DubaiSpur
Ian Walker
I'l preface this by saying that Poch's current stock of credit lies in the fact that, between 2014/2015 and the present season, he's made the team take a point (and occasionally more) from games we would routinely lose in the most dodgy fashion prior to his arrival.
Having said that, however, this weekend, and this game in particular, shows that we haven't improved one bit from where we were last season, and that our rivals for a top four spot possess reserves of talent and game-winning tactical/team nous that puts them above us in taking points from games like these, and more generally. Take City, for instance - the same team that we deservedly beat annihilated West Brom today, at the Hawthorns, 4-0. While we are now grimly used to scraping a point from Tony Pulis' sides and grimacing about how completely he has our number. Or take Liverpool - they annihilated this same Leicester side 4-1. In fact, this is now Leicester's first point away from home this season, and they've been largely crap in every game..except against us.
In this game, we showed that our mentality hasn't improved a single jot from last season yet. We're really, really struggling to score from open play in front of goal, that's a given. But, having taken the lead, we then throw it away in the most embarassing series of errors we've yet given away this season, from Wanyama's horrible header to Dier getting drawn to the ball and Walker failing to put Musa off. Reminiscent of our collapse over a larger series of games in April/May last season, that goal.
We can make excuses about the lack of key personnel, but let's be honest, of the two we miss most, Kane was in pretty bad form prior to the injury, and Toby's injury is the type that all our rivals also routinely suffer from. The point remains that, having grinded out the lead, we then immediately threw it away, then laboured fruitlessly for about thirty minutes and gave up for the final ten or so, with Verts' header against the post bookending a period where we were really hanging on. We got a point, we remain unbeaten - the lessons of Poch from 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 still hold. But we have not improved our mentality at all - we've failed this test, and we're still far too soft and weak to go the distance, imo. The players can gob off to the press about playing like Phillip Lahm and being serious contenders all they want, they can't yet show that they're any more mentally ready to do it than they were when they withdrew into their shells in the final weeks of last season.
As a final note, I hope the point and laboured second half performance was worth limply throwing the League Cup game for, Poch. Certainly didn't look like it helped at all.
Having said that, however, this weekend, and this game in particular, shows that we haven't improved one bit from where we were last season, and that our rivals for a top four spot possess reserves of talent and game-winning tactical/team nous that puts them above us in taking points from games like these, and more generally. Take City, for instance - the same team that we deservedly beat annihilated West Brom today, at the Hawthorns, 4-0. While we are now grimly used to scraping a point from Tony Pulis' sides and grimacing about how completely he has our number. Or take Liverpool - they annihilated this same Leicester side 4-1. In fact, this is now Leicester's first point away from home this season, and they've been largely crap in every game..except against us.
In this game, we showed that our mentality hasn't improved a single jot from last season yet. We're really, really struggling to score from open play in front of goal, that's a given. But, having taken the lead, we then throw it away in the most embarassing series of errors we've yet given away this season, from Wanyama's horrible header to Dier getting drawn to the ball and Walker failing to put Musa off. Reminiscent of our collapse over a larger series of games in April/May last season, that goal.
We can make excuses about the lack of key personnel, but let's be honest, of the two we miss most, Kane was in pretty bad form prior to the injury, and Toby's injury is the type that all our rivals also routinely suffer from. The point remains that, having grinded out the lead, we then immediately threw it away, then laboured fruitlessly for about thirty minutes and gave up for the final ten or so, with Verts' header against the post bookending a period where we were really hanging on. We got a point, we remain unbeaten - the lessons of Poch from 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 still hold. But we have not improved our mentality at all - we've failed this test, and we're still far too soft and weak to go the distance, imo. The players can gob off to the press about playing like Phillip Lahm and being serious contenders all they want, they can't yet show that they're any more mentally ready to do it than they were when they withdrew into their shells in the final weeks of last season.
As a final note, I hope the point and laboured second half performance was worth limply throwing the League Cup game for, Poch. Certainly didn't look like it helped at all.
