Tottenham v stoke city

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I think your right saying Lamela is not a starter but i think its because of his goalscoring abilities not creativeness he had tied second most with 9 in the 15/16 season but Son and deli score way more goals and thats how you win games.

Alli and Dele are both massively creative and they could wrack up even more assists if they always passed but, in the case of Son in particular, there are many situations where he has the abilitiy to create a shooting opportunity due to his ability to shift it on either foot, which is hard to defend against, whereas Lamela, in the same situation, would look to pass because defenders find it easier to stop a shot when they know a player massively favours one foot over the other. And when we're playing a team with 10 men behind the ball, one of the things they do it shut down the passing lanes and it often takes a shot from the edge of the area to open up a game and opportunities to play a teammate in generally only come once we've gone ahead and forced the opposition to commit more players forward. This, in my opinion, is why Son should always start ahead of Lamela in games where teams are gonna park the bus, and also his ability to get into crossing positions because defenders are aware he can go either way, which is a massive headache for defenders, whereas with Lamela, defenders know to "show him outside" I.E. Allow him to go byline and attempt a cross with his right foot, and he rarely does this and generally will go back on his left and end up passing to a teammate. He did manage to get a cross in yesterday but it was just bad defending on Stoke's part giving him the space to do that instead of showing him outside, and it's not difficult to see why they have the poorest defence this season and Hughes will be getting his P45 soon.
 
So what is the problem then, if not tiredness?

Perhaps his "head" has already been turned?

- Form (individual).
- Form (team).
- We're not playing the same way as last year.
- Oppo tactics targetting him as a danger man.

Probably not exclusive to 1 factor. Likely a mixeture of the above.

Poch is obviously opting to 'play him back into form' and for him to adapt his game 'on the job'...

In all honesty, i dont see why its causing such a stir.... Not exclusively responsible for the dodgy last few weeks and hardly a need for tin hats(*).

(*As for his agent biz..... He's trying to build up his 'brand'; doesn't have to equate to an exit.)
 
We're clearly watching two different players.


No we have different opinions on one player

It happens occasionally in a public forum


Alli isn’t playing as well as he can or has done in the past but is still worth his place in the side

Didn’t you watch his sublime through ball yesterday?
Including the nutmeg?

He starts every game for me!

:deledoubt:
 
Alli isn’t playing as well as he can or has done in the past but is still worth his place in the side

Didn’t you watch his sublime through ball yesterday?
Including the nutmeg?

He starts every game for me!

:deledoubt:
And his previous for being on fire after the turn of the year makes me agree with you here.

Did he underperform this season? Yes, at times (and certainly not the only player to do so). He's already looking significantly better in the last couple of matches, so to bench him now would be criminally stupid.
 
Man, our 5th goal: Watch Eriksen, Kane, and Tripps. They take off full sprint before Crouch's header has even reached its apex. Harry especially, he's practially on the goal line. There's someone shouting, can't tell if it's Hugo or Poch or someone else, but that person and those three were so on the ball to the counter it's brilliant. Love this team. Yes, it looks better cause all of Stoke were standing still but man were we ever switched on yesterday.
 
bit late to the party, here's my tuppence worth. So pleased that Sonny has got some well deserved recognition at long last. He was involved in nearly everything yesterday and was an easy obvious choice for MOTM. I know Stoke didn't put up much of a fight, especially second half when they were truly woeful, but I did feel we showed a bit of our fighting team spirit, which hasn't been as evident in the last few weeks. Hopefully, this will get us back on track and we need to see more of the same on Wednesday.
 
bit late to the party, here's my tuppence worth. So pleased that Sonny has got some well deserved recognition at long last. He was involved in nearly everything yesterday and was an easy obvious choice for MOTM. I know Stoke didn't put up much of a fight, especially second half when they were truly woeful, but I did feel we showed a bit of our fighting team spirit, which hasn't been as evident in the last few weeks. Hopefully, this will get us back on track and we need to see more of the same on Wednesday.

We definitely looked to be closing them down better than we have done recently. That might be increased motivation, a few players finally having got through injuries or that some had a rest in mid-week, or a collection of all of these.

Hopefully we can keep everyone fit for the next few games and build on the confidence the players had in the second half.
 
Man, our 5th goal: Watch Eriksen, Kane, and Tripps. They take off full sprint before Crouch's header has even reached its apex. Harry especially, he's practially on the goal line. There's someone shouting, can't tell if it's Hugo or Poch or someone else, but that person and those three were so on the ball to the counter it's brilliant. Love this team. Yes, it looks better cause all of Stoke were standing still but man were we ever switched on yesterday.
It was a lovely goal. Does go to show that smart passing (the ball is faster than the man, and all that) and movement can be lethal.

Interesting, and you're absolutely right, about Stoke being slow and not caring anymore when defending that goal. It's obviously become a bit of a meme at that point that we're lacking the pace some of the other top sides have, but speedy players would inevitably help us recreate that kind of counter attacking goal even when the opposition can be arsed defending. See: Liverpool this season.
 
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