You'd be forgiven for turning the TV off during that...

You’d be forgiven for turning the television off during that. A poor display with little to shout about but a late winner from Eriksen yet again sealed the points for Spurs.

Smash and grab

A pattern is developing. Another subpar performance but another three points. I’m conflicted. I find us dull to watch but we seem to grind out victories, certainly away from home.

Our 4 away wins this season have come from goals in the last few minutes; West Ham, Aston Villa, Hull and of course today at Swansea. That isn’t an accident.

Pochettino said in his post-match press conference on the opening day of the season that he wanted to instil a winning mentality into the side, that never say die attitude we associate with Manchester United, and it’s undoubtable that he’s beginning to succeed in that department.

Resilience isn’t the first word that springs to mind when you think of Spurs but we’re building a good platform to enable us to change that.

Square Pegs, Round Holes

Eriksen scoring again today made my mind up on one issue: he needs to play down the middle. His general performance today wasn’t anything to write home about but that’s because he’s ineffective on the left.

It’s reminiscent to Modric a few years ago. It wasn’t until he played centrally that he developed into the world class player we all know.

This issue spreads beyond Eriksen, however. Lamela doesn’t seem to offer anything on the right hand side (another poor performance from him today) and I’d still prefer to see Kane as the focal point of our attack.

We have one too many a number 10 but we don’t seem to play any of them in that hole. We need to make a decision and build the team around one of Lamela or Eriksen.

Personally, I’d love to see Eriksen behind Kane with Chadli and Lennon either side. It’s very much reminiscent of Harry Redknapp’s first few months at the club; just play the players in the right positions.

At the moment we’re far too imbalanced.

Learning from mistakes

An undeserved win but a win nonetheless. They say that the best teams win when they aren’t playing well but we don’t play well on one too many an occasion. I feel for Pochettino as he’s clearly managing a team with players that he doesn’t particularly like, but that doesn’t make him immune from criticism.

I don’t know how much more time Lamela and Soldado can be afforded (and I like both of those players) and I don’t know how much longer we can ignore the fact that we’re wasting players like Eriksen out wide. Hopefully Pochettino addresses these issues soon.

Three more points, let’s hope we can build on this in the coming weeks.

 

Great fighting performance to come away with three points at a rainswept Liberty stadium. Thought the side dug deep for the manager, and that Poch does plan a counter attacking style which invites a team on to us. This is a risky strategy, especially with our defence, but we got the three points today. Was shouting at the telly with Lamelas performance, but dont think he lacked for effort. Kane again looked dangerous as we rode our luck. Would like to see Bony at the lane as he looks great in the lone striker role. Coys

 

I did turn off and **** myself getting updates from the BBC website. I'm going to die whilst a Spurs game is on.

 

Verts and Fazio were absolutely awful. Worse then schoolboy defending.
I just console myself being only 4 points off CL place and hope we make some good January signings early, and who knows. I hope Levy doesnt see the current position as a reason not to spend !

 

I was at the game being a Spurs fan ,but a season ticket holder at Swansea. Swansea are a good side, but having thought Spurs played the worst I had seen for many a year at Aston Villa, I thought they were good today in an excellent game. They took on Swansea at a pressing game and there was no sign of tiredness after Turkey on Thursday. The conditions were not easy ,but Spurs were well organised and took the game to Swansea and were not prepared to settle for a draw. For the first time this season I see some promise.

 

Exactly too many no 10s
Eriksen should play in the hole with kane up top with Dembele just behind
Dembele is wasted as a holding midfielder
His strength at holding up play when under pressure is not being utilized effectively Kane is also strong on hold up play and direct running, pair these 2
We would be mad to let Dembele go as he is being played out of position
look at what les Ferdinand has said about him and his form b4 this season
Unfortunately for Soldado we do not play to his strengths at present
This in turn takes the pressure off the defenders as it is not coming straight back
Eriksen picks up of these 2 then spreading the play with his inventiveness
Bentaleb is a shoe in
We cannot afford Lamela and Eriksen in the same team so Lamela is gone
Probably great in a slower league but hope he proves me wrong

 

Look, let's not try and gloss over the performance. It was a great three points and come Thursday morning we could be in the Semi finals of the league cup!!!
Swansea must have felt like they were mugged. We won, which is ultimately the main thing, but the performance levels were at times embarassing. Fazio and Vertonghen were both nothing short of woeful.
Lamela is quite simply a joke. His nickname is coco. Presumably the clown. He gave the ball away, he was knocked off the ball and his elbow was an assault and disgusting.
But the fact remains that we have a league cup quarter final coming up, we are into the next round in Europe and somehow only four points off the top four.

Watching Spurs is painful, but the season is far from all doom and gloom just yet.

The big money players simply do not pull their weight whilst Mason, Bentaleb and Kane are the ones setting the example.
January could be interesting.

 

Same old problems, no width, everything played thru the middle and easy to defend, if anything the weather probably favoured us. At the other end it was all to easy to stretch us with the usual ball over the top. The team had to fight this one out,credit to them for not giving up, another poor performance from the manager.

 

We actually played quite well with 10 men, especially the first ten or fifteen minutes. After that our ten men tired and naturally Swansea had the initiative - until in the 83rd minute Poch thought 'what about paying with eleven men'. It was amazing what a difference it made. Maybe Poch will think about this novel concept in the future - but I doubt it.

 

I watched the 1st half in a betting shop and listened to the 2nd half on radio on my way around London. Interesting perspectives. Watching with a bunch of, mostly, Spurs fans and sympathisers, all of whom I didn't know, it was telling to hear how many screams of anguish/disgust as Lamela gave yet another ball away, how our 2 central defenders developed a blind spot as far as Bony was concerned and our general inability to string more than 3 passes together.
Listening on the radio in the second half, I was confronted with John Hartson asking again and again, "What is the point of Soldado? He doesn't run the channels, he doesn't hold the ball up, he doesn't take on defenders and he doesn't score goals! He does nothing to frighten defenders and put them on the back foot. What is the point of Soldado?". His advice was for us to cut our losses and go back into the transfer market. He kept inviting us to compare Soldado with Bony.
Then Eriksen stepped in and all was forgiven and forgotten. The life of a Spurs fan in London on, what is now, matchday, Sunday afternoon.
In my view, Poch is no fool. He's already taken some hard decisions; Kaboul and Capoue have been dropped, Rose seems to be no.2 left back for the moment and Adebayor is nowhere to be seen. He gave all these players a chance and they failed to seize it. The whole process may take longer than we like, but none of these players can complain about not being given a chance. I believe Soldado and Lamela are next in line. Poch can surely see what the rest of us see. He's already shown signs of impatience by regularly hauling them off in the 2nd half or bringing them on as subs. They have to increase their production or they will go the way of the rest.
Finally, Lamela. I secretly hope he will come good sometime, but can we afford to wait? There are glimpses of talent, from time to time, but will it ever be more than that? Do we have a Gareth Bale or an Adel Taarabt on our hands? Why hasn't someone told him to keep it simple, do the simple things well, you know, receiving and controlling the ball, passing and moving? Why hasn't someone told him to leave the Hollywood stuff for, errrm,Hollywood? Maybe the penny will drop one day. Will it ever at WHL?

 

Someone help me out by explaining what it was in Lamela's game that showed so much potential? I seriously don't get it. His highlight reel on youtube while at Roma two seasons ago shows a kid who can score when given time and space against poor defending. He may get better with maturity, but for now I don't see it.

 

Undeserved win is by far better than undeserved loss. That's how I would sum it up.