Leicester (a) 18/19 ratings

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  • Total voters
    59
Selection

I have no problem with Kane being rested at all, I think it should happen more often for his sake, and us as a team keeping him fresher, and we always seem to play OK when he is, I don’t think it hurts us to change the dynamics occasionally and give the opposition a different set of problems than one they’ve been expecting all week. My only question would be that it would have made more sense to try to not rest Kane and Eriksen (our two most productive players) at the same time, and maybe Kane could have been rested for the Southampton game?


Structure

We started with the 4312 Diamond, with Dier at the base, and Alli at the tip. The pundits at half time seemed to suggest we switched to a 433 at some point in the first half, if so, I didn’t figure it, I know there was fluidity there, as always, and they all (Son, Moura, Alli) all popped up in each other’s spaces at various times, but it always seemed to default back to that 4312 diamond to me? Until the subs anyway…


The Game

I quite like Puel, think he got a raw deal at Southampton, and has had to cope with a Leicester in transition, losing some good players etc, and whenever I’ve seen them lately, they seem to be playing OK, but I have no idea what he was trying to do tonight, it was just tactically really limp, neither one thing or the other, didn’t get about us and didn’t really park a bus either, and we really didn’t have to be anywhere close to our best to win this. And it’s fair to say we weren’t. We weren’t bad either, we went through much of the right motions, and it was nice to breeze into a two goal lead without really breaking a sweat, and defensively we were solid enough, but if there’s a concern it’s that we actually created so little of tangible quality chances against such a feeble resistance. In the end we’ve scored with our only two shots on target, one of those was probably offside, and Alli, who had a very good game generally, was possibly guilty of fucking about a couple of times instead of just getting a shot off, if Sissoko didn’t have the technique of a baby elephant we might have been clean through a couple of times, and generally if people had made better decisions we might have created a little more. Neither full back really contributed enough either.

Our biggest problems continue to be our midfield, that just isn’t driving us properly. It’s not creating enough, setting tempo, transitioning smoothly. I like the CM3 system we have played lately, just wish we had better components in it.

Sissoko, had a pretty poor game, against such a passive opposition he saw very little of the ball (completed a pitiful 23 passes from 35 attempted, giving the ball away 35% and it’s not like he was on it much or attempting anything clever) in this CM3 system he’s got to provide some thrust in transition as well as some ballast. It’s not like this was Cheslea and we were defensively under the cosh for most of this game.

Got to say, I was a little disappointed by Winks too if I’m honest. He was metronomic, neat and tidy and did see a lot more of the ball than Sissoko (67/74 90%) and he did get about, but, again, against such little resistance, in this CM3 system I would like to see him providing a little more ambition and incision with his passing.

Alli had a decent knock, providing the fulcrum that his remit required and most good things hubbed through him. Needs to be a little more clinical in the box sometimes and fuck around a little less though. Son was close to his effervescent liveliest, and scored an absolute beauty, then created the second for Alli.

As is often the case, Poch’s subs utterly baffled me. They baffled me because it seems counter intuitive to rest two important players and then risk them getting injured in a game that’s effectively over, it baffled me because the game just didn’t need Eriksen playing as a LM at that stage, if you are going to put him on, just swap out Alli, and why a CF who’s slower on the counter than Moura and Son, and at that point stifling and countering was what we were doing, which you would think would suit at least one of Son and Moura. I would have been tempted to swap Alli for Skip, go 433, push Sissoko up into the front three to charge at tired legs and have Skipp sitting to the right of Dier helping him mop up and counter. As it was, Poch's subs changed us to a 4411 and it was our worst phase of the game.

In the end this was a pretty facile win, about as facile as the PL gets to be honest, but it's a little concerning that a couple of years ago we'd have smashed such a weak opponent. Tonight we scored with our only two shots on target, one a worldy, one offside.



Individual

Lloris - not loads to do, but did it fine.

Aurier – They got behind him a couple of times early on, and he didn’t contribute enough offensively. Meh.

TA – Decent game.

Vertonghen – Decent game

Davies – (Edit) OK game. Good ball in build up to second goal. Still we needed a bit more from both FB's.

Dier – Solid enough game, if he’s got to play in midfield then this simplified central holding role is a more bearable one, plays to his limitations, he just has to sit, mop up, water carry, and allow the two either side to play football and provide the thrust. Unfortunately the two today didn’t really do it enough.

Sissoko – Apart from a couple of good covering tackles early on, this was a pretty tepid performance and didn’t contribute enough against such an insipid opponent. 23/35 passes and 12 of them were backwards.

Winks – Did get through plenty of the ball, was metronomic enough, but I’d like a little more creative input from him. Got to be a little bit stronger without the ball too at times.

Alli – Good game, most things hubbed through him, but didn’t actually create much in terms of real quality chances. There were a couple of times when a killer pass was on (one of the few times Winks had made a run and got into the box) and he didn’t play it. Took his goal well, but was offside.

Son – Such an enigmatic player, almost like he has a twin, one of them capable of scintilating things and the other of infuriating bumbling. Tonight we got the good twin. Good game, also worked harder without the ball.

Moura – Pffftt…OK, I still am a bit confused as to why he played the ball to Son for that second goal, it was a nice pass, but surely if he carries it two yards and then releases Alli, he’s clean through? He flitted about as ever, couple of decent moments, but not enough of real substance really.
 
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Selection

I have no problem with Kane being rested at all, I think it should happen more often for his sake, and us as a team keeping him fresher, and we always seem to play OK when he is, I don’t think it hurts us to change the dynamics occasionally and give the opposition a different set of problems than one they’ve been expecting all week. My only question would be that it would have made more sense to try to not rest Kane and Eriksen (our two most productive players) at the same time, and maybe Kane could have been rested for the Southampton game?


Structure

We started with the 4312 Diamond, with Dier at the base, and Alli at the tip. The pundits at half time seemed to suggest we switched to a 433 at some point in the first half, if so, I didn’t figure it, I know there was fluidity there, as always, and they all (Son, Moura, Alli) all popped up in each other’s spaces at various times, but it always seemed to default back to that 4312 diamond to me? Until the subs anyway…


The Game

I quite like Puel, think he got a raw deal at Southampton, and has had to cope with a Leicester in transition, losing some good players etc, and whenever I’ve seen them lately, they seem to be playing OK, but I have no idea what he was trying to do tonight, it was just tactically really limp, neither one thing or the other, didn’t get about us and didn’t really park a bus either, and we really didn’t have to be anywhere close to our best to win this. And it’s fair to say we weren’t. We weren’t bad either, we went through much of the right motions, and it was nice to breeze into a two goal lead without really breaking a sweat, and defensively we were solid enough, but if there’s a concern it’s that we actually created so little of tangible quality chances against such a feeble resistance. In the end we’ve scored with our only two shots on target, one of those was probably offside, and Alli, who had a very good game generally, was possibly guilty of fucking about a couple of times instead of just getting a shot off, if Sissoko didn’t have the technique of a baby elephant we might have been clean through a couple of times, and generally if people had made better decisions we might have created a little more. Neither full back really contributed enough either.

Our biggest problems continue to be our midfield, that just isn’t driving us properly. It’s not creating enough, setting tempo, transitioning smoothly. I like the CM3 system we have played lately, just wish we had better components in it.

Sissoko, had a pretty poor game, against such a passive opposition he saw very little of the ball (completed a pitiful 23 passes from 35 attempted, giving the ball away 35% and it’s not like he was on it much or attempting anything clever) in this CM3 system he’s got to provide some thrust in transition as well as some ballast. It’s not like this was Cheslea and we were defensively under the cosh for most of this game.

Got to say, I was a little disappointed by Winks too if I’m honest. He was metronomic, neat and tidy and did see a lot more of the ball than Sissoko (67/74 90%) and he did get about, but, again, against such little resistance, in this CM3 system I would like to see him providing a little more ambition and incision with his passing.

Alli had a decent knock, providing the fulcrum that his remit required and most good things hubbed through him. Needs to be a little more clinical in the box sometimes and fuck around a little less though. Son was close to his effervescent liveliest, and scored an absolute beauty, then created the second for Alli.

As is often the case, Poch’s subs utterly baffled me. They baffled me because it seems counter intuitive to rest two important players and then risk them getting injured in a game that’s effectively over, it baffled me because the game just didn’t need Eriksen playing as a LM at that stage, if you are going to put him on, just swap out Alli, and why a CF who’s slower on the counter than Moura and Son, and at that point stifling and countering was what we were doing, which you would think would suit at least one of Son and Moura. I would have been tempted to swap Alli for Skip, go 433, push Sissoko up into the front three to charge at tired legs and have Skipp sitting to the right of Dier helping him mop up and counter. As it was, Poch's subs changed us to a 4411 and it was our worst phase of the game.

In the end this was a pretty facile win, about as facile as the PL gets to be honest, but it's a little concerning that a couple of years ago we'd have smashed such a weak opponent. Tonight we scored with our only two shots on target, one a worldy, one offside.



Individual

Lloris - not loads to do, but did it fine.

Aurier – They got behind him a couple of times early on, and he didn’t contribute enough offensively. Meh.

TA – Decent game.

Vertonghen – Decent game

Davies – OK.

Dier – Solid enough game, if he’s got to play in midfield then this simplified central holding role is a more bearable one, plays to his limitations, he just has to sit, mop up, water carry, and allow the two either side to play football and provide the thrust. Unfortunately the two today didn’t really do it enough.

Sissoko – Apart from a couple of good covering tackles early on, this was a pretty tepid performance and didn’t contribute enough against such an insipid opponent. 23/35 passes and 12 of them were backwards.

Winks – Did get through plenty of the ball, was metronomic enough, but I’d like a little more creative input from him. Got to be a little bit stronger without the ball too at times.

Alli – Good game, most things hubbed through him, but didn’t actually create much in terms of real quality chances. There were a couple of times when a killer pass was on (one of the few times Winks had made a run and got into the box) and he didn’t play it. Took his goal well, but was offside.

Son – Such an enigmatic player, almost like he has a twin, one of them capable of scintilating things and the other of infuriating bumbling. Tonight we got the good twin. Good game, also worked harder without the ball.

Moura – Pffftt…OK, I still am a bit confused as to why he played the ball to Son for that second goal, it was a nice pass, but surely if he carries it two yards and then releases Alli, he’s clean through? He flitted about as ever, couple of decent moments, but not enough of real substance really.

I think your review is a little harsh. I saw this as a pretty convincing win in a match we managed so well that we hardly needed to go out of second gear. You can’t just put this down to an insipid performance by Leicester . Yes they are not the same team without Vardy but what about our own long injury list ? We didn’t let them play and we were extremely solid at the back.

I am not Sissoko’s biggest fan either but he made some really strong runs today. One run of about 80 yards with no support from anyone ended in a throw for us deep in their territory. Another burst in the first half ended with his customary poor final delivery when we should have been in on goal. But he is putting in a shift in every game and not hiding like he used to. I would still worry about playing him against Barcelona because the best teams are capable of exposing his lack of technical skills. He was caught out badly by Barca for their 4th goal at Wembley at a time when we were pushing for an equalizer.

I actually think Winks had a pretty good game. Very busy and less of the running around in circles a la Scott Parker. With Eriksen and Lamela not playing , Winks and Dele kept us moving forward efficiently.

A word for the much criticized Davies. I thought he had a very solid game today and played a great ball to Moura in the build up to our second goal. Soon afterwards he put in a really inviting cross for Aurier who could have done better with his header.

Son, Dele, Alderweireld and Vertinghen were all excellent. Because I enjoy watching Son probably more than any of our other players when he is on song I will give MOM to him for another outstanding goal and perfect assist.

Last point. We have had a grueling schedule made worse by injuries. I don’t criticise the team at all for not trying to push on and score more. We were totally comfortable at 2-0 and already thinking about Tuesday.
 
Why do it Blakey? .... you clearly watch a different game to the pundits, media and 99% of the fans ... why put yourself through it every week?

A game in which we started slowly and upped the tempo just enough to pick up three points ... exactly what was required, minimum effort for maximum return ... so what's not to like?

Hugo had zero saves of note to make nor did he have to play last man standing ... clean sheet, tick .... so again what's not to like?

Why bring on subs? well it's pretty basic to anyone with eve the slightest sporting knowledge ....

Injury risk increases exponentially as the body tires ... 90% of football injuries occur in the last quarter of matches .... just let that sink in ....

You are thus 9 times more likely to be injured playing from 70-90 minutes than from playing the first 70 minutes .... got that?

Taking off Son and Lucas reduces their injury risk by 90%, whilst playing Kane and Eriksen is a 5% risk at most .... just wished he'd pulled Aurier 10 minutes earlier as well ...

Do you get that now? it's basic physio and player management it's really not that hard to understand ...
 
It was an ok performance and a great 3 points against a rather blunt Leicester.
Toby and Jan were wonderful breaking up everything and controlling all that came at them . Why these 2 were not paired together at the NLD was tinkering madness from Poch.
Alli was effective and certainly inspired much that was good today.
Son a brilliant goal out of nothing , at that stage we were the better team but didnt look like scoring till he popped up and then later a perfect assist.
Winks for me lacked any real adventure . Too safe , sideway central . A real opportunity to shine.
Sissoko becoming a marmite player for some but being honest 30 million could have been far better spent.
Lucus huffed and puffed but really plays to deep sometimes and should sit on there last man .
Overall 6/10 , a convincing win if not from the top draw.
 
Hugo - 6.5 solid. A bit of an issue with delivery under pressure but that's nothing new
Aurier - 5.5 ok
Toby + Jan - 6 solid and quiet
Davies - 5.5 ok didn't offer much going forward
Sissoko - 6.5, great tackling and covering space but he really needs to learn how to do simple passes. I count 2 goals that could have if he could just pass
Winks - 6.5 dynamo
Dier - 6 neither here nor there
Dele - 7 such a busy bee, he moved our entire offensive play, flicks and everything. If he would have just had a bit more confidence to release the shot early he could have had an hat trick
Lucas - 6
Son - 6.5
 
Its taken me a while to fully appreciate Dele , but these last 2 matches have been exceptional . Gives me a bit more hope for the Barca match if he can pull off something wonderful ,which in this form seems a possibility .

Winks is out of sorts at the mo unfortunately .
 
Selection

I have no problem with Kane being rested at all, I think it should happen more often for his sake, and us as a team keeping him fresher, and we always seem to play OK when he is, I don’t think it hurts us to change the dynamics occasionally and give the opposition a different set of problems than one they’ve been expecting all week. My only question would be that it would have made more sense to try to not rest Kane and Eriksen (our two most productive players) at the same time, and maybe Kane could have been rested for the Southampton game?


Structure

We started with the 4312 Diamond, with Dier at the base, and Alli at the tip. The pundits at half time seemed to suggest we switched to a 433 at some point in the first half, if so, I didn’t figure it, I know there was fluidity there, as always, and they all (Son, Moura, Alli) all popped up in each other’s spaces at various times, but it always seemed to default back to that 4312 diamond to me? Until the subs anyway…


The Game

I quite like Puel, think he got a raw deal at Southampton, and has had to cope with a Leicester in transition, losing some good players etc, and whenever I’ve seen them lately, they seem to be playing OK, but I have no idea what he was trying to do tonight, it was just tactically really limp, neither one thing or the other, didn’t get about us and didn’t really park a bus either, and we really didn’t have to be anywhere close to our best to win this. And it’s fair to say we weren’t. We weren’t bad either, we went through much of the right motions, and it was nice to breeze into a two goal lead without really breaking a sweat, and defensively we were solid enough, but if there’s a concern it’s that we actually created so little of tangible quality chances against such a feeble resistance. In the end we’ve scored with our only two shots on target, one of those was probably offside, and Alli, who had a very good game generally, was possibly guilty of fucking about a couple of times instead of just getting a shot off, if Sissoko didn’t have the technique of a baby elephant we might have been clean through a couple of times, and generally if people had made better decisions we might have created a little more. Neither full back really contributed enough either.

Our biggest problems continue to be our midfield, that just isn’t driving us properly. It’s not creating enough, setting tempo, transitioning smoothly. I like the CM3 system we have played lately, just wish we had better components in it.

Sissoko, had a pretty poor game, against such a passive opposition he saw very little of the ball (completed a pitiful 23 passes from 35 attempted, giving the ball away 35% and it’s not like he was on it much or attempting anything clever) in this CM3 system he’s got to provide some thrust in transition as well as some ballast. It’s not like this was Cheslea and we were defensively under the cosh for most of this game.

Got to say, I was a little disappointed by Winks too if I’m honest. He was metronomic, neat and tidy and did see a lot more of the ball than Sissoko (67/74 90%) and he did get about, but, again, against such little resistance, in this CM3 system I would like to see him providing a little more ambition and incision with his passing.

Alli had a decent knock, providing the fulcrum that his remit required and most good things hubbed through him. Needs to be a little more clinical in the box sometimes and fuck around a little less though. Son was close to his effervescent liveliest, and scored an absolute beauty, then created the second for Alli.

As is often the case, Poch’s subs utterly baffled me. They baffled me because it seems counter intuitive to rest two important players and then risk them getting injured in a game that’s effectively over, it baffled me because the game just didn’t need Eriksen playing as a LM at that stage, if you are going to put him on, just swap out Alli, and why a CF who’s slower on the counter than Moura and Son, and at that point stifling and countering was what we were doing, which you would think would suit at least one of Son and Moura. I would have been tempted to swap Alli for Skip, go 433, push Sissoko up into the front three to charge at tired legs and have Skipp sitting to the right of Dier helping him mop up and counter. As it was, Poch's subs changed us to a 4411 and it was our worst phase of the game.

In the end this was a pretty facile win, about as facile as the PL gets to be honest, but it's a little concerning that a couple of years ago we'd have smashed such a weak opponent. Tonight we scored with our only two shots on target, one a worldy, one offside.



Individual

Lloris - not loads to do, but did it fine.

Aurier – They got behind him a couple of times early on, and he didn’t contribute enough offensively. Meh.

TA – Decent game.

Vertonghen – Decent game

Davies – OK.

Dier – Solid enough game, if he’s got to play in midfield then this simplified central holding role is a more bearable one, plays to his limitations, he just has to sit, mop up, water carry, and allow the two either side to play football and provide the thrust. Unfortunately the two today didn’t really do it enough.

Sissoko – Apart from a couple of good covering tackles early on, this was a pretty tepid performance and didn’t contribute enough against such an insipid opponent. 23/35 passes and 12 of them were backwards.

Winks – Did get through plenty of the ball, was metronomic enough, but I’d like a little more creative input from him. Got to be a little bit stronger without the ball too at times.

Alli – Good game, most things hubbed through him, but didn’t actually create much in terms of real quality chances. There were a couple of times when a killer pass was on (one of the few times Winks had made a run and got into the box) and he didn’t play it. Took his goal well, but was offside.

Son – Such an enigmatic player, almost like he has a twin, one of them capable of scintilating things and the other of infuriating bumbling. Tonight we got the good twin. Good game, also worked harder without the ball.

Moura – Pffftt…OK, I still am a bit confused as to why he played the ball to Son for that second goal, it was a nice pass, but surely if he carries it two yards and then releases Alli, he’s clean through? He flitted about as ever, couple of decent moments, but not enough of real substance really.
Pretty much agree with all of this tbh. A great result, especially after the earlier matches. Brave team selection from the Pochmeister, which paid off.

However.....this was Leicester. If we want to be taken seriously as one of the big boys then we shouldn't be pulling ourselves off over 2-0 victories against mid table shite like this.
We did what we had to do. What we should be doing.. And did it well.

As for individual performances? As ever bus-conductor bus-conductor 's analysis hits the nail on the head

Hugo, Toby, Jan, Sonny, Dele and Dier (in my opinion) all excelled and played well.

Ben, Serge, Sissoko, Lucas and Winks all left plenty of room for improvement.
 
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However.....this was Leicester. If we want to be taken seriously as one of the big boys then we shouldn't be pulling ourselves off over 2-0 victories against mid table shite like this.

To be fair, anyone and everyone who wrote off our season in August, tore the squad depth to shreds and demanded Levy’s head on a stick has no real right to be sitting here demanding anything.

Expect us to be 12th by Christmas and then start talking about how we shouldn’t get excited to be 3rd, and we need to be better?

Nah
 
Dele for me, although the whole team played its part. He played such a mature and professional role yesterday, frightening that he is still only 22. Getting the 50th goal was the icing on the cake.
 
However.....this was Leicester. If we want to be taken seriously as one of the big boys then we shouldn't be pulling ourselves off over 2-0 victories against mid table shite like this.

However .... this was Leicester ... but wait a minute JT, aren't they the side that spent 112m on new players last transfer window? and wasn't it a certain John Thomas who so wisely said you have to spend money to succeed? .... his exact words

"How can anyone think this team and squad didn't need strengthening in the summer. Fuck Daniel Levy. Swanning around the fucking globe and forgetting about the small matter of the football team. And then we get this fucking shite again"

So clearly Leicester, who were after all EPL title winners just three years ago, a club that followed JT's brilliant advice and spent 112m on a bunch of bang average players .... are now according to the very same wise JT "mid-table shite"

So what I'm reading is: Follow JT's advice, piss 112m in transfer funds up against the wall, and then in JT's own words, end up as 'mid-table shite'

Or just maybe follow DL's approach, don't buy any crap squad players, instead give better contracts to 'this fucking shite' as JT called them, and by doing that currently lie 3rd in the table with an EPL club record points total after 16 games .....

Now I wonder who got that decision right? what do you think JT?
 
While there are points I agree with in Blakey’s slightly jaundiced review, I think he is being a bit harsh (as always?)

Dele was better than most here have given him credit for. So good in fact that some of his team mates couldn’t read him. As BT pointed out his ‘numbers’ are really impressive given his age. And as usual, his movement was sublime. However, last night he added beating players like they weren’t there and getting on the end of final balls to his repertoire. A fine all round performance.

As a team performance i was slightly underwhelmed. However, in the cold light of day I have to cast my mind back as a long suffering Spurs fan of advancing years to remember times when I’d have longed for such a straight forward, unthreatening, routine win. We’ll take the 3 points thank you very much and move on to more memorable games...
 
Blakey’s clearly biased opinion of Sissoko shines through as always

Yes he did fuck up a couple of passes especially one when we were breaking but his covering and tackling were excellent and our support (which was wonderful) really appreciated his surging runs singing out his name later on

Hope he plays on Tuesday

Winks wasn’t 100% but did ok

Worst participant on the field was Pawson
Inept reffing from the start when he booked Dier for winning the ball

The free kick awarded later on for Aurier challenging for a header was laughable
 
Selection

I have no problem with Kane being rested at all, I think it should happen more often for his sake, and us as a team keeping him fresher, and we always seem to play OK when he is, I don’t think it hurts us to change the dynamics occasionally and give the opposition a different set of problems than one they’ve been expecting all week. My only question would be that it would have made more sense to try to not rest Kane and Eriksen (our two most productive players) at the same time, and maybe Kane could have been rested for the Southampton game?


Structure

We started with the 4312 Diamond, with Dier at the base, and Alli at the tip. The pundits at half time seemed to suggest we switched to a 433 at some point in the first half, if so, I didn’t figure it, I know there was fluidity there, as always, and they all (Son, Moura, Alli) all popped up in each other’s spaces at various times, but it always seemed to default back to that 4312 diamond to me? Until the subs anyway…


The Game

I quite like Puel, think he got a raw deal at Southampton, and has had to cope with a Leicester in transition, losing some good players etc, and whenever I’ve seen them lately, they seem to be playing OK, but I have no idea what he was trying to do tonight, it was just tactically really limp, neither one thing or the other, didn’t get about us and didn’t really park a bus either, and we really didn’t have to be anywhere close to our best to win this. And it’s fair to say we weren’t. We weren’t bad either, we went through much of the right motions, and it was nice to breeze into a two goal lead without really breaking a sweat, and defensively we were solid enough, but if there’s a concern it’s that we actually created so little of tangible quality chances against such a feeble resistance. In the end we’ve scored with our only two shots on target, one of those was probably offside, and Alli, who had a very good game generally, was possibly guilty of fucking about a couple of times instead of just getting a shot off, if Sissoko didn’t have the technique of a baby elephant we might have been clean through a couple of times, and generally if people had made better decisions we might have created a little more. Neither full back really contributed enough either.

Our biggest problems continue to be our midfield, that just isn’t driving us properly. It’s not creating enough, setting tempo, transitioning smoothly. I like the CM3 system we have played lately, just wish we had better components in it.

Sissoko, had a pretty poor game, against such a passive opposition he saw very little of the ball (completed a pitiful 23 passes from 35 attempted, giving the ball away 35% and it’s not like he was on it much or attempting anything clever) in this CM3 system he’s got to provide some thrust in transition as well as some ballast. It’s not like this was Cheslea and we were defensively under the cosh for most of this game.

Got to say, I was a little disappointed by Winks too if I’m honest. He was metronomic, neat and tidy and did see a lot more of the ball than Sissoko (67/74 90%) and he did get about, but, again, against such little resistance, in this CM3 system I would like to see him providing a little more ambition and incision with his passing.

Alli had a decent knock, providing the fulcrum that his remit required and most good things hubbed through him. Needs to be a little more clinical in the box sometimes and fuck around a little less though. Son was close to his effervescent liveliest, and scored an absolute beauty, then created the second for Alli.

As is often the case, Poch’s subs utterly baffled me. They baffled me because it seems counter intuitive to rest two important players and then risk them getting injured in a game that’s effectively over, it baffled me because the game just didn’t need Eriksen playing as a LM at that stage, if you are going to put him on, just swap out Alli, and why a CF who’s slower on the counter than Moura and Son, and at that point stifling and countering was what we were doing, which you would think would suit at least one of Son and Moura. I would have been tempted to swap Alli for Skip, go 433, push Sissoko up into the front three to charge at tired legs and have Skipp sitting to the right of Dier helping him mop up and counter. As it was, Poch's subs changed us to a 4411 and it was our worst phase of the game.

In the end this was a pretty facile win, about as facile as the PL gets to be honest, but it's a little concerning that a couple of years ago we'd have smashed such a weak opponent. Tonight we scored with our only two shots on target, one a worldy, one offside.



Individual

Lloris - not loads to do, but did it fine.

Aurier – They got behind him a couple of times early on, and he didn’t contribute enough offensively. Meh.

TA – Decent game.

Vertonghen – Decent game

Davies – OK.

Dier – Solid enough game, if he’s got to play in midfield then this simplified central holding role is a more bearable one, plays to his limitations, he just has to sit, mop up, water carry, and allow the two either side to play football and provide the thrust. Unfortunately the two today didn’t really do it enough.

Sissoko – Apart from a couple of good covering tackles early on, this was a pretty tepid performance and didn’t contribute enough against such an insipid opponent. 23/35 passes and 12 of them were backwards.

Winks – Did get through plenty of the ball, was metronomic enough, but I’d like a little more creative input from him. Got to be a little bit stronger without the ball too at times.

Alli – Good game, most things hubbed through him, but didn’t actually create much in terms of real quality chances. There were a couple of times when a killer pass was on (one of the few times Winks had made a run and got into the box) and he didn’t play it. Took his goal well, but was offside.

Son – Such an enigmatic player, almost like he has a twin, one of them capable of scintilating things and the other of infuriating bumbling. Tonight we got the good twin. Good game, also worked harder without the ball.

Moura – Pffftt…OK, I still am a bit confused as to why he played the ball to Son for that second goal, it was a nice pass, but surely if he carries it two yards and then releases Alli, he’s clean through? He flitted about as ever, couple of decent moments, but not enough of real substance really.
Eriksen is NOT being RESTED, he's being managed following an injury, the minutes he plays are clearly important to his recovery. Playing 20mins of a competitive football match is part of his rehab, more beneficial than 20mins spent running at Hotspur Way.

Kane's inclusion would also be for him to keep "ticking over", better than 20mins at Hotspur Way, also no doubt Kane is desperate to play so he can remain in the race for top scorer this season, something that's incredibly important to him, so Poch looking after him there (not to mention that he's no doubt on some massive goalscoring bonus). Any player could pick up an injury be that at Hotspur Way or in a game (Many of our players have picked up injuries whilst training as our sessions are supposed to be very intense). There is nothing baffling about these subs only in that it is the first time ever that they have both not started a game, quite an amazing stat.
 
Not really sure anyone had a bad game.

It was one of our most comfortably performances of the season. Lloris had nothing to do. Aurier got an assist. Vertonghen and Alderweireld kept a cleansheet. Davies had probably his best game of the season. Dier was one of our better players. Winks grew in the second half. Sissoko was up and down the pitch and put in some crucial tackles. Son was a constant threat and Dele was MOTM by a distance. The only person who perhaps didn't have a game on par with those was Lucas but he wasn't entirely bad.

No Eriksen or Kane from the start and to perform as easy as that and win 2-0 is pretty emphatic..
 
So clearly Leicester, who were after all EPL title winners just three years ago, a club that followed JT's brilliant advice and spent 112m on a bunch of bang average players .... are now according to the very same wise JT "mid-table shite"
Hang on, bruvva.
I have never advocated spending 112m on a bunch of bang average players. I want to see us spending money on exciting, top class players that sees us finally take the leap from plucky runners up or also rans into title winners and trophy hunters.
I want to see us be brave in the transfer market once in a while and take the risk on that extra special player that could make the difference.
As Poch himself said, in his latest salvo aimed at Daniel Levy, a club like Tottenham Hotspur should not have to try and out perform the likes of little Leicester on a similar size budget.
A club like Leicester can only attract bang average players. (Your words)
A club like Tottenham Hotspur should be willing and capable of attracting a much higher calibre player, don't you think
 
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Hang on, bruvva.
I have never advocated spending 112m on a bunch of bang average players. I want to see us spending money on exciting, top class players that sees us finally take the leap from plucky runners up or also rans into title winners and trophy hunters.
I want to see us be brave in the transfer market once in a while and take the risk on that extra special player that could make the difference.
As Poch himself said, in his latest salvo aimed at Daniel Levy, a club like Tottenham Hotspur should not have to try and out perform the likes of little Leicester on a similar size budget.
A club like Leicester can only attract bang average players. (Your words)
A club like Tottenham Hotspur should be willing and capable of attracting a much higher calibre player, don't you think

Simple answer NO - these are not my words but Poch's "no players that we were interested in signing were available" "we looked at many players but none were better (than what we had)"

Who would you have signed? and who would you have dropped out of the squad?

Sanchez? Morata? Keane? Carrillo? Sigurdsson? Bakayoko? Klassen? .... that's about 300m pissed away ....

What Poch actually said was "we have competed on a similar sized budget to Leicester" however going forward the 800m spent on a new stadium will put our income about 150m a year ahead of Leicester from 2019 .... which is probably why Poch signed a six year contract .... have patience we're six years into a ten year plan, and we're already well ahead of where we thought we'd be ....
 
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