last night`s FA Cup 4th Round Match with Southampton, Spurs find themselves in the 5th Round of the FA Cup, to go alongside the last 16 of the CL, and moved up to 5th in the Prem. A far cry from the doom and gloom of three months ago.
Now let`s get the negatives out of the way first, and there are quite a few.
Verts is clearly finished, and reckon last night could well have been his last starting appearance with the imminent return of Ben Davies for the Aston Villa game, the left back position has been a nightmare all season, so at long last a proper season left back will be back in place.
The Chuckle Brothers in midfield Dier and Winks are an absolute car crash of a pairing, absolutely not a decent pass in either of them, and the opposition just walked past the pair of them. Neither are any better than squad players, and both need replacing.
The third member of last night`s midfield, our resident sicknote Ndombele, seven months into the season, and our record signing, can barely last 60 minutes, total waste of time, and Spurs were royally conned over this signing, and going forward, unless he can get on the pitch for ninety minutes games 30/35 games a season, is of absolutely no use to the club. Yes, he may have a bit of talent, although I have yet to see a lot of that, because he hardly ever plays. I want players on the pitch, not sitting in the stand.
Sessignon, as well, yes he is only young, but he really doesn`t look very good to me. Playing for Fulham was one thing, playing for a CL club is a completely different level. Another player that will need to up his game if he is to become a regular. He has time on his side though.
Up front, although Spurs scored another three goals last night, never has a player like Kane been so sorely missed. Somehow Spurs have last two months without him, just another two months to get through now. Ridiculous situation really.
OK now for the good points, Jose is a winner, he may be lucky, but he didn`t win all those trophies by playing good football, he negotiated cup rounds with a fair amount of boring pragmatic football, as is happen at Spurs right now. But the name of the game is better to be in than out. Southampton were by far the better team last night, but you don`t get anything for getting dumped out.
Starting to put a winning run together for the first time this season. Six games unbeaten now, four wins, two draws, so at least if the team is not playing champagne football, they are now winning. And the home form seems to be coming back against the so called lesser sides, Spurs are once again winning those sort of games. After dropping points to Newcastle, Sheffield United, Watford this season, West Ham and Everton last season, Spurs since Jose has been at the club have beaten the likes of Burnley, Brighton, Middlesbrough, Norwich and now Southampton, so at least that side of the equation seems to be on the up.
On the injury front WTF were Lo Celso and Lamela last night. Don`t tell me they are injured again? What is with our players, one comes back and another two drop out. Anyway 10 days rest now until the Villa game, and then hopefully both will be back. Steven Bergwijn will also be back, and I thought Gedson Fernandes looked OK when he came on. So a combination of those four players looks a lot more inventive than the turgid starting midfield on show last night.
Summing up not a great performance, but FA Cup is just about getting through, and with a home game to come against Norwich, great chance to reach the QFinals. The supporters that turned up last night are a credit to our club, another 56,000 Is there a more loyal fanbase in the country that turns out in such huge numbers for a club that has won so little over the past 30 years?
COYS
Now that the dust has settled on
posted on 6/2/20
Since we sold Dembele we have no control over games. Winks & Dier are nowhere near good enough & NDombele is starting to look like a total "pup". Without Kane our only style of play seem to be to invite teams on to us & hope to hit them on the break.... Its really dangerous ploy against good teams and leaves us requiring a lot of luck (last 2 games)
The squad is so unbalanced its ridiculous...As always, its the spine of the team that sets you up for success..... GK & CBs past their best, No control/ tempo in the middle of the pitch & an over-reliance on one CF who misses large chunks of every season..... Total Mess
posted on 6/2/20
Thought Winks was ok. The problem is Dier... He's terrible.
Son and Lucas can't pass. We had 2 3on2 situations where neither of them could pass to the man on the overlap.
Lloris looked shaky as fack too.
However, we somehow got the win. Norwich at home next which should be our ticket to the quarters. Get a good tie and avoid the top 6, and we'll be in the semis
posted on 6/2/20
Good article. Dele was missed from the start of the match as well. Him, Stevie B and GLC will hopefully start against Villa. Thought Serge played ok yesterday. As for Ndombele, I would start him on the bench until further notice. The way he gave up Boufal in the first half showed he is clearly not fit enough. I would even play Lamela ahead of him IF he is ever fit enough. Glad Gedson did well when he came on as he will surely get more minutes after the break.
posted on 6/2/20
comment by Ioavirgo (U10470)
posted 26 minutes ago
also nothing sticks with our forwards. they rush, rush to turn, rush to pass. if only they showed more composure in build up play.
we had a few overlaps and failed to make the most of them
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Moura and Son always seem to be trying to control the ball with their backs to the goal. They should be looking to run on to the ball, not the other way around.
posted on 6/2/20
comment by Diamondlights (U20501)
posted 31 minutes ago
In addition to your point about the chuckle brothers...... There's NO POINT playing 2 totally reactionary players in Winks & Dier as it simply left Son & Moura totally isolated for large parts of the game/ chasing long balls with no proper CF to play off. Spurs improved so drastically when Dele & Gedson came on coz they actually play with some desire and initiative. We have seen it over previous weeks with the impetus provided by Lamela & GLC when they played in the middle of the park.
There is no point playing with a DM if the options in that position simply aren't good enough
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I agree, I really don`t see the point of playing either Dier or Winks, neither do what they are supposed to do anyway, and that is shield the defense. Most opposition just walk straight past the pair of them. Totally ineffective. May as well just go all attacking midfielders.
posted on 6/2/20
comment by Doovdé™ (U2996)
posted 6 minutes ago
Thought Winks was ok. The problem is Dier... He's terrible.
Son and Lucas can't pass. We had 2 3on2 situations where neither of them could pass to the man on the overlap.
Lloris looked shaky as fack too.
However, we somehow got the win. Norwich at home next which should be our ticket to the quarters. Get a good tie and avoid the top 6, and we'll be in the semis
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You said it all right there...." Winks is OK".... Really average footballer that always takes the safe option and offers nothing at either end of the pitch.... He's the poster boy for useless passing stats. Dembele never had great stats but he made everyone else in team better with his ability to hold and use the ball allowing others to find space. Winks just passes it for the sake of it....I've never seen a player that I think the opposition fear less
posted on 6/2/20
comment by Diamondlights (U20501)
posted 33 minutes ago
comment by Doovdé™ (U2996)
posted 6 minutes ago
Thought Winks was ok. The problem is Dier... He's terrible.
Son and Lucas can't pass. We had 2 3on2 situations where neither of them could pass to the man on the overlap.
Lloris looked shaky as fack too.
However, we somehow got the win. Norwich at home next which should be our ticket to the quarters. Get a good tie and avoid the top 6, and we'll be in the semis
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You said it all right there...." Winks is OK".... Really average footballer that always takes the safe option and offers nothing at either end of the pitch.... He's the poster boy for useless passing stats. Dembele never had great stats but he made everyone else in team better with his ability to hold and use the ball allowing others to find space. Winks just passes it for the sake of it....I've never seen a player that I think the opposition fear less
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I think one of our supporters said he had made the most passes forward of any DM in Europe. What an absolutely useless stat, if most of them go straight to the opposition.
posted on 6/2/20
We will win something with Jose I’m pretty certain mate. Wether it’s this season who knows, but next season you truly judge him. I agree, he’s getting results where at times we didn’t deserve, but you know what ? I’m enjoying it I’m enjoying being the lucky team for once. How many times have we lost finals, semi finals and messed up when it truly mattered ?
posted on 6/2/20
To be honest 7 or 8 of Southampton’s players would walk into this spurs side. Shows how bad we’ve become. Yes we are winning, so can’t complain, but for how long? We probably need 5 or 6 players in the summer. Levy might deliver 2 if we’re lucky. The signs are not good at spurs.
posted on 7/2/20
comment by Smeg and the club levy destroyed (U6574)
posted 1 day, 2 hours ago
To be honest 7 or 8 of Southampton’s players would walk into this spurs side. Shows how bad we’ve become. Yes we are winning, so can’t complain, but for how long? We probably need 5 or 6 players in the summer. Levy might deliver 2 if we’re lucky. The signs are not good at spurs.
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Gross exaggeration mate.