Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

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Yep, good and welcome win - only 10 more points for safety now.

However Arsenal v Spurs in the WSL was a bit of a drubbing (understatement). 5 - 0 and lucky it was not more.

I thought Chloe Kelly would get her first outing for Arsenal today and it would be just typical if she scored and she almost did with the last kick of the game. The ball bounced off the bar from her ridiculously narrow angled shot.

The Spurs WSL team have much the same problem as the men's team and part of that, sorry to go on about it, is almost always trying to play out from the back. It is a disaster waiting to happen against any side but particularly when you're playing one of the top three teams in the league.

If you don't have the quality of players with the skill set ie. speed of thought, observational skills, strength to hold the ball etc and other players around you having the footballing intelligence to move quickly into the space to make themselves available then you just shouldn't do it.

Spurs WSL side fail on this in every element and it was either the direct cause or indirect cause of two goals and several other chances they gave away to Arsenal. This is exactly what was said in the BBC after match analysis too.

[EJG1980]

Europa League draw:



Not too bad, as we've already beaten AZ in the group stage, although they did look very impressive beating Galatasaray so they may be in better form than when we played them before. I bet Troy Parrot didn't expect to play Spurs three times in his first season after leaving the club.

Ajax or Frankfurt in the quarters which will be tricky, especially Frankfurt. Not a bad selection of possible semi-final opponents but with Lazio being the clear stand-out team you'd expect them to be the opposition. One step at a time though, let's get past AZ first!

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I fancy us against Ajax again; if they get through to the quarter finals too then it will give the game a great edge after having beaten them in the CL in 2018/19.

Saturday Edit

That's more like it - a game we should be winning and........................,wait for it,....................and we do. Yay! Excellent result.

Just watched it on MotD and we were lucky not to give away a goal or even two in that first ten minutes but after that practically every Spurs attack looked dangerous.

Kulu's goal was, as is often the case, precision with real class.

[EJG1980]

Saturday Edit

That's more like it - a game we should be winning and........................,wait for it,....................and we do. Yay! Excellent result.

Just watched it on MotD and we were lucky not to give away a goal or even two in that first ten minutes but after that practically every Spurs attack looked dangerous.

Kulu's goal was, as is often the case, precision with real class.

Yup, the first five minutes made me it was gonna be one of those days because we were so lucky not to concede and it seemed like we hadn't turned up at all, but once we pounced and scored the first goal it was all us for most of the first half, until Ipswich pulled one back out of the blue and then it was a bit more even.

That continued in the second half and although Vicario wasn't really being tested and we did look more dangerous than they did, you always worry that they can pop up and equalise at any moment when it's only a one goal lead.

The big thing was, AT LONG LAST, with players returning from injury we were able to bring players off the bench who could give us a boost and add fresh impetus. Which is exactly what we did and the subs helped us wrap up the game for a well deserved win.

We're now 16 points clear of the bottom three with 12 matches left, so I think I might just about consider us safe from relegation

With that in mind, if it were me, once the Europa League starts back up I would definitely rotate a little bit in the Premier League to make sure our strongest team is as fresh as possible for the midweek European matches.

[EJG1980]

Gah, could have got a point out of the Man City match tonight. First half we were too passive, Man City were well on top and could have scored a couple more earlier on in the half, although while we did very little ourselves going forward we did stem the flow of big Man City chances after the initial couple they missed.

Second half performance was much much better, far more energy and aggressiveness, and we were a bit unlucky not to get an equaliser. Man City did take back control for the final ten minutes to stifle our momentum and see out the game, but if we had got an equaliser it wouldn't have been undeserved at all.

Almost the most amazing finish to the game when Haaland's last minute goal was ruled out for handball (probably incorrectly imho) after a very long VAR check, and from the resulting free kick we went straight down the other end and Sarr had a free header from six yards out that he agonisingly missed the target with. Would have been one of the all time memorable equalisers had that gone in.

So first half underwhelming, second half much more encouraging, got some good minutes into the legs of players coming back from injury like Odobert and Udogie, and now we have eight days of rest and training before the first leg against AZ. Hopefully we can get a few more players back from injury for that one too.

Europa League edit: oof, that was a really poor performance. The only positive you can really take is that at least we're only 1-0 down at half time in the tie, could (and AZ will probably feel should) have been worse.

AZ are no mugs, they've had some really good results at home in Europe and haven't lost at home in Europe for a while, so it was never going to be a walk in the park, but we should have played much much better than we did.

Especially when you consider we had eight days off to train and recover, while AZ had two matches in that time including a Dutch cup match that went to extra time, yet they were the side who looked fresher, more well drilled, and more up for it.

Needs a big performance in the second leg, as to fall at the first knockout hurdle of our only remaining chance of silverware this season would be really disappointing.

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Yep, didn't sound like a good performance from the reports I read on the match. But it is only 1 - 0 so there is all to play for, it is still doable. Just hope Solanke is not out again; a few goals from him next time would be nice. .

[EJG1980]

Shouldn't complain about getting a point after being 0-2 down, but... Bournemouth will be kicking themselves because they should have won that match quite comfortably.

They cut through us so easily on numerous occasions, spurned a load of good chances and could easily have had four or five goals, and our goals were a miss-hit cross (sorry Sarr, I can't believe that was an intentional shot ) and a moment of madness from their keeper to bring down Son for a penalty when he was going nowhere. We created very little attacking wise outside of that.

However it happened though, we did come back from two goals behind, so maybe that can give us a little bit of a boost going to the second leg against AZ. Can't say I'm brimming with confidence after today's overall performance though!

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Likewise on all of that ^.

Yet again on MotD they made the point that many of the problems with Spurs are of their own making, particularly the insistence of playing out from the back almost every time. That's been a hobby horse of my own as I've probably said here before once or twice too

On MotD a section in the Spurs crowd were shown clearly being fed up with it as well, ironically applauding V for hoofing the ball up the pitch for once.

Playing out from the back might be the 'Ange Way' but it is costing Spurs goals, it is costing other teams in the Premiership goals and down the lower leagues too. This fashion. because that is what it is, has also infected womens' football most obviously to the point where it is rare to see a WSL game without a goal scoring chance or an actual goal given away by less skilled players. Obviously they are being told to do that by their coaches/managers despite regularly getting themselves into serious trouble playing out from the back.

Distribution from the goalie needs to be varied, spontaneous and most of all: unpredictable, not constrained to one formula because of some dubious coaching fashion. They need to take on responsibility for doing this themselves as Wayne Rooney, of all people, analysing the Spurs game, explained so clearly on MotD. I almost felt like applauding him.

[EJG1980]

I've been open to the idea that in order to become good at playing out from the back, you stick with it no matter what, because if you only do it in matches / situations where it's easy you'll never get better at it. I can see the logic in that approach.

However, if you do take that approach and after X amount of time you're not actually getting better at it, and you're still making the exact same mistakes, you have to conclude that either the players aren't good enough to do it (so you shouldn't make them) or you're not good enough at coaching it to make the players improve. I think that's where I am with us at the moment.

And your point about predictability is a good one. If you're incredibly good at playing out from the back then I don't think it matters quite as much, but if you're not, you need to mix it up a bit. Bournemouth did that really well, a good mix of the keeper going long and passing it short, so you're never 100% sure what option they're going to take.

[EJG1980]

Well done Spurs, still alive in Europe! Not a perfect performance and a number of clenching of the rear end moments, but much better overall than in some recent matches.

The goal to make it 3-1 was a thing of beauty, contender for our goal of the season (and started by passing it out from the back under pressure, they've pulled me back in ) with Vicario rolling it out to a defender, then passing it nicely around the pressing opposition players, Maddison's lovely turn and driving run, the great interplay between Son and Spence, and the deft little flick from Solanke to steer the ball perfectly into Odobert's path for the back post tap-in. Lovely, lovely stuff.

Great night for Odobert with his first two goals for the club, what a shame he missed so much of the season through injury. Another excellent performance from Bergvall too, aside from the mistake that lead to the AZ goal, which I can forgive as inexperienced 19 year olds are bound to make mistakes.

I rarely get any predictions right but I said in pre-season I thought Bergvall might end up forcing his way into the first 11 by the end of the season, and he's starting most games now even with other more experienced midfielders fit, and deservedly so. If there's one silver lining to having such an injury ravaged season, it's that the likes of Bergvall and Gray have got a lot more minutes and valuable experience than if we hadn't had the injuries. Both of those lads have massive potential for the future.

Frankfurt in the next round which is going to be very tough, they beat Ajax home and away, 6-2 on aggregate, while we had a much harder time against a team who are 20 points behind Ajax in the Dutch league. Still, another month until those matches, which is another month to fitness into the legs of players who have only just returned like Romero and Van de ven, fingers crossed we can be at something like our best and make it through again.

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Just watched the highlights and that third goal indeed from start to finish was classic Spurs attack play complete with a wonderful bit of skill from Solanke near the end.

AZ could have forced it into extra time but great defending/goalkeeping stopped that from happening.

Frankfurt next - big ask but when Spurs are playing well they can beat anyone.

[EJG1980]

A bit of cheery news for a change - Dele Alli went to train with Serie A side Como in December, initially just to keep his fitness up, but it appears that he must have impressed during training as he's now signed a 1.5 year contract with them.

Few things in football would make me happier than seeing Dele get back to something like the player he used to be and having a good career at a high level. As a regular watcher of Serie A I'll definitely be catching a few Como matches to see how he does.

Well, after building up his fitness, making the bench in the past few matches, Dele finally came on today in the 81st minute of AC Milan vs Como for his first professional appearance in 748 days.

It was a great moment, but it didn't end well as ten minutes later Dele was sent off for a tackle from behind on a Milan player

At first I thought it was a bit harsh but after a couple more replays I can see why the ref upgraded his yellow to a red after VAR told him to take a second look at it. Such a shame though as I don't think it was malicious, just rustiness after not playing for so long, and now he's gonna be banned for three matches after finally getting back to a point where he was ready to play. Hopefully it doesn't derail his comeback too much.

Side note, it was nice to see Kyle Walker pleading with the ref not to give the red and keep Dele on the pitch, still looking out for his old Spurs mate.

Post Fulham edit:

First 45 minutes was poor, first 20 minutes of the second half we were better, final 25 minutes was poor again. Definitely should have had a penalty for the foul on Bergvall in the box that would have given us a chance to get a point, but overall it wasn't great; you're not gonna get something from a match very often when you're the better side for less than a quarter of the match.

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Watched the Wales v. Kazakhstan WC qualifier (Saturday) because it was the only football on but also had a significant Spurs component: Brennan Johnson, Ben Davies and ex-Spurs Joe Rodon.

Good game and despite being against far from top quality opposition Wales were pretty good, particularly in the second half. Our ever reliable Ben Davies led the team superbly, holding a strong defensive line throughout alongside Joe Rodon and also scored the second, decisive goal which gave Wales the lead.

[EJG1980]

I decided to give the football a miss for most of the weekend but I did see tweets updating about Ben’s exploits for Wales.

I am now watching the Spurs legends vs AC Milan legends match though, which is free to view on YouTube. Only 4 minutes in so far, but it’ll probably be available to view non-live later too.

Link to the match

Edit: Full time, nice to be able to watch a Spurs match purely for fun without any worrying about the result! Good fun and worth a watch. Certain players you watch in matches like these and think "they're never gonna lose it, permanent class"

Edit: 10 minute highlight video if you need a quicker hit of nostalgia than the whole match.

[EJG1980]

Away loss to Chelsea, there are some things you can always count on.

Can’t complain about the result, we rarely got the ball into good attacking positions (Solanke was so isolated we barely ever got the ball to him) and had some great saves from Vicario and a few moments of luck to thank for not letting in more than one goal.

A shame the Sarr equaliser was ruled out as maybe it could have changed things, but it was the correct decision to disallow it on the video review, he clearly fouled the Chelsea player to get the ball before his shot. The only proper chance we had was the Johnson cross to Son after about 87 mins (iirc) which drew a good save from their keeper, but it was far too little over the course of the 90 mins.

We should at least be able to beat Southampton at the weekend, but we’ll need to be much much better to get something against Frankfurt.

Edit: I have to say that I've now got to the point where I think we'd be better off with a change in manager. I said earlier in the season that we needed to stick with Ange even if we had a mediocre season, but I think we've dropped too far below mediocre for too long now and it's drained me of my hope that long term it could still work out.

We've always had defensive problems with his style, but for a few months now the attack has looked as blunt as the defence looks leaky. We bomb loads of players forward but the passing goes nowhere, they don't seem to be coached in any attacking pattern, it's making me think that those games where it occasionally clicks and we score a few goals are more luck than judgement. And the days where it does click have been getting fewer and fewer.

Considering our long term form (44 points from the last 39 league games) I can only assume that Ange is still here because we haven't yet been knocked out of the Europa League. I think though that we'd have more chance of winning it if we brought in a new manager with the possible new manager bounce / shake up that would bring. I don't rate our chances of getting past Frankfurt, let alone putting in enough good performances to go all the way.

I'm sad about feeling that way because I really like his outlook on football and was desperate for him to succeed.