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Match Spurs v Bodo/Glimt (A) - Champions League - Tues 30th Sept - KO: 8pm

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GinolasLeftFoot said:
You are so completely and utterly wrong.

Don;t look like improving, we are hard to beat at the moment, even if it means coming from behind to scrap a point.

Bodo are not a shit team at all, they are in CL for a reason.
Brighton are not a shit team.
Wolves are not a shit team, and were on a bounce after beating Everton in the Cup.
Bournemouth, our worst game, a very good side.
Held PSG, best club in the world at the moment, arguably, only beat us on penalties.
We have also beaten Westham for the first time in years at their ground, Mancity... Wlist all the time, everything I have explained earlier is going on.

You have zero understanding of what is going or any nuanced take on anything.

So I bid you farewell, and I will spend the rest of the evening, driving a McLaren 720s LMGT3 are Le Mans in VR, and bask in the fact that we have come from behind again, against a very good team and only been beaten once in 9 games.

Adios
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Trouble is except for PSG and the Hammers we have played some poor football .
 
pleb said:
Bodo were clearly motivated to beating us after getting knocked out of the Euro semis last year and fair dues to them.
Once again they demonstrated that nobody should be underestimated, especially on their home turf!
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Bodo will treat every CL game as a cup final and you can't blame them.

We've worked hard to get into the CL through the backdoor and now play rotated teams to then panic and bring on better players to rescue the game. How many times have we seen this before.

I'd rather rotate in the league, you get 38 opportunities to make up for it.

In the CL you've got 8 group games and if we lose against PSG and Dortmund, having dropped 2 points today. We've only got 4 games to try and get into the top 8.

But my biggest issue is the complacency, turn up against wolves expecting to roll them over because they're bottom of the table.
Turn up to Bodo expecting to roll them over because they're Norwegian fishermen. They're a well drilled side and deserved to win that game, arguably technically better than us especially in midfield and up front. If you watched that without the context of knowing which team was Bodo or Spurs and knowing how much each player cost. You'd say Bodo had more valuable players.

I was at the game against Wolves, and their players - a bunch of nobodies bought from supposedly inferior leagues popped the ball around us much better. That included a team consisting of Romero, Palhinha, Kudus and Simons. Maddison is still by far the one player we have with genuine quality on the ball.
 
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Papafeels said:
Should have said we were favourite to win then. Anyway, like I said we'll revisit at the end of December. If we don't improve hugely by then, we're in deep shit. It's the toughest part of our fixture list. Like it or not, this has been a very favorable schedule so far and we've not exactly inspired. Should win was perhaps the wrong choice of words, you're correct.
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Favourable is in the eye of the beholder though, ask Frank and maybe he'd tell you he'd much rather have been playing eg Villa away than Wolves at home, because they'll come out to play and he won't have to work out a puzzle which has befuddled at times even some of the greatest ever footballing minds in a low-block counter with an attack he has had precious little time with, has had almost criminal mismanagement of funds with regards to improving each position prior to this summer and is being forced to give an altogether unhealthy amount of minutes to a serially injured 3rd choice striker who is utterly anonymous in 95% of his match time.
Papafeels said:
1 loss is looking at the performances without context. We've been dull and flat in every one. There's nothing being knitted together. It's bad. If he turns it around and we start playing nice football and look like we have an idea of what to do, I'll happily hold up my hands and say I was worried too soon. Very much hope that's the case. I'm just struggling to see that big of an improvement. I was impressed against City, against PSG and Burnley. The rest of the games we've looked meh to poor. Even West Ham we really struggled until they fell asleep at the back post and got a red.
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But by the same token are you not looking at these poor performances in a vacuum and forgetting positive performances against those aforementioned sides? We have made incredibly hard work of West Ham in recent years, sure you must remember being 3-0 up in the 80th minute at home against them under Jose and drawing 3-3, arguably a much bigger handicap to overcome than a red, yet the team handled the occasion incredibly professionally and comfortably dispatched West Ham when an advantage presented itself. Burnley proved against Utd the promoted sides (maybe excluding Leeds) will not be the punching bags that have come up the last 2 years, we are handling business professionally and putting points on the board.
Were Frank coming in after Poch I could understand frustration that a previously very cohesive fluent side looked like utter strangers playing together, but surely we can acknowledge the only "settled" part of that team that has significant minutes together is the defence, which answers your next statement..
Papafeels said:
If you've seen good cohesive football in any of our recent games, please point it out. We don't play any nice patterns, no quick anything. It's get the ball around the middle, pass backwards and get it out wide.
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Good, cohesive football does not start and end in attack. We have looked at times like the best defensive unit in the country barring maybe Woolwich so far. Even Bournemouth who had the run of our midfield were limited to a high number of low xG shots by our excellent defenders. Of course they can only do so much to stem a tide like they faced in that game and tonight, but look at the Villarreal game, we offered nothing really going forward but they won't feel at all hard done by not to get a result, we made their attack look completely shit.
 
spursfan76 said:
Exactly what I've been saying. We looked good at the start, and now we're clueless. How that's not obvious to everyone, I don't know.

Nobody’s calling for him to be sacked yet, but the recent performances have been horrendous. Things can change fast in football, but the lack of creativity is worrying. Does he really know how to get the best out of this squad?
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"the start" being all of 6 weeks ago.
 
deadleyledley said:
Bodo will treat every CL game as a cup final and you can't blame them.

We've worked hard to get into the CL through the backdoor and now play rotated teams to then panic and bring on better players to rescue the game. How many times have we seen this before.

I'd rather rotate in the league, you get 38 opportunities to make up for it.

In the CL you've got 8 group games and if we lose against PSG and Dortmund, having dropped 2 points today. We've only got 4 games to try and get into the top 8.

But my biggest issue is the complacency, turn up against wolves expecting to roll them over because they're bottom of the table.
Turn up to Bodo expecting to roll them over because they're Norwegian fishermen. They're a well drilled side and deserved to win that game, arguably technically better than us especially in midfield and up front. If you watched that without the context of knowing which team was Bodo or Spurs and knowing how much each player cost. You'd say Bodo had more valuable players.

I was at the game against Wolves, and their players - a bunch of nobodies bought from supposedly inferior leagues popped the ball around us much better. That included a team consisting of Romero, Palhinha, Kudus and Simons. Maddison is still by far the one player we have with genuine quality on the ball.
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Losing Maddison was a bigger setback than I understood at the time. A quality player with good awareness. He can make other players better. Simons will be that type of player at some point and probably offer more attacking threat, but he isn't there yet.
 
If you don't have but one healthy striker and the #10 position isn't nailed down yet a team will look like Spurs look. Once Selanke and Muani are back and Kulu can provide depth Spurs are going to look more threatening. I hope that isn't far into the future, because today was painful to watch.
 
Maureen said:
Maybe start with more aggressive tactics and get the players fired up rather than the passive bollocks we see trying see out the game 0-0 from the first min.
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Clearly Frank was trying to manage the game. Away from home, on a plastic surface it was clear that the instruction was to let them have the ball, standoff and maintain defensive shape. I expect that plan was to keep it at 0-0 until 30 minutes to go; and then catch them by surprise - turn up the intensity and overwhelm them.

The other team scoring is never part of the plan - but Spurs did well to keep their heads and get 2 goals back.

Bodo are a good team, well organized and in good shape. A point at this stage of the competition is a good result - and coming away with no injuries or fitness concerns is an even better result.
 
Shocking performance for the most part. Our midfield is a major issue. Tonight Sarr and Bergvail were non existent, without the ball both were awful and Bodo strolled around them. Bents cannot play the holding role and it's doing him no favours when he is played there. Simons wasn't much better when he came in and I thought we would see more impetus from him. It was Paulinha and Gray who proved the best in there and it looks like we are going to be heavily reliant on Paulinha in particular.
Odobert was disappointing , as was Johnson again.
I think Frank got it wrong tonight, what's the point in getting to the CL unless you really go for it. Imo you start with your strongest 11, and that should have included Paulinha and Kudus, and if you go two or three up you then rest players.
Most worrying is thats a lot of poor performances, with the inability to progress the ball from back to front being a huge issue. On the plus side he has ingrained a level of grit we didn't see last season.
 
spursfan76 said:
A draw is still two points dropped. Not exactly something to celebrate, especially when you're playing weaker opposition.
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Define weaker?

On paper? Yes

As a team? No

As I said during the match, one team looked as though it had been well coached for a few years. The other looked like it had been a cluster-fuck for several years.

Frank is not suddenly turn us in to peak Barcelona overnight, and the expectation to is just fecking nuts.
 
I feel Frank is doing a fine job in the sense that we’re reaching the potential the squad offers.

We don’t have a decent CF and we have a shaky GK, and the forward players we started with today offer little. Those factors will just put a ceiling over us until they change. If they can’t create a goal against Bodo they aren’t good enough for the League or the CL.

We’ve done decently by becoming hard to beat and we’ve fought back on a few occasions in a creditable way, but we haven’t got the horses up front to do much more.
 
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