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Match Tottenham Hotspur VS Ipswich. Sunday the 10th of November @2pm.
- Thread starter FOK
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Or the money spent
Perhaps. But who do you drop to enable that? Kulu has been our best player this season, and Sarr has done well most times he's played...
Sorry but that's too naive / simplistic, it ignores the way we play, which theretically is to create lots of chances, knowing that by playing that way we will also concede lots of chances, so goals both for and against should be relatively high. If you play such high risk / high reward football, you need to score a lot of goals, because you will sure as hell concede lots. So for me, it's not just "defence or Ange" at all - there have been many games where if the attackers had done their jobs properly, we'd have easily won. In fact, our number of 'goals conceded' isn't that bad given the style of football that we play (and it grates on me that we've still not lost a game by more than a goal*) - our attackers need to produce more as well.
By the way I'm not saying that the defence is great or blameless at all - just that both attack and defence (and midfield of course - the whole team, managed of course by Ange) have big elements of responsibility for our losses this season.
* when did you ever see a premier league where the team in 10th place has the 2nd best goal difference? Crazily unlucky that so many good chances have gone in during matches when we didn't need them, and not a single one of them has gone in during a match when we did need them...
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Thing is even if playing well the following games normally end in defeat for us: chavs x 2, dippers, goons away, citeh away so that is already another 5 loses on the table without counting our ability to lose to teams like Fulham.
I’d say in a lot of games kulu has gone missing. Sarr has done well. You play him in a three with Biss and bent. Play either MADDs or kulu behind front two of son and solanki. Tell FBs to stay wide and not invert.
£65M? Some thought he was the missing link.
Look he has done well with his work rate which cannot be faulted but he offers no real threat to defenders in the box consistently. Ange wanted him although we waited till last week before season started to get him fuck knows why! Still think we could have unearthed a better player for that money. Same as money spent on Johnson and Richi both over paid for the quality they provide.
I think you're in the minority there mate. I mean all of our players have had poor games here and there, but the majority of fans, pundits and journalists think Kulu has been our best player so far this season.
But that aside, what you describe above is a complete change of formation. I'm not necessarily against it - at least it gets Johnson out of the side, as for me despite his goals he has been our poorest player most games, and simply doesn't seem either bothered or particularly bright, certainly not intelligent enough to play our brand of football. So yeah, I'd be up for that if Ange could and would play it...
Yes but most teams don’t have both their FBs pushed right up forward so they can’t be reached by an out ball from CBs. I’m sure dippers CBs always have someone to their left or right to pass to. Look at our play when either CB has the ball what are their options? It’s normally either son or Johnson on the halfway line facing OUR goal.
* when did you ever see a premier league where the team in 10th place has the 2nd best goal difference? Crazily unlucky that so many good chances have gone in during matches when we didn't need them, and not a single one of them has gone in during a match when we did need them...
Yeah that’s absolutely nothing to do with luck, scoring goals in pressure situations is much harder than it is when you’re 2 or 3 to the good in a game.
The defence also sucks when pressured. We don’t concede many but we do always concede and concede hilariously bad goals when it matters.
I also think that if any team was really to click against us (like Liverpool last season) they easily put 4/5 past us. We’ve been fortunate with opposition.
Goal difference is such a terrible indicator of quality. If you score 6 vs some shithouse side and 0 vs a decent one, it doesn’t make you good. It just means you’re a bunch of flat track bullies who can’t deal with competence.
Think he missed some good chances v Leicester including a one on one. Also v manure but think we’d won the game by then…
Well, I respect your opnion, but I totally disagree with most of it.
I wouldn't call Palace away or Ipswich at home 'pressure situations', especially in the first half or early in the second. We played much the same in the 2nd half against Ipswich as we did against Villa and West Ham - on those days we scored 4 each, against Ipswich we only scored one. That could very easily have been spread around differently, and (in my opinion) is more about luck than anything else. (How on earth could Palace and Ipswich be considered 'pressure situations' when we were in similar positions against Villa and West Ham?)
I won't talk about defence, as the bit of my post you've quoted wasn't about defence, it was about us scoing goals 'at the wrong time'.
Yes perhaps someone who clicks against us will batter us, and we have had easier fixtures than average, I do accept that.
Goal difference isn't that terrible as a measure - if you look at last year's final league table, of course there are some anomalies (as you would expect in any data set of that size), but the team that finished 1st had the best goal difference, the team that finished last had the worst, and if you plotted a graph of everything in between, it would indicate that there is some correlation between league position and goal difference, particularly at the extreme ends of GD. I mentioned that we currently have the second best GD - last year, the team with the second best GD did indeed finish second - so history and facts suggest that's it's not that bad of an indicator...
I think this is common for us, though, certainly in recent years. We often throttle teams when we're doing well, and rarely do we get thumped. But we're terrible in 1 goal matches.* when did you ever see a premier league where the team in 10th place has the 2nd best goal difference? Crazily unlucky that so many good chances have gone in during matches when we didn't need them, and not a single one of them has gone in during a match when we did need them...
But remember the pundits and journos jizzing themselves over Ange last season so wouldn’t go much by them…I think you're in the minority there mate. I mean all of our players have had poor games here and there, but the majority of fans, pundits and journalists think Kulu has been our best player so far this season.
But that aside, what you describe above is a complete change of formation. I'm not necessarily against it - at least it gets Johnson out of the side, as for me despite his goals he has been our poorest player most games, and simply doesn't seem either bothered or particularly bright, certainly not intelligent enough to play our brand of football. So yeah, I'd be up for that if Ange could and would play it...
Yeah but you’re wrong and I’m not.
Yeah of course they are lol. Any situation in the prem where the game is in the balance is a high pressure situation. How can you look at us scoring 1 goal in those 2 but magically scoring 4 against Everton and not see that this team struggles when faced with any resistance is beyond me. If a team stays firm we buckle. We score lots when sides lose their shape and we can then score a few in a short period.
As
MemphisWill
says we are good at scoring lots when a game is free flowing and the other team have heads down. We suck hard when they are offering resistance. This isn’t bad luck and it’s hilarious to pretend it is. Peak TFC delusions. Oh no it absolutely sucks as an indicator for us, because we’ve had piss easy fixtures and half the time struggle to score many at all. But yeah we absolutely battered Everton at home and scored a bunch when Villa fell apart so waaa we should be higher! Not how football works and not relevant.
But anyway, can’t wait to end up 2nd when it all evens out. Let’s all dance in a circle and cry about how unfortunate we are. Good god.
Not even worth reading the response of anyone ignorant enough to start a post like that. God forbid people can have different but equally valid opinions on a topic. You do realise you will never learn anything in life if you make no effort to understand other people's thinking? It's not about black and white "right" and "wrong", it's about different opinions. But sadly some are incapable of recognising that anyone other than themselves can hold valid opinions.
Not even worth reading the response of anyone ignorant enough to start a post like that. God forbid people can have different but equally valid opinions on a topic. You do realise you will never learn anything in life if you make no effort to understand other people's thinking?
I don’t feel the need to understand the thinking behind ‘oh we are just so unlucky waaa’ to be perfectly honest.
If we are unlucky then I expect to see the bad luck right itself in due time. If it doesn’t I’m sure you’ll admit chatting shit. Or not.
I always admit when I'm wrong, I actually take great pleasure in doing so, it's a weird autistic trait I think.
I didn't say "waaa" or anything akin to it - I was just expressing my opinion that one of those Villa goals could easily have gone in against Ipswich instead with very little else in the circumstances needing to change - the 2nd half performances weren't that different after all. I was then pointing out that history / facts support my argument that goal difference actually is (and can very easily be shown to be) a very good indicator of league position, especially at its extreme ends. I did however fully accept your counter argument about easy fixtures and the negative impact that point had on my argument - because I am capable of developing my opinions based on points put forward by other people.
I always admit when I'm wrong, I actually take great pleasure in doing so, it's a weird autistic trait I think.
I didn't say "waaa" or anything akin to it - I was just expressing my opinion that one of those Villa goals could easily have gone in against Ipswich instead with very little else in the circumstances needing to change - the 2nd half performances weren't that different after all. I was then pointing out that history / facts support my argument that goal difference actually is (and can very easily be shown to be) a very good indicator of league position, especially at its extreme ends. I did however fully accept your counter argument about easy fixtures and the negative impact that point had on my argument - because I am capable of developing my opinions based on points put forward by other people.
We barely had more xG than Ipswich. Like 0.06 more. At best we deserved a point out of the match. We did not create that many clear cut opportunities. We regularly don’t in games we struggle in.
This team isn’t consistent. So we shouldn’t be surprised when they struggle to finish one game after being good the last. This has been the case far too long to view it as unlucky.
The only pressure from those games was not losing to teams that havent won this season.