*** OMT: Tottenham vs WBA***

Ndombele, plus the front 3, plus the two full backs should be enough numbers to attack with. It leaves a ‘defensive’ block of 5 with the keeper, 2 centre halves and 2 deeper midfielders (although one of the two seems to be allowed to join the attack with the other covering from what I’ve seen)

 

I agree
Sissoko was poor yesterday but he has been better than sown want to give him credit for in other games
He will be needed to do the donkey work against the better sides and the team looks more balanced currently
Yep we’re not tearing up teams but everyone we have played later has been defending deep. We won’t get that with city or pool IMO, so sissoko will be needed there for sure.
Palace and Leicester will want to play is on the counter and again that should suit sissoko
Chelsea don’t have any identity style wise so far. There actually quite similar to us that way in that they do mix it up. That may be a game where having the ball is more important
Arsenal will play their normal game I assume. Slow and pretty with no real edge. The lack of a home crowd should help them in that game

 

In terms of breaking through well organised, hard working teams we haven't really seen that enough so far. If we can find a route in behind or get enough counter attacking opportunities we're fine, if not we struggle.

Hojbjerg for Winksy gives us a bit more progression. Alderweireld back in for Sanches helps. But it's not enough to make a big difference so far.

Lo Celso for Sissoko is the obvious solution. Perhaps it's down to form and fitting. But perhaps we would just suffer too much defensively to make that work?

 

I see your point and you could argue that they didn’t have control of the game. But we certainly didn’t have control of the game. If our game plan was to get a one goal lead and sit on it, it’s a dumb game plan that nearly cost us.

Against Brighton at home, you’d surely expect to create more than we did especially having gone one nil up early which would mean they couldn’t sit back.

 

I honestly think we suffer defensively by playing Sissoko. He has no use in possession and he constantly hides from the ball. When we are trying to move the ball forward click how rarely he is involved, he never shows for the ball. It only ends up in his possession of he just happens to be in the space the ball ends up in.

So we play him because he's another body, but that inplys he is good defensively when the opposite is true. Again clock how often he finds himself chasing back that's because he has no awareness of space and gets played around easily and then has to chase back. Fans see that as workrate when in fact he was the cause of the gap in the first place.

So we play with 9 men when we have the ball because he's scared of it and he leaves the gaps that he then has to chase back to close. Compare his defensive play with Hojberg who is always on the front foot, constantly closing passing lanes, intercepting passes and jostling attackers. Sissoko does none of this as he's always harassing from behind because he's been caught out of position once again.

Playing him for the defensive aspect is a totally false economy he's a massive part of the reason we don't hold the ball well and face extended periods of pressure and being unable to play out of the press.

 

I think we have a plan and it’s working
It’s why we’re scoring late goals
Don’t forget as rightly highlighted yesterday we’re changing the team a lot to manage the amount of games we have and we’re playing teams that haven’t had the midweek game we have. Their fresher and I believe Jose plans for that in His team talks etc... the guys well known for being able to predict games and teams better than most
He also has changed games with subs. Abs the subs have impacted the games really well.
Other teams are getting injuries a lot and so far we haven’t had the same problems, which again could be luck or could be game management

I do think the lesser sides this season are playing only one way which helps us predict them too

Brighton play great football but lack a striker
Burnley decent strikers but not very creative
West Brom... very ploddy and middling but will work hard

Arguably we would be the one team along maybe with Chelsea that have a variety in our play which makes us less predictable

 

I think we all have to adjust ourselves to Mourinho’s tactics.... they aren’t to dominate the ball all game like our peak Pochettino team wanted to. Mourinho’s tactics seem to me to be centered around avoiding giving up big chances. He is succeeding in this as our XGA shows, especially when you consider that our XGA is largely made up of chances from set pieces.

 

Is ours made up form set prices?
Ours yesterday was almost 2 and I don’t remember one set piece of note

 

Well organised, hard working teams are hard to break down.... that’s why they are well organised, hard working teams. You can commit more men to the attack (as José did with about 20 mins to go yesterday) but you don’t really want to start like that as an early goal for sides like that make them even more defensive and hard to break down. If we’re winning then we can afford to be more circumspect (i.e. Brighton). If we’re drawing then we can gamble near the end to try to turn 1 point into 3.

 

XGA mate, not XGF

 

I take the point on not giving up changes but I can't believe the plan is to get a 1 goal lead and sit on it at home to Brighton or keep it tight and hope we get a late winner against Burnley and West Brom. It's far too risky a strategy and the law of averages will catch you out eventually.

Don't get me wrong, I'm delighted right now with where we are. But we're overestimating Mourinho's genius if we think he is or that he can plan to win games by these fine margins.

Harry said yesterday that performances can be better. I've no doubt Jose thinks the same. We were rampant against United and Southampton in the second half and we tore Newcastle a new one without converting chances. My view is that that's what everyone in the squad and management wants. Sometimes you have to dig it out, and we've done it for three weeks now which is great, but you can't keep doing that every week.

 

Ignore home and away until fans are back in.... games are just games now.

I think our game also depends on the way the opposition were playing. Newcastle offered nothing in attack, even when 1-0 behind so we were still able to dominate the ball and territory. Against Southampton we were clinical on the counter attack.

I thought we mainly lacked width on the right yesterday against WBA, it made it easy to defend against us as our penetration was lopsided to the left. This is because Doherty doesn’t get forward like Aurier and Bale is playing very narrow. Having Moura on, instead of Bale stretched them and forced their wide left player to have to play deeper, this allowed Doherty to get further forward and start contributing to our attacks.

 

Yes it's hard. Said somewhere else that I expect it to take time for that aspect of our game to improve. But if we are to challenge for the league at some point I think it has to improve.

 

I'm definitely not in the Sissoko fan club and agree with quite a lot of what you're saying.

I think dividing up the different phases of defensive play makes him look better, and makes more sense of why he's starting.

He's alright defensively when we're organised and (as we do quite a lot these days) sitting back. He's far from exceptional, but he does a good job.

He's very good defending against counter attacks. Good engine, gets back, pace and power to win duels one on one.

When we press high I think it's a bit of a mixed bag, but he covers space quickly, and pace and power helps massively.

We don't have a lot of pace at the back. Reguilon is rapid, Doherty is alright for pace for a full back. Dier is quick in a straight line when he gets going, but lacks acceleration and some agility imo. Alderweireld is fairly slow. Hojbjerg is also not particularly quick. Sissoko adds what others doesn't at this time for those phases of play.

But his shortcomings hurt us. No doubt.

 

Ah ok
Sorry missed that
Yeah teams really aren’t breaking us down so rely on set piece then as you say
Yesterday it was a corner wasn’t it

 

When are they going to give the results as xga, xgf, gmx, bmx or sfx? This counting the goal thing is so last century.

 

I would have to agree. With PEH in the team I wonder why we would also need Sissoko. I also wonder if Jose has him in there in the expectation that we will score early (which we usually do) and then need to be more solid defensively without needing to make a sub to achieve that. But when playing park-the-bus teams, I do agree it makes more sense to go with a more attacking midfield. Maybe when GLC gets fitter and is able to perform the defensive part of the game better we will see the change you are suggesting.

 

I think you need to break this down into two categories: PL games and EL games. If you see consistency in the PL lineups and the EL lineups, then I think that is quite alright. If we are making 3-4 changes from one PL game to the next, then I would agree it does hinder the team gelling. But don't forget we are only 8 games in and it's normal that this is a settling in period as to who our first XI are.

 

Eight games in, games really close to each other, managing rotation, fitness and injuries. I don't think there is any issue with Jose knowing his best team, it's just sometimes he plays the "best team he thinks he can get away with"

What we have seen in last couple of PL games is opposition teams adapting to us (Jose said it himself), make no mistake pounding United worried other teams and they are setting up to counter. It's just up to us to adapt to their changes as well.

Another job done game, 4 away wins in a row after a year or so of not being able to buy a fudging win away ..

Tough run coming up, but all against teams that are going to come on to us vs. sit back, will be interesting.

 

They should all be put in the WGAF bin.