What had started out as quite a promising campaign has definitely turned into a topsy turvy year for Tottenham Hotspur, and this week has been no different as we backed up a poor performance against Arsenal in the North London Derby defeat with a quite incredible performance that saw Dinamo Zagreb fight back from a two goal deficit to unceremoniously dump us out of this season’s Europa League competition.
Opinions amongst Spurs fans have always been torn when it comes to manager Jose Mourinho and this last week has done nothing to temper those thoughts, and it probably feels even more frustrating as ahead of Arsenal it looked like we were again playing ourselves into some good, attacking form and leaving the more defensive and pragmatic approach behind us.
We will be missing Erik Lamela after his sending off, and Son Heung-Min continues to be out. In other potentially good news, there’s mixed talk about Jack Grealish returning so he might miss out for them, but in any event, we know we have the firepower to take all three points, it just again comes down to how we play and, well, how we play.
The question that no one can bet on ahead of a match this season.
so Rodon doesn’t play often because he lacks experience and he lacks experience because he doesn’t play often. Now there’s some special thinking
Good to see our best striker, best midfielder and best defender ( HK10) being asked to do the jobs of 3 men. He will be up for it and no doubt end up in goal if we lose both keepers. What a star!!
Not exciting football, but at least we’re a goal up. And at the moment we’ve moved ahead of Poo. At least the season is worse for them than for us. Misery likes the more miserable. That’s something, anyway.
Oh my god – are we going to be stuck with Jose for a while longer .
Doncaster, we’re surely stuck with him one way or another through the end of the season, I’m afraid. But, we could give up three goals in three minutes at the 87th minute. But even then, I’m afraid, we’re stuck until the end of the season. 8 weeks?
Yep 2-0. It looks as though we have to put up with Moanino until the summer to save some money. Poor game. I’m off to Line of Duty.
That’s a bit better, getting the ball forward more quickly. Good performance from Rodon.
Decent result, clean sheet,
I thought we controlled the game from the hour mark.
Villa were very ordinary.
Good MOM performance from Lucas, he is doing well this weather.
If it weren’t for the other results in the last week + all the previous crap around Christmas, I’d actually be well pleased.
Somehow I’m not and I don’t know why…..
Only three points off CL. Oh God. I’m conflicted. Of course I want us to make it to the CL, but the cost probably would be to be stuck with the Negative One for a longer time. My desires are incommensurate with one another. Winning could turn out to be losing and losing could turn out to be winning. I’m discombobulated.
As to this match. The lads played okay. Nothing special (forgive the use of this word in this era), but better than the last two. This still is a team with little spirit. But who could feel spirited with a manipulator at the helm? And if Mourinho is anything he is the Special Manipulator, and he’s getting worse at it the longer he stays at it.
Lucas has decided to become an acitve runner throughout the matches and that’s an improvement. Vinicius looks a bit like joining Lamela at attracting the attention of the yellow flag giver. I guess they both think that Mourinho wants that.
Niall, you say you should feel pleased but you do not and you don’t know why. Mourinho does that to us. We want to win, but we know that winning might keep him at the club. It’s a conflict that we don’t deserve. A devilish contradiction being dumped on us.
at least there’s no need to partake of the hemlock tonight. That alone is an improvement.
Thanks again for the comments chaps! Worst bit for me was the brain wasn’t working and neither were the fingers…took a good few minutes to post that holding message about the match thread without it coming out like some unknown foreign language lol
I’m 95% back to normal today and I get to toast it with a win – I actually thought we were poor again and quite lucky – especially the penalty – but you take what you get don’t you.
Moura was bright, Rodon looked pretty solid, so definitely things to take as positives even if it wasn’t perfect.
DW karma gave us a penalty to balance out the Hoj. penalty given in a prev. game we lost at WHL, that was on the bye line as well.
A much better performance, lucas got a mom well deserved, HK10 battled on and his penalty was despatched as usual. We had a young back line tonight, and they held together for a deserved clean sheet.
I smiled at west ham score line v gooners today, 30 31 32 33… lol… sounds familier? yes it was the same score as when we played spammers at WHL this season.
True block, but only difference we were 3 up @ 83 min
Whilst I watched the game live, I then re watched it (as I do on MOTD).
2 things I noticed, both Arse and Spammers were crap today, don’t get me wrong, it was an entertaining game for the neutral, but the pundits played both teams up.
When it came to our game, I won’t say we dominated, but given our last two results, and the fact that there were a few surprise names on the team sheet, and we actually won, I do feel we controlled the game for around an hour. But all the pundits could do was talk up Villa (what) 1/2 chances, its not as if they hit the bar or the post, I think that Lloris had one save to make..
I do actually think the beeb whilst pro United and Liverpool are defo anti Spurs.
Any away win in the PL has to be respected, no matter how it comes. Sanchez played well again. Lucas was a live-wire and MOTM. Kane played like Kane but looked tired at the end. Vinicius did himself no harm with his first (very easy) PL goal. Generally more intent on going forward than sitting back. In my opinion, of course.
Relief, not pride. Doubt not confidence. My overriding feelings after this result. Well done the boys from Brazil, triers both. If Carlos could learn how to hold up play he might make it as a prem player. Surely half of Bale or Deli would be better than Bergwijn who has lost the plot completely as has Regillion. Putting out that inexperienced defence was a criminal act which against any other team would have humiliated them. We got lucky with the injury to bring on Davies and luckier still with the penalty.
Love totty.
The “inexperienced defence” wasn’t playing “any other” team. And I thought that they played extremely well. Including Reguilon, who even after sustaining two painful injuries in quick succession, tried his utmost to carry on, before it was obvious that he couldn’t… He is a tough and also skilful young lad. I hope we get to keep him.
And it was a much more experienced defence versus Zagreb that did actually get humiliated. So I’m with Jose’s shout on this one.
I was pleased to see both Tanguy and Rodon in the team. I’m not sure why we haven’t seen them more often. And they both did their very best to keep the opposition out. With many last ditch blocks and tackles etc.
I thought the team played well on the whole, as a very solid unit. Nothing spectacular, but at least as a proper cohesive and hard working team. Which we didn’t see in the previous two defeats.
So, whether by luck or design I will give some credit to Jose for his set-up yesterday. Because his ‘surprise’ team selection worked. They worked hard and they worked well.
Now lets see if we can keep it up, whoever he picks to play in the next few matches…
See, I have written Japhet’s name so few times on here that I call him Tanguy and not Tanganga…. Sorry Son!
We’ll have to agree to disagree HT. The defence did well in the circumstances and I don’t blame them for their inexperience. But Dier should have played. Yes he has a mistake in him but he can organise and is committed. Reguilon has energy and has a good left foot but