Cardiff v Spurs

[mikes01666]

Oh come on. We were very comfortable in the second half today and in complete control. Staggeringly complacent? At 3-0? You’re having a mare.

And the second half against Wolves?
If we had an on-field leader (in the mould of Keane?) we may not have lost to Wolves and could have got 5 or 6 against Cardiff. The top teams when whey are standing on the throat of the opposition just press harder. We should have had two in the first half against Wolves and in the second half against Cardiff we had long periods of sideways and backwards passing. That's what I call complacency.
As I said, I hope it doesn't go down to goal difference at the end of the season.

 

[sammyspurs]

Fair enough. Fatigue can take many forms though. It’s not just physical. It can be lacking mental sharpness. Harry has got two little kids. Maybe he’s had a few rough nights? Maybe he’s been worried about something that’s playing on his mind?

Which is why I don’t think Poch would keep playing him and that he’s not fatigued

The one thing I firmly believe is that class is permanent & we have plenty of that. I can live with the odd blip like wolves because this team is capable of murdering teams like Madrid. Swings n roundabouts. But the best Spurs team I’ve ever had the privilege of watching in my lifetime.

Agree

 

[mouse]

And the second half against Wolves?
If we had an on-field leader (in the mould of Keane?) we may not have lost to Wolves and could have got 5 or 6 against Cardiff. The top teams when whey are standing on the throat of the opposition just press harder. We should have had two in the first half against Wolves and in the second half against Cardiff we had long periods of sideways and backwards passing. That's what I call complacency.
As I said, I hope it doesn't go down to goal difference at the end of the season.

Cardiff barely pressed the ball.

Why risk losing possession high up the pitch when in such complete control of a game? Opposition like this are looking for exactly that. Plus, the home crowd where excellent all game. They get a goal back and who knows?

Or worse the players over commit and we get another long term injury.

It made for a boring second half but we had this game sown up from the first minute and could afford to cruise.

Was a +10 goal difference over the holidays not enough for you?

This board makes me laugh sometimes:

Not 3-0 up after twenty mins against relegation fodder - piss and moan.
3-0 up after twenty mins but don't score anymore - piss and moan.

 

[mouse]

Also you have to love the poetic justice of Colin Wankers public admission that he told his players "not to breath on us in the box for fear we'll go over".

Seems that they took the advise a little to literally and couldn't be arsed to put any pressure on us anywhere on the pitch.

 

[pipes]

Kane has played more matches in 2018 than any other premier league player. In some of them he’s looked knackered. In some he’s looked useless.

Against Cardiff he was playing very well. Still think he looked knackered when chasing but he chased. Does Llorente do that, or does he meander about the place like a recently castrated pony?

And we also don’t know if Llorente was fully fit. He may have went to Poch before the game and said he felt a twinge. We’ve nobody else to put on the bench though, except for a double barrelled name from the youths.

Imagine this place if we’d taken Kane off on 60, stuck Llorente on and lost a goal? How much of a disaster could that have possibly turned into?

We were winning. Comfortably. Not even into second gear. Gave us a chance to have a wee training second half.

 

[palmers_green_yid]

Hatchet buried
these things happen in football
So many blaming it on fatigue and pointing there finger at certain players, it was just not your day.
At least you got a response 3 goals and a clean sheet
FairPlay cretin

You lot were excellent the other day. If that had been a European side we'd played, we'd all be saying how good they were.

You've obviously well set up for playing against the big sides, as your performances/results against other top sides have shown. Those results also don't make our defeat to you seem as bad (though it's still a game we should be winning). Seems as though you struggle more when playing non-elite sides e.g. Huddersfield and that's why you're not higher up the table.

 

[palmers_green_yid]

cretinousgoat where abouts were you sat? We were very quiet today, especially in the second half. Atmosphere in the concourse pre match was promising but that was where it peaked.

New Year's Day syndrome, innit.

I got the wally coach. It left IKEA in Tottenham at 10.30am! Got there about 2.5 hours before kick off. Let me tell you there is fuck all to do around the ground. A very different experience to my last visit to Cardiff (the Cup game in the noughties) which involved getting pint glasses, bricks and a flare chucked at us, police escort from the pub to the game, which was ambushed twice by their firm.

Good thing with the wally coach was that I managed to get back to my flat by 11.45pm, which was possibly quicker than the public transport route, considering the rail replacement bus. All in all, an enjoyable though knackering day (I didn't sleep much on NYE).

 

[sammyspurs]

Imagine this place if we’d taken Kane off on 60, stuck Llorente on and lost a goal? How much of a disaster could that have possibly turned into?

Imagine if for the last two years we had integrated Llorente in games such as yesterday, and Harry got more rest.

Or if Llorente came on and scored a hat trick and we won the PL on goal difference.

I think it’s clutching at straws to think that if Harry went off, we risked a Cardiff fight back. Don’t you?

 

[AcrossThePond]

That said.... Cardiff 0-3 Spurs.

 

[mikes01666]

Cardiff barely pressed the ball.

Wasn't using 'press' in it's modern footballing sense. I was using it in the sense of killing off poor opposition (and boosting your GD). "The top teams when whey are standing on the throat of the opposition just press harder."

Sure we got +10 GD improvement over Christmas, but we went into the break with a poor GD. We're now on a par with Chelsea and ahead of Woolwich, but way behind City and Liverpool

I hope it doesn't go down to goal difference at the end of the season. We'll look at the Cardiff game as a missed opportunity.

No moaning here. I'm as happy as Larry that we're second again. Just ruing the missed opportunity in the Cardiff and Wolves games (and Burnley earlier this season).

 

[mouse]

Wasn't using 'press' in it's modern footballing sense. I was using it in the sense of killing off poor opposition (and boosting your GD). "The top teams when whey are standing on the throat of the opposition just press harder."

Yeah, i got that. I meant Cardiff barely put us under any pressure. I.e. we could knock the ball about in our own half without any concern.

Sure we got +10 GD improvement over Christmas, but we went into the break with a poor GD. We're now on a par with Chelsea and ahead of Woolwich, but way behind City and Liverpool

I hope it doesn't go down to goal difference at the end of the season. We'll look at the Cardiff game as a missed opportunity.

I beg to differ that +25 is poor GD, although its clearly relative this season. I remember finishing witha positive GD being a highlight in seasons gone by.

When was the last time that a major title or even a top four place went down to GD anyway? City in 2012 obviously, and remember the nomads pipping liverpool back in the day, but Its pretty rare.

No moaning here. I'm as happy as Larry that we're second again. Just ruing the missed opportunity in the Cardiff and Wolves games (and Burnley earlier this season).

The Burnley game was a really tough fought 3 points, they played a completely flat back 5. We where lucky to win by a single goal??

 

[Travel Fan]

3-0 up after 26mins... that's roughly a goal every 9 minutes from kick off....
Based on that, we shoulda won by 9 or 10.

Looks like a question in an IQ test or GCSE maths but I fail:

What are the next numbers in the sequence? 0 ; 3 ; 12 ; 26 ; ? ;

If we had scored in the 24th minute rather than the 26 we would have scored two more: One in the 48th minute and one in the 6th minute of stoppage time. Aaand back to work.

 

[pipes]

Imagine if for the last two years we had integrated Llorente in games such as yesterday, and Harry got more rest.

Or if Llorente came on and scored a hat trick and we won the PL on goal difference.

I think it’s clutching at straws to think that if Harry went off, we risked a Cardiff fight back. Don’t you?

All perfectly correct and plausible. Llorente should have played more. He may have scored a hat trick. I don’t think Cardiff had any fight in them. We’ll never know.

 

[Tottenham Sean]

Imagine if for the last two years we had integrated Llorente in games such as yesterday, and Harry got more rest.

Or if Llorente came on and scored a hat trick and we won the PL on goal difference.

I think it’s clutching at straws to think that if Harry went off, we risked a Cardiff fight back. Don’t you?

Wasn't that what Llorente was bought for? I just wish we would buy a striker that they are prepared to use.Harry needs a rest every so often.

 

[The Fish]

New Year's Day syndrome, innit.

I got the wally coach. It left IKEA in Tottenham at 10.30am! Got there about 2.5 hours before kick off. Let me tell you there is fuck all to do around the ground. A very different experience to my last visit to Cardiff (the Cup game in the noughties) which involved getting pint glasses, bricks and a flare chucked at us, police escort from the pub to the game, which was ambushed twice by their firm.

Good thing with the wally coach was that I managed to get back to my flat by 11.45pm, which was possibly quicker than the public transport route, considering the rail replacement bus. All in all, an enjoyable though knackering day (I didn't sleep much on NYE).

Not the same firm we had that day then. Was immense and no Cardiff came near us.

 

[mouse]

Wasn't that what Llorente was bought for? I just wish we would buy a striker that they are prepared to use.Harry needs a rest every so often.

I'm sure the intention is to use any player we buy. Otherwise we really are getting this whole transfer thing wrong!

Its just that the players we take punts on have ended up being shit.

 

[Tottenham Sean]

I'm sure the intention is to use any player we buy. Otherwise we really are getting this whole transfer thing wrong!

Its just that the players we take punts on have ended up being shit.

Llorente came to us with a half decent rep(and proven in English football)that's why i don't get why it hasn't worked.I think that's what sammy was getting at, we havn't given him enough time to get into any rhythm.It must be a bit soul destroying playing in say,the early rounds of the league cup and knowing even if you scored 6 goals and set up another 4, you will be dropped for the premier league game on the Saturday.

 

[mouse]

Llorente came to us with a half decent rep(and proven in English football)that's why i don't get why it hasn't worked.I think that's what sammy was getting at, we havn't given him enough time to get into any rhythm.It must be a bit soul destroying playing in say,the early rounds of the league cup and knowing even if you scored 6 goals and set up another 4, you will be dropped for the premier league game on the Saturday.

Yeah i don't disagree with any of this.

Our striker "problem" is multi faceted and has been well documented on here.

Llorente, like most of our purchases, most likely wasn't first choice and that has to have an impact on the lack of faith from Poch. He also is fairly one dimensional player (like Jansen) and is best served in a system that we play very rarely. Most likely he was bought as a last min, Levy touted - better than nowt - option. But in reality, Poch isn't the sort of manager to fundamentally change his principles around a player, more the other way round.

Ultimately when he has had his chances, no matter how few and far between, he hasn't cut it. We can all philosophise about giving him minutes. But imagine the backlash if he had started in a big game that we then subsequently lost. Its bad enough seeing the pandemonium on Twitter when Erisken or Toby doesn't start.

Regardless of all that - Poch, as usual, has engineered a solution from what he has at his disposal, and we have proved that we can cope without Kane for weeks at a go and still score goals.

 

[TheSpurEst]

Why am I not surprised?
Yesterday was matchday. We hit oppo team for 3 and kept a clean sheet.
Kane scored one goal and assisted one. In last 8 starts in EPL he has scored 8 and assisted 3 more.
Out of 12 away games we have got 30 points out of potential 36 (that is sick return of 2,5 ppg!!).

And what I read in the topic -
- Kane is knackered
- Our team is without ambition
- A lot of discussion of previous game (loss)
- Ppl discussing an utterly unimportant quote by utterly irrelevant manager

Wow.

I personally think that team had very professional game yesterday.
You can only beat what is in front of you, and yesterday Cardiff defence (+GK) were absolutely non-existent.
We controlled the game well, did eveything we really need to do. In order to achieve great results, you have to win such routine games as well.

I personally thought that Sissoko was brilliant in this game. As was Kane. Harry has really started to play lower and we quite often see his brilliance from deeper positions without sacrificing his goal returns. I personally enjoy seeing this. I would also point out Rose and Eriksens performances, latter of whom is in quite a scoring spree now.

On negative side I would only mention Sanchez who was overplayed in few times. I somehow feel that he has taken a step back from last year performances. But let's hope it is just down to his injury issues.

COYS! And happy new year to all the fellow fans !

 

[palmers_green_yid]

Not the same firm we had that day then. Was immense and no Cardiff came near us.

I was in the main (very big) escort of Spurs fans from the pub near the station to the ground. Involved a mixture of lads and normal fans like me, though I'd say it was 80% lads. Passed one of their pubs in Grangetown and got pints and bottles thrown at us. Our boys fronted them and there was a few punches thrown but old bill maintained order.

The flare was during the game and the bricks were after the game when we were being kept in. On the way back to the station the back of the escort, where I was, got ambushed by a group of Cardiff lads. Again old bill intervened before long.

Neither lot came out on top due to OB though there was certainly a good turnout from Spurs in my escort and lots of faces.