*** Tottenham Hotspur vs. Leicester City *** OMT

[braineclipse]

Puuuuuuuuuuuuuuh. And breathe...

That was way too close for comfort. A lot of positives, a lot to pick apart, but great to get the win in the end. It's one more for Leicester to feel they could have gotten more from, we're not the only team they've felt that against so in a way them being cast adrift at the bottom is not entirely descriptive of their ability.

Many players that should have done better. Can only imagine that Lamela is carrying a knock or something to not come on for either Townsend or Chadli today. I'm thinking Fazio is injured too, could have needed him today against a somewhat Stoke-esque Leicster.

At least Paulinho looked useful...

 

[thfcsteff]

we won by one goal and allowed a relegation struggler to put 3 past us.

i'll go further and be brutally honest to say that leicester lost this game; we didn't win it.

Keep an eye on how many more 'relegation strugglers' push top sides between now and May...and win games!

 

[Baleforce]

verts just does not suit what poch demands of him. he will look better in a different team with a lower line with 4 full time defenders, so that he can have the freedom to do the thing he does.

he just doesn't look happy in this role.

we have a worrying lack of physicality back there, we need someone in the area just kicking people

 

[shaney]

Scraping a win, at home, against the worst team in the league. Conceding 3 goals to them. Only winning through being gifted lucky goals. Same players being brick but still being picked week in week out. The truth is no amount of rose tinted spectacles will mask what a lot of people can clearly see.

We are so poor under Poch. We have a manager who doesnt appear to have a clue how to manage his team to defend. The excuse that he "hasnt got the players he wants" just doesnt cut it. We are talking about managing professional international footballers to do BASIC defending. But he seems incapable of it.

 

[thfcsteff]

Scraping a win, at home, against the worst team in the league. Conceding 3 goals to them. Only winning through being gifted lucky goals. Same players being crud but still being picked week in week out. The truth is no amount of rose tinted spectacles will mask what a lot of people can clearly see.

We are so poor under Poch. We have a manager who doesnt appear to have a clue how to manage his team to defend. The excuse that he "hasnt got the players he wants" just doesnt cut it. We are talking about managing professional international footballers to do BASIC defending. But he seems incapable of it.

Your script is boring mate. Write a new one, please. Don't even care if the view remains the same, just please GHod find a new way of putting it, because I've read this before...

 

[NYSpur]

what it suggests is that we are far from the finished article, we are a very young side, we need three more key players and are building for a future not a present. we overachieved thus far this season is what it really suggests...BTW, Bentaleb very lucky there. Ulloa put his head on him I know, but you cant slap a player like Nabil did. MUST keep his head.

My concern is that even with better players not having the full backs in a defensive position will still lead to the problems that we are seeing. That is a systemic rather than player issue.

 

[DubaiSpur]

We were poor defensively and patchy, but if Chadli takes his sitters we have 6 goals today. We were 'absolutely awful' last week, THAT was a pathetic effort. This? Patchy and defensively shoddy, some of which falls on the Lloris/Vorm thing.

Our goals weren't great at all, though. It wasn't a particularly great attacking performance, and we relied on a tap in from
a corner, a deflection off Huth's face, a penalty and finally another own goal from Schlupp, all the while hanging on by our fingernails against basic lumped balls to their front men. Make no mistake mate, we were really bad. I've seen a lot of good in performances other posters have written off at times this season, but we were uniformly bad today, with only Eriksen, Kane (for his finishing, if nothing else) and Rose emerging with credit today. And while Chadli may have missed sitters, Leicester missed a whole bunch of clear cut chances themselves: it could easily have been 8-6 to Leicester.

 

[braineclipse]

Keep an eye on how many more 'relegation strugglers' push top sides between now and May...and win games!

Solid point. Arsenal only got the one goal win against a Saudi Sportswashing Machine team lacking loads of players. There are no easy games...

we have a worrying lack of physicality back there, we need someone in the area just kicking people

Let's also remember that this Leicester team was very physical. 3 big centre halves, Nugent, Ulloa. Vardy is quite good in the air too... We had Bentaleb marking centre backs for set pieces. Not far off from the Stoke under Pulis teams in terms of height and aerial ability.

 

[Gilzeantoscore]

How un-convincing was that? Walker had a 'mare. Seems that he has lost a yard of pace since the injury and now he is being found out. Vertonghen, decided he was going on a header strike in the last five minutes and was a real pea heart. Chadli played a very lazy game. Thought Paulinho did well when he came on. Lucky!

 

[Baleforce]

Scraping a win, at home, against the worst team in the league. Conceding 3 goals to them. Only winning through being gifted lucky goals. Same players being crud but still being picked week in week out. The truth is no amount of rose tinted spectacles will mask what a lot of people can clearly see.

We are so poor under Poch. We have a manager who doesnt appear to have a clue how to manage his team to defend. The excuse that he "hasnt got the players he wants" just doesnt cut it. We are talking about managing professional international footballers to do BASIC defending. But he seems incapable of it.

all 3 of theirs were gifts as well

who would you leave out and who would you replace them with, unless we've signed anyone all the options I can think of have already proven themselves incapable

we can't defend because we don't have any good cb's, we have 2 decent FB's one of which in awful form but both are happier going forward, the MF screen is also made up of 2 academy kids learning the trade, this isn't a finished article, lets give the guy a chance

 

[thfcsteff]

My concern is that even with better players not having the full backs in a defensive position will still lead to the problems that we are seeing. That is a systemic rather than player issue.

The full-backs are an issue but not the issue. The biggest problem right now is that neither Townsend or Chadli are working hard enough in their roles to allow a high-press to consistently maintain possession. Earlier in the season both Lamela and Chadli were farmer effective AND, critically, quick to cover. It allows the sitting CMs to cover too IF necessary. When those two positions simply don't perform/maintain possession, we struggle. Look at last week, same issue, neither remotely on their game, one pulled after 30 mins. I can only think Lamela is carrying something, because at least he offers some endeavor. I would have to also say that today, Rose was very strong overall and defended his back-post against a bigger man very very well.

But I do think you need to look further up the pitch to see the issues going on at the back.

 

[Modric THFC]

The game was a mess.
How did we go from the organised side at Chelsea to this?

 

[braineclipse]

My concern is that even with better players not having the full backs in a defensive position will still lead to the problems that we are seeing. That is a systemic rather than player issue.

But the same system did much better previously this year.

Now after almost a full season, loads of wear and tear on a relatively small group of very young players lacking proper backup we're looking... vulnerable at best, at worst downright chaotic. But that doesn't mean that the system doesn't work.

Our goals weren't great at all, though. It wasn't a particularly great attacking performance, and we relied on a tap in from
a corner, a deflection off Huth's face, a penalty and finally another own goal from Schlupp, all the while hanging on by our fingernails against basic lumped balls to their front men. Make no mistake mate, we were really bad. I've seen a lot of good in performances other posters have written off at times this season, but we were uniformly bad today, with only Eriksen, Kane (for his finishing, if nothing else) and Rose emerging with credit today. And while Chadli may have missed sitters, Leicester missed a whole bunch of clear cut chances themselves: it could easily have been 8-6 to Leicester.

Agreed to a point. Fair few coincidences for our goals, and some downright poor defending from Leicester. We did create chances though, Chadli's two misses were not after huge defensive errors? The own goal was a one on one with the goalie after a very nice little pass and buildup play, so not entirely coincidental.

Disagree that we were uniformly bad today. There were positives and negatives in a messy game against a very hard fighting relegation struggler. We need to improve, we're not in the best of form, but uniformly bad? No way.

 

[Modric THFC]

The full-backs are an issue but not the issue. The biggest problem right now is that neither Townsend or Chadli are working hard enough in their roles to allow a high-press to consistently maintain possession. Earlier in the season both Lamela and Chadli were farmer effective AND, critically, quick to cover. It allows the sitting CMs to cover too IF necessary. When those two positions simply don't perform/maintain possession, we struggle. Look at last week, same issue, neither remotely on their game, one pulled after 30 mins. I can only think Lamela is carrying something, because at least he offers some endeavor. I would have to also say that today, Rose was very strong overall and defended his back-post against a bigger man very very well.

But I do think you need to look further up the pitch to see the issues going on at the back.

Why are they playing?
Why is our organisation defending set pieces such a mess? Are the midfielders to blame for that as well.
No one ever wants to blame the back four on here.

 

[shaney]

Your script is boring mate. Write a new one, please. Don't even care if the view remains the same, just please GHod find a new way of putting it, because I've read this before...

Hahaha pot and kettle mate. Seeing as you have an issue with my views I will respond. You may not agree with me, but by the same token, could the same not be said of your endless pro Poch PR posts ? The "boring" script works both ways.

 

[King of Norway]

The reason we are poor at the back is quite simple. Our defenders aren't very good and in addition to that we are poorly organised as a unit. When that is the case you will conceded a lot of goals.

 

[braineclipse]

The game was a mess.
How did we go from the organised side at Chelsea to this?

2 games a week for two months with a drastic shortage of quality in depth and the youngest team in the league still adapting to our new manager?

It's really not shocking that we're inconsistent when you look at the age of our team and the amount of changes we've seen over the last year(s). It's really not shocking that a central line including one player over 23, and one player with more than 30 career PL starts at times struggles with organization...

 

[thfcsteff]

Why are they playing?
Why is our organisation defending set pieces such a mess? Are the midfielders to blame for that as well.
No one ever wants to blame the back four on here.

Individual mistakes, and systemic errors such as the read between Walker and Dier which again allowed Vardy through the same channel Fellani took last weekend, yes, those are on the defense. The keeper being a bit of a vampire? His deal. Verts poor header leading to their third? Sure. Marking from set-pieces? I suspect that Lloris, being the skipper, usually has that mandate and that he reminds those who forget. But are you going to deny our entire system of play struggles when those two positions don't show up? As to why are they playing, I am not Poch, but I would not be surprised if he was giving them some matches to try and play their way into staying here beyond the summer!!!!

 

[DubaiSpur]

Agreed to a point. Fair few coincidences for our goals, and some downright poor defending from Leicester. We did create chances though, Chadli's two misses were not after huge defensive errors? The own goal was a one on one with the goalie after a very nice little pass and buildup play, so not entirely coincidental.

Disagree that we were uniformly bad today. There were positives and negatives in a messy game against a very hard fighting relegation struggler. We need to improve, we're not in the best of form, but uniformly bad? No way.

Well, I'll concede that perhaps 'uniformly bad' isn't the best term to use, given that I myself mentioned that Rose, Eriksen and Kane had good games. But nonetheless, I remain unconvinced. Leicester created better chances than we did, and more of them: and the self-inflicted nature of the goals they conceded were equally matched on our side, with the bounce being all that separated us today.And when that is the performance we as a whole offer up against a team at the very foot of the table, it cannot be called vintage, or even passable.

There were times this season when we were deemed 'lucky' unfairly, and when the good that I did see in our play was overlooked by a lot of people. Today we were just lucky, and still managed to put in a fairly awful performance overall, imo.

 

[thfcsteff]

Hahaha pot and kettle mate. Seeing as you have an issue with my views I will respond. You may not agree with me, but by the same token, could the same not be said of your endless pro Poch PR posts ? The "boring" script works both ways.

Absolutely mate, would not deny it and yes, as is your right. But what I would say is that generally evidence suggests he is firmly in the right direction. Unless you want Harry/Tim back!