***OMT*** Spurs vs Southampton

[Gazzasrightboot]

Dembele is fast becoming one of my favourite players now. I never bought into the fact that he was a waste of space, but at the same time I never had him as one of the first players on the team sheet. I thought he was excellent and dealt with Wanyama as well as anyone has this season. I really would like him to sign a new contract! Lamela also had a good game and now that we are approaching Christmas, who would have thought that a large number of supporters would be saying positive things about these two! Credit to them and credit to Poch.

I can see that there is a tinge of disappointment from some posters on here about the performance. Quite why I have no idea. Not many teams will beat Southampton on their own ground. What it also showed me was that this team has a lot of fight. They responded to the disappointment that was the Saudi Sportswashing Machine game, and our young players fought back. Yes, it was not the perfect performance, but no teams have perfect performances. It is a competitive league and we have a very young team.

There is a lot to look forward to for the remainder of this season. The Christmas period will be important, but navigate it well and we will have top 4. It's a very good time to be a Spurs supporter.

 

[alekaras]

Dembele is fast becoming one of my favourite players now. I never bought into the fact that he was a waste of space, but at the same time I never had him as one of the first players on the team sheet. I thought he was excellent and dealt with Wanyama as well as anyone has this season. I really would like him to sign a new contract! Lamela also had a good game and now that we are approaching Christmas, who would have thought that a large number of supporters would be saying positive things about these two! Credit to them and credit to Poch.

I can see that there is a tinge of disappointment from some posters on here about the performance. Quite why I have no idea. Not many teams will beat Southampton on their own ground. What it also showed me was that this team has a lot of fight. They responded to the disappointment that was the Saudi Sportswashing Machine game, and our young players fought back. Yes, it was not the perfect performance, but no teams have perfect performances. It is a competitive league and we have a very young team.

There is a lot to look forward to for the remainder of this season. The Christmas period will be important, but navigate it well and we will have top 4. It's a very good time to be a Spurs supporter.

I tend to agree with most of your posts @Gazzasrightboot but I beg to differ on this one. The performance wasn't that great. What I was looking forward to after the Norwich game was a performance similar to the one against Spam and that it wasn't. I was looking forward to us coming flying out of the gate, yet we were on the back foot for the first third of the match, not even on par with Soton. And we seemed to lack the fluidity and dominance in most of the game, something that we had in our first 13-14 matches. However, we did something that we hadn't done in past games and that was put away our chances, which is the positive I took out of this game.

As for the Christmas period, I agree it is crucial, but for me the most crucial period will be Feb-Mar. That's when we'll find out if the team is still fresh enough to cope with the demands of FA Cup, EL, and league. And also if we've signed the much needed striker to give Kane a rest every now and then. I share the faith, though, and feel we'll do very very well overall.

 

[milo]

I tend to agree with most of your posts @Gazzasrightboot but I beg to differ on this one. The performance wasn't that great. What I was looking forward to after the Norwich game was a performance similar to the one against Spam and that it wasn't. I was looking forward to us coming flying out of the gate, yet we were on the back foot for the first third of the match, not even on par with Soton. And we seemed to lack the fluidity and dominance in most of the game, something that we had in our first 13-14 matches. However, we did something that we hadn't done in past games and that was put away our chances, which is the positive I took out of this game.

As for the Christmas period, I agree it is crucial, but for me the most crucial period will be Feb-Mar. That's when we'll find out if the team is still fresh enough to cope with the demands of FA Cup, EL, and league. And also if we've signed the much needed striker to give Kane a rest every now and then. I share the faith, though, and feel we'll do very very well overall.

We'll be doing well if we can have another couple of those this season. Given our problems weathering late pressure, I will take professional wins and measured performances.

 

[Gazzasrightboot]

I tend to agree with most of your posts @Gazzasrightboot but I beg to differ on this one. The performance wasn't that great. What I was looking forward to after the Norwich game was a performance similar to the one against Spam and that it wasn't. I was looking forward to us coming flying out of the gate, yet we were on the back foot for the first third of the match, not even on par with Soton. And we seemed to lack the fluidity and dominance in most of the game, something that we had in our first 13-14 matches. However, we did something that we hadn't done in past games and that was put away our chances, which is the positive I took out of this game.

As for the Christmas period, I agree it is crucial, but for me the most crucial period will be Feb-Mar. That's when we'll find out if the team is still fresh enough to cope with the demands of FA Cup, EL, and league. And also if we've signed the much needed striker to give Kane a rest every now and then. I share the faith, though, and feel we'll do very very well overall.

I understand that alekaras and I tend to agree with most of your posts too! Yes a performance akin to West Ham would have been great, but, and this is a big but, I don't think that we can expect to play like that every game in this league. There is no team that is consistently putting in those type of performances, and as @milo has said, winning when not playing well is exactly what a team needs to do. For me the positives were that although on the back foot, we weathered it and got stuck in. This will build confidence and mean that we play better in the next game.

Feb to March will also be crucial, I grant you but only insofar as any game is important. I think we are in danger of pre-empting a tiredness in players that actually there is no evidence for. Last season we got more points in the latter half of the season, and I think another poster put up a stat that showed that Poch's teams don't suffer a late season lull as a lot of people are afraid of. I do agree though that we need an alternative for Kane to provide another option but not, in my mind, to give him a rest.

For me this season is showing that the EPL is as competitive as it has ever been with surprise results almost every week. There are some teams who are very tough to beat (Southampton, Stoke and West Brom to name but a few) and others that have been a complete surprise (Crystal Palace, Watford and Leicester), and then you have the established big sides (Emirates Marketing Project, Arsenal, Man United and Chelsea) and you can really see that there are no easy games. Building confidence, not losing, winning ugly are all traits that our team will need to do in order to finish high up this season. We're doing this, albeit not that well (Saudi Sportswashing Machine as a case in point). Our team is young, inexperienced but eager, full of running and they really do feel that they can beat anybody. I'd take that.

 

[thfcsteff]

Dembele is fast becoming one of my favourite players now. I never bought into the fact that he was a waste of space, but at the same time I never had him as one of the first players on the team sheet. I thought he was excellent and dealt with Wanyama as well as anyone has this season. I really would like him to sign a new contract! Lamela also had a good game and now that we are approaching Christmas, who would have thought that a large number of supporters would be saying positive things about these two! Credit to them and credit to Poch.

I can see that there is a tinge of disappointment from some posters on here about the performance. Quite why I have no idea. Not many teams will beat Southampton on their own ground. What it also showed me was that this team has a lot of fight. They responded to the disappointment that was the Saudi Sportswashing Machine game, and our young players fought back. Yes, it was not the perfect performance, but no teams have perfect performances. It is a competitive league and we have a very young team.

There is a lot to look forward to for the remainder of this season. The Christmas period will be important, but navigate it well and we will have top 4. It's a very good time to be a Spurs supporter.

Excellent post.
I was very satisfied with how we adjusted to, and throttled, the match.

 

[SpurMeUp]

I'm half way between @Gazzasrightboot and @alekaras More or less agree with both. We could have easily drawn this game. Had Mane tucked away one of those chances; and although we controlled the second half a lot better, we didn't stamp our authority on the game either. Against a better in form side, we may not have won, if we're honest.

All that said, we've been putting in excellent performances where we deserved to win and only drawn. On Saturday we got the result. I would much prefer us to win lucky than draw unfortunately (and we did deserve the win we were the better side overall).

Maybe Poch is turning the team into a more ruthless animal that can grind out results, rather than put in top performances. If so its a great sign.

 

[glorygloryeze]

Could it be this is the game that shows that Poch can and will employ tactics in parts of the season to prevent our team from burning out due to the Bielsa-style "constant press"?
It has always been a worry in the back of my mind that we'll always be susceptible to late season physical collapses due to the training and pressing methods; so for thsoe who watched this game, did it show Poch has/had a plan to prevent late season burnout?

For example, did Poch get agitated in the first 30 mins? Did he seem to be calm during the second half?