Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

That’s more like it

First half was excellent, lovely slick, intricate, FAST passing. None of the lethargy and slow tempo of our previous matches. Even without the four goals, the step up in quality of our all around play alone would have been very pleasing.

As often happens when you get a lot of goals in the first half of a match, they dry up in the second half. Professional performance though, we’ve got 7 matches in 21 days, no need to expend energy going for broke when we’re 4-0 up. Still dominated the match and could have nabbed a couple more, but I think we quite rightly had an eye on our midweek trip to Greece.

Aurier had a really good game; whatever else can be said about him, he has an excellent cross on him. As Poch said though, it’s only one match, a player has to convince the coach he can do it every week. Aurier has the ability, now he has to put in the work to convince Poch. If he’s “on it” every week, I’d have no problem with him being in the team.

[fallenangle]

Just seen MotD and that indeed was Spurs attacking play at its best. Good stuff.

Nothing wrong with Aurier in attack as a wing back, he crosses as well as Trippier did. Its his determination and speed needed to get back into position and defend when he's gone forwards that is/was the problem. Trippier could rarely be faulted for effort in that respect. But if they're successfully addressing that aspect of Aurier's game there might still be a place for him in the long term if he wants to stay.

After today I won't be surprised to see him in the starting line up in preference to whatever alternatives are available.

[EJG1980]

Taking the result on its own, a draw away in Europe isn't a bad result, but it wasn't a good performance. Olympiakos had been the better side for most of the first half so to hit them with a quick double to go 2-0 up would have been a real sucker punch for them, but just like against Arsenal we let the opposition back into it right on the stroke of half time. I think after their penalty that made it 2-2 in the second half we were just about the better side, but we never looked properly up for it, which is disappointing after the excellent performance against Palace.

I don't think I've seen Eriksen play worse for Spurs than he did tonight. Even in matches where he's been quite or not at his best, he still usually pops up with at least one or two telling passes that create a good chance, but tonight there was nothing. So often our build up was scuppered by a wayward pass or him dwelling on it and giving it away. Hopefully it's just a one off really poor night at the office. On the flip side, Winks was by far our best player, really good individual performance from him on an average night for the team.

So, not a terrible result, but a bit disappointing that we couldn't build on the Palace performance. Hopefully we'll do that at Leicester on the weekend.

[fallenangle]

I missed that it was a late afternoon match so did hear much about it until later in the evening on the BBC Final Score.

They pretty much said all the same things, particularly about CE and that in general Spurs lacked that creative spark and were horribly slow during any attacking build up. Quite unlike the Crystal Palace performance. Still it is a decent away result against a decent side so if Spurs can do that when playing at much less than their best it is actually quite encouraging.

The problem with CE is that if he keeps on giving such lack lustre performances because he thinks he is not going to be playing for Spurs after January he might even be damaging his chances of being transferred.

Saw Kieren Trippier is now doing for Athletico Madrid what he should have still been doing for Spurs - I know I've asked this only recently but what were Spurs thinking letting him go?

[EJG1980]

Another match not won after taking the lead. It was a very good match, from a neutral perspective. I thought the first just about even, incredible improvised finish from Kane to put us ahead, but I thought Leicester deserved the win on the strength of their second half performance.

We did have a couple of good counter attack chances to go 2-0 up before they equalised though, and then were really unlucky to have Aurier's goal ruled out for offside, Son ruled offside by what must be one or two millimetres. I think Gary Lineker mentioned that he's not sure that when a decision is that close, the video surely won't have enough resolution for you to be able to put all the different lines in exactly the right spot.

Still, it's the same for everyone, and like I said, Leicester deserved the win. They look like they've got a very good team and they could definitely worry the top six if they keep their form up and stay clear of injuries.

[Mayhem]

Thanks, fair assessment from my perspective too. Shouldn’t have lost against Man U now heh. Can’t put eight past someone mind, that’s scary!

[vanpeebles]

Seems a long time since the boro put 8 past Man City and their fans was fighting each other in their own end lol. Rochemback free kick was a fundabarlt too.

[fallenangle]

Disappointing Spurs losing against Leicester with a hugely questionable VAR decision against us and a goal that should not have been disallowed IMHO.

If you can't see for sure any part of Son was in front of the defender, and I don't see how they could be certain when it was a matter of millimetres and with single fixed camera angle being used, the goal should stand.

In a sprint race at a top athletics event it is sometimes difficult to tell who won the race even with a high speed camera capable of separating the athletes down to 1000th of a second perfectly set up across a fixed finish line. The goal line camera system, because it is fixed, is accurate enough not to be questionable and is generally accepted as being a better judge than the human eye.

However on a football pitch an offside could occur anywhere. For the decision to be accurate to that level of certainty would be impossible even with a camera positioned every metre along the pitch. In such cases where we are talking about a few millimetres VAR is fundamentally unreliable and that should be incorporated into the rules. If the offside, hand ball or offence is not certain then VAR should be ignored and the referee's original decision should stand.

[EJG1980]

I was (and am) in favour of VAR being used as even though it can take a bit of the excitement out of a match when you're waiting for a decision to be made, I think winning or losing on merit is a better situation than winning or losing because a ref clearly messed up and it wasn't caught. Plus one it has been in use for a few years the average check should get quicker and quicker.

But I agree, in situations where using VAR is almost as much as a guess as the onfield ref / linesman, they may as well stick with the onfield "guess" rather than guessing twice (until such a time that the technology has the requisite accuracy).

I also think the implementation of VAR in the Premier League has so far not been done as well as other countries where I've seen it used. The VAR here seems reluctant to overturn an onfield ref's decision to the point of silliness, and there have already been several incidents this season where there have been utterly clear and obvious penalties that the ref has waved away, and VAR hasn't reversed the decision.

They said they wanted a "high bar" for overturning an onfield decision so as not to undermine refs too much, but to me it seems that they've set the bar so high that the VAR will just agree with the ref no matter what, rendering it kind of pointless (in certain situations).

As I said though, teething troubles aside in certain situations, I'm still in favour of it. The majority of the decisions I've seen it used for this season have correctly ruled out or ruled in goals that would otherwise wrongly have been awarded. Hopefully the powers that be can make sensible decisions to iron out the kinks.

[Mayhem]

My thought is, if they used VAR to rule out a possible equaliser the women scored in the WC semi in the summer by her toes being off, then it was always going to come to the same in the PL. I said as much at the time.

[EJG1980]

Disappointing to go out of the cup to lower league opposition, but well done to Colchester. I know there's the argument that it's the least important cup and it slightly eases any future fixture congestion, but it's still a trophy and extra matches in it are a good chance for youngsters like Parrott and Tanganga (who both did pretty well) to gain experience.

It wasn't one of those matches where the lower league opponent ups their game and gives the PL team a real scare; it was basically 90 minutes of attack vs defence training for Spurs, but as Poch said we just weren't aggressive or clinical enough in the final third. 19 shots but it wasn't like their keeper had to pull off a ton of amazing saves, you never felt they were hanging on by the skin of their teeth, aside from one hit post from KWP. To not put the ball in the back of the net once, with all those shots and possession and plenty of quality international players on the pitch, was disappointing, and we paid the price in the penalty shoot-out.

It's a dodgy period but I have no doubt we'll eventually find our consistency and go on a good run of results. Still only six games in and we're three points behind third place (which I think is the realistic target this season with the strength of Liverpool and Man City), so it's not like we're a million miles away from where we should be.

[vanpeebles]

They might as well fold the club and use the stadium for NFL.

[EJG1980]

They might as well fold the club and use the stadium for NFL.

Some of the more hysterical reactions on Twitter and the like aren't too far off of that.

Modern football, where even a short period of dropping below your best is treated as if the end of days is upon us (although I think most fans are pretty sensible, social media amplifies the crazies).

[fallenangle]

You always wonder with the 'League Cup' just how committed Spurs and particularly Poch is about that. He's never really taken it seriously even when we've progressed well and I suspect he's not that bothered about going out.

Still the performance was clearly far from stellar and against a lower league side we should have won.

A forgettable week for Spurs.

[EJG1980]

Nice to see Moussa Sissoko getting a new contract. Good on him for coming through that poor debut season, not giving up, and working his way up to being important part of the team.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2019/september/new-contract-for-moussa/