You're Just a Shit Villa Re -run, shit Villa Re Run
As the title suggests, the similarities with our opening game against Villa were stark. A couple of curious selections - or lack thereof, an obdurate, organised deep block bus-park, a goal down against the run of play to some fucking sloppy defending, with two of the Villa culprits involved again, lots of possession and control and huffing and puffing, only this time there was no happy ending.
I know this is a familiar trope now, but as long as it's there every week, I can't ignore it any week. What Pochettino is seeing in Sissoko to think he should be playing in a midfield at this level is really hard to reconcile. Not someone who looks to get on the ball, actively avoids it under pressure, not someone with a 360 game head, not someone who is ever going to play a zippy, incisive pass and defensively he ambles around - as witnessed against Villa when they scored and again today where he just casually jogs over to Atsu and allows him time and space - and then swerves out the way of the ball - to pick the killer pass. Just grow some fucking bollocks Poch and play Skipp, the boys not scared of the fucking ball, can see a pass and presses much better than Sissoko.
I saw Winks getting the usual grief in the match thread, and I know he's not Pirlo or Modric, but he is compared to Sissoko. I've got no problem with the way Winks played today in terms of his remit, he got through an absolute shitload of ball - 134 passes 94% - and made 74 forward and only 21 back. 53 in the attacking third. Compare that with Sissoko who made 34 passes forward and 36 backwards. Yes, Winks isn't ever going to be Modric, but he is by a fucki g country mile not the biggest problem of the two players.
The main glaring omission was Eriksen. As someone pointed out in the match thread, it kind of defeats your attempt to finish with him before he finishes with you, if you have to keep begging him to go back out with you.
Either don't put him in the squad, or play him, because the team is more important than your pride, and this team will always be better with Eriksen than without him. And for those that said he deserved to be dropped after his non performance against ManC, well you could apply that to most of the team, particularly the likes of Kane and Sissoko. We all know that wasn't the reason Eriksen was on the bench.
The sloppiness that lead to their winner has become endemic, or even an epidemic under Pochettino, who once upon a time stood for much higher standards of diligence when it came to pressing, intensity and collective work ethic. This wasn't some fleet breakaway goal, like Villa, Newcastle were allowed to plop the ball around, as we lethargically jogged about, eventually it finds it's way to Atsu, Sissoko ambles nonchalantly toward him, no fucking hurry and stands about 3 yards off him making no attempt to press him or force him into doing something he doesn't want to do, meanwhile most of the defence has shuffled right, toward play, except Rose, who once again, a bit like against Villa, is doing his own thang, wandering lonely like a cloud. He hasn't read where the danger is and moved along with the rest of the defence, and has created a gaping gash of a chasm for their big fella to penetrate (ooohh matron see what I did there).
We weren't terrible, we had shitloads of the ball, lots of really inept huffing, puffing and bumbling in forward areas, plenty of head down scurrying, but without the likes of Eriksen, Ndombele, Lo Celso there was no one capable of getting their heads out of their arses long enough to make it count. As a result we created very few quality chances. A nice floated pass from KWP to Son was the sum total of chances actually created in the first half. Lo Celso's clever little through ball to Kane (that he made a bit of a mess of, but could well have had a penalty - I still can't decide) was probably the most incisive pass all day, followed by Eriksen's wonderful pass to Sissoko, which Sissoko defended really well for Newcastle.
But two shots on target against Newcastle at home, even a stubborn, obdurate Newcastle is pretty fucking poor.
The sooner Poch can figure out how to maximise the players he has at his disposal the better, because it feels like really a long time since that has happened.
It's a shame KWP got injured, he's needs a decent run of games, but if there's any silver lining it might be that this is the only way Poch is going to actually move Sissoko out of harms way - to fill in at RB - and to be fair going forward against a bus parker, that might just be the only place he actually could be of some use, the latter part of this game he ran at their LB and got crosses in. You'd still worry about his ability to defend as a Rb though, and the clown boots he wears will cause havoc in our box inevitably.
Individual
Lloris - Not much to do really.
KWP - Was doing OK, created our only real chance until Eriksen and Lo Celso came on.
Alderweireld - OK
Sanchez - OK
Rose - Pretty poor defensively for the goal, and offered virtually nothing offensively.
Winks - He's not Modric or Pirlo, but he's not the biggest problem we have by a long way.
Sissoko - Brings nothing as a CM, and was piss fucking poor for their goal. Was actually half-decent the last 15 minutes as a right winger, and put in a couple of decent crosses.
Moura - Bumbled. Cruyff turn, crowd cheers, he then proceeds to run the ball straight into Newcastle legs. Him in a nutshell. Did play a nice ball to put Sissoko in behind his full back, but that's scant return creatively for 95 minutes work, and he also wasted two great chances.
Son - Bumbled.
Lamela - Bumbled. he works hard, offers himself up to receive, but has the composure of a gazelle on a PCP enema. Can do good things but does a lot of careless shit too.
Kane - Meh. Not always easy when the game is compressed like this for the CF to influence things, but the two great chances he had he made a bit of a mess of. I know you could argue for a pen, and it would have been a fair call, but likewise, you could see him diving into it, when IMO, he should have looked to stay on his feet and get a shot off. Apart from that he didn't really influence much and didn't really lead the press from the front brilliantly either.
Lo Celso/Eriksen - we definitely looked more purposeful and composed when these two came on, and both nearly unlocked the defence with the type of passes we hadn't seen previously.
Judging by all of your posts, safe to say that you're not a fan of Son aye?
