Tottenham Hotspur FC 2013/14

[vanpeebles]

Spuzz remind me of Darlington, top drawer stadium and a gash team to go in it.

[EJG1980]

A bit like the Brighton match again today as we were poor in the first half (though Alli passed up a great chance to put us 1-0 up) and got lucky with one of those “his toenail was offside” VAR decisions to save us from going 2-0 down, but were better in the second half (though again, it was no vintage performance) and would have turned it around again had it not been for the own goal. Sums up our defence at the moment that we managed to have 10 shots to 0 in the second half a still let in a goal

One bright spot was seeing Lamela back today, fingers crossed he can stay injury free for the rest of the season.

Still loads of improving needed all over the pitch, especially that defence. As Mourinho said before this match (and the same thing happened again) so many of the goals we concede come from a simple preventable mistake or lack of concentration, rather than being carved open by brilliant opposition play.

The attack has got better since Mourinho arrived and we’ve had a number of spells in matches where we’ve played lovely football and looked really good, but we need to see it more consistently. We still need to improve the service we provide for Kane; it’s a testament to how good he is that despite a real dearth of quality service he’s still managed to score 17 goals in 24 matches this season.

Southampton up next, let’s hope we can put an iffy 2019 behind us and start off 2020 with three points.

[fallenangle]

On MotD that earlier DA miss looked a shocker. He seemed to trying to dink it over the goalkeeper rather than hit the gaping empty net to his left.

K.I.S.S (Keep It Simple Stupid)

Could have had a win and be in fourth place ahead of Chelsea although they have a game in hand. With MU and Wolves all in competition for that spot it makes getting a win at Southampton even more important.

[EJG1980]

Not sure why (as in I can't tell you exactly why I like it more than the rest) but I will nearly always pick that Bale goal against Stoke when asked for my favourite Spurs goal of recent years. It's just etched into my brain slightly more than the others for some reason.

So if we're going on purely the goal itself, I'm sticking with Bale vs Stoke, with Dele vs Palace, Kane vs Arsenal (long range shot) and Son's Maradona impressions against Chelsea and Burnley as my runners up.

However if you're talking goal + context of what it meant then it's hard to pick anything other than Lucas Moura vs Ajax, with the runners up spot going to Crouch vs Man City.

I'm surprised Peter Crouch's goal against Milan in the San Siro didn't make the cut for that video, wonderful counter attacking goal and an amazing moment in our modern adventures in the Champions League. Would have thought one of Son's long range crackers away against Leicester would have made the cut too, I'd have swapped one of those for his goal against Palace that they did include.

A few others popping into my head that are personal favourites, such as Rafa Van der Vaart at home against Inter, a Niko Krancjar goal away against Sunderland, Lucas Moura's second goal at Old Trafford last season, but I'll be here all day if I try and remember all of them

[fallenangle]

Love them all but one that caught my attention was Modric's one at 2'47". The way he controlled and used the spin on the ball was no accident. So many other players would have sliced or skied that anywhere but the goal.

For me the DA goal against CP was exceptional as was his one against Chelsea 9'27", the immediate control and clinical finish - outstanding.

But if I had to choose the kind of goal I get really excited about it too would be Son's against Burnley closely followed by his 50th Spurs one against Chelsea.

[EJG1980]

Darn, I forgot the Alli goal against Chelsea. I think each time I watch that video I'll come away with five different goals as my faves

I usually prefer the goals that require skill to long range thunderbolts as well. Not that the long range ones don't require skill, but I agree with Matt Le Tissier who once said that you can swing your boot randomly and fluke a long range goal more easily than you can one like Dele's against Palace, where you'd have to fluke the initial control, the flick over his own head, the timing of the turn and the shot, to score it by luck. Which is why I still scratch my head about instinctively gravitating towards that Bale goal against Stoke being my favourite!

Having looked at the video again, there's a blink and you miss it lovely bit of skill by Sigurdsson just before his goal against Hull, lovely drag back of the ball and spin to beat the defender. I remembered another goal that I thought should have made it, a couple of seasons ago against Everton at Wembley, a passing move where all 11 players in the team touched the ball at least once before ending with a Dele Alli backheel to set up Eriksen to score.

[EJG1980]

Southampton up next, let’s hope we can put an iffy 2019 behind us and start off 2020 with three points.

Or we could put in probably our worst attacking display since Mourinho came to the club, pass up a chance to close the gap on Chelsea, and lose our star striker to injury. Personally, I think we should have picked my first option!

The only silver lining is that I gave my ticket for the match to my brother as an Xmas present, so at least he had to suffer it in person rather than me

[hudson]

How's the football been looking under Mourinho? Defensive and/or boring?

[EJG1980]

How's the football been looking under Mourinho? Defensive and/or boring?

We go direct a little bit more often with Jose, but it's not a massive difference, and until the past couple of years it was something we did with Poch in charge too. We played some lovely attacking football against West Ham, Olympiakos, Bournemouth, with the best of the lot in the 5-0 win against Burnley, lots of it was a real pleasure to watch. They weren't perfect performances but we were looking brighter and more inventive up front that we had for months.

Then over the last few matches the performances have started to get worse again. We got the wins against Wolves and Brighton but they were a bit of a struggle, and we were poor against Chelsea and again today against Southampton. But that's just the players not doing as well as they were a few weeks ago rather than anything to do with style. And with our defence looking as shaky as it is, a little bit of Mourhino pragmatism might not be the worst thing in the world for us at the moment (especially on the 11th ).

[hudson]

With time and maybe a decent shot in the transfer market, I'm sure he'll get some consistency. He's shrewd tactician.

[EJG1980]

With time and maybe a decent shot in the transfer market, I'm sure he'll get some consistency. He's shrewd tactician.

Yup, I didn’t expect him to come in and instantly sort out all our problems and get us playing consistently at our best. Our league form has been poor for pretty close to a year (we lost more PL matches in 2019 than any other team) and I don’t think anyone comes in and fixes that overnight. Stabilise us this season, decide who he wants to keep, get rid of, bring in, and then I think next season it can be properly judged as a Mourinho team.

Not that it’s impossible for us to finish off this season well. I think we’ve got a decent chance of finishing 4th as all the teams fighting for it at the moment are pretty inconsistent: Chelsea looked like they were right up there with Leicester and Man City but have really fallen away; we were 12 points behind Chelsea, cut it down to 3 with a good run, but have hit a sticky patch to halt our progress; Man Utd and Wolves have been win a couple, lose a couple in recent games, etc..

And you never know what might happen in the FA Cup or Europe.

[fallenangle]

Almost too annoyed at the game and result yesterday to post but I forced myself.

Not a good 'holiday' season for Spurs. It can only get better.

[EJG1980]

Not a great performance yesterday, but at least we're not out, and while we could have done without a replay I am happy that Woodgate and Keane get to bring their team to the new stadium.

First half was a bit meh and Boro had the best chance of the half, we were lucky not to go behind but Gazza and Alderweireld did really well to block the goal bound shots. We had more possession but lacked a cutting edge. Poor goal to concede in the second half with the straight ball over the top and the Boro player merrily sauntering past our centre-backs.

Once Lamela and Lo Celso came on we looked better, got the equaliser, and it was basically one way traffic for the rest of the match but our final ball was lacking and we didn't test their keeper THAT much. He had to pull off one great save from Moura but I think we'd need to have forced him into a few more saves like that to say we really deserved to win. I think Boro fully merited getting a replay.

The players are really going to have to push themselves and raise their game to get anything out of the upcoming Liverpool match.

[vanpeebles]

Not a great performance yesterday, but at least we're not out, and while we could have done without a replay I am happy that Woodgate and Keane get to bring their team to the new stadium.

First half was a bit meh and Boro had the best chance of the half, we were lucky not to go behind but Gazza and Alderweireld did really well to block the goal bound shots. We had more possession but lacked a cutting edge. Poor goal to concede in the second half with the straight ball over the top and the Boro player merrily sauntering past our centre-backs.

Once Lamela and Lo Celso came on we looked better, got the equaliser, and it was basically one way traffic for the rest of the match but our final ball was lacking and we didn't test their keeper THAT much. He had to pull off one great save from Moura but I think we'd need to have forced him into a few more saves like that to say we really deserved to win. I think Boro fully merited getting a replay.

The players are really going to have to push themselves and raise their game to get anything out of the upcoming Liverpool match.

My other half has a boro ST. She really enjoyed the match, and said it could have gone ether way. I fancied boro to get a result as their form has sky rocketed, where as spuzz has tailed off.

[fallenangle]

Spurs should have won the match even if they did not deserve it. How Aurier missed even hitting the target with that shot I just do not know.

Lucas Moura, as has so often been the case when Kane is not available, was the only Spurs guy who really seem sparky and up for it, particularly in the final third. But when you're not creating that many chances you have to take those you get and Spurs didn't.

I was not surprised at the result TBH. 'Boro sometimes caused problems for Spurs when they were in the Premiership. There are just some sides like that, trouble is there are too many of those who, on paper are inferior but Spurs seem to underestimate or think they can muddle through and it can end up embarrassing. West Ham, WBA, and Stoke come to mind.