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Match Man City (H) – 26 Feb – 19:30 kickoff

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BJK said:
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This literally started with an Ederson pass I think, so it's not like we were caught in transition after turning the ball over in a dangerous area. Why are so many players already behind the play to such an extent? In particular, what the hell is Danso doing all the way up there trying to press, without having anybody accompany him? Centre of the pitch is wide open, and Doku is isolated on the left with Porro. Two of the recurring themes of the whole match. It turns into this in a handful of seconds;

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It's obvious to anyone at this point that Doku will get the ball against Porro on a good position right around the edge of the box, with multiple defenders trying to scramble back.

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We are not outnumbered per se, but notice how poor our players are positioned due to playing catch up. Savinho is already open, while Haaland is moving inside the box unmarked. Even Marmoush on the back post is open if it comes down to it.

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That's just awful defending. Bergvall and Bentancur aren't terribly positioned I guess, and Danso plays Savinho. But I have no idea what others are doing. Gray is in no man's land, neither doubling Doku nor dropping deeper to clear the cross that's coming. Johnson makes a half hearted attempt at the ball at the very last second to no avail. And Udogie obviously doesn't do his job, which is to pick up Haaland.

It's easy to attribute some of these schoolboy errors to individuals in question. But if so many players are guilty of them on a regular basis, which is true, then the finger needs to be pointed at the manager. This team lacks the fundamentals of pressing, defensive positioning and defending in general. You can only go so far trying to defend inside your own box, relying on individual heroics over and over again.
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Its schoolboy defending.
Johnson, Porro, Bergvall, Bentancur and gray all attracted to the ball and 1 man.

Udogie is the only one that can see the run of haaland in front of him. He has to bust a gut to get goal side, makes no attempt at stopping the goal. His defensive instincts are woeful. I said this before we even bought him when playing for udinese. He hasn't regressed under Ange. But he hasn't improved either. We need to buy a left back this summer so badly.
 
Stateside Spur said:
So many in our squad are unable to quickly move the ball. When you watch us, almost every player takes time to control the ball, take a touch, look around, a take-on maybe, and then it’s a pass.

Lethargic play from nearly everyone. The only player who seems to have an idea of what he wants to do prior to receiving the ball is Porro and unfortunately he’s playing in a back line whilst being the worst defender on our books.
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MADDs is prbly one of the few who can. He did it 2nd half from in our own half he turned a player then got away.
 
Wild Night said:
Well I thought that was an interesting staring 11 , hopefully we never see that front 3 again , especially starting against a top team , between the 3 of them they couldn't pushover a wet cardboard box of cornflakes , far too light weight . Then it's bad enough we have the Porro/Johnson combo on the right but we have Udogie and Odebert on the left , both flanks were holding out the welcome flags .
Tel is too slight at present to be starting as the striker , needs to be on the wing , Solanke has nothing to fear from him and I don't know that if it was my money I would be paying north of 30mil for Tel . Odebert was alright and obviously needs playing time but he also gets knocked off the ball far too easily but isn't scared to run at his man . As for Johnson , if he isn't going to tap in a couple every game then I simply see nothing that he adds to the team , for a supposed speedster I think he's running with a valve not working because I've very rarely seen a wide man run with so little conviction , so scared to run fast , scared to tackle , scared to take a player on with the ball , what's left for wide man to do in a game .
Now Udogie , I know he's coming back from a decent injury but Jesus , Mary and Christ , does he know how to defend ?, does he know he's a defender ?, can't tackle , cant track his man , goes forward and if he gets the ball he promptly loses it .
Not sure what Ange was thinking to be sure . To be only 1 down at half time was a real bonus and IMO Ange should have brought on the 3 subs at half time .Then I think we go on and win . Man City were pretty average overall and I think we gave them far too much respect , even with all that ball in the first half against some pretty feeble wide defense they were a bit plain to be honest and pretty much sums up why they are where they are .
Now the bonus' , Gray and Bergvall , outstanding the pair of them . Gray pretty much handled Haland like a seasoned CB , and Bergvall was everywhere , still green and needs to be more consistent with the ball but his general play off the ball was excellent . These 2 are the future and what you build your team around . Gray is too good with a ball at his feet to be a CB so I can see Grey at 6 and Bergvall at 8 for years to come , both true ballers , just patience required .
I think Ange and all the others are more focus on the Europa games so I'll give a pass for today based on the second half alone .
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Can't give Ange a pass. League form is so crucial to morale and Cup form. Cannot divorce PL from EL

Ange fucked up big time and it's on him (again).
 
Mrs Perryman said:
💩 first half, better second half when we made the subs, but doing 4 in one go seems a bit excessive, as that's nearly half your team and it takes a while to get the rhythm going. Didn't get the Madison for Werner at all. I'm not a Johnson hater, but he was at his ineffectual 'best' today.
I thought Danso and Archie played well and Lucas was commanding in midfield.
Can't say I've been impressed with Tel, maybe we're expecting too much after the hype; this assessment has to be tempered by the fact he's a 19 year old, playing in a foreign country and a much more competitive league. Hoping he'll come good once he settles in.
The one thing I noticed from the game was the marked difference between Pep and Ange on the touchline. Ange just stands there with his hands in his pockets whereas Pep is totally animated and barking out orders.
Think we deserved a point though, but we will continue to drop points if we squander our chances.
(no 💩 Sherlock!)
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Re Tel why did we get an unproven 19 yr old paying a substantial loan fee? We needed a proven player. Not some kid who’s got as much experience as Dane. Why didn’t show just as much faith in the Dane or Lankshear as we have in Tel. What did they see in him to think he could play CF better than two of our own. The whole deal stinks just as much as the logic behind it. Same with the goalie. We had Austin who played well and what do we do. We go out and and buy a 21 yr old for £12M. Was it necessary?
 
We lost to a poor city team last night!

Pep has lost it, don't think he will stay there for long. Possibly, his family life / divorce affected him.
 
Maureen said:
Re Tel why did we get an unproven 19 yr old paying a substantial loan fee? We needed a proven player. Not some kid who’s got as much experience as Dane. Why didn’t show just as much faith in the Dane or Lankshear as we have in Tel. What did they see in him to think he could play CF better than two of our own. The whole deal stinks just as much as the logic behind it. Same with the goalie. We had Austin who played well and what do we do. We go out and and buy a 21 yr old for £12M. Was it necessary?
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Good questions. We have had some good recruitment recently, but those two are questionable. Especially Kinsky IMO. Tel is a level ahead of Scarlett and Lankshear in playing top flight men's football. Whether he's any good at it is another matter.
 
Maureen said:
Re Tel why did we get an unproven 19 yr old paying a substantial loan fee? We needed a proven player. Not some kid who’s got as much experience as Dane. Why didn’t show just as much faith in the Dane or Lankshear as we have in Tel. What did they see in him to think he could play CF better than two of our own. The whole deal stinks just as much as the logic behind it. Same with the goalie. We had Austin who played well and what do we do. We go out and and buy a 21 yr old for £12M. Was it necessary?
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The most obvious looking answer is that Levy was under pressure to do something in the transfer window so;

Instead of doing something significant at the beginning of the window, to help his manager get some points, he did something cheap at the end of the window and disguised it as more jam tomorrow ambition.

Levy needs to sell megadome tickets for the now meaningless Premier League fixtures until the end of this shameful season.

The same people who were proclaiming Tel to be a 'baller' will not lose any sleep if he goes back to Bayern because; 'it hasn't worked out' for him @ Spurs'.

Tel was lipstick on a pig. I wanted / want him to do well but expected him to fail based on his numbers. He isn't a central striker in my opinion. Not in the Premier League.

Dane Scarlett may as well have been given the game time that has been given to Tel. If nothing else it could have helped Spurs in respect of making a decision on Scarlett's future at the end of this season.

Another Levy masterclass.
 
rusty said:
Who is coaching Gray ?
there is no coaching surely that is clear by now
to develop players you need very good coaches NOT yes men ,who do what their manager coached 10-15 yrs ago
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Players are coached according to the manager's directives.......... The boner people have for our coaches is mis-guided (nor do they have any credible insight into their coaching aptitudes).


Besides; Ange already said something along the lines of "we don't work on defense in training".
 
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WillWilliams said:
So what’s our average body weight of our front 6 please TheSpurEst

I need to know!!!
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Not as low as any of the fantasies some people have posted here, can tell you that much.
Will not see Gray-Bergvall CM if any other options are available.

P.S also our frontline in first 45 was very poor and too lightweight. Did not manage to get the ball to stick upfield at all.
 
dudu said:
I say look at their bench and then ours tonight.

Plan B for once... we have some decent players to bring on and change things.
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Yea, only the thing is - we started with plan B. Many players on bench were plan A.

And due to weak perofmance in first half lost the game.
It is nothing too tragic (to lose to ManCity), but starting lineup and tactics were very poor - our first half xG was 0,09 (!).
 
TheSpurEst said:
Yea, only the thing is - we started with plan B. Many players on bench were plan A.

And due to weak perofmance in first half lost the game.
It is nothing too tragic (to lose to ManCity), but starting lineup and tactics were very poor - our first half xG was 0,09 (!).
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Ange seems unable to see what so many of us can see.

The selections against Rangers, Tamworth and Man City were not necessary, and were very obviously a long way off the best possible team he could have put out.
 
manmountainbutters said:
Ange seems unable to see what so many of us can see.

The selections against Rangers, Tamworth and Man City were not necessary, and were very obviously a long way off the best possible team he could have put out.
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With 8 days between games... I can only assume Ange was selecting thru fear of further injuries.

..........Bad that it should come to that.
 
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