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*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Wycombe Wanderers ***

As you know i agree with your opinion that we should actually try and win something, we can not be called a top team UNTILL we actually start winning trophys. At the game yesterday a lot of fans were saying that some of our players are not good enough and until we uprate our squad we will always struggle in these games, i have noticed there are those on here who are saying ( in some of the players threads) more or less the same thing.

There is nothing wrong with most of our back up players and to say ( like some do that they are not good enough) is foolish at best and ignorant at worst. The problem is not the individual players its the fact that we made 9 changes once again, it no surprise that as a team we fail to have structure, understanding and cohesion. Playing with two three four changes is a lot easier for us ( and understandable on occasions) but once again we struggled with so many in one game.
Not sure you can assert that all our players are good enough.
It is a football club, there are always players who will not make the grade, it is deciding who to keep and for how long. Managers and fans may sometimes make decisions which are premature but they are entitled to their opinions. Hopefully, whatever these are one should be open to review them in the face of emerging evidence.
CCV and Onomah may make it, they need more experience imo, but they are not a level where we can give them enough, hence loans.
Janssen may adapt. Probably needs a miscue to begin his free play goals. Same with Sissoko and his goals.
Winks shows more advancement for his stage of development.
There is a time limit as clubs can't wait forever for potential to be fulfilled.
 
Not sure you can assert that all our players are good enough.
It is a football club, there are always players who will not make the grade, it is deciding who to keep and for how long. Managers and fans may sometimes make decisions which are premature but they are entitled to their opinions. Hopefully, whatever these are one should be open to review them in the face of emerging evidence.
CCV and Onomah may make it, they need more experience imo, but they are not a level where we can give them enough, hence loans.
Janssen may adapt. Probably needs a miscue to begin his free play goals. Same with Sissoko and his goals.
Winks shows more advancement for his stage of development.
There is a time limit as clubs can't wait forever for potential to be fulfilled.


if you mean will they go on have be first team regulars for a while you are right. But my point was there are some supporters at the games and on here who have suggested that certain players are not going to be good enough. Judging players who are thrown together ( 9 changes) and struggle to find any structure together is unfair.
 
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Wrong imo. Better that they learn that as they play in England that occasionally you will play a lower league side and you have to adapt your game to compete and don't go out with a complacent attitude because you happen to be playing for a top PL club. Such an elitist and damaging attitude to take. Wycombe were anything but just pure rough and tumble yesterday. And I have no idea where you can suggest Onomah and CCV have looked comfortable in Europe? How many games have those played in Europe for us? I can only remember a couple of occasions for Onomah and one of them was a very poor performance in Dortmund albeit the team was poor too.

It isn't a one size fits all process. For some players, like Winks, a loan isn't beneficial because in his limited game time here we have seen enough to suggest that he can float in and around the matchday squad. For someone like Onomah, he could do with being thrown in at the deep end but not our deep end.
Agree, there is also the mental aspect, which people have highlighted regarding Alli, he is not intimidated by lower league bullies or playing in different conditions or stadia. That experience at MK has probably helped of course so has his personality.
 
Son did lots of good little things yesterday, then blazed high, wide and handsome. Ironically his first goal was a cross that deflected wildly in and his second goal was a weak shot that was going 2 yards wide, kicked in by a defender. It just shows that sometimes you don't need to be Pele, you don't need to strike the ball like Hotshot Hamish, you just need to get 3 or 4 players around the 6 yard box and penalty spot and keep punting away and eventually it will go in.
Yes, one of our problems is getting men in the box.
What Son did very well was carry and dribble the ball into the box, which created danger.

Hot shot Hamish wouldn't have done that either. Although his dad would not have been happy with all the '...sassenach sheep stealers..' Plying their leaving off us.
 
Wow. radio 2 this morning havent stopped going on about Wycombe Wanderers. Christ they would be in meltdown if they had actually won

Its like they have erased anything that happened after the 88th minute
 
Sat next to a Spurs-supporting couple on a train from Euston to Watford Junction on Saturday evening, who'd clearly been to the game. I commented that they'd had their money's worth. Rather than happy agreement, Mr Eriksen* turned to me dolefully and said they'd left when we went 3-2 down. Oops.

* They both had that on the back of their shirts, so it must be their surname...right?
 
Sat next to a Spurs-supporting couple on a train from Euston to Watford Junction on Saturday evening, who'd clearly been to the game. I commented that they'd had their money's worth. Rather than happy agreement, Mr Eriksen* turned to me dolefully and said they'd left when we went 3-2 down. Oops.

* They both had that on the back of their shirts, so it must be their surname...right?
There was a lot that left at 3-2.
 
Idiots. I can't understand that mentality at all. I'm sure there were many that felt it was game over, and i know it's a bitch to get away from the Lane at times...but you just never know how it might unfold, so why take the risk!!??
 
Wow. radio 2 this morning havent stopped going on about Wycombe Wanderers. Christ they would be in meltdown if they had actually won

Its like they have erased anything that happened after the 88th minute

Let them have their glory in defeat. And to be fair to them, they thoroughly deserve it. They gave us a right scare, so defeat or not, they can feel very proud and also unlucky to lose a replay in such dramatic style.

I've no problem with giving some air time to the lower clubs on weekends like this. If it helps to boost the prestige of the FA Cup again then all the better.

*However, had we of drawn or lost i would be switching right over no messing!!!
 
Let them have their glory in defeat. And to be fair to them, they thoroughly deserve it. They gave us a right scare, so defeat or not, they can feel very proud and also unlucky to lose a replay in such dramatic style.

I've no problem with giving some air time to the lower clubs on weekends like this. If it helps to boost the prestige of the FA Cup again then all the better.

*However, had we of drawn or lost i would be switching right over no messing!!!
Exactly. If it gets lower league clubs a hefty payout and some column inches, not forgetting a good day out for their fans, I'm all for it.
 
Sat next to a Spurs-supporting couple on a train from Euston to Watford Junction on Saturday evening, who'd clearly been to the game. I commented that they'd had their money's worth. Rather than happy agreement, Mr Eriksen* turned to me dolefully and said they'd left when we went 3-2 down. Oops.

* They both had that on the back of their shirts, so it must be their surname...right?

I had a guy sitting next to me who walked out at half-time. Another family of 4 including 2 young children, obviously watching Spurs for the first time, left with 10 minutes to go with the score at 2-2. Wouldn't have liked to be the parents explaining to their kids how they missed the best 16-17 minutes of the match!
 
That team we put out today has bossed decent teams in Europe. Wycombe were just great and that's the magic of the cup.

Gazza dug us out of a similar pickle against Notts County in 1991 IIRC.

This is the Chinese year of the roosterrel. Name. On. The. Cup
What decent teams in Europe has yesterday's line-up bossed?

To be honest on the face of it I didn't think that there was much wrong with our line-up on Saturday prior to the game starting. It should've been comfortably good enough to win that game at a canter.... The problem was that many of those players that started the game had the mindset that they would indeed win at a canter.... but some failed to even get past a trot.

In the first half Wycombe played with more urgency that we did, they also exposed our weakness and inexperience at centre half. Carter-Vickers and Wimmer are many orders of magnitude worse than Alderweireld and Vertonghen. They are nowhere near as good defensively, in terms of their positioning, nor are they anywhere near as composed on the ball. Akinfewa was able to completely bully both of them and instead of them adjusting to this by making sure they were well positioned to win the second ball, they instead continued to try (and fail) to win the physical battle with him. Also when either of them had the ball at their feet, their passing was unimaginative, despite them having huge amounts of time on the ball.

I thought our lack of focal point up front was also an issue. Son had a really good game, but he constantly dropped off deep to receive the ball, none of our other players took advantage of this to try get in behind as Ali does so well. If playing Son up front then I think we either need to play him as a 10 alongside a number 9, or if we have no number 9 alongside him then we need at least one attacking midfielder to be trying to get beyond the opposition's back 4.

It was quite interesting to me that the entire starting team on Saturday were second choice players if our entire squad are fit, yet despite that fact the only one who stepped up and looked like they were really trying to show the manager that they deserved a first team starting place was Son, and ironically he is the one who is the closest to being a first choice player. I have seen a fair bit of criticism for Sissoko on here, but I thought he was one of our better performers on the day. IMO the biggest under performer on Saturday was Eric Dier, based on that performance he is a long, LONG way from winning his place in the team back from Wanyama, who looks a superior player in every aspect.

Pochettino should use a video of that game to show any of those squad players who started exactly why they are merely squad players. All of them (other than Son) missed out on an opportunity to make Poch question his idea of his best team. If I was Pochettino I wouldn't be giving too many of them an opportunity to put that right in the next round.
 
I'd say The Gillingham side had better orchestrators in Eriksen and Lamela, and someone to lead the line in Janssen.

It was clear in the first half on Saturday that the player we most missed was Eriksen. None of the 3 behind Son ,i.e. Sissoko, Onomah or N'Koudou could play the focal point role like an Eriksen or in his absence Lamela. The only effective midfielder in the first half was Winks, but with his thrusting forward runs he was closer to performing the Dembele role than the Eriksen role

Hopefully Poch will have realised for the future that if we are going to rotate we still need to retain at least 1 and probably 2 of the 4 best forward midfield 3 players (Eriksen, Alli, Lamela, Son) behind either Kane or Janssen
 
I would give Wycombe credit, they came on a form run and decided to play us, kudos to them for not parking the bus, trying to kill game and do a smash and grab.

My only specific issues with the lineup for the game was playing both Onomah & N'Koudou without Janssen up front, it meant none of our front line really held up ball.

That said, think people are overplaying how bad we were, had Son put away a couple of his early chances, game would have looked very different.

Sure a couple of players looked undercooked, and team not as fluid, but why the surprise? young players, players who haven't been getting matches, our best defender, best creator and best finisher not in game.

Job done .. on to the next.
 
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