so I don't think of him as a lost case, but it would have been great to have seen some of the more experienced players offering him support.
I do hope Walker is fit soon, and that when he does come back he is ready and able to perform at his best.
Poch must get his coaches to work better on set pieces. We just waste so many by hitting the first line of defence.

 

A frustratingly predictable result. A team berift of leadership and camaraderie defeated by a team full of Ligue 2 french cloggers. Outwitted by that smarmy crusty bellend Pardew. At home. I actually predicted a 2-2 draw but Spurs always find a way to snatch defeat. We've sold what little leadership, talent or ambition out of the club and bought poundland replacements at Harrods prices. I wouldn't jump on the easy excuse of a manager out of his depth as it seems quite a few of the players appear to be just that. Although some of the performances today such as Adebayor's was pretty much a "**** you", "I do what I want" to Poch.