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Nah this ones on Poch:
1) Sonny starting as a wing back.
2) Sonny being taken off despite being our most threatening player at the time.
3) Not taking Sanchez off despite playing poorly and despite swansea not looking to attack hence no point for 3 at the back.
4) Llorente coming on and us not utilising his main strength.
5) Trippier being moved to left wing back.
It was painful to watch.
What do you make of the late decision not to give you a penalty?
Yes, first of all I am disappointed with the result. We created a lot of chances. We didn't concede one shot on target. The performance was good. Then on the decision I have full respect for the referee. Only I was disappointed with Mike [Dean] because he tried to justify the last decision in the action that Aurier touched the ball with his chest.
I think it was a penalty. He tried to justify by telling the players it was handball, it was handball, it was handball, shouting. When you take a decision as a referee you stay calm and say it was handball. You don't try to justify the decision. If you didn't see some times, I think he didn't see as he believed it was handball, it's better not to justify the action.
But then I don't want to blame because maybe we can speak about different actions that happened. I think we should have scored before or created more chances than we created. I cannot now justify the result because of the decision of the referee at the end.
I think we need to be better, try to create more chances and be more clinical in front of goal. I thought the performance was good. I am happy with the performance and with my players. Maybe after Wednesday I thought we played better but were a little bit unlucky because we couldn't score.
Seven points dropped at home in the league - is Wembley a factor?
Yes, maybe you are right. We could spend one season talking about that and maybe at the end then you can see it or everyone can say 'yes, Wembley was a problem'.
I think today when you watch the game do you believe that was Wembley again? I think it's a good point to talk about during the week and after if you don't win, but Dortmund was Wembley, no? Or some games that we've played here before. I think no.
You were so good at home last season, if this form continues here you can't have a title challenge can you?
You know what we can do. We need to play here at Wembley and make Wembley our home. Like you repeat always the same, I will repeat always the same every single press conference. I think we need to move on. It's so important to move on, because if not we are in the past.
It's true that last season was a fantastic season at White Hart Lane. But today we are at Wembley and White Hart Lane is in the history. We are building a new stadium which will be fantastic and then I believe that every single season is completely different.
We cannot compare last season with this season. All the clubs are different, we are different. We need to engage everyone now that arrived at the end. We have a new squad. It's a different dynamic. It's up to us to create the good dynamic, be positive and win games, not only away from home, if not at Wembley.
But I think it's too early to analyse different things. The reality is that we dropped a lot of points after three games but I am not worried. I think playing in that way we will win a lot of games. Today we did not concede one shot on target. Not one shot on target in the Premier League. That says a lot about the commitment and the way we played and then we created many, many polemic actions. In football sometimes it happens.
Can you explain why you dropped Ben Davies to the bench and played Son at left wing-back?
Because I think first of all he got a big knock on his ankle against Borussia Dortmund. But I think for different reasons we need to rotate the squad because we have a lot of games, but I think one player is not key to win or to lose. When you have 24 or 25 players you can use everyone.
Why didn't you play Dembele?
Dembele was on the bench.
But you didn't play him and he's quite good when people set up like Swansea.
Yes, how many goals did he score last season? You need to ask me about Dembele. You cannot give your opinion about football because I think the specialists are up here. What is your question, why I didn't play Dembele? Ok, because we believed he was a little bit tired after Wednesday and I think he needed to rest.
Just admit you fucked up.
Yes, first of all I am disappointed with the result. We created a lot of chances. We didn't concede one shot on target. The performance was good. Then on the decision I have full respect for the referee. Only I was disappointed with Mike [Dean] because he tried to justify the last decision in the action that Aurier touched the ball with his chest.
I think it was a penalty. He tried to justify by telling the players it was handball, it was handball, it was handball, shouting. When you take a decision as a referee you stay calm and say it was handball. You don't try to justify the decision. If you didn't see some times, I think he didn't see as he believed it was handball, it's better not to justify the action.
But then I don't want to blame because maybe we can speak about different actions that happened. I think we should have scored before or created more chances than we created. I cannot now justify the result because of the decision of the referee at the end.
I think we need to be better, try to create more chances and be more clinical in front of goal. I thought the performance was good. I am happy with the performance and with my players. Maybe after Wednesday I thought we played better but were a little bit unlucky because we couldn't score.
Seven points dropped at home in the league - is Wembley a factor?
Yes, maybe you are right. We could spend one season talking about that and maybe at the end then you can see it or everyone can say 'yes, Wembley was a problem'.
I think today when you watch the game do you believe that was Wembley again? I think it's a good point to talk about during the week and after if you don't win, but Dortmund was Wembley, no? Or some games that we've played here before. I think no.
You were so good at home last season, if this form continues here you can't have a title challenge can you?
You know what we can do. We need to play here at Wembley and make Wembley our home. Like you repeat always the same, I will repeat always the same every single press conference. I think we need to move on. It's so important to move on, because if not we are in the past.
It's true that last season was a fantastic season at White Hart Lane. But today we are at Wembley and White Hart Lane is in the history. We are building a new stadium which will be fantastic and then I believe that every single season is completely different.
We cannot compare last season with this season. All the clubs are different, we are different. We need to engage everyone now that arrived at the end. We have a new squad. It's a different dynamic. It's up to us to create the good dynamic, be positive and win games, not only away from home, if not at Wembley.
But I think it's too early to analyse different things. The reality is that we dropped a lot of points after three games but I am not worried. I think playing in that way we will win a lot of games. Today we did not concede one shot on target. Not one shot on target in the Premier League. That says a lot about the commitment and the way we played and then we created many, many polemic actions. In football sometimes it happens.
Can you explain why you dropped Ben Davies to the bench and played Son at left wing-back?
Because I think first of all he got a big knock on his ankle against Borussia Dortmund. But I think for different reasons we need to rotate the squad because we have a lot of games, but I think one player is not key to win or to lose. When you have 24 or 25 players you can use everyone.
Why didn't you play Dembele?
Dembele was on the bench.
But you didn't play him and he's quite good when people set up like Swansea.
Yes, how many goals did he score last season? You need to ask me about Dembele. You cannot give your opinion about football because I think the specialists are up here. What is your question, why I didn't play Dembele? Ok, because we believed he was a little bit tired after Wednesday and I think he needed to rest.
Just admit you fucked up.
I agree to an extent and it was disappointing with Sonny. But as a manager you're allowed to experiment a little. It doesn't always pay off but we don't exactly know the reasons behind it. We really should've scored and Kane was really close. I also think we had enough man power up front. Who should we have put on for Sanchez. Maybe Dembele. But if we had taken Sanchez off and Swansea scored it would also have been on Poch. We pressed a lot forward but the spark wasn't there. It's quite understandable considering what kind of game we had just a three days ago.
good post. I said at the time to take off a defender for Llorente
why so much whining about poch. two seasons in a row he has taken us the champions league and having us challenging for the title. he is the man and we should support him 100% even when we draw. even if you for example had Aurier instead for Sissoko, are you sure that would have delivered a goal. Come on, Sissoko so nearly got us an assist after all. Don't forget that. The margins are super slim.
Poch gets paid the big money and the players do too.
Too many times in the past - cough redknapp cough - managers relied on 12-13 players and we were fucked come April.
Maybe Poch putting Davies and Dembele on the bench was not the best tactic if he didn't plan to use them but it's also a mindfuck for the other manager as he has to think "what if". I trust Poch. He's the best manager we have had in decades.
But ideally we should have more strength in depth so he doesn't need to put 2 unfit players on the bench because Dembele was properly tired the other night.
We've arguably got more strength in depth than last year, especially when (if) Lamela and Rose come back.
Yeah would agree with that, but just 3 home games in we have a player on the bench with a big knock and another who looks capable of playing 1 game a week.
So ideally we need even more!
1) Well excuse Poch for wanting to fit in Son, Alli and Eriksen together to be more attacking.
2) 3 at the back is not necessarily overly defensive. 4 at the back means the fullbacks attack modestly compared to how they can maraud with 3 cbs. Similarly less responsibility on the midfield. It's not as simple as saying 3 cbs is Poch being defensive.
3) The squad has to be utilised if we are to compete in the CL and prem. We can't start Aurier or Davies every week.
4) Alli has many times scored a goal from nothing often when playing bad or having not been in the game. It was perfectly reasonable for him to play the 90.
5) We are 5 points of 1st place after 5 games. Calm the fuck down. Burnley who we drew with just took points off so called title challengers Pool after having done the same to the Chavs.
6) The players carry much of the burden.
Fucking knee jerk know-it-alls calling Poch limited/saying he devolved give me a break.
2) 3 at the back is not necessarily overly defensive. 4 at the back means the fullbacks attack modestly compared to how they can maraud with 3 cbs. Similarly less responsibility on the midfield. It's not as simple as saying 3 cbs is Poch being defensive.
3) The squad has to be utilised if we are to compete in the CL and prem. We can't start Aurier or Davies every week.
4) Alli has many times scored a goal from nothing often when playing bad or having not been in the game. It was perfectly reasonable for him to play the 90.
5) We are 5 points of 1st place after 5 games. Calm the fuck down. Burnley who we drew with just took points off so called title challengers Pool after having done the same to the Chavs.
6) The players carry much of the burden.
Fucking knee jerk know-it-alls calling Poch limited/saying he devolved give me a break.
yea even with the new signings our options aren't plentiful. all teams coming to face us park the bus. poch is trying some different things rather than the most predictable. I see nothing wrong with that.
exactly. the criticism is quite strong. a few seasons ago nobody could've dreamt of us being where we are now and that is thanks to poch. then they get used to that standard and after a few games not getting the desired result poch is getting questioned. give me a fuckin break. we're extremely lucky to have poch. we could've gotten a fuckin frank de boer
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Our depth is so good that we had to play our sixth choice central midfielder today whilst our second and fifth choice central midfielders sat on the bench. We had to play a goal threatening attacker at left wing back before moving our right back to the left all whilst having a left back on the bench. Within that time we also put our sixth choice central midfielder at right wing back when we had a right back on the pitch as well as a right wing back on the wing.
I hope that was as confusing to read as it was to watch today.
I hope that was as confusing to read as it was to watch today.
why do you think he didn't play Davies today? I'm sure he would've liked to but maybe he wasn't 100%. there must be a reason for it just as there was a reason he played him against Dortmund. If he was not 100%, why risk him against a team like Swansea? Without him and Rose, we will struggle in every game.
KWP can play on the left.
Or you could always play a flat back four and play Vertonghen at left back. Not the ideal scenario but at least it doesn't negate Son's attacking threat.
It's silly that that we've left ourselves with zero proper back up to left back knowing that Danny Rose is probably not going to play again.
Son was given plenty of room to attack also in the first half. he nearly scored. That his attacking threat was negated is exaggerated. and why would KWP have been a better option?
We had 26 shots, 16 of them on target, and allowed zero shots on target. We had 75% possession of the game, and had 4 penalty shouts, two of them being good ones. Harry hit the post, and Fabianski played a blinder.
We dominated the game; it just wasn't our day.
How many of those chances were clean cut "Should have scored that"?
Two.
Dele header.
Kane hitting the bar.
Other than that none come to mind. You can't expect to win a game just because you created two chances. Teams can create, 4, 6, 8, whatever and not win. Two is weak.
I didn't have a big issue with Poch playing 3 centrebacks as it seemed clear he asked Toby and Jan to bomb forward when they could, and they did.
The problem was the wingbacks, who are critical in providing our only width and supplying the crosses. In past seasons, when we had injuries, we've also struggled when we haven't had this width and ability to whip them in from the flanks and stretch the play, as teams can just clog up the middle like what Swansea did.
If Davies was unfit, I thought it may have been a good idea to give Foyth some minutes and move Jan to the left.
The problem was the wingbacks, who are critical in providing our only width and supplying the crosses. In past seasons, when we had injuries, we've also struggled when we haven't had this width and ability to whip them in from the flanks and stretch the play, as teams can just clog up the middle like what Swansea did.
If Davies was unfit, I thought it may have been a good idea to give Foyth some minutes and move Jan to the left.