*** OMT Spurs v Aston Villa ***

[Pirate55]

I saw you calling for Lamela to come off earlier. I don't think that it was a great performance from him in the first but it was not terrible and he certainly improved as the game went on.

There are always ebbs and flows in a game and Mason has been out for a while, so it was always going to take him a while to settle. Surely, it is in our interests to try and get that out of the way early and in a game where we are on top rather than potentially being forced into it later in the week when it might not be at a time of our choosing. I still think though that it was going to take a mistake to let them back into the game.

Apart from the immediate aftermath of their goal, it was a strong performance from us tonight and I think that we can take a lot of positives from it. Winning comfortably at half pace and keeping a bit in reserve is what the best league teams do. We obviously suffer for our inexperience occasionally but this is definitely a team heading in the right direction.

I agree with most of that. I think you undersestimate Dembele's influence that's all. Oh, and we were losing/lost control even before their goal. Great win though and hope we up our overall performance, especially on Sunday against the goons. COYS!!

 

[alekaras]

I wouldn't have Alli as MoM, but the kid shows a lot of maturity for his age, or even someone 10 years older.

 

[mudshark]

Dembele probably edged MOM for me, and if he'd stayed on, I don't believe we'd have had the wobble at the end. Pochettino may have been trying to inject a bit more dynamism with Mason, but I think he misjudged the precarious knife-edge the rest of the side were balanced on. Without Dembele's ball-retention, the sloppiness started to show up more and they had the cigars out too early.

 

[glorygloryeze]

So I have just got back from the game, and I am so annoyed with a large contingent of our so-called fans. I would say supporters, but they did nothing of the kind. Talk about getting on the teams backs and there is no doubt in my mind that this precipitated the nervy moments. Honestly, even before the Villa goal went in, some people were almost rooting for it! Anyway, enough of that rant.

The performance today was average. We won, but should have kept a clean sheet. No real stand out performances for me, but I would say Alli, Lamela, Dembele and Toby were our best players. We just seemed to switch off like Villa did the first 70 odd minutes, and some of our players were making some uncharacteristic (this season at least) mistakes such as Dier, Rose, Mason and Vertongen. This is one of those games that our players will learn from, and thankfully we did not lose. For the first time, Lamela seemed to be like an experienced head at the end, so he deserves credit for that despite nothing really working for him in the first half.

The bit that did not make sense for me was playing Alli further forward when Mason came on. Alli was having a good game and I thought Mason would play in the position he played in against Sunderland. Mason was a bit rusty but the Villa players were going in very hard on him.

We won, but gave away our clean sheet and had an unnecessarily nervy end (until the third goal). Still not many points behind the leaders. Onwards and upwards this week.

Hmmmm...possibly remembering his part in Benteke's sending this exact time last year?

 

[Pirate55]

Disagree with pretty much everything there bar the last bit and the Dembele comments! Where has our love gone Pirate?

It's still there - just dormant sometimes!

So, of the three points I made, you agree with two of them - not too shabby!

We will just have to disagree on Lamela' s first 75 minute performance, that's all.

 

[Cochise]

I don't like the current midfield. I think we lack that cutting edge. Things seemed much better once Mason came on, although that rooster up rocked us a bit.

 

[thfcsteff]

It's still there - just dormant sometimes!

So, of the three points I made, you agree with two of them - not too shabby!

We will just have to disagree on Lamela' s first 75 minute performance, that's all.

Hahaha...indeed...but it sits ready for ignition every game! ;-)

 

[afsoc4life]

I don't like the current midfield. I think we lack that cutting edge. Things seemed much better once Mason came on, although that rooster up rocked us a bit.

What? Things seem much worse when Mason came on. The importance of players who can hold on to the ball was shown. Mason cant do that. Every time the ball came to our midfield for that passage of play, we treated it like it was hot potato.

 

[Yiddo]

I don't like the current midfield. I think we lack that cutting edge. Things seemed much better once Mason came on, although that rooster up rocked us a bit.

I don't agree. I think we crumbled as soon as Mason came on and i hope Dembele starts infront of him on Sunday.

 

[milo]

What? Things seem much worse when Mason came on. The importance of players who can hold on to the ball was shown. Mason cant do that. Every time the ball came to our midfield for that passage of play, we treated it like it was hot potato.

Mason is excellent at holding onto the ball by playing quick passes into players in better positions. Last night he was off the pace but that is understandable given the amount of time that he has been out.

 

[milo]

I agree with most of that. I think you undersestimate Dembele's influence that's all. Oh, and we were losing/lost control even before their goal. Great win though and hope we up our overall performance, especially on Sunday against the goons. COYS!!

I don't see Dembele as a metronome player who team mates take their pace of play off.

The issue for me after their goal was that we forgot our game plan and got dragged down to their level. Going toe to toe with relegation candidates is a really basic mistake when what we needed to do was pass it around and have them chasing shadows.

Dembele would have been useful in holding onto balls played to feet up the pitch but there were not a lot of those played for the ten minutes after the Villa goal.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

Does anyone else think that Poch sees Dembele as a 60 minute player?

 

[Kandi1977]

Does anyone else think that Poch sees Dembele as a 60 minute player?

No

 

[milo]

Does anyone else think that Poch sees Dembele as a 60 minute player?

I think that the sub last night was about getting Mason match fit and up to speed.

 

[braineclipse]

Well done to the lads. Important win and we got our win well deserved overall despite some nervous minutes there.

10 game unbeaten run in the league now!

Quite something.

Two losses at home in the league in all of 2015 according to the Norwegian commentator last night.

I love Poch's thinking towards the end: 'hmmm...we are losing Control of the game. I think I'll put on an 18 year old boy'

Shows a lot of trust.

Or perhaps it's the other way around. Poch gives young players the chance to prove themselves even in difficult situations and from there a confidence and belief grows.

Congrats to young Onomah too. Must be great to get your PL debut at home with a win like that. A EL start would probably be very close if our result against Anderlecht away had been better. And even with a loss is probably not that far away.

Mason is excellent at holding onto the ball by playing quick passes into players in better positions. Last night he was off the pace but that is understandable given the amount of time that he has been out.

Mason was very good at that yesterday too when he first came on. He had several good involvements and he slottet in nicely. Then the error came and it all got a bit nervous for us. But he's not the first or last player to make a mistake like that. It comes with the territory of playing with some risk. The alternative really is Pulis-ball. Of course it's easier to accept the risk and error when we go on to win.

 

[braineclipse]

Mason does deserve blame, it was his fault, he may have an excuse but also makes the calls for him starting laughable, he needs easing back.

Agree with lamela. How people slag him off I have no idea, works harder than anyone else on the pitch, creates, skills full, great quick passing. I think people are still living off his worst of games for us

Only if calls for any of our midfielders starting is laughable.

He made one mistake...

Objectively his mistake was smaller than Dier's mistake gifting the ball to Gestede a bit earlier. Verthongen (and Gestede being average) made up for that mistake, but it was at the very least just as bad as Mason's error. Dembele lost the ball going forward in our own half several times against Anderlech iirc. We've seen Bentaleb give the ball away in dangerous positions too.

These things really do happen. We need to make sure they happen less frequently, but they will continue to happen. And they happen to top class, experienced players too. I've seen Pirlo give the ball away dangerously in his own half, I've seen Xavi do it, I've seen Alonso do it. We all remember how Gerrard rather hilariously did it that one time, but it was not an isolated incident.

You're not calling for Dier to not start games because of his one mistake like that. But you're claiming that it's laughable for Mason to start based on his one mistake. I don't think that's fair.

Suggest you watch the game again. I was calling for Lamela to be replaced by Mason after about 40 minutes - he really was poor.

It could be just a coincidence that we lost control to coincide with Dembele going off. But it certainly wasn't the goal. We were rocking before that and their goal came at the end of a relatively sustained attacks from Villa. My comment at the time was that it had been coming.

You calling for Lamela to be dropped is hardly something new or a particularly harsh criticism in my book.

He wasn't great in that first half, but he wasn't terrible either. We've seen plenty of our attacking players have similar performances this season (and before). There are rarely calls for Eriksen or Kane to be subbed at half time because of it. While Lamela isn't as influential as those two at this point, we've seen Lamela up his game in the second half before this season. And he's starting to contribute significantly with goals, assissts and good involvements.

Dropping him at half time would have been a solid mistake in my book. Particularly when the options from the bench were Mason (not really a wide player, inexperienced in the attacking midfield 3), Townsend (meh!) and Onomah (very inexperienced, not really a wide player it seems). I Lamela has done enough to warrant a bit of patience in our games, and he showed again last night why that is.

 

[Millsy_Yiddo]

Only if calls for any of our midfielders starting is laughable.

He made one mistake...

Objectively his mistake was smaller than Dier's mistake gifting the ball to Gestede a bit earlier. Verthongen (and Gestede being average) made up for that mistake, but it was at the very least just as bad as Mason's error. Dembele lost the ball going forward in our own half several times against Anderlech iirc. We've seen Bentaleb give the ball away in dangerous positions too.

These things really do happen. We need to make sure they happen less frequently, but they will continue to happen. And they happen to top class, experienced players too. I've seen Pirlo give the ball away dangerously in his own half, I've seen Xavi do it, I've seen Alonso do it. We all remember how Gerrard rather hilariously did it that one time, but it was not an isolated incident.

Which one? The slip, the time where he gave the ball straight to Drogba or the one for England against France?

 

[Gazzasrightboot]

Only if calls for any of our midfielders starting is laughable.

He made one mistake...

Objectively his mistake was smaller than Dier's mistake gifting the ball to Gestede a bit earlier. Verthongen (and Gestede being average) made up for that mistake, but it was at the very least just as bad as Mason's error. Dembele lost the ball going forward in our own half several times against Anderlech iirc. We've seen Bentaleb give the ball away in dangerous positions too.

These things really do happen. We need to make sure they happen less frequently, but they will continue to happen. And they happen to top class, experienced players too. I've seen Pirlo give the ball away dangerously in his own half, I've seen Xavi do it, I've seen Alonso do it. We all remember how Gerrard rather hilariously did it that one time, but it was not an isolated incident.

You're not calling for Dier to not start games because of his one mistake like that. But you're claiming that it's laughable for Mason to start based on his one mistake. I don't think that's fair.



You calling for Lamela to be dropped is hardly something new or a particularly harsh criticism in my book.

He wasn't great in that first half, but he wasn't terrible either. We've seen plenty of our attacking players have similar performances this season (and before). There are rarely calls for Eriksen or Kane to be subbed at half time because of it. While Lamela isn't as influential as those two at this point, we've seen Lamela up his game in the second half before this season. And he's starting to contribute significantly with goals, assissts and good involvements.

Dropping him at half time would have been a solid mistake in my book. Particularly when the options from the bench were Mason (not really a wide player, inexperienced in the attacking midfield 3), Townsend (meh!) and Onomah (very inexperienced, not really a wide player it seems). I Lamela has done enough to warrant a bit of patience in our games, and he showed again last night why that is.

Great post and one I agree with wholeheartedly. Players will make mistakes, but jettisoning them after one would be detrimental. It is this sort of atmosphere that has really made the crowd edgy at WHL and this can only adversely impact the players. I have no problems with people identifying an error, but to then say drop him for the next game is just unfair.

 

[inkpenspur]

Bugger... you lot are too quick off the mark. I head off to Italy for a few days with the missus, and someone does the OMT weeks before the match.. I wanted this one as we are nailed on for the win. Bet your mortgage, line up some goon scum avatar for me if I'm wrong but this is three points for sure. And why the absolute confidence? Because I've got tickets for me and number 1 son (aka Lucky Luke) who is on an 11 match unbeaten run... we will win this game easily... there will be no dead cat bounce, we are on the up and pushing for honours this season!!!

Mr Positivity has spoken

Right, that's now 12... anyone want to buy him a ticket for the next three games then???

 

[milo]

Right, that's now 12... anyone want to buy him a ticket for the next three games then???

Does he fancy starting the OMT for Sunday?