Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Job done tonight, despite the annoyance of Stoke equalising with their first shot of the match early in the second half. Brilliant goals from Davies and Kane to see us through though. Bale's header in the first half was lovely too, and we should have had a goal for Son but it was ruled out incorrectly for offside (of course, on the night when there’s no VAR ).

It was great to see Lamela back. As per usual our intensity levels went up when he came onto the pitch. Probably hoping in vain, but it would be such a bonus if he could stay fit for the rest of the season.

Winks took his chance to impress and had his best game for a while.

I think we need a bit more killer instinct to put teams to the sword when we're on top, which Jose has mentioned a couple of times in interviews this season. In the first half Stoke really were there for the taking, but it was so easy I think we were happy to dominate without pushing ourselves too much. Their keeper did have to make a few saves but if we'd stepped it up a gear or two we could have really peppered their goal and possibly been out of sight by half time.

I shouldn't complain though, even with the equaliser it was a comfortable and fully deserved win, and we’re now two wins away from a trophy. The final has been moved back to 25th April, which is my Dad's birthday, so hopefully we will be there and give him a very nice present!

Edit: at home to Brentford in the semi-final. We can’t take them lightly (four Premier League teams beaten in the previous rounds) but it’s the draw we wanted and a massive chance to reach a final.

[fallenangle]

I was hoping we'd get Brentford, not because they'll be easy, but, hopefully, easier than the alternative route having to beat both MU and MC. We're going to have to treat the Brentford game seriously that is for sure - none of that old Poch Spurs' B team nonsense.

Assuming the result we want It doesn't really matter whether we get MU or MC in the final. They're both capable of beating us if we're not on top form. I think MC would be my marginal preference as MU are clearly on a positive wave at the moment despite getting kicked out of the Champions League.

[EJG1980]

I was hoping we'd get Brentford, not because they'll be easy, but, hopefully, easier than the alternative route having to beat both MU and MC. We're going to have to treat the Brentford game seriously that is for sure - none of that old Poch Spurs' B team nonsense.

Same here, Brentford play some very good football and will have a real go at us (although hopefully that'll play into the hands of our counterattacking capabilities), it's not going to be an easy match at all. But Brentford + Manchester is definitely preferable to Manchester + Manchester.

Jose has treated the knockout matches we've had pretty seriously this season, even against lower ranked opponents. In the Europa League qualifiers he played either Son, Kane, or both, in all three matches (and more first teamers that you'd expect in other positions too). It wasn't until we got to the group stage that he started rotating much more, with Kane and Son each only starting one match out of six.

So with that in mind, and with it only being one match away from a Wembley final, I wouldn't be surprised if we go 100% full strength against Brentford. Jose knows how important it can be for a group of players to get that first taste of silverware, even if it is "only" a League Cup. Plus the following match is against Marine, where I think even Jose will play mainly squad players and give a number of first teamers a rest.

Assuming the result we want It doesn't really matter whether we get MU or MC in the final. They're both capable of beating us if we're not on top form. I think MC would be my marginal preference as MU are clearly on a positive wave at the moment despite getting kicked out of the Champions League.

I'm tempted to say I'd rather face Man City too, as in the past couple of years they often seem to come unstuck against us, and I think they're the exact type of team Jose would relish "doing a number on" in a big final. Having said that, as long as we're in the final I really don't care who the opponent is. And it's not for four months anyway, so who knows what kind of form us or either of them will be in by then.

[EJG1980]

Gah, wasted opportunity today to get back up to third in the table. We only have ourselves to blame with the way we approached the match after getting the early opening goal. Wolves were not that great today, they have a few injuries, their best striker not on the pitch, we did not need to be as passive as we were. It was more frustrating than the Palace match as at least in the match we did force their keeping into having to make four or five great saves, today we didn't create a meaningful chance for Kane or Son.

I have zero problem with soaking up pressure and playing a counter-attacking style, but today we did the soaking up pressure part and but forgot the counter-attack part. We've been more defensive minded since the 3-3 throwaway vs West Ham, which is fine, we did need to tighten up and cut out silly mistakes, but I think in some of the recent matches we've gone too far with it. The balance needs to go back the other way a bit more in matches like these as we're dropping points that are there for the taking.

Still a very tight league and a long way to go, and we're still a work in progress as a team, so hopefully Mourinho's experience will see him eventually getting the balance right.

Edit - although, after the match Mourinho said that sitting so deep and just defending wasn’t the game plan. From the BBC match report:

After the game, Mourinho said it was never his intention to defend the slender lead and instead questioned his players for not showing more ambition to go for more goals.

He told BBC Sport: "Defending deep, that's not the intention. They know what I asked them at half-time, if they couldn't do better it's because they couldn't do better."

Mourinho added on Sky Sports: "I give some credit to Wolves, of course, because by losing, they put some pressure on us, pressure that we coped quite well with, controlling the game very, very well.

"But we didn't have that ambition, that desire to go for more."

So maybe it’s more the players who are being too cautious since that West Ham match, not wanting to make the same mistakes again. Either way, up to Jose to get the best out of them and not dropping points in these kinds of matches.

[fallenangle]

Pretty much what I was going to say about the match after seeing MotD.

HK and Son were looking jaded and I think that is the problem, without them on good form Spurs do not have the attacking quality necessary to maintain that forward momentum, keeping the opposition on the back foot. On MotD they pointed out Spurs' last shot on target was 22 minutes into the first half.

It is all very well soaking up the pressure and controlling most of the game but with only a one goal advantage, one mistake, one bit of luck or piece of skill and it allows the opposition to grab the equalizer or, in the worst case a win. Its becoming a worrying habit.

Still we're still in touch with top, thanks to WBA, otherwise Liverpool would effectively be three wins ahead of us.

[EJG1980]

The match vs Fulham tonight is off; lots of positive Covid tests in the Fulham squad so the match won't go ahead. Annoying (I'll have to think of something else to do now!) but better than taking the risk of playing it and ending up with a load of our own players catching it.

I suppose we get a slight immediate benefit of having an unexpected rest in a hectic period, but with us still in three cup competitions and loads of league matches still to go, it's likely that it'll be rearranged for an inconvenient date anyway.

[fallenangle]

Unexpectedly good result for us and the other chasing pack the Liverpool/Newcastle drawn game last night. With a game in hand over them we could and should be back up there only four points behind and, probably, MU who have a game in hand too.

[EJG1980]

Good way to start the new year, a well deserved win and back up to third in the table.

Leeds play pretty football but it didn't really lead to anything in way of clear cut chances for 90% of the match. They looked most dangerous in the first ten minutes or so, when we were a bit slow out of the traps, but after that it was all routine stuff with little to trouble or test Lloris.

We missed quite a few chances on top of the three we scored, Bergwijn guilty of the biggest misses; I think he's been playing well this season but his finishing has let him down, needs to spend some time on the training pitch with Kane and Son Their combination for the second goal was, as you'd expect, quite lovely.

The only blemish really was the last moment sending off of Doherty for a second yellow. No complaints, completely mistimed the tackle and crunched his opponents foot, yellow card all day long. A shame he ended it with that silly moment as it had been one of his better performances for us.

Still, good win, gets some momentum back before the big semi-final with Brentford.

Edit: just seen that Poch has been appointed as PSG manager. Good job for him and I hope he does well there. I expect the Dele Alli to PSG rumours from the summer will now go into overdrive for January!

[fallenangle]

Yes good win, Spurs not really in top gear either and, as said, profligate with their chances too with Bergwijn's poor finishing yet again being the prime example.

Marine versus Spurs to look forward too soon.

There are rumours about Poch wanting Christian Eriksen too after his less than successful decision to leave Spurs. You can bet there will be HK and Lloris speculation as well.

Yesterday (Saturday) morning started bad, I thought it might be an omen about the Leeds game. I turned on the TV and caught The Big Match Revisited on ITV4: Spurs versus Leicester from February 1975. It was a really poor Spurs performance, they lost 0 - 3

The WHL pitch looked worse than some of those I played on at school at around the same time and Spurs were dire despite having some great players in the side.

Martin Chivers was in one of his increasingly frequent off form periods, Martin Peters (Captain) clearly past his best and losing the ball far too frequently. The Spurs midfield was barely present and only Pat Jennings, the ever reliable Steve Perryman and a guy I don't even remember: Alfie Conn, deserved any plaudits for their contributions.

[EJG1980]

There are rumours about Poch wanting Christian Eriksen too after his less than successful decision to leave Spurs. You can bet there will be HK and Lloris speculation as well.

Some positive rumours re Kane as it has been suggested by a few journalists today that talks between Spurs and Kane have begun over a new contract, which would be great news. His current contract runs to summer 2024 so you'd think a renewal would add at least a couple more years to that, which means his contract could run until he's just a month shy of 33 years old. Obviously he could still be sold no matter what his contract situation, but it'd still be a great sign of intent if he did extend it.

You can see Lloris being tempted by one final big move, play out the last few years in his homeland, massive money, almost guaranteed trophies, and a manager he knows extremely well (for a while at least, considering how long PSG managers usually last!). Having said that I'm sure I remember an interview he did a while ago where he said he wasn't interested in going back to play in the French league and would probably only do so to play for his home town club of Nice, so who knows?

Yesterday (Saturday) morning started bad, I thought it might be an omen about the Leeds game. I turned on the TV and caught The Big Match Revisited on ITV4: Spurs versus Leicester from February 1975. It was a really poor Spurs performance, they lost 0 - 3

The WHL pitch looked worse than some of those I played on at school at around the same time and Spurs were dire despite having some great players in the side.

Martin Chivers was in one of his increasingly frequent off form periods, Martin Peters (Captain) clearly past his best and losing the ball far too frequently. The Spurs midfield was barely present and only Pat Jennings, the ever reliable Steve Perryman and a guy I don't even remember: Alfie Conn, deserved any plaudits for their contributions.

I know a fair bit about the players and teams of the 50s, 60s, early 70s and 80s, from reading / watching / hearing about them, but the mid to late 70s is definitely a bit of a murky period that's not too fondly recalled

I looked up the 1974/75 season that match was from, we finished 19th, one point clear of relegation, sitting in the relegation zone going into our final match and needing a win against defending champions Leeds to stay up. Talk about last day drama! They managed to do it with a bit of an unexpected 4-2 win. We went down two seasons later though, so only a temporary stay of execution.

I found an article about the match on the ESPN web site: http://en.espn.co.uk/facupstories/sp...ry/189613.html The aforementioned Alfie Conn had a good match that day too, scoring one goal and making two others.

[EJG1980]

Wembley here we come

Pretty much agree with Mourinho’s assessment from after the match: not an amazing performance from us and attacking wise we can play much better, but a professional performance where we controlled the match and got the job done. Two good goals from us. The buildup play for the second was very good, and Reguilon’s cross for the first was perfect. Really good header from Sissoko too, always nice to see someone who doesn’t score too often find the back of the net.

Only two real chances in the whole match for Brentford, one early in the second half denied by a great Aurier block / tackle, and the other where they had the ball in the net but we’re marginally offside. I suppose you could say that’s a bit of luck for us, but it was offside so it was the correct decision. As I said last season, it’d be nice to see Brentford make it up to the top flight, very good team.

Only other incident of note was the late red card for a challenge on Hojbjerg. They showed a close up of Højbjerg‘s leg and it looked like a car crash; luckily he seems to be okay but it could easily have been a nasty injury.

A long wait for the final, let’s hope we’ve been doing well in all the other competitions by the time we get there.

[fallenangle]

Sounds like it sounded on BBC5 Live - not a stellar performance but enough to win and lucky VAR ruled out their 'goal' or it could have been a bit different.

Another final - just hope this time good Spurs actually turn up. As said earlier whether its MU or MC we're going to have to be up for it and on form to get the result we want.

[fallenangle]

Eeek! After just watching the Crawley Town versus Leeds game I just hope that does not give Marine any encouragement to do the same thing later this afternoon.

3 - 0 and it could have been 4 - 0. The FA Cup produces some amazing results and that was right up there with the most extraordinary ones I've seen.

EDIT
Phew!!! No upset - properly professional and respectful performance from Spurs. Good form from some lesser known players too and pleased to see DA actually impose himself on the game in the first half.

I noticed Joe Rodon looked very good in defence and some fast pace and equally fast thinking saved Spurs on one occasion from giving away a goal.

Marine more than held their ground for the first quarter of the game, could have scored as well but. as you would expect, ran out of energy, even with the subs, before the end.

Good entertainment value from both teams.

[EJG1980]

Phew!!! No upset - properly professional and respectful performance from Spurs. Good form from some lesser known players too and pleased to see DA actually impose himself on the game in the first half.

I noticed Joe Rodon looked very good in defence and some fast pace and equally fast thinking saved Spurs on one occasion from giving away a goal.

Marine more than held their for the first quarter of the game, could have scored too but as you would expect ran out of energy, even with the subs, before the end.

Good entertainment value from both teams.

Yup, a good bit of early evening entertainment. I don’t usually bother watching the build up to matches on telly but I did today, enjoyed seeing the stuff about Marine and the local fans, bits about their players, etc.. I thought the people watching the match from their back gardens was great too, such a unique thing you only get in football to see a top level professional team playing in such surroundings. It was just a really enjoyable occasion all around.

Some good goals today, Moura’s free kick, Vinicius’ delightful chip for his hat trick, and the great story of 16 year old Alfie Devine scoring on his debut for the club. Glad that Marine had a couple of moments too, especially hitting the bar at 0-0. We’ve beaten Premier League teams more than 5-0 a few times in recent years, so they can hold their heads up high, getting a better result as an eighth tier team. Great for their players getting to share the pitch with world famous players like Bale, too.

[EJG1980]

Our match against Villa on Wednesday evening has been postponed, but in a rare example of common sense from the football authorities, we're going to play the previously postponed match against Fulham on Wednesday instead. So while our fixture congestion for later in the season hasn't changed, at least it hasn't got any worse!

Mourinho had a good old rant about it in his last press conference, saying that we might refuse to play if we were handed an "inhuman" run of fixtures again, so perhaps that played some part in getting the powers-that-be to make a sensible decision.