Having utterly failed to take advantage of a Fulham side that had to have match sharpness questions hanging over their heads, Tottenham Hotspur’s fixture this Sunday sees us travel to Bramall Lane to face a very struggling Sheffield United side.
With Chris Wilder’s side putting in phenomenal showings last season, the wheels have roundly fallen off the bus and they find themselves in bottom place in the Premier League table, with only one win from 18.
On paper, Spurs’ chances of taking all three points are aided by the fact that they will be reportedly missing seven players and although Wilder hasn’t named them, it could include Enda Stevens, Oli McBurnie, George Baldock and Jack Robinson.
As for ourselves, only Giovani Lo Celso remains out as Steven Bergwijn could come back into contention and of course, Gareth Bale now has more minutes under his belt as well.
As ever though, it comes down to us, our approach to the game and whether or not we can kill them off, or like Fulham, simply play in a manner that gives them a second wind and gets them back into the game.
It’ll take a brave fan to bet on this one as United’s one victory came in their last match, so you can somewhat see the headlines already.
Will we have a few answers or simply more questions?
B 108
Much in agreement with you here.
I thought N’Dombers was Mom for me, with Bergs able to take on some creative play+the three at the back allowing freedom for the wing backs to get forward it definately showed a more progressive /aggressive thinking side, thought both Rodon and Davies looked pretty good in those positions.
However we did our usual 2nd half around 50 minutes loss of concentration where we list a bit of impetus and dropped back.
Thankfully this malaise left us and we got back on the front foot, perhaps because they scored a bit earlier than other teams which gave us a chance to come back at them.
N’Dombers goal was excellent.
I always find it funny to read the comments pre-match vs post match.
When the line-up was announced, you could already hear the grumblings of JM being negative, starting with 5 defenders and a DM etc. And in the end, with that formation ,we created plenty of chances, we had more of the possession (as that’s apparently an important thing for many on VS), and we won convincingly.
Which is just a timely reminder that football tactics are about so much more than formations, and should hopefully dispel the notion that the only way to score 3 goals in a PL game is to start 7 strikers.
I think Niall made the point that a 10-man Fulham gave Chelsea a very difficult game, and JM made that point in his press conference too, saying that even teams like WBA, 19th in the table, beat Wolves at the Molineux on Saturday and drew at Anfield 2 weeks ago.
Either all of the top teams have a tendency to drop points, or the smaller teams are better than they get credit for – either way, for all of the points we’ve dropped, we’re still right in the mix, only 4 points from the top.
What is being overlooked by many (probably because we won), is the fact that we once again gave away a very soft goal. As we have seen recently, in tighter games, those silly goals cost us. I don’t think seeing Rodon start was innocent; JM obviously doesn’t like the way certain CB’s have been performing recently. regardless of how many goals we score or should be scoring, he clearly sees an issue which needs to be addressed there.
BS…..I don’t recognise your characterisation of the pre and post match comments, following the line-up being anounced there was just one comment that mentioned 5 defenders starting but even that didn’t suggest we were going to play with a back 5. I think most thought it a positive move to play a back 3 with two attacking wing backs and one DM rather than having three DM’s in the form of Hojbjerg, Winks, and Sissoko.
I wasn’t solely referring to VS. Twitter was full of messages about the line-up before the match.
lol……..how would I know that BS, I don’t read your Twitter feed!
You wouldn’t need to read one feed specifically to get a general idea of what’s being said on Twitter…
BelgianSpur – Good points. As you say its about more than formations, especially with wing backs where the key is just how attack minded they are. Perhaps the key change was just playing Holberg as a lone DM instead of two DMs with either Sissoko or Winks in the side. That in turn meant you could have a front three as well as the wing backs and N’Dombele as an attacking midfielder. To me that makes much more sense against teams that aren’t going to push forward, maybe not against teams that come to attack.
Its not just in the premier league that teams seem more inconsistent this year, it seems to be the same all over Europe. COVID appears to be making football a lot less predictable.
It seems to me that Jose knows what he wants but is still trying to achieve it consistently. I suppose its about hanging in there in all competitions and hoping we improve as the season progresses.
Once again BS you seem to be completely missing the point that many of us have been making. And that is our frustration at seeing such boring and mostly negative football these past couple of months. And despite where we were/are in the PL and regardless of being in a cup final, etc.
And, we won yesterday playing a more positive and forward thinking game. Which is what most on here have been asking for… We do it, we hold onto the lead and we win….. It worked!
We weren’t great but at least we were not so negative for the most part……
And I don’t recall anyone suggesting that we need to play 7 strikers to win a match. That would be silly.
HT – I am not missing the point that you, and others, value style. How could I? You say it often enough.
However, I was merely stating my opinion, which is my right on a public forum, that for some Spurs fans, style isn’t everything and as long as we are there or thereabouts in the table, those fans will be happy enough.
I’d like to think that these different groups can coexist despite not agreeing 100% on everything…
The “7 strikers” was a hyperbole – I thought that was obvious enough.
BS …. For every goal that is scored there are supporters who will say it should, somehow, have been stopped. That is ridiculous when you think that the whole aim of the 90 minute game is …. TO SCORE GOALS.
Geof….somebody obviously forgot to tell Liverpool and United that prior to yesterdays bore draw! 🙂
Football, as many other things, is about incremental improvement. While I am under no illusion that we can go a full season without conceding, I’d like to think that we can learn from our past mistakes and that some goals become avoidable.
We’re never going to completely eliminate the risk of conceding, but surely we can strive to improve…
Besides, some on VS may disagree with you. Who cares if we actually score, as long as we play well and dominate possession…
Spurs have the 3rd least goals against in the PL. But the team at the top, MU, has 7 more goals against than Spurs. Ironically it was Spurs scoring 6 against them that helps see their goals against being as poor as it is.
It’s not a problem conceding 1 goal when you score two or more….. We conceded 1 goal v MU didn’t we? Ah, but we scored 6!
Our defending has not been a big problem this season. Taking a lead hasn’t been a problem. It’s been not pushing hard enough for more goals that has seen us losing points from those winning positions that has been a recent problem. And worryingly it has been against lower placed and much less talented teams……
In 18 PL matches there has been just one exception in this. And that was against WHU…
Scoring just 1 more goal in each of the past two 1-1 draws in which we didn’t play well against the lesser teams (whilst being mostly negative in our play), would now see us at the top of the PL on GD…
Afterthought …. When Kane scores a header do we all say that it should have been saved, or do we say what a great goal.
When we first signed N’dombele I was so excited – I still remember how he dominated Man City in a champions league game. Now some 18 months later are we finally starting to see why we paid all that money for him. Now that he appears able to last 90 minutes we are seeing what a wonderful player he is. If we can just get Gio fit what a midfield we will have.
Good afternoon everyone .
Enjoyed the match yesterday but it was against a team who has only won one match this season .
However we did play some attractive and attacking football with some good goals even though it was made possible through their mistakes ( our pressure ? )
I still unfortunately am negative about our poor passing and long balls to no one an e.g being Dier expecting Bergjin to run 20 yards to receive the ball !!! It seems that the only really attacking ploy is humping long balls for Son and Berwjn to run on to .
Especially in the 2nd half our passing was good in our own half but once over the half way line many passes went astray .
We still lack a good creative player who can thread passes through and make things happen .
Sheff U played well and worked as a team ( apart from their mistakes ) which put our sometimes lack of team work into perspective .
3 points nevertheless and with a long break before Wycombe ought to be up and fit for the next few games esp Liverpool
P.S . Really pleased that my gloomy score prediction was wide of the mark .
DoncasterHotspur – Not sure you will see N’Dombele and Lo Celso playing in the same team too often, more likely to be one or the other. If you were to put Gio in yesterdays team who would you take out ? You couldn’t take out Holberg, You could take out Bergwyn but would you want to ? I wouldn’t as you would no longer have a front three. The logical man to take out would be N’Dombele himself. Then the formation would remain the same.
I would have taken out one of the back three. My ideal team at the moment is
Lloris, Aurier, Toby, Dier, Regulion Hojbjerg, N’Dombele, Lo Celso, Son, Kane and Bergwyn/Lucas/Bale with Lamela or Dele filling in for Lo Celso at present.
LT, I can see that by your responses, personally I can’t take the football, a couple seasons for me is 2 seasons too long, as I know we not gonna win the league, I can’t even see us finishing top 4 so to take this style to win a the carabao or EL is not worth it to me.
Winning the EL would arguably do more for the club’s finances and visibility than finishing in the top four would, and would get us in the CL just as well.
More money, more visibility, CL football and a trophy – why would you not value that?
I agree with Allan. A better attacking performance but still too many passes going astray and not enough clear cut chances being created Our goals came from a set piece, and two flashes of brilliance from Kane and N’Dombele.
Despite what BS said about a back three allowing more attacking potential through the wing backs this only works through decent crosses and cut backs. When this isn’t happening for some reason there needs to be more ball retention and creativity in midfield to open up defences, which can be provided by a couple of playmakers instead of one.
The alternative, as Allan has said, is hoofing long balls down the middle or the wings which usually end up out of touch or with the opposition. Of course there needs to be a balance and some flexibility with all this but my feeling is that we are still erring too much on the side of sideways, backwards in midfield and then the long ball in attack, whatever the format.
In yesterday’s game I was getting pissed, yes it was better, but we are still dropping a gear, slowing down every time we go in front…
Why do we not go for it, loads of goals, when we have teams on the rack.
Why do we ease off/drop a gear every time we are in front
Why can’t we wrap games up. ok to a degree we did yesterday!
Our goal difference is pretty good but Jesus it could the best in the Prem right now, and as for the questions I asked is the reason why we are not sitting clear/top of the Prem.
Ok I am going to take a lashing, but I am frustrated, this team/squad we have is good and we are just hanging in there, some will say we are only ? points off the top, but bloody hell we should be top.
We are top of the League most points thrown away from winning positions.
Sorry about all that, but I am so frustrated with the way things have been going. COYS
You’re right PY, I think the commentator said we have dropped 10 points from winning positions, just shows where we could have been league wise!
I thought on yesterday’s performance at least we occasionally played the ball out from the back rather than lumping it up every time.
Another thing I thought that we had a decent penalty call with their keeper on Sonny.
He lost the ball then grabbed Sonny’s leg.
If that had been Lloris Sheffield would’ve probably been awarded or if not it would’ve been discussed for about an hour after it.
I can guarantee 1 thing ManU would’ve got a pen for that. Lol.
ND….one conspiracy theorist to another Spot on! COYS
Oh come on guys a pen ??
Even the most one eyed optimistic Spurs supporter could see Son slipped .
Can’t go with the conspiracy theory as much as I would like . Man U had no luck when Lamela won us a pen and got a player sent off .
However have to wonder esp with the goal that wasn’t which would have won us the match !!
Help with the date and personal guys .
…. personnel …