Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[fallenangle]

Potentially very interesting game tonight - should give us an indication of where Spurs are in relation to their serious top four Premiership rivals.

If we can deal with MU in their present, admittedly less than best form, it would be a big boost to Spurs confidence, particularly with the likely more difficult Liverpool game on the horizon.

Fingers crossed,

[EJG1980]

Yup, Man Utd away has been an annoying game in recent years, with us either going in in great form and putting in an unexpectedly lacklustre performance, or doing well and getting a sucker punch loss. It'd be nice to get a good solid win tonight!

Liverpool's gonna be tough, but there's a testing game with Watford before that too. They've started the season really well, 3 wins from 3, so they're going to be pretty high on confidence when we go there.

[EJG1980]

That’ll do

Moura was superb tonight, not just going forward but his work rate tracking back, tackling and harrying the opposition, brilliant performance.

We looked a little shakey at the back at the start, got lucky with Lukaku’s miss and Alderweireld misplaced a few passes, but we got much better as the game went on. By the end Alderweireld was looking like his old self and bossing it at the back.

After going 2-0 up Man Utd had most of the ball but we coped really well and there weren’t too many really scary moments.

We missed a few more chances ourselves, Kane with a point blank headed miss (which was a shock after the brilliant header he did score) and Alli with a one on one he should have scored.

I think I can cope with only winning 3-0 though

Edit: Gary Neville summed it up pretty well on Sky: Man Utd started very high energy and intensity, but after not taking advantage of it in the first half hour he expected Spurs to come into it and pick Man Utd off, and so we did.

[fallenangle]

Only saw the goals on the news but I was listening to it on and off during the evening and it sounded like Spurs were doing everything right as the game progressed. MU should have had a goal from that embarrassing defensive mistake but, thankfully, Lukaku missed. However Spurs also should have had at least one more goal (HK!!!!) from the good chances they created.

Hugely encouraging performance with, as you say, Moura playing very well and looking like he will become the sort of player for Spurs we only had hints of last season. A midfield anchored by Dier or Dembele with DA, CE and Moura in front all on form is a potentially world class formation.

[EJG1980]

There's a highlights video on the Spurs TV web site that's just under 8 minutes long, if you fancy seeing a little bit more than they showed on the news: https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/spurs-tv/

Gonna be some interesting selection problems for Poch. Hard to see Son getting straight back into the team when he returns from the Asian Games with the current front four working well together. If we stick with a back four and Toby is back in favour (as it seems he is) then Davinson might be spending some time on the bench after being an automatic pick last season. Lots of games during the season though so I'm sure everyone will get their fair share.

[fallenangle]

Just hope Poch does not throw away the League Cup whatever it is called this season by playing Spurs B as he has been wont to do. I think it unrealistic to expect Spurs to win the Premiership and/or FA Cup, the CL or, if comes down to it, even the EL. We can hope of course but if he takes the League Cup more seriously this season, that we could win.

Any silverware would be welcome and a great way to christen the first season in the new stadium; I do not think he should ignore it.

[EJG1980]

Another tasty Champions League group this year:



Real Madrid last season, so we might as well have Barca this I was hoping we'd get Inter as we've had some great matches with them in Europe in the recent past, and PSV we haven't played since... Juande Ramos was in charge, iirc. Really looking forward to it!

[EJG1980]

Watford "at home" in the League Cup 3rd round, but Spurs have applied to the EFL to have the game played at MK Dons stadium as our new stadium and Wembley will both be unavailable.

Personally I'd have preferred if we'd asked to have the fixture reversed and play it at Watford (as I haven't been to Vicarage Road since we played a friendly there back in 2012 and I missed out on a ticket for the league match this weekend) but I can understand the club's reason that they want as many Spurs fans as possible to have the chance to watch the team.

It'll be interesting to see how many fans are prepared to travel to Milton Keynes for a midweek evening kick-off in a competition where both sides are likely to rest some of their bigger name players. I'll probably be going as long as the train times are okay.

[fallenangle]

'Interesting' CL group indeed. Barcelona (second in the Spanish league), PSV (currently top of the Dutch league) and Internazionale................... So should be at least two easy games

If we can get through that to the knockout stage it would be an achievement in itself.

Watford twice in a month; just hope we can continue our current form for both matches whatever the line up used for the League Cup. Tighten up the defence and we should be good in both cases.

[EJG1980]

Can't take anything for granted of course but PSV and Inter aren't the teams they used to be. Neither team are at the level of Dortmund who we faced last season. They're certainly no mugs but I think we should rightly be second favourites behind Barca and I'd be a bit disappointed if we didn't make it out of the group.

Saturday edit: South Korea won the gold medal at the Asian Games today giving Son (and the whole squad) an exemption from national service. Nice that that uncertainty over his future has been removed.

[EJG1980]

Not a great performance today. We got sucker punched by Watford as they'd barely had the ball or been near our box for most of the match, but a five minute spell where they stepped it up, two set pieces and they get two goals. Can't complain because we had a ton of the ball but just didn't create enough, and were a bit lucky to go ahead with the own goal. If we don't create enough chances ourselves you always leave yourself open to get sucker punched. Should have equalised at the end with a great headed chance for Kane which he'd score 9 times out of 10.

Disappointing but you can't win 'em all. Bad day at the office, hopefully we'll play a tad better against Liverpool

[fallenangle]

Great pity to mess up our almost perfect start to the season with what was a game it was not unreasonable to expect to get at least a draw if not a win. Sorry Watford fans but they're currently punching above their weight. But I thought that, amongst many others, about Leicester a few seasons ago and look what happened then.

Still we have a chance for revenge in the League Cup but losing three Premiership points in this way is just the sort of thing that will cost us dear at the end of the season and that can not be undone.

[Mayhem]

Although in the case of Leicester, and I can readily admit this as a Foxes fan, they punched slightly above their weight, but pretty much all the normal challengers punched way below their weight. Having said that, they still earned more points to win the title than Man U had the previous season!

[EJG1980]

We actually didn’t do badly in the first half, in general play. First five mins it looked like Liverpool would be all over us, but from around ten mins on I’d say we were on top in terms of possession, albeit without creating anything clear cut.

The problem was we kept trying to shoot ourselves in the foot and gave Liverpool by far the best chances with terrible pass straight to a Liverpool player to let them right in on goal, and various other lapses in concentration. Eventually we were made to pay for one of them when Eriksen’s inexplicable back header lead to the corner that they took the lead from.

Second half we started well, Lucas had a GLORIOUS chance to equalise which he’s been putting away all season... but this one hits the post. We then let Liverpool in at the other end for 2-0 and that was that. After the second goal we were poor and never looked like getting back into it. And we were still gifting chances to Liverpool with terrible concentration lapses.

Nice goal by Lamela to set up an interesting last couple of minutes, and it would have been hilarious has we equalised but we wouldn’t have deserved it. Too little too late. No shame in losing to Liverpool who are excellent at the moment, but they won today without needing to be at their best. Lucas was the brightest spark for us all match, he always tried to drive forwards and he looked the likeliest to create something for us. Lamela was good and nice and direct when he came on.

Hopefully we can bounce back with a win against Inter and get our CL campaign off to a good start.

Edit: from reading various match reports I think I may have been wearing my Spurs tinted glasses with what I said about the first half It did feel though that their biggest chances came from our eff ups rather than being torn apart by great play, but I was so annoyed by the mess ups that maybe I've forgotten a lot of other stuff!

[Mayhem]

Was watching the match, Spurs never seemed at the races, and kept giving Liverpool opportunities to score on the break. Seems about the same as the Foxes match today!