Having had a good few hours to digest yesterdays game, I came to some conclusions regarding us going forward.
Firstly, whilst I am all for giving players a chance to settle and show what they can do, I am afraid in Sissoko's case I have finally relented.
We need to offload him as soon as we can. He offered nothing yesterday, his first touch was extremely poor and his main contributions were passes backwards.
Regarding the game itself, Newcastle started out with a game plan and until the Shelvey incident it was working reasonably well.
We until then, whilst dominating possession looked pedestrian in our play.
Our best efforts were from Eriksen, who showed some delightful touches..
I did get the feeling Newcastle players were told to get at Dele, possible to try and get him sent off. To his credit he did not react and inevitably was Newcastle's downfall.
Shelvey was just plain stupid, you cannot DELIBERATELY walk on someone's ankle, and expect to get away with it, especially right in front of the referee, who was less that 10 feet away
As for Benitez saying Kane's challenge on Dummett being far worse than Shelvey's.
They are different because Shelvey deliberately committed his off the ball step on Dele's ankle, whereas Kane genuinely went for the ball, and got it, unfortunately his impetus then caught Dummett and made it look worse than it was.
Under the current Laws of the Game it was classed as reckless, and therefore a booking. Shelvey's on the other hand was deliberate serious foul play and a red card definitely.
Back to Kane, I think football has lost a lot of its originality when looking at the physical element.
I can remember the days of Dave Mackay, Billy Bremner, Nobby Stiles, Norman "Bite your legs" Hunter, Johnny Giles, Tommy Smith, Ron "Chopper" Harris and none of them would have lasted more than 5 minutes under today's tackling restrictions.
Other than Giles (who could be maliciously nasty) most of these guys were not dirty, just very hard and committed. Even Roy Keane & Graham Roberts would struggle to stay on the pitch in today's climate.
Jimmy Greaves told a great story about when he went to Anfield, his first interaction with Tommy Smith was to be handed a piece of paper by Smith.
Greaves asked "Whats this?" to which Smith replied, "The Menu for Liverpool Infirmary, you are going to need it"
Back to the game, I thought we deserved the win even before the sending off. However we looked much more lively once Son had entered the arena and also Victor looked good on his return too.
Best player?? Whilst I would love to say KWP, it has to be Christian who looked like he was up for scoring at every opportunity.
Dele looked quiet until late in the first half, but his running off the ball is superb and his interaction with Christian is almost telepathic.
Our fence looked good other than a couple of times when we were nearly caught out, once by Gayle & once by Atsu.
This can happen when you are dominating a game so much your concentration can drop a level, and before you know it the opposition have scored.
Speaking of Atsu, he certainly looks a very useful player, which makes KWP's debut even more worthy. Apart from one time, he never looked in any major trouble and there was no hesitation in others passing to him.
Whilst not yet ready for a regular starting spot, especially next week, I think he will in time be a very good addition to the first team squad and will get quite a bit of game time this season.
All credit to Poch for having faith
Overall we deserved 3 points and to do it with a clean sheet is always nice. Next week against Chelsea however, I think we have to up the tempo of the game somewhat, and I can see both Victor & Son starting with the possibility of Eric moving to right back if Kevin is not fit.
Finally, one or two have said our pursuit of Sanchez from Ajax is potentially a big risk, citing us signing Janssen from the Erie division and him not quite settling yet.
Firstly, Janssen has settled into the club well and is extremely popular with the other players and staff. He works hard in training and never whines or moans about not being selected.
Secondly we already have 3 first choice players who not only played in the Dutch league, but were also from Ajax, who have reputation for developing players from the youth set up.
These are Toby, Christian and Jan, so if Sanchez turns out even only three quarters as good as they are, then I for one will be very happy!
Yesterday
posted on 14/8/17
it was a bad tackle.. but hes England captain now, so he wont get sent off...
posted on 14/8/17
Kane's tackle was lucky to not get a red and seriously reckless. That being said I can understand why it was a yellow as it was from the side and got the ball, the trailing leg is what made it such a bad tackle. He injured a bloke ffs, that shouldn't be ok.
Nobody is saying it is okay to injure another player. And it certainly is not okay to go out deliberately to hurt another player either.
The reason Kane did not get sent off was down to intent, he went for the ball and unfortunately hurt Lejeune in the process. His intention was to get the ball, which he did.
Kane did not intend to injure Lejeune, however Shelvey did intend to either hurt or get retaliation from Dele.
Standing on an ankle like that could in other cases result in a broken ankle!
posted on 14/8/17
Yesterday.
On the negative side, Sissoko should have played out of his boots but was again disappointing. When the team was announced I thought he was being handed a chance to shine, a chance many believe he was not due. What more motivation does a player need to perform than in front of his old club? He’s barely just good enough as a squad player.
On the positive side, I was reminded of the sheer joy of watching a youngster thrust into the spotlight and who gave it his all and barely put a foot wrong. The video of him taking a picture of his MOTM award on the plane back was gold for me. His after match interview was brilliant and the naivety and pride in the youngster was there for all to see. That is what footy is about for me.
I also learned or had it confirmed more like, is that our Great Dane is probably one of the best attacking midfielders in Europe.
Good to be a Spurs fan, bring on Chelsea COYS
posted on 14/8/17
Thought we got away with yesterday's match largely thanks to Shelvey. We never created any clear cut chances until that point, only half chances. Might have gone on to win anyway but you could tell that incident gave us a boost.
Get these signings done ffs so we don't have to be relying on Sissoko!
posted on 14/8/17
I think we should get rid of sissoko. Isn't going to work for us and is taking up a squad place. Ship him to turkey they want him there
posted on 14/8/17
Very positive start to the season from Spurs, Greaves
I thought it was an enjoyable game from the kick off, high intensity from both sides. The fluidity of our play pleased me most. One way to improve on previous seasons was to hit the ground running, and we did that. It's just a pity Kane couldn't get a goal, he had his chances and later on in the year he'll be slotting those away. The scoreline could have been higher in our favor.
I also think Sissoko is getting a bit too much stick for yesterday. He did nothing wrong and put in good effort under hostile circumstances. I don't expect anything special from him but if he can come in and do a job in several positions throughout the season, it represents some sort of benefit to our squad
And a special mention to Eriksen who was a joy to watch throughout Seems to have stepped up a level this year
posted on 14/8/17
comment by LukaCorluka (U1220)
posted 24 minutes ago
Very positive start to the season from Spurs, Greaves
I thought it was an enjoyable game from the kick off, high intensity from both sides. The fluidity of our play pleased me most. One way to improve on previous seasons was to hit the ground running, and we did that. It's just a pity Kane couldn't get a goal, he had his chances and later on in the year he'll be slotting those away. The scoreline could have been higher in our favor.
I also think Sissoko is getting a bit too much stick for yesterday. He did nothing wrong and put in good effort under hostile circumstances. I don't expect anything special from him but if he can come in and do a job in several positions throughout the season, it represents some sort of benefit to our squad
And a special mention to Eriksen who was a joy to watch throughoutSeems to have stepped up a level this year
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True did'nt think he did anything wrong he did play Kane in , in one passage of play and if Kane returned the ball his way because he continued his run he could have had an easy chance to score.
posted on 14/8/17
comment by GeniusGreaves Optimist Supreme (U1302)
posted 53 minutes ago
Kane's tackle was lucky to not get a red and seriously reckless. That being said I can understand why it was a yellow as it was from the side and got the ball, the trailing leg is what made it such a bad tackle. He injured a bloke ffs, that shouldn't be ok.
Nobody is saying it is okay to injure another player. And it certainly is not okay to go out deliberately to hurt another player either.
The reason Kane did not get sent off was down to intent, he went for the ball and unfortunately hurt Lejeune in the process. His intention was to get the ball, which he did.
Kane did not intend to injure Lejeune, however Shelvey did intend to either hurt or get retaliation from Dele.
Standing on an ankle like that could in other cases result in a broken ankle!
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I never said anyone did say it is ok to injure a player, I am just saying it isn't ok.
Intent also is irrelevant and has nothing to do with football. Cahill didn't intend to injure his man on Saturday, Shawcross didn't intend to break Ramsey's leg, but clusmy stupid challenges can still be red cards and reckless.
He had two feet of the ground, and scissored the opponents leg which is very dangerous.
It wasn't malicious as Kane has proven himself like he isn't that type of player. Yet it doesn't mean it wasn't a dangerous challenge and a red.
posted on 14/8/17
Maybe I have been too harsh on Sissoko, just think returning to St James he would have turned in a stellar performance. Still think he slows us down though and that is what was our biggest problem in the first have, the pedestrian build up play
Edinspur, having played and refereed at a good level, there is no way Kane's tackle was a dangerous one.
It is very difficult to go into a sliding tackle without both feet being off the ground for some part of it.
Kane did not tackle two footed, it was a good lead with his left leg which connected with the ball and it was Kane's leading leg which caught Lejeune's leg and trapped it with Kane's trailing leg.
The most I would have given would have been a free kick and possibly a but if the tackle could be deemed anything it would be reckless and not dangerous.
posted on 14/8/17
Referee all you want, if you can't say a bad word about the club then your comment will be biased.
https://theworldgame.sbs.com.au/sites/sbs.com.au.theworldgame/files/styles/full/public/gettyimages-830997696.jpg?itok=oKDNdQkB&mtime=1502667639
Looks pretty two footed to me and not naturally.
'Not dangerous'
http://sport.news.tennisworldusa.org/live/florian-lejeune-on-crutches-and-wearing-protective-cast-after-coming-off-injured-on-newcastle-debut-in-defeat-to-tottenham
You can be reckless, not show intent but still have a dangerous tackle.