But apparently the Anfield performance was shit and negative.
are you saying Llorente > Kane... and discounting that Liverpool had no onus to come onto us once they that lead?
-
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
are you saying Llorente > Kane... and discounting that Liverpool had no onus to come onto us once they that lead?
Yes, I am saying he lacks ruthlessness. He's notorious for it.
Towards whom?
Dani Osvaldo at Southampton, Adebayor, Soldado, Bentaleb, Kyle Walker, Janssen are just some of the names that would beg to differ
I had absolutely zero problem with how we set up at Anfield. My issue was picking Winks and Sissoko as the CM pairing, especially when Winks is seemingly incapable of playing out under pressure. And he absolutely has to pick Ndombele (by far my main issue with Poch, his seeming inability to integrate signings). If Dier isn’t fit, id play Skipp.
As for the CM final, sure, Llorente would have been a reasonable pick, *especially* at half time. He turned the City and Ajax games around for us.
I’ve said before, no real issue in picking Kane for a half. We all love him. We know what he can do. But he wasn’t fit, and Poch is paid fucking shitloads to make the tough calls.
He passed on that one.
I’ve wanted Eriksen sold for 2 years so count me out. Dele is a different case, he’s comitted but is low on confidence and lost his edge, possibly Poch believes he can play him back into form.
You think Poch would take £149mil of the clubs money and then bury those for no reason? It’s clear that he has a long term goal in mind for all 3, they’re not cyborgs. I’ve seen enough moaning on here about not rushing Kane back over the years to know it’s a double edged sword.
Personally I wouldn’t have started Kane but I remember the argument being twofold- that Kane was such a talisman that it would have given us an emotional boost... and I’ve seen MANY a manager play a half fit star player in a final and it not work out.
Ravanelli for Boro in 97
Ronaldo Brazil 98
Guily Monaco 2004
Ronaldo Portugal 2016.
Are some of the examples I can remember.
Yep. Add Rooney for, was it the Euros? I forget which tournament.
I’m happy to admit I would have probably picked Kane, especially if he was genuinely close to full fitness (which we don’t know). But he absolutely should have changed it at half time and it was disgraceful to not have given Moura longer.
More broadly, Poch is becoming a tinkerer, and I’m not a fan of that approach. He’s allergic to momentum. I’ve spent the last two years getting more and more irritated with our defensive setup. He’s turning our players into jacks of all trades and masters of none.
Any football team is at its best when it’s executing a simple plan to perfection. We execute complicated plans averagely.
Do you mean the Lucas that bangs in the goals every week? The Lucas that set's up opportunities for his teammates every time he plays? Do you mean the Lucas that could barely muster a shot against Colchester and then missed a pen in the shootout?
He's rightly gained cult hero status for Spurs, he's hat-trick in the semi-final will live long in the memory of millions of fans (including me) but he's no-where near the level of Kane.
You talk about a misplaced loyalty by saying he should have picked Lucas because he scored in the semi-final, what the fuck is that if that's not misplaced loyalty. Pick Lucas a player nowhere near the level of Kane because he scored a hat-trick (never has before nor since). Unless of course you really think Lucas is better than Kane!
I don’t think anyone has an issue picking Kane. It’s the fact he didn’t get subbed.
He was really off the pace. He didn’t even seem to be fit enough to drop deep and play a more creative role.
Bang on. It’s hilarious how overrated Lucas has become by Spurs fans in general. He blows hot and cold and he’ll generally have a better impact in situations where he has space to run.
He’s a great option to have who can be devastating on occasion. Nothing more.
But we sub Kane for Moura, who runs at the defence and gets brought down in the box. Then the ball is picked up and placed on the spot by Sissoko........
Seriously though, whenever Kane doesn't score it's always "he doesn't look fit", always!
The players are blood tested at least once a day. We know when a player is redlining even before the player feels it himself.
We know when a player is fit or not.
It was his diag to Trippier to get up a Dele header was the only great pass I remember in the match. Eriksen????
Sonny had a couple of nice driving runs but in reality we huffed and puffed and our lack of truly elite quality was exposed.
Like I keep saying, the individual players in this squad are nowhere near as good as the Poch Outers would have you believe. He gave a lot of these a career.
I know he has flaws. His first touch is often naff and he struggles out wide. I’m aware of his limitations.
But why do we have this player who is really quick and could be devastating on the counter, and then never ever work on counter attacking football? We did it to an extent at the Etihad (and lucked out) and then at Anfield. But he leaves him on the bench. Just drop Eriksen. Fuck the midfield, we can’t hold onto the ball anyway.
I just want to see some sort of flexibility.
Also, sure some fans overrate him, but, on the other side, there are those that talk him down at every opportunity when he’s never been given a fair run of games. Dele played in that Colchester game too and he was fucking shit. He still gets all the game time he wants.
For every fan that overrates Moura there seems to be another one that wants to see him fail.
Kane hadn't played a game of football for seven weeks (April 9th) due to his ankle injury. It's not a question of Moura being better than him, it's one of picking the best side available at that moment in time. Lucas was match fit and coming off the back of a semi-final hat trick.
Harry would have made more of an impact playing the last twenty minutes than expecting him to last for 90 and knowing the pace at the start of the game was going to be fast.
Glenn Hoddle said :
“I’m absolutely delighted that he’s fit, but I definitely wouldn’t start him,The tempo of the game is going to be absolutely incredible at the beginning of the game, Liverpool like to press and play that high tempo, I don’t think he’ll be ready for that sort of pace.
I really feel that once the game is settled in the second-half and he’s coming on fresh, I think that’s where he can have a real impact.Yeah, his ankle is feeling good and that’s great news, but he’s not 100 per cent match fit and we all know that."
Other media quotes at that time :
"While Kane may be taking part in practice matches in training, it doesn’t compare to the intensity of an actual match.If he was fully fit, and he had played a few matches prior to the cup final, he’d be a definite starter. But he has to be considered a risk."
“It is simply too much of a risk for Tottenham in such a monumental match and manager Mauricio Pochettino must make a sensible decision rather than a sentimental one.
“Common sense must prevail. No matter what Kane says, there have to be doubts over his fitness.
“Pochettino has to ask himself ‘Would Kane’s inclusion in the starting line-up be in the best interest of the team?
“All those games he’s been missing… for me he would be a great sub.“You would have a very upset Harry Kane but if it’s best for the team, it’s best for the team. “When you’re injured for that period of time, having not had a game or that much training, I know the lads are a lot fitter now, but he’s bound to be a touch rusty.
All of our best performances in the knockout stages - the 3-0 win over Borussia Dortmund, the 4-3 defeat at City that got us through to the quarter-final, the extraordinary comeback at Ajax - came without Kane.
I wouldn't begin to compare the two players when both are fully fit and available, Harry every single time for me but that wasn't the case for the final.
Poch let his heart rule his head and paid the price.
Last edited:
Hand on heart, have purged it from my memory. I refuse to accept it ever took place.
:lennon:
Oh my god five years ago he dropped someone!!!
Do you think Kane played well?
I agree about Dele- you can tell he is trying but I am not sure he will get back to his levels of a couple of seasons ago and so time will tell.
As for Pochettino, I am not sure that he has a long term goal in mind for anyone at the moment- and unless things change soon I don’t think he will be around for much longer anyway. He needs to be picking the best team available for every match.
After a positive aggressive performance against Red Star he waived the opportunity to build some momentum by changing things negatively for the Liverpool game. Rotation for the sake of rotation’s sake does nothing for the confidence of the players who played well against Red Star only to see themselves dropped. It also does nothing to make those dropped for the Red Star game pull their finger out to fight for their place if they know they will be rotated back into the team even if they play poorly.
Last edited: