Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton

Southampton looked more solid than I expected and we struggled to play through them and really string together any meaningful period of threatening possession for most of the game. I like to watch Redmond, even though his end product is wildly inconsistent, and their Danish #23 is a player I like too.

Still, important to get the win, if disappointing to throw away the clean sheet at the death despite Hugo's best efforts to foil the attempts of his teammates to let Southampton score a goal or two for most of the game. Nice to see Skipp get on at the end too. Back up to third and hopefully we kick on and put the disappointment of the weekend behind us. The defence remains an issue but hopefully if we can get two of Sanchez, Verts and Toby on the pitch any time soon we might see us change that too.

 

Fekking got to get up for work in 3.5 hours, good night all.

 

Your quote by Bill Nicholson says it all, never be satisfied with the last performance.

 

Rose's dive was embarrassing. I really wish he wouldn't do that. I can hardly complain about other teams cheating when he's doing it. I'd certainly have, say, Chilwell in the team ahead of Rose. And yes I realise he doesn't play for us and we're unlikely to get him.

 

That six year contract he signed in October is a real issue...

 

I'm taking credit for Hugo recapturing his form. Ever since I heavily criticised it he's been back to pulling off worldies and cutting out the stupid errors.

Good result, not a great performance but the latter didn't matter tonight, we just needed three points - especially as a couple of rivals dropped points.

Defence were really poor again (although Tripps made a great block). Southampton hit the bar three times and forced Hugo into making two absolute worldies. We can't be letting this happen, Arsenal already punished us and better teams will as well. We've usually been so reliant on having a very strong defence yet they've fallen to pot in the past couple games, luckily for them Saints aren't as good as Arsenal.

Winks was also shocking. The lad just offers us absolutely nothing, he has no USP so to speak other than being home grown. I can do everything he does, passing side to side really isn't difficult.

Great seeing Skippy make his Prem debut, made a great no look pass into Rose that Danny should've done better with.

 

DH you should make a thread about our defence so we can discuss that and it'll get better in a few weeks just like Hugo.

I like Winks a lot but even I have to admit he's been largely poor again the last few weeks, we definitely need a couple of quality reinforcements for the midfield in January both a DM and a more creative player. LB looking shaky too, Davies is solid if unspectacular but Rose looks a shadow of his former self.

 

Despite the fact we haven’t really played well all season, loads of injuries, no new stadium and playing 9 games away, incredibly we have won 11 out of 15 games! In most seasons we would be a lot closer to the top of the table than we are currently.
As I said the other day there are so many games coming up for all teams that most will drop points. It’s gutting that ours was in the NLD but it’s better to win and lose games then 2 draws. Really our only terrible result was Watford away.
Leicester away will be really tough. A win there would be bloody brilliant.

 

We concede lazy goals...need to sort that out...it's not bloody good..we are supposed to be a good defensive outfit

 

Haha might just have to do that, mate.

As a bloke, Winksy is a top, top guy but as a player he's just bang average and that's being kind. Has between 3-5 great games a season but that's it, rest of the time I'm just left there scratching my head thinking "what is the actual point of you?!". It'll be criminal if we don't bring in at least one top CM in the summer, we can't rely on Sissoko for the whole season, he's been excellent but as the Arsenal game showed, he needs a rest every now and then due to all the running he does.

As for LB, I thought Davies began recapturing his form in recent games (Arsenal aside) but Rose is nothing like the player he once was, he's lost about three yards of pace let alone one. If not in January, we'll be smart so ship him out in the summer, would like Chilwell to replace him although he did sign a new long term deal with Leicester recently, so may make it difficult.

EDIT: CM in January, not the summer!

 

Rose was caught out of position several times, waved his arms as if blaming teammates, lost tackles, charged after interceptions he would never make and then dived pathetically. Get rid soonest is definitely the way forward.......

 

Made mine

 

In the summer?

 

Woops! Definitely meant Jan, lol. Will edit that.

 

You're subconscious knows better mate..that's what happened there.

 

Yeah I agree, although CM is more of a concern for me at the moment so if the club is only going to do one bit of business then it has to be CM but I'd definitely be all for getting rid of him in Jan if a replacement can be sort.

Couple years back he was easily the best LB in the country. He wouldn't make the top 10 now, maybe not even top 15.

 

We'll need shooting if we don't strengthen at CM in Jan.

Poch, despite making a number of faults of his own this season, has managed to keep us well in the top four mix coming into December/ January. He needs the backing to ensure we remain there for the rest of the season.

I'll call it now, if we don't get a new CM in January, we won't make top four at the end of the season, it's that crucial in my opinion.

 

Can't see it happening unfortunately....certainly not the calibre we need. It's a ****ing shame!

 

I think it's really important - we still might sneak into the top 4 without but if we can't make one top signing (and literally no others!) in two windows then frankly we deserve everything we get. I would prioritise someone to replace Dembele and push Winks next month rather than a more defensive midfield signing to compensate for us losing big Vic, I think the defence will sort itself out if we can get a run of games with our best CBs together again.

 

Chelsea play City next in the PL and we play Leicester so we have a good chance of putting clear daylight between ourselves and Chelsea. Even Brighton might take points from Chelsea so I think we'll make top 4 along with City, Liverpool and Arsenal.