OOMT: Spurs vs Woolwich Nomads

[braineclipse]

Right, but the funny (and perhaps ironic) thing is, at the time, people were also insisting that going OTT over all those particular games was unnecessary, and that 'it was just one game'.

Those sorts of things build up. I'm not one to indulge in flights of fantasy over the league title, but if we had any intentions of winning it, then absolute giveaways like the ones against Leicester, Saudi Sportswashing Machine, Swansea and Stoke shouldn't have been excused as easily as they were then, and given that these things build up, the gresult on the weekend shouldn't be excused as easily now because 'it was the NLD'. We put ourselves in that position, after all, by insisting that individual setbacks weren't important, which gradually built up to the NLD becoming a must-win in terms of the title.

Purely theoretical assertion, of course: in the real world, there are any number of perfectly legitimate reasons for why we weren't able to see out or secure those games. And for those of us impressed by the exploits of our young (and cheap) side, it doesn't matter too much anyway, since even securing an automatic CL spot and/or finishing ahead of Arsenal is a fantastic achievement in and of itself. But it is important to note: in the future, perhaps, when we are better suited to an assault on the title with better players on higher wages (via the stadium), slip-ups cannot be seen as minor affairs not worth going OTT over, because by themselves they become important later on when we look back and wonder why we're falling short.

Reactions to perceived slip ups are over the top for me when we're outperforming just about everyone's expectations from the start of the season.

If our expectations at the start of the season was to seriously challenge for the title those expectations would obviously change how results and performances are seen.

 

[braineclipse]

I don't think I've ever felt this bad in my life. Not from football anyway. I feel like I'll never get over this. I just feel like dying.

When I'm 90 and lying on my death bed, I will think about this game. "In 2016, Spurs had the chance to win the league, and we blew it in a game against Arsenal when we were 2-1 up against ten men and still messed it up." We'll never get another chance like this in my lifetime, I am sure of it.

Mate... I feel your pain, but I think there's a need to look at this from a slightly different angle.

Some of my Liverpool supporting friends have been trying to give me stick over our results against West Ham and Arsenal. It's the most half-hearted nonsense attempts at "banter" I've seen in a long time. They were where we were a couple of years back and failed to secure the title, but they absolutely 100% miss being in the fight regardless of how it ended. You can tell... they hate being "only" in the EL and fighting to perhaps challenge for the CL when not that long ago they were title challengers again.

I felt hurt and deflated after the Arsenal game. It was surreal in a way. though much of this season has been. But this is still a title challenge and I would much rather feel the pain of a tough result in a title challenge over years and years of the season being over in February or tough results in a CL/EL qualification challenge.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

Walking out of WHL on Saturday (and all the way home on the train) i just couldn't work out how i felt about what had just happened. It was an uneasy feeling.

Beating them would have massively dented any hopes they had of anything, and we would remain bang behind Leicester. Was it an oppurtunity? You bet it was.

When Kane scored that screamer, the scenes on and off the pitch at our grand old ground meant only one thing, we'd turned this game around ....and there was only one winner now.

But it just didn't work out like that (lets not be too sad, it did last year!), Lloris should have saved, we could have been tighter defensively (especially against 10) BUT even if you hate them, they do have very good players, they could not afford to lose on Saturday and they stepped up.

That does not detract from a very good performance by us. Home and away we have been better than them this season. We may share the points but if it was boxing, it would be our hand that got raised twice. But what does that mean, you ask? It means we have progressed, bare minimum we're on par, more likely we are moving ahead on an upward curve. To be gutted to draw....take that as a positive.

We haven't blown anything, we are still second (round of applause for the long forgotten 6 game winning streak) and by definition 'in a title race'. Our competitors are losing to WBA, losing to Swansea, drawing with WBA...iffy results abound. Our 2 games this week didn't end how we wanted but rip roaring derbies they were (ie tough fixtures) and a west ham or arsenal victory in either wouldn't be an outlandish prediction. Defeat to Villa or Bournemouth would.

We are mentally strong. Physically there are a few who maybe are looking a little jaded. Dier will get his suspension soon so he'll get his rest. Alli is injured, i'd give him next Sunday off as well as his suspension Thurs. Kane will just have to play on. Dembele,Mason,Lamela,Son,Chadli are all pretty much fresh and hopefully Jan and Njie will be back after the international break.

Chin ups lads...Believe me this is real progress we are witnessing .....Nothing's over yet..................................................................................................................including

There are many journeys in life. Some tough, but NONE tougher than the journey down the High Road from Seven Sisters for the clams of the red and white variety. I truly believe they may stop coming soon. It's not big and its not clever but long may it continue.

 

[alekaras]

I was wondering today, if we hadn't gone up that quickly, but were still level at 80', would that have been better and altered the game we played and how the Scum played. Something we'll never find out.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

I was wondering today, if we hadn't gone up that quickly, but were still level at 80', would that have been better and altered the game we played and how the Scum played. Something we'll never find out.

Perhaps, but at the time Kane scored i literally thought we were gonna maul them. 4-1 or something.

 

[DubaiSpur]

Perhaps, but at the time Kane scored i literally thought we were gonna maul them. 4-1 or something.

This. It baffled me why we were trying to pull back and defend on the edge of our area against ten men with nothing to lose who'd just thrown on a striker for a DM. There's game management, and then there's....that.

 

[ricky2tricky4city]

This. It baffled me why we were trying to pull back and defend on the edge of our area against ten men with nothing to lose who'd just thrown on a striker for a DM. There's game management, and then there's....that.

I was at the game. I think im going to watch the full 90mins again on the computer. See if any of my 'live' thoughts are on tilt and without the fireworks of emotions before, during and after.

 

[glasgowspur]

I was at the game. I think im going to watch the full 90mins again on the computer. See if any of my 'live' thoughts are on tilt and without the fireworks of emotions before, during and after.

I thought first 20 mins and last 20mins we looked surprised at how much control we had didn't know how to handle it.

 

[SpurMeUp]

I thought first 20 mins and last 20mins we looked surprised at how much control we had didn't know how to handle it.

Yes we were all over them first 20mins, and didn't take our chances. They fought back. Then after we scored, we capitulated mentally. We started to desperately press the ball and lost any composure. Both fatigued, they played around us as we were pulled out of position. We needed a mentality as though we were still losing - a calm determination. Instead it was more sh1t we are winning and panick. Poch will work again on how we perform in that winning situation. Not the first instance this season. We just don't look secure closing up shop.

 

[DubaiSpur]

I was at the game. I think im going to watch the full 90mins again on the computer. See if any of my 'live' thoughts are on tilt and without the fireworks of emotions before, during and after.

I thought the same thing while tersely watching the game, beer in hand, having just finished yelling so hard the windows vibrated when Kane scored. Why on Earth are we sitting back and letting them bombard us, letting them force us back on to the edge of our area, letting them completely outplay us as we desperately struggle to stay in the game? We're 2-1 up against ten men, for Christ's sake, with Wenger having just played his ace card and stuffed the field with strikers: the logical thing to do would be to press their defenders and (sole) defensive midfielder (Ramsey) from positions closer to the half-way line in good order, to prevent them launching accurate long-balls that Giroud and the like could bring down and then play beyond our clearly somewhat strained defense.

It's actually after the game that I figured that it was a futile attempt at game management that, due to our limitations, we couldn't pull off: but that still doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake. And worse, it nearly led to us *losing*. Against ten men. When Ramsey went clean through, I challenge anyone to tell me that they weren't immediately seized by subconscious thoughts of 'Spursing it up' again: thankfully, Wimmer got back and made that monstrously good tackle a second before the trigger was pulled.

 

[Bedfordspurs]

I thought the same thing while tersely watching the game, beer in hand, having just finished yelling so hard the windows vibrated when Kane scored. Why on Earth are we sitting back and letting them bombard us, letting them force us back on to the edge of our area, letting them completely outplay us as we desperately struggle to stay in the game? We're 2-1 up against ten men, for Christ's sake, with Wenger having just played his ace card and stuffed the field with strikers: the logical thing to do would be to press their defenders and (sole) defensive midfielder (Ramsey) from positions closer to the half-way line in good order, to prevent them launching accurate long-balls that Giroud and the like could bring down and then play beyond our clearly somewhat strained defense.

It's actually after the game that I figured that it was a futile attempt at game management that, due to our limitations, we couldn't pull off: but that still doesn't mean it wasn't a mistake. And worse, it nearly led to us *losing*. Against ten men. When Ramsey went clean through, I challenge anyone to tell me that they weren't immediately seized by subconscious thoughts of 'Spursing it up' again: thankfully, Wimmer got back and made that monstrously good tackle a second before the trigger was pulled.

Wimmer made an outstanding block but I couldn't see us conceding three goal. No one has scored 3 against us all season and they didn't look like a team capable of doing so to me. Other than their goals they had no shots on target that I remember Hugo having to deal with

I also think the reason we struggled with the press was them bypassing the middle of the lark and using their full backs better than they had and also the extra forward actually confusing us some what

 

[thfcsteff]

I must have watched a different game.
When we went 2-1 up, for the following 10 minutes we absolutely murdered them. They were on the ropes. Lamela was a man possessed, chasing them down in all corners high up the pitch, Kane swiveled on a shot and drilled it just past the far upright with Ospina wrong-footed, they were on the ropes. And then Sanchez tried to con a second yellow on Lamela with some pathetic bitching and play-acting, Lamela 'nearly' went for it, they both had handbags balanced on arms and the dark arts were in play. It was desperate stuff from Sanchez, who was one of the players that had suffered most from Lamela's tireless pressing and harassment, thus it was a clear moment of game-shift. I am told Poch had Mason ready to come on anyway, either way, this would (for me) be a place where Poch will surely criticize himself as Lamela was such a heart-beat that taking him off seemed to give up some real thrust. THIS was the moment we seemed to be a little tentative, and that is because we lost the power and gumption of Lamela.

 

[thfcsteff]

Wimmer made an outstanding block but I couldn't see us conceding three goal. No one has scored 3 against us all season and they didn't look like a team capable of doing so to me. Other than their goals they had no shots on target that I remember Hugo having to deal with

I also think the reason we struggled with the press was them bypassing the middle of the lark and using their full backs better than they had and also the extra forward actually confusing us some what

There is no doubt the extra forward threw us for a minute, but critically, Sanchez was allowed to get a free run at the heart of our defence, he found himself beating Mousa who was 76 minutes into his first game for a few weeks, and those are the critical margins.

 

[Spurs7891]

Still find it unacceptable that we wasted the chance to go top of the league for the second match in a row ! We had our best available players and Arsenal had many missing but still we failed to beat them at home despite them down to 10 men in the 2nd half ! This again puts question mark into our mental strength to win the league title. There were too many players who looked nervy and had poor game against Arsenal. But we still had a golden chance to win after Arsenal were reduced to 10-men and we had come from behind to lead 2-1. Instead, Pochettino's untimely substitutions unsettled us and allowed Arsenal to get the equalizer. After that we were put under undue pressure and were lucky to escape with the draw.

I think Pochettino has to take the blame for us not winning this match. We did well to recover from a goal down to lead 2-1 and felt like we could score a few more goals after that. But annoyingly Pochettino unsettled the team by replacing the hard working Lamela with the inexperienced Mason. Even though Lamela had a yellow card, he should not have been replaced. For some strange reason, Pochettino has this bad habit of replacing Lamela around the 60-65th min mark in every match, regardless of how he plays. This has cost us valuable points as we always struggle once Lamela leaves. We were also leading Arsenal 1-0 away but conceded the equalizer after Lamela was replaced. Pochettino should have learned a lesson from that match ! Just imagine we could have beaten Arsenal home and away this season had Lamela played the whole match instead of being replaced earlier !

Credit to Alderweireld and Kane for scoring our goals. Lamela and Alli too deserves due credit for assisting both the goals. Firstly, it was Lamela who created the goal for Alderweireld for our first goal. Alderweireld did well to score the goal under pressure. It was a crucial moment to get our equalizer just after Arsenal had been reduced to 10 men. Alli did well to back-heel to Kane for our second goal. But the way Kane scored from the angle was top class. It was great to see Kane scoring a goal like that after not scoring lately. Too bad Kane wasted a few other golden chances to score which would have given us the much-needed win !

Thought our midfield especially Dembele and Dier didn't have a great match, especially in the first half. Dembele was making too many uncharacteristic mistakes until he was replaced. Similiarly, Dier too was making too many mistakes and was lucky not to get send off in the second half. But we still managed to limit Arsenal to half chances with Lamela working hard to tackling them whenever they had the ball. We completely lost the midfield battle when Lamela was replaced and was lucky to even get a draw in the end ! Our defence too should have done much better for both the goals conceded. Maybe Lloris could have saved both the goals but our defence should have covered for him more ! But credit to Wimmer for the match-saving tackle late in the match. It would have been annoying if we had let 10-men Arsenal come back to win !

Too bad that we have let Leicester open up a 5 point lead over us in the title race. Hopefully Leicester will lose many points in their coming matches. But we have to improve a lot and go on a winning run to stay in the title race !

 

[Modric THFC]

I must have watched a different game.
When we went 2-1 up, for the following 10 minutes we absolutely murdered them. They were on the ropes. Lamela was a man possessed, chasing them down in all corners high up the pitch, Kane swiveled on a shot and drilled it just past the far upright with Ospina wrong-footed, they were on the ropes. And then Sanchez tried to con a second yellow on Lamela with some pathetic bitching and play-acting, Lamela 'nearly' went for it, they both had handbags balanced on arms and the dark arts were in play. It was desperate stuff from Sanchez, who was one of the players that had suffered most from Lamela's tireless pressing and harassment, thus it was a clear moment of game-shift. I am told Poch had Mason ready to come on anyway, either way, this would (for me) be a place where Poch will surely criticize himself as Lamela was such a heart-beat that taking him off seemed to give up some real thrust. THIS was the moment we seemed to be a little tentative, and that is because we lost the power and gumption of Lamela.

This is my problem with the current Poch team. He has no one who can come as sub and press like Lamela. Son and Chadli cant do it. He has players to come on and get goals when we dominating but not getting the break through. But Lamela, Eriksen and Alli are the only 3 behind the striker able to press properly.

 

[afsoc4life]

I wouldnt call Mason inexperienced compared to Lamela. Mason knows the EPL. He should know what his position means.

 

[glasgowspur]

I wouldnt call Mason inexperienced compared to Lamela. Mason knows the EPL. He should know what his position means.

Agreed, if anything mason is more experienced.

 

[iggyfog]

This is my problem with the current Poch team. He has no one who can come as sub and press like Lamela. Son and Chadli cant do it. He has players to come on and get goals when we dominating but not getting the break through. But Lamela, Eriksen and Alli are the only 3 behind the striker able to press properly.

I think Lamela had a great game in harrying them and pressing them but I did feel that he was moments away from a red card. I was holding my breath every time that he went in for a tackle. It is a shame we couldn't have kept him on for a bit longer as I think if we had continued the aggressive press we would have creamed them.

Kanes shot that missed the post did come when Mason was on, I think Mason was in a better position for the ball.

Sanchez's goal really annoys me, as he just ghosted behind our players, there were three men around him when he scored.

 

[thfcsteff]

This is my problem with the current Poch team. He has no one who can come as sub and press like Lamela. Son and Chadli cant do it. He has players to come on and get goals when we dominating but not getting the break through. But Lamela, Eriksen and Alli are the only 3 behind the striker able to press properly.

Indeed, and I suspect he knows this only too well. If there is truth that he wants Berahino still, it makes sense in this respect as not only is he a goalscorer, he's a potential athletic pest who with the right coaching could very easily come on and press hard. Shame about Clinton's injury as he does have the pace and energy to come off the bench and keep things honest in the pressing regard (with the obvious caveat he needs to continue adjusting!)...

 

[mudshark]

Being brutally honest, we still don't convert enough of the chances we create. Everyone got all excited over the 34 opportunities created against Swansea, but I look at that and see a conversion rate of not much over six per cent. If that's your typical level, you are always going to be vulnerable to the sort of bad breaks we saw Saturday. We dominate games and dominate games and dominate games, but somehow we still seem to end up scraping wins with Lloris having to pull off a last-gasp save to earn all the points ...or not.