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Tottenham Hotspur v Wigan Athletic Match History 2005-2013 & OMT

BrainOfLevy said:
The first half was some of the best I've seen us play this season in terms of consistent performance for large periods of the game. Huddlestone contributed to that. The system was working pretty well. Just annoyingly didn't keep out their equaliser.

But if everyone is doing their predictions I don't know how you can realistically say you expect to go to Wigan and win at this stage of the season. How many teams do that? Not Man United chasing the title last year, and not us. They were able to get in-front and then defend deep which helped them, but they are a good side.
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I only expected a point today and had us finishing 4th, level with cheatski on 72 and ahead of arse on 71
 
DEFOE had the chance to redeem himself for the ineptness of his presence... After Bales last minute freekick and Huddies shot - the ball suspended in the air for all of 3 seconds, allowing him time to premeditate his shot 6 yards out from goal unchallenged - surely he has to SMASH this into the net - what does he do.... SCUFFS it completely. That was the time. What a waste. How can a pro footballer not connect with a slow dropping ball completely. Unbelivable. He had ages to think about it - and no one was challenging him!
I may look back at that moment next season wistfully.
 
BrainOfLevy said:
We haven't fudged it because we got a point at Wigan. It's a really good result, not losing was important here. For some reason, at this stage of the season they are far better than their league position suggests. Maybe it's psychology, maybe it's something to do with how Martinez prepares his players fitness so they get an extreme peak during the business end of the season. Whatever it is, they are not easy to play against whatsoever.

Also have to consider the flow of the game. Once they went ahead they could sit back, but until that point aside from set piece defending there wasn't too much wrong with our performance. Afterwards, we had no space at all to play.

I must say though, if we are playing 4-3-3 I'm really surprised we didn't use Sig through the middle in the way he played for Swansea. Parker was needless today.
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I was hoping for Sig too, as I feel he contributes more in the general build-up, and I was surprised that he held on to Dempsey and subbed Naughton. I suspect that AvB kept Dempsey on for his ability to pop up in front of goal. But I agree about Wigan, apart from the proper spanking we gave them, I can't recall any easy games against them off the top of my head.

But I stand by my pessimistic PoV, I read the table before the game and calculated (albeit) poorly that 1 point today could very well give a goal difference decision come last day, which would be worst case scenario. Sod's law and all that, would fit right in with flukey Chelsea and poorly prepared italian food.
 
BrainOfLevy said:
A team deciding to defend deep for the entire half was our problem, it's never going to be easy to break down. Hudd would help though. But I think we needed Bale through the middle or Sig on the pitch today. If they try and crowd out Bale, they give space to Siggy to spank one in and he is adept at passing and moving in a possession system.
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Its what comes of not holding a lead for more than 30 seconds, like Basel, West Ham etc. The team is hell bent on making like as difficult as possible.
 
Jordinho said:
I do feel his passing ability is hyped up because he often hits the 30 yarders into space, but he's not that good with the quick, short ones. Midfield was our problem today.
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I want us to be able to pass like Swansea or as other passing teams can. And for it to be normal. It would compliment all the other skills in the team. Today we could have torn them apart with better short passing. We created a brick load with long passes - 4 5 excellent chances.

Now you see a one-two and its a rarity, so much so the player released into space bricks themselves rather than carry on as the norm.

Still was a tough game.

Gutted we couldn't nick it at the end. Defoe and Thud so close. Will Tom become a Dred? That's the real question.
 
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BrainOfLevy said:
A team deciding to defend deep for the entire half was our problem, it's never going to be easy to break down. Hudd would help though. But I think we needed Bale through the middle or Sig on the pitch today. If they try and crowd out Bale, they give space to Siggy to spank one in and he is adept at passing and moving in a possession system.
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I think we should have sat back more. Play the ball across midfield to try and drag them out. That won't work when you have a player always looking for quick releases. As an individual performance it may look good, but it doesn't do much for the team.
 
BrainOfLevy said:
I don't doubt it was sub-par, I said myself it was dire. But until their second goal we didn't do too much wrong, we played well aside from set piece defending. But their second kills the flow of the game for us and our space to play in.

If only we could have kept out their equaliser and it could have been so much better for us. We couldn't do much about their second. But on balance, coming to Wigan was always going to be tough because of how weirdly good they are at this stage of the year. I couldn't see us winning here to be honest.
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Yes, they are good at this time of the year. I give you that much. But surely, having already fudging lost to them at home, with an abject performance to boot, we would have avoided complacency? Surely, having tasted defeat at home against these lads, we would treat them respect?

AVB's built his Spurs reputation around getting the team to learn from their mistakes. Today, we showed that we didn't learn anything from the last time we played them. We were complacent. Jan was complacent when Boyce casually climbed above him to score the equaliser. The whole team was complacent when the ball was played to Mcmanaman on the edge of the area, believing that he couldn't touch,turn and shoot as quickly as he did. The whole team then became petulant, clueless and unmotivated, passing sideways and shying away from responsibility.

I understand your argument: Wigan are indeed good at this time of the year. But we threw that game away, make no mistake. Just like we threw away the corresponding home game.

It was our fault. No one else's.
 
sebse said:
DEFOE had the chance to redeem himself for the ineptness of his presence... After Bales last minute freekick and Huddies shot - the ball suspended in the air for all of 3 seconds, allowing him time to premeditate his shot 6 yards out from goal unchallenged - surely he has to SMASH this into the net - what does he do.... SCUFFS it completely. That was the time. What a waste. How can a pro footballer not connect with a slow dropping ball completely. Unbelivable. He had ages to think about it - and no one was challenging him!
I may look back at that moment next season wistfully.
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Too much time. He'll be replaying that one. But Wigan defended as though their lives depended on it, and we didn't do enough.
 
i don't think Wigan did anything today they haven't done for the last few games, we didn't impose ourselves on them in the way west ham and city did, weak mentality from our lot I think
 
Jordinho said:
I think we should have sat back more. Play the ball across midfield to try and drag them out. That won't work when you have a player always looking for quick releases. As an individual performance it may look good, but it doesn't do much for the team.
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I don't think he is always looking for quick releases, I think he's just capable of it.

But let's be honest, how many times this season has a team sat back against us while short, non-incisive passers like Parker and Dembele struggle to make any headway at all? Holtby and Carroll are better for those scenarios but it's also good to have someone like Huddlestone on the pitch because if the opportunity is there, he might be able to pick it out. It's not as if we were constantly losing the ball today because Hudd was trying stuff that wasn't coming off. We didn't win because Wigan were able to get in the lead and gambled that sitting back for the rest of the game would see them win it.
 
galeforce said:
i don't think Wigan did anything today they haven't done for the last few games, we didn't impose ourselves on them in the way west ham and city did, weak mentality from our lot I think
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They were widely acknowledged to have played really well at City?
 
Chavs and Goons tomorrow ... A gap will open up if they both win and when you take our inferior goal difference into account.

We needed a win today .
 
galeforce said:
i don't think Wigan did anything today they haven't done for the last few games, we didn't impose ourselves on them in the way west ham and city did, weak mentality from our lot I think
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Wigan didn't deserve to lose neither game and were extremley unlucky.
 
Gilzeantoscore said:
I thought they dealt with Hudd very well today. Closed down the angles and he had little to pas to. did not help, that our front and wide men were largely static for much of the game.
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I think Huddlestone is much better utilized when we play wide, quickly switching play, I can't remember many times we've played so narrow as we did today, many a time Wigan had so much space on the flank it was unreal.
 
Wigan's record against the top 5 this season

W-1
D-1
L-7

4 points from Spurs and sweet fcuk all from the rest........
 
galeforce said:
i don't think Wigan did anything today they haven't done for the last few games, we didn't impose ourselves on them in the way west ham and city did, weak mentality from our lot I think
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They scored 2 decent goals.

But yes I kind of agree. AVB's pre match build up about how good Wigan are at this time of the year became a self fulfilling prophesy rather than motivation to our players who were playing a new system.
 
Didn't really deserve a point but suppose we'll take it. Dont think it's good enough for us, because I don't see Arsenal/Chelsea slipping up and now means we have to beat Chelsea, although on performance today we could struggle up at Stoke!

I don't understand our players at all. Always saying they want to make up for last year, we give ourselves a great chance in a massive result beating Emirates Marketing Project, there we are thinking they will be full of confidence, then we go to Wigan and put on that performance. Ridiculous really!
 
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