Midfield Wanted, apply within.
There seemed to be this narrative in the match thread that everything is Trippier's fault. Lets get this fucking clear. What he did, trying to nutmeg their guy in the corner, was really fucking stupid, deserves criticism, but there was still very little danger. Foyth gives away a very stupid and clumsy penalty. He then compounds this by giving away another very clumsy penalty, again, when there was almost zero threat to our goal. But apparently that's OK, apart from two stupid fouls that cost us two goals, he was great. Apart from a stupid nutmeg, Trippier was actually OK, not perfect, not faultless, but OK, set up a goal with a lovely ball, played a part in build up to the other goal, defended well first half, second most tackles (5), but when we were a fucking shambles as a team, was, like all the defenders being exposed by the players ahead of them, ropier. Davies also had some really iffy moments and was lucky not to get punished when they had a good goal chalked off for offside.
But here is the thing. Defending doesn't start with your back four. And what's been going on in front of them is fucking shambolic. Piss fucking poor when we don't have the ball. And this isn't just about the World fucking Cup, Injuries or New White Hart Lane. It's about coaching, tactics and selections of Pochettino.
If we are going to give him credit for the good stuff he does, and we have, then it's only fair to criticise the less than good stuff. To recap, because I haven't done it much lately (since being on here more) I think he's the best coach in my life time, I think he's turned us into the best version of us that I have seen. Given me some of my favourite performances of my time watching us, the first manager to really make us a complete team, a team that can not only play good football, but be good without the football, do the shitty stuff, compete, earn the right to play as well as play.
The defence wasn't the root of the problem today, even if we could improve on any of them. The midfield was, or to put it another way, the vacant vortex that Poch created there was. I mean, what the fuck was he thinking leaving Winks and Sissoko there on their own. These two managed zero tackles and zero interceptions in 90 minutes between them. Sissoko completed 28 fucking passes in 90 minutes (Winks 49). I am struggling to remember the last time a CM of ours managed to so fucking much nothing as what Sissoko did in this game.
But the thing is, Sissoko has rarely ever played as a CM in a CM2, he did it a handful of times in the early days at Toulouse before Casanova (his manager) quickly realised it wasn't a good idea, and mostly used him as an AM battering ram in forward areas in a 4141 diamond. At Newcastle and France he's mostly been used as wide right AM/WF in 433's or 4231's, very occasionally RM in a CM3. It's just piss poor game management putting him in that position, his pressing is lax, doesn't read the game intelligently, his movement off the ball lacks intelligence, his passing is perfunctory at best. Then to pair him with another player who's weakness is also what he does without the ball, having already given our forwards permission to not press the ball any more, was just a clusterfuck recipe for the performances and pressure we are continually putting ourselves under almost every game this season.
I don't blame Sissoko for being a shit CM in a CM2, I blame the coach that is putting him in that role. I don't understand why he put Skipp on that bench, if when a CM gets injured, you don't reach for him, but another flakey mercurial forward. And then second half when it was clear wee were getting over run and outplayed, still leave the busy tenacious little fucker sitting down. Eriksen came on but isn't exactly the type to start flying into tackles and winning duels, snuffing out danger, and didn't get told to play CM in a 3, but just played predominantly as an AM, barely influenced anything, because we barely had the ball second half. A 60/40 possession first half had virtually evened out to a 52/48 game. Their x/g was 2.67 ours was 1.39. We are getting points, but we are getting them the Tim "best PPG" Sherwood way. It's lottery football, and that is not what we love Poch for, any fucker can do that.
Not only weren't we winning the ball high up, but we were incapable of winning it in midfield too, because we were outnumbered and had the two worst midfielders we have without the ball playing there. If you allow this much pressure on a defence, it will buckle.
I get that we won. Injuries, WC, Pre season...all factors. But Poch is still making some very poor and counter intuitive decisions. Personnel. In game. Coaching. Why do we not press the ball any more cohesively as a unit. Trippier and Davies aren't the greatest defenders, so why actively expose this. Protect them.
I'm sure some will say the change Pich made, abandoning his planned structure, contributed to us scoring, but there's no doubt it contributed to us conceding goals and chances too. An errant linesman's flag is all the separated us from not winning, and that's been a recurring theme of this season.
I just hope that this is a hiatus, a blip, a hiccup, because in the same way that I can understand people not always enjoying the way we clocked up points under AVB, I struggle to suck the enjoyment out of of clocking up lottery points.
I don't give a shit about trophies, I really don't, I don't care if Poch ever wins a tin pot. I will back him to the hilt if I believe in what I am seeing. A team that looks like a team, clear coached ethics, not like a Harry Redknapp, good as gets lottery ticket.
Individual
Lloris - Good game.
Trippier - Really fucking stupid mistake. Very good first half, including excellent ball for Moura's goal, ropey second when we were under pressure throughout. Probably his worst week in a spurs shirt.
Foyth - Whatever else was going on, the penalties were his mistakes, both of them clumsy poor defending. Apart from that he was generally OK, but like Trippier, was found a bit wanting under real concerted pressure.
Alderweireld - Decent enough for the most part.
Davies - Pretty poor throughout, and unlike Trippier, isn't even offering much in forward areas either.
Sissoko - Piss poor. 0 Tackles, 0 Interceptions, 0 key passes, one cross that nearly cleared the stadium, 28 completed passes out of 41. But he shouldn't be playing as a CM2 at this level.
Winks - Did see a bit more of the ball, as you'd expect, but was defensively poor. Again, not a single tackle or interception. But again, the blame lies with Poch for putting him into this situation.
Lamela/Moura - both of these were pressing at times, but it's no good if we don't do it cohesively as a unit, Again, not always their fault, this is about coaching and drilling. Lamela was probably our best forward player, scored one, set one up and is generally looking like he's capable of contributing something tangible, which you can't say consistently for the others.
Son - Flickering moments of good, a lot of fucking meh though.
Kane - Was pretty fucking meh for the most part. Didn't always hold it up well enough, didn't always press well, was greedy once or twice, but scored the obligatory goal.
Just checked, your West Ham away ratings write up was 27 lines long, with one line given to Sanchez were you literally said he was excellent, he was MOTM, no reasoning, no explanation as to why just he was great, onto the next one.
This Wolves write up you focused on the majority of negative again and was able to muster a 117 line write up. Not being funny mate but 90 lines more when you're digging them out compared to when there's not a huge amount to shrug about is a fair old whack for someone who supports the club. I think you're missing a trick when it comes to certain pleasures that you're entitled to as a fan of a team like Spurs.
All in all as insightful as ever but dish out the good if you are willing to fork out the bad. We're 3 points off top with over a quarter of a season of not getting out of 2nd gear done pal, let's enjoy it and see where it takes us because ultimately it's all out of our control as fans. It could still turn out to be a very interesting season yet