Of course not. Our team isn't good enough for it.
But we are also not good enough to play it through them.
-
The Fighting Cock is a forum for fans of Tottenham Hotspur Football Club. Here you can discuss Spurs latest matches, our squad, tactics and any transfer news surrounding the club. Registration gives you access to all our forums (including 'Off Topic' discussion) and removes most of the adverts (you can remove them all via an account upgrade). You're here now, you might as well...
Latest Spurs videos from Sky Sports
Of course not. Our team isn't good enough for it.
But we are also not good enough to play it through them.
So who covers for his deficiencies?
Why does he get credit for cover Auier, but you ignore that others have to cover for the fact that we have a midfielder out there who can't play football and can't defend.
How does he "cover" Auier, over and above how any CM covers his FB? It't not like he does a great job of it is it, Aurier gets forward less than our previous two FB's and gets shit service from Sissoko with the ball when he does get forward.
We allowed Southampton to have a 5 times better x/g against us than we did Norwich, despite playing without Sissoko's "covering" Aurier and his "attempted fire fighting". ("attempted" being the key word here.)
How did rating him work out for Poch? How did it work out for Mourinho today? (Mourinho has even said he doesn't see him as a midfielder). More Sissoko in midfield will sure as shit see Mourinho going the same way Poch did.
The second half against Norwich was probably the best 45 minutes of football we've played this season, certainly under Mourinho. Because we actually played football. Kept the ball. Passed the ball. Stopped just whacking it long. And in doing that prevented Norwich from having a single shot. Not a Sissoko in sight.
Mourinho could have brought on Winks or Skipp, or just put Lo Celso in midfield and kept Sissoko where he was, and it would have been a much more logical like for like scenario that allowed us to keep playing through midfield, but as soon as he put Sissoko into CM it fucking killed us.
agree to disagree here, then.
Indeed, Norwich followed by Soton does hurt.
Obviously we never landed on the Moon and 9/11 was an elaborate hoax.
Are you real (or perhaps deranged)?
Jenas' analysis of our inadequacies in midfield (Dier and Sissoko) was spot on.
There is no conspiracy against Spurs by the officials. Our players were booked because they committed more bookable fouls.
Love him or loathe him (the latter for me) Dean and his officials had a good game today.
BTW, no iffy decisons in Woolwich's favour this evening and I think I spotted Elvis in the crowd on Boxing Day.
Lineker is Leicester.
Sadly, we were pretty shit off the pitch too. Most silent away support in a long time. Quite a few empty seats too. Add in VAR and it’s fair to say that the football we knew and loved is dead. It used to be a raw human experience with an edge. Now it’s like going to TGI Fridays on a laboured work do.
But hey, we have a stadium with amazing hospitality options and twats with guitars in post match bars...
Love him or loathe him (the latter for me) Dean and his officials had a good game today.
Good game means 4 bookings for Spurs from 7 fouls, and 3 bookings for them for 20 fouls. What is a bad game? And you still haven;t answered.
BTW, no iffy decisons in Woolwich's favour this evening and I think I spotted Elvis in the crowd on Boxing Day.
You must be a comedian - you never saw LACAZETTE jumping to the floor on numerous occasions everytime screaming??!
There is no conspiracy against Spurs by the officials. Our players were booked because they committed more bookable fouls.
Mike Dean was booking Spurs players for the slightest action. The refs have an agenda; if Spurs do a foul, book them, if the other team does a foul, try not to. It's pretty obvious.
In the end Spurs, the cleanest team in the league get their players banned twice, plus discouraged from being tenacious. Then people like you have a go at them not trying.
Couldn't agree more.
Flat country. Beautiful though. One of the best cathedrals.
The pattern of the game was simple
Saints press our defenders. Midfield is pushed up high; no pass is on so a long ball is played.
Kane / Alli don't attempt to win any long balls. Instead stand goal side of defender hoping he will miss it. He doesn't.
When we did manage to get possession past the half way line, Saints dropped back. Kane and Eriksen were closely marked. Eriksen played some excellent passes into Alli and Moura.
Every time the ball was played into Alli he would flick it in the air like a kid playing Fifa and lose it.
Every time the ball was played into Moura he would attempt a dribble and lose it.
For me, the root cause of our troubles at the front was Moura, Alli and Aurier being unable to pass the ball. If you rewatch you will see how many times the ball was played to them and they lost it. There really isn't much more Eriksen and Lo Celso could have done. They were finding them in dangerous positions and they fluffed their lines every time. Kane was excellent at drawing the defenders away and making room.
Saints press our defenders. Midfield is pushed up high; no pass is on so a long ball is played.
Kane / Alli don't attempt to win any long balls. Instead stand goal side of defender hoping he will miss it. He doesn't.
When we did manage to get possession past the half way line, Saints dropped back. Kane and Eriksen were closely marked. Eriksen played some excellent passes into Alli and Moura.
Every time the ball was played into Alli he would flick it in the air like a kid playing Fifa and lose it.
Every time the ball was played into Moura he would attempt a dribble and lose it.
For me, the root cause of our troubles at the front was Moura, Alli and Aurier being unable to pass the ball. If you rewatch you will see how many times the ball was played to them and they lost it. There really isn't much more Eriksen and Lo Celso could have done. They were finding them in dangerous positions and they fluffed their lines every time. Kane was excellent at drawing the defenders away and making room.
Lucas definitely will shine on the system saints is playing.
The thing is, there isn't any width again, sessengnon and aurier has some positionong issue.
Sessengon has a decent pass in him but will thrive with Rose as LB.
Enough of dele being there, he is everywhere but he is also getting in the way of lucas. There's simply no passing option, you get press, eriksen dele gets marked.
Celso being lost.
Sissoko being tasked to do winks role.
We just need to get back to basics and start with a 442, a proper winger and full back.
Dele stay central and do your role
You're obviously deranged. In order of your mad assertions:
No. Nothing to answer! Good/bad game is not measured by number of bookings.
No. A player falling over and rolling around will not automatically bring a booking! If this was the case Dele was very close to being booked yesterday. He went down at every opportunity when in Soton's area.
No. Not obvious at all. Lo Celso and Mourinho were perfectly justified. I can't remember the others - they were probably justified as well.
No agenda against Spurs by the officials/media as hard as you try to find one!
There are major structural/personnel/tactical/player pipeline problems with our team. Blaming the officials/media is avoiding the main problem.
It was dreadful, surely they’re watching the video of it this morning as a team and I hope they are fucking embarrassed. How can they not be? It was bloody woeful.
I doubt it though. They just didn’t fucking try!!!!
I doubt it though. They just didn’t fucking try!!!!
Yes and the Wolds to the north of the county have their own type of beauty
Thanks for thinking of me m8. Couple of things tho.
For a decent part of the 90s we where actually a relegation team. Fuck knows how chumps like you would have dealt with that, considering how much bed wetting you've done after some of the best years any of us have ever had supporting Spurs.
Probably would have fucked off and supported Man U and done us all a favour.
Last edited:
Here is Sissoko “received” map (where he receives the ball) for the game:
Here is Eriksen’s
Here is Ndombele’s v Norwich
Here is Winks v Brighton
Here is NDombele feeding Aurier v Norwich:
Here is Sissoko feeding Aurier against Southampton:
NDombele, despite playing as the “dm” was still feeding Aurier in good positions. Sissoko doesn’t.
These examples show the catastrophic effect playing Sissoko in midfield has on our football. He receives the ball 50% or more less than others and is using it far less progressively - even when those others are playing as the Dm/6. And it’s not like there’s some great defensive pay-off, we allowed Southampton 5 times the x/g Norwich achieved. Ndombele and Winks both tackle more per game than Sissoko's poultry 1.1 a game (even Eriksen's only 0.2 less than that).
Not too familiar with that part of the country. Usually only pass through it on my way somewhere.