Tottenham vs City - EFL Cup Final - Ref Fucks Up

[Raiders]

I don't feel like we should melt after yesterday taken as a one-off cup final. City are a financially doped squad, one of the very best in the world right now, resources well beyond our means. We lost 1-0.

We can't blame the ref IMO, those types of 'should have been a yellow' happen all of the time. Reality is although we didn't play terribly we were second best all over the pitch (as anticipated) Hugo kept us in with some fine saves. Had Hojbjerg had a bit more composure or it falls to someone else it could have been different.

Kane, Son, Bale all off days. Can't be immune from criticism yesterday IMO, even if Kane was rushed back and wasn't fit - we've seen that script before. I don't understand why Sissoko came on, but then I don't understand why he's still at the club. Poch, Jose and Mason obviously see something I don't.

Pissed off but not really at yesterday, on a bigger picture - where do we go from here? Mourinho was always going to end in tears. Levy should have had a contingency for that from Day 0, just like he did when he got rid of our greatest manager for a generation.

What was "off" about Kane?

 

[Paul Gascoigne]

Winks made 1 forward pass all game

 

[Raiders]

Zero efforts on goal?!

He has these games from time to time, all strikers do. He probably wasn't fully fit.

Looked fit and sharp to me. Not sure you can blame the zero efforts on him. Set others up who fluffed it.

 

[TonySoprano]

Winks made 1 forward pass all game

1 less than normal then..

 

[Smogz]

pretty arrogant of you, he's a qualified coach and because he didn't pick the players (that you don't know, or watch train) that you felt he should have played, he's a flawed option.

Get your letter into Levy, I'm sure you'll go on the shortlist straightaway.

Sorry if I made it look like I blame Mason for the loss. I wouldn't have played Sissoko, apart from that I'm not sure who I would play, the comment wasn't a stab at him and his selection of players in this game. It was just a thought I had. Should have put it in the Mason thread instead of this one.

 

[Mick Cooper]

Sorry if I made it look like I blame Mason for the loss. I wouldn't have played Sissoko, apart from that I'm not sure who I would play, the comment wasn't a stab at him and his selection of players in this game. It was just a thought I had. Should have put it in the Mason thread instead of this one.

Ok, my apologies then, it seemed to be a bit of an unfair dig at his naivete. His problem was the tools he had to dig with, not the size of the hole, or the location of it.

 

[Mick Cooper]

Winks made 1 forward pass all game

What did you want him to do, keep knocking it out to their defenders?
Find another horse to flog to death eh?

 

[Smogz]

Ok, my apologies then, it seemed to be a bit of an unfair dig at his naivete. His problem was the tools he had to dig with, not the size of the hole, or the location of it.

Yes I agree.

 

[Maureen]

Outplayed and outclassed by a far superior team on the day but we made so easy for them by being so passive. The mindset should be go all out for the win its a final ffs not trying to soak up the pressure and hope for a lucky break.

We thought we got our spurs back with Jose sacking? We played more Jose ball than if the cunt was in charge. I’m just so surprised that mason after 6 days tried be tactical. Why didn’t he just tell to go out and play like we did 2nd soton. On the front foot well at least try to press higher, move the ball quicker and be more aggressive generally. I guess the line up basically gave it away o how we would play. Did bake talk himself out of a starting spot when he said we should play on the front foot bacause of the players we have. Plato g winks out paid to that howeve mason put bale on in 2nd half but he is no use if we are gonna sit so deep. Doesn’t make sense bake needs to play when we are pushed up and on the front foot when he can get on the ball. Complete waste of bringing him on with sissoko. No idea what mason was trying to achieve?

 

[Maureen]

The worst thing about yesterday is that it would have been a surprise if we won.

That at no point at all did I think if we have a top day we will outplay them.

We can't dominate anyone and it really felt like David and Goliath.

The sheer inevitability of the outcome and that it would follow another poor decision from our players is nearly as painful as how far we have fallen.

Leeds would have given City an infinitely harder game.

Defo they actually beat them scoring 2 goals against them one when down to 10 men.

 

[FightingIllini]

Why do i keep reading the name sarri mentioned as potentially our new boss? Bloke just smokes loads of fags and thats about it.

Sarri's a pretty solid coach, but I'm just sick to death of Chelsea's leftovers, and I don't think he's a good fit for our squad.

 

[Hampshire Spur]

I finished 3rd in first season as tottenham manager on soccer manager app. Should I apply for the proper job?

 

[Raiders]

This is a really long-winded way of saying Winks should not have played over Ndombele.

To be fair I am sick of seeing PEH slow the game down and gesturing at everyone else to slow it down.

 

[Maureen]

Have had time to let it sink in now, I haven't read any of this forum's post since yesterday just cause it was so frustrating to watch at the time.

I don't blame Mason cause he shouldn't have been put in that position but some of his decisions yesterday were mind boggling.

1. Kane was injured. He looked slow, sluggish and you could tell he wasn't up to it.

2. Not starting Bale. He has been our best player over the course of the last 2 months with the exception of the NLD and looked great against Southampton.

3. Not starting Ndombele and even more so not bringing him on. I actually understood the call to start Winks, even if I disagreed. A midfield of GLC/Tanguy/Hoj may have struggled in that flat 4-3-3 set up BUT you could see in the first half we had nobody composed on the ball willing to get the ball off the CB's. This meant we had to overplay it in defence and were too afraid to send it long or play direct at all. Mason should have realised this and brought him on at HT because it was a miracle we weren't down by then.

4. Sitting so deep. With the exception of the start of the second half we pretty much bent over and just asked them to attack us. Can't do that to City and if it wasn't for Hugo/Toby/Eric all having great games we would have got smashed. We also should have been switching it up and going long a bit more just to mix it up and make sure they wouldn't press so high.

5. Sissoko. He should never have come on, awful decision. Made even worse to bring him on for GLC meaning we literally had zero creativity when that change was made. We looked a bit more composed by that point but that double sub killed us. We had 3 very good forwards with nobody to give them the ball. Also the Bergwijn sub was pointless cause if we scored where would we have gone from there in extra time with no RB.

Onto the players now, the mentality is so weak. We looked like we were shitting ourselves. Son with one of his worst games ever, Winks and Lucas just non-existent. Serge I actually thought played well but then a trademark stupid tackle cost us. Sissoko completely unaware of his man and at fault on the set piece. Those 4 guys are the same old culprits but they're allowed to keep making the same mistakes. And worst of all, when we concede - we showed no intensity, no desire, no effort to try and turn it around. We didn't press them and harry them to try and win the ball back and attack. Everyone was just passing the blame to somebody else rather than hunting in groups.

Agree with most of your points but hey Lucas was our only forward being courageous. Son was abysmal and should have been especially after bottling the challenge near the half way line which was 60/40 in his favour. His passing on the counter was crap as well. Kane just held onto the ball too long and basI ally let city smoother him.

 

[Maureen]

You don’t have to have tons of experience to know that the decisions he made were terrible and I wish people would stop making excuses for him. The players were shite without a doubt but you have to select your best 11 in a cup final from the off to give yourselves a chance. Get an alternative caretaker now so that we may salvage something from the season. Our remaining games are all winnable if you pick the right team and employ the right tactics and clearly Ryan can’t do this. Nice man he maybe but no room for sentiment in this game.

You can't get 18 months of Joseball out of the players heads in 7 days.
Keep Ryan in charge to the end of the season, play with freedom.
COYS

why didn’t we try that yesterday instead just sitting back and getting soanked. He had nothing to lose so go for it instead trying to be clever and tactical. Basically our maureened Maureen.

 

[Maureen]

Winks made 1 forward pass all game

Hope he doesn’t play v SU! Even though are relegated they will play pride something our lot no f all about apart from post match interviews. Anyways he’ll get bullied off the ball anyways. If he starts I’ll give up .

 

[NW1Spur]

This is a really long-winded way of saying Winks should not have played over Ndombele.

He didn't seem to want to pick out Winks in particular and just slagged the entire club of with the Spursy bullshit. Winks has always played like coward, and it is on Mason for picking him. He should be nowhere near the first team. Christ knows what Poch ever saw in him, he should long since have been shipped out. Awful player and a total coward. We should have kept Skipp and sold Winks last summer.

 

[Coops40]

Carragher's analysis tonight was pretty spot on. Played like cowards that first half especially.

Cowards? Or people short of confidence.

It‘s hard to be brave when you’re short of confidence.

 

[LLB Part Deux]

It's done on sunday league pitches all over the country. Sometimes you've got to do what you need to do to stop the oppo scoring. If we was 1-0 up and in the 90th minute they are on a breakaway and lucas smashes de bruyne to stop a 4 on 2 would you complain about it or would you say well played as it allows you to regroup get men behind the ball and see it out.

If we did it all match I'd say we were dirty bastards.

We're not talking about a one off incident (which would still be calculated cheating) we're talking about a tactic employed from the first minute.

 

[enfield1985]

Why should they be that short on confidence? they had a decent 2nd half and a win against Saints in the last game.

Don't make excuses for this shower of bottle jobs

They have a weak mentality and are serial losers.

Time we got to the root of the problem at the club and changed the culture and we can't do that while people make excuses for the poor lambs.

This is a club with the best stadium and training facilities in the league, the fans who go pay among the highest prices in the world.

The excuses need to stop

What excuses we were the worse team so we lost. Man City all well and good that Pep wears a charity hoody but he then works for and supports human rights abusers. Wasn't he the man who talked out in favor of the Qatar World Cup while he was Barcelona Manager.