Sporting (H) - UCL - 26/10, 8pm

[bonaspur23]

I don’t think drawing changed anything for us. Either way we’re still guaranteed eliminated if we lose to Marseille, and guaranteed advancing with a draw/win. Drawing tonight did nothing, except I suppose if both games draw next week we win the group (unlikely).

If we had lost tonight, a draw next week would not have been enough if Frankfurt beat Sporting. Then it would be Frankfurt 10, Sporting 9, Spurs 8.

So it did help a little. I agree not much.

The good thing is the team was clearly pushing for a winner, unlike last year at Liverpool when we sat back and took a draw that meant next to nothing that put the top 4 race in Woolwich’s control.

 

[Ginolaflair]

Look,tbh, if we and Conte are that cross about a shit Var decision, maybe play well for 90 minutes, not just 45. We battered them second half and had we played with that intensity for, shock, horror, a WHOLE game then probably we aren't relying on a 94th minute var decision right?

If you literally waste half a game dicking around then I would say you reap what you sow.
Also screw anyone that claims it's a conspiracy: it isn't. We wasted HALF A GAME waiting for sporting to score.

Also I see that Eric dier is not just content with fucking up the defense, but now he's fucking up scoring opportunities.

Finally, how fucking slow was Hugo for their goal. It was a well hit and well placed shot....but from that distance and being sighted, that's a save all day long.

 

[Ginolaflair]

I barely remember Leicester playing well for much of the season in 2015/16.... yet they managed to win the thing!

Playing well doesn't always equal victory....

You watched all 38 games presumably

 

[Ginolaflair]

Really ?

We should have been pissing this group

To leave ourselves in a situation where we need a point in a tricky hostile away game is quite frankly pathetic

Have you seen our away record in europe over recent seasons ?

Yep. We were all slapping ourselves on the back and laughing at our favourable draw and easiest group. Weirdly, I think we get so complacent in these situations.

 

[DPN9]

I'm just glad there is something to play for in Marseille. The game so far has cost me the best part of £400, and I consider myself one of the lucky ones.
There were plenty of people shouting and moaning tonight, and I suspect they've not seen a live EPL game for a while, whereas many of us regulars have adopted an air of calm resignation, knowing that hollering for subs, or booing will change nothing except the blood pressure.
The negativity definitely spreads, but I can see how hard it is to keep a lid on things during the passion of a frustrating game.
All to play for in France, and I'll be fully behind the team.
We'll come good.
Wait and see.
COYS!

 

[Eli]

Inconsistency of VAR and referees not knowing the rules are annoying every fan,player & manager will agree but that aside regarding the game Tottenham didn’t deserve to win or even get a draw we were poor Sporting was the better team but hey that’s football .

 

[Ginolaflair]

Not if they decide he wasn't deliberately playing the ball.

I don't agree he wasnt

He wasn't. He definitely wasn't.

 

[skywalker68]

Going for 1-1 think we will get an equaliser second half

Fuck I called that spot on

 

[bonaspur23]

Inconsistency of VAR and referees not knowing the rules are annoying every fan,player & manager will agree but that aside regarding the game Tottenham didn’t deserve to win or even get a draw we were poor Sporting was the better team but hey that’s football .

xG was like 1.87-0.85 in favor of spurs and this doesn’t count the Kane offsides goal.

Not sure where people get this idea that sporting were better… we absolutely hammered them the last 30 minutes. No question we were bad in the first half.

 

[skywalker68]

Purist guff..... We're here cos we earned the right. End of.



So none of our group do either for starters then..... As we've more points than the rest of these cunts....

.....How about the plethora of the other teams that haven't been stella but are still in with a shot of the knockouts?

Atleti stink their way to qtrs/semis and finals all the time and do so with much glee..... They're imposters too?



The "point" is the opportunity to play and qualify.

If we fail to do so; it's a disappointment..... It doesn't render the whole endevour "pointless" from the jump.



Biss & Rich both said they came for CL..... Perisic probably did too.

"Dazzling" or not; make of it what you will.

Came for UCL don't worry they won't have much longer to wait before we are out of it.

 

[skywalker68]

I'm just glad there is something to play for in Marseille. The game so far has cost me the best part of £400, and I consider myself one of the lucky ones.
There were plenty of people shouting and moaning tonight, and I suspect they've not seen a live EPL game for a while, whereas many of us regulars have adopted an air of calm resignation, knowing that hollering for subs, or booing will change nothing except the blood pressure.
The negativity definitely spreads, but I can see how hard it is to keep a lid on things during the passion of a frustrating game.
All to play for in France, and I'll be fully behind the team.
We'll come good.
Wait and see.
COYS!

I think we will come good, but not now or under this current set up

 

[Notabadsquad]

If we had lost tonight, a draw next week would not have been enough if Frankfurt beat Sporting. Then it would be Frankfurt 10, Sporting 9, Spurs 8.

So it did help a little. I agree not much.

The good thing is the team was clearly pushing for a winner, unlike last year at Liverpool when we sat back and took a draw that meant next to nothing that put the top 4 race in Woolwich’s control.

Whole different ball game.

We should have won. Plenty possession, decent positions

The timings if the injuries to Richarlison and Kulusevski are unfortunate but all teans suffer so no excuses.

Next week will be a test and as it's us we already know it will be an uncomfortable evening.

Has to be a midfield 3 to start in that game.

 

[DPN9]

I think we will come good, but not now or under this current set up

It's quite unnerving how inflexible Conte seems, and it's clear that we don't have the right players to suit his tactical vision at this moment in time. I still think it'll click this season, and our performances will be a lot more convincing. I know it's early days, but we're still clinging on to 3rd.

 

[TottenhamtillIDie]

Gutted.

We need a big performance away from home in Marseille.

 

[skywalker68]

It's quite unnerving how inflexible Conte seems, and it's clear that we don't have the right players to suit his tactical vision at this moment in time. I still think it'll click this season, and our performances will be a lot more convincing. I know it's early days, but we're still clinging on to 3rd.

We are clinging to 3rd but that will soon change.
I think we are in for a mixed bag of a season, there will more of these dross, inept performances still to come.
Maybe many are pinning their hopes on the January window, but ask yourself who are we going to get?

 

[1966]

You watched all 38 games presumably

I did. Well, mostly. It's true that they stretched the axiom of "champions win while playing poorly" to its absolute limit, which is why we'll never see another PL season like that again and why Leicester made very little impact on the league before and after their winning season. It doesn't disprove the idea that playing on the edge and grinding out results is unsustainable; if anything, it emphasises the point because it took a once-in-a-lifetime alignment of probabilities for that to work. Leicester were very good that season, and their breaking of the 2/3-club stranglehold on the league at the time was good for everyone outside that small group, so I'm not trying to criticise them particularly.

 

[1966]

It's beyond frustrating that nobody really knows if he was actually offside or not. They can draw all the lines they want, but when it's that close, given the technology constraints, nobody really knows either way. He might be, he might not be.

It's not the first time this point has been made but when it's this close, they need to account for some margin of error and just accept the original decision, just like every other use of VAR.

That's if you even want VAR in the sport anymore, which I don't. It's really not worth it.

Hawkeye in tennis has - or, at least, had when I was studying it for computer vision - an absolutely shocking margin of error. It was more than a centimetre at one point. Which, in tennis, is like.. what the fuck? When it became the ultimate arbiter of calls, the rationale was that at least the errors would be randomly distributed and its decisions and mistakes wouldn't favour any particular player. It's the same law of large numbers stuff that football fans talk about all the time: how stuff "evens out" across a season or two.

I don't want VAR removed, but I would like its limitations acknowledged and for it to favour the attacker in cases where they can't determine the correct decision with any certainty. As it is, VAR has no option but to make a yes/no decision. Comparing two lines takes five seconds, which means that the rest of the time is taken up drawing them: if you need five minutes to draw the lines, the scenario probably isn't clear enough to call with any set of lines.

 

[Zomb]

Inconsistency of VAR and referees not knowing the rules are annoying every fan,player & manager will agree but that aside regarding the game Tottenham didn’t deserve to win or even get a draw we were poor Sporting was the better team but hey that’s football .

It will cause a riot at some point. Shame it wasn’t last night concluding with laughing boy ref getting a shoeing

 

[Zomb]

Hawkeye in tennis has - or, at least, had when I was studying it for computer vision - an absolutely shocking margin of error. It was more than a centimetre at one point. Which, in tennis, is like.. what the fuck? When it became the ultimate arbiter of calls, the rationale was that at least the errors would be randomly distributed and its decisions and mistakes wouldn't favour any particular player. It's the same law of large numbers stuff that football fans talk about all the time: how stuff "evens out" across a season or two.

I don't want VAR removed, but I would like its limitations acknowledged and for it to favour the attacker in cases where they can't determine the correct decision with any certainty. As it is, VAR has no option but to make a yes/no decision. Comparing two lines takes five seconds, which means that the rest of the time is taken up drawing them: if you need five minutes to draw the lines, the scenario probably isn't clear enough to call with any set of lines.

It shouldn’t be used for offsides. It’s inconclusive and takes way too long. It should be used on the odd occasion for clear and obvious errors, if at all. Perhaps once every ten games

 

[N17-Tommo]

VAR is a problem for us and always has been, but that’s not the real problem. Had we started the game with the intention of winning, we wouldn’t have to rely on shitty VAR.
Why start trying to win after 70mins? Why not show that intent from the start?
We have ourselves to blame not VAR.

Other than the last 30 mins v Leicester I cannot remember what I would call enjoyable football.
Of course we have all enjoyed the wins but there has been no performances where we can say Wow, what a performance that was.
Football is an entertainment business but we are not being entertained. I’m not sure if it’s imstructions from the manager or the players are just under performing but something is not right.
We have the players to tear teams apart but I can’t remember the last time we did that, we are scraping wins or chasing games.
I’m sick and tired of watching us try and play it out from the back, it could work but we always make a hash of it.
When I see tha ball at Lloris’s feet I turn away as you just know it’s going to end in panic, that’s not entertainment that’s almost torture.

I believe we have the manager and players to be successful but it’s just not enjoyable at the moment . I also believe we need to stick with the current set up, with a couple of additions in January but we don’t seem to be learning from our mistakes.
Every time we play it out from the back we cock it up but continue to do it, we fail to beat the first man at corners but continue to do it, we finally realised Kane shouldn’t take freekicks but how many did we waste before we made that change? Certain players continue to put in poor performances but we continue to play them, we chase games but bring on defenders.
These are simple errors to correct but we continue to make the same errors over and over again.

It’s not often I rant and I’m forever defending the team/club but it’s hard to defend it when we are served up the tripe we’ve had to witness lately.
Please sort it out and please play exciting football that we can enjoy.
Rant over.

COYS.