Brighton vs Tottenham Hotspur (A) - Thursday 28th December 19:30

[Starks]

We didn't play rubbish against Brighton though?

For 80 or so minutes, we absolutely did.

We played rubbish against Wolves, Forest and Everton. They were all hard watches.

We were rubbish against Wolves and it still remains our worst league performance under Ange. Again, another game that none of us fans asked for in terms of playing well and losing.

We were relatively solid against Forest tbh. Not the prettiest game but the referee never allowed it to be. 10 men, clean sheet.

Everton was poor, mostly that second half. But that second half was pretty much the exact same team we put out last night. Which tells us our third string simply cannot play the way we want it to.

2 penalties and a one off wordly last night and that was a close competition we may well have won.

Vicario made at least two excellent saves to keep that scoreline down. He was the only reason it wasn't 5 or 6-0 before they quite clearly ran out of steam.

 

[Calgary Spur]

Surely you note that my point, was that those 2 coaches played a much more cautious brand of football with a weak defense to protect it.
It wasn't easy on the eye, but we rarely went 4-0 down either.
Swings and round abouts. People really seem to struggle to understand how bad our defense was after the end of Toby and Jan. It doesn't matter if we had players who's favoured postion was CB, they were terrible CB's. They were no better than the FB's we had to pick yesteday, And beyond that, we had a totally washed up Lloris behid them throwing the ball in his own net.

If the end result is a loss, I’ll take last night every time over the no attempt to score, barely cross the centerline garbage we saw under Mourinho and Conte. I don’t care if we lose 4-2 instead of 2-0. I’m surprised anyone would.

My only quibble is that I think we should be playing academy players. It’s fine to suggest that they’re not good enough, but funny thing about academy players is that the way they become good enough is by playing. But, to be entirely honest, I trust Postecoglou. If he thinks they’re not ready, they’re not ready and far be it from me to second guess him.

 

[Go on son]

Last few games teams have played balls quickly into channels vacated by our full backs. This didnt happen when we had romero and vdv. They snuff them out.
Against everton a lot of ball played long into davies royal channel. Last night they could do it either side as neither romero or vdv there. Its not a system thing its a personnel thing.
Also despite biss not playing as well as he was he was still near top of prem league in terms of tackles won. His ability to take the ball from defenders badly missed.
Again not a system fault its lack of players

 

[Matt1882]

For 80 or so minutes, we absolutely did.



We were rubbish against Wolves and it still remains our worst league performance under Ange. Again, another game that none of us fans asked for in terms of playing well and losing.

We were relatively solid against Forest tbh. Not the prettiest game but the referee never allowed it to be. 10 men, clean sheet.

Everton was poor, mostly that second half. But that second half was pretty much the exact same team we put out last night. Which tells us our third string simply cannot play the way we want it to.



Vicario made at least two excellent saves to keep that scoreline down. He was the only reason it wasn't 5 or 6-0 before they quite clearly ran out of steam.

I feel like we watched a different match last night.
Our defending was rubbish, but we always looked threatening going forward and we kept on going forward.
2 offside goals, hit the post twice, scored 2 goals and plenty more inbetween.
I can forgive the terrible defending as we just don't have the players right now. But we know that'll change with the return of Romero and VdV and, hopefully, 1 or 2 more coming in.
Maybe losing to Wolves makes it easier to rank as a bad performance, but I thought we were easily as bad Vs Everton.

 

[Matt1882]

If the end result is a loss, I’ll take last night every time over the no attempt to score, barely cross the centerline garbage we saw under Mourinho and Conte. I don’t care if we lose 4-2 instead of 2-0. I’m surprised anyone would.

My only quibble is that I think we should be playing academy players. It’s fine to suggest that they’re not good enough, but funny thing about academy players is that the way they become good enough is by playing. But, to be entirely honest, I trust Postecoglou. If he thinks they’re not ready, they’re not ready and far be it from me to second guess him.

I'd be giving some young CB's a chance now. Can't be any worse than we see and could, possibly, actually be better.

 

[Starks]

I feel like we watched a different match last night.
Our defending was rubbish, but we always looked threatening going forward and we kept on going forward.

We didn't test the goalkeeper until the 56th minute. And then the two goals after that when the game was dead and Brighton pretty much went into first gear.

It was as poor of a performance as you're likely to get from this Spurs team.

Brighton looked more up for it, more threatening and looked like they could score at every opportunity.

 

[Starks]

Really don't understand Ange's reluctance to play our youth. Teams all over the country are playing 16/17/18 year olds and we are insisting on using Royal over Phillips and Dorrington who are actual CBs

Our youth as in academy players I take it?

This is a manager who was happy to start a 19 year old left back and has done all season. Start a 20 year old Sarr and make him a key component to our team. Sign a 22 year old centre back and throw him in after a day or two training. Bring Veliz on most weeks. I guess what they all have in common is experience in men's football.

If he thinks they're ready, he'll play them. It probably tells us more about our youth and how ready they are as opposed to Anges decisions. He sees them every day.

I've made it clear that, especially yesterday at 4-0 down, we should have seen Donley and perhaps Santiago on as there was nothing though.

 

[Gazzapen]

You could add Johnson and richi. PEH soldiered on but needed help.

True. Those that believe PEH wasn't good enough has never had to do the work of 3 on the pitch. He was always a foot shy of making a tackle because he had to cover 3.

I agree his passing could have been better but when you nacked, everything goes for a ball of Sh1t.

 

[Airfixx]

That's what happens when you field Royal and Davies at CB. The latter is an able deputy, the former is...well...

Ange is no miracle worker. Tonight's shitshow is on Levy, as are the other troubles we've had this season. You leave the roster dead short, that's what happens.

CBs are a legit complaint... The rest isn't a "depth" issue.

Unless Levy is physically hurting players and getting them banned, then you're just running some bullshit scapegoating agenda.......... Completely common around here though obv.

 

[Ionman34]

No it isn’t and we haven’t been worked out, it’s complete hyperbole on the back of a poor result and TBH I hope you stick to what you’re saying and don’t change your tune when we’re back spanking teams.

The manager has been here 6 months and has dealt with possibly the worst injury crisis in modern club history. In spite of that we’re 5th, 6 points off top and 4 off 2nd place (remembering that pre-season expectations seemed to be in the 6th - 8th range).

In the 10 games prior to our horrific injury list we went unbeaten and conceded 9 goals and had 4 clean sheets. In nearly every game during that run we dominated the opposition and completely controlled the game.

Now you’re pulling out quotes like “might have worked in Scotland but it won’t work here” and “once teams press up against us we fall apart”.

Of course we’re open at the back and passing pretty poorly, we have our only 2 competent CBs injured and the whole CM in front of them out too! The lack of appreciation for the situation the manager is in is fucking astounding.

Everyone on this forum needs to appreciate it’s going to be a really tough few games coming up with the lengthy absence list and just enjoy the games for what they are. There isn’t a manager in the world that could continue battering good sides with the absences we have.

Moreover, none of the world’s great managers right now would flex their tactics because of injuries in the way some are asking Ange to.

Pep came 3rd in his first season here, I remember many people calling him naive and unable to adapt to the PL at the end of that season. You know what happened? The league adapted to him ultimately not the other was around.

Arteta came 8th in his first 2 seasons whilst trying to implement his football. Klopp 8th, 4th and 4th in his first 3. Yet after 6 months of the best football we’ve seen in donkeys years here you’re trotting out quotes like that. It’s embarrassing.

Fans moan about trophies and success and then moan about the process the manager is implementing to get us that.

Shameful. Bring that same energy when we’re flying with a fully fit team mate. If you can’t see what Ange is trying to do and trying to build here you don’t deserve the success it’ll bring. You have to be fucking blind to not see the fantastic direction we’re travelling in.

 

[Gazzapen]

Kulu is a waste of fucking space.

He's world class

Ok. He is a world class waste of fucking space.

One dimensional. Can only play left cannot cross. And last night was so slow, defenders caught up to him while back pedalling.

 

[Airfixx]

The 4th officials do bugger all, waste of time.

They can't even keep twats like Arteta in his box.

 

[Ionman34]

But why are you mentioning pep? He took over a club that was starting to dominate the league, this club isn't going to do that or win trebles, do why draw comparison with them.

He's mentioned because he took on a team that had already won the PL with Mancini, then went about rebuilding it in his own image.

He struggled to implement his style until he'd brought in the players he needed to play his style.

Considering that he never had the injury issues we currently have, it's fair to say that AP is doing an excellent job in far greater adversity that Pep did.

You're expecting him to get the same results in 6 months that took Pep 2 years, Klopp 3 years and Lego man 5 years to get. It's an asinine take.

 

[Airfixx]

We don't see many clips of such tackles in X when others did that to us. If Romero, Biss, Royal did that, the videos will be plastered all over the Internet and made into memes. Really sad that we are always at the wrong receiving end.

TBH, I'm not sure if Son as our captain actually pressured the ref to look at such challenges with VAR. Our players need to be taught smarter and use the rules to our advantage. Other teams will call out the ref to do so and it's no coincidence you see some incidences went through VAR review that way. Madders being out we totally lost a voice into the refs ear.

That's why I really hate our players to be so nice sometimes. If Lamela is still here, I'll b championing him to be the captain all day long.

It is.

You don't get to pressure ref's into looking at VAR...... Only VAR itself dictates whether it gets involved or not.

 

[MemphisWill]

'Tired' Spurs lacked energy - Postecoglou

Ange Postecoglou says his side gave it everything they could after a "tired" Spurs lose 4-2 at Brighton.

www.bbc.co.uk

I don't think you get to use being tired as an excuse as the only club near the top of the table not playing in Europe.

 

[Starks]

He's mentioned because he took on a team that had already won the PL with Mancini, then went about rebuilding it in his own image.

He struggled to implement his style until he'd brought in the players he needed to play his style.

Considering that he never had the injury issues we currently have, it's fair to say that AP is doing an excellent job in far greater adversity that Pep did.

You're expecting him to get the same results in 6 months that took Pep 2 years, Klopp 3 years and Lego man 5 years to get. It's an asinine take.

We sold our clubs greatest ever goalscorer. Have one of, if not the worst injury crisis a club has had from memory yet on course for 72 points this season..

Which would be our 3rd best in Premier League history.

 

[Ionman34]

I think Ange's post match comment about not faulting the players because "They gave everything they had" was very telling...

He's not questioning their commitment, (although some have been) but what he's essentially saying is that THEIR LEVEL OF ABILITY has a ceiling...

Certain players - of limited ability - have reached the peak of that ability...

It's just that maybe Hoijberg's or Lo Celso' ability, isn't that of Bentancur, Biss or Maddison!

That's a message in itself!

That's a really good point. Effort will get you only so far if the quality is lacking, especially when virtually all of the quality is sidelined, and the remainder is running on fumes.

 

[Starks]

I don't think you get to use being tired as an excuse as the only club near the top of the table not playing in Europe.

We've had a game every 4 days on average for the last 25 days and about to have a 7th in two days time... With little rotation due to the fact we're missing 10+ players...

It's most definitely a viable excuse. All the top teams have dropped points this month because of it and they haven't got half the problems.

Woolwich have dropped 8 this month. Before this month they'd only dropped 9 all season... Liverpool have dropped 4, they'd dropped that amount over the previous two.. Villa have dropped 7.. More than the amount they dropped over the previous two also.

Get through Bournemouth and we go back to just one game a week pretty much. Get players back (sadly as players leave us for international duty) and hopefully get some momentum going.

 

[Airfixx]

I think the trouble is Royal and Davies ,
With Hjojberg in Midfield is not a premier league defence! I think it would even struggle in the Champo!
I know Ange sees the payers training everyday but surely a proper CB would have been better than Royale?

Davies & Romero was fine..... He himself isn't a problem.

The problem is, like you suggest, a defensive spine of:

CB: Emerson / Davies
#6: PEH

= None of them specialise in those positions.

 

[Fattynomates]

Davies & Romero was fine..... He himself isn't a problem.

The problem is, like you suggest, a defensive spine of:

CB: Emerson / Davies
#6: PEH

= None of them specialise in those positions.

Yeah I agree , Davies next to a proper CB has proven to be fine