Poor Spurs embarrassed at the Lane

Newcastle are never going to be a team who play beautiful football under McLaren. But they will try and fight when the mood takes them and so it proved at the Lane today.
Spurs started brightly and Carroll as I predicted started in place of Dembele. In the first 20 minutes Spurs got in at the Toon, harried the ball and played some decent football. But they still looked a touch lethargic. It was almost like post West Brom football.
Newcastle hardly bothered Lloris other than him having to pop off his line to make a couple of keeper sweeper clearances.

As the first half drew to a close, Spurs worked a chance and got a corner down the left. Eriksen whipped it in and Eric Dier came to the near post to head home. Half time came and that's where it all went very wrong.

Spurs were as poor as I have seen them this season. They were second to every ball, passing was dreadful and Harry Kane was anonymous. In fact I had forgotten he was on the pitch.

For all the sack the manager shouts will no doubt appear after this match, let's not forget it is our first defeat in the league since the very first league game of the season. I agree that we have drawn too many games but now we need to bounce back very quickly.
I think this was a very poor performance. The players against Monaco would have done better. Spurs were lazy and I felt the attitude stank. I really do.

Lloris has been fantastic and every keeper makes mistakes. And what a mistake today. It wasn't even a well hit shot. It summed up this afternoon for Spurs.

So, we are 3 points away from 4th. 3 points away from 10th! That's the Premier league this season.

I have said many times that we don't seem to have a plan B and that was never more in evidence that today. When we needed an injection of pace, it took too long to arrive.

Now we have to show just how good we are. How good we can be. Newcastle showed passion and grit today. Spurs showed signs of the old frailties. Laziness and complacency. That needs to be addressed.

Spurs were absent without leave today and there can be no excuses. Today was simply not good enough and we did not deserve anything.

Poch must now fire rockets up certain posteriors and he could do worse than to warn the first eleven that those that came in against Monaco showed more passion, more effort and more guile than they did today.

Come on Spurs, today is done. Plan B is needed Poch.

 

Absolutely fuming.

Save the goal, Dier was a complete donkey today (utterly knackered) and Eriksen was a passenger, again.

I naively thought we are stronger than this but we have slipped back to normality i.e. continually failing to capitalise on our so called rivals dropping points. We won't deserve top 4 if we carry on throwing so many games away. Stoke, West Brom, Arsenal, Newcastle etc etc...

It's clear we need an alternative to our so called "press".

Today is a bitter pill to take, especially given the opposition and the manner of the defeat. We typically buckled.

On to the next and let's hope we have Mousa back...

 

Certainly a bitter pill. Plan b is needed without a doubt. I still stand by the fact that standard in the premier league is dropping every year and the top 6 will change throughout the season.
I am positive that we will be in the top 4 come the season end providing we do not play like we did today too often.

It's in our hands and we can do it. If we fail to find a plan b though, we can look forward to another Europa league journey next season.

 

I feel this is a suitable place to have a rant at the utter b*llocks I witnessed in the second half.

Uncompetitive, uninterested, lethargic, generally poor. Vertonghen, who has been so good as of late, had a shocker, as did Hugo. EL is not in any way, shape or form to blame - we made a huge number of changes. Kane looks shattered, and is played as the no10 far too much - this apparant false 9 system doesn't work! Lamela probably our best player, but we failed to take our chances.

A few stats for you:

A point ahead of Watford
Level with Palace
One more win than West Brom

Is this really where we are?

We have dropped points against Newcastle, Liverpool, Chelsea, Arsenal, West Brom, Everton, Leicester all after 16 games. That's an extra 15 points, all from games we should have won. 16/18 if you include United. Based on performances, we could be top.

This is why we don't finish in the top 4. If we do, it will be a steal.

I am not saying we aren't going in the right direction. But some naivety has cost us immensely, again. It wouldn't bother me if we had different complaints week on week - but we have been saying this ever since the Arsenal game really. Not really acceptable to me - no sense of improvement radiates from our camp. The best teams grind out results when playing badly, and we don't just throw them away, we gift them kindly to anyone who has the fortune to play us after Europe, because our players appear to see that as an excuse for not playing well. Either our squad isn't strong enough, the depth isn't there, or we're just plain sh¡t. Make your own mind up as to which.

 

you don't finish top4 losing to sh1t teams

 

Agree re. Kane - he was often sat far too deep and look spent from 50mins on...

EL can't be an excuse for today; we were simply lethargic and lacked cutting edge throughout.

We MUST learn from today - both on the pitch and the boardroom.

 

Fair's fair. Newcastle were determined to make it a scrappy game and they eventually wore us down in the middle. Alli looked 'off' throughout and Carroll was just the wrong pick for this one: much better to have had Bentaleb or Onomah or even Chadli to give dominant physical presence from the start. As the midfield fell apart Dier came under too much pressure and made footling errors.

Just shows what an impact Dembele has made to the team as a whole: you really see it when he's not there.

Awful. Still, no-one else is doing much better...

 

Let's be honest - this was coming. We struggled in the second half against the baggies and again today. We were our own worst enemy. I said back inApril that MP is no tactical genius and today reinforced that opinion. Putting Carroll up against a very physical opposition was doomed from minute 1 and other players going missing made it look like they couldn't be bothered. BUT, waiting until the 65th minute and 85th minute to make changes - WTF?

 

I agree with most of the views each fan has made so just to add mine it's games like these we need a different type of striker someone with electric pace to get in behind! With so many players disappearing in the 2nd half I thought it was too easy for newcastles defence to deal with us because everything was in front of them too predictable ! We need to stretch defences and get them running at their own goal (where was n'jie)???? And also our subs need to come on and impact games but ours are just like for like and we payed the price once again!!!!

 

Before all the bullshit starts about being tired and poch dont know what he's doing etc etc let's be straight here. Two or three big names in particular Kane lloris ain't playing well and the team itself are treading water. We've had the title talk which looks somewhat premature after the last two games but top four remains realistic and a priority. We need two or three players to add pace and guile especially with teams that park the bus. A no 10 a winger with pace and another CF. As far as fixtures go toon at home is an absolute gimme so very disappointed, today and last wk especially when results go our way. Onwards.

 

This has been coming, the minute plan A goes flat we have nothing and Poch is found desperately wanting.
Still if we can draw the next 14 games we should have enough to stay up.
Roll on the January window oh wait a minute....

 

To be fair, Carroll has come in off a great game against Monaco and there's not really anyone else to play that role - Dembele is injured and Alli better further forward. We're going through a **** patch; we'll get out of it.

 

Carroll deserved to start after he performance against Monaco but he sadly showed he is not premier league quality.
Alli has actually played better when he has come from deep and today he was like a headless chicken.

The only player to come out of today with any credit was Lamela.

 

There is a very prevelant problem at Spurs the minute the forward 4 are sussed out they all go into their shell and become very predictable the constant cutting inside congests the play and teams bring it on waiting for a stray uninventive pass in the middle then they hit us with width and pace.
You see it we suddenly become flat then the forwards go missing, we cant keep the ball up top and put pressure on our mids and defence.
The results? We ship goals, maybe less than last season but if your not banging them in the other end then u struggle for wins.
And when this happens i look to Poch thinking well its obvious we need some tactical changes here and but he just stands there looking bemused and when he finally moves its totally void of any tactical switches and barely affects a thing.
I wrote a piece about siezing the initiative with Liverpool n Chavs faltering, it also seems Utd r heading for a meltdown so imo its never been easier to cement a top 4 spot, but we wont keep limping about happy with draws and going to sleep. And if we dont make Top 4 then serious questions need to be asked of the management and board.

 

Dele Alli is so over rated and over hyped. He is a decent footballer, but nothing special.

Eriksen on the left doesn't work for me. The game seems to slow down too much with him there.

Why was Chadli brought on, when Onomah is on form?

Carroll should have been taken off far earlier.

 

We were going to lose at some stage but not at home and to a relegation threatened side that we should wipe off the bottom of our boots on a daily basis! Hard to take but was coming ,too many draws , let's hope not many more loses or we're mid table .Coys!

 

To say Alli is over hyped is very harsh. He's been brilliant this season.
I agree that Onomah would have been a good sub and I too was baffled by the lateness of the subs.

 

Ouch. That was an extremely painful watch, with the second half an absolute shocker.
This is not all together a surprise. Whilst we may have moved into 4th, in truth we just did not deserve to do that.
Dier struggled, so would assume he's not fully fit, after his EL knock.
Eriksen off the left, never best, plus the wasted corners...he's not on form.
We had no shape after the break and when I look at the likes of Leicester and the Gooners, we don't deserve Top 4, based on this performance.
The slow build up has been an issue for several seasons, and today it showed.
Let's hope we haven't spunked our season's prospects with all the draws, plus this loss.
If we f**k and f**t around in the transfer window, we will see us exposed in the New Year. There are better teams below us, from what I've seen.
Can't close without commenting on the mangers lack of ability to see the signs on the pitch and acting on them. Tom Carroll was left on at least 15 mins longer than he should have been, quite apart from him not being strong and nimble enough for the PL.
Painful or what....ffs.
COYS

 

Worse Performance of the season by far
When i saw Carroll was starting i couldn't believe it, i knew we would get mullered in midfield and that it would upset the balance of the team that was so in harmony for our unbeaten run! why play him when we have never played him regularly before?? one ropey game he played ok! did Poch think it was only Newcastle so we could get away with it??? they beat Liverpool the last game! we all know the midfield has to be strong competitive and creative so where was the thinking? not just blaming Tom because it is Poch who calls the shots but we could see it wasn't working so why take so long to change it? why not bring on Bentaleb to shore things up when it wasn't working? not just that but it was so sloppy giving the ball away all game! was we tired? we looked out of sorts, no pressing, desire or will to win, Harry looked lost and we have no back up striker(thanks Dan) cant be fcuked to carry on typing, we went back to being Spursy today, where was the desire, pressing, will to win?

 

Yes, subs were completely wrong today and in recent games. Poch must learn to use subs, like for like players! We were flat in 2nd half, which is why we lost the game. A chance missed for 4th, but we have always missed those chances to move up for more years than I can remember.