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    Mourinho isn't going to be a manager that I'll warm to personally like I did with Martin Jol or Poch, but for me that's a nice bonus rather than a requirement. The Eva Carneiro episode was pretty distasteful, but as long as we get no incidents like that I'm not gonna worry that I don't find his personality (especially in the past few years) all that appealing.

    Nothing too or ground breaking but I thought I'd post a couple of vids that Spurs put out, in case fallenangle (edit: doh, and TonyDA!) wanted to see 'em. His first interview with the club and highlights of his first training session:





    Edit: a couple of bits of gossip in the papers this morning. Speculation now that Christian Eriksen, Toby Alderweireld and Jan Vertonghen could now sign new contracts, though that's a pretty easy 2+2=4 guess to make, especially as it says 'could' rather than 'will'.

    The first players pulled out of the hat to be linked with Mourhino buying them are Gareth Bale, midfielder Bruno Fernandes (who we already almost bought in the summer), centre-back Ruben Dias from Benfica and Nemanja Matic from Man Utd.

    Poch has been linked straight away with the Barcelona and Bayern Munich jobs. Munich would be a very interesting one if he were to go there before we play them next month!

    And here's a full recap of Mourinho's first press conference from earlier this afternoon. To be fair to him he came across very well today, likeable and funny, hope he keeps it up

    Last edited by EJG1980; 21-11-2019, 21:55.

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      Interesting fact that popped up on my feed today... every team that played Ajax last year in the CL have since sacked their manager...
      Lie with passion and be forever damned...

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        Well that was an interesting start for JM.

        Spurs winning comfortably and then in the last 20 minutes almost give the game away.

        Still a very welcome win and puts us back in the top six. Temporarily I suspect as most of the clubs below us, to 15th place, have only played 12 games and 15 points or more so will overtake Spurs if they win.

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          An away win in the Premier League, what kind of sorcery is this?!

          Lots of positives to take from the match despite the scoreline not being as emphatic as it should have been by the end of the match. As Jose said in his interview after the match, first 60 minutes were excellent. Pretty much all one way traffic and we played some really nice football. Alli was superb and I was surprised they gave man of the match to Son ahead of him (though Son was good) as I thought Alli had more influence on the game overall. His falling over / keeping the ball in play / audacious flick combo in the build up to the second goal was fantastic. A very encouraging display all around.

          When West Ham pulled one back they it did galvanise them and they got on top, but I think we did okay for the most part and while we were under pressure they didn't actually create any big clear cut chances apart from the (correctly) disallowed Rice goal on 90 mins, until they got the last gasp second. And the whistle went ten seconds after we kicked off so there was never any possibility of an equaliser. It certainly wasn't ideal and Jose is going to have to work to get the defence back to its best, but it was more of an annoying "should have won that more comfortably" 2-3 rather than a nerve jangling "thank God its over!" 2-3

          But, with our away record this year, I'd have taken the jammiest of wins today as long as we finally got a win, so to get a deserved win with a largely positive performance is very welcome. If we can beat Olympiacos in midweek and book our place in the CL knockout stages it'll have been a ideal start for Jose and hopefully something we can build on.

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            Just seen the highlights on MotD and DA did seem to be back to his best form. That's very good news. Particularly enjoyed his sideline quick flick when he was on the floor to set up another attack. Also liked that pin point cross by Aurier for HK's header.

            Moura should have had a goal too but I still don't know whether he was shooting or crossing.

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              Just had a look at the MOTD highlights and the main thing they missed out was Kane's chance to make it 4-0 when he got through one on one, but a defender just managed to catch him up and put a tackle in. That chance wasn't long after Kane had taken a big whack on the ankle though, and the defender only caught Kane up because he tried to shift the ball to his other foot before shooting. Had that chance come a few mins earlier or later I think Kane would have taken it first time before the defender caught him up.

              The Moura miss was a strange one! Even though he didn't appear to look across during any of the replays, I assume he must have spotted Alli's run on the other side of the box and changed his mind from shot to cross at the very last second. Luckily it didn't matter though as Kane's goal came about a minute later.

              I didn't mention it yesterday but Winks had another good game, after his England exploits. He linked up really well with Alli and when he was in space in the final third it was usually a Winks pass that found him (as for the first goal) and it was his pass the found Aurier in the build up to the third. Speaking of Aurier, he had a very good game; it'd be great if Jose could instil the consistency that has eluded him during his time at Spurs so far, because when he's "on" he really is very good.

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                Its Aurier's defending that is the problem, his attacking wing play/crossing has often been very good, as in that cross to HK. As I've said before here Spurs use him to replace Trippier who was, unlike Aurier, willing and able to bust a gut for the full 90 minutes to get back into his defensive position. Aurier is better at doing that than he was but he still seems to run out of steam or concentration before the end of many of the games, at least the ones I've seen enough of to make a judgement.

                TUESDAY EDIT

                Well that was a weird one today. Lousy first half performance letting in two goals with a lucky goal in response. Then second half Spurs play like a different side and score three more to win 4 - 2, qualifying for the CL knockout stages. Yay!

                What did JM say at half-time because whatever it was seemed to have the desired effect?
                Last edited by fallenangle; 27-11-2019, 16:30. Reason: typo

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                  It was a bit like the West Ham match in reverse, although we were much much worse in the first half last night than we were in the last twenty minutes of the West Ham match. Dodgy defending, slack passing giving the ball away, and struggling to create up front, things we've been struggling with all year and showing that a new manager isn't going to be an instant fix for those things. Definitely got a bit of luck with the first goal but credit to the players for making the most of that luck and putting in a really good performance in the second half.

                  Dele, Kane and Aurier were the standout performers from the second half. Son had a surprisingly quiet game by his standards, Lucas too, although he did brilliantly for the second goal. Eriksen was poor at first when he came on, but he gradually got going and while it wasn't vintage Eriksen, there were glimpses of him at his best in there (free kick for the fourth goal).

                  I'd probably have to give Aurier man of the match. Very good going forwards, wonderful goal, and he actually stayed switched on defensively for the whole night. Even when we were poor in the first half, most of the Olympiacos chances came down the other flank or through the middle, I can't remember them getting through on Aurier's side. He's getting my hopes up that he might be turning a corner, so I'm dreading some kind of kamikaze performance within the next few games to dash them again Last night though, credit where it's due, excellent.

                  I'm interested to see what kind of team we send to Munich now. They're guaranteed first and us second no matter what the result is, it's in the middle of a very busy period of PL fixtures, so I wonder if Jose will be tempted to rest a number of the big name stars for that match. I can see good arguments both for and against it. Anyway, here's the BT Sport highlights from last night if you haven't seen them:

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                    I haven't seen them, so big thanks again for that.

                    EDIT
                    Really beautiful half-volley for that Aurier goal and good to see JM praising the ball-boy or whoever it was after the first HK goal because it was his quick thinking and action that set it up. They mentioned it on BBC 5Live.

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                      Originally posted by fallenangle View Post
                      ...good to see JM praising the ball-boy or whoever it was after the first HK goal because it was his quick thinking and action that set it up. They mentioned it on BBC 5Live.
                      He's going to be seen as a celebrity by his friends after that, for a little while

                      There's an article about it on the Spurs web site: https://www.tottenhamhotspur.com/new...ay-no-my-life/

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                        Another bonkers result today against Bournemouth. 3-0 with under 20 minutes to go and then we give away another 2 goals for it to end up 3-2.

                        DA's form continues to improve and apparently he had one of his best matches yet. That is great news if a long time coming. But something has to be done about our defensive frailty, that is for sure. 10 goals score sinced JM took over but 6 let in - that is not top four stats.
                        Last edited by fallenangle; 01-12-2019, 01:23.

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                          Well technically, if we keep on winning every match 3-2 or 4-2....

                          But yes, we need to cut out the defensive lapses. I think a lot of it is down to concentration, which hopefully shouldn't be too hard for Mourhino to fix, just needs a lot of drilling it into them in training. In general we were pretty decent at the back today (Bournemouth had a lot of shots but many were long range).

                          Dele was excellent again today, he really has been the biggest beneficiary of Mourinho coming in. Being able to play further up the pitch, just behind Kane, allows him to have a lot more influence on the game than in a deeper role. Moment of the match though had to be Sissoko's goal, not only because it was so unexpected, but because it was so good! A finish that a world class striker would have been proud of.

                          It's good that Jose has got us looking much more potent up front from day one though. There's definitely a bit more directness about our play, but it's not unattractive and I think it's something we used to have under Poch and lost a bit of; the good old Alderweireld diagonal ball to Dele, goal, is nice to see again.

                          Attacking wise, the one thing that let us down today was how many chances we passed up. So many times we got into a great position and just needed an easy final ball to put someone in for an easy finish, but the pass was poor. Again though, with more time hopefully Mourhino can get us fully clicking and a performance like today would result in a couple of extra goal.

                          Not perfect, still a lot to work on, but three wins from three is a very good start. Big match away against Man Utd up next, I expect Jose is looking forward to that one.

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                            Poor performance tonight, can't complain about the result, didn't really deserve anything from the match.

                            Despite the fact that Man Utd were definitely the better side, it's annoying that poor play from us played a big part in both goals; poor clearance from Sanchez and iffy near post keeping from Gazza, and then a silly foul from Sissoko to give away the penalty. Also annoying that we should have had the momentum from our last gasp first half equaliser, and we gift it back to them with that penalty within a minute of the restart.

                            At least the goal from Alli was brilliant, wonderful skill and finish. The lone highlight of the night for us though!

                            Still, it's early days, and all the problems we've had this season weren't going to go away overnight just because Mourinho came in. Need to try and bounce back straight away at the weekend.

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                              Yep, was listening t it on BBC5L and later saw it on MotD. Back to old Spurs being slow out of the starting blocks and making some unnecessary mistakes giving away a goal then not really getting back into the game at all.

                              Agree too: that excellent DA goal was the only real highlight for us.

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                                Originally posted by EJG1980 View Post
                                I'm interested to see what kind of team we send to Munich now. They're guaranteed first and us second no matter what the result is, it's in the middle of a very busy period of PL fixtures, so I wonder if Jose will be tempted to rest a number of the big name stars for that match.
                                I got my answer to the above question today. From today's press conference when asked about our defence:

                                "Yeah, but we have to sort out the defence without losing what we have in attack. We conceded two in each game but we scored in all of them and could have scored even more than we did.

                                "But you are right. We are conceding too much, and conceding some cheap goals and we have to try to stop it. The best way to do that is to work and we haven't had time to work.

                                "After the United game, yesterday was a day of complete recovery and today was the second recovery day, the day before the next game. So the conditions to work on the pitch are not the best. So less work, more analysis, more meetings, more talk.

                                "I'm not a meeting coach. I am a pitch coach, that's where I really like to coach, on the pitch, and that is where you can accelerate the process. So let's wait a little bit until next week where we have of course the Bayern match, a match where I'm going to rest some players. So I will work with the players who are not going to be involved and let's wait also for the week before the Chelsea game.

                                "It's on the pitch where we can really improve things. But to analyse, to comment, to coach in the meeting room helps. So hopefully we get some positive things after some negative things we have had."


                                I think it's probably the right call. I can see an argument for playing a full strength side as if they could get a win it'd be a great confidence boost, but that match will be our sixth in a row with only two or three days break between each match (with a seventh against Wolves three days later).

                                I think the chance to give our best players a full week between matches, with the chance to properly train and rest, will be more useful in the long run than getting a result in a dead rubber. And any "fringe" players who do replace first choice players in that match, have a chance to impress against a really strong opponent.

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