Matchday discussion

So after what was a pitiful performance at Turf Moor where our slimmest chance of a Title challenge despite absolutely no desire from the club to actually achieve it died, we now turn our attention to Chelsea away.

Now at the beginning of 2 huge EPL fixtures against 2 of our fiercest rivals, all part of a 4 club tussle for 3rd & 4th.
Currently we sit in the driving seat thankfully but as we know those who've supported/endured us long enough always know that that can collapse at any moment.

Chelsea have a whole heap of problems currently , dressing room unrest , no viable striker (a fat ageing settling Higuaine aside) a manager that looks on the periphery of getting sacked .... It's not looking good at all.
That said though we have the honour of being their cup final these days (so much so they sing about us when their players walk out, embarrassing) as well as Scums & Wet Shams so you'd think at their place they're gonna up their game for it.

Both sides had a disappointing result on the weekend which I believe will lead to frustrations boiling over again in this one.

We actually managed to overcome the Bridge hoodoo last season let's hope we can do it again, interestingly we have played them 3 times this season winning twice losing once so we do have the slight upper hand but must come with a steely mentality if we are to come away with the win.

It's just starting to get into the home straight/business end this is when every result matters we had a 10 point cushion which currently sits at 8 points , we have 4 of the top 6 still to play and 3 of those are away.

It is crucial we do not lose to either Chavs or Scum. Our season now rests on keeping Arsenal/Utd/Chelsea all at arms length.

Now we gave this lot a lesson earlier in the season how I'd like that to happen again , but I just think this is gonna be a slugfest tonight.

Prediction = 1-1

 

I've had many a conversation with my son about the 'Spursy thing'. It is definitely still there which is so odd given a variety of different factors over the decades. Different backroom, players even stadium and it still exists. It's even a thing...'Spursy'...meaning to never quite remain effective until the finishing line... 'bottling it' was the old money. Poch now saying 5 to 10 years to change that mentality. Well if our Argentinian friend is still with us I wish him good luck.
As for tonight, a chance to indicate that the 'Spursy' thing is creeping ever so slowly and reluctantly out of the back door.

 

Oh dear. Oh dear. Oh dear. Refer to my last post. So sad.

 

So much for felons draw prediction to do this you must have a shot on goal.Once again Trippier has proved that even the England selectors can't judge a full back absolutely appalling performance with the coup de gras own goal.Why oh why is rose not playing and why did we buy moura and then choose to play the waste of space lamela.I really am worried about poch team selections just lately and why is Ericson not able to control the ball all of a sudden.while this slump continues any other manager would possibly change the way we play and not be so open at the back and why does he not try Foyth in a holding midfield role where I am sure he would be better than defending.Finally where was the passion until the last 5 minutes is poch able to motivate after his weekend spat and then climb down

 

Following tonight’s game, I think our problems are clear to see as they have been all season. We have dug out wins against lower positioned sides when we really shouldn’t have picked up 3 points but the reality is, we really are not good enough to win the league which is why we are always discounted in those conversations.

Lloris is either magnificent or cack with no average games...what I mean by that is he has match winning or match losing performances only with nothing in between.

Tripper and Davies are without doubt the worst full backs I have seen for a very long time. Neither one of them can actually defend and their lack of positioning always leads to problems in every game. They are wing backs who simply don’t offer defence down either side (look at the first goal, you could blame Toby for it but he was out of position covering Davies).

Christian Eriksen is so overrated it’s not true....yes he can be world class and yes he can win games on his own but he only actually plays for 10 or 15 mins in each game then looks completely disinterested for the rest of the game. I would try and get a decent swap deal with RM (Isco and Casemiro) if they want him.

I’m not sure what the point of Lamela is...he just seems to run around and foul people.

Serge Auier.....nothing else needs to be said.

We have no depth or pace at all other than Moura who is great but frankly too small to impact/boss/change a game.

Poch was right that we are 5-10 years away from challenging for a title but I guarantee he won’t be here to do it.

We need to be sold to someone who clears our stadium debt and invests $200m into the team before we will win anything at all.

As for this year, we have got 6th place written all over us

 

We've been running on empty for months, and results like tonight's were inevitable - you can only scrape last minute winners against relegation fodder for so long, and the rest of this season looks like being a very real test of Pochettino's management. We're a shadow of the team of two or three years ago, and where people are getting their 'Spurs are on the up' mantra from totally beats me - it's beyond rose-tinted specs, and into white sticks and guide dogs territory!

 

I don't buy this ' Spursy ' tag this time , as Cheshunt says above we've been struggling for months . Results masked over a lot of awful performances , it just couldn't last if we didn't sort it out and we haven't by a long way . Performance wise we're struggling in a big big way . We can't expect to get results playing like we are , it might happen at times because of the unpredictable nature of sport or the opposition been cack but it really shouldn't be expected . We've certainly had our fair share of wins without playing well up to now this season and really can't complain about our position given all this . That's coming under serious threat right now tho .

Moura,s been as poor as anyone for ages lads , I can't remember the last time he played well .. Been disappointing to date i.m.o but still early-ish days for him ....

 

Agree 100% about Eriksen. So inconsistent in attitude and technique. Well over rated especially this so called dead ball expert tag!

 

Moura's not for me..not yet anyway.

 

Familiarity breeds contempt

No proper quality fresh blood signings to challenge anyone

Too much dallying over players with question marks over them leading to us keeping below par players and leaving us short in areas all season

You don't improve by standing still

We've conned our way through most of this season and it's only been down to just how piss poor most of our genuine competition Scum/Utd/Chavs has been that we sit (now) precariously looking down at them.

Now it's buisness end big clubs wake up and start making things happen, we've had a nice few years now where barely anyone has turned up but now they're starting to rally again while we brag about a building sites , net spends and pretend we've out grown Trophies.

The team need to get their finger out and quickly if this isn't to end very badly for us and Poch needs to start earning the huge reputation he's afforded by many.

 

Whilst I agree with most comments here, I do not see the Spurs performance being as devastating as the result. It was an even game, where both sides were entrenched playing heavy defensive game. The winners had 1(one) shot on goal. Both goals were Hugo's mistakes, which is very unfortunate for the game of such intensity. It should have been a goalless draw.
Kane played in last 3 defeats. COYHarry!!

 

Called it before the game to people I spoke to who believed Spurs would romp home comfortably. We always freeze against Chelsea at the Bridge — last year’s win was the exception that proved the rule.

The real calamity was losing to Burnley. The two derbies that followed were always going to see us drop points.

I’m of the belief that no matter how poor the form/predicament Chelsea are in they’ll always turn it on against Tottenham (2016 Battle of the Bridge proved that) — same with Arsenal and West Ham. Really can’t knock any of these sides for treating us like a “cup final”, it gets the job done...

 

It does irk me that it seems they all want it more than us when we clash. In a derby you at least wanna see your team get stuck in and run their socks off minimum.

 

Another day, another shambles. Credit where it's due -IF we play well, we play well; but WHEN we play badly (and there've been some real stinkers this season) there's an abundance of woeful performances throughout the team. The usual suspects - Davies and Trippier - currently the worst FB pairing I've seen in quite a while, Eriksen - a frequently disinterested butterfly verging on fraud status, Lamela - some new words need to be invented for him, my dictionary hasn't anything left, and Ladeez'n'Gennelmen - the prize goes to Lloris. I've just had a good idea Poch - leave him out and start to show that you're able to change things now and again when it's obvious change is needed. I see, unless a radical improvement suddenly shows, another embarrassment coming against the Goons. Of the games against other "Big Six" sides this year we've won two (The Mancs and Chelsea both piss-poor those times, although it was second half that won the Manc match), the other five we've lost - says it all to me about our place in the Six.

 

I think trippier was good when everyone believed he was a poor backup to Kyle. Unfortunately he had a great World Cup and seems to have believed the hype. Rose seems to have surpassed Davies again so he should be first choice.

 

As I said just after the Burnley's defeat Poch had to confirm the same winning team to begin the match with Kane on the bench. The team doesn't play the same way with Harry or not on the pitch. And since his return Eriksen is like a ghost. Strangely... We all love Harry but changing a team which was winning his 4 last game without an injured player - even if it's Harry Kane - is completely nonsense ! Now I hope that these 2 last poor games are an accident and we will tread Wembley ready for the fight because that will be hard ! And please Mr Poch if Eriksen is the same as last Saturday or yesterday show him at half time where the shower is ! Coys !!

 

Now the dust has settled after a really poor week I have looked at our remaining games and can see 4 possible wins 3 definite losses and 2 maybes which would probably mean finishing out of the top four.If this happens and we move to our new stadium without champions league football what will the poch worshippers want.I personally think that his job should be at stake as with no champions league we will not attract any class players and will probably lose 2or3 of the better ones we now have and this would probably mean another cycle of mid table mediocrity.Dont be surprised if Dortmund fancy turning the tie round or at least making us sweat .Please pochetino show the passion you showed against that prima Donna ref to your players and stress that they are playing for their careers or do they always want to be remembered as the ace bottlers.Finally please do not play trippier and Davies as a full back pairing ever again and sit Lloris on the bench

 

Pochettino, like any manager, is culpable when we lose games, but to say his job is at stake if we don’t get top 4 is ludicrous P Reed. No trophy, yes, but the man has raised expectations around the Club to heights not seen in my lifetime (26 years).

Out of curiosity, if what you write were to come true, who would you realistically want to come in and replace him, and would that person do better under the financial restrictions currently in place? Genuinely intrigued.

 

Missed the game but read the reports and seen the goals and read the comments etc so here's my take..
On Kane. Those suggesting he shouldn't be starting and the team dynamic isn't the same effects Son etc etc are bonkers. Kane has Single handedly carried us for near on 3 year and we were all panic stricken when he got injured. In his absence dortmund apart we have been poor and against poor opposition. With poor performances inevitably poor results will follow, in particular against better sides and away from home so I'm not surprised...
On the league. Its a battle for top 4 now. It always has been. A title charge given no investment for over a year, contract disputes stadium issues and of course injured players haven't helped. We dreamed for a while but the reality now has kicked in and now the players need to kick on and stop hiding.
On Poch. Of course he's not blameless he's making mistakes too. Pairing Foyth alongside aurier was baffling v Burnley and opened up that corridor of uncertainty between them I'd talked about in the previous article.
I don't understand the logic in flitting constantly between to systems in a bk 4 and a bk 3.
For two seasons or so we had the best defence which picked itself when fit walker rose Jan verts. Occasionally we would use a bk 3 to match up chelsea system or over come stubborn opposition at home or chase games. Now we change it up for no reasons apparent, to shoe horn an extra centre half in and thus its caused us to look defensively poor which we are not. We need to revert to a default 11 with a familiar bk 4 with a notible spine. I've said this many times previous and it's the business end of the season. If players don't get game time then it's tuff titties. They are professionals who get paid well to play or not play. The time for rotation has gone now.
However given Pochs misgivings given his restraints for me is still the man for the job. So so many players are so poor, or hitting poor form or in the case of eriksen just plain hiding. I've never been totally sold on the lad and agree with comments above he plays in spells of 15 to 20 mins in games. He is it her a 5 or a 9 out of ten and at this moment in time need sraedy 7s week in and out. I'd certainly have no problems sacrificing him come the summer for 80m plus and re investing.
We need a rebuild come the summer. Lloris aurier Tripps toby(unfortunately) eriksen janssen llorente wanyama all to go.