Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Hmm, Villa have lost to Brighton, my false hope meter has been topped up a bit... let's see what it's like after the Liverpool match

FT edit: and the meter goes back down!

I do wanna know though, what constitutes a "bad" follow-through and what constitutes a "good" follow-through.

In the Chelsea match at WHL earlier in the season, Romero wins the ball but his foot carried on afterwards and hit the Chelsea player's leg, he was sent off and Chelsea given a penalty, explanation: "He may have won the ball, but he caught him with the follow-through so its a foul".

Today the Liverpool player wins the ball, but his foot carried on afterwards and hit Johnson in the face. No foul, no penalty, explanation: "He may have caught him with the follow-through, but he won the ball first so it isn't a foul."

Even if you ignore everything else, a boot being that high alone is given as a foul virtually everywhere else on the pitch.

Liverpool were by far the better team and I think us getting the two goals was at least somewhat down to them turning off because they were 4-0 up, as much as us playing better (although I'll say Richy, Skipp and Lo Celso did play really well when they came on, I'd like to see Richy and Lo Celso start the next match), but a penalty to make it 4-3 could have made the last few minutes a bit more interesting.

[fallenangle]

Liverpool winning at Anfield = predictable but with basic defensive errors and Liverpool's high pressing going 4 - 0 down was not good at all.

I was watching on MotD and I just couldn't believe Spurs were actually trying to play out from the back again and again in such circumstance, particularly when the longer ball would have relieved the pressure and resulted in a possible three on three or even four on three Spurs' counter attack.

Danny Murphy in the MotD studio made exactly the same point after the match too. It was implicitly criticising both the players, for not taking the responsibility of mixing up the distribution from the back and Ange, presumably, telling them not to do that and not changing it when it was clearly the wrong tactic.

Depressing result although the two goals we did get were taken/made very well and good to see Richarlison involved in both.

AV messed up their game against Brighton and I did not want to think about the 'what ifs' as I believe it is too late but just one win and and a draw from the matches we lost and Spurs would now be nipping at their heels.

Spurs' Women's FA Cup Final against MU next weekend to look forward too - perhaps Spurs will get their hands on some silverware this season after all. It'll improve my mood if they do.

[EJG1980]

Gotta get back on track with a good result and performance against Burnley at the weekend. Our last four matches have made what was a very comfortable gap back to sixth place a bit more precarious, but a win against Burnley and Sheffield United would guarantee fifth place regardless of other team's results. Anything against Man City would be a bonus, but the other two matches are ones where the players have to make sure they don't slip up.

Speaking of the women's FA Cup final, my younger brother and I both got a ticket, so I'm looking forward to that. First time I've been back to Wembley since Spurs spent the season there.

I went to the 2009 and 2015 League Cup finals, both of which we lost, so I'm hoping that this one will be third time lucky

[fallenangle]

Beth England and Jessica Naz are where the Spurs goals are likely to come from so lets hope they're on form. But without MU's on loan Grace Clinton Spurs are at a disadvantage. However Drew Spence seems to be stepping up to the mark recently in the midfield and played an important part in getting the draw in their last WSL game against Everton.

That was a good result; I won't use the term Spursy , but it was a very mens' Spurs-like performance: going down 2 - 0 but fighting back to almost grab a win at the end. That sort of result I would thought does a lot for the confidence, shows the right attitude, that they have backbone and won't just capitulate if they go behind in the final at any point.

Hope that is what it means but that's what I want to see: Spurs Women fighting right to the finish whatever the final result.

[EJG1980]

Phew, back to winning ways!

Mixed first half but a better and more dominant second half. We should have scored more than we did, some very nice moves that needed a better final pass/cross or better shot. Two lovely finishes from Porro and VDV for our goals though, the defenders showing the forwards how it's done; Porro's was more spectacular but the calmness, control and precision from VDV for his finish would have made any striker proud.

There were also still a couple of sloppy moments at the back that could have been punished, but it was a deserved win for us. And at this point in the season all that matters is getting the three points anyway.

[fallenangle]

Yes, both goals were really good but I agree the VDV one was pure class.

Now, today, we can dream that Spurs Women will bring back some silverware but also that Liverpool do us a favour on Monday and give AV a spanking (9 - 0 would help ). If AV win though that is it as far as 4th place is concerned but anything else and there is still a chance. We can but hope.

[EJG1980]

Well, despite that result, I still enjoyed having the chance to go and see Spurs play in an FA Cup final. Obviously it ended up all going a bit wrong, perhaps the nerves got to the players on such a big occasion, but they can still be proud of getting Spurs Women further in the cup than they've ever been before.

Hopefully they build on this during the summer and bring in some more new players to up the quality of the squad again. Perhaps they can take inspiration from Man Utd, who lost the final last year and came back to win it this year; maybe we can do the same next season. COYS!

[fallenangle]

Good pics.

I was still hopeful when they went down 2 - 0 but that third one was just embarrassing and knocked the stuffing out of Spurs. Yet another goal given away by this stupid insistence on playing out from the back every damned time.

I don't remember the MU goalkeeper, Mary Earps, needing to make any save from a Spurs shot and that was a measure of how ineffective they were in the last third.

Naz's speed was neutralised by some close marking and was later subbed, Drew Spence did little of note and Beth England never had enough service from anyone but HK like still put in a good shift, often playing deep helping out the defence. But that's not what she is there to do.

Maybe if that good header of hers which hit the crossbar had gone in it might have changed things but it was not to be. I also thought that wing-back Ashleigh Neville had a pretty good match.

Still it was an historical occasion and at least a Spurs team got to Wembley this season, just not our year this time.

Monday Edit
Liverpool did Spurs no favours against AV but a draw doesn't really affect us because even if they'd lost we'd still need more than four points so two wins is what we were looking at anyway. However what is does now mean is that all AV need is a draw with Crystal Palace and they'll beat us on goal difference. Currently it is something like +20 against our +12 so that isn't going to change.

If we get the two wins and then 'only' get fifth place it will almost be an apt summation of Spurs' season: almost there but still not quite good enough.

[EJG1980]

Well, no Champions League football for us next season

Congrats to Villa, over a whole season you get what you deserve and they deserve top four. Emery has done a fantastic job there, Villa had finished 14th the season before he joined, were 17th when he took over, he got them up to 7th by the end of the season, and then got Champions League qualification in his first full season. If Man City don't mess it up and win a fourth title in a row I'm sure Pep will win manager of the year, but if you go on expectations vs results I'd give it to Emery.

We played pretty well on the evening, 50/50 first half, then Man City upped it a bit at the start of the second and finally broke through us. Credit to the team though as they didn't fold after that and kept Man City honest for the rest of the half and gave them a few nervy moments, especially when Son went through one on one in the dying minutes. Would have been a goal if Son had been in the form he was in earlier in the season (although even if we'd scored and got a draw, it still wouldn't have been enough for top four). Then straight after that Man City get the penalty that sealed it.

While it's a downer to miss out on the CL, I had no exceptions of being in a top four fight this season, let alone still having a chance of CL qualification with two matches to go. Hopefully we make no mistakes on the final day and seal 5th spot (although we could do that in the next couple of days if Chelsea and Newcastle don't win their midweek matches) and it'll have been a very good season that we can hopefully build on.

[fallenangle]

Yep, and as I said earlier a decent run in the Europa League next season I'd be pretty happy with that. It might not have kudos or as much money as the CL but it is something we could win with a few more key international class players added to the squad to give it more depth.

[EJG1980]

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/football/articles/c4n1ndlknk1o

Interesting, I wonder if the vote will pass.

I was initially in favour of VAR as I thought that while the delays may be annoying, losing a match because of an incorrect decision was also really annoying, and I'd be willing to accept the former if it wiped out the latter, it'd make the game fairer.

We were an early recipient of that when Man City scored a last minute "goal" against us in the 2019 Champions League quarter-final that would have eliminated us, but VAR showed Aguero was clearly offside in the build up so chalked it off. No VAR and we'd have been eliminated by a goal that should never have stood, denied that famous semi-final night in Amsterdam, etc..

I think I would still be in favour of it now too, if the implementation of it in the English Premier League hadn't become so poor and cack handed. Maybe it's a false impression but it definitely feels like that the last two or three seasons, the quality and speed of VAR has really deteriorated.

It feels like countless occasions where the ref has got something wrong on the field, the VAR looks at it on video for a couple of minutes, then backs the ref. Or the VAR looks at an incident that clearly wasn't a foul and says it is, or looks at something that is an obvious foul but waves it away. We're getting the con of the delays, without the pro of them at least getting to the correct decisions.

And if they're going to look at a video for two minutes and still make an incorrect decision, I'd rather ditch VAR and go back to just having the ref on the field make the occasional mistakes. At least that's quick! Although as I implied earlier, I think it's not as much the technology being a problem as it is the competence of the people using the technology.

[fallenangle]

Goal-line technology works and that is how to employ such things. It isn't millimeter accurate but 99 times out of 100 there can be no argument whether or not it is right or wrong and players/fans accept it because of that.

VAR though, particularly in regard to fouls or handball situations, is open to human interpretation and that indeed is one of the things wrong with it. It still takes too much time to make a decision and I thought what was meant to happen in cases when it wasn't clear and obvious is that the referee's original decision rules.

Then we get that referee checking the monitor malarkey, more time wasted, especially with handballs. The referee is effectively being asked if he wants to change his decision because he might have got it wrong. But what he sees on screen is often just as unclear or even misleading and therefore open to interpretation or re-interpretation which can result in the wrong decision anyway.

I do think there is a problem dumping VAR entirely and that is the quality of the referees and 'assistant referees' without VAR is not as good as it was.

Onto more(?) important things: Newcastle are out of the running for fifth place with their loss against MU but Chelsea, who have Bournemouth on Sunday, could get that spot if Spurs don't get points against Sheffield Utd. Worse case: MU beat MC in the FA Cup Final, Spurs lose and Chelsea win in the Premiership and that would mean the European Conference for us.

I don't think that is going to happen but I won't be happy until Spurs have given SU a damned good thrashing.

[Mayhem]

As predicted, Spurs throw the match so Arsenal don't win the league

[EJG1980]

Oh to actually live in a world where Spurs are so good that Man City can only hope to beat them if Spurs decide to throw the match