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    Yes, that all sounds good to me - we have to be quick and flexible to exploit any gaps in their defence and having two good wing players and giving HK some closer support from DA allows us to exploit any gaps or mistakes as quickly as possible. If that is at the expense of Sterling so be it. He hasn't looked like scoring in any game its been Lingard and Vardy who look as though they're more likely to do that when/if they get the chance.

    I think DA has to prove he can be effective support for HK when facing a world class defence or I can see him being subbed early for Ruben Loftus-Cheek or Vardy particularly if we loose a goal.

    EDIT Saturday 07.07.18

    Half time and going very well. We would be two up if Sterling had quickly passed it back to HK in that attack just before the break.

    I can't believe how lacklustre and predictable Sweden have been so far and I can't believe that is going to continue either. Until we get that second goal I'm not even going to start to think about us winning this, all it would take is one mistake or a bit of luck and they'd take us into extra time. England have done everything right so far except scoring that vital second goal.

    ................................................ which DA just did. Yay!

    A few chances for Sweden but overall a hugely dominant, very much deserved England win; I don't think I've seen them play better in years.

    Russia or Croatia? Hmmmm. If Modric is off form or marked/kicked out of the game the home advantage and fan support could be telling but my waters say Croatia, just, maybe on penalties. But in either case if England can put in another performance like today's they can beat either.

    Good times.
    Last edited by fallenangle; 07-07-2018, 16:09.

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      Originally posted by fallenangle View Post
      EDIT Saturday 07.07.18

      Half time and going very well. We would be two up if Sterling had quickly passed it back to HK in that attack just before the break.

      I can't believe how lacklustre and predictable Sweden have been so far and I can't believe that is going to continue either. Until we get that second goal I'm not even going to start to think about us winning this, all it would take is one mistake or a bit of luck and they'd take us into extra time. England have done everything right so far except scoring that vital second goal.
      Semi-finals here we come

      Surprisingly Sweden pretty much did continue in the same vein, aside from a couple of shots that needed good Pickford saves. Never expected it to be anywhere near that comfortable of a match.

      Great to see Dele Alli get a goal, and another selfless performance up front from Kane, two superb performances from him in the past couple of matches. And (despite the fact that he should have played that ball back for Kane at the end of the first half) I thought Sterling was really good today, always England's most dangerous player.

      Beat Russia or Croatia and we're in a World Cup final! Would have bitten off hands, arms, and most other body parts if you'd offered that to me before the tournament started.

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        Damn. Gutted but proud, didn't expect us to get anywhere near the semi-finals before the tournament began. It started so well with Trippier's superb free kick; I think we were the better team for most of the first half and it's just a shame that we couldn't capitalise and nab a second goal. 99 times out of 100 Kane puts away the chance (and rebound) he had without even thinking about it. I don't think he looked fully fit, he was badly limping and down to walking pace at the end of the Colombia game, got through the lower intensity Sweden game, but I think it caught up with him tonight.

        Seeing Trippier being helped off injured during extra time was simultaneously really sad, but also filled me with pride. Absolutely ran himself into the ground for the team and has to be a shoe in for team of the tournament, he's been exceptional.

        Croatia deserved to win though, they were the better side in the second half and for all of extra time. Spurs bias makes me want to see France win the final as I'd like the (small) consolation prize of seeing Lloris lift the cup, but it'd be great to see a surprise winner like Croatia get their name on the trophy, it'd be an amazing achievement. May the best team win!

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          I have a slightly more cynical attitude towards what happened last night.

          In the first half we had them on the ropes and even if not from open play that great Trippier goal was gold.

          But I just didn't understand the tactics Southgate went with in the second half. We've seen Spurs play so many games where it has quite literally has been a game of two halves each with two very different performances, almost like they're two different teams. That is how England looked to me right from the start of the second half.

          Cagey, slow in build up, and none of that energy and high pressing they'd been displaying only 15 minutes earlier.

          Glenn Hoddle pointed out that Croatia had effectively gone to a back three making their midfield 4 or 5 strong and what did England do? Instead of the tried and tested 4-4-2 or a more cautious 4-1-4-1 they used a bizarre choice of 5-3-2 which often eroded into 5-2-3 with just DA and Lingard having to cover the whole area against a team who's main strength is in the midfield ie. Modric, Rakitic and Peresic.

          The England back five dropped deeper giving those players even more of the space they needed to boss the game and that is what they did.

          Sterling, who'd been a thorn in their flesh in the first half was subbed far too early and wrongly with Rashford who seemed to have been told to play as a roving utility player doing a lot of work but not to any great effect where it was needed.

          Dier, yes, straight sub for Henderson but should have been operating as he does most effectively in front of a back four rather than as part of a back five.

          Danny Rose for Ashley Young, no. It should have been the flagging DA who went off allowing Ashley Young to save his energy and concentrate on defending that left wing with Rose playing in front of him more as wing half, basically splitting duties.

          Have to say that if I was going to sub anyone else it would have been HK with Rashford and bought on Vardy when Sterling had genuinely exhausted himself, and not as a pointless last gasp when the front men were getting no service anyway.

          They lost, It happened and we have to accept that and England getting this far and playing so well in most of their games, who can't have enjoyed that? But to lose it in last 45 minutes of a WC semi-final mainly because of tactical errors.........it is indeed gutting.

          Comment


            Yeah, the second half performance and Southgate's tactical / subs in response weren't the best, but hopefully it's something he'll learn from and do better with in the future (easy to forget he's not a massively experienced manager). Removing Sterling was definitely a mistake; we weren't getting the ball to him anywhere near as much as in the first half, so try and change things to enable us to get the ball to him more often again, don't just remove him.

            I've seen it said by quite a few people, and I agree with it, England's biggest problem is a lack of a midfielder with an eye for a pass, whether from deeper like Modric or further up the pitch like Eriksen. Then Kane doesn't need to keep dropping deep to get the ball and can concentrate on staying up front, and you have someone that can pick out the runs of players like Alli and Lindgard.

            It's a shame Winks' season was so disrupted by injury as he's developing nicely into a player who could possibly do that kind of role in midfield (along side someone else doing more of the defensive grunt work). Nowhere near the finished article, of course, but I think with an injury free season he might have made the squad.

            He looked good on his England debut, was then excellent in both CL games against Real Madrid and away against Dortmund, getting into the team most weeks but got injured just before new year and was basically out for the rest of the season. Hopefully he can stay injury free in the upcoming season, could be a big one for him, and there might be even more chance for him to impress if Dembele moves on as has been rumoured.

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              Opening day win, good stuff. Good first half and we deserved our lead at half time, but we rode our luck a bit in the second half and we were lucky that Newcastle didn't take one of their good chances to equalise. A draw would have been a fair result if they had scored, but I'll quite happily take the win! All that mattered in the end was getting three points. Top of the league now

              Edit: forgot to mention, it was only a few minutes but it was really nice to see Luke Amos make his debut. He looked good in the pre-season games, it'll be nice to see how he progresses.
              Last edited by EJG1980; 11-08-2018, 13:38.

              Comment


                Just finished watching it on MotD. Newcastle were unlucky not to come away with a point because defensively Spurs were well below par, particularly on the right. Aurier is OK as a wing back going forward but his lack of speed and discipline in getting back into position as a defender shows just how good Walker was and Trippier is at doing that. When Aurier is playing I'm always looking at the right side when there's a counter attack and seeing acres of space too often.

                Still early days and an otherwise decent performance with the first three points of the season under our belt. Good start.

                Comment


                  Yup, Aurier has his work cut out getting ahead of Trippier in the pecking order, he's just not at his level at the mo (although credit to him for the brilliant cross he put in for Dele's goal).

                  Unfortunately the opening of the new stadium has been delayed and it seems most likely that the opening match will now be Chelsea on 24th November (blimey, what a first opponent that would be ).

                  Following the release of the Premier League fixtures for the 2018/19 season, we announced that, barring any significant issues with the final stages of stadium completion, our match against Liverpool on 15 September would be the first match in our new stadium. Recent testing and commissioning has now shown issues with the critical safety systems.


                  It's a shame but there's not much Spurs can do if the builders aren't finished in time. Just gotta grin and bear it, and suck up a few more visits to Wembley!

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                    Gonna be interesting where Spurs play Man City end of October, as the NFL are there that weekend.
                    Lie with passion and be forever damned...

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                      I would assume that if the stadium isn't ready by then, we'll arrange with Man City to have our home and away fixtures reversed so that we play them at the Etihad for the October fixture (we did the same with Watford at the start of the season when we thought the stadium would be ready for mid September). Or maybe Sky would agree to move the fixture to Friday night so it can be played before the NFL game on Sunday.

                      Further statement from the club released a short while ago.

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                        Looking good today so far: 3-1 with three different goal scorers and from the sound of it Spurs dominating.

                        Shame about giving one goal away though.

                        Comment


                          Good win today, and a deserved one. First half was good, lots of nice football (with Dele Alli pulling the strings for a lot of it) but our good build up lacked a final ball or finishing touch, until Lucas stepped up with his fantastic finish, great goal. Only one scare at the other end when Sessegnon broke through but superb keeping from Lloris kept him out.

                          For some reason we started a bit off colour in the second half and after Fulham hit the post you knew they might score if we didn’t step it back up, and they very quickly did. We struggled to get back into our rhythm for 15 mins until Dembele came on and we switched to a back four. That got us going again and we started laying siege to the Fulham goal, playing some really good football.

                          Thought it might be one of those days though as some really good chances went begging for us, including Kane hitting the bar, but another great goal got us the breakthrough we deserved from Trippier’s awesome free kick. Then a brilliant run from Lamela who set up Kane for an excellent finish to kill the game off. Could have added a couple more after that but not to be.

                          A good day at the office: great to see Toby back (did some great link up with Tripper in the first half), very good display from Lucas, Moose making us wish he was 5 years younger and injury free, an excellent 20 mins from Lamela, a goal in August for Kane, and a cheery on top of Winks making his comeback from injury.

                          Comment


                            Lucas' goal was great as was of course Trippier's free kick and HK could have had a hat-trick if he'd put away all his good chances.

                            Dembele also proved how useful he is when you need that strength and ability to hold/distribute the ball well. Lamela added some vim to the mid-field too, that run he made for the HK goal was superb - hope to see more of that from him.

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                              Thought Lucas played really well yesterday - lots of harassing, a la Lamela in his pomp. If we have both of them fit and doing that, could be real assets. Kane looked exactly like he did this time last season, lacking real sharpness. Hopefully that's not any kind of hangover from the ankle injury last summer, and the World Cup, just a case of him lacking pre-season and getting up to speed. Mind you, he could still have had a hat-trick.

                              Comment


                                Meant to mention it was good to see the tribute at the start of the game to Alan Gilzean. One of the late 60s early 70s Spurs greats and alongside Martin Chivers part of one of the first attack partnerships I can ever remember seeing. Quailty player, RIP.

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