• 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

***Tottenham versus West Ham****

Made perfect sense to me.

Strengthen CM with Winks.

Get a proper RB on.

Strong target man to see out the game.

Winks for Eriksen didn't strengthen the midfield it just handed the initiative to WH. Troops for Sissoko was too late. Son for Alli much earlier was the right call.
 
Much closer than it needed to be, our own doing really. Alli's hesitancy in at least two good situations was a concern, plus the fact most of this board would have subbed him ahead of Eriksen. Plenty of positives and a few lessons learned. Llorente and Winks showed some class when they came on and 11 v 11 we smashed them. Probably hurts them more thinking they had a chance of scraping a point against 10 men in their cup final.
 
Care to tell he again how he's been fair?

He should have sent at least two of them off then.
I think Reid should have been sent off for grabbing Llorente around the throat, no need for that. The rest was all handbags, I don't remember anything else except Chickpea gesticulating and whining.

But I was surprised and pleased the ref didn't give a penalty when Sanchez pushed Carroll in the back. Terrible marking for Toby/Sanchez to just let Carroll run, then silly to push him in the back.
 
Something's affecting it. He's a shadow of the player he was last season
I think the instinctive stuff won't be affected but today he was either trying too hard when he had time on the ball or his mind is not 100% focussed. Getting hooked might help him refocus but I guess today he got a pass because he's missing the CL game.
 
In retrospect, a strange game. We were completely in control at the 60th minute - we could have properly demolished them if we'd kept that going. But then two completely needless, self-inflicted moments of weakness, and suddenly we had to throw up the barricades and ride it out against a truly garbage side.

We just about managed it, but getting into that needlessly risky position was entirely self-inflicted.

Anyway, positives - Big Daddy Kane, Eriksen being quietly unstoppable as usual, Davies did a good job down the left, Lloris did reasonably well in terms of being alert to developing dangers and distributing it reasonably well when the need arose. Toby, Verts and Sanchez were for the most part solid and did their jobs well.

Mixed reviews - Alli, Dier and Aurier. To be fair to him, Alli *tried*, and kept making runs that weren't spotted - and when he did get the ball, he created two assists, so it isn't really fair to say he was up-and-down. But that remains my impression - having screamed for the ball so much, when it actually came to him in promising positions twice, he fluffed his lines both times. And his flicks and skills, while magnificent when we're in full flow, are really 50:50 when we're not clicking - on the plus side, they lead to us getting a lot of free-kicks when he gets fouled, but they also lead to turnovers a lot, and that's not what we needed in games like today.

Dier was sort of half-and-half as well - did reasonably well distributing possession, but either dropped to deep or otherwise lacked the positioning to really stamp his authority in the middle. He's great at winding c*nts up, though - much like Alli. :p

Aurier was actually good for the 70-odd minutes he was on the field - he was caught out of position by Arnautovic a couple of times, but he made amends with some brilliant last-ditch challenges and looked increasingly assured as the game wore on.
And then he got himself sent off for absolutely no reason whatsoever. I suppose he's still adapting to the pace of the English game, but that was thoroughly reckless, and I hope he learns from it. 50:50, in the end, because we got away with it - if we hadn't, he'd have been the pantomime villain, I think.

Negatives - Sissoko. He was *okay* on the ball - ran into blind alleys a few times, but kept things ticking and was a reasonably useful outlet when on the break. But he did nothing of note. And when you're having an unremarkable game, you need to do the basics well - which he failed to do when he lost Hernandez for the first goal. I don't blame him for looking out of place at right-back, but his middling performance combined with his error on the first goal mean he had a bad day.

Anyway, a win's a win - same scoreline as at the Lane last season, and it's always good to put the tinpot spammers back in their place before moving on. No doubt 'we wuz robbed' will be the refrain from their lot, but they were truly woeful when three down - they were looking worse than Everton did against us, which is quite a feat. If they end up escaping relegation this season, it'll be an undeserved escape, on this evidence.

Also, as a closing thought, Poch got the subs *spot on* today. Winks on for Eriksen gave us a bit of control and a shield in midfield - he also made some very useful runs forward to wind down the clock, and his energy helped us keep the right side reasonably tight and locked down. Trippier for Sissoko was the obvious choice, and he did well in the time he was on the field. And Llorente on for Kane at the end was also the right choice, because he immediately put himself about, won all the balls we sent up at him and helped restore some control in the dying minutes. He also got up in Reid's face and helped waste two whole minutes as a result, which is also a bonus. :p

So, in the end, Poch did well with his subs. I'm still concerned about the Dier-Sissoko central midfield pairing, but props to him for his changes today.
 
Great result. Keeps the season ticking along nicely. Unfortunate red for Aurier, but Oliver really lost his brick in that game, super unprofessional performance..

Let's kick on from here.
 
I think Poch's subs were ok. Alli was crying to be subbed, but may be Poch held the very important CL game in his head.
Winks played very well - helped defensively a lot and made several good runs which either provided us with some threat in attacking third or just wasted time which was so needed for spammers.
Llorente was the main man during last five minutes to collect the ball and hold it. I really think we could have conceded 3rd goal if not his great actions and won challenges and headers.
The only two players I want to criticise a lot after this game are Alli and Aurier. The rest have done above average or well.
 
What a clam pardew is ... berates aurier for being arrogant ... teddy makes a comment about nerves and pardew back tracks ...
 
No comment from sky about the penalty Alli should have had

I think Aurier's been banging Louise Jamie hates him so much! They'll be. I mention of or pens or the cards they should have had, it's too boring to talk about us or the fact he score line didn't really reflect the overall game.

Our own claims against Swansea were stronger.

fudge em!
 
Well, we sure know how to make things exiting. Nothing new there.

It wasn't our best performance, but for once we were effective in front of goal. Lovely football for our first two goal. Eriksen with some brilliant play to start both attacks.

A bit sloppy of us to concede the first goal, although it was a difficult corner to defend with a near post flick. Aurier's second yellow was just idiotic. No need for it. He does seem like a loose canon. I didn't understand the first yellow though. It looked to me like Carroll pushed him and that it should have been our free kick. The free kick led to the corner that led to the goal too, if I call correctly. A couple of potential penalty decisions went in our favour though, with Aurier's shirt tugging in the first half and Sanchez' push late on, so we can't have too many complaints about the referee. He was generally poor both ways today.

Vertonghen put in another top class performance for me, and Eriksen was also brilliant at times. Kane obviously did his job. Alli was a mixed bag. Some good runs in behind led to two goals, but he had a lot of poor touches and made some poor decisions. He needs to keep things simpler at times.
 
Back