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...
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Spurs Royally Slip Up In Europa League Chase – Match Stats
Morning Niall,
Don’t forget, we have yet to establish whether Rodon is going to be our elusive LCB. You are right in that Toby probably won’t be with us for much longer and while we have Davinson for this position I think we will need to recruit another CB to replace Toby who can ideally play left or right comfortably.
IMO we still need a replacement for Aurier, he is far too inconsistent, he can be really good in one game and absolutely pants in the next!
With reference to Dele and I suppose our criticism of him.
There is a player slipping under the radar for the wrong reasons who plays in a similar position.
There was a write up on Bergwijn lately, and he hasn’t exactly been pulling up trees.
His pass ratio was low, he lost the ball on most occasions, poor goal to shot ratio.
Perhaps he isn’t getting game time and there fore is lacking in a bit of confidence.
But I suppose what I’m saying is it ain’t just Dele.
Good mornin’ all. I hope you are all well and good…
I have given my opinion on Dele on the new Dele thread on VS. And so I’ll not repeat it here…
I was not against Hojbjerg coming to Spurs myself. But I did question our need for him. But that was just based on watching him play a few times and mostly in highlights with not paying any real attention to him….. I didn’t fully see the player that I have now seen at Spurs…
I was mistaken. And I’m more than happy with that… He has been bloody good for us! 🙂
Doherty on the other hand has been inconsistent and poor at times. But, I still have faith in him nevertheless. It’s still early days…
I accept that you need to win ugly sometimes but the problem is that Jose tends to set us up to play ugly. The negative team selection and set up against Burnley was to counter Burnley’s physical approach. We won the game, but could just have easily lost it. Five days later, Chelsea after a long midweek trip to Russia took the game to Burnley on the basis that they were a far better team and they cruised to victory. The difference between a modern progressive manager and Jose. Can you imaging Klopp leaving out Trent Alexander Arnold against Burnley , putting in a big physical full back instead. I don’t think so.
Re Hojberg he is also a far better player than I realised and a great addition to the squad.
Re the Dele/Isco swap, I would say that Isco has fallen away much the same as Dele so I am not sure it is a good idea. He is an incredibly talented player though and it could be an interesting move if Jose thinks he can get the best out of him.
Some good posts here folks.
Re Dele HT 100 % we Havnt talked him to death but get your point.
TQ totally agree re Aurier. And would Castagne have been a better buy.
But Doh does have premier league experience, he is (for me) a better option than Aurier.
Will he be the real deal. Time will tell.
I still think though that we need a settled back 5.
It seems to me that most of the successful teams historically have that “predictable” back 4 or 5 that virtually pick them selves every week.
I would argue that during our most recent successful spell 2 or 3 seasons ago that was the case.
Lloris, Verts, Tobs, Rose, Walker.
I would suggest that until we get to a similar standard of settled defence we will not dominate defensively.
Niall, what I mean’t was that just this morning I wrote a long post with my opinion on Dele on another thread. and it wasn’t worth my effort to write it all again … Not that I didn’t want to see others opinions on hm, on here…
🙂
HT
Yep m8 100% got you on that one.
We did devote a bit of time to him in an earlier thread.
Doncaster – Funny you mention Klopp, because the last time Burnley played Liverpool, the game finished 1-1. I’m sure Liverpool played their usual expansive style against Burnley, and got punished for it.
If we know anything about Sean Dyche, it’s that he has managed to get many good results against big teams over the years.
There isn’t just one way to beat Burnley. When we beat them last year, Son basically ran the length of the pitch to score against them. We beat them 5-0 on that day. Good teams manage to take what the game gives them on that particular day.
Squad management also plays a part. The Burnley game was sandwiched between two EL games, and Jose has chopped and changed his team quite a bit (probably rightly so, to preserve energy) between the PL and the EL. You can’t expect the same fluency if the players don’t have a run of games playing together.
Yes, Chelsea beat Burnley more convincingly than we did. They chose to rotate a lot less between their game against Krasnodar and Burnley – a decision they may yet pay for later in the year.
They have also drawn against Man U and Southampton, two teams we beat comfortably, and they are behind us in the PL.
Based on those elements, I find it hard to fault Jose’s approach, objectively speaking.