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*** OMT - Tottenham Hotspur v Everton - OMT ***

I never watched the game, so my only question is, was there more effort, in today play, than the previous games?

not bothered about if players had poor games yet, only looking to see if they try.
 
I never watched the game, so my only question is, was there more effort, in today play, than the previous games?

not bothered about if players had poor games yet, only looking to see if they try.

They tried. And there was intent. We clearly tried something new, were very direct and took more risk in our passing. Just horrible execution across the board.
 
There are a few things we need to address in this 3-4-3 Conte seems to have settled on, imo.

  • The first is that the two wing-forwards, Son and Lucas, aren't providing any support to the wing-backs by coming deep when we're being pressed - Everton sprung out of the blocks with an extremely high, aggressive press, and we were pinned in a lot to the point where it felt they had two or three more players than we did. That wasn't the case - but Son and Lucas took up positions more suited to breaking than to beating the press by passing through them. This meant that, often, Kane came deepest to support by providing a passing option, but then, he's so unfit and off the pace that he couldn't execute the passes to Son/Lucas on the break that he would have done last season.

  • The second is that, while we're now clearly trying to keep the damn ball on the deck - which is a *huge* improvement from both Mourinho and Nuno's hell of low-percentage long balls aimlessly lifted forward - the two central midfielders, Hojbjerg and Skipp, just are not gifted at that style of play. Skipp is a bit more able on the ball than Hojbjerg, but curiously, he seems to be the one more centrally positioned with less remit to get around the field, while Hojbjerg is the one tasked with drifting everywhere to offer a passing option. But both have the problem of just not being gifted forward passers - Hojbjerg tries, but it's 50:50 whether he succeeds or just gives it away, and Skipp doesn't try much, preferring sideways passes or simple balls into the middle.

  • The third is, of course, fitness. Credit to @alekaras - he predicted a more managed game than the frenzy at Vitesse, and he was right. But the fact remains, Everton looked like they had a gear on us the whole game - even when we were on top, they were able to close us down more easily than we were able to when they were pinging it around. Mourinho, Nuno or both - someone has utterly destroyed our fitness levels to the point where I can confidently say we are the poorest in the league at that, and it remains utterly shocking to me.

The fixes are straightforward to see, imo - but difficult to execute.

  • For the first, drop the 3-4-3. Conte liked the 3-5-2 at Inter, at Chelsea, for Italy and at Juve - you don't need the extra forward. Drop Ndombele or Lo Celso into the starting eleven, and our passing and ball retention will immediately improve just by players having more passing options - while Kane can stay higher to compensate and retain that attacking threat.

  • For the second, *buy* a better midfield partner for Hojbjerg or Skipp. A passer who is adept on the ball but prefers sitting deep - Marcelo Brozovic in January would be my top pick, but Ruben Neves, Mikel Merino, Kalvin Phillips - players like that aren't in short supply on the market right now. Sacrifice Bergwijn, or Doherty, or any one of the other wasters we're presently not using.

  • For the third, just time. I wish we had the tradition of a 'ritiro' like in Italy, where players are taken away from their WAGs and their houses to train in a group environment for a few weeks when results are bad - but we don't, and have to make do with what we have. But treat the rest of the season as less a tactical adjustment, more a fitness session to get players up and firing. Get them in next summer for the tactics bit of it - the damn WC will happen in the winter, anyway, so there will be time to do it.

The most encouraging thing from today was just the evident instruction from Conte to *pass our way out of the press* - pass, pass, f*cking pass it out. Don't panic and hoof it. It's been too long since we tried that, and barring one typically brainless, aimless long ball from Davies, we genuinely tried at that today.

All else will come with time, and (most importantly) investment.
Don’t forget this exact line up played Thursday so weren’t fresh like their team
 
I never watched the game, so my only question is, was there more effort, in today play, than the previous games?

not bothered about if players had poor games yet, only looking to see if they try.

Definitely more effort, and none of the continuous slow, ponderous build-up play and long balls we have suffered for so long. Much more attacking intent but if you could search the thread on the most used words during the game it would probably be "pass", "passing" and "final pass" , closely followed by "ffs".
A bit frantic at times, but enough there to see Conte's bringing about change.
 
I never watched the game, so my only question is, was there more effort, in today play, than the previous games?

not bothered about if players had poor games yet, only looking to see if they try.
Yes. Though Everton looked fresher and winning the 50-50s. Could be fatigue that caused everyone to look slightly off key. But the urgency level was similar to the Vitesse game

Sent from my SM-T865 using Fapatalk
 
Impossible to judge much from today. Players put in a shift but desperately low on quality. The defence did well and Skipp did pretty well. Kane, Son and Moura were awful.

Clean sheet is welcome. Think we've just seen the germs of Conte's plan. Nothing in there filled me with hope in itself but the fella has been in the job for only a few days so decent result and performance in those circumstances. Will be interesting to see what he can conjure over the next month or so.
 
Impossible to judge much from today. Players put in a shift but desperately low on quality. The defence did well and Skipp did pretty well. Kane, Son and Moura were awful.

Clean sheet is welcome. Think we've just seen the germs of Conte's plan. Nothing in there filled me with hope in itself but the fella has been in the job for only a few days so decent result and performance in those circumstances. Will be interesting to see what he can conjure over the next month or so.
Let's scrape through to be in with a shout of top 6 to January then a massive overhaul is needed to get Contes top targets.
 
Top 4 is most likely beyond us this season as its clear we need major investment in certain areas. Unfortunately as a club we have been seriously let down by glc and ndombele. The pair of them are a disgrace imo as they both have the talent but very rarely show it. It should be the other way around with them very rarely not showing it but these two blokes are basically dingdongs unfortunately.

Will be hard to even end above the goons and wham this season who are both on a role with their teams found and settled. goons also have no europe.

With good investment we can leave them both in our wake next season on route to a CL spot but this season 6th and a EL spot looks like the most we can realistically achieve. Maybe a cup if we can get some luck with the draws etc.
 
Top 4 is most likely beyond us this season as its clear we need major investment in certain areas. Unfortunately as a club we have been seriously let down by glc and ndombele. The pair of them are a disgrace imo as they both have the talent but very rarely show it. It should be the other way around with them very rarely not showing it but these two blokes are basically dingdongs unfortunately.

Will be hard to even end above the goons and wham this season who are both on a role with their teams found and settled. goons also have no europe.

With good investment we can leave them both in our wake next season on route to a CL spot but this season 6th and a EL spot looks like the most we can realistically achieve. Maybe a cup if we can get some luck with the draws etc.

I think top 3 is doable.
 
Let's scrape through to be in with a shout of top 6 to January then a massive overhaul is needed to get Contes top targets.

I dont think a massive overhaul in Jan is realistic, or perhaps even needed to have a shout of the top 4. We need another first choice CB, a CF and a midfielder who can pass the ball. With that we have a shout of nicking 4th (though Man U, Leicester, Spammers, Arse all have a chance too)
 
I dont think a massive overhaul in Jan is realistic, or perhaps even needed to have a shout of the top 4. We need another first choice CB, a CF and a midfielder who can pass the ball. With that we have a shout of nicking 4th (though Man U, Leicester, Spammers, Arse all have a chance too)

Yeah cant see us going crazy in jan but that window and the summer one will be used to fine tune and seriously upgrade the squad with sarr, clever frees from italy and hefty spend elsewhere. In this time the clowns can be identified by paratici and conte and thrown out of the club.

Next season I’m expecting big things.
 
I'm coming around to the idea that we should propose a ritiro to the players in the January break.

Honestly - they might listen to Conte, and we could do with two weeks' training together somewhere with no distractions.

Yes, it isn't an 'English' thing, but whatever - loads of things that are now in our game weren't traditions to begin with.

Book a training camp, take them out there, drill them for a couple of weeks. Would do a world of good for this lot.
 
I'm coming around to the idea that we should propose a ritiro to the players in the January break.

Honestly - they might listen to Conte, and we could do with two weeks' training together somewhere with no distractions.

Yes, it isn't an 'English' thing, but whatever - loads of things that are now in our game weren't traditions to begin with.

Book a training camp, take them out there, drill them for a couple of weeks. Would do a world of good for this lot.
Sure the club and players would eat that up of they can fit it in
 
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