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TOTTENHAM HOTSPUR VS CHELSEA - CAPITAL ONE CUP FINAL

fudging europa league. That competition is preserving the status quo, and should be sorted out.
 
DubaiSpur said:
Sigh. Four important things to take from this game;

1) We are knackered. There is no doubt about it now, and there wasn't much doubt prior to this game. We were knackered, and Poch's vaunted fitness techniques didn't really extend our effectiveness much given the limited size of our 'trusted' squad. By the 60th minute we were on fumes - balls zipping into players' feet bounced off where previously they would have stuck, our pressing up front became more and more anemic and the players ran into blind alleys in exhaustion as Chelsea's fitter players hassled them out of the game. We were out-pressed and outfought today.

2) We lack a great deal of technicality - it's true, what Montella said about us prior to the game at the Artemio Franchi: we aren't very technically skilled as a team. Eriksen is probably the best of a bad bunch (closely followed by Lamela, and then Kane), but it shows when we're trying to operate in tight areas or ping passes with accuracy to the wide men - more often than not we lose the ball, or just send it out of play on those long diagonals, which (noticeably) never happened with Chelsea - their balls over the top were perfectly weighted for the likes of Costa and Willian to run on to, while ours lacked that accuracy. And it showed. Especially in our crossing.

3) Our gameplan was used against us - this is critical - Chelsea matched our 4-2-3-1 with their own, but they allowed us a lot of space in the first half in order to draw us into their half and leave space for break-aways, trusting that our horrible shooting from range (evidenced by Chadli and Mason (twice) blootering it over the bar) would prevent any major damage occurring. Once they got the goal, they used the superior fitness they had to harry us into submission. We played right into this tactic, and were undone by this.

4) Perhaps most important......it wasn't anybody's fault, despite all that up there.

Look, the inquest about this game will presumably be long, and extensive. But sometimes, there isn't much than can be said for games that isn't some variation of 'it wasn't our day'. And in this case, it's very applicable. Despite all those factors above, today just wasn't our day. When you're a team assembled on the dirt cheap, or based off of youthful talent as opposed to mature skill, the way the ball bounces in big games is vital - more seasoned professionals can manage games well, and take occurrences within a game in their stride, but to a youthful, inexperienced team like ours (especially when facing a team as skilled and experienced as Chelsea), that bit of luck is crucial in determining our approach and ability to win these games. And today, the ball just didn't run for us. If Eriksen's free kick shot had deflected off the crossbar and into the net instead of up and away from it, if Costa's shot had missed Walker or deflected away from goal instead of into it, if the referee hadn't fallen for Ivanovic's dive during the one moment in the first half where the defense was wobbling (when Walker went off and then came back again).....it would have been a different story. If Kane hadn't taken that extra moment towards the end when through on goal, if Lamela got a touch on Kane's flick on at that corner, if Chadli had just connected with Kane's cross around the 75th minute....it would have been a different story.

Ultimately, the narrative of this game will be that Chelsea ruthlessly and professionally took apart a young, inexperienced Spurs side. And that's true to a great extent. But it doesn't tell the whole story. And moments like those could have changed everything, and it is to the lads' credit that they managed to fashion those chances in a game like this.

This is a young Spurs side, who will be feeling absolutely gutted at the moment, and will be gutted about this for a long time. But in the cold light of day tomorrow, and in the days after tomorrow, they can take some solace from the fact that this was a game of relatively thin margins, and that the experience they got from this will hopefully stand them in good stead in the future when situations like this arise again. It is up to Poch and Levy (sigh....one lives in hope) to redress the imbalances in the squad that prevent the team from being used to its full potential, to bring in players suited to the system Poch wants, high-quality players that will rise to the occasion during moments like these. But there's no shame on anyone as a result of this defeat, and I hope everyone takes that to heart.

We were beaten by the margins today. Yes, greater fitness would have helped, yes, more technical players would have helped, yes, more tactical tinkering would perhaps have helped. But these are all systemic factors that stem from inadequacies in the side and the club that are not the fault of Poch, or the players: and ultimately, the lads can look at the Spurs crest on their shirt with dignity, knowing that they gave all they could. And that's all we can ask for from them, really.
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I disagree with your second point, whatever Montella may have said.
I was watching the game and thinking just the opposite, that WE were more , or at least as technically skilled as them.
It could be true about the whole Premier League that its not that good technically as our teams have struggled badly in Europe the last week or so.
But as far as the Premier league goes i think we are one of the more technically superior teams. Anyone would think Montella was talking about Stoke City!
The reason why those high balls were delivered with supposed pin-point accuracy was because there was much bigger spaces to hit those balls into. A much bigger margin of error. I was unimpressed by Chelsea's and they failed to exploit that space, they were pretty clueless and we handled them well. If they play like that they won't get close to winning the CL.
We had very little space to play in and i thought we did quite well to interchange in those tight spaces but Chelsea are masters of defending deep and denying space, they have been for years. It was how they won the CL, along with a huge amount of luck against far superior teams.

Somebody else said earlier, i think it was the King of Norway, that once they scored and basically put everybody behind the ball we had little answer but up to a minute before half time (when they scored) how much had chelsea created ? For a team that has spent hundreds of millions on some of the best players in the world that created almost nothing.
The important point is that they didn't give the first goal away from not being able to cope with set pieces.We did !
We had plenty of set pieces too.
That was the major difference(s), they defend in numbers very well ,especially when they go in front and they are better at set pieces, both defensively and offensively, which was hardly surprising considering they had four or five giants out there!

As for the rest of your post i generally agree with what you said. Although we may have tired we still forced some situations and half chances towards the end.
As you said the little breaks (or big breaks) went there way and to win today we needed them to go our way.
 
ringo said:
Where Chelsea are much superior is the gamesmanship. player like Ivanovic and Costa are streetwise masters of niggly, dirty fouls on the blindside fo the ref or away from the ball. They know how to rile players and knock them psychologically off of their game, they also know how to slyly injure players.

Costa deliberately ran into the back of Walker, injured him, and then, once he was injured, tried to isolate him one on one. Costa also stamped on Rose towards the end when they collided and ended up on the ground -by which time the ball had moved on and the ref wasn't watching. Ivanovic barged straight into one of our players - I think it was Mason, without any intention of playing the ball - no booking. He pulled Dembele's shirt in the box.

It is constant niggling like that from players that gets a response from the opposition, then bookings and psychological advantage.
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Sadly this. They're the experts of cnutishness and just too good at conning the referees. Shirt pulling, diving, time wasting, dirty of the ball kicks - not many do it better than Chelski. It's the core of that club.

I wish football's governing bodies would try to eradicate at least the worst of this, but there seems to be no interest in that. In which case the only solution is to try to beat them at their own game, and get more cynical. Currently we don't have many players like that. Fazio, Dier and Bentaleb seems the best at it. Possibly Verts too, and to an extent Lamela.

We're miles behind Chelski in that department though.
 
ringo said:
Overall Chelsea have better players than us. But they didn't play that well today. Neither did we unfortunately.

Where Chelsea are much superior is the gamesmanship. player like Ivanovic and Costa are streetwise masters of niggly, dirty fouls on the blindside fo the ref or away from the ball. They know how to rile players and knock them psychologically off of their game, they also know how to slyly injure players.

Costa deliberately ran into the back of Walker, injured him, and then, once he was injured, tried to isolate him one on one. Costa also stamped on Rose towards the end when they collided and ended up on the ground -by which time the ball had moved on and the ref wasn't watching. Ivanovic barged straight into one of our players - I think it was Mason, without any intention of playing the ball - no booking. He pulled Dembele's shirt in the box.

It is constant niggling like that from players that gets a response from the opposition, then bookings and psychological advantage.

Allied to a high level of skill and it is really difficult to play against. (Interestingly Lamela knows how to look after himself, the odd stray elbow, misplaced foot etc. Dier too a bit. i think it comes from playing on the continent.)
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I like this post.
Your spot on. It's the gamesmanship and pushing the rules to the limit and bending them too that gives them the edge as well as set pieces, not any particular superior skill set (possibly Fabregas and Hazards low centre of gravity excluded).
 
Oh, well. It's lucky for Spurs when the year (starts and) ends in 1... Only another 7986 seasons to go :)
 
Ok, I'm in the pub, was at Wembley. Not the most coherent at the moment, but in answer to some of the above posts-
I'm sure Fabregas would rather play in a team that lets him get forward, pick a pass and all that! He has more assists than anyone this year. Mou's tactics might win, but seriously fudge that! Boring clams! All their wealth against our kids!
How in the name of fudge was Ramires not booked today. The guy is a linebacker, not a footballer.
I may return after my next pint!
 
Like most league Cups, the atmosphere seemed really subdued. Had to laugh, seeing so many empty seats, ten minutes into the second half.
 
Gilzeantoscore said:
What I like about the 'Special One' is that he adapts his tactics beautifully. He's anti-football, but a winner. He would have seen how everything goes through Kane and he responds by playing three, big powerful defenders. There was always one, sometimes two on his hammer. Hhe would have also seen how Eriksen and Chadli have been out of goal scoring form of late. Townsend and Lamela no threat and our fullbacks rarely score. Great tactics which squeezed the life out of or forward play. Simple, but effective. As someone stated earlier, Fibreglass barely went over the half way line. I actually forgot that the was on the pitch at one stage.
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He goes to the richest or second richest club in a division plays negatively and wins. Always safety first and boring.
 
Gilzeantoscore said:
Eriksen has had that spark, but of late he has been leggy in every game. We had nobody who play that simple, but effective ball into the box. The decision making in the final third was what killed us. Every time, we picked the wrong option.
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I would like to see Soldado in that 10 role. He can't score for brick, but he's a very creative player.
 
nelto said:
Ok, I'm in the pub, was at Wembley. Not the most coherent at the moment, but in answer to some of the above posts-
I'm sure Fabregas would rather play in a team that lets him get forward, pick a pass and all that! He has more assists than anyone this year. Mou's tactics might win, but seriously fudge that! Boring clams! All their wealth against our kids!
How in the name of fudge was Ramires not booked today. The guy is a linebacker, not a footballer.
I may return after my next pint!
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Some of the late challenges in the first 20-30 mins that went unpunished were an absolute disgrace.
 
I hope posters stick by Erik Lamela. Yes he is raw, yes he infuriates with his running into defenders, BUT he works so hard to win the ball back for the team, he has an eye for a pass - see the pass that put Soldado through against Fiorentina on Thursday. Give him a couple of seasons working with Poch and I'm sure we will see more strengths than weaknesses. For me I'm not sure why Townsend would be played ahead of him especially in the cup final.
 
hodsgod said:
Enough to beat us more often than not, to be in the champions league and clear at the top of the table. That's enough isn't it?
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What I'm saying is people are on here saying we didnt create enough.
As if they did.
After the initial 15 spell we settled and dominated the second half.
They created fudge all. They had 2 shots from open play in the first half, one blocked and the other wide.

Instead of creating they scored from our set piece organisational fudge up.
And then they killed the game.

I doubt any Chelsea fans are complaining about them not creating enough and wanting Willian and Ramires shipped off ala Chadli and Townsend
They were poor but organised and knew they just had to wait it out to win the game. Calculating clams.
 
Dubai, great post earlier much of which I agree with. Have to say I would add bentaleb to the list of so called technical players. I have been so impressed with him in recent games. For me a tottenham captain in the making. I can live with today tbh was much more gutted on Thursday because we handed the game to Fiorentina. Didn't expect us to win today. Thing about a Mourinho Chelsea, is they are machine like, so teams may beat them on any given day, but over a number of games they will come out on top Against any team . They've shown it against Alex Ferguson's Man Utd, Brandon Rodgers' liverpool, Arsene wengers' arsenal and Pellegrini 's city.
 
Just got home, had a wicked day result aside, nothing better than seeing your team at Wembley in a final

The performance was laudable today, never gave in, hats off to the players for putting a shift in after our run of fixtures

Spurs of 2/3 years ago wouldve caved in at 2-0 and lost by 4 or 5, this team doesnt and never gives in

So much potential all over, I'm genuinely excited about our future

Reading the BBC report a Jose tactical masterclass, dont give that brick, 2 lucky goals aside they barely threatened

and as for Costa, the bloke is a massive thunderclam
 
I'm a pretty stern critic of some of our players, but I would not swap one them for one of theirs. They are a really unlikeable bunch of thugs. Terry is a fascist, Costa an ugly rugy player and the rest, Cahill aside, a bunch of diving and cheating cnuts. I'm not ashamed of any of our players, but if I supported Cheat$ki, I'd be ashamed of most of them. Even Mourinho is a clown shoe.
 
Gilzeantoscore said:
I'm a pretty stern critic of some of our players, but I would not swap one them for one of theirs. They are a really unlikeable bunch of thugs. Terry is a fascist, Costa an ugly rugy player and the rest, Cahill aside, a bunch of diving and cheating cnuts. I'm not ashamed of any of our players, but if I supported Cheat$ki, I'd be ashamed of most of them. Even Mourinho is a clown shoe.
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Cahill is as dirty as the rest of them. A cheating anus of a man.
 
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