Poch knew what we were going to be up against, hence a very attacking line up (only having Winks as DM). Absolutely woeful goal to concede, I can't help but look at Lloris on this as I've seen passbacks hit with more pace, if you are going to cover your near post, which he did, then there is only one place the ball is likely to go, he just stood there, not sure I've seen a more WTF goal (flukes aside).
First 15 mins we were really, really poor, it was very easy for WBA. Thought we began to compete more after that but we were moving the ball way to slow. Biggest reason for this we actually pushed too many players too high, all with backs towards goal, meaning ball inevitably came backwards as nowhere to go. (Space was found 2nd half with Dembele, Eriksen, Kane and Son all finding space deeper, then committing oppo players carrying ball into the space in front of them, drawing out WBA (only a couple of players mind, so still tough), but this is where the space started to appear.
The second reason is our Wingbacks, yesterday was Davies worst game in a Spurs shirt, will not lay into him though as he's been nothing short of superb covering Rose and playing without any break in one of the most demanding of rolls for a year now (he was poor in the last game he played too, so hoping he's not carrying an injury or something). As for Tripps it was a woeful display from a championship level player, yes I have confirmation bias with him, I do try to praise him when he has a good game to give some balance but I think that has only happened in what 2, no more than 3 games since we singed him, he's shit. In games where the oppo put in a low block the fullbacks are so important to stretching the defence, but this requires an FB who can take on their opposing number 1v1, Davies isn't great at going on the outside but has been highly impressive going inside, this commits one of their players and if we have movement from say Son overlapping means space for Son or if defender closes Son's overlap down, it still means they have committed a defender improving the chance of space to appear, only if you move the ball quickly. I'd also back Son 1v1 against most defenders. Tripps can't do either, so the ball gets lumped into the box where there are 8 defenders and a keeper, so easy to defend against. BTW when teams sit deep, I've no problem with a cross comming into the box even if it's going to be defended easily as this shows some variety and keeps defence on their toes as difficult to know what to expect but that is all you are going to get from Tripps, he's a piece of piss to defend against.
Odd people are giving Llorente a hard time, he was very good when he came on, gave us another dimension too by allowing us to be a tad more direct, more vertical with a deeper ball played to him which he either held up and laid it off well, or on several occasions he laid the ball off with just one touch beautifully, he also put their defence under pressure causing them to scramble the ball out only as far as another Spurs player. Which leads me to the 3rd most disappointing part to out game, we didn't press there defence, there was no pressure on them to clear their lines, it was too easy. The only person that was working hard off the ball for us was Dele, Kane, Eriksen without the ball were listless, where this is something we know they excel at, why is the very make-up of our side.
Frustrating as fuck, but completely and utterly predictable. We have only beaten them twice in the last 7 games. Despite the areas I mentioned above where we could have done a lot better, we still created more than enough chances to win this game comfortably. If all they need is 2 fucking chances to score from, then why not us too?! There is only one team in the league that could have done better than against a side that is going to sit deep and that's City. Man U beat Brighton by a deflected own goal and created far less than we did today, we only needed one of our 23 shots to have been deflected and we would at least all be saying it's what we deserved out of the game. Liverpool would have lost, Woolwich would have lost or drawn (I'd go with them drawing as they are resting their entire first 11 for Europa so have a freshness and an energy to their side that i haven't seen in the past 5yrs). Chelsea are less consistent than us this season but are probably the closest to us right now.
Thought Poch was very brave with his subs too, from what was an already attacking line-up (FB's aside), his subs were high risk especially taking off Vertonghen.
Son was excellent today, need a couple more of our players to be able to go 1v1 against oppo and commit and turn them.
