Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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So everything is good until Sunday when we have Everton to deal with and we can get depressed all over again.

In fact I think Everton are quite a good test, not at their best after an over-hyped good start to the season (sounds familiar) and currently eminently beatable.

[EJG1980]

So everything is good until Sunday when we have Everton to deal with and we can get depressed all over again.

In fact I think Everton are quite a good test, not at their best after an over-hyped good start to the season (sounds familiar) and currently eminently beatable.

That's some good quality Spurs fan optimism right there

I'm not expecting an overnight transformation of the team (although you can never rule it out). I think some players will respond and find form that has eluded them for a while, but I think others just aren't up to it any more and Conte will be trying to get them out of the door asap.

I think the big instant thing for me, is that for the past couple of years I've always hoped things would get better. With the appointment of Conte, it feels much less like hope and much more like expectation. We've appointed one of the best managers in the world, if we can't make a good go of it now, we might as well pack up and go home!

It's going to be interesting to see which players emerge as his first choices. He's not afraid of a left field choice; Victor Moses hadn't appeared for the Chelsea first team for three years, but Conte came in and made him his first choice wing back in a side that went on to win the title. So we could get some surprises.

Also, during Euro 2020 Conte was working as a pundit and said that if he was coaching Kane he'd tell him to stay in the penalty area as much as possible and not encourage him to drop deep. So it'll be interesting to see if he stays true to that and Harry stops dropping deep. Although you have to wonder how much his dropping deep is because he wants to do it, and how much was because he was fed up with getting so little service.

Really looking forward to the Vitesse match on Thursday now. What was a bit of a meh match has suddenly become a lot more exciting!

[EJG1980]

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I'd forgotten about the Thursday match - so we could be going back to being depressed again sooner than Sunday.

Thanks for reminding me.

[EJG1980]

Well, Conte couldn’t have asked for a better one match introduction to the crazy world of Tottenham Hotspur than the match last night

Can’t really read a huge amount into it when Conte has had two days of training that he wasn’t even officially part of because he was waiting for his work visa. Quite a few positives and quite a lot that needs working on, sums it up.

Conte is definitely hands on, never sat down and was constantly shouting instructions and guidance to the players. In the first half an hour the attack looked great, even in this first match there was some lovely football. But the players did seem to tire quickly from the intensity so the three fitness coaches Conte has brought in will be needed! Makes you wonder what they’ve been doing for the past couple of years in training, especially as we used to be such a fit team that pressed for the whole 90 minutes under Poch.

Some players stood out: Lloris was superb and pulled off some great saves that stopped the embarrassment of losing a three goal lead. Emerson Royal put in a performance that was levels above what he’s shown so far, outfield man of the match. Winks looked very good when he came on as sub as did Ndombele, helped reinvigorate us after we’d been holding on with ten men. The front three looked excellent at times.

A few fluffed their lines a bit though. Sub-par performances from Skipp and Hojbjerg, giving the ball away far too much. Reguilon had some good moments but again gave the ball away too much. Romero was good but you can’t excuse the silly yellow cards that were totally avoidable, needs to cut out that rashness. But I think all the players will have a chance to improve and become “Conte players”, as said, not even had a proper training session with him yet.

Great fun though, most I’ve enjoyed a match for a while. Great goals to celebrate, poor defending to curse, three red cards, a load of the away fans being kicked out, a pitch invader, and a partridge in a pear tree! It was like an over the top action movie the amount that went on I think Conte will want things a bit more sedate and controlled, in the future.

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Sounded like a mad game.

The fitness thing is interesting because one of the reasons it was said Poch was 'let go' was because there were rumblings of discontent amongst some players over the intensity of the training regime he'd bought in and continued with throughout his tenure.

Maybe that is what Spurs need again to bring them back up to where they were when they reached the Champions' League final.

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Sounded like a mad game.

The fitness thing is interesting because one of the reasons it was said Poch was 'let go' was because there were rumblings of discontent amongst some players over the intensity of the training regime he'd bought in and continued with throughout his tenure.

Maybe that is what Spurs need again to bring them back up to where they were when they reached the Champions' League final.

Just watched the highlights of yesterday's match - loved the Lucas Moura goal, great free flowing attacking play. Then Moura blots his copy book giving the ball away in our final third which resulted in one of their goals.

[EJG1980]

The match today wasn't great from a quality perspective, but it had some incident and intensity, and it was nice to keep a clean sheet.

I think the reversal of the Everton penalty by VAR was correct, you can see the ball divert just as Loris' hand reaches it, showing he got a touch on the ball.

Royal had another good game, and after a bit of a meh showing against Vitesse I thought Skipp turned it around with an excellent performance today.

We had a couple of chances that could have won the game for us: Reguillon guilty of a bad miss in the first half, perfect ball to pick him out at the back post and it's almost certainly in the back of the net if he gets it on target... but he skewed it wide somehow. Lo Celso was very unlucky late in the second half with a beautiful shot that hit the post, a couple of inches more inside the post and we'd have had all three points.

Everton also had a couple of chances (though I don't think quite as good as the two mentioned above) but as both teams struggled to create I think a draw was a fair result in the end.

I've said a few times after matches recently that we often do well up to a certain point and then when it comes to the vital final pass / cross / etc. that would put us into a great position, we play a poor ball or pick the wrong option. Conte said exactly the same thing in his post-match press conference:

"I think if I have to see a negative aspect in this game, I think we made many many mistakes in the final pass because we had chances. If we made the final pass in the right way, we could have chances to score. Instead the last pass we made many mistakes."

At least now, with the international break, he'll get a chunk of time to work on the training pitch with a number of players. We could really do with a few of our internationals pulling out of their squads with a broken toenail or two so they could stay behind too Better than nothing though.

[EJG1980]

Kane looks well up for it for England tonight, two goals already 35 minutes in. Only needs one more tonight to equal Greaves’ England goal scoring record. With a bit of luck this will kickstart Kane for Spurs too!

Edit: there we go, first half hat-trick, head, left foot, right foot. And an assist as well! As well as equalling Greaves he is now England’s all time top scorer in competitive matches too.

Edit 2: and taken off after just over an hour gone. He was being upended by some crunching tackles a bit too often for comfort, so I’m glad he’s off and wrapped in cotton wool now.

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.......so San Marino can have a go at him. Hope the hat trick sparks and reignites his mojo when playing for Spurs.

Really great first half but the second: meh! Took their foot of the pedal with the next match in mind but it was England back to their ineffectual, mostly dull, cruise mode. You would have thought some of the marginal players might have made a bit more effort to impress.

[EJG1980]

.......so San Marino can have a go at him. Hope the hat trick sparks and reignites his mojo when playing for Spurs.

Really great first half but the second: meh! Took their foot of the pedal with the next match in mind but it was England back to their ineffectual, mostly dull, cruise mode. You would have thought some of the marginal players might have made a bit more effort to impress.

Yeah, the second half was very much an after the Lord Mayor's show affair! I barely paid attention to it after Kane went off.

A couple of Kane stats:

First England player for over 100 years to score 10+ goals for England in more than one calendar year (2019 and 2021).

Kane and Greaves got to 44 England goals in almost identical time, Kane taking 5,167 minutes and Greaves a smidge better taking 5,130 minutes.

He should make it to the top of the England scoring charts with a much better goals per minute ratio than the three currently ahead of him.

If he scores 4 more in under 1,351 mins, he will reach 48 faster than Lineker.

If he scores 5 more in under 4,272 mins, he will reach 49 faster than Charlton.

If he scores 9 more in under 3,780 mins, he will reach 53 faster than Rooney.

[EJG1980]

And four goals in the first half against San Marino put him level with Gary Lineker. I hope he stays on for the second half as he’s got a real chance of going past Bobbie Charlton if he does, only two more needed to reach 50 for England.

Edit: ah well, no more goals and off after an hour. Though I bet he wishes he’d stayed on after San Marino went down to ten men, he might have been eyeing up Rooney if he’d been on then and really gone for it

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Yep, San Marino totally outclassed and the goal count could indeed have been ridiculous enough to have allowed HK to pass some of the other records if he stayed on.

[EJG1980]

If he scores 4 more in under 1,351 mins, he will reach 48 faster than Lineker.

Phew, he just managed to pull this off with a mere 1,309 minutes to spare

Yep, San Marino totally outclassed and the goal count could indeed have been ridiculous enough to have allowed HK to pass some of the other records if he stayed on.

He'd definitely have had a shot at beating the "most goals in one match" (which is five) record for England if he'd played the whole match. I certainly wouldn't have bet against him getting the two he needed.

A much tougher match coming up against Leeds at the weekend, but, can Harry get three goals again and claim a hat-trick of hat-tricks? 13/1 odds at the moment, might be tempted to put a fiver on it!

[EJG1980]

A much needed win yesterday, something to build on. It was the stereotypical game of two halves with Spurs looking like a different side in the first half and second half, it was a really stark difference:



We did it what I would call the right way around though; I think starting poorly but showing you can improve is better than starting well and getting worse.

Nobody covered themselves in glory in the first half, though after some good performances recently Royal blotted his copybook with poor defending for Leeds' goal, beaten too easily by the player that did the cross. I thought Lucas had an especially poor first half too, gave the ball away within five seconds of getting it nearly every time. I'd have subbed him at half time, but...

That shows what I know because he was excellent in the second half and contender for man of the match. Rightly went to Reguilon though as he was also excellent in the second half but was one of the 'least bad' players in the first half too. Eventually, when they've had much more time with Conte training them, I think Reguilon and Royal could be a very good wing back pairing.

Nowhere near perfect but you could see potential in that second half performance. Given time Conte can definitely make something out of this team.