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***Official Match Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Saudi Sportswashing Machine 8:15pm Tuesday 2nd Dec. ***

Gazza Dazzla said:
Agree, it was FAR from perfect but it was an improvement on what we’ve been served up recently.

That being said, it drives me mad how we need 2 touches to get it under control and in a place where we can pass the ball. Then when we do pass it’s behind the player and not for him to run on to, meaning he takes 2 touches to get it in front of him… and so on and so on…
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The first time pass Guimares played in the second half last night was a thing of beauty. That was the sort of thing that Eriksen used to do for us (off of either foot). Unfortunately we don't have a single player in our team at present who can do that with their better foot.
 
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So what about when Muani is breaking away with the ball near the end and Livramento does the professional foul and takes him out about 10-15 yards from our 18 yard box? Which law will PGMOL hide behind to protect their precious referee even though the entire world knows it's professional foul play and a yellow card.

Personally, I have no clue why any footballer stakeholder anywhere is protecting Howard Webb and PGMOL at this point. PGMOL was designed over 20 years ago to source a set of "elite" professionals scouring all the different tiers of our pyramid. It was designed to make sure the very best officials in our country got to be working at the top of the pyramid. It is failing in that very objective based on the clowns we see week in, week out. I see better refs at step 5.
 
Finney Is Back said:
I think they had one very early on where their player slid in and mit hit the ball onto his other leg? That was it though really.
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Yeah, and that’s why I’m ok with it. Because if the plan is to frustrate them (and Saudi Sportswashing Machine, especially with Hall and Livramento back, at home, are a really strong, aggressive team) in that first 30 minutes. We absolutely cannot give them a situation where they have an overload, or where we don’t have coverage. And I don’t think we let them have anything real. I think that was the plan working.

Compared to Fulham’s first goal where for some reason we leave a gaping space in front of the box and it’s a lot better. Bergval makes a mistaken dart to one side and then a lazy lunge, and there’s just a huge gap.

In fact, this might be an issue. I assume against Fulham we were trying to attack and ended up leaving a lot of gaps. Against Saudi Sportswashing Machine I wonder if their first goal was similar. In the sense it was a moment in the match we had started to push forward. Bentancur goes out to double their threat (good) but no one fills in his space and they score (bad). So I think it might be that the team is getting really comfortable frustrating the opposition when it’s the time to do that. But still being solid and smart out of possession even when it’s a moment of the game that we’re trying to raise the tempo, that still needs some work.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
Agree, it was FAR from perfect but it was an improvement on what we’ve been served up recently.

That being said, it drives me mad how we need 2 touches to get it under control and in a place where we can pass the ball. Then when we do pass it’s behind the player and not for him to run on to, meaning he takes 2 touches to get it in front of him… and so on and so on…
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I agree. There’s something about the players taking more touches, like they’ve been told to keep it safe, but it actually makes them worse. I think Bentancur is a real culprit of this. Multiple times last night he took too long, or played a teammate into trouble. It was odd. Like, just because you’ve been told to play it safe, it doesn’t mean you go so slow that you cause yourself more issues.
 
SpurMeUp said:
Not trolling, you refered to facts, but when they don't fit your arguement someone is trolling? All seems a bit childish. Frank's setup and our play will improve as the team settles. If we give it a bit of time. My point was the attack is in flux. It needs to settle. Which really shows when our CBs are among
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Just to be clear we are talking about Richarlison?!

Our last four games -prior to last night- were against Man Utd, Arsenal, PSG and Fulham. Richarlison started them all. He has played a lot of games this season (I provided the
minutes) and Frank has spoken about the importance of being able to rest him now and again to keep him fit.

You 'corrected' me by saying he had not played the last three games. Am I missing something in what you said?

I will continue to disagree re: your theory on attack and attacking play. We are not creating enough decent chances.
 
thfcsteff said:
Just to be clear we are talking about Richarlison?!

Our last four games -prior to last night- were against Man Utd, Arsenal, PSG and Fulham. Richarlison started them all. He has played a lot of games this season (I provided the
minutes) and Frank has spoken about the importance of being able to rest him now and again to keep him fit.

You 'corrected' me by saying he had not played the last three games. Am I missing something in what you said?

I will continue to disagree re: your theory on attack and attacking play. We are not creating enough decent chances.
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Like the man in authorpedic shoes...still didn't start last night. And Muani seems the more purposeful longer term.

Will you continue to disagree if we improve as the team settles? Atm our CBs are more potent than our forwards.
 
I thought it was interesting that Spence didn't start.

I'm convinced if there wasn't that crowd issue hanging over Porro (and Vicario) Spence would have started to combat Saudi Sportswashing Machine's pacy wingers. That might have made the issue more pronounced imo and Frank didn't want to add fuel to the fire, probably felt it better Porro got straight back out there to take the situation head on.

I'd be shocked if Spence doesn't start the next two games now
 
SpurMeUp said:
Like the man in authorpedic shoes...still didn't start last night. And Muani seems the more purposeful longer term.

Will you continue to disagree if we improve as the team settles? Atm our CBs are more potent than our forwards.
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Now who is being childish.
YOU asserted a 'correction' which you could not be bothered to verify, instead you doubled down. By the way, is an 'authorpedic shoe' a special trainer for writers 😉?

Whether Muani seems more purposeful was not part of that discussion. I think Muani looks excellent FWIW.

Define improvement.
If Frank uses the middle of the pitch and starts to coach a system using passes through the middle, then absolutely and I'd be delighted to acknowledge it.
 
thfcsteff said:
Now who is being childish.
YOU asserted a 'correction' which you could not be bothered to verify, instead you doubled down. By the way, is an 'authorpedic shoe' a special trainer for writers 😉?

Whether Muani seems more purposeful was not part of that discussion. I think Muani looks excellent FWIW.

Define improvement.
If Frank uses the middle of the pitch and starts to coach a system using passes through the middle, then absolutely and I'd be delighted to acknowledge it.
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Looking forward to it!
 
SissokoWasGood (BoL) said:
I agree. There’s something about the players taking more touches, like they’ve been told to keep it safe, but it actually makes them worse. I think Bentancur is a real culprit of this. Multiple times last night he took too long, or played a teammate into trouble. It was odd. Like, just because you’ve been told to play it safe, it doesn’t mean you go so slow that you cause yourself more issues.
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When you look closely it is the lack of urgency from both the passer and the receiver. In fact you might be being harsh on the passer as they are clearly waiting for the receiver to be in a receiving position. Additionally, when you looked at Howe's team, there were several different player moving into positions to be the receiver. We are lucky if we had one pass on. At the back, our only second pass option was Vic.

We just don't seem to have the philosophy of pass and MOVE under Frank unfortunately.
 
Muttley said:
When you look closely it is the lack of urgency from both the passer and the receiver. In fact you might be being harsh on the passer as they are clearly waiting for the receiver to be in a receiving position. Additionally, when you looked at Howe's team, there were several different player moving into positions to be the receiver. We are lucky if we had one pass on. At the back, our only second pass option was Vic.

We just don't seem to have the philosophy of pass and MOVE under Frank unfortunately.
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I think we have that philosophy, but it’s probably to do it in the last 15 minutes of the first half and the last 30 of the second. At least that’s what I saw last night where pass and move looked a lot better.

I think a lot of Frank’s philosophy (piecing together his points around competing on all fronts, solidity, rotation etc) are about only raising the intensity at certain moments of the match. In comparison to Ange’s all go all the time. And I’d class passing and moving as a marker of intensity. If we’re looking to contain, we’re keeping to our positions a lot more.

I liked last night because we actually raised our intensity when we planned to. In contract to the Arsenal and Chelsea games where we never got close to it. Actually thinking back, against United we also raised intensity when we needed to.
 
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