There’s no denying Thursday evening’s Group J Europa League clash with Royal Antwerp was hugely disappointing and frustrating for Tottenham Hotspur fans.
Riding high with some confidence from our good, attacking, showings in the Premier League (top scorers six games in), the lack of chances and creativity in the last match was very stark.
As fans mull the game over, yes there were plenty of changes, yes it seemed to stunt momentum – but even so, surely we can do better than that?
Sitting in 16th place with only one win under their belts, it should be a great time to face Graham Potters side – but that doesn’t mean it will be an easy game or a guaranteed win as they arguably haven’t got the points on the board their performances deserve – but they struggle to get over the line, and we have to use that to our advantage.
Three points to get the mojo going again and then we see where it takes us.
Brighton...
Win
Draw
Lose
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Phew, that was a struggle. What has happened to our possession game? Awful second half. Two very dubious decisions…the pen??? and Lamptey’s goal after a poor foul on Hojbjerg. I rated Lamptey a few weeks ago. Could well be England’s next right back. Doherty not much of an improvement on Aurier except for his throw ins. Regulon is a class act. Hojbjerg is a great addition. Works his socks off. Jose still bullying Dele. Who will he pick on when he’s gone? Harry Kane still our best defender, midfielder and attacker. Brilliant penalty taker. Should be captain because he is a leader. We are second but not very impressed. Brighton did not come to defend so what is the excuse from Jose this time. Good to see Gareth score…that meant a lot to him. More to come.
Another very poor standard performances, son was very poor for the goal never tracked back,
RefVARee
We won the game, but took a step back after HK10 penalty. This gave brighton belief just like the west ham game. Why the players do this I don’t know…. arrogance ? lazyiness?. However the VAR was good (penalty) and ref terrible for brighton player foul and then goal, thought Lloris could have done better, and where was our no. 3 player? Bale and Reggie good combination, sonny a bad day. Lamela didnt do much hit the post, tanguy not a lot either. 3 points and PL 2nd place playing badly perhaps top when we get it consistently right. COYS
Possible that its how they players are coached. To take the lead and then sit back to hit them on the counter. Its just that our defence is poor aerially and can’t lock the oppo out. Possible ?
how the players,…
block……Lamptey made loads of runs in between the left full and centre backs throughout the game without being picked up so it was no surprise to find him there unmarked for the goal.
Good result
Hit the post twice. Could’ve been 4.
Their goal was a foul.
Don’t like us trying to buy pens. But suppose that’s the game now.
Could’ve played better. However 3 points 2nd in the leage
COYS.
ND … It was a good result. We were brilliant for the first 20 minutes and then we stopped playing. Not sure why. Really good for Bale to get off the mark. He’ll be up for it now. I can only imagine what the noise would have been like if the stadium had been full when he scored. I probably would have heard the roar from here!
TQ …. Well we took the opportunity to climb the table at last. You’ve pointed out how we’ve missed previous opportunities. But when you think about it, those opportunities came because most of the other ‘top’ teams kept dropping points to start with. I hope that continues. The table is looking a bit weird …. in a good way. We’ve reached the 2 points average mark which is heartening. We just need to make sure we beat WBA in the next game. After that we’ll be playing more serious teams and it will get really interesting and give us an indication of where we stand among the better clubs. But I think it is looking rather good …. at the moment!
I’ve said before that at this stage its about the results not the performance. The wins against Burnley and Brighton might not have been wonderful football but they were wins and we are second in the table. It was important to bounce back after the Europa result and Bale getting his first goal was a bonus. Its about hanging around in all competitions while Jose works on the squad’s attitude and discipline. Hopefully as the season goes on performances will improve though its obvious we find it harder against more defensive teams. The refereeing was dreadful but it usually is.
We found a way to grind out another win despite the quick succession of games. I think we should all have realistic expectations on the type of football we can expect to see in the fololwing weeks.
We are fighting on 3 fronts (PL, EL, LC) and we have done well enough in all so far. We have turned up the style on certain occasions this year as well.
Personally, I’d gladly sign up for effective football rather than pretty football if it can carry us through a very tough next few weeks.
Our next league game is against WBA, but the run of league games after that looks like this: City at home, Chelsea away, Arsenal at home, Palace away, Liverpool away, Leicester at home, Wolves away, Fulham at home.
With 4 EL games and a LC quarter final at Stoke peppered in for good measure. Plus the international break where most of our players will be involved in some capacity.
That’s roughly one game every 3 days until the end of the year.
The reality is that this period will define our season. If we are still there or thereabouts in early January, it could be a special year. If not, well, the cups are there for the taking.
To add to your posts, jod and BS. (With which I agree with both of you)…
We also have a lot of new players that are being integrated in to full squad. And so we are in the process of a big squad rebuild. This includes the players that we bought or loaned from last season as well….. Even Bale needs time, let alone the rest of them.
One good thing about Jose’s use of these new players is that he doesn’t waste any time in integrating them. He has played them all pretty much from the off… Also, mostly, they have settled quite well and quite quickly. But, they will all still need time to settle fully and work much better as a full unit…..
Meanwhile, winning most matches and in whichever way, is key to all this integration, the players overall confidence, (in themselves and each other), and for the squad rebuild in becoming a success. And, sooner rather than later… In fact there is never really time for it to be later. Sooner is what it’s all about at the top of this game… The pressure is always on. So much so that even winning is not enough for many pf us supporters, it would seem.
I can put up with winning ‘ugly’, just as long as I know it is sometimes a necessity, rather than the norm…. And so far this season I have seen some very good football too…….. That’ll do for me. Thank you!
One thing that had me screaming at the TV during the match…..we had a free kick in the opposition half on the by-line level with the 18 yard line, who took it?, our top striker with another of our strikers standing next to him! I’m concerned that HK10’s desire to be all things to everyone is actually affecting our performances, surely he should have left the free kick to someone who can put in a decent cross with he and the other striker in the box trying to get on the end of it?
We tend to take our foot off the pedal when we score assuming that we can coast downhill and then find it difficult to put our foot back on the pedal when we find that we are going uphill. Perhaps we need more of a backseat driver on the field to ensure our foot is always on the pedal.
Credit to Toby btw for our second goal. His Immaculate cross field passing ability has been something we have been missing recently.
Where was vinny our back up striker, was he injured or didn’t make the bench.
Hi guys
Jod, HT, BS,
Some great insightive (if that’s a word) posts there.
I think it analyses just where we are and where we need to be.
Obviously our best 11 out there.
I’m wondering given the tough nature of an away game on Monday, again away on Thursday then by Sunday, many players had played around 4 hours of football in 6 days, because the rotation didn’t work. I know they’re professionals etc but the travel and need to focus may have taken a bit of edge come 70 minutes or so yesterday.
So as Stan says we couldn’t (mentally) put the foot on the accelerator.
Knowing many have to turn out “again” on Thursday.
Just a thought.
As you say BS and I alluded to in slightly different words.
I’ll take a Germany like efficient approach to our games for a while.
Some great insightive (if that’s a word) posts there. insightful
Well we won it, ground it out, battled in the end, played poorly, but got that result we used to eff up, as taking that chance because other’s have messed up, ie Everton n Villa lose, so there you go lads Win and we move into 2nd place, how many times in the past have we cocked those scenarios up, loads.
Hopefully the times are a changing, a good squad is knitting together, it does take time.
Oh yes! JM has had his usual slagging off by the you know who’s, but when we slow down and start playing poorly, have a look at his boatrace, it could turn milk sour, do not tell me it is what he wants or planned/coached.
I have read some very good honest/looking forward posts today, as well of course the usual downs, though low in numbers, so on wards to Bulgaria now and another win. COYS
I’ve been imagining what Poch could do with this group of players. I’ll not forgive DL for buying more for JM than for Poch.
TK……as has been discussed previously, there is much anecdotal evidence that Poch himself was the reason we failed to bring in players under his tenure.
Tk
Got my insightful and informative mixed up there. 🙂
I stand corrected.
On the other hand I’ve just invented a new word.
Roll on Thursday.
Would expect some changes.
This may have been a better game to have played last Thursdays team.
neologisms always welcomed
Yesterday, I only got to listen to the match on the radio… From the commentary it didn’t sound to me that Spurs played badly. But it did sound like Brighton played well and then had more possession than Spurs, not long after Harry put away the penalty…
I have just finished watching the game in full. My opinion of it now, is pretty much the same as I got from listening to it. We weren’t bad. Not scintillating football from Spurs but not bad or even ‘ugly’. Just very efficient. We did what we had to do to win it and then hold on to the lead. We also had a few well made moves that could’ve got us more goals… Brighton did play quite good football but never really troubled us. Hugo was barely needed. And we defended very well in front of him. The team did okay in my book… We will play much better this season and yet possibly even lose…….
But, we won this one… It seems odd to me to be over critical of the team at this time, given our very busy schedule and our overall results. We have some great individual player stats. Great team stats, have only lost two and are currently 2nd in the PL… What’s so bad?
Judging by a lot of Spurs supporter reactions, I really thought that we must have been awfulI. I don’t think we were at all… And, I’m happy enough……
Up the Spurs!
Hopefully Leeds can do us a service tonight in beating, or at least drawing with the Foxes. And, we can hold on to 2nd place… Fingers crossed!
HT spurs were awful, out played at home to Brighton and Burnley who down in the bottom, we are full of well know internationals, just didn’t show up, doesn’t look like we will ever keep a clean sheet.