Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton (28-09-19) (3pm)

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Anyone thinking we 'played badly' with 10 men - I suggest you look at historic stats for results where teams have played for more than 60 mins with a man sent off.

Probability of a win drops to pretty much zero.
 
What that shows is that a) we didn't "stay tight" b) we allowed 24 crosses into our box c) 7 came from our actual right side, inside the 18 yard line, in open play, only 2 from the other side, inside that 18 yard line in open play.

I'm not just blaming Sissoko here, but he was fuckinh lax at closing down - as ever - even the pundits picked up on it on my stream, saying he looked bewildered at times, not knowing where to be - but Eriksen's closing down wasn't good at times either, and generally as a team we just did not get "tight" or keep a tight collective shape, or closed and pressed to stop them getting into positions to put balls into the box.

Southampton were just fucking inept in the box- which is pretty much dogged them for the last 2 years, because they don't play bad football and they do create positions to create chances from in games.

I thought Sissoko did well - don’t remember him being beat and generally held a good position for a non RB. Compare him to Sanchez against Arse and you’ll see how well he did.

Where I disagree with your comments and stats is that we were pretty comfortable in open play.

They had 3 moments in the second half - the header from corner, the free kick and the cross from their right which Ings just missed.

No real danger from our right.

Allowing crosses in from the flanks - especially deep - seemed to be an acceptable situation for us as we dominated in the air. They have a short attack so any cross in we were big favourites.

Saints were pretty poor on the ball, Romeo is pretty limited so no danger there, and also they constantly had 4-5 players behind the ball despite us only having Harry in an advanced position..... they really didn’t commit enough bodies to put us under pressure.

Great effort from the boys - the perfect game to showcase fight and togetherness after the week we had.

:pochohshit:
 
Anyone thinking we 'played badly' with 10 men - I suggest you look at historic stats for results where teams have played for more than 60 mins with a man sent off.

Probability of a win drops to pretty much zero.
...but don't forget we gifted them the ball for the entire game, not just after Aurier had been given his marching orders. Overall we worked very hard, but our passing left a lot to be desired, making a difficult game even more of a challenge.
 
I thought Sissoko did well - don’t remember him being beat and generally held a good position for a non RB. Compare him to Sanchez against Arse and you’ll see how well he did.

Where I disagree with your comments and stats is that we were pretty comfortable in open play.

They had 3 moments in the second half - the header from corner, the free kick and the cross from their right which Ings just missed.

No real danger from our right.

Allowing crosses in from the flanks - especially deep - seemed to be an acceptable situation for us as we dominated in the air. They have a short attack so any cross in we were big favourites.

Saints were pretty poor on the ball, Romeo is pretty limited so no danger there, and also they constantly had 4-5 players behind the ball despite us only having Harry in an advanced position..... they really didn’t commit enough bodies to put us under pressure.

Great effort from the boys - the perfect game to showcase fight and togetherness after the week we had.

:pochohshit:
Yes - Sissoko had a good game. He really stepped up to the plate after Aurier's dismissal.
 
...but don't forget we gifted them the ball for the entire game, not just after Aurier had been given his marching orders. Overall we worked very hard, but our passing left a lot to be desired, making a difficult game even more of a challenge.


Southampton are right up there in the chart of 'winning ball back in opposition half' - no surprise that their main tactical focus worked well against us when it does against everyone else as well.
 
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Here's the heat map:

ampi9WI.png
Looks more like Will'o the Wisp to me!
Anyone thinking we 'played badly' with 10 men - I suggest you look at historic stats for results where teams have played for more than 60 mins with a man sent off.

Probability of a win drops to pretty much zero.
Especially when you consider it was 10v12 for the last hour!!!!
 
What that shows is that a) we didn't "stay tight" b) we allowed 24 crosses into our box c) 7 came from our actual right side, inside the 18 yard line, in open play, only 2 from the other side, inside that 18 yard line in open play.

I'm not just blaming Sissoko here, but he was fuckinh lax at closing down - as ever - even the pundits picked up on it on my stream, saying he looked bewildered at times, not knowing where to be - but Eriksen's closing down wasn't good at times either, and generally as a team we just did not get "tight" or keep a tight collective shape, or closed and pressed to stop them getting into positions to put balls into the box.

Southampton were just fucking inept in the box- which is pretty much dogged them for the last 2 years, because they don't play bad football and they do create positions to create chances from in games.

I don’t often agree with Blakey but this is right

It’s not necessarily Sissokos fault as others doing it too we have to get tighter to opposition players in and around our box, they get 2/3 touches when we barely get one in similar areas

We were lucky Southampton had no idea what to do in dangerous areas second half especially
 
We weren’t getting fucking battered.

They had the ball but were pretty useless with it. They didn’t commit enough bodies forward. It was a far less nerve wracking second half than I expected.

The boys marshalled it through very well.

Sissoko played well at RB. Ndombele looked good. Jan and Toby looked assured. Winks put in a shift. Lamela was a good choice to come on at 60mins, he did well.

After a rubbish week, having to dig 3pts out was probably the best medicine we could have had (thanks Serge....)

:lamelaaghh:
Wasnt getting battered ? Jesus Christ,did you actually watch the second half ?
 
What that shows is that a) we didn't "stay tight" b) we allowed 24 crosses into our box c) 7 came from our actual right side, inside the 18 yard line, in open play, only 2 from the other side, inside that 18 yard line in open play.

I'm not just blaming Sissoko here, but he was fuckinh lax at closing down - as ever - even the pundits picked up on it on my stream, saying he looked bewildered at times, not knowing where to be - but Eriksen's closing down wasn't good at times either, and generally as a team we just did not get "tight" or keep a tight collective shape, or closed and pressed to stop them getting into positions to put balls into the box.

Southampton were just fucking inept in the box- which is pretty much dogged them for the last 2 years, because they don't play bad football and they do create positions to create chances from in games.
By "staying tight" I meant in the 18 yard box, it's impossible to stay tight to everyone with only 10 men.

The point I was making was, if any team attacks more down one side they will inevitably get more crosses from that side in.

For example

Attacks............................Crosses into box.......................% of def. success in stopping attack
Down Left 20...........................10...........................................................50%
Down Right 10..........................8............................................................20%

So although more crosses came in from the left, the defenders were more succesfull in stopping attacks down that side.

Lies, damned lies and statistics.
 
I thought Sissoko did well - don’t remember him being beat and generally held a good position for a non RB. Compare him to Sanchez against Arse and you’ll see how well he did.

Where I disagree with your comments and stats is that we were pretty comfortable in open play.

They had 3 moments in the second half - the header from corner, the free kick and the cross from their right which Ings just missed.

No real danger from our right.

Allowing crosses in from the flanks - especially deep - seemed to be an acceptable situation for us as we dominated in the air. They have a short attack so any cross in we were big favourites.

Saints were pretty poor on the ball, Romeo is pretty limited so no danger there, and also they constantly had 4-5 players behind the ball despite us only having Harry in an advanced position..... they really didn’t commit enough bodies to put us under pressure.

Great effort from the boys - the perfect game to showcase fight and togetherness after the week we had.

:pochohshit:

There was virtually no difference between the arse and Southampton games, Arse put 25 crosses in, Southampton 24 - just that against Arse more were from our left than right, against soton much more came in from our right in open play. And Arse have better quality attackers.

We’ve conceded goals from crosses - or balls into our box - in many of our games this season, ManC, Woolwich, Newcastle, Leicester, we lost to Southampton last season from one, why would it ever be an acceptable tactic to allow them?

You don’t have to be big, it’s not always about the first contact, it’s about the second and third actions when you continually allow balls into your box - that’s how we scored yesterday. We didn’t win the first header, but Eriksen’s cross found its way to Son and then Ndombele.

Once you allow the ball into your box you are asking for mayhem. It’s never a good policy, much better to prevent it getting that far.


An awful lot of those crosses were poor thanks to Sissoko. He made the angles difficult.

Utter rubbish.

Yeah, they kept on cutting in to cross - which looks dangerous, but normally either goes through to the keeper or out of play.

We’ve conceded goals to ManC, Newcastle, Woolwich, Leicester from players crossing, crossing from deep or cutting in.

We were lucky yesterday that Southampton lack much attacking prowess, and have for a while. Other teams have continually punished us this season, and much of last.
 
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3 points at the end of a shitty week.
Started well,and thought this is it. We gonna smash em. The goal was class. Then Hugo messed up(if he hadn't done that ,he would been one of my choice of 3for MOTM) couple that with the sending off and I was thinking here we go again. We reacted well and Harry'goal was typically Harry.
Rode our luck in places but I thought we are a few fine tunings away from being superb, especially the first half.
This was the best view I have had in the new place. Left hand corner of the park lane ,almost in the west stand. Superb seat.
 
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We were lucky yesterday that Southampton lack much attacking prowess, and have for a while. Other teams have continually punished us this season, and much of last.

You are so right, we were extremely lucky yesterday because:
_ We scored while 10 v 11
_ Our defending was calamity
_ Hugo did not save anything
_ All their shots on target were goals scored
 
You are so right, we were extremely lucky yesterday because:
_ We scored while 10 v 11
_ Our defending was calamity
_ Hugo did not save anything
_ All their shots on target were goals scored

Hugo made 2 excellent saves in the 2nd half to stop certain goals. Excellent shot stopping, just didn't understand how such an experienced GK could have made such an amateur series of mistakes leading to their goal.
 
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