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OMT: Mighty Spurs vs Manureskjaer

Man of the match


  • Total voters
    36
  • Poll closed .
Heard a rumour he had an "altercation" shall we say with his mrs. Might be a load of crap but a few mates of mine who were at the game today told me.

Perversely, i actually hope this is true...because Poch's consistent use of Tripier against so well set-up to exploit him and his weaknesses is baffling..this at least makes us question Poch's tactics alot less:)
 
The injury situation (or at least its effects o us) were entirely predictable sadly and self-inflicted when we had the transfer window we had.
there is only so much you can flog the same players and try and stay in 4 competitions

But if we buy more players they can’t go in the squad...

The transfer window has no bearing on the injuries we get
 
But if we buy more players they can’t go in the squad...

The transfer window has no bearing on the injuries we get

I'm about the summer window. It has been clear since last April that we needed extra bodies in central midfield as Dembele and Wanyama had come to the end of the line for different reasons. Plus Winks was already someone coming back from a long-term injury as well as an understudy anyway relatively.
So players like Winks and Sissoko have been overplayed as it is.
Poch has worked miracles to keep us where we are despite our squad's CM holes, but i fear eventually it will bite us on the behind...
 
They have, mate - I've never argued that they haven't. But they did it with the club's own money - they redirected it in a semi-competent fashion into infrastructure over the team.

I've made the comparison before, but they're basically following the Arsenal model, without the actual league titles, trophies or success that comes with it. And don't get me wrong, that's competent stuff, but it's just nothing that couldn't have been done by someone who also actually cared about keeping our good teams together, and spending a bit to do it.

And let's be honest - without Poch, would that last bit be valid? Poch himself even admitted that ENIC's plan for him was to stay somewhere in the top six until the new stadium, and then get top four in the season *after* the move.

Poch is the man who revolutionized everything, far surpassing even what ENIC expected from him. The problem now is that this has put our owners in the inconvenient situation where they would actually have to invest to maintain that progress to the satisfaction of the manager and the players, who all want to win things.

And, as we've seen, ENIC has failed on that count, and keeps failing with every passing day. The team needed investment in the summer, needs it more now, and will need it even more next summer - but I expect absolutely nothing from them, because they're more comfortable with the Sahas and Nelsens of the world.

They're not bad owners. But they're not particularly beneficial anymore, either - they're just competent, risk-averse administrators.



I definitely haven't forgotten - even if I'm a bit nostalgic about those years, because every goal meant more and the days were just a lot more expectation-free in general :) . But I also think Spurs fans were very traumatized by the Sugar years and the atrocious 90's - to the point where competence looks like genius, because it's better than what we had before. Anything would be better, after all - and a solid job suddenly looks inspirational and against all odds.

What ENIC have done is a solid, reasonably competent job. But we can do better. And we should be striving to find better, because they've hit their glass ceiling.

That this is such a controversial opinion that generates such rage on the board (not you by any means, but more broadly) always amuses me. :D

Someone better would need to throw In Excess of a billion ££££ at the club.

That’s before investing in players

We will shortly have a stadium worth about £800m and we have playing squad worth somewhere in the region of £500m upwards
And a training ground worth £100m upwards
And other assets
Anyone contemplating buying spurs would need more money than any club has ever gone for and we have t win a trophy in a decade...

Whether people like it or not ENIC aren’t selling up unless someone has mega pockets full of cash to buy they out and pay off the debt

And before people say we’re in debt currently so someone buying can keep that debt running, of course they could. But would ENIC sell to someone else to just have debt? I doubt it
 
I'm about the summer window. It has been clear since last April that we needed extra bodies in central midfield as Dembele and Wanyama had come to the end of the line for different reasons. Plus Winks was already someone coming back from a long-term injury as well as an understudy anyway relatively.
So players like Winks and Sissoko have been overplayed as it is.
Poch has worked miracles to keep us where we are despite our squad's CM holes, but i fear eventually it will bite us on the behind...

Don’t but that at all.

Both Wanyama and Dembele have played this season. Issue is they got injured again
You can’t have players and assume they will get injured constantly as that doesn’t happen in 99.9% of players unless it’s a rehabilitating injury
We didn’t lose today because if CM, we lost because our disarms couldn’t finish
And two of the wonderful CMs everyone thought we should have brought went to Chelsea... and look bang average IMO at a cost of £50m each
Don’t forget Dier as missing due to an appendicitis... when did you ,ast near of a player having one of those FFS.i
 
Don’t but that at all.

Both Wanyama and Dembele have played this season. Issue is they got injured again
You can’t have players and assume they will get injured constantly as that doesn’t happen in 99.9% of players unless it’s a rehabilitating injury
We didn’t lose today because if CM, we lost because our disarms couldn’t finish
And two of the wonderful CMs everyone thought we should have bought went to Chelsea... and look bang average IMO at a cost of £50m each
Don’t forget Dier as missing due to an appendicitis... when did you ,ast near of a player having one of those FFS.i

It was clear as i say from last spring that Dembele and Wanyama were on their last legs. We needed to be proactive to keep our level (or even push up further) and make sure what has been one of our strengths (a wall of 'meat' in the cm area protecting the back four and given our full-backs more security to attack) did not become our weakness as has done this year.

Have Wanyama or Dembele when played looked anywhere near as good as they had done in 2016/17 (or even some of last year)?
And re Dier he is a miss true but even he has his limitations, which i feel other PL teams have now sussed and started exploiting a bit more.

Re Today, i agree it was our poor finishing, but they still mustered 8 shots to our 11. If we have a better cm, i think we don't give them as many opportunities.
 
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It was clear as i say from last spring that Dembele and Wanyama were on their last legs. We needed to be proactive to keep our level (or even push up further) and make sure what has been one of our strengths (a wall of 'meat' in the cm area protecting the back four and given our full-backs more security to attack) did not become our weakness as has done this year.

Have Wanyama or Dembele when played looked anywhere near as good as they had done in 2016/17 (or even some of last year)?
And re Dier he is a miss true but even he has his limitations, which i feel other PL teams have now sussed and started exploiting a bit more.

Re Today, i agree it was our poor finishing, but they still mustered 8 shots to our 11. If we have a better cm, i think we don't give them as many opportunities.

We had over 20 shots I believe

I thought Wanyama would be back fit and fine, and clearly I’m wrong

Moussa is know older so I so I get that one

Whoever we have they would be exposed with full backs like today who are not quick enough for the game we play to cover for themselves.

And Dier is far far better than people make out. I’ve said it too many times, but he does all the basics very well and cover space better than most. Sissoko is the opposite in that he chases players and does that really well (and has been excellent). I honestly think from what I’ve seen if Dier with Winks in the 3 games they have played together including England Spain, there is a proper pairing there
 
Well just back home from Wembley Stadium (via BoxPark) and still in shock at how:
we didn’t score a goal in that 2nd half :confused:
Dean didn’t book a ManUre player until Pogba went knee high on Dele and then still had to boot the ball into the stands for a card to be produced :rolleyes:
de Gea got away with so much Stoke City level time wasting without even a ticking off o_O
Trippier once again making a costly error against a Top 6 side :eek:

Fecking getting plenty of abuse from all the plastic Mancs this evening who have shown about as much interest in football in recent years as the tourists at Wembley over Christmas!

Just watched the highlights on Match of the Day and the majority of our shots weren’t placed well enough that de Gea (or any decent goalie) wouldn’t have expected to save them; just as it appeared at the time. Also interesting analysis by Jenas at how Lloris was stood too far in front of his near post, compared to de Gea vs Kane, which gave Rashford the big target to aim for across the goal.
 
We had over 20 shots I believe

I thought Wanyama would be back fit and fine, and clearly I’m wrong

Moussa is know older so I so I get that one

Whoever we have they would be exposed with full backs like today who are not quick enough for the game we play to cover for themselves.

And Dier is far far better than people make out. I’ve said it too many times, but he does all the basics very well and cover space better than most. Sissoko is the opposite in that he chases players and does that really well (and has been excellent). I honestly think from what I’ve seen if Dier with Winks in the 3 games they have played together including England Spain, there is a proper pairing there

I certainly agree we are missing Dier and he could form a good partnership with Winks. Not sure they would have the physically/pace control and protect as well as the Dembele-Wanyama partnership when they weren't crocked, though they would probably make better passes forward. Dier is a miss, but he would be as susceptible to pressing teams are most of our other cms.
It's about being a squad that have multiple options for multiple situations in cm. We are a team built of having good cm play that can dominate the ebb and flow of the game and part of that needs physicality and the ability to win the ball back and protect it once it's won.
We had that in spades wih the Dembele-Wanyama partnership and it's not really being replaced in their absence (though Poch is trying his best to mitigate against it from a tactical point of view).

BTW we had 21 shots, 11 on target. They had 13 and 8 on target which is kind of worrying but not unsurprising
 
We had over 20 shots I believe

I thought Wanyama would be back fit and fine, and clearly I’m wrong

Moussa is know older so I so I get that one

Whoever we have they would be exposed with full backs like today who are not quick enough for the game we play to cover for themselves.

And Dier is far far better than people make out. I’ve said it too many times, but he does all the basics very well and cover space better than most. Sissoko is the opposite in that he chases players and does that really well (and has been excellent). I honestly think from what I’ve seen if Dier with Winks in the 3 games they have played together including England Spain, there is a proper pairing there

Dembele looked past it even last season, most people would agree.

I love Wanyama but the poor guy hasn't been able to get back to consistent fitness for well over a year and even when he has played he looks a shadow of the player in the 2016/17 season when he and Dembele bossed it.

That's fine that you rate Dier highly but many others don't. He's a very effective destroyer and offers great versatility. His passing is rather limited and thinks he is better than he is like Lloris does and gives the ball away in dangerous positions.

We have world class/borderline world class players in almost every other position (certainly in the spine of the team) with the exception of right back and CM. The players we have in both positions aren't even close to being world class. Even with a fit a healthy Winks, Dier, Wanyama, Sissoko and Skipp, CM is the key position that we need to upgrade on this window or in the summer but I'm skeptical that we will sign anyone in either window.
 
Every man and his dog can surely see that he is only any good with a back 3 to cover his arse all game, he cannot play in a 4 unless Sissoko is there to hold his hand. How many times in the 2nd half was Eriksen getting the ball, looking up and Trippier is miles behind the play, coz he stays back due to not having the cover anymore. He is too limited physically to play as a right-back in a back 4 for a team like us.

This!

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