doddisalegend

Not so much first half towards the end of second half though we were blowing out our arses started dropping deep and gave up pressing and they opened us up a few times luckily their finishing was Shane Long quality. Overall I think we matched them in midfield so they can't complain to much.

I guess the club think McQueen is a better option as back up to Bertrand then.

Yes that is a fair point though Kane has made a monkey of most PL defenders at some point. Does anyone have stats for how many goals we've conceded from set pieces when VVD hasn't played this season it would be in interesting to see.

One stat that used to come up in the Koeman era was the lack of shots we allowed on our goal iirc we had some of the lowest shots on our own goal stats in the league. That wasn't just about the back four though and was more about the protection the rest of the team gave the back line (and Forster in particular) that started to slide last season ( partly due I suspect to only having one proper DM available) and has carried on this season. Chance of us replacing VVD with someone of the same quality is pretty slim but we could certainly look at improving our defensive team shape by controlling the midfield. Play Romeu, Lemina and Hoj as our preferred midfield and press more rather than trying to defend space deep in numbers would most likely improve our defence.

yes his passing was poor at times but his tackling, interceptions and breaking up of Spurs play was very good he did a very good job of shielding the saints backline.

I still have to pinch myself when I see McCarthy come out and claim a ball at a corner or come of his line to sweep up a through ball. He even got down quickly to a long range shot all things I'd forgotten a keeper was allowed to do.

yes there were balls played over the top or round the corner that players with pace could have exploited (helped by spurs high line) but JWP, Tadic and Gabbi just weren't quick enough to take advantage which makes it very comfortable for the opposition defence. I figure that's why long still gets games (shame he ends up shanking the ball into row z) because he offers real pace. Strangely at the end when we brought on the kid (who looked scary quick) we stopped playing those sort of balls when they looked like they would have been perfect for him.

Has anyone said this? I think most people suspect getting behind the team at games might have a more positive effect in our current position than creating a toxic atmosphere.

either way that doesn't make today a bad point. Despite our weaknesses we ground out a result against a good team that 5 past us only a few weeks ago.

I think he would have had more of an effect today than Gabbi did. I don't particular rate Long but his speed and closing down would have given spurs more problems than Gabbi did.

Making him captain seemed to have a positive effect on him today.

A point is one more though than any of us actually expected is it not? You can't tell me you expected us to pick up a win today I'd written this game off as a thumping. Most of our rivals won't get anything out of spurs we need to be getting 3 points against the lower table sides this is a good point if we beat Brighton.

Not for me we've beaten spurs exactly once since we got back to the PL. They are a team that regularly destroy home and away so a draw is a decent one for us the fact we have been ****e in lots of games this season shouldn't take the gloss of a battling performance today.

Fair play he has upped his game the last few weeks maybe at last he might start to live up to the hype.

it wasn't dead it was good.... for us

Annoyingly Bertrand was getting to the byline and laying good cutbacks to the near post Austin would have gambled on them Gabbi never got near them.

No excuses about service today he had a couple of good ones he didn't make anything off plus he barely won a header all day.

as opposed to us having to put a 17 year old on the bench due to lack of options? yeah poor old spurs having to scrap the bottom of the barrel player wise while we put a super strong team.

well if this bit true he certainly won't be coming here When Silva took the job in the summer he was looking forward to working in the Pozzo’s continental model, which was why he took the job in the first place. But in reality he was frustrated that he could not sign all of the players. When he arrived at Hull City last January, Silva could sign who he wanted: Evandro Goebel, Omar Elabdellaoui, Lazar Markovic and so forth. But when he arrived at Watford, where Filippo Giraldi is in charge of transfers, it was not so simple. The club signed Richarlison at Silva’s request. But there were plenty of Silva targets they could not get, like Benfica centre-back Jardel or Shakhtar left-back Ismaily. Silva’s agitation about transfer targets caused friction with the Watford board

found the link https://www.theguardian.com/football/blog/2018/jan/11/sam-allardyce-wembley-nothing-to-lose-everton-future-tottenham-hotspur It was a crass choice of words on Moshiri’s part but in regards to Everton’s on-pitch fortunes, not the most significant thing he said to shareholders gathered at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall. Arguably that was his response when asked how far Sam Allardyce can take the club, having been appointed manager in November. “We’ll have to wait and see,” Moshiri said. Such a clipped, less-than-enthusiastic reply felt telling. Still think Everton will move for Silva in the summer especially as BFS isn't pulling up any trees.

No they were there around the corner from the shop. Is it a coincidence that our decline as a club seemed to start about the same time the "saints band" started assaulting our ears every home game?

I don't think anyone is. We all realise we're are in a relegation battle so the first thing we need to see is the players fight and graft to try and avoid the drop we got that today. A point against a spurs side that regularly smash us is a little glimmer of hope and comfort. I don't think taking a bit of joy from this result means we all suddenly think everything is going to be fine but, in a season that has been generally ****e, can't we just enjoy a half decent performance tonight and go back to worrying about all the glaring problems in our club tomorrow?

It was better today but then people could see the players really trying and fighting for it, something that has been lacking for a while, and responded in kind.

We'll having said I wasn't looking forward to this game in the pre match build up I think it was the most enjoyable home game of the season. It was a decent performance and the players battled and fought until the end. We dropped deep towards the end but a lot of players looked like they were blowing out their arses late on. I'm not surprised Hoj and Lemina came off as both put in a big shift in midfield and both took knocks so they were flagging towards the end. A hard fought, physical game under lights in the pouring rain with both sides having chances whats not to like?

We'll we've competed 1st half see if we can manage to compete for a whole game now.