Tottenham Hotspur fans were hoping to see the side take our second half RB Leipzig performance into today’s early clash with Chelsea at Stamford Bridge, but sadly that wasn’t the case at all and what was another bad day for the side could’ve been significantly worse has Giovani Lo Celso seen red for his challenge on Cesar Azpilicueta.
With plenty of pundits now commenting that we look like a side that is feeling ‘a bit sorry for itself’ given our struggles this year and notably, the injuries we’ve again had to contend with, manager Jose Mourinho needs to lift the boys somehow.
Some fans will be in meltdown, others will have seen positives and have more understanding but Mourinho certainly isn’t shying away from what he felt were the positives and he knows there are excuses.
Speaking to the BBC following the game, he explained.
“I think you are going to be very bored with me, because I think I’m going to be very repetitive. I’m going to say exactly the same words I said against Leipzig. I’m very proud of the players – they gave absolutely everything. We don’t have a striker. Our attacking players are not strikers and are in huge levels of fatigue, so very, very difficult for us. No tactical problems, completely in control of the space, punished by a couple of individual mistakes. A defeat is a defeat, but the good thing is, in the last seconds the players were still fighting for a result and that for me is a very important thing. In the last part of the game when Chelsea was scared of the 2-1 we didn’t have that presence, that power, we didn’t have that to do more than what we did.”
Again, fans will have their own thoughts and given the injuries, even if you allow that wriggle room for Jose and the team, the blame just goes higher in the club I’d have thought.
All eyes to Wolverhampton Wanderers now but our chance to put pressure on Chelsea when it comes to the Champions League places has been missed and it’s now a four point gap.
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7 Shots & 2 Key Passes In Only 44 Touches – Spurs’ Reliable MotM
Stamford Bridge
Premier League
22/02/2020 1:30 pm
Attendance: 40608
Referee: Oliver
| Chelsea | Tottenham Hotspur | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Giroud (15), Alonso (48) | Rudiger (og 89) | ||||||
| Caballero | Lloris | ||||||
| Azpilicueta | Tanganga | ||||||
| Christensen | Sanchez | ||||||
| Rudiger | Alderweireld | 78 | |||||
| James | Vertonghen | ||||||
| Jorginho | Davies | ||||||
| Kovacic | Lo Celso | ||||||
| Alonso | Ndombele | 63 | |||||
| Mount | Winks | ||||||
| Barkley | 77 | Lucas Moura | |||||
| Giroud | 71 | Bergwijn | 78 | ||||
Substitutes |
|||||||
| Arrizabalaga | Lamela | 63 | |||||
| Abraham | 71 | Dier | |||||
| Willian | 77 | Alli | 78 | ||||
| Loftus-Cheek | Gazzaniga | ||||||
| Zouma | Aurier | 78 | |||||
| Emerson | Skipp | ||||||
| Gilmour | Gedson Fernandes | ||||||
Game Statistics |
||
| 17 | Goal attempts | 5 |
| 7 | On Target | 3 |
| 3 | Corners | 5 |
| 14 | Fouls | 14 |
| 1 | Yellow Cards | 2 |
| 0 | Red Cards | 0 |
| 49 | % | 51 |
I’m sorry guys but I’m going to say this again. It’s not that I don’t appreciate the toughness of Jose’s situation with Spurs at this time. It’s not that I can’t see the very difficult problems that Jose has had to overcome. I think the whole footballing world can see this.
It is also not that I can’t handle that we have just lost a couple of games vs tricky opponents. I can accept defeat.
I simply don’t agree with his take on his lack of playing options and I don’t like the wholly negative tactics. Especially as he qualifies them with yet more negativity on the players abilities to be strikers with the players he does have available.
I don’t think that Chelsea played that well. Not bad but not great. But they still beat us easily without playing that well. They beat us easily because of Jose’s poor tactics based on his negative thinking… And he has projected this negativity onto the rest of the season…
I hope I am wrong in this and that in training he is more positive toward his players in their abilities to be strikers. I hope that he can work out more progressive tactics for whoever the opposition is, home and away. And I hope that we don’t concede first…
I suppose I find it difficult to accept Jose’s current stance because I have more belief in our players than he seems to have. And that many of our supporters have. ………………………………….
I’n fed up with football being more about who we don’t have in our squad because of the money we didn’t spend. I’m fed up with coaches that are too safe because they are so afraid of losing. Losing matches. Losing their job. I’m fed up with the cynicism of it all. I’m fed up with the negativity of it all.
Football is less and less about the beautiful game and more and more about nothing much other than the money it generates.
And the more money it generates the less us supporters seem to appreciate the subtleties of the game. And the more us supporters talk the more hot air we spout. As though we all know better.
Players are no allowed to express themselves and take risks without being put down for it. But by the same token are treated like shit if they are not entertaining enough. Not athletic enough. Not aggressive enough and yet not well behaved enough. Never allowed to balls up and never allowed to say one word out of line. Blah, blah…
Unless Spurs win, the players are rubbish. And when they do win, they were lucky.
CL final reaching managers are soon after fired and anti-football, bus parking dinosaurs are hired. And even when they reach finals and then win them, It’s not long before they are fired too. Why? Because the football is too boring. Boring’s okay if you win it seems but not if you lose. Entertaining and exciting is only ever great if you win. But certainly not if you lose! Playing talented 17 yer-old strikers is a genius move by the manager if they score on their debut but foolish if they don’t score in their next 10 minute appearance from the bench. Experience and maturity is an asset in a payer when you win. He’s a past it liability when you lose… And even World Cup winning players aren’t that great are they? Especially if they let in a goal that even my blind Granny could’ve saved! Or missed scoring a goal that my 3 legged poodle could’ve knocked in. I don’t care if he’s won the bloody Golden Boot! He’s rubbish! And now he’s injured
Blah blah blah……. Who do play at the weekend? I think I might give it a miss.
And if you are wondering why I’m writing such random shit all in this one post… It’s because it is a pain writing more than one post at a time. Knowing that if anyone can bother responding, it’ll be long after I care……….
Sorry for this. It’s almost as pointless as VAR! This Very Angry Rant!
Spurs 0-0 Tottenham!
Morning HT….just read your “pissed off” rant lol! exactly! very good points there, well written. COYS
Actually a great post HT. Some very valid points, the main one being that we still have some talented attacking players. The point regarding Jose’s negativity is the most important factor at the moment. We have enough talent to beat most teams – it is being stifled by Jose – five at the back and not allowing the full backs to go forward. Long balls up to 5 foot 8 inches Lucas Moura. Absolutely pathetic.
TQ2Spurs -surely it’s no surprise to you that managers have tactical beliefs, and buy players to fit those beliefs.
For example, MP wanted to play a high defensive line, so by definition, having defenders with a bit of pace was a prerequisite.
If Mourinho wants to set up a midfield where he has 2 true holding midfielders, and 3 attacking ones, with very well defined roles and responsibilities for each position, a player like NDombele may not be a pure fit for either.
Of course, an argument can be made that a good manager should adapt to the players at his disposal, and that’s fair to a certain degree.
I also believe that it’s unfair to judge a manager based on the players he has inherited, rather than personally chosen to play the way he wants.
There is surely truth in both views.
BS……you are correct about MP wanting to play a high defensive line but this begs the question why did he persevere with two centre backs that lack pace for so long?
HT – but therein lies your mistake, in my opinion. Losing 1-0 isn’t the same as losing 6-0, certainly not in a return tie such as the CL. A loss isn’t black or white – it’s not that simple.
By setting up this way, Jose still has the option to throw caution to the wind in the return game, knowing that there is still a decent chance to overturn Leipzig’s modest advantage. However, had we been carved open by Leipzig 0-5 in the first game, the return game is essentially a dead rubber.
You say you’d rather lose 4-3 and be positive than lose 1-0 and be negative. What if the choice is getting smashed 6-0 by being positive, and losing 1-0 by being negative?
It reminds me of the Tim Sherwood days when we were positive ll the time, but we were on the receiving end of several truly embarrassing scorelines, from teams we were supposed to compete with. I don’t think that’s better.
And no, HT, I don’t think City or Liverpool have quite the same crisis going on. First of all, they actually have several strikers in the squad, and they’re not hit nearly as hard by injuries.
It must be nice to rest Aguero by playing Gabriel Jesus, or resting Firmino by playing Origi. They can play the same system and tactics and just change personnel around, based on fitness. We’re having to experiment with tactics we’ve never played (and would never play if Kane was fit) just because of absences.
Apples and oranges.
BS…some very good points there, well argued, yours and HT’s “rant post” are both very good opinions wise and that is what leads to a great discussion. COYS
The Chelsea v Bayern game last night perfectly demonstrates HT’s point about negativity. They played with intensity and a high press against us on Saturday and beat us fairly easily, last night they set up the way we did on Saturday with the aim of containing Bayern and scoring on the break, in doing so they got battered.
BS, I think if you check back over Liverpools starting elevens this season (other than the league cup) you will find there has been very little rotation in their side, especially in their front three, other than a very few occassions where it was necessary through injury and not general rotation due to fatigue.
There is a lot of talk about playing a 17 year old Parrott in Kane’s absence but this just shows how poor our academy system is right now, surely we should have had a centre forward in our U23’s who is capable of stepping up?
Testing Chrome
Nope…..it’s not appearing immediately for me, as I said previously Danny could be giving different results for you due to your admin rights.
Just to provide a bit more food for thought: there is an interview of Spain legend David Villa on the BBC website (https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/51601445). Villa has won everything there is to win, and probably doesn’t have many regrets. However, when pressed on what his biggest regret in football is, Villa had this to say:
“Having enjoyed domestic, European and international success during his career, Villa does not have many regrets.
However, he does wonder what it would have been like to play under Jose Mourinho.
The Tottenham boss was manager of Barcelona’s bitter rivals Real Madrid during Villa’s time in Catalonia.
“I have thought about what it would be like to be coached by Jose,” he said. “He’s one of the best coaches in football.
“I always fought with him because I played in other teams that he was coaching, but even then I liked him because he’s one of the best coaches in the history of the game.”
I suppose this is what Mourinho also does. Like him or not, he’s got a lot of respect from players. He may rub some players the wrong way, but others would be willing to die for him. I really believe part of the reason for his appointment was to 1) facilitate attracting new players to the club, and 2) convincing others to stay.
TQ2Spurs – earlier this season, Klopp chose to rest some key attacking players in a Merseyside derby, because he felt comfortable enough with the alternatives. Origi ended up scoring twice in a 5-2 win: https://www.bbc.com/sport/football/50568387.
It was a league game, nobody was injured, and Klopp just decided to rate to avoid fatigue. Pretty much exactly the scenario you excluded.
BS…you have said the same thing twice now, which are probably correct, (2) yes he kept Toby, (1) the proof there will be in the pudding. COYS