Tottenham Hotspur v Ajax, Champions League Semi-Final, Tue 30th April

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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)
My dipper supporting 7 a side WhatsApp group along with a few nomads and cockney freeloaders were being slightly cuntish and that shit only got worse after the goal so i cut off the group. Small victories, also it saves my phone going wild during the other semi final
 
But we wouldn't have brought on two FB's had Son been available. We would have probably been brining Lorrente on.

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.
Defiantly fresh legs for sure, but you get what I mean, we are bringing on fresh legs at fullback whilst trying to chase the game, there wasn’t another single attacking option to be had....
 
That was amazing. Barcelona-esque

I don't know why teams don't realise that this is the kind of thing you need to try against a deep defensive line. Attackers are smarter than defenders, hence why they play innattack and defenders choose to defend. These kind of drills should always be worked on but clubs have got lazy. A young Ajax team truly showing up European giants with genuine team togetherness and work based on their teammates strengths. This is real football, unfortunately it's been lost somewhere along the way.

Excellent full back play, intelligent movement and teammates knowing exactly what's going on to as it's worked on to gazump an unknowing and static defence. Superb stuff, even if it was against us.
 
I doubt Poch or Levy suspected we’d be this close to the CL final and looking back in regret not having invested in at least a pair of players. Crazy looking back.
 
We can still do it in Amsterdam. This Ajax team is no Barca or man city and are beatable. 1-0 loss is very tight and any score win and we are thru. We have Son back.
But our bench is v poor. Bringing on Davies and Foyth for Rose and Trippier says it all. That’s because Dembele was never replaced and tight Levy didn’t spend a penny in two transfer windows.
 
No creativity, no width. We cannot continue to take the ball forward and have zero quality to put the ball into the box. I really do wonder what they work on at the training ground. None of our squad can hit a dead ball and our attack doesn't seem to have a strategy.

With a concussion of that magnitude Jan will be banned from training for a minimum of 1 week - he will not play in the next fixture.
 
We can still do it in Amsterdam. This Ajax team is no Barca or man city and are beatable. 1-0 loss is very tight and any score win and we are thru. We have Son back.
But our bench is v poor. Bringing on Davies and Foyth for Rose and Trippier says it all. That’s because Dembele was never replaced and tight Levy didn’t spend a penny in two transfer windows.

They play a cup final two days before we play them & from what I can tell there's extra time if it's tied after 90 minutes.

They seemed very dangerous when they presssed but couldn't sustain it for 90 minutes against us. Let's see how energetic they are after a cup final 2 days before they play us whilst we get an extra 28 hours or so rest.

We get the first goal, we are favourites in my opinion.
 
I don't know why teams don't realise that this is the kind of thing you need to try against a deep defensive line. Attackers are smarter than defenders, hence why they play innattack and defenders choose to defend. These kind of drills should always be worked on but clubs have got lazy. A young Ajax team truly showing up European giants with genuine team togetherness and work based on their teammates strengths. This is real football, unfortunately it's been lost somewhere along the way.

Excellent full back play, intelligent movement and teammates knowing exactly what's going on to as it's worked on to gazump an unknowing and static defence. Superb stuff, even if it was against us.

Gave me a Dutch Woodrow
 
Gave me a Dutch Woodrow

Lovely stuff wasn't it. The thing I liked most about it was the chance was made by the player who never even touched the ball before getting it back for his shot. It's stuff like this, real football stuff that makes statistics in a game that is dictated with flair and panache obsolete. The stats will say Tadic with an assist if it goes in, but we all know it was the dummy from Van De Beek that made it happen.

No need for stats when you can rely on your eyes.
 
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Tough night, Poch made a mistake (and was big enough to admit it) with the line up, can see why he wanted to keep it tight but the personnel available just couldn't do it ... a non match fit Wanyama was left 2v1 and even 3v1 for the first 20 minutes ... not surprising his numbers were so bad. The injury to Vert not only changed the system, but it also seemed to fire up the team ...

The longer the game went the better we looked, and that must be encouraging.

Let's be honest they should have killed the tie in the first thirty minutes, they didn't and we're still very much in with a shout ...

Not good but it's not all over yet .... we get more rest and with luck will have a few players back fit for the second leg ... COYS
 
This squad has never been very good at dealing with the fast press. We have been caught out several times by teams applying this method. As others have mentioned, this pace cannot be achieved for longer than 20-30 minutes and we need to learn how to counter teams that apply this.

The simple solution is using width. Ajax commit 3 players to close down and attack the ball. If we can switch the ball across the pitch they will not be able to send 3 people into every tackle to win the ball back without giving up space - and with space in front of them Son and Moura will be very dangerous.

We had the opportunity with several set pieces today that were wasted by our inability to hit a dead ball into space. If we are to get through the 2nd left we have to be ruthless with the chances we get.
 
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