Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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Interesting articles on Spurs in the Evening Standard on Thursday. I do not normally read any newspapers now but I still need them for wrapping up my kitchen waste so I get the Standard free when I do my weekly Tesco's shop. Even though it is usually the previous day's edition most of it is editorial so still relevant.

The article on Andros Townsend, a player I liked when he was at Spurs, is particularly interesting and covers his departure and the reasons behind it some of which I was unaware of.

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/crystal-palace-andros-townsend-opens-up-struggle-gambling-addiction-lost-46000-one-night-a4305726.html

https://www.standard.co.uk/sport/football/tottenham-star-heungmin-son-hurt-pain-man-utd-defeat-we-know-we-can-do-better-a4305536.html

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5-0 with only a few minutes to go - just hope we don't blow it again.

Finished phew, that was close.

Good result, even if it is what we should expect against Burnley on their current form.

[EJG1980]

Yup, Burnley weren't great, but you can only beat what's in front of you. A clean sheet at last, and I can only remember one iffy moment at the back where we got a little bit lucky, very solid otherwise. It was noticeable that Lucas and Son (especially Lucas) did a lot of work tracking back and helping out covering the wings defensively, Lucas won the ball back well on more than one occasion. An excellent bounce back result and performance after the midweek disappointment.

Lots of other good stuff, Kane's excellent long range strikes, Moussa getting two goals in a week, but Son's amazing goal is rightly going to overshadow everything else. A truly wonderful goal, it's definitely going to be one of those "were your there when..." moments that everyone who went to the match will bring up for years to come. And, because Burnley won the toss and made the teams swap ends, he scored it at the end where we sit

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Yes, saw the Son thing on MotD - just the sort of world class goal fans love to see their side score.

DA must be a a bit miffed that has now indeed over-shadowed his fantastic mid-week goal against MU.

No goals conceded was just more icing on the cake although, as you said, Burnley were unlucky not get at least one in consolation.

It is still damned tight in that central part of the Premiership table and we really need a decent run of wins to at least put us back in contention for a top four position and some space from the rest. Leicester are the fly in the ointment though - if they continue on their current form there is only going to be that fourth spot up for grabs with us, the improving MU, Chelsea, Arsenal and, as outsiders, Wolves all having a realistic chance of getting it.

Unless MC's and Leicester's form drop off a cliff it is going to be a close run thing - GD could become very important.

[Mayhem]

Indicator of how season has gone... there are as many points between Leicester and Man U in fifth, as there are between Man U and Norwich in 19th! I'm expecting the current top three to be the final top three at end of season, so yeah, it's only fourth spot left...

[EJG1980]

Not a great match yesterday but it was kind of what I expected from a mish mash team of 1/3 younger players, 1/3 experienced players who haven't played much football and 1/3 current first choices. Especially as Bayern didn't rest as many players as we did and were more "up for it" wanting to right the wrong of losing their last two matches in the German league.

The first half was actually okay, loose at the back but we actually posed a decent threat going forward and missed a couple of chances; shame we couldn't have gone in at 1-1. We didn't really get going at all in the second half, although still passed up a couple of good chances to make the scoreline look closer (especially Son right near the end), but equally we couldn't have complained at all had we lost by more than we did.

Ryan Sessegnon's first half performance and goal was the clear big positive, and we did at least get more minutes into the legs of players who needed it, Mourinho had a chance to look at some new players in an actual match rather than just training, and some of our best players got the benefit of a full week off for a change. So I think it's a match that "served its purpose" in other ways, rather than the result being too important.

Our possible opponents for the last 16: Barcelona, Juventus, RB Leipzig, Paris St-Germain, Valencia.

Edit: highlights from BT Sport, worth looking at for the Sessegnon goal. It was a little bit fortunate that the ball got through to him, but there was some nice short passing in the build up and it was a great finish.

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Thanks for that.

Pity we couldn't have finished the group stage with a better performance and result but, as said, it was not a first team choice selection.

Listening to it on the radio I heard the Spurs goal but they were already being very positive about Ryan Sessegnon's performance even before that. Bodes well for his and Spurs' future.

We're going to have to deal with the big clubs at some point but if we can avoid PSG and Barca in the first round and get one of the others I'd be happier and more confident Spurs will progress further.

EDIT

Lo Celso: for the first two BM goals he was ambling around not quite sure what he was doing back there in defense miles and from any BM player, not tracking back or not continuing to track back with the blatantly obvious threat.

In both cases he was so busy ball watching he left their left wingers Coman for the first goal (and previous attempt) and then Davis in acres of space. Both were instrumental in the build up to the goals.

Not surprised he was subbed later on.

Those right back/right mid-field positions are weak defensively and something still needs to be done. Sorry to mention this get again but WTF were they doing letting Trippier go?

EDIT Sunday 15.12.19

Yay! Good but lucky win against Wolves; still they all count and it is a VERY welcome and useful result. Now back to fifth position in the Premiership and one point ahead of the chasing pack and only three behind Chelsea.

[EJG1980]

Super Jan

Yup, Wolves were the better side for large chunks of the match and had us under a lot of pressure, but to our credit we defended their set pieces really well, loads of heading away crosses, blocking shots, etc., so Gazza didn't have loads of saves to make.

I think a couple of months ago that would probably have been a match where we eventually cracked and lost. I would have been happy with a point given the way the match went, but lovely corner from Eriksen and a brilliant header from Jan.

Bonus that Man Utd dropped points at home to Everton too, so we've snuck back above them. Three points behind Chelsea now and playing them next weekend, so that should be a nice, sedate affair

[EJG1980]

Avoided all three of the "big guns" so can't complain about that draw at all, but Leipzig will be a tough couple of matches. They're flying in the German league at the moment having gone top with six wins in a row, and they've got some excellent players such as Timo Werner up front.

It is a favourable draw though and I think would rightly see it as a disappointment and opportunity missed if we don't get through to the next round. As Mourinho has a couple of months to work with the players before the first leg, we should hopefully be a lot more solid and playing consistently well by then.

Disregarding everything else, I'm very happy when we get to play a team that we haven't faced before. A fresh match-up is always a fun prospect.

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I hoped we might get RB LeipZig, particularly as our favourite German team to beat, B Dortmund, this time were in our pot. A rematch with B Dortmund in the next stage would have been good but they're up against PSG so I think that is less likely to happen now.

Its getting a bit ahead of ourselves but I would not be unhappy if we had any of the Premiership sides next, even Liverpool. Save that encounter for the semi-final and hope for another nice friendly match with Chelsea instead.

[EJG1980]

Good news this morning, Toby Alderweireld has signed a new four year contract, so no losing him next summer for free.

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2019/december/toby-signs-new-contract/

I would assume the fact that none of the truly big clubs showed an interest in him in last summer, combined with Mourinho coming in, lead to him changing his mind and signing a new deal.

In hindsight he should have signed the new deal we offered him two years ago, he's missed out on higher wages for two years by not signing it and ended up staying anyway. Still, I don't suppose he went hungry on his "lower" wages

I wouldn't be surprised if Jan Vertonghen followed suit, but I still think it's unlikely that Eriksen will make the same decision and sign a new deal.

Its getting a bit ahead of ourselves but I would not be unhappy if we had any of the Premiership sides next, even Liverpool. Save that encounter for the semi-final and hope for another nice friendly match with Chelsea instead.

My personal preference will always be to draw a foreign team out of the hat, but obviously if you told me it'd mean getting to the final again I'd take an English team in every single round!

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Before the game today I just wanted to pay tribute somewhere and here is as as good as anywhere to Martin Peters who sadly died yesterday after a long struggle with Alzheimer's disease.

Absolute Spurs legend so I have no doubt they'll be marking his death today in some way at the match.

He was genuinely my first footballing hero as a schoolboy at probably 7 years old. I had a big poster of him on my bedroom wall for years after he became a Spurs player. Like all schoolboys who have such sporting heroes he was the guy I most wanted to emulate. Of course, I was nothing like him as a player in general but that ability he had to ghost into the box unmarked (why he was sometimes nicknamed The Ghost) and be in the right place at the right time was something I aspired to do.

It is forgotten he was the most valuable British player when he transferred for £200,000 to Spurs from West Ham. It is partly because of that I became a serious Spurs supporter rather than a West Ham one.

Crystal Palace and West Ham were the two nearest clubs to where I was born bought up. Even at 7 years old I knew CP where a bit 'meh' so no chance but my best friend was a WH supporter and they had those three legends: Moore, Hurst and Peters so there was a good chance that's the way I would have gone.

Luckily my headmaster, who was a real tartar in term of discipline (he preferred the plimsoll to the cane), was also a big WH supporter. I just could not countenance being in the same boat so at 7 years old I went for Spurs instead.

When Martin Peters transferred to Spurs in 1970 it was like the icing on the cake, my favourite England player now playing for my team it was almost as if it was confirming I'd made the right choice three years earlier. The rest is history.

I must have seen him playing live for both England at Wembley and WHL at some point but it is so long ago I honestly do not remember. I certainly saw Moore and Hurst at West Ham and Moore, both Charltons and Alan Ball at Wembley. I was taken to: The Three versus Six game at Wembley which was a sporting event marking the UK's, Ireland's and Denmark's entry into the EEC but Peters was not included. I must have seen him playing for West Ham more than once - strange I can not be sure, getting old.

BTW that The Three Versus The Six: game looking at those two squads - extraordinary amount of talent and footballing legends I was seeing playing for real and did not appreciate as much as I should have done at the time.

Martin Peters was one of the legends of that time I did appreciate and am proud I did.

RIP

[EJG1980]

Well, that sucked. Basically a repeat of the performance against Man Utd but without even the small consolation of a nice goal for us this time. Just didn’t turn up at all in the first half, and while it was a bit better in the second half, it wasn’t like we were knocking on the door to get back into the match. Well beaten and deservedly so.

No complaints about the penalty. No idea what Gazza was doing there, completely avoidable. The only surprising thing about it was that the ref gave it as a free kick for us at first! I think people on the ISS could have seen that was a penalty, no surprise when VAR gave it, can't fathom how the ref thought Gazza had been fouled.

Maybe even at 0-2, getting one back might have changed things, but the Son sending off virtually ended it. I only saw one replay on the screen in the stadium, but it looked like Son did deliberately try to kick into the other guy. Very silly, and unlike his red against Everton, I don’t think he can have too much complaint about this one, even if the Chelsea player did make the most of it.

Absolutely gutting to hear the announcement in the stadium about racism towards players, so disheartening when your fellow fan can sink so low. According to football.london it was one incident of a racist gesture from a fan (though a lot of the reports today, Monday, are saying he heard monkey noises too ) so hopefully they should be easy to identify, ban from football for life, and be prosecuted by the police. Shameful stuff.

Back to the football, disappointing day, still lots for Jose to sort out but I think we’re slowly moving in the right direction. When Jose took over, I think that we’d have been happy if we were told that by Xmas we’d have halved the gap to the top four and qualified for the next round of the CL. We bounced back from the Man Utd loss with a great performance, hopefully we can do the same again.

Martin Peters was one of the legends of that time I did appreciate and am proud I did.

RIP

Martin Peters is a bit before my time (I was minus five years old when he left Spurs) but my Dad, and anyone who was around in the era that I’ve spoken to, always speaks about him in glowing terms.

The two closest clubs to me were Watford and Barnet (with Brentford and QPR a mile or so further), but we all inherited Spurs from my Dad and he took us to WHL when we started getting into football. And even though it's slightly further away, getting to WHL on the underground / train is actually slightly easier than it is to get to the others (apart from Watford).

My Granddad was a West Ham fan but where my Dad grew up he was slightly closer to Tottenham (than West Ham) and they were easier for him to get to, so that's who he went with. Could have been worse

(parentheses overload in that post!)

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Yep, very disappointing match yesterday for all sorts of reasons. Not what Spurs might have hoped for in the first match of the Xmas period. On the BBC a lot of the blame, even during the game, was being directed at Mourinho for not changing the formation to counter Lampard's use of a 3:4:3 formation.

Problem was/is that right side: Aurier likes to get forward but when he does Lucas Moura is not the right player for that important role of slotting in behind as effective defensive cover in the case of a quick counter attack. He's more likely to be up there with Aurier leaving that duty to the more defensively minded midfielders eg. Dyer or Winks (if playing) who can not be be everywhere.

What Gazzaniga was thinking going for the ball with his feet I've no idea and lucky not to be sent off for reckless endangerment. Son's little kick back up was too obvious not to be considered deliberate but, whilst undisciplined, was at least an understandable.

[EJG1980]

Good comeback to get the win today. Dodgy first half, Brighton were the better side, although it could have been different had our goal not been ruled out for Kane’s toenail being offside.

Much better after the break. Not vintage stuff but the work rate, tracking and pressing their players, improved a lot. After his disappointing performance in Munich I thought Lo Celso did well when he came on, always running forwards or passing forwards, which helped get the team on the front foot. I think it helped when Eriksen came on too.

Kane’s goal was great perseverance and alertness to score after his initial shot was saved, and the Dele Alli goal was excellent, from the lovely Eriksen pass in the build up to Dele’s beautiful finish. Brighton only had a couple of long range efforts in the second half so I think we did enough to deserve the win.