City (A) - PL 19 January 2023

[Havocc]

Decent game of football, thought we were good in phases but poor individual mistakes cost us. It also shows the gulf in class between the squads.

Son needs a rest, so give Richarlison a run. New CB is more important now than a RB.

 

[USspur]

Decent game of football, thought we were good in phases but poor individual mistakes cost us. It also shows the gulf in class between the squads.

Son needs a rest, so give Richarlison a run. New CB is more important now than a RB.

Levy doesn't agree

 

[The Cryptkeeper]

Ok, so we were better. Much, much better against a good team. Perisic let us down badly on at least two of the goals though which is disappointing and Lenglet is outrightly terrible. But the scouting said that before we got him.

Ticks - Kane, Deki, Emerson, PEH, Bentancur, Romero.

Crosses - Son, Lenglet, Perisic

The others were all ok.

And a shout out to @Style And Glory who met me for lunch and the game in downtown Vancouver. It was a midday kickoff here at the Lennox Pub where a dozen or so hardy Spurs folk caught up for the match. Good food and better company, so cheers mate.

COYS.

 

[Style And Glory]

Ok, so we were better. Much, much better against a good team. Perisic let us down badly on at least two of the goals though which is disappointing and Lenglet is outrightly terrible. But the scouting said that before we got him.

Ticks - Kane, Deki, Emerson, PEH, Bentancur, Romero.

Crosses - Son, Lenglet, Perisic

The others were all ok.

And a shout out to @Style And Glory who met me for lunch and the game in downtown Vancouver. It was a midday kickoff here at the Lennox Pub where a dozen or so hardy Spurs folk caught up for the match. Good food and better company, so cheers mate.

COYS.

Agree with @Cryptkeeper that it was a fairly decent performance by Spurs against a top side. Yes City may have been struggling of late but we seemingly helped them find their groove in the 2nd half.

The first half was a much better performance by us. Kept them at bay & knocked 2 in just before the half. Seemed very encouraging. Obviously was hoping for a little more in the 2nd but we seemed to sit back too deep & it cost us. As Crypty & I discussed, on City's first two goals, Perisic was on our goal line as the balls went in. That's how deep we sat. On the 3rd, he committed & lost affording Mahrez a run at goal. FWIW, their last two goals we gifted to them.

Anyway, it was great to meet Crypty in person & to enjoy the game together. Nice conversation.
It was a subdued atmosphere as we're in the Spurs Wilderness out here. Not many of us around.
Looking forward to seeing Crypty again for the FFC match on Monday.

 

[Don Diaz]

About as Spursy as we could get!! City obviously got a rocket at HT and as soon as Grealish and especially Mahrez actually started running at our defence rather than just crossing the ball for Haaland we were in trouble. Oh well it ws a good game and we nearly made it 3-3 at one point....

 

[ClemFandango]

I know we certainly need some incomings but to read around the opinions of many fans last night, you’d honestly think we had a back line made up of part timers and pub players and not experienced internationals which, like it or not, they are.

Emerson will always be the weak link for obvious reasons but I’d certainly like to think that with a manager who can take the time to coach and organise the defence that things would improve.

When you consider how much Conte micromanages everything when the team are playing, I suppose you have to wonder if a lot of the mistakes come from players who have been fed all sorts of instructions and orders and are only trying to do what he wants?

I certainly don’t disagree that an experienced player would likely make a difference but I equally don’t think that the players we’ve got are that awful either.

 

[Dorset]

Agree with @Cryptkeeper that it was a fairly decent performance by Spurs against a top side. Yes City may have been struggling of late but we seemingly helped them find their groove in the 2nd half.

The first half was a much better performance by us. Kept them at bay & knocked 2 in just before the half. Seemed very encouraging. Obviously was hoping for a little more in the 2nd but we seemed to sit back too deep & it cost us. As Crypty & I discussed, on City's first two goals, Perisic was on our goal line as the balls went in. That's how deep we sat. On the 3rd, he committed & lost affording Mahrez a run at goal. FWIW, their last two goals we gifted to them.

Anyway, it was great to meet Crypty in person & to enjoy the game together. Nice conversation.
It was a subdued atmosphere as we're in the Spurs Wilderness out here. Not many of us around.
Looking forward to seeing Crypty again for the FFC match on Monday.

The gifted goals were maybe paying city back for the two goals Ederson gifted us? I am not going to blame Perisic as seems fashionable at the moment, he is just one bloke - and for me one of the few keepers we have in our squad. Someting is very wrong, we have conceded 31 goals in just 20 matches this season, that is mid table or lower stuff, you have to go all the way down to 13th to find a team who has shipped more goals than us. Our defence is abysmal, midfield not much better, Kane can't do it all on his own, he needs people popping in opportunities for him like ..... Perisic, Kulusevski and in the olden days Sonny. I don't like Conteball, it's pony.

 

[Yid]

I can't believe people are defending the football we're watching...

It's fucking shite.
It's fucking boring.
It's fucking ineffective.

 

[Style And Glory]

I'm not defending Conte.
Just saying, given our recent form, that the first half was much better.
Still, we seem to only be playing for 45 mins.

 

[J.spurs]

I thought we looked pretty good for the last 15, maybe 20 minutes of the first half. But that's the problem, isn't it? Most PL sides manage a few good minutes even in their worst performances. People are understandably focusing on the mistakes, but it's January (albeit in a very weird season) and we've yet to put together anything like a complete performance this season.

 

[Glenjamin]

Here's how it played out in the dressing room....

Conte - right lads I've mulled it over and after 10 games I've decided tactic 1 seems to be flawed.

Players - No shit Sherlock

Conte - what I think we should do is use tactic 2 in the first half of this one.

Players - Fucking hell he's just said we can play football. Yippee!

0-2 Half time

Conte - Right lads, excellent. We've got the better of one of the best league sides in existence with tactic 2.. let's really show em with tactic 1!!

4-2..... The End.

 

[Chavhater01]

I thought we looked pretty good for the last 15, maybe 20 minutes of the first half. But that's the problem, isn't it? Most PL sides manage a few good minutes even in their worst performances. People are understandably focusing on the mistakes, but it's January (albeit in a very weird season) and we've yet to put together anything like a complete performance this season.

We sit far too deep, we’re generally atrocious at keeping the ball, especially in confined areas, players are too dumb to think about looking for space to give options for the ball player, no movement, too many touches on the ball, allowing opponents to get back into a decent defensive formation. They don’t receive the ball enough on the half turn. We’re fine passing back and sideways but as soon as we get into attacking areas we struggle to string 4 or 5 passes together before we lose possession or the ball goes back to the defenders, and then the defenders will normally give the ball away, coz they are appalling passers of the ball, and we tend to lose the midfield battle in pretty much every game we play.

Bottom line is that the majority of our players are actually pretty average, and with average you get inconsistency. They might be able to produce spells in games, or a few games in a row but ultimately they’re just not good enough to dominate games.

Thinking about it, since the enjoyable days under Poch with Dembele dominating possession in the middle of the park and Eriksen pulling the strings in the final third, we’ve barely dominated more than a handful of games in each of the last 3/4 seasons.

Thank God we’ve had Harry and Sonny, otherwise we’d be mid to bottom half of the table over last 3/4 years. It’s amazing how we’re 5th this season, given how poor Sonny’s been this season. Anyway that’s me done!!