Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Very disappointing after the really good win against Brighton. Gotta bounce back with a win straight away at the weekend against Wolves and make sure tonight ends up just being a blip. We're in a good position still but it doesn't take many bad results for that to very quickly change.

A big turnaround in performance needed in the second half to get even a point from this one, let alone three.

Edit: Bugger. Looks like the bouncing back will have to wait for one more match, just gotta do it against... Man City away

[fallenangle]

Hell's teeth that was a defensive disaster of a game with Lloris in his panic mode which he reverts to when he is not confident in the defenders in front of him.

I think there is a problem with the defence in general which is down to Conte not playing a regular line up; the players need to know and trust one another and that can not happen if the personnel are changed every game.

He's also making disturbingly Mourinho like comments after the games, basically saying that the players he's working with are not up to the job of getting into the top four and its basically laying the groundwork of excusing himself of responsibility if that does not happen.

All is not lost, we still have games in hand against sides we should be able to beat, so no need to get totally depressed......................yet.

[EJG1980]

I think there is a problem with the defence in general which is down to Conte not playing a regular line up; the players need to know and trust one another and that can not happen if the personnel are changed every game.

Good point but I don't think Conte is fully to blame, as he's only really rotated once injuries have kicked in. We had an excellent defensive record in Conte's first 8 league games in charge:

8 played, 5 clean sheets, 4 conceded, 0.5 average conceded per game.

And during those 8 games we played the exact same back three of Davies - Dier - Sanchez 6 times. In one match Romero played instead of Sanchez (after which Romero was injured for three months) and in one match Tanganga played instead of Sanchez. A very settled back three with minimal changes.

That's been followed up by the most recent 4 league games:

4 played, 0 clean sheets, 9 conceded, 2.25 average conceded per game.

Davies - Sanchez - Tanganga in a back three for the Leicester match due to a Dier injury, a back four of Davies - Sanchez - Dier - Tanganga for the Chelsea match due all our wing backs being unfit so we couldn't play our normal back three, and then a back three of Davies - Romero - Sanchez for the Saints and Wolves matches. Way more changes in those 4 matches than the previous 8.

Tanganga obviously had a really poor time of it when he came in, and without Dier Sanchez has suddenly started displaying his bad old habits which had mostly been absent under Conte. Even the very reliable Davies started making mistakes. I think Romero has actually been good in the past two matches, but he's new to the league and club so while he's individually done well, he isn't at the point yet where he can marshal the whole defence (which Dier had been doing very well before his injury).

I think we'll look a lot better once Dier gets back into the side (I didn't think I'd be saying that a few months ago!) and can stick with a back three of Davies - Dier - Romero, which is what I'm sure Conte's first choice will be. Getting Skipp back in front of them in midfield will help too, as he's also been absent in this period where we've started leaking silly goals for fun.

[EJG1980]

What a game and what a result! We deserved the three points too, as for all of City's possession and shots there were large periods of the match where Lloris had nothing to do beyond routine saves and catches. We had more shots on target than they did and the better clear cut chances.

Kulusevski, Son and Kane linked up really well as the front three. Two assists for Son, great composure from Kulu to calmly slot in the opening goal, and a great cross from him for the winner. He looked very intelligent and made good decisions whenever he got the ball. On any other day I'd have said Kulu was man of the match, but...

Harry Kane, bloody hell WHAT a performance. Two great finishes, another goal unluckily chalked off for an offside earlier in the move, an absolutely insane array of superb passes throughout the match, an absolutely world class display. In the last couple of years he's become like the Shearer and Sheringham partnership, combined into one player.

Dier and Romero were superb at the back (with Davies not far behind). Blocks, clearances, tackles, marshalling City players into less dangerous areas, very very good. Romero's clearance of a Kyle Walker cross in the 97th minute *chef's kiss*

I think Romero was unlucky with the penalty as it's very hard to keep your hands under complete control when you're sliding in at speed to make a block.

Sess and Royal didn't have the greatest of games going forwards (though Sess did play a part in the second goal) but they fully played their part in averting Man City's attacks.

The perfect kind of match for Hojbjerg, got to fight and run for the whole match, worked like a dog until the final second.

Bentancur did very well, though at first was giving the ball away sometimes when he'd take a bit too much time on the ball. I think he'll cut that out once he gets used to the speed of the Premier League compared to Serie A, and he was already getting better with it as the match went on.

He reminded me a bit of Moussa Dembele with his ability to manufacture a bit of space and find a forward pass even when tightly surrounded by opponents. Great pass over the top to Kulusevski to set him free in the build up to our winner. Did his defensive bit with good tackles and winning the ball back too. Encouraging stuff.

And overall, just a great performance and perfect way to bounce back from the three defeats in a row. All the goals were great but I loved the third goal because it came after that hammer blow of the last minute penalty equaliser, could have crumbled, but we showed the composure to put together a lovely passing move to still get the win:



Edit: and as I'm having fun rewatching this stuff today, here's another video. It didn't lead to a goal (pft, bloody useless that Harry Kane ) but the one touch passing all the way up the pitch was brilliant:

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I had my ear on the game and that early goal was a very encouraging start but when MC scored and in the way that happened I thought oh-oh here we go it'll end up 4 - 1 to MC or something ghastly like that.

When I saw the final score I almost had a fit. Great result with HK really on fire too as you say.

Excellent performances all round judging from MotD and Lloris making one world class incredible save. But the result is even more frustrating as it raises the obvious question: if we can play like that and beat one of the best sides in the UK/EU why have we been so mediocre against 'lesser' teams this year?

[EJG1980]

I had my ear on the game and that early goal was a very encouraging start but when MC scored and in the way that happened I thought oh-oh here we go it'll end up 4 - 1 to MC or something ghastly like that.

When I saw the final score I almost had a fit. Great result with HK really on fire too as you say.

Excellent performances all round judging from MotD and Lloris making one world class incredible save. But the result is even more frustrating as it raises the obvious question: if we can play like that and beat one of the best sides in the UK/EU why have we been so mediocre against 'lesser' teams this year?

Conte has mentioned a number of times in interviews since becoming Spurs boss that he believes consistency is one of the biggest factors that separates a good team/player from a great team/player, and that one of the hardest challenges is to maintain your performance levels and not be up and down all the time.

And I think it's probably true that when you get nearer the top of the league, the players won't have massively different ability levels, but the ones at the very top are the ones who play close to their best nearly every single week.

As a random example, Davison Sanchez. I think he's got loads of attributes that make him a very good defender, and he's had matches where he can be brilliant and doesn't put a foot wrong, but then he'll have a couple of weeks his levels drop and he makes silly mistakes and looks nowhere near as good.

Which is probably why we've dropped off in the past few seasons, with the squad having too many players who you know are pretty decent, but can never be sure from week to week if you're going to get their best.

Edit: following on from what you were saying about being able to beat Man City but losing to the "lesser" teams, the next few matches are going to be just as big tests as the Man City match, in their own way, from a consistency point of view.

We got that amazing last gasp win at Leicester and thought it might be a great confidence booster and give us some momentum, but followed it up with three losses in a row (albeit with a good performance and win against Brighton in the cup in-between).

Now we have an even better last gasp win against Man City, that should give us even more confidence and momentum than the Leicester win did. Next four matches are Burnley, Leeds, Middlesbrough and Everton, all matches where we'd be disappointed not to get a win.

Can we capitalise on a great win this time, and make it the start of a nice run of wins? Fingers crossed!

[fallenangle]

With those Premiership games you'd feel after the MC result that Spurs could get all nine points and really move up the table into an 'interesting' position. But will they? You never know with Spurs.

I've been watching The Big Match Revisited on ITV4 particular whenever Spurs are included. Its reminded me about players I didn't even remember playing for us but it also reminded me just how little has changed except the quality of the pitches. Spurs were just as inconsistent in the late 70s and 80s as they are now.

Have to mention that MU v. Leeds match at the weekend. Proper old school tackling, blood and ill-tempered confrontations but still plenty of skill, plenty of goals and as a result great entertainment. The sort of game that usually gets over-refereed nowadays.

[EJG1980]

Gaaaaah.

[fallenangle]

Exactly.


Friday Edit

Rumours persist after the Burnley post match interview that Conte is not happy at Spurs.

I said a few weeks ago he was making disturbingly Mourinho like comments in such interviews and that can not have helped his relationship with the players.

Worrying times at Spurs..........................still.

But the fact is if, and it is a big if, we win the one or two spare games we have over several of the clubs above us a top four finish is not just a statistical possibility. We will be up there challenging Arsenal, West Ham, MU and possibly Wolves involved too, for at least that fourth spot.

Chelsea are not out of reach either and if they have some bad results then who knows?

Saturday Edit

.........and there you have it: the Spurs enigma. Leeds well beaten and a clean sheet - excellent result today.
Beginning to think Kulusevski has been a very shrewd buy.

[EJG1980]

Will mention the Spurs match later, but at the moment, I just wanted to post about this:

Embedded Tweet

Absolutely wonderful to see after the terrible scenes at the Euros. Welcome back Christian!

[EJG1980]

Conte should threaten to quit before every match, we'd win the league at a canter

Honestly wasn't really worried by Conte's comments after the Burnley match, it's par for the course with him, just an emotional chap who needs to vent because he hates losing so much. I hope he can impart that hatred of losing onto the players too!

He said much worse when he was Inter manager, every other month during his first season he was calling out their board saying they were inept at running the club and didn't know what they were doing Still stayed and went on to win the league with them the next season though.

Good win today, despite a couple of iffy moments at the back, mainly the Lloris one! I think over the past two years Lloris has had some of his best form, barely put a foot wrong, but he's hit a sticky patch since signing his new contract last month. Aside from the weird poor moments, he's still pulling off world class saves, so I'm sure it's just a random thing that'll pass soon enough.

Another masterclass from Kane, brilliant all around performance of holding up the ball, finding others with fantastic passes, and great finishing for his goal. With better finishing from the players he picked out, he could have had three or four assists today.

Kulusevski is really looking the part, another very good performance from him. It's gonna be a struggle for Moura to get back in the team ahead of him. Very early days, but a really promising start. Him, Kane and Son really link up well and compliment each other as a front three.

I was really happy to see Doherty get a goal. He's had a tough time since coming to Spurs, but you never hear a word of complaint from him leaked to the papers or anything like that, just tries his best when he's called upon. Always got time for a player like that, so I hope this is the start of a revival for him. He and Sess both played really well today and got praise from Conte after the match who said it was the best display from the wingbacks he's seen since coming to the club.

Winks and Hojbjerg did well today too, Winks with a lovely pass to set Sess free for the first goal and Hojbjerg with a brilliant pass to Kane to assist the third.

Of course, the big question with Spurs right now, how many good performances like this can we string together? I suppose if you look at just the last three matches, we've had two very good performances and one iffy one, so that's at least a positive ratio! Let's keep the good stuff going.

Edit: nice video from Spurs showing every goal (so far!) of Kane and Son's record breaking partnership. Although I'm not usually a fan of records that are just Premier League only, I'll turn a blind eye seeing as it's Spurs

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sn7-PE1FHTU

[fallenangle]

The Middlesbrough/Spurs game is on BBC1 tonight opposite Crystal Palace/Stoke on the BBC Red Button and Peterborough/MC on ITV - difficult choice.

COYS!

[EJG1980]

The Middlesbrough/Spurs game is on BBC1 tonight opposite Crystal Palace/Stoke on the BBC Red Button and Peterborough/MC on ITV - difficult choice.

COYS!

As long as Spurs don't put in a performance that makes us reach for the remote at half time, while explaining that we have secret family connections to Peterborough or Stoke

As Conte has had no time on the training pitch to prepare the players, I think we might go with a very similar eleven to the one that started against Leeds, maybe only a couple of changes. Go strong, try and get a decent lead, then protect the big name players by subbing them off and giving some youngsters a bit of experience. Then we've got a six day break until we play Everton which gives everyone plenty of time to recover.

Now I've said, we'll probably make eleven changes!

Edit: ah ha, I was slightly wrong, but in the opposite direction. Not even a couple of changes, zero, the exact same eleven that started against Leeds. Whatever the result, Conte can't be accused of not taking the FA Cup seriously.

Post match edit: but unfortunately the players didn’t seem to be up for it at all

The only complaint we can have is that (apparently) the Kane goal that was ruled out for offside was actually on and should have counted. Just out luck that that happens on a night when there’s no VAR. And either way, the defender nearly pulled the shirt off of Kane’s back while he was taking the shot so it should have been a penalty too.

Apart from that, nowhere near good enough from us and Middlesbrough deserved to go through. With those two free headers they missed earlier in the match, I wouldn’t have complained if they’d beaten us without extra time. A completely lacklustre and absent performance from us.

It’s amazing, and so frustrating, how up and down we’ve been over the last few matches.

Edit: and to underline the comment about our up and down results, I was just reading Alasdair Gold's latest article on Spurs which mentioned our form so far in 2022:

W L W L W L W L L W L W L

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Depressing watching last night, ruined my evening. Middlesbrough were as tough as I thought they'd be but I honestly believed we'd eventually win the game.

Several times I thought that we'd scored or it was certain we would but it didn't happen.

Conte was partly to blame too not just the lack lustre players. His decision to go to a desperate 4:2:4 formation was almost Southgate like in its stupidity. When it was their midfield that was causing the problems last thing you should do is reduce it to just a lightweight like Winks supported by Hojbjerg both of whom who were regularly losing the ball. Conte quickly reverted the formation but it was not enough.

Even Kulusevski whose abilities we (and most pundits) have been praising was losing the ball too and looked a bit tired and annoyed with himself long before the game ended.

As you say - Spurs form this season is just so frustrating.

[EJG1980]

And the Tottenham rollercoaster makes its way back up again

Another two assists for Kulusevski, his excellent form continues, but also two brilliant assists for Matt Doherty who set up Kane for both his goals. I said the other day that I was really happy to see Doherty doing well and hoped that it might spark a little revival for him, and that spark has definitely grown a little bit more after tonight. I think he was close to being man of the match, didn't put a foot wrong at the back and was absolutely superb going forwards.

Good work from Sessegnon for the first goal, did really well to keep the ball in play and put in an excellent cross the led to the Everton defender putting it in his own net.

Such a shame that he went off injured at half time, as he'd put together five starts in a row which is his longest run since joining Spurs. Really hope it's something minor that doesn't keep him out as it would be a right kick in the teeth to see him derailed by injury AGAIN just as he's getting some momentum.

The interplay between Kane, Kulsevski and Son for the second goal was lovely, although it was a bit of an iffy finish from Son and Pickford really should have saved it. The build up deserved a goal though!

Third goal, beautiful Erkisen-esque through pass from Doherty and the clinical finish from Kane.

Reguilon did brilliantly for the fourth goal, started the move with a tackle that won the ball back in midfield and finished it by getting on the end of Kulusevski's cross. Perhaps Sessegnon's recent run of starts geed him up a bit?

Fifth goal was a tough call deciding if the crossfield pass from Doherty or the finish from Kane was better... probably the finish from Kane, just beautiful technique to judge the flight of the ball coming over his shoulder, connecting with the volley at just the right moment (with his weaker left foot) to caress the ball perfectly into the far corner. Just delightful. And moved him one ahead of Henry in the PL all time scoring charts. Now one behind Lampard, his next target.

Ignore the cup defeat (which I'm trying hard to erase from my memory ) and the league form is decent, 3 wins from 4, beating Man City and winning 4-0 and 5-0 in the other two wins. Massive match with a top four rival Man Utd next weekend. Let's hope we can have another good day in Manchester!