Tottenham Hotspur’s midweek defeat to Liverpool certainly sparked plenty of discussion in our last Match Thread and it’s time for us to do it all again as on Sunday evening we make the trip up to the Amex Stadium to face Brighton and Hove Albion.
With this season’s results experiencing a more recent dip under manager Jose Mourinho, the age old discussion of using the squad wrong vs natural fatigue now beginning to bite given the plethora of matches we’ve seen so far in 2020/21 will do doubt continue…but there’s absolutely no way this game can end in anything but victory as we look to get back on track in the Premier League.
Our problem is injuries are mounting again – Giovani Lo Celso continues to be sidelined, and both Dele Alli and Sergio Reguilon are now doubts – as is Harry Kane who may now be out for at least a fortnight after the ankle injury he sustained on Thursday evening.
The game is an opportunity for us to crash back into the top five and there is still our game in hand to think about, and given Brighton are yet to win on home soil this year, you wouldn’t bet against us…would you?
Must win game or arsenal will over take us soon. Imagine that thought a few months ago.
Not that long ago I remember saying that our football was the best I’ve seen a Spurs team play since the early sixties. That ‘not long ago’ seems long ago now.
When I study the current league table I see little to worry about. We are still in the mix and our results have been within the acceptable range at this stage of the season. The table suggests that we have a sound defence and that our attack has been busy …. in comparison to most of the rest. It gives me every reason to be optimistic. It gives me every reason to be relatively happy. And it gives every reason for VS supporters to feel the same. So …. why don’t we?
If we were in the same position whilst playing entertaining and exciting football I believe most of us would be quite content. But we are in this position whilst playing ‘nothing football’ (nothing like the Spurs way) …. and few of us are content.
The VS discussion has turned from moaning about a lack of trophies to moaning about the sub-standard football currently on display at WHL. I think that there is a growing realisation that winning a trophy or three is not such a satisfying achievement if there is a huge reduction in the week-to-week entertainment value of being a supporter. It’s about going back to the basics …. watching football for entertainment.
I prefer not to write long comments so BS can play with this and I’ll leave it at that.
Time to get everything back on track so I’ll start with a 0 – 3 prediction and then the team can keep it going!
Gareth Bale won’t play through the middle, Son is less effective there and we have a genuine no. 9 in Vinicius, so he has to deputise for HK or why did we sign him? Still not sure he is worth the £40m it would cost to make his transfer permanent. Will Aurier play after walking out at half-time? I suspect not, and that Tanganga may be at right back v Brighton in a flat back four. If we are not going to have proper wing backs in Aurier and Reggy I would rather play 4-3-3 so we don’t surrender midfield as we did v Liverpool. And can we sign Todd Cantwell asap please to give our midfield a bit more zip? A snip at £20m and a home-grown player.
(a) How the most plodding mind in football can call himself the Special One is beyond comprehension. What’s so special about playing plodding football poorly? (b) Is the three-year burn out of the players for Mou happening a year and a half early on this shift? The sloppiness of yesterday looked like a bunch of players who have been turned into the off position. Turned off is not usually mistaken for the enthusiasm a manager is supposed to instill. Turned on means the juices are flowing. The juices clearly are not flowing–the antithesis of the Spurs way. This team in managing to be Spursy without any flow. That’s not the way it’s supposed to be.
It’s come to a strange place when a Spurs supporter will argue that needlessly giving up possession to the opposition, almost every time we play, is the best way to win matches. And it seems, regardless of the opposition.
Or, that when losing a match, it was probably down to the lads having too much possession of the ball.
Last time we played Brighton we won 2-1 at home. But only just. They of course were right down at the bottom end of the PL and we were soon to go top. But Brighton outplayed us for a large part of the match, often playing the better football… And they (not surprisingly), had the greater ball possession. Fools!
Maybe they need to let us have much more of the ball this time, if they want to beat us. I mean, they probably think they can win this by keeping the ball and attempting to play the better football… Fools!
Seagulls 60%-40% Cockerels!
I forgot to mention; That it’s also been said that because our defenders just aren’t good enough, that Jose is doing the right thing when his tactics are set up to make them defend much more than they really should need to.
Apparently our defending is rubbish when we have to defend less. But really good when we have to defend so much more!
There’s a logic in there somewhere… Apparently!
Is it that we are bad at not having to defend but good when we do nothing but defend… Our defenders can’t defend well because they simply aren’t good enough and yet can defend well as long as they have to do nothing but defend…….
Sounds like I’m talkin’ shit, don’t it?!
Yes…..but it’s really good shit HT! lol
HT, that post sounds like you have a “thesis” head on, cos it did mine making sense lol! good post there. COYS
Again spurs players are facing an angry jose and fans. Last couple of times time they went onto to next game and won… Is this some sort of collective metal attitude of…. fear / complacency / laziness / not happy with manager’s tactical,/ resentment of being rotated ?.
Perhaps all of the above. So where do we go from here, halfway in the season? a difficult question to answer..
b108s, like I have said before, so many questions, but no real answers. COYS
Good post Geoff I couldn’t agree more….as for this match its gonna be difficult as they love to keep the ball and we love to let the opposition have the ball. But hopefully we will win
Ossie …. Cheers, mate. It’s a sad sign of the times that few of us have any great expectations when match day comes around. But football is all about highs and lows and unpredictable cycles. It will come good eventually.
Thank you Danny for another good “match thread” keeping us on our toes and thinking.
Geof, a very good post earlier, it does make you think, swings and roundabouts, I also believe a lot of us are writing on here angrily, yes there are some calm retorics, but generally it is anger.
For me the most important thing this season is Top 4, that would do me esp after the last couple of seasons displays, yes I am simple minded and easily satisfied lol! but if in addition to Top 4, we win the Tin Pot cup, which I doubt, then for me a very good season and will look forward as always to the next.
Can the Cockerels have Seagull for dinner tomorrow, I think so….COYS
It makes sense HT, if we give opposition more ball and we sit back, it means more work for our defense, but if we attacket more and try an have more possession, it would mean less work for it defense, it common sense, sitting back against Brighton, for a guy like jose and the players we have is a weak mentality and poor tactics. Lets try a different route, put their defense under pressure and see if they crack.
It makes sense HT, if we give opposition more ball and we sit back, it means more work for our defense, but if we attacke more and try an have more possession, it would mean less work for it defense, it common sense, sitting back against Brighton, for a guy like jose and the players we have is a weak mentality and poor tactics. Lets try a different route, put their defense under pressure and see if they crack.
PY …. Top four will do me this season as well.
123 …. I agree with your last comment but disagree with the one before it. Now, that’s taking fence-sitting to a whole new level. lol
I was predicting a Spurs quadruple earlier in the week. But only if Harry were to stay fit…
I should’ve kept my mouth shut…
But, I’ll happily take the FA cup, the Carabao cup, The EL cup and 2nd place in the PL… But, nothing less.
And even then, I’d still want Jose gone at the end of it all…
Sounds like I’m talkin’ shit again, don’t it?!
HT …. Well, it’s not impossible!
Well, Jose is all about winning. And, he has won a hell of a lot.
But not winning anything with Jose will feel a lot worse than not winning anything with Pochettino.
It has been suggested to me on here, and on more than one occasion, that I want Jose to fail. That couldn’t be further from the truth. I want Spurs to win. I want Spurs to win trophies. Therefore as Jose is the boss right now, I definitely want him to succeed.
Because I’m not putting up with his standard Non-Dare-To-Do tactical crap for us not to be a success. Not for longer than this season, anyhow…
The man is paid a fortune to win. Then he gets paid another fortune in compensation, to leave… That’s what he does… That’s his job. He doesn’t regularly get fired within 2 or 3 seasons for not winning stuff! LOL!
HT …. My thoughts entirely.
I spent the day in my bubble at my daughter/son-in-laws place in the country yesterday, it gave me a good opportunity to reflect on our performance the previous evening and our situation in general. As a I strolled around the decent sized grounds I mused over the issues facing our club right now and thought it might be a good idea to get the views of some of the other residents there.
I started by asking the Alpacas what they thought about the style of play and entertainment levels of late and they mostly just looked to the sky and turned their heads away in distain.
Not to be deterred I moved on to the sheep, I asked them the same and they just bleated on about how the fragilities in our defence were exposed by a resurgent Liverpool team who showed so much more intent. They were particularly disappointed by our failure to put any real pressure on the oppositions makeshift central defence.
The rabbits didn’t show any real interest in the subject at all, they pointed out that with spring approaching they had much more important things to think about that would provide far more pleasure than watching 22 humans kicking a round plastic thing around a field.
The rare breed pigs were the next to face my interrogation, to be perfectly honest they didn’t give a shit which I guess wasn’t a surprise as they are at their happiest living in it.
Finally, I arrived back at the house where man’s best friends were sleeping off their morning exercise, they weren’t too pleased at being disturbed but when asked just commented that I must be barking mad supporting Tottenham Hotspurs!
Funny you should mention all of that TQ.
I had 3 little birds on my doorstep this morning singing… Don’t worry about a thing, cause every little thing is gonna be alright.
But then 3 wise monkeys that were frolicking in the tress above, chipped in with…. “Don’t listen to those 3 mugs you fool, they’re talkin’ shit!
🙂
My dog’s loving this thread.
Good to see that our game next weekend against WBA has been pushed back to Sunday at 12 noon which will give us an extra 21 hours recovery following Thursday’ game. A good result too as it will now be live on BT Sport.
Nice time for you too Geof! :- )
Yes, 8pm is much better than 3 or 4am. So I’m not complaining. ; – )