Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

First ten mins today Southampton looked a bit brighter than us, but after that we grew into the game and started getting on top, we deserved the goal from Ndombele. That first half was his best performance so far for us; a goal threat (obviously ), some excellent tackles to break up play, good passing and a little bit of skill going past people. A good all action display. We were in charge of the match until...

Aurier... eesh! I’ll wait until I see it on twitter telly later to be sure, but his first tackle looked like a bad foul that deserved a yellow, and the tug back not five minutes later was so silly.

Then not long after that the Hugo horror show. Watch through your fingers for this one, it would be considered nasty even for an X rated horror film.

Going down to ten men and letting in such an awful equaliser could have derailed us, but we showed great fight to bounce back and retake the lead not long after. A lovely counter attacking move with a good finish from Kane.

First 20 or so minutes of the second half we were under a lot of pressure, without Southampton making loads of clear cut chances. They did have a couple though and Hugo pulled off some superb saves to atone for his first half error, especially the save from a close range header. He was really good the whole half, very decisive and took the pressure off with a lot of good catches, didn’t let the first half error affect him.

Final 20 minutes or so we started attacking more ourselves, and I think it helped when Lamela came on as his energy and fight was what we needed for a bit of a gee up. No massive scares, a few routine long range saves for Hugo, a couple of chances for us to make it 3-1, and we saw out the match pretty well.

A good, hard fought three points.

[fallenangle]

I listened to most of the second half on the BBC and it sounded like a very decent, rugged performance but I still expected there to be another mistake and Southampton would get the equaliser. But Spurs even with just ten men held firm and got the three points. Very pleasing.

They were talking about playing Sissoko at right back a few weeks ago and it seemed to work rather well.

I'd not heard a description of the Lloris horror so I did not know exactly what he had done until MotD. As soon as I saw the back pass and him not immediately clearing it I knew what was coming but when he tried to back heel it to fox the incoming Ings and missed.....OMG. Embarrassing is putting it mildly.

Still Lloris more than atoned for that with the rest of his performance which was really good and vital in getting the win.

Black Tuesday Edit

OMG WTF was that all about? First half fine and then it all went to pot, big time.

Mistake was taking off Winks or not replacing him with Dier. Instead at 2 - 4 down Poch went for an attacking formation bringing on Lamela to try to grab at least a draw leaving precious little defensive depth in midfield. With the dodgy Aurier on the right it was basically a back three left to fend off any quick counter attack from a top class side on their own - result = embarrassing defeat.

Talk about making it hard for ourselves; if we get out of the group stage now we'll deserve to win the CL.

[vanpeebles]

So about that NFL stadium...

[EJG1980]

OMG WTF was that all about? First half fine and then it all went to pot, big time.

That was the most disappointing thing, the first half performance (especially the first 30 mins) was mostly a very good one and even the Munich manager said after the match that they were lucky not to get really punished during that opening half an hour.

Son twice and Ndombele had great chances to score in that spell which you'd normally expect them to put away. Bayern then got on top for the final 15 of the first half, but I thought we had done well enough to go in level only to let in the last gasp goal to go behind. A very preventable goal too, had a couple of chances to clear it before it fell to Lewandowski.

Even then though, we'd just had a lot of good chances in the first half, we were only one goal behind, I was confident we could still get the win (and at least a draw) if we played as well as we did for most of the first half and were more clinical with our finishing. Certainly never expected an embarrassing drubbing to be incoming.

Talk about making it hard for ourselves; if we get out of the group stage now we'll deserve to win the CL.

As bad as the result was, we were actually in a worse position after two matches last year in the Champions League. Then we were six points behind Inter with 4 matches to play. This time we only have to make up two points on Red Star Belgrade in 4 matches, and we play them next so have a chance to leapfrog them into second place straight away.

How the manager and players react to this result could shape our season. Does it become a wake up call / kick up the arse that makes them redouble their efforts to improve and show how good they really are? Or does it sap their confidence and really derail them? It's definitely stand up and be counted time.

So about that NFL stadium...

Too soon man, too soon!

Oh well, at least we're breaking records in our new stadium; first time we've let in 7 goals at home in our 137 year history!

[vanpeebles]

From the outside looking in, I have a theory on new stadiums, and I believe it takes decades for a team to settle in. The change in atmosphere and belonging, it's like a new club. What new stadiums give on one hand, they take away with the other.

[EJG1980]

From the outside looking in, I have a theory on new stadiums, and I believe it takes decades for a team to settle in. The change in atmosphere and belonging, it's like a new club. What new stadiums give on one hand, they take away with the other.

Not sure I'd agree but it'd be interesting to see some stats over a long period of time.

If you take the example of our good friends down the road, you can point to the fact that they haven't won the league since they moved to The Emirates, there you go, long term problem of moving stadium.

To counter that though, if you look at the last three or four years, Arsenal have consistently had one of the best home records in the league (only Man City and Liverpool were better last season, not surprisingly) and it's their poor away form that's held them back. Even by their second season at The Emirates, they didn't lose a single match at home and got as many points at home as they did when they won the league in 1998.

(Thanks 11v11.com, bloody useful website )

The problem is that it's impossible to tell if it wasn't a natural decline and they would have got worse even if they hadn't moved stadium. They were one of the most successful teams in the country from the 30s to 50s but fell away and won nothing in the 60s, and that happened without moving stadium. There's so many variables in football I think it's tough to be able to point to one thing and say X caused Y.

[vanpeebles]

Not sure I'd agree but it'd be interesting to see some stats over a long period of time.

If you take the example of our good friends down the road, you can point to the fact that they haven't won the league since they moved to The Emirates, there you go, long term problem of moving stadium.

To counter that though, if you look at the last three or four years, Arsenal have consistently had one of the best home records in the league (only Man City and Liverpool were better last season, not surprisingly) and it's their poor away form that's held them back. Even by their second season at The Emirates, they didn't lose a single match at home and got as many points at home as they did when they won the league in 1998.

(Thanks 11v11.com, bloody useful website )

The problem is that it's impossible to tell if it wasn't a natural decline and they would have got worse even if they hadn't moved stadium. They were one of the most successful teams in the country from the 30s to 50s but fell away and won nothing in the 60s, and that happened without moving stadium. There's so many variables in football I think it's tough to be able to point to one thing and say X caused Y.

Southampton, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, West Ham etc. Even though Man City have done well, the atmosphere is appalling at their new stadium. The stadiums are nicer, but are they homes?

[hudson]

Is there any truth in this Vertonghen and Eriksson's wife rumour going around?

[EJG1980]

Southampton, Middlesbrough, Sunderland, West Ham etc. Even though Man City have done well, the atmosphere is appalling at their new stadium. The stadiums are nicer, but are they homes?

Ah, I thought we were just talking about how successful teams who moved to new stadiums were, rather than other stuff like atmosphere. I agree that it's likely to take time for a new place to feel as much of a home as the old place, only natural. You need time to build up the "do you remember that match when..." memories that you had for the old place.

I think Spurs will be helped in that regard as the new stadium is in virtually the exact same place as the old stadium, so no changes needed to the match day routine. I go to the same station and have the same walk down the high road that I've done for the past 25 years, which helps make the new place feel like home.

I think lack of atmosphere has more to do with modern football in general rather than being a problem specific to new stadiums; I've seen plenty of matches on telly at old school stadiums that have had terrible atmospheres with hardly any singing or chanting. Maybe it's a bit harder to get in the mood at a comfy, modern stadium, but I think lack of atmosphere should be blamed on fans more than stadiums.

Back on the success front, I'd say those teams you mentioned did pretty well when they moved stadiums. Southampton had their highest finish for 20 years and got to an FA Cup final right after moving; Sunderland got promoted and had their two best top flight seasons since the 1950s right after moving; Middlesbrough's longest run in the top flight since the 30s and 40s... came at their new stadium in the late 90s and 00s.

West Ham is too early to tell, but they got relegated plenty of times in recent years while at Upton Park, so it's not like if they go down in the next few years it'll be an anomaly caused by the new stadium. Same with the likes of Boro and Sunderland, they're having tough times in the lower divisions right now, but there have been lots of similar periods in both their histories pre-stadium moves, so I don't think the stadiums have much to do with it.

[EJG1980]

Is there any truth in this Vertonghen and Eriksson's wife rumour going around?

No, made up by some random on Twitter and then it gets spread around as "news". Alasdair Gold (journalist) had a bit of a rant about it:

"The bit I always find odd about internet rumours made up by weird people for a laugh, with little regard for the people involved, is when I get messages from random people saying they've heard it from a source inside the club. No you haven't. Come on people, be more discerning.

It's a bit of a damning indictment of social media as to how quickly something that's simply made up can spread across the world because it's easier to believe it and pass it on than to stop and think and actually question where it's come from and whether it's genuine or not.

They teach children in schools now how easy it is for libellous tweets to get thousands of retweets and the truth in response gets a fraction of that total because the damage is already done. Apologies for the rant but it's always been something I just can't get my head around."

[hudson]

Damn those Arsenal fans. Damn that "moon landing"

[EJG1980]

They were talking about playing Sissoko at right back a few weeks ago and it seemed to work rather well.

Poch agrees, Sissoko in at right back against Brighton today.

Dier back in in central midfield too, alongside Ndombele. I'm a massive fan of Winks but I do wonder if Dier and Ndombele is the better balanced pairing. Our defence hasn't been as strong as it used to be in recent times and I wonder if part of it has been down to not having a defensive minded midfielder in front of the back for (usually through necessity with Dier and Wanyama both having lots of injury problems). Even Sissoko isn't an out and out defensive midfielder who just sits in front of the back four.

Dier sitting in and being more defensive combined with Ndombele going box to box should make us more solid, especially with Dier's ability to drop back further and make a back three on the fly, when needed. Hopefully it goes well today!

Half time edit:

Full time: really poor performance. Brighton played some great football, were in control for the whole 90 minutes, just completely outplayed us and fully deserved at least a 3-0 win.

We just looked completely devoid of ideas and creativity. We had a couple of good shots from Lucas right near the end after we were already 3-0 down, one chance in the second half where Kane should have done better, but apart from that...

Awful looking injury for Hugo as well, you wouldn't expect him to be coming back any time soon from doing that to his arm.

[fallenangle]

Oh-ooh, Spurs in meltdown and Lloris injured.

WTF is going on>?

[vanpeebles]

Meanwhile spurs stadium is all about the nfl.

[EJG1980]

Meanwhile spurs stadium is all about the nfl.

Saw a great video on Twitter of the stadium between switched from football mode to football mode

Hopefully whoever the designated home team is has better luck there than we did on Tuesday!

Oh-ooh, Spurs in meltdown and Lloris injured.

WTF is going on>?

Apparently Lloris has dislocated his elbow and early diagnosis is that he’s expected to be out for two months at least.

Lots of possible reasons for the downturn in performances but unless we can read the minds of the players and the manager we’re really just guessing. I think all the fans can do is suck it up, get behind the team and hope we regain our form as quickly as possible.

A big test for Poch but given how well he’s done over the past five years I’m sure he’ll work out what needs to be done eventually get us back on track. Even if it’s something that might take a little while, require a few players being offloaded in January, etc., I hope the higher ups at the club take a long term view and back Poch, and don’t make any knee jerk decisions.