Middlesbrough
1 – 0
Tottenham Hotspur
The Riverside Stadium
FA Cup Fifth Round
1/03/2022 8:55 pm
Attendance: 31135
Referee: Darren England
| Middlesbrough | Tottenham Hotspur | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Coburn (107) | |||||||
| Lumley | Lloris | ||||||
| Jones | Doherty | 81 | |||||
| Dijksteel | Romero | ||||||
| Fry | Dier | ||||||
| McNair | 105 | Davies | 115 | ||||
| Taylor | 96 | Sessegnon | 81 | ||||
| Crooks | Hojbjerg | ||||||
| Howson | 118 | Winks | |||||
| Tavernier | Kulusevski | 105 | |||||
| Sporar | 96 | Son Heung-Min | |||||
| Watmore | 75 | Kane | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Olusanya | Reguilon | 105 | |||||
| Peltier | 105 | Sanchez | |||||
| Bamba | 118 | Emerson Royal | 81 | ||||
| Lea Siliki | Rodon | ||||||
| Bola | 96 | Gollini | |||||
| Daniels | Bergwijn | 81 | |||||
| Coburn | 96 | White | |||||
| Balogun | 75 | Scarlett | 115 | ||||
| Boyd-Munce | Devine | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 16 | Goal attempts | 15 |
| 4 | On Target | 6 |
| 4 | Corners | 7 |
| 9 | Fouls | 12 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 1 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 51 | % | 49 |
On the face of it Abramovitch has done the right thing .
Well done to him .
Allan you mean taking the money and running 💰😉 very commendable.
Just looking at tonite results Luton were doing pretty well against Chelsea, for 70 +minutes.
I think Chelsea, are leading just now, but hardly dominant.
BS agree Conte is a winner, our current squad, simply aren’t and havnt been for 10+ years.
Who’s wrong??
Don’t get you fixation with young players, WW, they’re not the answer, not being any worse doesn’t make em better, we don’t see training, and as I have said some of our youngsters have played in Europe and didn’t shine, in fact many on here bemoaned the team selection at this time.
In short you can’t win, you need to gradually bring youngsters on (IMO) only now and again do you get a Rooney.
What we need is to add to Kulu and Bente, with proven winners with that mentality, to progress our team.
Niall. It’s not a fixation it’s disillusionment with the “old” guard who have failed. We have had 3 youngsters on the bench but Conte still plays the older failures. At least give them some time. Certainly more than the few seconds that Dane Scarlett gets.
WW being a failure and inconsistant are two different, I suppose its balancing risks. I’m not saying that you’re wrong, I’m just not sure that sitting where we are with us maybe just ready to click, perhaps it’s best staying with the status, quo.
A Spurs manager will not be judged by his history or what he has acheived elsewhere, he will be judged on what he achieves at THFC. Nothing else is relevent. How many managers have highlighted this in recent years.
A good manager is one who both improves his players individually and finds the best way to blend them into an effective team. Only then can the maximum potential be realised and success can be judged as avoiding relegation as much as winning anything. It all depends on expectation. Some managers like Hodgson seem to excel at getting the best out of average squads while struggling to be credible with elite players. Has Pep ever been tested with no money to spend? Has Conte?
Geof – If you don’t take into consideration past experiences and track record, what do you evaluate prospective candidates on? How do you recruit?
Do you just go off of a vision that the managerial candidate is going to present during an interview? If there is no tangible proof that he can execute that vision, how do you trust said candidate?
That just seems to me like a recipe for disaster. An open door for smooth talkers, not doers.
I’m not saying managers should get a free pass for everything based on past successes, but I am saying that having that track record elsewhere is at least proof that the person can be successful in a certain set of circumstances.
The issue we face today is that this group of players have never shown an ability to be successful under any set of circumstances. Something has to change, at some point.
Past performances shouldn’t be the only factor in determining future success, but to say it isn’t one at all seems a step too far for me.
LT – I agree. But one could argue that Conte is already possibily getting the best out of this squad.
Let’s face it, before the season everybody agreed that there were several better squads out there, and that at best we were a top 6 team with an outside chance at top 4.
That’s just about where we are in the table, but it doesn’t account for the fact that Conte had to take over in the middle of the season, and start off by crawling us out of the hole Nuno had dug.
Let’s face it, how many of our players would get into the teams at Man U, City, Chelsea, Liverpool? 2, 3 players maximum?
I think a case can be made that Conte is already extracting the most out of the current squad.
By comparison, Nuno wasn’t, and we were a mid-table club at best under him. That is probably where we would be with an average manager at the helm.
BS is right. Conte IS getting the best out of this poor squad. We have moments when things click. But we also have long periods of dismal, play when other teams raise their game or stifle our game plan.
Is it possible to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear? Very rarely. We have a large sow’s ear at the moment with two only two stars shining.
We have to face facts. We have Kane and Son who are top players. The rest are workmanlike at best.
BS and, LT good points, re the manager.
I will say that Klopp didn’t change Liverpool over nite, it took a couple of seasons and a few wrong decisions both in GK and CB before he got a winning formula.
Now Conte has been here a couple of months, arriving just before Christmas and an international break, he had very little chance to assess players prior to the Jan TW window, yet was, able to move out, many of those we wanted away.
Plus I feel we all have to agree that there were those who “upped their game” when Conte first arrived, and we maybe had a false dawn.
We lost out on a couple of our targets, but those we got in look pretty good so far.
As I’ve said, I think our best midfield has yet to be seen in Bente and Skipp (academy player).
I can see WW’s point, but we do have more than just Son, and Kane, but with that said there are areas of our team which are weak and we do lack options from the bench currently.
It is frustrating and no one is more annoyed than me at our current up and down form.
It is a hold on by our fingertips job to our league position, I think as Geoff said, we aren’t in the drivers seat, if a few results go our way we’ll still be in the conversation at top 4/5.
It’s a case of getting some consistency, I agree that Conte has improved some of our player’s performances, coming in half way thru a season is no way to judge a manager (IMO)
BS …. You missed my point. A manager will be judged at the end of their time at a club as to how well they performed. It’s the same with every club. Not a difficult concept really.
I see very little options open to Conte right now. We can’t play out from the back as the passing and ball control is just not there. Most teams will not allow our strikers the freedom Leeds did so balls to chase are usually covered. We need to win more 50/50s in midfield both to take the pressure of our defence and to be higher up the pitch to attack from. I don’t think we can afford a third striker at the moment so perhaps play Skippy, Bentacur and Hojberg in a 3,5,2 line up?
LT been calling/suggesting that midfield since Bentacur arrived, with only 2 up top. great minds. COYS
That last sentence there LT, not a bad call. 🤔
Geof – I get your point, but at present there is very little to go on, as far as “Conte at Spurs” is concerned. The sample size is too small.
I think Niall’s point is fair: if Klopp had been judged after 3 months, he wouldn’t be considered a Liverpool legend. Realistically it took him 3 years to start getting results. What bought him that time? His track record before the Liverpool job. that very lack of track record is probably what cost Nuno his job so soon after being appointed.
Like it or not, find it fair or not, a coach’s reputation/past successes is clearly going to influence how much time he is given at Spurs (at that’s probably true at any club…).
So from the get go, pinning anything happining right now on Conte is pointless. He has largely inherited a less than enviable situation, and has so far had very little time to do anything about it.
The only common denominator in what has been 3 years of regression is the players.
I don’t think we can look at Conte at a specific moment in time, and disregard all of the context which led to his appointment in the first place. At best, that is a very biased, narrow view of the situation.
BS …. My comment related to all managers, not Conte specifically.
JK was given 3 years at L’poo!
Now tell me will Conte entertain that rebuilding time?
I don’t think so! could be wrong! but where else has he been employed that long or longer?
That could be our biggest problem and thus mean we have to start all over again. COYS
For a change here PY, I slightly disagree with your analysis on this one.
For the very reason that Conte, when he has left, he has left the club in a much stronger position than when he arrived, by and large the clubs have won leagues, trophies, gotten to finals, players have seen their stock double and sometime treble under his tutelage.
Which, if he unfortunately did go, in less than 3 years, I would suspect that the next guy coming in will have a stronger bunch of players to work with.
Just my thoughts..
I think Niall’s point is right, PY. Did Conte leave those clubs because he gave up, or did he leave because he had been so successful at them that he couldn’t see how to take that club farther forward? Only Conte knows, but Niall’s observation is fair regardless.
If Conte doesn’t get to rebuild Spurs, I suspect it will be more down to lack of funds and backing than lack of desire.
BS & Niall, 100% agreement there with you both, I obviously didn’t get across what I was trying to say. COYS
My mistake
I’ve been duped by the early comments ref Abramovitch . Niall totally agree with you . I’m too trusting !!
The bottom line. Is levy going to give Conte some help and produce a side with a winning mentality ?
I’m sure Levy will give the war as a reason for not being able to invest in the team as the profits for ENIC might be far less than hoped for and shareholders must come first !!
I hope that I’m wrong with leopards and spots coming to mind .
I suspect you’re “spot on”!
Niall. We do not have more than Son or Kane. Name me another player who would get in a top4 team. Lloris would get on the bench but I cannot think of anyone else. Can you see Doherty,Emerson, Bergweijn, Winks, Davies getting any where near the top 4:squads?All these need to go pronto. We must aim higher and stop accepting second rate.
Apparently Bryan Gil is putting in outstanding performances and is winning standing ovations. Very strange.
Hi WW,
Whilst I agree that perhaps there aren’t many who would get on the Man C side or maybe Chelsea.
There are a few as good as what’s at, Liverpool, Man U, Wham, and Arsenal.
We do have a core of around 8 players who are very good, and could easily grace those teams and make an argument for a position.
As I have said many times, we are currently in a flux, we have a decent, not great first 11, there is, work to do in areas on our team, be we’re not as bad as you are alluding to.
As much as I agree Niall, unfortunately, even 8 adequate players remains far too little.