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Match Man City v TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR; Saturday 19th February; KO 17:30

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What I saw was a brilliant negation of City's strengths - flowing, incisive football taking fearful advantage of open spaces. A defensive line of 5 (sometimes 6) by Spurs, with well-executed movement of two to the ball, wherever it went on the wings, and some sterling "being in the way" from the 3 (or 4) in front of them.

It wasn't possible to keep City from scoring - 1 goal. For all their shots, twiddly bits, patience, and (ahem) genius players, they were stymied time and again. If no for Lloris' fluff, may have been zero. And of course, as they pressed forward, we had the opportunities to break out and score. Which we did, brilliantly, more times than three. It was a clinic of sorts.

But it wasn't parking the bus. That assumes a solely defensive hold-a-point stance. What Spurs were doing to City was different. Absorbing and rebounding. My TV signal went out at 76 mins and never came back. Watched the highlights on the interwebs later - that at least relieved me of worrying that City might score a 3rd in waffle time
 
What I saw was a brilliant negation of City's strengths - flowing, incisive football taking fearful advantage of open spaces. A defensive line of 5 (sometimes 6) by Spurs, with well-executed movement of two to the ball, wherever it went on the wings, and some sterling "being in the way" from the 3 (or 4) in front of them.

It wasn't possible to keep City from scoring - 1 goal. For all their shots, twiddly bits, patience, and (ahem) genius players, they were stymied time and again. If no for Lloris' fluff, may have been zero. And of course, as they pressed forward, we had the opportunities to break out and score. Which we did, brilliantly, more times than three. It was a clinic of sorts.

But it wasn't parking the bus. That assumes a solely defensive hold-a-point stance. What Spurs were doing to City was different. Absorbing and rebounding. My TV signal went out at 76 mins and never came back. Watched the highlights on the interwebs later - that at least relieved me of worrying that City might score a 3rd in waffle time

Agree. I find it hard to argue against us being the better team on the day. We execute the most important parts of the game better than they did. Doesn’t matter how much you have the ball if you do fuck all with it.

What I think it did show more than anything else was our increase fitness levels Conte has brought us. There’s no way a team could concentrate and then continue to play the way we did for 100 minutes without being amazingly fit.
 
The funny thing is some of our “fans” are so obsessed by Daniel Levy they probably didn’t enjoy that. The last week is a microcosm of following Spurs, unpredictable and unbelievable highs and lows against the odds.

Followed by watching Brook smash up Khan, what a night of sport
 
What I saw was a brilliant negation of City's strengths - flowing, incisive football taking fearful advantage of open spaces. A defensive line of 5 (sometimes 6) by Spurs, with well-executed movement of two to the ball, wherever it went on the wings, and some sterling "being in the way" from the 3 (or 4) in front of them.

It wasn't possible to keep City from scoring - 1 goal. For all their shots, twiddly bits, patience, and (ahem) genius players, they were stymied time and again. If no for Lloris' fluff, may have been zero. And of course, as they pressed forward, we had the opportunities to break out and score. Which we did, brilliantly, more times than three. It was a clinic of sorts.

But it wasn't parking the bus. That assumes a solely defensive hold-a-point stance. What Spurs were doing to City was different. Absorbing and rebounding. My TV signal went out at 76 mins and never came back. Watched the highlights on the interwebs later - that at least relieved me of worrying that City might score a 3rd in waffle time
If not for Lloris' brilliance, it may have been more goals for Man City.
 
Where did the ref get all that ex

If not for Lloris' brilliance, it may have been more goals for Man City.
They had four shots on target. Despite all their dominance, that says it all.

We had 5.

The time I assumed was because it was nearly 92 mins before Mahrez took the penalty and they took the seven from there.

Or Taylor wanted them to score, so let them have four separate passages of play.
 
They had four shots on target. Despite all their dominance, that says it all.

We had 5.

The time I assumed was because it was nearly 92 mins before Mahrez took the penalty and they took the seven from there.

Or Taylor wanted them to score, so let them have four separate passages of play.
Their goal was their first shot on target.

It's funny, watching live I was permanently bricking it, every time they were around our area I was imagining the net bulging, but watching the half-hour highlights it all looks a lot more under control.

Massive credit to all concerned
 
Just shows what a proper coach can do with his players when given time to work with them. Let’s not forget , not much coaching has been done for a couple of years

You say that, but Mourinho and Nono both oversaw wins against City. In much the same fashion.



I'd have cracked up if Spurs official wrote Yid army over and over

Spurs have just done the double over City.
Spurs have just done the double over City.
So good I had to say it twice.
I want Harry Kane's children.🙈

I'm sure he'd like to keep them tbh.

Reason he’s not here is because that is not the Spurs way. We don’t park the bus and play counter attack. We simply attack.

Make no mistake about it, their players are far more gifted than ours when it comes to ball control, passing and creativity. They have 2 full starting 11's that can play proper football better than us and they can do it against much better teams than us.

You don't beat City by going toe to toe and playing them at their own game. You best City by figuring out where they're weak and taking advantage of it. They play a very high backline, their game plan is to have everyone in the opposition half and keep the ball. If they have the ball, then they can't concede. They will absolutely dominate possession for this reason.
To beat them, you have to be absolutely error free for 90 minutes without the ball. You have to keep your shape, you have to reduce them to what they're weakest at, and then, on the rare occasion you get the ball, you have to use it.
Mourinho had it figured out and won. Nono had it figured out and won. Conte has it figured out and won.
It certainly helped we didn't have the coward Winks on the pitch or the donkey Davinson doing his best impression of Zoolander.
 
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