Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[EJG1980]

Another friendly yesterday, and as Conte said, this was much more of a "proper match" than the friendly against the K League XI. Some quite thumping challenges going in that you wouldn't usually expect in a pre-season game.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KlCygUIUdNM

Some good stuff, some bad stuff, what you'd expect from teams mainly playing to get their fitness levels up to be ready for the start of the season. Another good goal from Kane for us, he's looking very sharp already. It was nice to see Erik Lamela again, unlucky not to score against us, and the Rakatic goal for Sevilla was very nice too.

One thing of note was Lucas Moura playing at right wing back. If he stays in that role permanently it'll be interesting to see if any players move on, as we already have Matt Doherty and Emerson Royal who played that role last season, and by all accounts we've just signed Middlesbrough youngster Djed Spence who also plays that role (no official announcement yet by photos of him holding up the shirt and being interviewed on the club TV channel have been leaked).

Four seems overkill for one position. You'd expect Lucas to stay if he's being specifically re-trained for that position, Spence will obviously be involved as he's just signed, so one or both of Emerson Royal and Matt Doherty to leave? Of the two I think Doherty is more likely to stay, as he's a natural attacking wing back, and has played on the left a lot as well so can cover both sides. And that's all assuming that Lucas moving to wing back IS a long term plan.

Edit: quite an interesting article here that includes a section on the Lucas wing back situation -

https://www.football.london/tottenham-hotspur-fc/news/djed-spence-delay-conte-korea-24512021

[fallenangle]

Thanks for the links.

That Ivan Rakitic goal was a scorcher - still a great player, damn it Along with those other Croatians: Luka Modric (ex- Spurs) and Ivan Perišić (now Spurs), the main three players who did for England in the WC semi-final in 2018.

Interesting article on LM as wing back but I found even more interesting the stuff about Son and his commercial importance to the international Spurs 'brand'. Having an alleged 12 million Spurs' followers in S.Korea because of him is hugely significant financially.

[EJG1980]

Yup, you wouldn't be surprised that if/when we get a sponsor for the stadium, it ends up being a South Korean company.

[EJG1980]

The signing of Djed Spence has now been made official:

Embedded Tweet

https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/news/2022/july/spence-signs-from-middlesbrough/

Obviously as he's young and never played at a higher level than the Championship, we're signing potential more than a ready made player. You never know though, he may hit the ground running and instantly force his way into the team à la Dele Alli.

In the FA Cup matches last season where Forest played Arsenal and Leicester, he was the standout player on the pitch and looked like a player who could make the step up to a higher level.

He couldn't ask for a better coach than "the wing-back whisperer" Conte to help him fulfil his potential. It'll be interesting to see if he's slowly eased into first team appearances, or if Conte rates him highly enough to chuck him straight in at the deep end.

[EJG1980]

Good performance today against Rangers, our best of the pre-season so far. We should have scored more than two, needed better finishing, but it was good to see the players starting to get into their groove and get on the same wavelength, lots of good attacking moves. A shame Rangers scored but on they only had a couple of dangerous chances (including the goal) and we were the better team for large chunks of the match and created lots more chances.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b48EY-fCFto

Nice to see all the new signings who hadn't featured yet get some minutes. Strangely they didn't include some good moments from them in the highlights: an acrobatic shot at goal from Perisic (who looked very good despite only just getting back to training), a really good tackle in the box from Djed Spence thirty seconds after he came on, and a lovely Clement Lenglet long pass out of defence that set Richarlison through on goal (which he didn't get the chance to finish as he was hauled down). Bissouma did well too when he came on, put in some good challenges to break up Rangers play.

The front three were looking tasty too, brilliant opening goal from Kane, and Son and Kulu both played very well. Kane was applauded off the pitch by the home fans when he was subbed, which probably doesn't happen too often to the England captain in Scotland

[fallenangle]

Thanks.

I needed some good football after having spent too much time watching the women's Euros.

The game last night between France and the Nederlands - I won't vent my spleen and risk being labelled a sexist dinosaur but really after having seen all the main contenders now I'm not impressed.

Against England the Spanish were playing genuinely good football; in the first half their possession lead tippy-tappy game was very like the Spanish mens' team were doing a decade ago with great success. But they ran out of ideas and puff in the second half allowing the England team back into the game.

Superior athleticism was the key and I really think there's a good chance England will win the competition just on their strength over 90 - 120mins.

[garrz32]

Kane was applauded off the pitch by the home fans when he was subbed, which probably doesn't happen too often to the England captain in Scotland

Unacceptable behavior

[EJG1980]

A bit of an off-performance in the friendly yesterday against Roma. Roma did very little; a big chance in the opening seconds, headed goal from a corner, and one time when Zaniolo was through on goal in the second half was the total of their attacking output, but we didn't do well enough ourselves considering that we had 65% of the possession.

Some good moments here and there but the attack lacked its usual sparkle. We should have at least got a draw though, especially with the point blank Kane headed miss at the end. Also should have had a penalty when Kane ran into the box and was hauled down from behind, but in one of the most bizarre referee decisions I've seen, the ref somehow gave a free kick to Roma.

The brightest spot was Clément Lenglet in the second half, he looked excellent at bringing the ball out of defence and made some good runs and good passes and crosses. If Ben Davies isn't quite fully fit for the Southampton match, I'd definitely start Clément Lenglet for that one (Sanchez has played on the left side of the back three a few times in pre-season but never looks very comfortable there).

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVv-QfuYsCY

I don't really read too much into friendly matches whatever the result, the main thing is that everyone is fit and raring to go for the opening match of the Premier League season. Under a week to go now!

[EJG1980]

Against England the Spanish were playing genuinely good football; in the first half their possession lead tippy-tappy game was very like the Spanish mens' team were doing a decade ago with great success. But they ran out of ideas and puff in the second half allowing the England team back into the game.

Superior athleticism was the key and I really think there's a good chance England will win the competition just on their strength over 90 - 120mins.

I have to admit to being a filthy bandwagon jumper, I only started watching from the semi-finals onwards

Quite a nice experience to see a senior England side win something!

The opening England goal was excellent, the brilliant long through pass and forward breaking through the defence reminded me of a Kane and Son combo (gotta link it to Spurs to keep this post spuriously on topic ) and a lovely lobbed finish, great composure. Really nice passing move for the German equaliser too. England did really well after going ahead in extra time, saw the game out excellently, they must have kept the ball in the German corner for five or six minutes at the end.

[fallenangle]

Nice to get a prediction right, great win. So often I've seen women's teams literally exhausted after 90 minutes but I'd noticed over the past few years, particularly with the WSL, that is far less common. It is a matter of fitness; they're now professional athletes and when you get extra time that tells. They're as good as their European counterparts.

Loved that first goal too, I thought it was more chip than a lob but having looked at it since it didn't have the characteristic backspin of a chip. Anyway I was almost shouting at the screen 'chip the bloody goalie' when the latter made the wrong decision to come forwards a little bit too late. She'd initially backed off just a step and if she'd stayed there a chip/lob just wouldn't have worked. But the moment that gap between her and goal widened she was asking for it and the execution of the lob pretty much perfect. Good to watch.

The German goal was clinical and I'd said "goal" before the scorer had even received the ball.

Those shenanigans in the corner of the German half are a throwback to the earliest days of women's pro football I've watched. The commentators were always praising the players for doing just that when they'd run out of steam at the end of the game and were leading. They'd literally take the ball to the corner and keep it there trying to get a throw in or corner ricochet off the opposition player.

When they got a corner nobody would go into the box for it they'd just do a short one, rinse and repeat, running down the clock.

You rarely see that sort of thing in the mens' game, at least not used as often and as cynically as that. It's a legitimate tactic but I think it is a bit desperate - in short: I don't like it.

Good to see Jill Scott come on as a sub and do what she does: add some muscle to the midfield. She's been doing that for England for over a decade and at 35 she still has it. She was fouled at one point yesterday and you didn't have to be much of a lip reader to know she was not happy about it. Loved that.

[EJG1980]

Ahh, it was good to be back at the football today

Very good performance apart from a slightly sluggish opening fifteen minutes, excellent once we clicked into gear though, dominated the match and looked very comfortable. Four goals (without even Kane or Son getting in on the act) and could/should have had a few more.

Kulusevski the pick of the front three today, top notch display from him. Ryan Sessegnon also had a very good game and it was lovely to see him score his first (league) goal for us. Emerson Royal had a good game too, I've always thought he wasn't quite good enough in the final third to be a wing back, but he has definitely improved in that regard during his time here. Everyone did well, but I'd pick those three as my standouts, with Kulusevski getting man of the match.

I took a pic of the Son mural on the way back to Tottenham Hale station, it's pretty cool. There was a big queue of Korean Spurs fans there taking turns to have their photo taken in front of it

[fallenangle]

Great start to the season, a 4-1 win against anyone, even the perennially variable quality Southampton is notable.

Saw the highlights on MotD and they rightly praised Kulusevski for his contributions. With him in that form unless HK or Son gets injured I can't see Richarlison being used as anything but a sub for Premiership games.

I think Conte may play a B team in the League Cup, like so many other Premiership sides serious about winning the Premiership do, and he might well have him in the starting lineup for that. But I really hope Conte takes that tournament seriously this season because its our most realistic chance of silverware.

[EJG1980]

Conte has mentioned a few times recently that the main aim of this summer was to improve the squad so that he could rotate players without the team suffering a big drop in quality (which he felt he couldn't do last season) as that's the only way you can challenge for multiple trophies. From that I think he definitely wants to take all competitions seriously.

After the Southampton game Conte said that once we start playing three matches a week he'll need to rotate players, so I think Richarlison will get league starts as he'll cover both Son and Kane; if you have a three match week you can start Son and Kane in the most important match, but give them both a rest by starting Son and Richy in one of the other matches and Richy and Kane in the other.

It'll definitely be interesting to see how he mixes and matches players once the games start coming thick and fast.

[fallenangle]

Spurs top of the Premiership - couldn't let that slip by without mentioning it.

MU look as though they still have big problems even with Eriksen who, from the MotD highlights, looked to be well on form and their best player until Ronaldo came on.

[EJG1980]

MU look as though they still have big problems even with Eriksen who, from the MotD highlights, looked to be well on form and their best player until Ronaldo came on.

4-0 down to Brentford after 35 minutes… big problems might be understating it if this keeps up!

Comical stuff from Man Utd but Brentford are also playing some very good football.