mrfahaji

Hilarious all the time the ball doesn’t end in the net... That clearance from Hoedt

I’ve long thought Hojbjerg has potential, but there have been a few moments in this game where he has avoided positive play and instead chosen to slow down, play backwards or not commit (he just had chance to break, and in the first half Redmond ended up losing possession because Hoj didn’t make a forward run). It’s one thing to be safe and keep possession instead of risky/hopeful balls, but another to be reluctant to commit to anything positive.

Calamitous defending. Nice to be on the right side of it for once! Well anticipated & nice finish from Dings.

Funnily enough, in the last 15 minutes (couldn’t get stream until then) I thought we looked capable of creating chances. There were a few times where a better final ball or quicker decision making would have been the difference. Maybe it’s just a “feeling”, but we seem to be a bit more purposeful in the final third even if the quality isn’t there. That’s something, better than expecting the inevitable safe pass.

When your best player at 'holding up the ball' is one whose control is equivalent to a short pass, you know you've got problems.

It says in the top two tiers only, a bit galling if you want to stand behind the goal and the stadium has three tiers.

He has hardly played or hasn't hardly played?

Not sure we can say that just yet. And besides, we would have had to decide on Promes before the season kicked off.

Maybe it doesn't help to shuffle the pack at the start of the season, when getting the team to jell is the priority, but of course having specific tactics for certain matches makes sense. Obviously you don't need to have a different team for every match, but now and again it might make sense, especially if the players are of similar level. In general I'd say the benefits are bigger to keeping the defence as consistent as possible, but even then you might make changes to combat a particular strength. For example, the defenders you pick to play against Jamie Vardy might differ from those against Benteke.

Just to play devil's advocate (as I think it's more likely to be what you say), could it be that the manager wants to play different players depending on the opposition? For example, when the Leicester team was announced, although it's not the team I would have picked, when I saw Long and Ings up front and then saw Morgan and Maguire as the centre backs for Leicester, it seemed reasonable that the choice of striker was based on a mismatch of pace. Whether or not we exploited that in our style of play is another question (and as I didn't see the game, I can't answer), but maybe there was more to the selection than simply Hughes just trying things out.

Bodes well for Pi though, if someone previously living in Naples is a fan of their pizza!

I thought he had a minimum release clause of £25m-£30m, and that on top of that we would also have to pay his cut of the transfer - at least that was the talk (though I never understood how it was our responsibility to pay something in his contract with Spartak). So it would seem that was all a load of b0110cks.

And I think a lot of the negativity around him has been exactly because he has been so reluctant to do that kind of thing in the past. Hughes seems to be encouraging him to be more direct, hopefully we see an upturn in form from him.

Yes, I'm quite aware of the difference in league quality. But my point was that if we are looking for someone affordable from abroad and the main criteria is "goals and assists", then Elyounoussi had those to his name. You have just listed all the other factors which make up a successful winger, and I agree that the scouting department are responsible for finding players with these qualities as opposed to just those who have scored and set up goals (which was my initial criticism of your post, probably just the way you worded it rather than what you actually meant).

My friend manages the Wykeham so I'd hope he'd tell me if any of our players were in there! (also, presumably Friday night is not the best time to spot a footballer in there if we have a game on Saturday?!)

Didn't Elyounoussi score 14 goals and get a fair few assists last season? I actually agree that not replacing Tadic adequately will come back to bite us, but purely from a 'goals and assists' point of view, that is clearly what they have tried to do with Elyounoussi. My concern is that Tadic had exceptional creativity and our attack was lacking pace. Elyounoussi apparently doesn't appear to have either.

If he is a slow-coach (I haven't seen enough to judge yet), then it's pretty depressing we have failed to address our lack of pace again. It's almost like the recruitment department don't think it's important or have forgotten to add that filter to their search criteria.

Good, I wasn't sure if KBS's post was confirmed but the general consensus seems to be that he only posts stuff he knows about.

True, but he did start the “Hughes Out” thread...!

Jeff's point of view though is that if you strongly believe that we WILL be in trouble after 20 games, why wait to make the change? Palace were criticised for ousting de Boer so early last season, we gave Pellegrino until March. Who made the better decision? While I share some of his concerns, I think Jeff is being a little premature in blaming our defeats on Hughes' inability to coach a defence. Can he really be responsible for Cedric heading the ball in the air and then running away from it? Or Hojbjerg deciding to dive when on a yellow card? Now, of course, maybe he can - if he has instilled a bit more cynicism into our play, who's to say he doesn't encourage other forms of, essentially, cheating? And while it seems harsh to blame a manager for the second goal when Vestergaard could have blocked it, the fact our players were so deep MIGHT also be a product of poor coaching.

Apologies if posted elsewhere, but just saw an Adam Blackmore tweet which speculated that perhaps Yoshida & Gabbiadini haven't been playing because they are going to be sold before the end of the month. Said that if they don't play tonight that could be further evidence. Hopefully not the case.

I was talking about his time at Liverpool. Fair enough if you think his achievements at Dortmund have earned him more time/understanding. My best mate is a Spurs fan, and says that for him, seeing them beat Real Madrid in the Champions League feels like a bigger sign of progress than winning the Carabao Cup, and also better in terms of an experience/memory. I can understand this view even if I don't totally agree with it - while the League Cup final was one of the best days as a Saints fan, so too was beating (and even losing to) Inter Milan.

It was 1-1, not a huge stretch to think the team with the extra man might end up winning...

When did Tottenham last challenge for the title before Pochettino arrived? There's also something to be said for developing players. Quite a lot of the players that have been termed 'top class' were not considered that before he arrived (Danny Rose, for one, although he has been off form recently). Sure, it might be that their inevitable development just happened to coincide with his tenure, but although they might have a squad worth a billion, it wasn't worth a billion when he joined, nor have they spent a billion. Compare that to Klopp, who might now finally win something at Liverpool, after signing Alisson, Keita, van Dijk, Fabinho, Salah and a whole bunch of others for goodness knows how much money. As I've already said, I'm not claiming Pochettino is the greatest manager in the world or even in the league, and I agree that there is something to be said about a team's ability to win when it really matters, which so far Spurs haven't done. BUT I think the argument that "Spurs have such a good team" misses the point that that is largely down to him (even though I'm reluctant to credit him for Kane turning into a goal machine, that is a key slice of good fortune). And I also find it strange how Pochettino gets a lot of this criticism while Jurgen Klopp gets very little. They are similar situations, except Liverpool have had more success recently, are an even bigger club, and have spent lots more money.

I’m not disputing that Mourinho was probably one point (and maybe for a number of years), the best manager in the world. My original point was not that Pochettino is the best out there, just that people often use the fact Spurs haven’t won anything as a stick to beat him with, forgetting that the only reason they are expected to now is because of the work he has done there. Klopp doesn’t get anywhere near the same criticism, and yet he has also failed to win anything.