*** OMT Tottenham Hotspur v Sunderland, Saturday 7th December KO 17:30***

[paxtonwolf]

Absolutely ridiculous.

Its like taking a girl out listening to her ramblings for two and a half hours then not getting any at end of the night.

That sums up about 50% ofthe dates I ever went on

 

[chicken_badge]

A friend at work is a Sunderland fan thought they deserved a draw. Wrongly denied penalty apart, I can't see a basis for this claim. Thought we were all round the better team and 3-1 would have been a better reflection.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

A friend at work is a Sunderland fan thought they deserved a draw. Wrongly denied penalty apart, I can't see a basis for this claim. Thought we were all round the better team and 3-1 would have been a better reflection.

I think 6-2 would have been a fair result, seriously.

 

[SteveAWOL]

A friend at work is a Sunderland fan thought they deserved a draw. Wrongly denied penalty apart, I can't see a basis for this claim. Thought we were all round the better team and 3-1 would have been a better reflection.

If Defoe had his shooting boots on and Paulinho had placed that header slightly better we could've easily racked up 5 goals on Saturday and made that (incorrectly denied) penalty completely academic.

 

[diego_maradona]

A friend at work is a Sunderland fan thought they deserved a draw. Wrongly denied penalty apart, I can't see a basis for this claim. Thought we were all round the better team and 3-1 would have been a better reflection.

For me that Wes Brown rugby tackle on Dawson is as blatant as their stonewall penalty.

 

[paxtonwolf]

I think 6-2 would have been a fair result, seriously.

Totally agree, and thats on the assumption they would have scored the penalty

 

[DubaiSpur]

We have been using his strategy for most of the season, when we had a great defensive record, and a lot of clean sheets. I don't think we are particularly more prone to errors than any other team, we just hit a bit of a bad patch on that score lately.

The point is this: at the start of the match, let's say both teams are at 100%. We could go at this 100% team with our 100% team. We might do ok. We might score. We might win the game. Fair enough. But we also might get sucked into an end to end kind of match that we can't control, where we have left too many gaps open for exploitation and where we won't be able to raise to that same level for the next game, where we may start at 90%. We may then win that game too, but if we keep doing it, we will get to a point where we simply can't raise our level and we can't pick up the points we want at some point in the season (see season 11/12, or even the one before that).

So we could go 100% vs 100%, and we will win a good amount of games. However it can also be quite difficult to break down a team that is in peak condition for the match. It would probably get us top 6 every year because we have a top 6 squad. What I am saying is, we need to be cleverer about it because we need to overachieve. We need consistency. We need to manage our exertions so that we aren't at the mercy of other teams. Those teams should be at the mercy of us. So rather than go at a 100% team with our 100%, we suck it out of them. We control the game, we make them chase shadows, we make them think that they can break forward and have a chance, and we wear them down. When the second half starts it's a 90% team vs a 60% team. They try to start the second half as they did the first, which wears them down to 50% while we are still on 85%. It's at this point we flick the switch. We can run on them all day long. We can exploit one v one situations because we are better conditioned. We have that extra bit of acceleration that creates the opportunity. We can run from midfield without being tracked because we are more alert. We can get in behind the defence because they are losing concentration. We hit them for one goal, then two, and the opposition doesn't know what to do. If they were still matching our condition, we would find it harder to find these advantages, certainly later on in a hard season.

We can then see out the rest of the game making them chase shadows again. We've gone down to 70% after ramping up the pressure for the goals, and they are now on 40%. By the time the next game rolls around, we can do the same thing again. Our recovery is swifter, and we can get those energy levels we need to exploit the situations that will give us goals.

If we are playing a team like Sunderland, we could score 1, then two, and then spend the rest of the game maintaining our condition and preserving it that way round. But what is more likely to be effective? Ramping up the pressure against a team with much worse condition, or trying to ramp it up against a team that can match you ball for ball? It's the former. Of course we can concede goals playing the way we do, and of course going all out from the off can win matches, but I would suggest this is the smart play. This approach, over a season, will win us points and give us the consistency we need to overachieve. Not every team can do it. You need adaptable players, you need players that can make good decisions and you need players with the mental capacity to switch approaches within the game. But we can, and if there's anything that's going to see us reach our targets, I believe it is this.

I bet you vs Anzhi we see a performance that most people will call slow, dull, turgid etc. But it won't be because they aren't motivated. They will do a professional job, and do what is asked of them. And that will be to make Anzhi chase shadows and not get sucked in to a battle they can't control.

Was planning to reply to this, but couldn't get on the site much for the past couple of days. And now that I have, I've just read your post again and honestly can't find much to nitpick about. Sure, I disagree with it being a viable strategy for a team like ours (still think we are more likely to make errors than your average PL side), but it's superbly written and offers a lot of food for thought. So for now, consider my objections to your point withdrawn, and thank you for providing me with some excellent material to ponder.

 

[BrainOfLevy]

Was planning to reply to this, but couldn't get on the site much for the past couple of days. And now that I have, I've just read your post again and honestly can't find much to nitpick about. Sure, I disagree with it being a viable strategy for a team like ours (still think we are more likely to make errors than your average PL side), but it's superbly written and offers a lot of food for thought. So for now, consider my objections to your point withdrawn, and thank you for providing me with some excellent material to ponder.

Genuinely nice of you to say mate, thank you.

All seems like a moot point now if rumours are to be believed anyway...I'm conditioning myself for a Glenn Hoddle/Fabio Capello system for season 14/15.