Sheffield United vs Tottenham Hotspur | Sunday 17th Jan, KO: 14:00

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I hate Scousers said:
Agree, I think people get too easily blinded by the result.

Mourinho set us up negative for the 2nd half again, again we started slowly on the back foot and they got the goal, luckily for us this time Ndombele popped up with a bit of magic. Otherwise that last 30 would have been nervy and we probably would have folded again.

I think Jose is managing like he is frightened to death at the minute and its translating to the players, I mean all this "lock the door" bollox he was heard shouting when we got the 3rd. Just fucking carry on and score for fun. They were shit and we could have helped ourselves to more.

And somebody please tell me wtf those two subs in stoppage time were all about...

Against a better team today would have been the same old story.
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Actually we school the better teams, the shitty teams is where we got problems.
 
Dier didn't necessarily misread the flight of the ball, but he lacks the spring in his step to jump up and intercept the ball.

Someone like Stones, who is a similar height is a much leaner build and can jump to intercept those balls.
 
Sometimes crosses can go over your head, even if you're positioned properly....

The Southampton goal, that ball was a bit misjudged.

But not the cross yesterday. That goal is down to Davies not being aggressive enough in the challenge.
 
El Magnifico said:
Dele simply doesnt fit into Mourinho's 4-2-3-1. Unless he transforms his game, dont see him getting into the regular rotation.

Toby, Sanchez and Rodon all seem to be vieing for the second CB spot alongside Dier. Toby seemed ahead before his injury but think its up for grabs again.
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Alli is a 10 and Tanguy isn’t, he fits perfectly. To illustrate my point, Ndombele had one of his better games for us today in the 8 role.
Mourinho just being stubborn IMO.
 
Igula said:
I think that it was a clear message to Dele and I can't see how it wasn't when Gedson was included. I am not sure if that is a sign that he is leaving in January or not because that seems to be a Levy level decision at the moment.

As for Toby, him not starting makes zero sense other than Jose having some dumb idea that he doesn't fit in a 3 man backline. Toby has by far been our best CB and with the time off between games should be starting as much as his body allows.
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Yep, all strange AF unless Alli is PSG bound.
Toby even stranger, Roden played well but against an inferior attack and from the very little I’ve seen of him isn’t the same sort of CB Toby is - we are going to struggle if we rely on Diers crossfield passes to the wingbacks; he can hit them but he has a tendency to lob them which makes them way more defendable v. Toby’s style.
 
OZHotspur said:
Alli is a 10 and Tanguy isn’t, he fits perfectly. To illustrate my point, Ndombele had one of his better games for us today in the 8 role.
Mourinho just being stubborn IMO.
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Alli has been pretty shit in the appearances he's had so far and hasn't shown the selflessness to work hard for the team.

The sulking during the Europa League matches will do nothing to help.

One decent game against Marine isn't enough to warrant a start in the Prem
 
OZHotspur said:
Alli is a 10 and Tanguy isn’t, he fits perfectly. To illustrate my point, Ndombele had one of his better games for us today in the 8 role.
Mourinho just being stubborn IMO.
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Firstly Alli is is more accurately a trequartista (like Kaka and Totti ) and not a traditional #10 (like Ozil) i.e. more goals than assists.

In Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 system (which is an hybrid of a normal 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3), the AM is not a traditional #10 but an advanced CM (which Mourinho calls a #8.5), with Sneijder probably the archetype. This is the role that Ndombele plays and is his best position in the system.

Alli is not even a normal #10, talk less of playing deeper. He would have to become a totally different player to fit that role

As for the #8 in the system, it is a much deeper role alongside PEH (almost like a DLP), particularly defensively, and I really dont see Ndombele playing in that role. It is nothing like the #8 in a 3-4-3, (which is more like a traditional B2B CM in a 4-across midfield), and what Ndombele played today. The missing #8 is a key reason why the team currently struggles to retain possession - Winks and Sissoko are just terrible for the role.

The two key essential players in Mourinho's setup is the traditional #9 that can lead the line (Drogba, Milito, Ibra) for which he has Kane, and the playmaker in the dual-pivot (Alonso, Cesc). It was why he bought Pogba and Lukaku at ManU (neither transfer really worked out imo)
 
The whole Dele and Bale argument is never going to have a legs if we are winning without them.

Dele, who I love, wouldn't have ran the game like Ndombele did today. Dele is better in games when he's allowed to just stay forward, get beyond Kane.. We don't play that style anymore. We let the wingers do that.

As for Bale.. Bergwijn has become integral to how we play. We looked so much better with him in the team today, he makes runs and makes space that Kane and Son can move into. I love Bale, but I think he's only going to be a bit part player.
 
Basically, you are allowed to concede.....we concede on average a goal a game, I think that’s ok.
When the forwards kill the game it’s not a problem......when they don’t, it is.
 
El Magnifico said:
Firstly Alli is is more accurately a trequartista (like Kaka and Totti ) and not a traditional #10 (like Ozil) i.e. more goals than assists.

In Mourinho's 4-2-3-1 system (which is an hybrid of a normal 4-2-3-1 and a 4-3-3), the AM is not a traditional #10 but an advanced CM (which Mourinho calls a #8.5), with Sneijder probably the archetype. This is the role that Ndombele plays and is his best position in the system.

Alli is not even a normal #10, talk less of playing deeper. He would have to become a totally different player to fit that role

As for the #8 in the system, it is a much deeper role alongside PEH (almost like a DLP), particularly defensively, and I really dont see Ndombele playing in that role. It is nothing like the #8 in a 3-4-3, (which is more like a traditional B2B CM in a 4-across midfield), and what Ndombele played today. The missing #8 is a key reason why the team currently struggles to retain possession - Winks and Sissoko are just terrible for the role.

The two key essential players in Mourinho's setup is the traditional #9 that can lead the line (Drogba, Milito, Ibra) for which he has Kane, and the playmaker in the dual-pivot (Alonso, Cesc). It was why he bought Pogba and Lukaku at ManU (neither transfer really worked out imo)
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Not sure Kane leads the line, he spends more time in midfield these days, which is the main reason Ndombele hasn’t been shown up in the 10 (8.5) role. Ndombele IMO is better deeper beating the press in midfield and passing it to a 10, than being the 10. Have a look at his game for Lyon v. City in the CL for an illustration of just how effective he is.
My two cents here is if let’s say I agree Alli dosent fit into Mourinhos current formation/tactics (which I’m not sure I do) then I think Alli should be given a shot AND Mourinho should change his tactics.
Dropping the best 9 in the world to a 10 role just isn’t going to benefit us long term and quite frankly the Son/Kane partnership has become...predictable.
With current tactics we will make top 4 but I want a title and getting a bloke on the pitch who has scored close to 20 prem goals from midfield in one season sounds like a good idea, particularly when he has a proven partnership with Kane, would allow Tanguy to play his more natural position, would let Kane stay further forward and would give us more avenues re scoring - less predictable likely means more points.
I’m not a melt by any means but rolling relegation fodder hasn’t fooled me into thinking we are playing well - frankly we have been playing fucking shit.
Is Alli playing like he did? No but good managers get players to play well, they don’t cunt them off after they were your one shining light the season prior.
 
What it also does though Sammy is tell a story about how much time we spend on the defensive, and the argument has been that a greater part of the league is populated by teams that we dont need to sit back against.
I understand the concept is to stretch them out and prevent them packing their defence, but who has that really worked against?
City is the best example, as they battered us and we scored on 2 breakaways, Liverpool, but we lost. Then the Goons, but why we needed to sit back against them was a mystery, ditto palace, Fulham and Wolves, but we buggered that up by forgetting to score more than them
Then we sat back against Burnley, WBA and Newcastle when there was no need, losing 2 points needlessly in the last game. Why did we do it to Leicester? we literally handed them 3 points.
Yesterday we showed that with an offensive line up and an offensive attitude we can score the goals we need to see out games. We only conceded when we dialled down the aggression.
You are right to say that we have the defence to back up the plan, but blaming the forwards for not scoring to complete the puzzle is unfair - if you cede possession, that means we dont have the ball to feed the forwards chances and we become reliant on them all being ultra clinical with the ones they get.
No wonder that our two top rated forwards are 2 of the highest scorers in the league, and also no wonder that nobody else is getting goals to help them out.
We seem to have all of the right ingredients to bake the cake, but we are just not getting some key components of the process right to produce the best outcome every time.
 
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