Cardiff - Post match discussion thread

[milo]

Another new idea that we'd like to give a try to see whether it works.

The OMT will be moved to classics later this evening and hopefully with it, you've got your ****ing off of the team and manager out of your system.

The idea of this thread is a bit more focus on the game and what went wrong/what went right. We'd like this to be a thread where people can have a more balanced and detailed discussion about the game. You can also post match stats, post-match interviews, videos and anything else about the game here.

 

[elltrev]

I like the idea, thanks Mods.

Think most people would agree it was a pretty poor performance.

Personally, I think a significant contributing factor was the flawed lineup / formation - two strikers, two wingers, and two CMs who aren't good passers. There was always going to be little creativity, and (most conspicuously) no-one finding space in the hole.There was always a gaping hole between the CMs, wingers and strikers. Thought Siggy should have played / come on in order to have at least one player trying to get into that space.

 

[Raziel]

Townsend/Dembele/Paulinho midfield doesn't work, 2 of the 3 turn over the ball too much, the other doesn't do much with it.

Naughton isn't good enough, huge amount of our play broke/slowed down through him
Jury still out on Fryers .. made a few mistakes

Decent shift in terms of effort from Ade/Soldado/Lennon/Dawson/Vert

Not a unit, continues to be an issue, we do not play as a cohesive side with a strategy to get the ball to our front men.

Team also often happy (or so it appears) to play in 2nd gear

 

[Cochise]

For me Fryers and Townsend need a lot of games together to understand who does what. Too often they weren't on the same wavelength and I think it comes as a result of the pair of them both needing a senior player to partner them.

 

[thfcsteff]

Allow me to start.

Yes, nice to win BUT that was awful. Our inability to foster a tactical plan today, let alone a pattern of play, was crushing to me. The only moment we played with pace and intelligence, we scored.

What will it take? Does Sherwood know he's a dead man walking, and as such is he just trying to steward us through to something great by the end of the season? Or does he genuinely not have a clear idea how he wants us to play?

Thoughts?

 

[Eriktheviking]

Todays performance looked exactly the same as nearly every other spurs performance for the past 2/3 years. It astounds me the same players have the same flaws which dont seem to get any better or improved. Do we actually coach at this club as, Bale aside, i cant think of another player who has progressed at the club.

In addition, our players generally lack footballing intelligence. Their awareness of space, movement and timing is beyond appalling.

 

[thfcsteff]

Townsend/Dembele/Paulinho midfield doesn't work, 2 of the 3 turn over the ball too much, the other doesn't do much with it.

Naughton isn't good enough, huge amount of our play broke/slowed down through him
Jury still out on Fryers .. made a few mistakes

Decent shift in terms of effort from Ade/Soldado/Lennon/Dawson/Vert

Not a unit, continues to be an issue, we do not play as a cohesive side with a strategy to get the ball to our front men.

Team also often happy (or so it appears) to play in 2nd gear

I think Dembele is a major major problem for us. He has great ability, he's strong and he can shoot, yet he cannot pass a football, never seems to work at any pace and shoots three times a year. He absolutely limits Paulinho IMO, and as such we lose any attacking midfield presence when Mousa is deployed as the anchorman.

I take your point about Naughton, however he should not be the principle point of our attack for me…the lack of strategy is increasingly large...

 

[milo]

I'm playing catch up today but I assume that Eriksen was injured as he did not even make the bench.

 

[braineclipse]

I didn't think we were as bad as some people are saying.

We started fairly sharply, created some chances and played at a pretty high intensity up until we got the lead I thought, and in the opening 30 minutes we had 9 shots (squawka) including the goal.

After the goal we seemed happy enough to roll the ball around for relatively large parts, considering our injuries and that we had a Thursday game (and our previous results post-EL) I thought that was a decent plan and other than the Caulker header from a corner Lloris rarely looked troubled at all.

Will be massively different against Chelsea of course, but I honestly would like to see Bentaleb reintroduced soon, we miss his passing.

Great to see Soldado get his goal, has been a long time coming and hopefully he can build on this.

Edit: Looking at the line-up one striking thing for me was the amount of average at best footballers. I think arguably Naughton, Dawson, Fryers, Lennon, Paulinho and Townsend all fit that category. Not saying that will always be the case or that we should give up on these players or that they're **** etc. Just that based on performances this season all of those wouldn't look out of place at a mid table club. With Soldado's continuing struggles that's not a super strong side. I think that has to be taken into consideration.

 

[harr1984]

I think that game highlighted how much we miss attacking full backs Walker and Rose....

 

[spurs' magna carter]

Roberto scored wooooooohoooooo! \o/

On a serious note though there still seems to be

- Poor passing.
- Decision making which is baffling at times.
- lack of goals (yes Cardiff played well today and deserved something but we should've won 2 or 3 nill).
- Shaky back line.
- Full Backs still learning the ropes looking shaky when going forward as well defending.

Etc etc.

 

[Cal_Yido]

Dire Dire match. It was the same on Thursday in some respects that once we got the goal to take the lead, the players just stopped as if they'd done enough! Same Thursday when we went 3-1 up we just stopped.

Obviously delighted with a win, but GHod knows how we are in the position we are in the league. March could be a long long month! Fingers crossed

 

[Maltese Falcon]

Our problem is pretty simple. Our players ALWAYS receive the ball in a standing position. No movement into space, nothing. That is why we are so slooooowww. Very average footballing intelligence.

 

[Whiffler]

Our problem is pretty simple. Our players ALWAYS receive the ball in a standing position. No movement into space, nothing. That is why we are so slooooowww. Very average footballing intelligence.

This is weird - it's almost word for word (including idiosyncratic spelling) something I posted last Autumn.

I must lie down in a darkened room ...... until MotD2

 

[diego_maradona]

I thought Lennon busted an absolute gut and worked like a trojan today. Its a shame he didn't get an assist or score, but his work rate was immense. I know it's not what we expect of him and he is turning into a Dirk Kuyt, but I still just want to give him credit for at least this. He ran his socks off.

 

[DHSF]

Allow me to start.

Yes, nice to win BUT that was awful. Our inability to foster a tactical plan today, let alone a pattern of play, was crushing to me. The only moment we played with pace and intelligence, we scored.

What will it take? Does Sherwood know he's a dead man walking, and as such is he just trying to steward us through to something great by the end of the season? Or does he genuinely not have a clear idea how he wants us to play?

Thoughts?

It was fairly poor today but the good thing is we created a fair few chances which is a positive.

Maybe TS knows he is a dead man walking, maybe its the Europa League that is causing this as we do look mentally and physically tired. I dont think the mix and balance of the squad is right.

 

[DHSF]

I thought Lennon busted an absolute gut and worked like a trojan today. Its a shame he didn't get an assist or score, but his work rate was immense. I know it's not what we expect of him and he is turning into a Dirk Kuyt, but I still just want to give him credit for at least this. He ran his socks off.

Lennon was brilliant and defended awesomely well.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Another positive is the amount of normally second team players now playing a part. Both fullbacks did a job, Kane looked good when he came on, Townsend provides vigour if not enough end product, and Bentaleb on the bench. I'm not sure which of them will make a full transition into a first team player. Bentaleb looks the best bet.

We won with a number of players who's wages must be a small fraction of the top earners pay cheques.

 

[markysimmo]

Ive seen some **** at WHL in my time, but that was poor

If you compared winning a game with pulling a bird, that win was like pulling a big fat bird at the burger van at 5am just after she has **** herself, horrid

 

[Millsy_Yiddo]

I think Dembele is a major major problem for us. He has great ability, he's strong and he can shoot, yet he cannot pass a football, never seems to work at any pace and shoots three times a year. He absolutely limits Paulinho IMO, and as such we lose any attacking midfield presence when Mousa is deployed as the anchorman.

I take your point about Naughton, however he should not be the principle point of our attack for me…the lack of strategy is increasingly large...

Haven't seen the game yet, have to wait until MOTD, but it's something I've been saying about Dembele since the day we signed him and everyone was raving about it. He's a professional footballer who has no idea when and when not to release the ball. That's criminal IMO, and the frustrating thing is that he has all the other attributes to make him fantastic. That one thing lets him down, but unfortunately it's one of the most important aspects of being a top level footballer.