-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
A few thoughts after watching the game.
1. Our players largely look like they are strangers. There is no 'telepathic' link up between our players and almost all of our attempts at creative passes are completely misjudged by the intended target.
2. Kane has earnt the right to be selfish; however he made some very poor decisions to take efforts for himself when there were better options.
3. Holjberg hesitates before every pass. I initially thought he was faking a pass, but it was consistent throughout the entire game. Clearly instructed to never lose the ball and play extra cautious.
4. We made a mess of almost every attacking maneuver. Wasteful passes, ill timed runs, poor first touch.
Had we been playing better opposition we would not have won the game playing as we did. I don't see a team that is going to go on a run of results. Every game we look vulnerable and celebrating a victory against bottom of the league Sheffield says it all.
1. Our players largely look like they are strangers. There is no 'telepathic' link up between our players and almost all of our attempts at creative passes are completely misjudged by the intended target.
2. Kane has earnt the right to be selfish; however he made some very poor decisions to take efforts for himself when there were better options.
3. Holjberg hesitates before every pass. I initially thought he was faking a pass, but it was consistent throughout the entire game. Clearly instructed to never lose the ball and play extra cautious.
4. We made a mess of almost every attacking maneuver. Wasteful passes, ill timed runs, poor first touch.
Had we been playing better opposition we would not have won the game playing as we did. I don't see a team that is going to go on a run of results. Every game we look vulnerable and celebrating a victory against bottom of the league Sheffield says it all.
Only reason I gave you the disagree is for point 1. I think the players are beginning to gel a lot better. Kane and Son obviously have their link up, when Kane has the ball Son knows exactly where to run. I think we're beginning to see the same with Reguilon as well, he knows when to go, and Son did a great job at covering him on the weekend. Ndombele is also beginning to show it more.
Brilliant
True, but you don’t need to constantly attack or just defend.
You need a balance and we have that.
Keep going back to the Fulham game, but had Son scored a couple like he should, we wouldn’t be calling it a defensive display.
He hit the post the other day at 1-0, then they equalised.
Had it stayed 1-1, and the two chances we scored didnt go in, people would be raging at the set up and approach rather than (yet again) the forwards missing chances the team created.
But that’s what teams do in football.....we can’t just stop them pushing for an equaliser, we have to defend and try and get out.
I think we had more possession that game, it’s not like they battered us
He hasn't been brilliant, he's been fucking lucky.
He's had numerous moments where his terrible, fucking terrible passing has gone straight to an opponent but they failed to score.
He is being made to look good by a low number of goals conceded where if not for things out of his control, he could have contributed to as many conceded as Sanchez, if not more.
And this comes full circle to my point where people always blame the defence.
Why is Dier losing his man and the oppo score and we draw worse than Son missing 4 sitters and we draw?
Third least conceded goals heading into February. Luck? Really?
You're not wrong.
The only thing about the Son stat is 2 of those 3 were really top drawer saves. He couldn't have done much more than he did.
I don't blame the defence for the draw in that game, I blame bad luck.
The bigger picture though, and I raise this a lot, is that if our defence was more dependable, we may commit more attacking players.
I would be deeply concerned, even against so called weaker opposition, if we only had 1 player to shield the defence at the moment.
I don't think it's they are strangers, it's because we don't have a midfielder that can read the game and put passes in for our attacking players.
Our team has alot of technical ability but apart from Kane I don't think many of them are that intelligent when it comes to reading the game and thinking a pass infront
Kane is fantastic at it but unfortunately he can't be in two places at once.
Surely as Spurs fans we should celebrate victory over anyone.
We can critique the performance but never not celebrate a victory.
Agree... not celebrating a victory would suggest we're 'above all that' ...which we're clearly not!
It's that kind of arrogant complacency that has lost us points....
I'd celebrate a win over Man City, as I would over Marine.... the pre-match expectation level shouldn't come into it... a win is a win is a win!
Ask City if constantly attacking us got them anywhere in our last 2 games at home against them?
In fact.
1-0 Champions leagu
2-0 19/20 home
2-2 19/20 away
2-0 20/21 home
In every one of those games they attacked us non stop.
But if you constantly attack you will defiantly get picked off and concede a lot, a balance is much more viable.
Tanguy ?
So Kane says it is not Mourinho that tells them to defend deep towards the end of games but the players. This is not the first time we have gone through a run of conceding late goals and will not be the last. Normally fans fear it happening as we all do but despite there being no fans in the ground the players are still paralysed by fear. Part of it is the other teams knowing the recent history put more pressure on. In the team some players like Kane have no fear they will get dropped and can take more chances but many do not have that comfort and Mourinho does not help by installing that fear by castigating mistakes and dropping players who make mistakes.
How do we get out of this? Well it really is up to Mourinho to install confidence to continue to go forward and not be ultra cautious in team selection by picking all 3 holding midfielders. Only time will solve the problem but for the next few weeks the last 10 mins of matches will be a nightmare for us supporters.
How do we get out of this? Well it really is up to Mourinho to install confidence to continue to go forward and not be ultra cautious in team selection by picking all 3 holding midfielders. Only time will solve the problem but for the next few weeks the last 10 mins of matches will be a nightmare for us supporters.
Agree. Igula also said Dier has a hard time handling the situation when the ball is hit over him. Depending on the quality of that pass, even the best CBs in the world are ~ 50 / 50. A ball over the head of the CB is either a bad play by someone further up the pitch (let the pass through without much pressure) or a really good pass. The best way to deal with these type of passes is by having good team defending so that it is not Dier on an island against the striker.
It is much harder to score goals than to defend. Sonny has the best conversion rate in Europe.
I don’t blame Dier at all for our conceding goals late. I blame it more on consistently poor dead ball defence and a mentality focused on “maintaining a lead” instead of putting our opponents away.