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OMT - Spurs v Burnley

Man of the match


  • Total voters
    70
  • Poll closed .
Attack wise he is as blunt as sissoko
Defensively he is average
He looked better playing at CB the other day as all the play was in front of him
this is a player who 3 season ago had the best chances created record of any defender. The guy can play but he seems to play within himself more and more

I think that he was playing to orders.

Given how much possession we had and how deep Burnley sat, our fullbacks weren't as involved going forward as you'd expect. Doherty got a lot more involved after Lamela came on.
 
I think that he was playing to orders.

Given how much possession we had and how deep Burnley sat, our fullbacks weren't as involved going forward as you'd expect. Doherty got a lot more involved after Lamela came on.
His orders can’t have been to pass behind players or spank the few crosses you make long enough for Doherty to pick up
last season it was a tactic. Yesterday his role was of course to defend But his use of the ball was very poor
 
Very possible. I'd put my money on Dier if that was the case, though again, Davies can be assertive too. I have to say, bar that rather strange decision to try and flick it back over this shoulder when he got a free-kick off Wood, I thought Dier was so strong and solid last night.
The thing that infuriated me about this at the time was that it was a really poor decision as he had easy options just playing the way he was facing and it’s usually just the one mistake a game that can lead to goals. Hopefully he gets a gonading for it as it must be the easiest part of the game to immediately cut out.
 
Attack wise he is as blunt as sissoko
Defensively he is average
He looked better playing at CB the other day as all the play was in front of him
this is a player who 3 season ago had the best chances created record of any defender. The guy can play but he seems to play within himself more and more

He may be following orders, Davies is regarded as an intelligent footballer and an all-round bright bloke by Mourinho and his team mates.
Contrast his play against Maccabi Haifa where he had more attacking output (successful, anyway)
 
The thing that infuriated me about this at the time was that it was a really poor decision as he had easy options just playing the way he was facing and it’s usually just the one mistake a game that can lead to goals. Hopefully he gets a gonad*ing for it as it must be the easiest part of the game to immediately cut out.

Agreed.
He is so close to being our true Lion at CB. He has to cut those weird decisions out.
 
I would have to see the "maps" and all that, but Davies did not seem to be getting forward that much at all, let alone more than Doherty?

Look at the average position map posted earlier. @milo was going to post one but has singularly failed to do so thus far. Both Doherty and Davies played as traditional full backs. Both got up and down the line. Davies made most of his passes backwards ( see SteveAWOLS post) and many of them from advanced positions. Whether that was under instruction or not, we don't know. What we can know is thatwhen he did try and cross it was often blocked because ( as usual for him) he waited too long, or it went to no one . He got into good attacking positions but delivered no threat at all.
 
Playing the fullbacks tight was one of the first changes that Mourinho made when he came in and was a key change from Poch. We saw a bit less of it with the wonky and this season with two attacking fullbacks. So this was a change to what we have been doing. I'll need to watch the full match rather than the highlights but on first viewing, I thought that Davies stayed tight (or was slow to get back in position) in the next phase of play.

Playing full backs tight when defending is standard in a back four. Your original statement was that Davies "played in a back three for much of the time " is the one I ( and others) are taking issue with.
 
I have to say, I perversely enjoyed seeing us play such a solid, patient and somewhat stodgy game in a stodgy environment like that. I always felt we'd score. I wouldn't like it every week, but these are the precise things we need to know how to do.
Somewhat stodgy yes. But I also think the shot count and xG doesn't tell the full story. We got into decent positions, but couldn't deliver the end product. We played several good balls over the top, got Davies and Doherty into good positions, found Kane and Ndombele in between the lines...

Burnley defended well, as can be expected, but we made them work hard for it and tested them many ways. After the goal they weren't able to put us under pressure, or even press us when we had the ball. That could be partly down to confidence on their end, but I also think it speaks towards how hard we made them work to defend well.

On another day someone delivers that telling quality a bit earlier and it's a different game. Of course on another day we lose that, but Burnley being difficult to play against is nothing new.

We were also quite solid defensively which was good to see.

Not a great performance, but if this becomes our low point in terms of performance I'll take it.
 
Look at the average position map posted earlier. @milo was going to post one but has singularly failed to do so thus far. Both Doherty and Davies played as traditional full backs. Both got up and down the line. Davies made most of his passes backwards ( see SteveAWOLS post) and many of them from advanced positions. Whether that was under instruction or not, we don't know. What we can know is thatwhen he did try and cross it was often blocked because ( as usual for him) he waited too long, or it went to no one . He got into good attacking positions but delivered no threat at all.

First of all, you should've read through the thread a bit further and you'd have seen my response to the map Finney posted.Would've saved you typing your first sentence.

As for the second part, I also think he played them as more traditional FBs because he did. No-one -including Milo- is saying otherwise. Mourinho played Davies because he wanted us to be tighter/more defensive than in previous away games. He has Reguilon for those matches. he has also realized the importance -in matches where we will be more defensive- in using Davies' innate knowledge of both centre-half and full-back positions as we currently have no left-footed centre-half. This allows smarter cover when sitting a little deeper. This is what Milo was referring to when he was speaking ab out Davies almost forming a back three on several occasions. From my perspective -and aside from the conventional back four defensive shape, he was slightly tighter to Dier inside when defending again to help make top for that lack of left-footed presence in the middle - one he both understands and can cover.
 
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Playing full backs tight when defending is standard in a back four. Your original statement was that Davies "played in a back three for much of the time " is the one I ( and others) are taking issue with.

Can I ask you a genuine question? Why is it so important to you to "win" a point of view/perspective over Milo?
 
Playing full backs tight when defending is standard in a back four. Your original statement was that Davies "played in a back three for much of the time " is the one I ( and others) are taking issue with.

I probably didn't explain what I was trying to say as well as I should. I've since tried to clarify that.

We had a change in how we used our fullbacks in this game. I think by design and to counter high balls. Mourinho did something similar when he first came in but had moved away from it.

Davies was central a lot because their better chances came from our right.

My original point was replaying to criticism of Davies attacking contribution. I was trying to point out that he was starting from a different position than Reguilon normally is.

For what it is worth, I agree that Davies was a bit sloppy on Monday night and doesn't offer the same attacking threat as Reguilon. I also think that he is a useful squad member and is better suited to some games.
 
@milo was going to post one but has singularly failed to do so thus far.

There's no point posting something that others have already posted. I tried to explain the point I was trying to make better and point to passages of play where this happened.
 
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I think if a player who knew how to head the ball correctly was in that position we wouldn't have scored :)
 
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