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***OMT: Mighty Spurs vs Palace***

Phew. Got away with that - we were pretty poor, and Palace had the better chances throughout the game.

Strong performances - Gazzaniga did nearly everything right - he could have been dreadfully punished for that challenge on Sakho in the first minute, and his failed rush out when Zaha was through could also have cost us...but his saves kept us in the game, he was assured with the ball at his feet and he grew into the game. Started commanding the area as the game wore on, and provided some much-needed dominance at corners. Probably the MotM, and a good debut all-round - errors aside.

Rose came back well, looked a threat all game (probably our only real consistent threat). Kane was solid - worked, spread the play beautifully, posed a threat. Sanchez was solid, as were Verts and Dier. Winks was good until he had to go off - hope he's out of the friendlies now (ditto Kane), because we need him.

So-so performances - Eriksen was so and so. A couple of good moments and generally assured in possession, but largely blunted by Palace and was anonymous for long periods. Ditto Sissoko. Aurier did a decent job marshalling Zaha down the right and providing a threat on that side, but had some *horrendous* giveaways that nearly cost us goals. Still his debut season, though, so I'm not judging. Son, the *ultimate* in footballing frustration - has a horrible game, can't hold the ball at all...then scores a magnificent goal that was curled into the far corner around half the players on the field. Then misses an absolute sitter by horribly shanking it into the side-netting, and then messes up another breakaway after that in quick succession.

Bad performances - Dembele. Thought he was uncharacteristically poor - didn't seem his barnstorming self, and although he had a couple of good moments, we looked less assured with him on the field than we did when Winks was on. I hope his injury isn't affecting him too much.

In the end, not much more to say about this game. We won, we sneaked it, we were lucky. We needed to win, though - so the manner of the victory doesn't matter. On to the next game. And well done Gazzaniga - good debut for the lad, and it will hopefully give him a lot of confidence. Just needs to cut out those errors.
 
Aurier needs to spend less time on that goofy hair-do and more time working on the weight of his passes. He's lively and likeable but he needs to add the consistency and judgement Ben Davies brings to the left side.

Danny Rose looked well below the best we've seen from him. Again, I'm blaming high-maintenance hair.

Couple of buzz cuts for these two and extra hours at training will do wonders.
 
wow, palace had better chances, they lacked what we had - finishing ! Paulo Gazzanigga, thank youuu ! Verts was awesome too. What a beautiful strike by Son !

Good luck Roy in the league, unlucky *phew*
 
As Cochise said a couple pages ago, I think we need to consider going 4-2-3-1 against these sort of teams in order to get more attacking threat. I much prefer 3-5-2 in the games against decent teams and in Europe, but games where we have 70% possession, I think you need more players who can open up the defence and/or score. In our typical 3 at the back formation, we at best have 3 players who might realistically score
 
AdamB said:
As Cochise said a couple pages ago, I think we need to consider going 4-2-3-1 against these sort of teams in order to get more attacking threat. I much prefer 3-5-2 in the games against decent teams and in Europe, but games where we have 70% possession, I think you need more players who can open up the defence and/or score. In our typical 3 at the back formation, we at best have 3 players who might realistically score
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I agree with that. With Alli out and Lamela still not fit, we didn't really have the personnel for that formation today, but I think it could be a better solutions against teams that sit deep. We need as many players out there as possible who can create and score.
 
Hotshot-Tottenham said:
Certainly the early slap on Sakho's head.
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I don't see how that was a penalty. What was Gazzaniga supposed to do? He spread himself to make himself big in case Sakho made contact wth the ball, but he didn't come flying out at Sakho, wiping him out. Sakho was the one who came flying into Gazzaniga. In general I think goalkeepers get away with things much too easily, but Gazzaniga did nothing wrong there for me.
 
King of Norway said:
I don't see how that was a penalty. What was Gazzaniga supposed to do? He spread himself to make himself big in case Sakho made contact wth the ball, but he didn't come flying out at Sakho, wiping him out. Sakho was the one who came flying into Gazzaniga. In general I think goalkeepers get away with things much too easily, but Gazzaniga did nothing wrong there for me.
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There was another one where I think it was Rose that was dragging someone down off the ball.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Bad performances - Dembele. Thought he was uncharacteristically poor - didn't seem his barnstorming self, and although he had a couple of good moments, we looked less assured with him on the field than we did when Winks was on. I hope his injury isn't affecting him too much.
.
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I thought Dembele was fine. He was the only one retaining his composure when others were giving it up over an over.
 
King of Norway said:
I agree with that. With Alli out and Lamela still not fit, we didn't really have the personnel for that formation today, but I think it could be a better solutions against teams that sit deep. We need as many players out there as possible who can create and score.
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Yep and look at Man C who play 4-3-3 with Fernando in CM alongside de Bruyne and Silva - that's 5 goal threats. Or even Liverpool who in a 4-3-3 would have Friminho, Mane and Salah up top and then Couninho in midfield, and you could even include Wijnaldum as a goal threat given he gets up near the CF. In contrast, in a 3-5-2 we'll often have Kane, Dele and Eriksen only who threaten the goal (assuming say Winks and Wanyama in CM)
 
AdamB said:
As Cochise said a couple pages ago, I think we need to consider going 4-2-3-1 against these sort of teams in order to get more attacking threat. I much prefer 3-5-2 in the games against decent teams and in Europe, but games where we have 70% possession, I think you need more players who can open up the defence and/or score. In our typical 3 at the back formation, we at best have 3 players who might realistically score
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It was the switch from 4231 which contributed to us starting to turn over the park the bus sides - in the old formation we were too predictable and too narrow - 3421 gives us more width, penetration and options in the attacking third.

We aren't playing well this season at home to park the bus sides though I have to agree I'm just not sure it's formation related.
at this point
 
Very average performance, but that's how you win things, grinding out results when you don't play well and players are missing, my son told me the commentator said there were only 56,000 at Wembley, just 21,000 more than we were getting last season, they just can't stop making snide remarks.
 
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