More positives than negatives - Man City 4-1 Spurs

As I said, you need to watch the FULL game.

 

The standard of refereeing in this country is abysmal. Howard Webb went to the World Cup and he was corrupt.

 

Very much impressed with review. Spot on. Usually table watchers dominate any discussion.
It was an exciting game that could have gone in all 3 possible outcomes. Two seemingly EQUAL teams ( if you just forget they belong to 1st and 2nd tier of EPL) produced very entertaining match (until unfair send off of Fazio) . When goalkeepers on both sides and the referee are viewed as the most influential persons on the pitch, the draw must be in the books. Well, it didn't happen. We did not got spanked, we did not capitulated. All MC had better was Auguero.

 

Agree the standard of refereeing could be alot better. If it was down to the EPL alone i think more technology would already be in use but Eufa and Fifa wont entertain new ideas. As for being 'corrupt', without real evidence, like money changing hands, i just dont accept that. I think in this country its mostly down to human error.

 

Well written article that gets directly to the point. Sure, Soldado missed a penalty, but everything else he did was damn close to perfect. He creates space better than Ade, he passes better than Ade, and he links up with the midfield better than Ade. He needs more games and I think that a real "partnership" can be made with Eriksen, Lamela, Mason, and Chadli.

As for the officiating, there's really nothing you can do after the fact, but it does seem that Spurs are always playing with 10 men against big teams. And how many games have we seen the entire complexion of the match change with a red card and penalty? Those calls kill games. Something needs to change with that rule because the team gets penalized for more than the foul when there is an almost automatic goal followed by x amount of minutes playing a man down.

 

Definitely some positives from this performance going forward and we set ourselves up to take the game to them and had some good moments and could have scored a few but a high pressing game is risky especially against a team like city, and although we were good and there was some very good performances, we left ourselves very exposed and probably got what we deserved. its all very well to try to outscore a team like city and it could have been an entertaining, high scoring game but you can also get punished and we did. Why start Fazio, not known for his pace, against the likes of Aguero, Silva and Navas ? where was Jan ? This wasn't Fazio's game, not that he was that bad, he had a decent game until he was sent off, but with the high line he and Kaboul got carved up at the back. Rose has been ok lately but this was a tough assignment for him and Dier, and Rose was caught out of position too often. As usual it was up to Lloris to save us from a heavy defeat. Still we weren't that bad and this could have been a much closer game if some things went our way, im not going to say the refereeing decided the game but it didn't go in our favour, both first and second city goals were dubious.
Thought Mason and Eriksen were excellent and drove us forward with some good momentum, Chadli too had some good moments but for me Lamela was poor and appeared to be out of his depth here, we needed some width and im starting to get sick of seeing him and Eriksen tripping over each other coming inside, work it out. Soldado could have and should have had two assists but overall I didn't see anything that changes my mind that he just doesn't offer a real goal threat and he needs to play with another striker to be considered. And yes it was a very poor penalty attempt.

 

Ref was poor but trying to pick positives out of one of the worst spurs teams for 20 years is straw clutching. The best manager in the world would not be successful with this group.

 

Soldado played well but we need two up top. Lamela is good but he is very naive. He is still learning but he certainly has potential. Let's not forget that a certain Gareth bale did bugger all for nearly three season and then.......

 

Behave!!! Do you not remember the amazing team we had under Ardiles that nearly got relegated?! Dean Austin et al. Stuart Nethercott.
This is a long way from being the worst Spurs team and some of the negativity around yesterday's game is laughable.
Yes, we lost but we did play well. To say this team is the worst in 20 years is a huge over reaction.

 

Soldado did actually have a good game but the penalty and the other save from Hart hasn't done his confidence any good whatsoever. Disappointed with Poch not to have gone for Hurricane.
Eriksen does not deserve too much credit even though he scored and should have got another. He is poor defensively and combined with Lamela on the pitch is one of the reasons we got overrun at the back. His free kicks are now too predictable - a bit of variety please.
Credit to Mason who was unlucky not to score after an excellent run into the box, won the ball in midfield for our goal, and dispensed with Lampard - unfortunately he tired visibly second half.
Ultimately we lost because we failed to fall over enough in the penalty area and did not wave imaginary cards to the referee every time Navas touched the ball. I hope Lamela swapped boots with Aguero at the end.

 

Didn't watch the game, but feel the need to comment. Armchair warrior!

 

What's your assessment then defensively then seen as you went to the game. Were we solid enough for your liking??? You think our centre half's are good enough??

 

Agree, Lamela certainly does have bucket loads of potential and in some games he has been very good. My problem with him in this game, and the reason why I didn't fancy him to start is that against tougher opposition he doesn't offer enough variety, or anything that we don't already have. Everything he does comes from playing central where we seem to get too congested. We seem to have too many no10's, or players best suited to playing behind the main striker. Eriksen plays CAM, Lamela always comes inside and most of what he contributes comes from a central position, Chadli starts on the left, but again needs to come inside and play second striker to make a significant contribution, so not really a wide man, arguably another no 10. Even bringing in Soldado changes little, a striker that doesn't score but links up play well and puts others through. Another no 10. Ade is another striker not scoring but likes to drop deep and bring others in. Its all very predictable, no width other than Danny Rose, no genuine striker, and a bunch of no 10's playing central. we looked good going forward yesterday but Lamela was a bit of a waste, a bit like a dog chasing a wheel, when he finally catches it he doesn't know what to do with it.

 

For 30million i dont want to see 'potential' i want to see end product, lamela is nothing but a show pony and its games like these where your best players need to produce.
For 26million i dont want to see a 'striker' being talked up for his link up play, then when getting the chance to make some amends for his inept goal return taking a p;ss poor penalty.
I dont want to see our Captain jumping into ridiculously late challenges in the box and getting roasted for pace at ease and at will.
You have to look deep to find positives from a 4-1 defeat, creating a few chances means nothing if your not putting the ball in the net. And it means even less when the defence we have is so slow, positionally poor, tactically unaware and unbelievably naive.
The invited poor decisions from the ref being made a scapegoat is glossing over the harsh realities were inept at scoring and even more inept at defending.

 

Like Raheen Sterling I am feeling pretty tired, so will keep this short.

- sure there was **** refereeing, the first goal was offside, but we lost 4-1 and they mised a pen, so would have been 5 for Aguero...

- Plusses...Hugo, some good spells where we created and looked dangerous....not much more

-Minusses...no JV..wtf.....too narrow, gave the ball away SO many times, poor second half. I didn't notice Soldado having a good game. I did notice Lamela having a poor one.

Forget all the if's, and's and but's, they played a below max strength side and still stuffed is. I don't care we could have gone 2-2...we didn't, because Soldado hit a penalty that was total s***e. This is a men and boys thing, or rather it's the difference between Top Class...aka Aguero....and us aka Soldado, Lamela...etc etc....

Balbleedingdini spent so badly he should be swimming with the fishes by now.

We need a heavyweight striker, as we have for 5 years. We need a top centre half, to play alongside Verts....if not, forget it, we will always disappoint.

COYS

 

Of course points is all that maters in the EPL, but there will be good sides who will visit the Etihad this season and loose by 3 goals+

I agree with a lot of points in the article, and feel that if we can't take points, then as fans we have to look at the positives.

Too long, every game whether we lose 5-0 or win 5-0, we can't help but roast a player because he underhit a pass or didn't match his opposite number for pace.

We're slowly improving under Poch, and as fans we are under no illusion as to how long it will take for us to be competing amongst the big boys.

Despite loosing 4-1, I'm void of the feeling of humiliation that we had last time we played at the Etihad.

That's two of our toughest games of the season (Arsenal (a) + City (a)) out of the way, and two games that I feel have come way too soon for a side who is in transition.

We're 5 points of third, with a decent run of fixtures coming up until our next big one away to Chelsea on December 3rd.

By that date, I expect us to be a much better outfit!

 

how funny to see city players bitterly disputing a soft penalty in Moscow. Ha fecking ha...
No English referee, tough night. Why is it they are shite in Europe?

 

What we are seeing in bits and flashes is where we will be once Poch has his OWN squad and worked with it for a while. This will probably sometime next season. In the meantime, we will have to get used to seeing Spurs perform well in some matches, show flashes of potential in some games and be p!ss poor in the rest. Hopefully the 'average' performances will get less and less as MP gets his feet more and more under the table. COYS!