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OMT*** Tottenham Hotspur vs. Stoke City *** 15/08/2015 3pm

fudge me that was dreadful. Lets be honest, we should've gone in at half-time 3-4 goals up and Stoke looking absolutely crushed. The second half we had the 50-60 period where again we squandered good positions, poor decisions costing us and Butland making that save. We took Kane off, lost our ability to hold on to the ball, but more over we stopped trying to play the ball out from the back. First half we knocked it around them for fun, never panicked, second half we went straight to the defenders who had to lump it. I don't think we pressed Stoke anywhere near as well as we did UTD last week either. We gave this up.

I wasn't too fussed to see us try to hit on the counter, but without anyone able to actually counter with pace in the side, we never looked too threatening. It's fine saying "we aren't Chelsea" but at some stage we will have to learn to defend a lead properly. We did it under Redknapp when for years under other coaches we looked incapable of it.
 
galeforce said:
we were very good for an hour, we are not a finished unit yet, no knee jerking from me this early in the season
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Hope you're right, hope Poche fixes this - but we will quickly find that momentum is all. If we had a W, mentality is completely different. Poche has to know how to change things up, we cannot as someone wrote just go backs to the wall. In Arry's day, we defended by continuously attacking, taking the pressure off our back line. Today it was sadly familiar and startling, to see how we caved after the pen and finished a game.
 
We lack experience and steel. A player to put their foot on the ball, calm things down and galvanise the team when a game is slipping. We dominated most of the game, but looked so weak defensively.

1. We're so fluid. Payers swapping position. Great in attack, but I think we suffer defensively.

2. Poch tried to address the issue with our right side. Everything for Stoke was coming through there. Lamela was subbed on to help but was not calm or collected and made things worse. Moving Dembele, who was impressive today, to help Walker would have been better in hindsight.

3. We were lost without Kane to hold the ball up. Looked lost - who do we pass to, where is the out ball.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Are people really calling Poch into question? We're two games in!? We knew it wouldn't be plain sailing with this team.
The truth is the gap between us and the pack has been eroded to the point where im not sure if it even exists anymore.

Its going to be a tough season: we've gone down the youth route and this is what happens; man utd bring on Schweinsteiger to see out games, we bring on the likes of alli and bentaleb. its the way it is. we have a stadium to fund, and a philosophy to stick with. We need stability and time. I'm not happy with conceding midfield today, but there were positives, and we have no other choice that i can see but to stick with what we are doing.

People need to calm down a little.
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brick day at the office for him ... no question ...
 
Forget the dodgy penalty. They had plenty of chances to score. look at the saves Loris made. I know it is very early days but we seem to still have all the problems we had last season. And are still short in the key areas that we were short in last season (although Clinton may help).
 
Cochise said:
fudge me that was dreadful. Lets be honest, we should've gone in at half-time 3-4 goals up and Stoke looking absolutely crushed. The second half we had the 50-60 period where again we squandered good positions, poor decisions costing us and Butland making that save. We took Kane off, lost our ability to hold on to the ball, but more over we stopped trying to play the ball out from the back. First half we knocked it around them for fun, never panicked, second half we went straight to the defenders who had to lump it. I don't think we pressed Stoke anywhere near as well as we did UTD last week either. We gave this up.

I wasn't too fussed to see us try to hit on the counter, but without anyone able to actually counter with pace in the side, we never looked too threatening. It's fine saying "we aren't Chel53a" but at some stage we will have to learn to defend a lead properly. We did it under Redknapp when for years under other coaches we looked incapable of it.
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we lumped it a lot in the first half too......
 
Cochise said:
fudge me that was dreadful. Lets be honest, we should've gone in at half-time 3-4 goals up and Stoke looking absolutely crushed. The second half we had the 50-60 period where again we squandered good positions, poor decisions costing us and Butland making that save. We took Kane off, lost our ability to hold on to the ball, but more over we stopped trying to play the ball out from the back. First half we knocked it around them for fun, never panicked, second half we went straight to the defenders who had to lump it. I don't think we pressed Stoke anywhere near as well as we did UTD last week either. We gave this up.

I wasn't too fussed to see us try to hit on the counter, but without anyone able to actually counter with pace in the side, we never looked too threatening. It's fine saying "we aren't Chel53a" but at some stage we will have to learn to defend a lead properly. We did it under Redknapp when for years under other coaches we looked incapable of it.
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we do need to learn how to defend properly and see it out, i totally agree. however, that doesnt mean just abandoning midfield from 60 minutes on and hacking the ball forwards with no composure: thats what league two teams do who are leading in the cup: backs to the wall, michael dawsons your man type defending. i dont think thats what we should be doing. and thats exactly what we did.
 
Armchair Expert said:
Are people really calling Poch into question? We're two games in!? We knew it wouldn't be plain sailing with this team.
The truth is the gap between us and the pack has been eroded to the point where im not sure if it even exists anymore.

Its going to be a tough season: we've gone down the youth route and this is what happens; man utd bring on Schweinsteiger to see out games, we bring on the likes of alli and bentaleb. its the way it is. we have a stadium to fund, and a philosophy to stick with. We need stability and time. I'm not happy with conceding midfield today, but there were positives, and we have no other choice that i can see but to stick with what we are doing.

People need to calm down a little.
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I think when you have a team that is dominating and could easily be 3-4 up and you end up drawing and almost losing, you have to call out the coach. Brilliant setup in the first half and mistakes in the second. Part of the learning experience for Poch and I hope we'll see better decisions in the future.
 
Armchair Expert said:
we werent lumping it, we were looking to, and succeeding in, getting in behind them. they werent aimless lumps, it was a breath of fresh air if you ask me.
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there were times in the first half when we were forced into hitting aimless balls forward. Watch the first half back again, yes it was Stoke doing well to stop us playing from the back, but all im saying is we lost possession quite a few times because of having to hit some aimless balls forward.
 
What a f***** up match but so many home truths..

Lose Kane to an injury and we may as well fold up unless a decent striker is bought
Poch is no tactician; outwitted by Hughes; actually taken to the cleaners... He needed to bring on Alli when Kane was injured, move Dembele to the right and move Dier to shift to three at the back
Lamela is simply hopeless - anyone who even has an ember of hope for this fudging idiot really needs his head examined
WE NEED A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER and f*** the double pivot
Bentaleb needs a long spell on the bench

This is going to be a difficult season... top 4? with the lack of leadership, top 10 more likely!
 
Not watched it but once they scored first I just knew we would concede again .. We're a joke really .. No back bone leadership or drive in team .. They all talk the talk ...

It's the predictability that's crushing .. It's the same auld heads , same mistakes , the inability to control a game and see games out let alone kill games off .. Massive money still needed in this squad .. They just don't have it .. Striker area not really my biggest worry ... It's the midfield .. Just always wrong and has been since modric fudged off out of it .. All mishmash of nothing and no better than one another, no one to make a difference
 
Maltese Falcon said:
What a f***** up match but so many home truths..

Lose Kane to an injury and we may as well fold up unless a decent striker is bought
Poch is no tactician; outwitted by Hughes; actually taken to the cleaners... He needed to bring on Alli when Kane was injured, move Dembele to the right and move Dier to shift to three at the back
Lamela is simply hopeless - anyone who even has an ember of hope for this fudging idiot really needs his head examined
WE NEED A DEFENSIVE MIDFIELDER and f*** the double pivot
Bentaleb needs a long spell on the bench

This is going to be a difficult season... top 4? with the lack of leadership, top 10 more likely!
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Been saying this all summer and all last year and still no where near sorted any issues .
 
alekaras said:
I think when you have a team that is dominating and could easily be 3-4 up and you end up drawing and almost losing, you have to call out the coach. Brilliant setup in the first half and mistakes in the second. Part of the learning experience for Poch and I hope we'll see better decisions in the future.
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I agree. The second half was very strange and came out of the blue really. Although, based on last season, I'm sure most people would have thought bentaleb would be the right player (or the best of those available) to help shore things up.

If Kane had to be withdrawn its also not Poch's fault that we have no adquate striker and any solution will be a half measure.
Having said that, i agree with your analysis, got it right first half, and badly wrong second half.
 
See you at the end of the season, when we're (as usual) short by a couple of points from where we'd all like to be. Thanks to brick shows like that.
 
You can claim that the subs changed the game, but they were changes Poch had to make. Kane had a knock, and Mason has only just come back, and isn't fully fit. So what choices did we have? Do you play a player who has never been playing at anywhere near this level, or do you play last seasons best midfielder... The choice is pretty obvious to me.
 
First goal = was bad defense work of one player, not the team. Second goal was the same kind of chance we gave them before we made our changes, only that Loris did not save this time!
 
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