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

[Distaste for scouse]

Actually we school the better teams, the shitty teams is where we got problems.

We didn't school Liverpool, Chelsea or Leicester. We took 1 point from those 3 games.

We beat City, but we have form against City, even in seasons past where they have pissed the league we have occasionally come up with the goods against them.
And we were exceptional against a poor United team with ten men, would you be confident playing them on their and our current form because I wouldn't?

So I'd say its actually a mixed bag against the big teams. (including Leicester as they currently sit in 3rd place)

Yesterdays result and performance was decent, but against the worst team in the division.

For me we are simply not performing to the levels we should be with this squad, and all these dropped points against the likes of Fulham and Palace will come back to bite us in the arse in our chase for top 4.

 

[Bill Madrid]

Jesus wept, it's no surprise that consistency is in short supply on a football message board, but this was next level.

For the last couple of years all we've heard about is how shit John Stones is...

"He's fucking shit. He's laughable. He's so fucking static. I've seen lumps of concrete that are more mobile. If he can play for England so can I. He's such dogshit it's laughable" and on and on and on.

John Stones scores his first goals in four and a half years...

"Dier can't jump like John Stones"

 

[GDN]

i think i've watched about 200 minutes of football this season when ive thought, "ok, we look like a good team."
tactics are shit.
team selection is shit
use of subs is shit

incredibly, we are 4th. Imagine if the above were just a bit better.

 

[Paul Gascoigne]

And spurs women won at Spam

 

[Mick Cooper]

Beat Woolwich, Man City & Man Utd. Liverpool game was ours to lose. We had the better chances. If Steven scores, different ballgame. We deserved at least a draw.

we beat the goons and city on breakaways, they both dominated us and had us re-enacting Custers last stand.
Liverpool flat out mullered us, we were lucky to leave the pitch with our shorts on, we got our arse hammered so much.
Man Utd on the day we beat them, are not the team they are today, but we can only play whats in front of us, and we tore apart a team in disarray.

You can kid yourself that we handed out lessons to City and Liverpool, but we didn't and if we had done to city what they did to us we would have been screaming injustice for years to come. Great win, no doubt - but we looked like rabbits in the headlights of a speeding car.

 

[dmize1]

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.

If we really want to grind the analysis of this goal down to a fine paste (though to me it’s a bit of a tip your cap to them, real nice play), the biggest defensive issue we had was that Stevie B didn’t close down.

The cross is basically perfect, and if there had been more pressure it’s probably off a bit and then easier to clear.

Stevie had a great game yesterday though so I don’t mean to denigrate his performance.

 

[Yiddy]

Sitting back and having a think there's a few things that come to mind. 1 kane's finishing was wasteful. His goal was brilliant but he needs to start putting more than once chance a game away,luckily it didn't affect us today but if the others didn't chip in today then it's another 1-1 draw today. 2 the importance of others chipping in with goals. As I alluded to in point one,It is important for others to chip in consistently to help us get results. Yesterday they did and it was the difference between 1 point and 3 and this needs to happen far more regularly.

 

[El Magnifico]

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.

Kane dropping deep is not a long term arrangement but a current consequence of the weak midfield. Once the midfield is strengthened, Kane's primary responsibility reverts to getting on the end of chances and scoring. Mourinho simply likes to have a CF that he can hoof the ball to when he needs to bypass the midfield. One can argue to its pros vs cons, but Mourinho has shown in the past that he is set in his thinking.

Like I said earlier, Mourinho's system doesnt have a traditional 10, so the question of whether Ndombele is suited to the role or not is moot. The available choices are either as an 8.5 or a DLP in double pivot, and imo Ndombele is more suited to the offensive 8.5 than sitting deeper in a more defensive role. The setup when he played for Lyon was different.

It is the same with Alli, Mourinho will rather change his players than change his system. The current Alli simply doesnt have a place in Mourinho's system

 

[Nikesh]

Spurs with 58% possession.

The better teams cross from open-play less. In the Premier League, only 1 out of every 92 open-play crosses produces a goal. The net effect of open-play crossing is negative or neutral at best.

So, the counterargument is that the defense would prefer an opponent having > crosses from open-play than <.

yes that may be the case but this is sheffield united, one of the worst teams in the league's history. We should be really killing them and stamping on the corpse. It felt like it was more hard work then it should have been.

 

[Nikesh]

Sitting back and having a think there's a few things that come to mind. 1 kane's finishing was wasteful. His goal was brilliant but he needs to start putting more than once chance a game away,luckily it didn't affect us today but if the others didn't chip in today then it's another 1-1 draw today. 2 the importance of others chipping in with goals. As I alluded to in point one,It is important for others to chip in consistently to help us get results. Yesterday they did and it was the difference between 1 point and 3 and this needs to happen far more regularly.

If others didn't chip in? It makes a change that someone other then kane and son assist or score but agree that by Kane's standards he could have had a hattrick if he took his chances, especially at the end

 

[Team Tanguy]

If we really want to grind the analysis of this goal down to a fine paste (though to me it’s a bit of a tip your cap to them, real nice play), the biggest defensive issue we had was that Stevie B didn’t close down.

The cross is basically perfect, and if there had been more pressure it’s probably off a bit and then easier to clear.

Stevie had a great game yesterday though so I don’t mean to denigrate his performance.

I'd agree. I also think Stevie B was great.
The issue imo was more the unfamiliarity of the formation which is understandable as we haven't used it much. Aurier, Tanguy & Stevie all got mixed up handing off attackers to one another and the crosser found himself with time on the ball. By the time Stevie realised it was a too late the ball went in.

 

[Yiddy]

If others didn't chip in? It makes a change that someone other then kane and son assist or score but agree that by Kane's standards he could have had a hattrick if he took his chances, especially at the end

Yes what I mean is luckily today what we've been crying out for and others chipping in with goals so kanes wasteful finishing didn't bite us on the arse. I know I sound like I'm kane bashing I just think he is that good he should be scoring more. It sounds crazy I know because the stats show he has scored plenty but I think he's that good he should have at least another 5 on top of what he already has. But at the same time I'm delighted others chipped in to help us get the result.

 

[Matt1882]

Jesus wept, it's no surprise that consistency is in short supply on a football message board, but this was next level.

For the last couple of years all we've heard about is how shit John Stones is...

"He's fucking shit. He's laughable. He's so fucking static. I've seen lumps of concrete that are more mobile. If he can play for England so can I. He's such dogshit it's laughable" and on and on and on.

John Stones scores his first goals in four and a half years...

"Dier can't jump like John Stones"

John Stones is shit.
And I'd still rather him than Dier tbh.

 

[Bill Madrid]

John Stones is shit.
And I'd still rather him than Dier tbh.

Then you're insane. Eric Dier has been brilliant this season in defence for us, and very often wrongly maligned in other positions before that. He's a Spur, and you would swap him for another team's player who has been crucified on here -perhaps by you, I don't know - for his repeated shortcomings? Why, because. like Dier, his form has improved this season?

I honestly despair sometimes about the hatred we give to our players. The Dier abuse in the past 24 hours is purely because Winks and Sissoko didn't play yesterday.

Dier was fantastic yesterday, he was everywhere, how many goal-bound blocks did he make? Would John Stones have made them, or anyone else? What would they have done better, short of being 10 inches taller for a brilliant cross?

Look, we can't magic up teams of brilliant players, with a seemingly endless line of other brilliant players who slot in when required. We have what we have, like every other team. Every great Tottenham team in history has had less flamboyantly wonderous players who still were absolutely key to our success - Paul Miller stands out as a fine example. He would have been buried in the internet era - I didn't rate him that highly at the time but realise now just how important he was to us as a team.

 

[bus-conductor]

Premier League Club Stats - Clearances

View Clearances played by Premier League clubs for 2018/19 and previous seasons, on the official website of the Premier League.

www.premierleague.com

Premier League Club Stats - Blocks

View Blocks played by Premier League clubs for 2018/19 and previous seasons, on the official website of the Premier League.

www.premierleague.com

Sammy, are you saying these are impressive or good stats from our perspective ? because if you look at the teams around us in those stats, they tell you otherwise. I think they are really worrying stats that show we are spending far too much time blocking and clearing.

Good defending, even when being pragmatic, doesn't allow the situation to get as far as blocks and clearances.

We have also lost more points from winning positions than any other team.

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.

Conceding a goal a game means we have to score at least 2 a game to win games. Do you know how many teams last season managed to score 2 a game or more? two. Liverpool and City.

 

[Adrian Cimino]

Then you're insane. Eric Dier has been brilliant this season in defence for us, and very often wrongly maligned in other positions before that. He's a Spur, and you would swap him for another team's player who has been crucified on here -perhaps by you, I don't know - for his repeated shortcomings? Why, because. like Dier, his form has improved this season?

I honestly despair sometimes about the hatred we give to our players. The Dier abuse in the past 24 hours is purely because Winks and Sissoko didn't play yesterday.

Dier was fantastic yesterday, he was everywhere, how many goal-bound blocks did he make? Would John Stones have made them, or anyone else? What would they have done better, short of being 10 inches taller for a brilliant cross?

Look, we can't magic up teams of brilliant players, with a seemingly endless line of other brilliant players who slot in when required. We have what we have, like every other team. Every great Tottenham team in history has had less flamboyantly wonderous players who still were absolutely key to our success - Paul Miller stands out as a fine example. He would have been buried in the internet era - I didn't rate him that highly at the time but realise now just how important he was to us as a team.

Mate even Hoddle + Archibald would have been cunted off if we had social media back then..And God forbid even Stevie P

 

[OZHotspur]

Kane dropping deep is not a long term arrangement but a current consequence of the weak midfield. Once the midfield is strengthened, Kane's primary responsibility reverts to getting on the end of chances and scoring. Mourinho simply likes to have a CF that he can hoof the ball to when he needs to bypass the midfield. One can argue to its pros vs cons, but Mourinho has shown in the past that he is set in his thinking.

Like I said earlier, Mourinho's system doesnt have a traditional 10, so the question of whether Ndombele is suited to the role or not is moot. The available choices are either as an 8.5 or a DLP in double pivot, and imo Ndombele is more suited to the offensive 8.5 than sitting deeper in a more defensive role. The setup when he played for Lyon was different.

It is the same with Alli, Mourinho will rather change his players than change his system. The current Alli simply doesnt have a place in Mourinho's system

I disagree but I like that you clearly know your football - I appreciate that.
IMO putting Alli behind Kane and dropping Tanguy deeper does strengthen our midfield, if that requires a few tweaks to our tactics then so be it.

 

[1882]

Page 54 of this thread is fucking bi-polar!!!
Just had a re-read ...sums up our season perfectly so far!

 

[sammyspurs]

Sammy, are you saying these are impressive or good stats from our perspective ? because if you look at the teams around us in those stats, they tell you otherwise. I think they are really worrying stats that show we are spending far too much time blocking and clearing.

Good defending, even when being pragmatic, doesn't allow the situation to get as far as blocks and clearances.

We have also lost more points from winning positions than any other team.



Conceding a goal a game means we have to score at least 2 a game to win games. Do you know how many teams last season managed to score 2 a game or more? two. Liverpool and City.

If we are playing a defensive game, they are very good stats.

Do you know who has conceded more than us in the PL?
City.

Are you saying our defence is doing a bad job?

 

[sammyspurs]

We have also lost more points from winning positions than any other team.

This also comes back to forwards not killing the game apart from west ham which was the only true game which fits the category of defending fucking it up.

All the other games should have been mere consolation goals.
We are joint third highest scorers.....scored more than City so we are more than capable of putting two past palace or Fulham and the chances we missed shows that.