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***OMT - TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR vs Watford***

tickle my balls with a feather @BrainOfLevy. We had our three best defenders out there yet conceded from 2 set pieces. That doesn’t bode well. Success tore us a new one when he came on, a real physical presence alongside Deeney. Would Dier have made a difference if he had come on? Possibly, but he is not known as a game changer. This was one of those physical games where we really missed Lamela. Watford deserved credit for today, they defended well and bullied us up front. I am sure Poch will slam them for this.
 
Bad day at the office, no more than that really. Not to mention we are slow starters. I actually expected us to drop points to Fulham so to have 9 points given we have played 3 away games is more than I would have expected. Son is on his way home and Lamela will be fit again next year so plenty of reasons to be positive.
 
paxtonwolf said:
The chance to go top for the first time in donkey years with a 2-goal win. Did we ever think it would happen? Not really. Should have been able to see the game out once in front,but we got bullied into defeat.
As soon as they had that shot that hit the post, the crowd really got behind them and 'spurred' them on. Best team won in the end, but could have been a different chance had we taken that chance at 1-0 when Kane was clear and fluffed his pass. We will never ever know.

Worst thing now is 2 weeks to dwell on it, plus back to work on Monday with an storeful of gloating scousers
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We almost always blow any game where we have the chance to go top. This dates back decades. I remember a game against rock bottom Brighton at the Lane when a win would have taken us top. We lost 1-0 to a Michael Robinson goal. Will being sexy ever end?
 
galeforce said:
I wonder if Poch was worried about their pace against just Verts and Toby, which would be valid.

I’d have preferred a back 4 today, I hope it wasn’t a forced switch because he didn’t dare drop Toby.
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Nah. Simple rule of thumb - have one more defender than your opponent has forwards.

Particularly if your opponent has hard, fast, bullishly strong forwards, so Watford do.

No complaints on that for me- right choice tactically.
 
harr1984 said:
we have a great record against Watford and for once we played poorly and lost to them - these things happen. Things really do get overly analysed after a defeat when unfortunately in any sport there are just bad days at the office whether you want to accept that or not....
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I think this is probably a good way of looking at it. Dembele, Davies, Eriksen, Kane...these are good players. They just had a bad game today. We lost.

Now we can go and take it out on Liverpool.
 
Jurgen the German said:
Because we have a manager who doesn’t like making subs until he absolutely has to.
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His subs against Fulham changed the game for us but today there were no impact subs on the bench with Son and Lamela out. Without focusing on subs for a second though, the starting 11 was more than good enough to win the game. Too many players under performed today such that when the subs did come they made little impact. Winks was good for the short time he came on but was let down by poor performances around him.
 
Pirate55 said:
We almost always blow any game where we have the chance to go top. This dates back decades. I remember a game against rock bottom Brighton at the Lane when a win would have taken us top. We lost 1-0 to a Michael Robinson goal. Will being sexy ever end?
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My memory might be playing tricks, but I seem to remember us being on a great run under Gerry Francis, 2-0 up away to Bolton to go top of the league (think it was December). Ended up drawing 2-2 and coming down with the Christmas decorations.
 
galeforce said:
We’ve been crap all season, ironically the first half today was the best 45 mins we have put in, fudging typical that these weak minded bottle jobs turn that in in the second half.
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I was at the Fulham game, I thought we were very good except for a short period at the beginning of the second half.
 
Robspur12 said:
His subs against Fulham changed the game for us but today there were no impact subs on the bench with Son and Lamela out. Without focusing on subs for a second though, the starting 11 was more than good enough to win the game. Too many players under performed today such that when the subs did come they made little impact. Winks was good for the short time he came on but was let down by poor performances around him.
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Point taken and his subs aren’t always bad/late but in general, he very rarely makes a sub before 70 mins regardless of how the team is playing. Dembele for example had a bad day today and I can’t believe it took Poch as long as it did to sub him. I love Poch and can only hope he stays with us for the long term, just wish he was a bit more proactive with his subs on a regular basis.
 
JJ was right on MOTD. We still lack something that true winners have. Winning ugly when it matters and when not playing well. It’s called a WM.
 
the dza said:
My memory might be playing tricks, but I seem to remember us being on a great run under Gerry Francis, 2-0 up away to Bolton to go top of the league (think it was December). Ended up drawing 2-2 and coming down with the Christmas decorations.
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Iirc same happened once or twice in the Leicester season.
 
Pirate55 said:
JJ was right on MOTD. We still lack something that true winners have. Winning ugly when it matters and when not playing well. It’s called a WM.
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Just about to post that. It’s our inability to dig in when under the cosh. As I said in a previous post, you can talk about Dembele being overrun in midfield, Kane not having his best game, Eriksen not as influential as usual, but ultimately 3 of our best defenders could not properly defend 2 set pieces.
 
Bullet said:
For the first one, Kane was marking poorly.
For the second one, Dembele was marking poorly.
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Indeed the direct causes of the goal. But in the 1st one both Verts and Sanchez are in no mans land as Deeney comes in and scores, who were they marking? In the second one Toby mistimes his jump and verts has his back to Cathcart. I can’t say in either situation did any of our Centrebacks take control with a commanding headed clearance. I don’t think any of them attack crosses high into the box particularly well.
 
Pirate55 said:
JJ was right on MOTD. We still lack something that true winners have. Winning ugly when it matters and when not playing well. It’s called a WM.
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Although I can see where Jenas is coming from, that's too harsh imo. We do, and that's down to Poch. But that mentality is very weak, disappears easily (especially when accompanied with hubris), and is usually absent in the biggest games (games where trophies are on the line, or going top of the table, or against better, more mentally strong sides like Juve).

Poch overcame a lot to give us whatever winning m.entality we do have, and it shouldn't be understated what a task that was. If anything, this was down to hubris destroying that m.entality - we thought we were hot sh*t, turns out we were just sh*t.
 
Pirate55 said:
JJ was right on MOTD. We still lack something that true winners have. Winning ugly when it matters and when not playing well. It’s called a WM.
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Sorry, not having that. I know you’ve been itching to put that into play, but not true. In fact, what would you call Saudi Sportswashing Machine? That was an ugly win.

Kane and Eriksen are playing through average form, Son is unavailable, Lamela injured Lloris was injured, there are a lot of factors...NOT to say it wasn’t poor - it was!


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
 
thfcsteff said:
Sorry, not having that. I know you’ve been itching to put that into play, but not true. In fact, what would you call Saudi Sportswashing Machine? That was an ugly win.

Kane and Eriksen are playing through average form, Son is unavailable, Lamela injured Lloris was injured, there are a lot of factors...NOT to say it wasn’t poor - it was!


Sitting on my porcelain throne using glory-glory.co.uk mobile app
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The thing is, though, Poch called them out on it, so it was *definitely* poor. Imo, they let the United game get to their heads - which is something Poch explicitly warned them against doing.

I suspect some discipline is in order in the coming weeks.
 
DubaiSpur said:
The thing is, though, Poch called them out on it, so it was *definitely* poor. Imo, they let the United game get to their heads - which is something Poch explicitly warned them against doing.

I suspect some discipline is in order in the coming weeks.
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We can’t know whether the United game got in their heads or the changes Poch made were the difference. We did see in Watford a side that converted chances. Manure didn’t. And we didn’t today.

However, whenever there is a flimsy performance it’s easy to embrace the mental1ty narrative and underplay other factors.
 
I think it’s important to remember that until 65 minutes Watford had done sweet FA. And that was partly due to our dominant performance without the ball. And I personally thought that with the ball we were playing with decent tempo, and trying to make things happen - we just seriously lacked quality among all of our attacking players for some reason (save maybe Alli and Trippier).

So it’s not like it was a weak-minded performance across the 90.

Then Sanchez made a ridiculous decision that led to them hitting the bar and the crowd getting hyped. Then Dembele was TOO aggressive and physical and was arguably unfairly penalised. Then Alderweireld made two bad errors to concede a corner and then not head it away.
 
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