A tough game, a poor performance and an underserved point

Discussion in 'Tottenham forum' started by Socrates, February 22, 2015.

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  1. Socrates

    Socrates Member

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    We deserved nothing from this game. We were poor from the off and created very little of note. Europa League hangover, one eye on the cup final – call it what you want, we were not up to scratch; the passing was poor, the movement wasn’t there, the tempo was far too slow – West Ham were better than us in every department. With that in mind, today’s point is probably the most satisfying we’ll gain all season.

    What does this mean for the league? I’ve never felt that we’d make top four this season anyway but this certainly hasn’t helped whatever slim chance we may have had.

    It highlighted some of the key weaknesses in our squad. Lamela and Townsend in particular drive me absolutely mad– there’s some quality in there, you can see it, but I’m not sure how much more patient I can be.

    I’m all for giving players time but there has to be a line drawn at some point where we must accept that these players aren’t really anything more than just ok.

    I appreciate Lamela’s work rate but he’s very sloppy on the ball; Townsend finds himself in good positions but his end product is on par with Lennon’s at the moment.

    I’d love nothing more than for them to prove me wrong but week after week I feel the same level of frustration and disappointment.

    Shuffling The Pack

    All eyes on Wembley now. We have a game midweek of course but I’m of the mind to send our weakest possible team to Italy. Some may disagree but for me the cup final is the priority.

    Fiorentina were no great shakes a few days ago so a weakened side could still do enough to get us over the line. Either way, the focus has to be on the final.

    If the game goes the distance as it did 7 years ago, the players who play on Thursday will suffer tremendously. I want us to go to Wembley fully focused and with a fresh side.

    Winning trophies is what football is all about and to beat Chelsea along with it would be about as sweet as it gets. It’s been 7 years since our last cup success and a trophy would provide the perfect springboard to greater things.

    We’ve seen a lot of positive signs under Pochettino so far, some silverware would top it off nicely.
     
  2. Marcus New Member

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    Spot on. you simply forgot to mention the same lack of substance or grit from Soldado. Just too lightweight in a few key areas in my opinion. one more player in the stature of Kane, Lloris or Erikssen and we'd be at the next level. Play like today against Cheatski in the final and we'd be taken to the cleaners. COYFS
     
  3. Alain New Member

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    It doesn't matter how fit you are playing as many games as spurs did already and 6 games in 17 days will do some damages somewhere and today's game is one of them. We will suffer in the coming games, let's keep building for next season with a manager we trust
    and stability for once!!
     
  4. nattrug New Member

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    Alain that is a poor excuse for the performance today. These are highly paid professional players. where did you get 6 games from 17 days some of those players last game was against liverpool nearly a fortnight ago.
     
  5. ffs Guest

    Looked like they were scared in case they got injuries that said spammers should have had a man sent off .but that's not a excuse we need to be a lot better in Italy and especially against cheatski in the final ..... COYS
     
  6. c b waters Guest

    For half an hour against Fiorentina we looked unstoppable, and yet played the last two thirds of the match as though we'd just had a 2 day break, not 9. OK, perhaps they're thinking of West Ham, I thought, although that thought in itself cheesed me off. But, apart for the 10 minutes or so in how we started today, and for a few minutes at the end, we sank to the level we played against Fiorentina for most of the game.
    So what's wrong?
    Why did we allow Wham to outpress us and pressurise us into constant mistakes (almost throughout) as we allowed Fiorentina to do, once they'd recovered from their battering on the ropes? Why couldn't we sustain the high pressing tactics of Poch, given our increased fitness levels, for at least 50% of the time in those games?
    At this stage of the season, if we're not up for certain matches, then what's the point of all the hard work that's gone before? It's going to be nigh impossible now to sneak past 3 of the 6 teams ahead of us and claim 4th this season. And if we play a weakened side against the Italians in the 2nd crucial leg (when it's all to play for) because of League Cup hopes, then Bill Nicholson would turn in his grave!
    Getting into Europe was what it was always about, wasn't it?! The Glory that is Spurs (first British winners of a European trophy over 50 years ago, and winners of two other Euro trophies since). I would take, given where we are in our development as a squad, winning the Europa Cup this season (even WITHOUT the CL carrot) over winning the League Cup and finishing 4th any day.
    That really WOULD lay down a marker, and get the rest of European football sitting up and taking notice of Tottenham Hotspur!
    And we ain't gonna finish 4th this season anyway, even if we throw away the Europa League ..so the EL is our only hope for CL (and we COULD win it if we focus hard). 4th 4th 4th ..frankly I'm sick of it, season after disappointing season, putting all our eggs in that damn basket, and with 'always' Arsenal slipping in and shunting us out.
    We threw away the FA Cup 4th rd. against Leicester at home (even a poor Spurs side wouldn't have done that years ago) and now we look as if we're going to treat the EL with the same stupid disdain. Don't get me wrong, Wembley next Sunday in the League Cup Final will be a great occasion ..the chance of a bit of Glory, another trophy.
    But I don't want Spurs to be remembered for just League Cup wins in its PL years. I want us back on the FA Cup Glory trail ..and treating our European nights as highly as any other competition, if not more so.
    If Poch gets things right with this squad, adds a couple more pieces to the jigsaw, then league consistency will take care of itself, and we might not find ourselves fretting so much about top four. We could achieve even better than that. But meanwhile, unlike a lot of younger fans, who can't recall what REAL Glory was all about, I want us to treat next Thursday as every bit as important as the following Sunday.
    Because, at the very least, it's the Thursday that could swing CL football for us next season, not Sunday.
     
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  7. Burnt Guest

    Well we said it back in Dec that the team that improves the most defensivly will prob end up sneaking into the top 4 and at the moment thats looking like the scousers .. Unfortunately we haven't improved at all in that department .. We ,ve shown plenty of improvement in other areas , don't get me wrong but we are shambolic at the back .. Nobody can play their best football game after game throughout a season , there's times you just have to grind it out , defend well , keep a clean sheet and nick it one or 2 nil .. Thats something we just cant do and its biting us in the arse at the moment .. No one in the top 10 has conceded more and thats a fairly damning stat in a poor league full of teams that cant defend properly..
     
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  8. big fran Guest

    Always gonna be a tough ask these fixtures but the weakened team Thurs seems to have backfired. Had we had won by a couple of goals v foirentina we could have gone with a weakened team in the 2nd leg and today's point would have looked a lot better. The cups for me and in particular the final are the priority as football is about trophies for me. There is plenty of time to make up ground on the top four but cups obviously are cut throat.
     
  9. John w Guest

    Any chance Adebayor could step up to the mark Thursday night and earn his 100k ?....nah didn't think so.
     
  10. Hotspur24 New Member

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    Agree 100% with c b waters (above entry). We should go all out to beat this mediocre Fiorentina team and get through to the next round. Probably our best chance of getting into Champions League. Afterall, if we cant beat these Europa League teams how the hell we going to any good in the Champions league??? If this Europa league is such a poision chalice and we are going to struggle to get top 4 because our jaded players cant summon up any energy to perform week in week out, then we may as well finish 9th or 10th and forget the europa league next season. Other teams can perform on all fronts, so lets give it a go on thursday and see how we get on ,on sunday. I appreciate that if we dont get CL we may lose some mercenries, but win the EL and we could attract some good players. COYS
     
  11. Even if we play our best team on thursday and somehow get through i think the amount of games that we will have to play plus all the travel will take its toll.If i was the manager i would play our second team on thursday and save our best eleven for sunday.
     
  12. Bazza47

    Bazza47 Well-Known Member

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    Whilst not a popular view, my own very personal view is that we should save our key players by not taking them to Italy.
    We need to play 8 more games and win the last one to pick up this trophy and that really does feel a bridge too far.
    Lloris, Kane and Eriksen are key to our Wembley success and beyond, and if we were shot of this competition, we stand a chance of top 4. With it we haven't got a prayer.
    Today was a painful watch but as one contributor said it's done so forget it. Several poor performances in the first half set the tone. For Dembele you could have just as easily picked Townsend and/or Lamela, or all three. I personally like Moussa, but once he starts bad, he seems to lose confidence and falls away. Let's hope he recovers from this.
    So what about Sunday..... Lloris, Walker, Dier, Verts, Rose, Mason, Bentaleb, Eriksen, Chadli, probably Townshend, Kane. I'd prefer to see Townshend on his correct wing, so left side, but with Hazard off the left it needs cover for attacks down that side, so him right, Chadli left. Chugger needs a word in his ear....work harder. Too lazy by half.
    Enough for now. COYS
     
  13. Sweech Guest

    Disagree.

    We created several very good chances. On the whole we created more chances today than we have on other days. Not sure what game you were watching.
     
  14. Mike Godfrey Guest

    I don't know if you are aware, but instead of the usual flight back after the match on Thursday, the team are staying an extra night in Florence on Thursday night, training at Fiorentina's stadium on Friday morning and coming back leisurely on Friday afternoon, so negating a tiring late night flight. This was arranged before the first leg so suggests to me that (a) Poch is taking the Fiorentina tie seriously, and (b) some who will be playing on Sunday will definitely be involved on Thursday, or at the very least, travelling out to Florence, otherwise, why organise a training session out there? I totally agree that we should go for both, as you can guarantee that if a weak team loses on Thursday, the knock on effect will be a defeat on Sunday - success breeds success, but unfortunately the opposite also applies.... COYS
     
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  15. Bazza47

    Bazza47 Well-Known Member

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    We did create some chances and more so than some of our worst performances at The Lane this year, but we weren't very good, with several players showing poor form. The stats may make it look as if we dominated - chances, possession - but there is no escaping we were poor and I can't help feeling that 8 more Europa games will not enhance the overall outurn for this season.
     
  16. PeeLee New Member

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    Spurs deserved the point that was won when it had looked like none at all would be gained. The fact that Spurs had played in the Europa League on Thursday, encouraged West Ham to go for it in the Premier League on the Sunday knowing that Spurs would have minds on this Thursday's second leg match in Florence and mere days later a Cup Final at Wembley against Chelsea. So it made sense for the Hammers to go for it, suspecting that Spurs had a lot on their minds. Had Spurs not had the Europa League matches either side of yesterday, it would have been a different, a more pressing Spurs that West Ham came up against. Spurs were at their best in the first ten minutes and in the final fifteen minutes (including time added), between which periods West Ham went ahead and, along with that offside second goal, extended their lead. Spurs deserved the point. Each of the clubs around and including Spurs in the Premier League table, have 12 matches still to play. There's some way yet to go!
     
  17. PeeLee New Member

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    Highly paid, lowly paid, or paid somewhere in-between, has nothing to do with how players play or how they should be expected to play. It has no bearing on performance. They wouldn't play three times better if they were each paid three times more than they currently get paid. They are each paid what they or their representatives have negotiated.
     

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