***OMT: Tottenham Hotspur v West 'Am United - WHL, Sun 22nd Feb, KO - 12pm

[Rorschach]

Is that really fair though? he might have neem better had erisken been there doing the part of recycler in the final third

I mean Lamela didnt play well either, and townsend almost literally just stood out there.... but i have to say that i kind of give everyone a pass cause the oracle qualities of eriksen wasnt there.

if i had to chose a guy to drop at half time it would have been one of townsend or lamela

I have to agree. With the benefit of hindsight I would have hooked Townsend at half time, though you could have argued that any one of the front four could have been subbed based on their first half performance. Dembele was sacrificed but I don't think that Eriksen's introduction helped one bit. I would have kept Dembele central, Lamela right and brought Eriksen into the left slot. It's a lineup that has served us well and I would have gone back to that.

That was great point considering how disjointed we were. Credit to West Ham, I think Fat Sam got his tactics spot on. High pressure on our guys forcing the mistakes, and long balls into the channels and over the top. We were back peddling for half the game and got sucked into hitting it long ourselves way too frequently. We weren't ready for it which is all the more surprising.

 

[DubaiSpur]

you need a second gig as a fortune teller , cause that's EXACTLY what he is moaning about

clear as day penalty and he is moaning cause kane went over when HIS LEG GOT CLIPPED!!!

You'd see a lot less of this flimflam if the managers were called out on their hypocrisy by the media more. 'But Sam, your players went down holding their faces and legs in agony and stopped play for minutes at a time, what was that about?'

Would have shut the git up sharpish.

 

[thfcsteff]

you need a second gig as a fortune teller , cause that's EXACTLY what he is moaning about

clear as day penalty and he is moaning cause kane went over when HIS LEG GOT CLIPPED!!!

Good Lord, just read the quotes...is this the same as 'longball' Manchester United hahahaha...I cannot stand him.

 

[africanspurs]

I have to agree. With the benefit of hindsight I would have hooked Townsend at half time, though you could have argued that any one of the front four could have been subbed based on their first half performance. Dembele was sacrificed but I don't think that Eriksen's introduction helped one bit. I would have kept Dembele central, Lamela right and brought Eriksen into the left slot. It's a lineup that has served us well and I would have gone back to that.

That was great point considering how disjointed we were. Credit to West Ham, I think Fat Sam got his tactics spot on. High pressure on our guys forcing the mistakes, and long balls into the channels and over the top. We were back peddling for half the game and got sucked into hitting it long ourselves way too frequently. We weren't ready for it which is all the more surprising.

Agree with everything here

Have a like as well my good sir

 

[Mumorn]

The fact of the matter if the keeper Adrian hadn't punched the ball out to Rose and Song tripping Kane in the box, we wouldn't have drawn.

And if we defended better, we'd have won.

 

[Rorschach]

wasnt just a push, he clipped him on his leg / ankle

It was a bit of both I thought. No doubt about the pen in my mind.

 

[africanspurs]

Good Lord, just read the quotes...is this the same as 'longball' Manchester United hahahaha...I cannot stand him.

mate, couldnt make it up

"we west ham stay on out feet!!!"

tomkins anyone? even today tomkins was grabbing his head with that soldado challenge that never actually happened

 

[Gilzeantoscore]

Eriksen could not win a trick today. looked well of the pace and he seemed incapable of making pretty basic passes. Probably tired. The whole team looked knackered to me. The failure to win second balls is always a sign and Spam were all over us in that respect until the last few minutes when we got a sniff.

 

[thfcsteff]

West Ham boss Sam Allardyce: "You can't put your hands on anyone today otherwise they will go to ground and make the referee's mind up.

"You can argue whether Alex Song has made enough contact for Harry Kane to go down, but when you're desperate like Tottenham are, you get touched and the player is going to fall over.

"Maybe we should be more like Tottenham - we stay on our feet. They're so lucky today. One with the first goal - Danny Rose has mishit it - and the second goal Adrian saved the penalty and it has gone straight back to Harry Kane."

I'd like to volunteer for a job here. Let's arrange for Fat Sam to pay Harry Kane, and I'll be Alex Songl I will then demonstrate to Fat Sam the contact which cause Harry Kane to go down, we can both disappear for 45 minutes and have a cup of tea, after which I will bellow into a mike that Fat Sam goes down easily under the slightest contact. Can we crowd-fund this idea? Please?

 

[indianspur]

A Fergie team would have ground that game out for a win. Same players, stay focused, keep patient and score 3 in the final quarter of the match.

But some players are lacking. Poch has to get them playing or replace them.

Hopefully that equaliser will inspire us to kick on.

Come on, we did very well coming back from two down. Even fergie would have been ok with that. If he was the manager we would have had some extra fergie time to score the winner

A Fergie team would have ground that game out for a win. Same players, stay focused, keep patient and score 3 in the final quarter of the match.

But some players are lacking. Poch has to get them playing or replace them.

Hopefully that equaliser will inspire us to kick on.

A Fergie team would have ground that game out for a win. Same players, stay focused, keep patient and score 3 in the final quarter of the match.

But some players are lacking. Poch has to get them playing or replace them.

Hopefully that equaliser will inspire us to kick on.

A Fergie team would have ground that game out for a win. Same players, stay focused, keep patient and score 3 in the final quarter of the match.

But some players are lacking. Poch has to get them playing or replace them.

Hopefully that equaliser will inspire us to kick on.

if fergie was the manager we would have had fergie time to score the winner
Come on, we did well to get the draw ....5 extra mins and we would have won imo

 

[thfcsteff]

mate, couldnt make it up

"we west ham stay on out feet!!!"

tomkins anyone? even today tomkins was grabbing his head with that soldado challenge that never actually happened

Unbelievable that was! Pure Python! Like when they used to do the Upper Class Twit of The Year races and they'd just fall over holding their heads.

 

[Cochise]

I agree with what someone else on here said, we do cave in to pressure on the back four and Lloris does kick long more often than we should. Now whether or not that is down to a lack of confidence in the play or not I don't know, but when given the opportunity, we do create well from the back.

 

[Maltese Falcon]

I think Fiorentina were highlighting before our game how we were not a technical team which was surprising as we have decent players but watching these 2 games, playing out from defence, we are really sloppy, playing sloppy short balls putting other players under pressure needlessly.

Why are you surprised? We may have "decent" players but they are unable to play the ball quickly and accurately. That's why we suffer consistently against team that defend deep.

I think both teams exploited the fact we push our fullbacks high to perfection as you say with simple balls down the channel which pulls our central defenders out and we are in trouble.

And the fault for that is... our central midfield duo. They are too inexperienced and more importantly too gung-ho! It's fine pressing with your full backs but then one of the two CMs needs to retreat to cover the space between the CB's. Neither Bentaleb nor Mason seem able to understand that basic principle.

 

[Robbo]

At least we didn't lose. Poor performance, we don't click very well at the moment.

Big week coming up. We need to raise our game considerably if we want to progress in Europe and/or win the league cup.

Fat Sam's comments are obviously just sour grapes from a manager whose team just lost two points six minutes into added time. Trying to divert attention from the fact they messed up.

 

[diego_maradona]

Yea we were hoofing it a lot today. Dier looked a little uncomfortable being pressed. Mason a little erratic with his passing but really does try to lift the tempo.

Coming back like that will do absolute wonders for the crowd too. Too often we give up and just say we've blown it when we go down to teams like this.

This team has got some guts. But we made some horrible mistakes today too

 

[thfcsteff]

I agree with what someone else on here said, we do cave in to pressure on the back four and Lloris does kick long more often than we should. Now whether or not that is down to a lack of confidence in the play or not I don't know, but when given the opportunity, we do create well from the back.

I think whenever we are met with a 5 man midfield, it is imperative that we push on and create width to start pulling that 5 around. If one player isn't on it, then we struggle. Today we had two first-half who couldn't catch the game...we will learn to deal with it, and we will get players who can come in and help support the squad strength in the summer IMO...

EDIT: saw a comment on our CMs. I thought both were very strong today, Bentaleb in particular had a fine game. But our whole system relies on quick, smart use of the ball, and I really think we lacked that in key areas during the first-half, width wasn't consistent and thus we were forced to play through the inside thickets which a 5 man midfield plus four defenders can clog and bog just as BFS managed.

 

[indianspur]

A Fergie team would have ground that game out for a win. Same players, stay focused, keep patient and score 3 in the final quarter of the match.

But some players are lacking. Poch has to get them playing or replace them.

Hopefully that equaliser will inspire us to kick on.

if fergie was the manager we would have had fergie time to score the winner
Come on, we did well to get the draw ....5 extra mins and we would have won imo

 

[thfcsteff]

Can I just say as well, what a fine thread of participation today IMO? Best thread during a match of the season I think, great discussion/exchanges and virtually no dramatic quibbling...perhaps it's because we can all see what Poch is trying to build and also appreciate what this team do in terms of fight. Onwards we go eh? COYS!!!!!

 

[Rorschach]

Yea we were hoofing it a lot today. Dier looked a little uncomfortable being pressed. Mason a little erratic with his passing but really does try to lift the tempo.

Coming back like that will do absolute wonders for the crowd too. Too often we give up and just say we've blown it when we go down to teams like this.

This team has got some guts. But we made some horrible mistakes today too

I think we were forced into it by some great pressure from the West Ham front players. They were excellent.

I think the midfield two showed a little inexperience today. Both needed to drop deep to give options to the back line. One dropping deep (occasionally) just wasn't enough. Also I think both were guilty of taking some very speculative shots from distance when passing was the right option. They will ultimately benefit from today's experience.

 

[SpurMeUp]

Maybe we need 6 players who form a real unit in defence. Walker and Rose need to step up a little. Become solid. To be fair I think both are doing that and they have to get forward as well. We need two dominant CBs. I think that is Verts and Fazio at the moment. The problem is a lack of pace. So Poch has gone for Dier and Verts. Then we need a keeper who's on point - and Lloris is - plus an effective screening midfield player. Not sure Bentaleb or Mason are there yet but both are able.

It's getting the balance right between defence and attack. We don't want an AVB setup, but maybe we need a little more focus on a defensive shape and unit.

If we had a strong settled unit of 6 defensive players communicating, staying strong and compact, we'd have a better foundation to play from. At times the rest of the team need to be intelligent and support as well. Too often we're exposed at the back. Granted today there was a mistake that led to a goal, but wham were throwing balls into our box and could have scored a number of other times.