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OMT - Tottenham v Reading (friendly)

Best thing from todays game IMO is that Dele seems to be getting back to form.

Dele and Son look sharp, Dele misplaced a few final passes but I put that down to trying more aggressive passes.

In general, press looks as good as it has in a long time, passing seems "heavier"/crisper at times.

I liked White and Cirkin today (can see them in the squad), but again all the kids seemed to slot in.

Lucas and Bergwijn (ran out of gas), good contributions and you can see what they bring, typical Lamela preseaon goodness (for fudges sake, can we get one season without injuries .. just one?)

Sessegnon kinda invisible, Gedson just a couple of moments .. hopefully incoming strengthens that side.
 
Just watched the first half.

White was sublime in the first 20 mins. A nice range of passes. Faded a little as the half went on but was tidy enough. Reading look a decent side, we'll face worse teams in the EL. White looks promising and could get minutes. He looked competent with a genuine range of passing. Some questions over his defensive strength, but he's another decent player no doubt.

Son could have had a hattrick. Alli's goal was lovely one-touch stuff. The intensity we had was positive. Still want us to pass better and faster sometimes, but couldn't ask for much more from a pre-season game.
 
Falling asleep, have 15 min more to watch tomorrow.

Was struck by how switched on Sessegnon looked at left-back. Was only playing for 15 mins of the second half. But he looked better there. Maybe that's because of the game and the many changes. Sessegnon looked sharp like he knew his place at LB. Cirkin came on and then also looked tidy, so left-back is probably sorted between the two of tehm and Davies.
 
The press has been obvious in the last 2 games but will it still work when other players come back into the team?
 
The press has been obvious in the last 2 games but will it still work when other players come back into the team?
I don't think the press was very good. We were way to slow and pressed with too few players. Yes, we got the ball and scored from a couple, but better teams would easily pass their way around that press. We have to be MUCH more aggressive if we plan on playing like this in the PL.
 
I don't think the press was very good. We were way to slow and pressed with too few players. Yes, we got the ball and scored from a couple, but better teams would easily pass their way around that press. We have to be MUCH more aggressive if we plan on playing like this in the PL.
Depends on what we want, what Mourinho wants. Thought we pressed well after losing the ball, had shorter periods of real high pressing, but more often set deeper than we would have when we were good under Poch.

I don't mind either approach as long as we don't get lost with some half press meaning 2-3 of our players are easily bypassed and the rest have a lot of space between them.

With the performances post lockdown and now in preseason I think there's enough there to be optimistic about our press improving on what we've seen most of the time last season and the season before.
 
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