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***Tottenham Hotspur vs Chelsea***, Premier League, Nov 1st 2025 at White Hart Lane

totalspurs said:
This isn't even about what players we have. The players are the players, it's about structure and identity. We've gone too far the other way that we have no attacking identity at all...at the moment.
Hoofing it up at at every opportunity is not the identity I want to see at all.
This is the Premier League not lower league, even if we aren't going to be the most attractive team in the Prem, I can live with that as long as we have some level of creativity in our attack.

Angball was infuriatingly naive defensively, but I'd still rather that than become a team who only look to hoof it forwards, and can't string two passes together.
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Angeball was also crap going forward. We're not far off now, but the missing players makes things difficult. Yes, we need one or two quality players added to to this team, but it won't happen in January.
 
thfcsteff said:
You know what the biggest issue was tonight? A total lack of plan as to create beyond horseshoeing it round and round. No wonder Spence and VdV look tinkled off, they have nowhere to other than 'lump it along the line or hoof it up the middle.

That first goal? Yes, terrible pass from Xavi, but Maresca and every PL manager knows that a right-footed LB with no obvious left-winger will have to look inside; they double harrass him in there and no-one has thought to drop deep for a short inside pass a few seconds earlier because we are not coached to play that way. So Spence ends up harried, Xavi tries to help and fudges it, VdV is backpedaling, but the whole thing does not happen if we have a system of progressing the ball which involves using the middle of the pitch sometimes.
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I don't think we lumped or hoofed anywhere near enough today.
 
Robspur12 said:
TF has some questions to answer tonight. He needs time but that was not acceptable. Passing and moving non existent and when a team can defend set pieces we offer nothing.

Spence and Kudus were infuriatingly holding on to the ball, Muani offered nothing and Richi is just out of form.
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...because we have no attacking system beyond (sorry, I'll stop, my record player's stuck LOL)...
 
A lot of issues in that game. I'll just focus on one

We struggled progressing the ball most of the game. Our best period in that regard imo came after Romero came on, no surprise. He added much needed quality and composure deep.

So let's move him up front, after Porro has been subbed off too, to ensure we go back to being completely unable to start even a half decent attack in our own half. Once again reducing us to long balls

I don't get it.
 
elyid said:
Thought our best period of the match was just after Romero and Richi came on. Having Muani, Xavi and Kudus across the pitch meant we finally had options to pass to.

Then five mins later made a triple sub and back to no options.
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Absolutely.

Having made changes which seemed to mean something, he then made two which he didn't need to preciselty because of what you said. I'd still have gone Udogie on Porro off.
 
braineclipse said:
A lot of issues in that game. I'll just focus on one

We struggled progressing the ball most of the game. Our best period in that regard imo came after Romero came on, no surprise. He added much needed quality and composure deep.

So let's move him up front, after Porro has been subbed off too, to ensure we go back to being completely unable to start even a half decent attack in our own half. Once again reducing us to long balls

I don't get it.
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It was ridiculous.
 
thfcsteff said:
You know what the biggest issue was tonight? A total lack of plan as to create beyond horseshoeing it round and round. No wonder Spence and VdV look tinkled off, they have nowhere to other than 'lump it along the line or hoof it up the middle.

That first goal? Yes, terrible pass from Xavi, but Maresca and every PL manager knows that a right-footed LB with no obvious left-winger will have to look inside; they double harrass him in there and no-one has thought to drop deep for a short inside pass a few seconds earlier because we are not coached to play that way. So Spence ends up harried, Xavi tries to help and fudges it, VdV is backpedaling, but the whole thing does not happen if we have a system of progressing the ball which involves using the middle of the pitch sometimes.
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Don’t agree myself.

Even under different managers we’ve been losing at home to the chavs. Why?

Pressure. And not being able to play our game.
 
Finney Is Back said:
It’s quite hard to progress the ball forward when the manager had only decided to start with 2 attacking players and 9 or 10 players are constantly behind the ball
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The team should be able to transition and move out with possession.

You want to pin it on the manager. Yet we were losing to the chavs at home under Postecoglou when he was playing more attackers!
 
Finney Is Back said:
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen us lose to this lot from Weat London but not sure I have ever seen a more gutless, negative display than I did today. This manager will not last the season if he continues to send us out with no attacking players, structure and purpose. It is abysmal to watch.
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We’ve lost 6 in 7 against them at home. That’s absolutely shameful for a club our size. That’s obviously not on Frank for the most part.

The worst experience I had in our stadium I think was the 0-2 under Jose against them. Beaten soundly, Sonny sent off and the allegations of racism against the crowd with the PA sending repeated warnings…that was horrible.

Purely on performance, today was worse. Considerably so.
 
Finney Is Back said:
I’ve lost count of the amount of times I’ve seen us lose to this lot from Weat London but not sure I have ever seen a more gutless, negative display than I did today. This manager will not last the season if he continues to send us out with no attacking players, structure and purpose. It is abysmal to watch.
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I don’t get how we can go from Wednesday away from home to a decent side where OK, we lost, but looked so much better attacking wise to tonight which was so negative.
I hope this will be some kind of awakening for Frank that we can’t play so defensively and negatively at home. Things could be totally toxic by 3pm next Saturday.
 
DubSpur said:
You didn't see players turning backwards instead of playing it forward??
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No confidence. Fuk up and the stadium groans.
DubSpur said:
There was no movement, defence was always the first think on the players mind, instead of making an effort to get into position to support the attack. If you didn't see a lack of bravery tonight I don't know what you were watching.
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We were trying but not delivering. And you could see the pressure on players shoulders. Simons comes on loses the ball, and he didn’t regain composure. Lost it again twice more in quick succession, leading to their goal. He actually NEEDED to turn back rather than do as you suggested 😂 just play some simple passses and get into a flow. Instead the pressure at home builds and weighs heavy on a relatively young side who aren’t confident yet.
 
thfcsteff said:
What 'game' of ours were we not able to play today? Genuine question.
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Didn’t manage to answer my question…

To be able to move the ball around the pitch effectively. They pressed us well but with more patience and confidence we can do better and lose the ball less often.

Then as we know we lack experience and fluidity in attack. So an unsettled attack lacking confidence and experience playing in a bit of a cauldron.
 
SpurMeUp said:
The team should be able to transition and move out with possession.

You want to pin it on the manager. Yet we were losing to the chavs at home under Postecoglou when he was playing more attackers!
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It can’t transition because it is too packed with defensive players, playing to horrible, negative instruction.

We were indeed losing to them under the last manager but we weren’t doing so hoping to nick a nil nil.
 
SpurMeUp said:
Don’t agree myself.

Even under different managers we’ve been losing at home to the chavs. Why?

Pressure. And not being able to play our game.
Click to expand...
We have been poor at home all season bar the mighty Burnley at home this isn't just about the Chavs.

We were even lucky to get a draw against Wolves and anyone half decent have beat us. What you are coming out with is flimsy excuses, players are always under pressure. We setup too negatively both in terms of players on the pitch and the tactics. I have been asking the question for weeks and still waiting for an answer, what is the footballing style we are trying to play? Sure you wouldn't expect it to be in full flow at this stage, but you would at least expect to see what he is trying to implement. It literally looks like we are a bunch of strangers on the ball who work on nothing except set pieces all week in training and even the set pieces were awful today....
 
SpurMeUp said:
The team should be able to transition and move out with possession.

You want to pin it on the manager. Yet we were losing to the chavs at home under Postecoglou when he was playing more attackers!
Click to expand...

No-one wants to pin anything on the manager, however he is making it unavoidable.
Not even going to bother with your Postecoglu stuff (I think it's a nonsense unless you want a proper discussion) however let me name the attackers we fielded during today's game.

Kolo Muani
Richarlison
Kudus
Johnson
Odobert
Xavi

The manager gets a partial pass on the fact that we are still trying to rebalance the squad into something deeply competitive. We again REFUSED to sign a left-sided defender (Hincapie sits on the bench over there and we could've pushed and got him - we didn't), and we failed to get a quality left-winger. Critically, we blew the MGW signing. So we had squad issues...where the manager has to wear this and wear it honestly, is that he has NO attacking plan beyond what I've banged on about already (likely boring everyone in the process - me, not him...well, maybe him too hahahaha)...

There was absolutely no spirit second-half because there was no plan. Other than Romero and Udogie, the subs were all about doing the same thing with fresher legs, and that same thing wasn't working. I thought TF was both a pragmatist and tactically flexible!!!! I am not seeing it. I live in hope.
 
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