Having got our Premier League restart up and running properly with a solid victory over West Ham United, the players should have been well rested for tonight’s trip to Bramall Lane to face now struggling Sheffield United.
Chris Wilder’s side had a great start to the 2019/20 campaign following promotion and there was an outside chance they might make the Europa League prior to football being paused, since the restart their mojo and momentum has gone, so Jose Mourinho would be looking to capitalise on that as we continue to bid for a Champions League place.
It was a bright start from both sides really, but we better dominated possession and chances, and largely against the run of play the hosts took the lead just after the half hour mark. We responded almost instantly though and Harry Kane had the ball in the back of the net before a spineless referee bowed to the overtly pathetic Video Assistant Referee nonsense as apparently (after being barged to the floor) Lucas Moura ‘handballed’ the ball, so the goal was scrubbed out.
Sadly for us, the second half was dire in many ways and the control we did have disappeared and they made it count with two further goals.
Harry Kane rightly got on the scoresheet in the 90th minute, but it counted for little on a very disappointing night.
Unused Sheff U Subs:
Sharp, Jagielka, Moore, Rodwell, Zivkovic
Unused Spurs Subs:
Alderweireld, Winks, Gazzaniga, Skipp, Fernandes.
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Bramall Lane
Premier League
2/07/2020 7:00 pm
Attendance: 0
Referee: Chris Kavanagh
| Sheffield United | Tottenham Hotspur | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Berge (31), Mousset (69), McBurnie (84) | Kane (90) | ||||||
| Henderson | Lloris | ||||||
| Basham | Aurier | 71 | |||||
| Egan | Sanchez | ||||||
| Robinson | Dier | ||||||
| Baldock | Davies | 81 | |||||
| Berge | Sissoko | 71 | |||||
| Norwood | Lo Celso | ||||||
| Osborn | Lucas Moura | ||||||
| Stevens | Bergwijn | 56 | |||||
| McBurnie | 91 | Kane | |||||
| McGoldrick | 63 | Son Heung-Min | |||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Mousset | 63 | Lamela | 56 | ||||
| Freeman | 91 | Ndombele | 71 | ||||
| Alli | 71 | ||||||
| Vertonghen | 81 | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 7 | Goal attempts | 9 |
| 5 | On Target | 2 |
| 1 | Corners | 6 |
| 13 | Fouls | 13 |
| 2 | Yellow Cards | 0 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 33 | % | 67 |
What a clueless gutless performance. The players stopped chasing back in the second half. An appalling set up. There was no defensive organisation, no holding midfield player and four strikers who did nothing but get in each other’s way. Jose has had enough time to organise the defence better than this. He clearly has no idea how to develop an attacking style of play and on todays evidence he cannot motivate the team. The game has passed him by – all the best teams in Europe play with intensity and pace with full backs pushed high up the pitch. Jose just hopes for the best as far as attacking goes. He won’t be sacked, it will be too expensive and no way will Levy admit he has made a mistake. A pre-season will change nothing, he will just carry on making the same awful mistakes. Hopefully some other gullible chairman will offer him a job and he will try to engineer a way out. JOSE OUT NOW
Sadly it’s time for 75% of these players to go along with jose, better get rid or else he will be gone 10 games in next season, we are a team who was never able to defend so our best option is to Attack and put them under pressure, it’s just not working with jose and these players, absolute shocking defending.
True points we had fast FB to push up and pin them back but with jose players are restricted and it’s not working,
Absolute shambles fro a team and coach of no hopers. We were against a team of unknowns who had so many injuries they were short of a bench/subs. This was awful. One person to blame who picks the team and is supposed to coach the players. Yes, it is our glorious has-been. Boring and bored. A misery, hands in pockets, clueless unspecial one. Levy is a muppet for appointing this ghastly, defensive, ghost from the past. He is ruining our club. Get rid now. It will get worse. Watch this space.
We’ve sacked one manager after a poor performance against Sheffield United. Come on Levy, let’s make it a double. Jose out now
Shouldn’t have to sack him and pay compensation DH, he should do the honourable thing and resign and go back to something he is good at, like delivering vegetables for food boxes.
Well said TQ2. Another football decision that Levy has got spectacularly wrong. Add to the lengthy list
Well well well Daniel another fine mess. I honestly don’t no where one should start or even finish this is pathetic. Defensively it’s Sunday league level Eric Dier is our leader according to certain fans on this site don’t make laugh, I plead to the FA to give him a 6 game ban,and the other 3 strays that supposedly in defence can take a long walk utter garbish. Mourinho’s absolutely appalling appointment from that clueless clown Levy is going one way and that’s mid table mediocrity. This Levy project is a busted flush. Sack the clown who hired Mourinho.
DH…..I guess you can understand Levy’s thinking in making the appointment, he is/was clearly under pressure from both the fans and the media to win a title or silverware and probably thought that Mourinho’s record made him the best bet of achieving this in the shortest time. Sadly it hasn’t worked out as he might have hoped and we now need to bring back Poch or bring in a young dynamic manager like Nagelsman (spelling?) and not waste any money bringing in players for Jose.
Oh dear, its crumbling again. Personally im not going to bother with any more games this season and if nothing changes in summer i want bother with next season. Its so bad. Torture, and while the decline started pre Jose, we should never of got rid of Poch, he called for changes long before he was sacked and saw this coming. However, Jose style doesn’t suit Spurs, its not entertaining. Now we are in for much the same in hope it will bring trophies, and personally im not bothered about one off days of a trophy over weeks of entertaining football, i prefer the latter even if it doesn’t bring trophies. To endure weeks, months of this for one day of lifting a trophy is not for me, and besides im not sure it will happen anyway.
Why does this dross have to be the way to win trophies. Liverpool play entertaining football, so do city they won trophies. Why have we got to gave boring dross football under Jose to win a trophy!
Big mistake bringing in Jose. We needed a rebuild a long time ago, not a new manager. Its a mess and it want change over night. Where has Spurs gone!
Bye bye, im done.
I’m totally confused as to what I witnessed earlier this evening. I thought in many ways we controlled possession but to no end product. It was almost like a boxing match where you win 8 of the 12 rounds then are hit by 3 sucker punches and its all over. If this is how to play football , I mean either side, I’m going to start watching Rugby. 1 side just defend, defend, defend then up the pitch and score. The other retain 70% possession and do fek all with it. I know we had some bad luck tonite (why always us). But we need the strength to get over the bad decisions and get stronger. Any one change their mind about selling Dave. Get Verts and Toby back in the middle. Get some new defenders in for next season. N Dombele disinterested, Dele in a huff, Aurier terrible both forward and back, LoCeslo couldn’t stand up, Dave 1/2 asleep. No passion, no push, no interest. I thought we’d started to turn a corner obviously not same old, same old.
Only 3 words to describe this performance. Boring. Boring. Boring. No chasing back. No movement up front. No creativity in mid field. Sideways and backward passing. I am just hoping we do not have to watch another 2 seasons of this JM style of so-called football.
Disappointing to say the least!
ND – I thought the full-backs were particularly bad and mainly to blame for the goals conceded allowing too much space and time and getting turned easily but the CB’s didn’t cover themselves in much glory either and nor did the midfield as usual in tracking back specifically the wide players as I stated on the other thread last night!
Also the lack of a proper DMC was telling again as usual – Sissoko, Winks aren’t the answer and it’s about time we signed a specialist to play the role. Dier was an option to do this but has been moved back into central defence. For me the CM should be the new DMC, N’Dombele (if he can finally find form and fitness) and Lo Celso with then Dele, Sonny and HK10 up in front. Have our best players playing regularly in the 1st team.
Then there’s the likes of Sissoko, Winks and Fernandes to cover in CM and Lamela, Bergwijn and Moura to cover up front not to mention the youngster’s like Skipp and Parrott (might even be best served sending these 2 out on loan to be honest). I would say that N’Dombele must really come together though to take over from Sissoko in CM because Sissoko has been immense these last 2 season’s for us for sure!
DMC and Lo Celso would otherwise walk into the side and for me the same goes for the 3 mentioned up front. I think we’d play “sexy” Spurs football again with these 6 in the middle and forward positions. N’Dombele, Lo Celso and Dele are silky skillful creative types with an eye for a pass and a goal and would form a formidable attacking trident behind the world class finisher’s we have in Sonny and HK10 – for me it’s a formation which should soon enough if all taking to it be challenging for the Prem quite frankly and in all honesty – they are pure class IMHO – would just need to click together and get motoring on!
At the back we are clearly desperate – we need a new RB and we need a new LCB at a minimum especially with Vert’s likely leaving for good. Indeed even if he stays we’re so bad I’d still buy a new LCB LOL! In fact it would probably still be advisable for him to stay quite frankly because he can cover LCB and LB at the same time. Sessegnon does not appear to be coming along at all as a LB and we need competition/cover for Davies so it might just be in our best interests to keep Vert’s another season rather than have to invest more money we don’t have in a new LB this of course inspite of him being on the decline now at 33.
A new RB is vital simple as, Aurier is purely not good or responsible enough to be relied upon regularly as a 1st team player (Foyth and KWP likely to be sold as not proved anything at all at Prem level for us, you could even argue sell Aurier aswell and use Tanganga as cover/competition for the new RB and I think we have a new youngster coming through also anyway) and the likes of Toby, Davy and said Tanganga could fight it out for the RCB spot. Vert’s if he was to stay, Dier and even Davy again could offer cover for the new LCB.
SO I think it is crucial that as I keep banging on about we need a new DMC, RB and LCB this summer to be competitive for next season.
Seeing as we’ve blown it pretty much in terms of European qualification for next season it surely is about time for the rest of this term that Sessegnon gets played at LB to gain vital experience and the same goes for N’Dombele and Fernandes in central midfield for me. We know what the likes of Davies, Sissoko and Winks can do, it’s time these other 3 got a chance to prove themselves finally and hopefully fully.
That’s my take on our current situation as best as I can read it! Sorry to keep bleating on about those 3 new signings but I think yesterday confirmed further just how vitally needed they are – I’m like a broken record but then just as broken is our defence unfortunately – LOL!
I’m also in the back jm camp and if we could get those 3 defensive players in hopefully next season should see much improvement – here’s hoping anyway – Bollox to yesterday evening LOL!
…………….It’s like watching your best friend slowly dieing! Since the restart its win one, draw one, lose one! nothing has changed in our form all season! RIP Tottenham Hotspur Football!
There’s an obvious conclusion from last night’s games that no one wants to make. Everyone talks about spending lots of money but the fact is we were given a football lesson by Sheffield United who haven’t had money to spend and man for man don’t have the same quality of players we do. But what they do have is a much better team. Better attitude, better organisation, better discipline, better tactics. You can extend that to the Liverpool game. Liverpool have never had better players than City, we saw that as they switched off with the title won and got hammered. But under Klopp they have had a better team. All of which means if we can’t get the best out of the players we’ve got we won’t solve the problems by buying new ones. Pochettino couldn’t do it towards the end of his time here and its beginning to look as if Jose won’t either.
There is no doubt that several players will want to leave this summer. Levy will make it hard for them to leave – the fees will be reduced by the Covid 19 crisis. In Levy’s mind he thinks he will get more money for them in a years time. This will result in another wasted season with low moral, added to further by Jose’s total incompetence.
Once again, he set his team up totally wrong with no holding midfield player and four strikers who did nothing but get in each others way. He clearly has no time for N’dombele, one of the most gifted players in Europe. He doesn’t even seem to want to try and work with him. He seemed to take no account of Sheffield United’s proficiency in creating overlaps on the flanks. He is completely shot to pieces as a manager, why Levy didn’t see this I have no idea. The thought that Jose will be able to sort this mess out with a pre-season is frankly fanciful. he has been out coached by Ole, Lampard and Wilder already this season.
It looks like the will be no European football at all next season, so I imagine that with only one game per week the younger players will not get a chance to impress. Not good for the likes of Skipp, Sessegnon and Tanganga. What a shame
We have become a joke of a club.
I am starting to question the character of a certain number of our players.
Yes, we were dealt a very harsh blow with the VAR decision. To a large extent, the issue is with the way the rule is written (Alan Shearer summed it up well here: https://www.bbc.com/sport/av/football/53273140). But what I struggle with is the lack of fight after this setback.
I listened carefully to Jose’s press conference after the game. He could have taken the easy road and blamed the VAR decision as a turning point in the game. He refused to do that, and instead blamed the team’s mental fragility and failure to stir up a reaction. Personally, I think his analysis is right.
Now, is that Jose’s fault? Is he failing to get the players to give their all for him? That’s a possibility. However, I also observe that this “soft underbelly” was present at various times under MP too.
I can’t imagine that either MP or Jose would intentionally ask that of their players, and the only common denominator between the two is the group of players. Players who stop tracking back from midfield just cannot be defended, in my opinion. And I just don’t know how the manager can be blamed for that. Unfortunately, we conceded 3 very soft goals this way.
Jose explained that he knew Sheffield were well organised, and that going a goal behind against them was a mountain to climb. That’s why he started with a very attacking 11. Unfortunately, a lot of our players were below par yesterday, with Bergwijn, Moura and Son all fairly anonymous.
The only bright spot was Eric Dier, who is now excelling in his best position.
I think the biggest issue yesterday, more than VAR, more than tactics, was a lack of fight/Effort/pride/work/motivation/…
That’s the biggest issue.
Spot on ,very well said…team put out should have won,no guts shown…childish defending.
Backline needs changing
BelgianSpur, you are right that the players have to take the blame for the lack of effort but wasn’t Jose brought in to put this right. Apart from his appalling tactics and set up of the team, he seems totally unable to motivate them as well.
With no Champions League income and a £175m loan to pay back by April, as well as the stadium loan/interest there is clearly no money to spend. I would suggest that unless the banks show some leniency regarding the loans, then players will have to be sold. It’s not looking good for Spurs right now.
BS/jod …. I don’t think either of you are wrong. There is a lack of team endeavour (particularly when defending) and lack of organisation in terms of keeping a solid shape during the game. I believe we do have some very good players but, for whatever reason, they are not playing as a team across ninety minutes of football.