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OMT *** Worst OMT Ever ***

Robspur12 said:
I was thinking before the game that the difference between us and the teams that win titles is the ability to grind out wins. At least today showed we could do that. Need to do it more because we can’t win 5-0 every week.
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Sure, but that's actually not something I'm too worried about. We *do* actually manage to win games like this pretty consistently once December/January arrives and we kick into gear - we usually save up our purple patch for that period, and the subsequent months.

Where we keep losing the title is during our slow starts. Those doom our chances, and have done for three seasons running. Problem is, I'm not sure how to fix it - if we start slow but finish strongly, is it worth trying to start strong at the risk of finishing weakly as our peak fizzles out too early? In other words, have we reached our peak as a team, *sans* greater depth or flexibility?

I'm not sure.
 
Huddy said:
We need someone like this, shame he's no longer with us. RIP.

Qruvmie.jpg
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Well the gene pool is all the better for it.
 
SpurMeUp said:
Cold wet scrappy game. Great result with some rotation.

Think we'd look better if we played one set of FBs more regularly. Rotate them, but let them get into their stride with a run of games. Playing every other game means neither set of FB get into a rhythm. But say when Rose was out Davies did well as he played every game.
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Each pair is playing once a week. You don't think that's enough?
 
Once again whenever we were on the front foot and looking like we'll move the ball forward quickly, we slowed it down and passed backwards. And I like that the crowd was getting on the players' case whenever that happened. I don't know why we play like this. It's anything but brave, which is supposed to be the Poch credo.
 
Well that was a hard watch. Verrrrryyy slow. Verrrryyy frustrating watching us trying to unpick a tightly packed defence. That’s probably the worst (or perhaps least-good overall) I’ve seen us play this season. There were no real standout players tonight - Dier had a decent game. Eriksen had some promising moments. Good to see Lamela starting and looking confident and energetic. Otherwise it was all a bit - I don’t know - disjointed?
But...we won, we missed some very good chances, scored two goals (one a tad fortuitous), kept a clean sheet and climbed back to 4th while teams around us dropped points. Not too shabby at all when put like that.

Brighton had no intention of trying to win. They barely had any intention to try to score. Playing a defensive game is a valid tactic but Brighton were in pure damage limitation mode from start to finish.

Danny Rose still looks rusty, in contrast to Lamela who looks pretty sharp although no doubt not yet fully match fit. I get that Rose’s role is more demanding so maybe it’s unfair to judge him too harshly just yet.

The crowd was very antsy tonight and from very early on. Lots of frustration being loudly vocalised. I understand why but it felt a bit over the top at times. Someone near me was really laying into Winks. He certainly wasn’t having one of his best games but give a young player a bit of slack!
 
alekaras said:
Each pair is playing once a week. You don't think that's enough?
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I do get that. The frequency of games is fine. But its about playing in a steady team, and being settled in the team and with those around you. Why was Davies that much better when Rose was out? Its not easy to drop into the side every other game. Son seems to manage it just fine. For others - Defoe when we had Robbie Kane, and for a new player or one returning from injury - I think its quite hard to find a steady rhythm when you're in and out each game.
 
3pts.
A terrible watch but no ones fault IMHO.
Brighton are not going play an open game against the likes of us, so no blame falls on them.
I also don't think we are anymore culpable either. Personally if I was a opposition fan of 'a smaller team' I would expect nothing more than a good defensive display.
3pts.
 
On days like yesterday it'd best to watch the highlights. From the condensed 7 mins I saw, we were awesome! Lamela looked lively, 75% possession, 25 attempts on goal, their goalie looked busy, Sonny had another good game.

Emirates Marketing Project at the weekend will be a different proposition though.

He will play Alli and rest Lamela I would think, Dembele will be back, as will Rose and Trippier I would think. I have a pretty good feeling about City though, I think they will come at us, just like Real did and we know they leave spaces at the back, especially if Kompany isn't playing. Time to put an end to their 15 match streak now.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Sure, but that's actually not something I'm too worried about. We *do* actually manage to win games like this pretty consistently once December/January arrives and we kick into gear - we usually save up our purple patch for that period, and the subsequent months.

Where we keep losing the title is during our slow starts. Those doom our chances, and have done for three seasons running. Problem is, I'm not sure how to fix it - if we start slow but finish strongly, is it worth trying to start strong at the risk of finishing weakly as our peak fizzles out too early? In other words, have we reached our peak as a team, *sans* greater depth or flexibility?

I'm not sure.
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Didn't we have a good start this year?

iirc We equal led our record points tally after 10 games. Something like that anyway.

I don't think we keep losing the title at all. We've had 3 really good seasons of massive progress, and in one of them we were in contention, but never leading, never favorites, and it didn't quite happen.

In this and last season, it should also be noted that two teams have gone on record equaling and record breaking winning runs.
 
alekaras said:
Once again whenever we were on the front foot and looking like we'll move the ball forward quickly, we slowed it down and passed backwards. And I like that the crowd was getting on the players' case whenever that happened. I don't know why we play like this. It's anything but brave, which is supposed to be the Poch credo.
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So many times last night Brighton had 6 across their box and 4 right in front of them. We were just running into a brick wall.

I was watching and coming to realise that the passing back and sideways is deliberate. Firstly its trying to shift them around a bit to make an opening, something that isnt too successful. Secondly its trying to draw them out of their defensive lines and create some space. But when the opponent has no intention of leaving their half its another tactic thats going to struggle.

I dont think we want to be boring. I dont think we want to be slow. I think the problem is nearly every team we come up against parks the bus, and many of them have no desire to even come out of their box. And that is the hardest thing to play against.

I think the only thing we can do to really change that is adopt a City like approach of almost suicidal runners, which to be honest I can never see Poch committing to.

So, instead, I suppose it will be a bit of a long road in trying to refine our approach of drawing teams out.

I seem to remember AVB going on about teasing the opposition with the ball to have them break their lines and allow space - itll be more in that vein IMO.
 
Nice to win and move back into the top 4 race. But it was another unconvincing performance at Wembley. We dominated the match but our attack looked toothless and needed element of luck for our crucial first goal. Our first goal looked like a cross that went into goal but we badly needed that goal. Apart from that, we didn't look like scoring until our second goal. Brighton were poor but we struggled to make our dominance count. It was so tense until we got our second goal.

Credit to Aurier and Son for the goals. Nice to see Aurier getting his first goal for us even if it was a over hit cross that went into goal. That was a crucial time to score our first goal just before the end of the first half. We would have been under a lot of pressure if we had not scored that goal. Thought we would go on to score more goals in the second half but we failed to do so until Son got the late goal with the header. Thought Kane would score to move closer to Shearer's record of scoring most league goals in a calendar yeat but he had a poor game. He didn't look like scoring apart from hitting the post from the freekick in the second half. Glad to see Lamela starting this match as he had a good game even if he was not involved in any of our goals. In fact, Lamela was unlucky not to score when his shot hit the post in the second half. Alli failed to make an impact after replacing Lamela in the second half.

Our midfield had a mixed match. They didn't have much to do with Brighton being poor. But Sissoko and Winks didn't help our attack much. Really wanted Sissoko to make an impact in this match but he failed to do so. Eriksen had an assist for Son's goal but was largely quiet apart from that. Eriksen's freekicks and corners were still poor. It is time Lamela take all our set pieces as his delivery are much better.

Good to see our defence keeping the clean sheet even if Brighton didn't attack much. There were a few tense moments when Brighton did attack but fortunately Lloris, Vertonghen and Dier managed to stop them. Vertonghen was 1 yellow card from being suspended against ManCity. Fortunately he managed to avoid getting another yellow card.

We have now won our last 3 matches in the league and CL. Let's hope we will be boosted by this win when we play ManCity next. But we will need much better performance against ManCity than this.
 
Spurs7891 said:
Nice to win and move back into the top 4 race. But it was another unconvincing performance at Wembley. We dominated the match but our attack looked toothless and needed element of luck for our crucial first goal. Our first goal looked like a cross that went into goal but we badly needed that goal. Apart from that, we didn't look like scoring until our second goal. Brighton were poor but we struggled to make our dominance count. It was so tense until we got our second goal.
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Our attack must be brick when we can't get 4-5 goals vs a side that only show up not to concede, even at 2-0 down, when both Arsenal and Liverpool cruise past teams that only defend, like West Ham and West brom. Oh wait....
 
nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
So many times last night Brighton had 6 across their box and 4 right in front of them. We were just running into a brick wall.

I was watching and coming to realise that the passing back and sideways is deliberate. Firstly its trying to shift them around a bit to make an opening, something that isnt too successful. Secondly its trying to draw them out of their defensive lines and create some space. But when the opponent has no intention of leaving their half its another tactic thats going to struggle.

I dont think we want to be boring. I dont think we want to be slow. I think the problem is nearly every team we come up against parks the bus, and many of them have no desire to even come out of their box. And that is the hardest thing to play against.

I think the only thing we can do to really change that is adopt a City like approach of almost suicidal runners, which to be honest I can never see Poch committing to.

So, instead, I suppose it will be a bit of a long road in trying to refine our approach of drawing teams out.

I seem to remember AVB going on about teasing the opposition with the ball to have them break their lines and allow space - itll be more in that vein IMO.
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That's definitely what's going on, it just was not overly successful last night. I was surprised at how disciplined Brighton were in holding their defensive lines. Although they were parked that far back they practically needed passports and visas to travel far enough to reach our half.
Having said that, with a fitter Rose we would have broken through a few more times I think. The old Danny Rose would not have been beaten to or off the ball like he was on occasions last night. Hopefully he gets that pace back again.
 
Glenda's Legs said:
That's definitely what's going on, it just was not overly successful last night. I was surprised at how disciplined Brighton were in holding their defensive lines. Although they were parked that far back they practically needed passports and visas to travel far enough to reach our half.
Having said that, with a fitter Rose we would have broken through a few more times I think. The old Danny Rose would not have been beaten to or off the ball like he was on occasions last night. Hopefully he gets that pace back again.
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Rose was unimpressive, as he has been since his return. I keep getting told about how he pins teams back, is direct, makes things happen... I am yet to see it.

Of course, he was out for a long time and it takes time to find form, I full expect him to improve. I just hoped there would have been glimpses of more from him up to now.

Winks has been getting a hard time for not passing forward enough, completely unfairly IMO. Most of the times he passed sideways or back I was initially disappointed, then quickly realised he had no forward passes on. The team werent making the angles, largely because Brighton were so deep.

Team sitting like that, with so little intent, really are the worst thing to try and play against. I think it was telling how frustrated Knockheart was getting, they were so negative even their attacking players were tinkled off!

First time Ive seen Lamela in a while, and I felt he and Son really added some impetus to things when they got on the ball. Its a shame they couldnt fashion more space to work in. Either way there were plenty of promising situations made, just very few that actually came to anything given the wall of bodies and lack of space...
 
nayimfromthehalfwayline said:
But when the opponent has no intention of leaving their half its another tactic thats going to struggle.
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On a handful of occasions Brighton pushed into our half for an attack or a corner. These are the vital moments when we should leave Son, Lamela, Eriksen and Kane up top and tell the rest to defend it, then pass it quickly up to those 4. Vital occasions when Brighton are not 'set' defensively.

Instead, all our players trooped dutifully back to defend, then when Lloris got the ball he looked up and had no-one to play it to... held onto it... Brighton got back in shape, then he hoofed it at Dunk.
 
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