• Dear Guest, Please note that adult content is not permitted on this forum. We have had our Google ads disabled at times due to some posts that were found from some time ago. Please do not post adult content and if you see any already on the forum, please report the post so that we can deal with it. Adult content is allowed in the glory hole - you will have to request permission to access it. Thanks, scara

*** OMT UCL Tottenham Hotspur vs Villarreal ***

harr1984 said:
Must admit I was critical of the squad depth last season, but we had a good window and much better depth now.

You even forget Solanke, Kulu and Madders are completely out of the equation at the moment. Of course a couple of them are loans but either we keep them on or make some new signings in the summer. If our younger guys continue to progress then the squad really is looking in good shape....
Click to expand...
Those three injured, as well at Dragusin. Tel not registered for Europe. Still that 11 starting, a 12 man bench. That bench included Austin, Byfield and Scarlett, but the other 9 were first team (squad) players.

In a not very impressive performance that squad depth was important to secure the win. It's definitely something we've lacked, but also something we've been building gradually towards for several years now.
 
Gazza Dazzla said:
Its a shocking stat, but does make sense when you consider it must have just been the starting 11 and all of Richarlson, Johnson, Solanke, Maddison and Kulu were out of the starting line up for various reasons.
Click to expand...
No son anymore either
Admittedly the numbers would be the players supporting each other but roughly Johnson, son, kulu, Maddison and Solanke combined for over 70 goals last season (if my rough maths is right)
 
I know this is partly my own doing but I feel like I’m on a yo yo watching us right now. We have a great team and we are capable of success but every time I think we can perform well, we then see a performance like yesterday that goes against the quality of player that we have at our disposal.

It is on me and I guess I’m expecting too much too soon. But seriously some of the passing and play was far lower than you’d expect from the quality of players that we had on the pitch yesterday. We won but wow, we seriously need to step it up. We can’t achieve anything if we perform like that. Questions need to be answered about the performance and steps need to be taken to ensure that that isn’t repeated.
 
El Dante said:
I know this is partly my own doing but I feel like I’m on a yo yo watching us right now. We have a great team and we are capable of success but every time I think we can perform well, we then see a performance like yesterday that goes against the quality of player that we have at our disposal.

It is on me and I guess I’m expecting too much too soon. But seriously some of the passing and play was far lower than you’d expect from the quality of players that we had on the pitch yesterday. We won but wow, we seriously need to step it up. We can’t achieve anything if we perform like that. Questions need to be answered about the performance and steps need to be taken to ensure that that isn’t repeated.
Click to expand...
Said before the game this is where the season at it mostly actually is starts. Two games a week, quick turnaround, less time on the training ground and more pressure.

That also requires more rotation which can cause other problems.

Then those games like now on Saturday where Brighton had the full week to prepare and we didn't.

I'm glad to see some rotation already. But especially as we're still early under Frank it gives us different challenges. IIRC last season we often struggled after EL games even before clearly prioritising the EL well over the PL.

Hopefully there will be a good learning curve and development.
 
harr1984 said:
I agree, and a lot of the time I don't mind him taking the risk. Sometimes it's just plain stupid though. He's going to make more mistakes because of the way he plays, but that doesn't change the fact they are mistakes. And thats just the passing alone before we analyse the defending.

All in all he's been really good since the back end of last season - I just hope he's not slipping into his old habits....
Click to expand...
When would that risk taking be more and less acceptable/wanted in your opinion?
 
braineclipse said:
When would that risk taking be more and less acceptable/wanted in your opinion?
Click to expand...
When the pass quite clearly isn't on. There are times when his passes get intercepted and you go fair enough because he's trying to play through the lines, a lot of the time it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Then there are other times when he plays a flat out bad pass which is most likely a concentration thing, or he tries passing to a player who visibly has no chance with a defender already up his backside ready to intercept. The one he did into Tel at West Ham was one such example where West Ham got a good chance from it.

I don't think anyone is hating on Romero, the conversation came around because a poster suggested he hadnt really made any mistakes which just isn't true. We all understand his risk taking and how the outcome will vary as a result, but he has made some genuine errors aswell....
 
Just caught up with the game. Was a little surprised how much lower the intensity was than the Prem. Bergval is our most reliable player in terms of moving the ball forwards and doing the right things.
 
harr1984 said:
When the pass quite clearly isn't on. There are times when his passes get intercepted and you go fair enough because he's trying to play through the lines, a lot of the time it works and sometimes it doesn't.

Then there are other times when he plays a flat out bad pass which is most likely a concentration thing, or he tries passing to a player who visibly has no chance with a defender already up his backside ready to intercept. The one he did into Tel at West Ham was one such example where West Ham got a good chance from it.

I don't think anyone is hating on Romero, the conversation came around because a poster suggested he hadnt really made any mistakes which just isn't true. We all understand his risk taking and how the outcome will vary as a result, but he has made some genuine errors aswell....
Click to expand...
Didn't read your post as hating on him. Just curious about how you see it. No player has perfect decision making, so was just wondering if you saw any patterns in his decision making leading to mistakes.
 
Some of the comments in this thread regarding our perceived lack of quality last night surprise me. Villareal are a very good side - tactically mature and technically very accomplished. I thought we did well to keep them quiet, and the final ten or fifteen minutes demonstrated how much energy this had required. Three points against a side that routinely finishes in the top six in La Liga: pretty impressive.
 
Hotspur75 said:
Some of the comments in this thread regarding our perceived lack of quality last night surprise me. Villareal are a very good side - tactically mature and technically very accomplished. I thought we did well to keep them quiet, and the final ten or fifteen minutes demonstrated how much energy this had required. Three points against a side that routinely finishes in the top six in La Liga: pretty impressive.
Click to expand...

But surely the lack of a quality was there for all to see? If Villarreal press well, if they control us is one thing. Our inability at times to make simple passes, or to make goo decisions and good movement is another. Villarreal did try to stifle us but we should have been able to offer a lot more in possession.

La Liga isn’t the same level of competition as the Premier League. We saw that last season as Manchester United took apart Bilbao. The money, the best players, are now in the Premier League with the exception of Barcelona, Atletico Madrid and Real Madrid. Those sides apart, it’s like playing mid table sides. They do not have the same quality. Look at our lineup player for player compared to theirs.

Their captain is one of our rejects who isn’t close to VDV or Romero in terms of ability. Romero regularly starts ahead of Foyth for Argentina.

So the game was never going to be easy, but we definitely didn’t play close to the level that we can and should be able to play.
 
Hotspur75 said:
Some of the comments in this thread regarding our perceived lack of quality last night surprise me. Villareal are a very good side - tactically mature and technically very accomplished. I thought we did well to keep them quiet, and the final ten or fifteen minutes demonstrated how much energy this had required. Three points against a side that routinely finishes in the top six in La Liga: pretty impressive.
Click to expand...

You're forgetting there are only 3 or 4 teams in the world that can hope to beat us the rest are rubbish.
 
We had a fair few players stepping out into their first CL game.
Hopefully it's just a bit of nerves and we will see an improvement in the next CL game.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back