I can't agree with that, we were comprehensively outplayed, we couldn't get near them. This looks bad but it wasn't down to effort, we simply couldn't live with them.
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I knew what you meant. There are players who are not at the level you want to be at and even if they have been a key part of your team a good boss will know they have reached their level. If they have given everything for the club it breaks your heart that they have to leave and you wish them well in the future. An example for me is Ryan Mason. I am not sure if Danny is in that box yet but certainly I expect Poch to be looking at every player and thinking if they have reached their ceiling or can we get more and I expect Daniel and the board to be doing the same for Poch and his staff.
LOL, yeah that was worded very poorly.
I mean to say, I'm not melting and expecting us to go there and lose. I'm not saying the tie is over, and we have no shot. I'm not saying they're "definitely going to" score 2 or 3. I'm just saying it's within their capabilities.
I know we looked better the second half, I don't know how much of that was due to Ajax willing to play more conservative with an away goal in their pocket.
Does that clear it up?
But we wouldn't have brought on two FB's had Son been available. We would have probably been brining Lorrente on.Love your optimism I really do, and your right everybody loves a comeback kid victory and a Man U v Juve scenario would be the dogs bollocks......But I feel we have absolutely nothing to offer as an attacking threat, Son back is obviously welcome as we can sit that Llorente man out, but we are running on complete empty, physically and player wise, I mean when you are bringing on two defenders to try and chase a game it tells you all there is to tell right about now....
But, we have been dead and buried in this competition several times this season already and I’m hanging on to that, as there isn’t much else to cling too
Also, FB's are a key part of a teams attack these day's so it's nowhere near as negative a picture as you paint. In fact, Foyth showed just how effective an attacking option he was.
I think it was more of a fresh legs thing too.
Edited your post because i agree with all of it but this part. Neres' shot off the post and back into play sure came off for us.
Total fuck up from Poch tonight the way we started, the 3 centre halves was a tactical own goal and for those disputing it, he realised it and changed us to a back 4 with Verts at lb and Rose pushed into midfield after 20ish minutes - problem was we'd conceded the goal by then and were lucky not to concede another.
Ajax are all about their midfield, they've no Kane or Son up front, they play lovely one touch footy, pass and move, and with no midfield opposition to speak of they did whatever the fuck they wanted, at one point they were playing a 2-3-5 with fluid movement and we couldn't stop them because we couldn't get hold of the ball. Concede the midfield to class sides and your wing backs become full backs and your midfield becomes non existent, exactly what happened tonight.
To play a 3 at the back with wing backs you have to be playing a mug team who you can dominate therefore allowing the wing backs to play predominantly in the oppositions half. Anyone who's watched Ajax know they're a class act in midfield so you must match them up and stop them playing.
We did that pretty much from the moment Poch stuck Verts at lb and went to a 4. How the fuck did he not see this before kick off? He's been brilliant but tactically he's fucking awful at times and it's cost us in big games, tonight the biggest of them all so far.
We're not out, we've Son back and Sissoko (who did well when he came on but wasn't the reason for our change in fortune). He must play 433 or a hybrid of it and hope we've not got our bumble boots on but he's made it fucking harder than it needed to be. Ajax can be got at and maybe they won't know whether to stick or twist next week but fuck me Poch wise the fuck up - 3 at the back was shit against Liverpool and Dortmund why do you fucking persist with it?
Ajax have a worse home record than they do away record this season in the Champions League against bigger clubs.
Lost at home to Real Madrid, beat them away. Drew at home 3-3 to Bayern, drew 1-1 away & drew at home to Juventus, beat them away.
Let's see how they are holding onto a lead. People didn't expect us to score 3 away at Man City or to keep a clean sheet home and away vs Dortmund. This one is still alive, even if Ajax score first over there, 2 goals would see us through.
Lost at home to Real Madrid, beat them away. Drew at home 3-3 to Bayern, drew 1-1 away & drew at home to Juventus, beat them away.
Let's see how they are holding onto a lead. People didn't expect us to score 3 away at Man City or to keep a clean sheet home and away vs Dortmund. This one is still alive, even if Ajax score first over there, 2 goals would see us through.
I think we'd all have been pleasently surprised, to say the least, if told at the start of the season we just need to beat Ajax in Amsterdam to go to the CL final. Coming back when it went to 4-3 on aggregate against City was much tougher, as was arguably needing something against Barcelona, even though they rested players.
Well done you for having a son that supports Liverpool and is sensible at the same time. These kind of people are a rare breed these days. (To be honest I'm a bit of a scum myself to my old man when Bayern loses)
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All good...Except the result obviously.
Exactly, if a team as terrible as this years Bayern scored 3 over there, 2 in like 8 minutes, we definetely can. On a sidenote, could you imagine 7 years ago that we would be standing in this day, calling teams like Bayern Munich and Juventus bad? How far have we come, we should be proud of this team no matter what.
If you'd have said to anyone at the start of the season that wins against Bournemouth away & Ajax away would secure us top 4 & a European final with a game to spare I think everyone would have lapped that up. A fully fit Sissoko will scare them shitless, as will a more rested Son because of this game.
This is far from over. We've had a couple of kicks up the arse recently, let's see how much they want to win and be seen as winners & how Ajax deal with tension this lot have never faced. An early goal and all of a sudden we'd be favourites with the advantage of away goals kicking in. All it takes is a corner, cross or a bobble of the ball.
Exactly. It's about raising our profile and continuos development. We all want success but it needs to be earned. If we don't go through best of luck to Ajax but this one is far from over.
How I see it is they play a cup final on Sunday so only get two days rest whereas we get three and if we score the first goal we are favourites based on the advantage of a further away goal meaning more. It's not as poorly poised as our performance tonight should be.
Would argue it's no more pressure than staring military service in the face that would take away your career/dream as it is just being realized. But yeah it is a fuckton of pressure.
Hairy’s Post Match Thoughts
1. Tale of two halves....... again. We seem to repeat this pattern over and over, going brilliant to terrible and vice versa.
2. Sissoko coming on was 90% cause of turnaround for me
3. Foyth is a better wing back than Tripier...... sadly. He has lost all ability to take on a defender and advance the ball.
4. Rose has lost a step, unable to curl around the defender in the box anymore. Still good in defense however
5. Llorente not good enough. Serious upgrade for Kane backup is in order
6. Looked offsides on the goal to me. VAR sucks!......today
7. Wanyama .......ugh
8. Moura is a bundle of energy, wish his control was better and he could stay on his feet
9. There’s still hope in second leg, but I’m not very optimistic
1. Tale of two halves....... again. We seem to repeat this pattern over and over, going brilliant to terrible and vice versa.
2. Sissoko coming on was 90% cause of turnaround for me
3. Foyth is a better wing back than Tripier...... sadly. He has lost all ability to take on a defender and advance the ball.
4. Rose has lost a step, unable to curl around the defender in the box anymore. Still good in defense however
5. Llorente not good enough. Serious upgrade for Kane backup is in order
6. Looked offsides on the goal to me. VAR sucks!......today
7. Wanyama .......ugh
8. Moura is a bundle of energy, wish his control was better and he could stay on his feet
9. There’s still hope in second leg, but I’m not very optimistic
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Did many of you have many guests from Ajax around you?
Despite the result I feel for anybody who missed out while in 113 (Paxton behind goal from row) - that's what I got given after four hours of queueing at the ticket office, then someone a few people behind me got right at the front of the South (all of which had "sold out") - had three Ajax fans blow their cover when they nearly scored near the end and got asked to step out by steward and never came back.
One had a stadium card and was claiming to be a Belgian Tottenham fan but strangely couldn't provide any ID to match the card.
Equally at the end a couple of dozen or so made a beeline to celebrate next to to the Away fans and one even got to do a little dance with a female steward who was policing the divide. Cheers, especially as the clipboard supervisor bloke made us sit down after 15 minutes (we had to make do with up and down) with warnings of being thrown out.
When Away fans right next door pointed out reply was of course "they'll be dealt with". Yeah, right.
Ta to every miserable grabbing so and so who bought a ticket to sell on.
Despite the result I feel for anybody who missed out while in 113 (Paxton behind goal from row) - that's what I got given after four hours of queueing at the ticket office, then someone a few people behind me got right at the front of the South (all of which had "sold out") - had three Ajax fans blow their cover when they nearly scored near the end and got asked to step out by steward and never came back.
One had a stadium card and was claiming to be a Belgian Tottenham fan but strangely couldn't provide any ID to match the card.
Equally at the end a couple of dozen or so made a beeline to celebrate next to to the Away fans and one even got to do a little dance with a female steward who was policing the divide. Cheers, especially as the clipboard supervisor bloke made us sit down after 15 minutes (we had to make do with up and down) with warnings of being thrown out.
When Away fans right next door pointed out reply was of course "they'll be dealt with". Yeah, right.
Ta to every miserable grabbing so and so who bought a ticket to sell on.
This kind of intellligence is what football is, not just pace and running up and down:
Give me intelligence and cohesion over a step over and shot every day of the week. Class that amazingly isn't seen often enough.
Give me intelligence and cohesion over a step over and shot every day of the week. Class that amazingly isn't seen often enough.
Dumb as fuck
ochfacepalm:
I haven’t gone through and read everything of what people have said, but I have seen a lot of people smashing Poch for not starting Sissoko and for the formation. It was plainly obvious that we played better with a back 4 and with Moussa on the field, yes... but I’d imagine Poch would be more than aware of that.
Sissoko is just back from injury and likely didn’t have 90 minutes in him. I think Poch played the line up he did in an attempt to defend with 3 at the back (essentially 5 with the wing backs dropping into full back positions) for as long as possible and to bring Sissoko on to run at legs that weren’t entirely fresh. It unfortunately didn’t work... but I think that the reversion to back 4 and introduction of Sissoko was always going to happen - Poch wasn’t blind to it and forced by the injury to Jan, it was more that is just hastened what would have occured anyway. If we could have held a 0-0 until half time, or maybe even 60 mins, Sissoko could have been even more effective (he was my MoTM in any case).
This idea that Poch is clueless is a bit fucking rich... we are in the CL semi with a threadbare squad. He is the reason this club is where it is right now. You’d be a stupid, ignorant, dim-witted fuck-monkey to suggest otherwise.
The circumstances were less than ideal, with no first or second choice striker, neither preferred CM available (to start in Sissokos case) and with an injury to one of our best CBs. 0-1 isn’t the worst. I think we know how to play them now also. I’m not giving up hope yet.
Anyway, that’s my two. And I hope you can make sense of them.
COYS
Sissoko is just back from injury and likely didn’t have 90 minutes in him. I think Poch played the line up he did in an attempt to defend with 3 at the back (essentially 5 with the wing backs dropping into full back positions) for as long as possible and to bring Sissoko on to run at legs that weren’t entirely fresh. It unfortunately didn’t work... but I think that the reversion to back 4 and introduction of Sissoko was always going to happen - Poch wasn’t blind to it and forced by the injury to Jan, it was more that is just hastened what would have occured anyway. If we could have held a 0-0 until half time, or maybe even 60 mins, Sissoko could have been even more effective (he was my MoTM in any case).
This idea that Poch is clueless is a bit fucking rich... we are in the CL semi with a threadbare squad. He is the reason this club is where it is right now. You’d be a stupid, ignorant, dim-witted fuck-monkey to suggest otherwise.
The circumstances were less than ideal, with no first or second choice striker, neither preferred CM available (to start in Sissokos case) and with an injury to one of our best CBs. 0-1 isn’t the worst. I think we know how to play them now also. I’m not giving up hope yet.
Anyway, that’s my two. And I hope you can make sense of them.
COYS