Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Yup, a good response to the disappointment of the last few results. Decent performance, started with intensity and speed, scored some nice goals, and crucially took advantage of that Liverpool blip. Forest weren't the toughest of opponents, but you can only beat what's put in front of you.

Good to see Porro starting to settle in and show what he can do, lovely little cross for the Kane header to get his first assist for the club.

It didn't seem like any of the rumours of Conte possibly departing / not renewing his contract at the end of the season affected the work-rate or togetherness of the team, which is good. Conte even seemed a bit more like his usual self on the touchline, with the way he celebrated the goals. I'd still like a bit of clarity on whether he's staying or going in the summer, but, as long as it doesn't affect the team on the pitch, it is what it is.

Next weekend is a big opportunity, as Liverpool don't play and we're away to Southampton. Win that and we put 9 points between us and Liverpool. They'd have two games in hand, but, it then puts extra pressure on them to win those games. Hopefully Newcastle can slip up a bit too as they can still overtake us at the mo. In fact, everyone else apart from Spurs, just lose every game until the end of the season, go on, you know want to

Edit: forgot to mention, it was a real shame that that gnat's whisker offside decision robbed Richarlison of his first Premier League goal for us, it was a really nice hit (and also robbed Skipp of a brilliant assist). I think they need to look at changing the offside law now that VAR is in place, as the spirit of the law is definitely not meant to be "if your nose hair is slightly ahead of the defender's boot, we need to chalk that goal off".

I'd go with changing it to your whole body needing to be ahead of the defender for it to count as offside. Of course, you would still get decisions where people are deemed offside by a millimetre, but, it'd be much easier to take "his whole body + 1mm was ahead of the defender" than the "he was completely level with the defender apart from 1mm" situation we have at the moment.

[EJG1980]

Go 3-1 up with 16 minutes left, against the bottom team in the league, with the worst home record in the league, who have scored the least goals at home in the league all season, and the win is enough to move us up to third in the table... of course we end up drawing 3-3! Inconsistency strikes again.

Edit: wow, Conte has gone nuclear in his post match press conference, real scorched earth stuff! Even if you agree with all or any of what he’s said, it must be exceedingly rare for a manger to stay in their job after a rant like that. I probably wouldn’t bet against him going during the international break, but who knows, this is Spurs!

https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/antonio-conte-press-conference-tottenham-26505400

[fallenangle]

Un - ******* - believable.

Just watched the highlights on MotD (iPlayer) plus the Conte press interview. Could not believe it when they got the penalty at 2 - 3 and after seeing it I'm still not convinced.

Again in this case the wrong (over-defensive) formation once we were 1 - 3 ahead as highlighted on MotD, playing too deep, inviting the pressure. That has to be, mainly, the manager's responsibility.

I think Conte knows he's going and he's venting but I can't work out what players he means are being selfish. HK had one shot where it might have been better to do something else but all the team looked up for it and playing for each other, particularly in the second half. Being hungry for goals is not selfish.

The Southampton goals were the result of defensive failings/mistakes not selfishness. Those are often punished when you're playing too deep and the last third is so crowded and nothing at all to do with lack of commitment. Over commitment by the late substitution Sarr is actually what gave away the penalty.

[EJG1980]

English isn't his first language so maybe he hasn't quite used the right word when he says selfish. I very much doubt it would be anything to do with Kane taking shots when he might be able to pass, you don't bemoan world class strikers deciding to take a shot on, especially when Kane is one of the very best strikers at assisting other players anyway.

I think the full quote was (paraphrasing) "I see 11 selfish players, they play for themselves instead of playing for the team,"... to me that would be stuff like an attacker only caring about scoring, so he doesn't drop back to help defend when needed, or a midfielder who misplaces a pass and then jogs instead of busting a gut to win the ball back, that kind of stuff. To be honest, I haven't really noticed that kind of stuff with this team, so I'm with you, I'm not sure what he's on about there.

To me the main problems with (some of) our players are: not consistent enough, can be good match and poor the next; can too easily lose concentration and make silly decisions; can too easily let one setback in a match drain their confidence and induce panic. And I think that comes from them simply being good players, rather than the very best players, not selfishness.

Again in this case the wrong (over-defensive) formation once we were 1 - 3 ahead as highlighted on MotD, playing too deep, inviting the pressure. That has to be, mainly, the manager's responsibility.

Yup, while there are definitely player failings Conte is certainly not blameless. It seems clear that the weakest and most fragile part of the team is our defence, and the strongest part are our forwards.

Yet so often this season the way we play / have been set up invites maximum pressure on our defence and limits the number of chances our forwards get, even against “weaker” teams. Surely it would make more sense to do it the other way around, and minimise the amount of work the error prone part of your team has to get through.

Could write a lot more but I think I’ve rambled on enough for now!

[EJG1980]

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[fallenangle]

Yes, another genuine piece of footballing history made by HK and, almost as importantly, it was the winning goal in a really good result in the England game.

Definitely a game of two halves with the Italians looking far more dangerous in the second 45mins and made even more squeeky by having a player sent off. But England held on despite that for a great start to the campaign.

Good game to watch too.

27.03.23

Conte gone and his minion left in charge with Ryan Mason as sidekick until the end of the season.

That guy Nagelsmann, who was linked with the Spurs job before Conte, apparently top guess for the next Spurs manager.

Spurs = never dull.

Good England win against Ukraine with HK getting another goal to add to his historic tally.

[EJG1980]

Conte gone and his minion left in charge with Ryan Mason as sidekick until the end of the season.

That guy Nagelsmann, who was linked with the Spurs job before Conte, apparently top guess for the next Spurs manager.

Spurs = never dull.

I had started writing a long post but I think I'll try and condense it down to some bullet points to try and avoid putting you to sleep! Plus its easier

I was really happy when Conte was appointed, and very optimistic at the end of last season as I thought we were finally heading in the right direction again for the first time since we'd let Poch go. I thought we'd really kick on this season.

I've got a list of things I think went against us this season that weren't Conte's fault or were beyond his control, and a list of things where I think Conte himself could have done better than he did. I think that in the last couple of months or so, the negatives that were his fault were starting to overshadow everything else.

And while I'm annoyed that we've now had FOUR SEASONS IN A ROW where we haven't had the same manager for the whole season, his noncommittal stance combined with his big press conference rant means I don't blame the club for letting him go before the end of the season, I think most clubs would have done the same in those circumstances.

Nagelsmann would be my first choice for the job so I'm happy with the links; I think Munich are a bit nuts for sacking him. In hindsight it's a shame we didn't appoint him straight after Poch, would have been a much more natural continuation in style of football than the 180 degree turn to Mourinho's style.

I hope they can persuade him to join and tie him down to a contract that starts on 1st June, and announce he will be joining in the summer ASAP*

Edit: * as I think that if we dilly-dally, one of the super clubs like Madrid or PSG that are rumoured to possibly be needing a new manager in the summer will be in his ear and it’ll be tough for us to compete with them.

[fallenangle]

New avatar ^

[EJG1980]

New avatar ^

Yup, I like to change it every now and then, decided I needed a change from Bomberman. Went with Stargoose at first but I thought it looked a bit too blurry so quickly changed it again to Dynamite Dux. We'll leave what I think he's shooting the bazooka at open to speculation

[EJG1980]

So that's Ivan Perisic and Emerson Royal added to our ever growing injury list during the international break, and then this morning FIFA announced that our Director of Football's ban from working in Italian footbal has now been upgraded to a full worldwide ban....

....but apart from that things seem to be going very smoothly at the moment

[fallenangle]

Yes, saw that.

As said earlier: Spurs = never dull

[EJG1980]

Come on you Spurs, we've got a chance to go third in the table with a win tonight, let's really go for it in these last ten games of the season. All to play for!

Edit:

That might have annoyed me even more than the Southampton match.

We were playing fairly well after Everton went down to ten men (not making many clear cut chances to be fair but we were) camped in their half with zero threat from them, we go 1-0 up... and the second that happened it's like a switch was flicked and we instantly started surrendering possession and territory to them. As soon as we started playing like that our defence looked shaky and nervous, instant sinking feeling as we were watching it. Whyyyy do it?

Just keep playing the same way we were before we went 1-0 up and we'd most likely see out the match in comfort. And to use the same flawed tactic in the very next match after it cost us the win against Southampton last week... gah.

As the commentator on Sky said, it was a completely baffling change in attitude from Spurs, and we only have ourselves to blame for throwing away the win.

[fallenangle]

I was holding off checking the score after Spurs scored and actually forgot to find out the final result until much later.

Disappointing to only get a draw and to give away the goal so late too. Conte's legacy I think, once in the lead go defensive, play to hold the 1 - 0 win and only if there is a counter attack opportunity go forward and try to get the second. It is just not Spurs' way.

Spurs, Newcastle and MU all on 50 points but both the latter with two games in hand over us. We meet them both before the end of April. so those matches are real six pointers. Then we have to meet Liverpool too.

That's assuming that we get good results in the coming Brighton and Bournemouth games as well.

It is going to be an uphill struggle to stay in the top four from now on. The only positive is that we have far better GD than MU but that's balanced by Newcastle having far better GD than us.

Talk of Brendan Rogers being offered the manager's job.

[EJG1980]

Talk of Brendan Rogers being offered the manager's job.

I've seen Potter mentioned as well, I think it's 99% just 2+2 easy journalism --> Spurs need a manager, manager becomes available, write article linking manager to Spurs. Of course there's always a chance any story might be true, but I definitely wouldn't put any money on it at the moment.

There have been audible "Levy out" chants at matches for a good two or three months now, I think Levy knows he needs to appoint a manager that the majority of fans can get behind in some way. I'm not sure he'll see appointing a manager who just got sacked for being 19th in the table after 28 matches, or someone who had a torrid time at Chelsea, as the person to do that.

I think he'll want to go for a big name manager who's well known for playing attacking football, or an up-and-coming manager who plays attacking football that's seen as worthy as taking a chance on, basically a new Poch style manager. Or, of course, just Poch.

[fallenangle]

Yay! Not a convincing win by the sound of it but 3 points in the bag, that's the main thing.

Looking forward to seeing Son's goal on MotD.