Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Chelsea

Lo Celso just looks totally lost. Purposeless. Like he has been given a remit and either doesn't understand it or doesn't agree with it. Just drifts so aimlessly through games.

So does Dele, who was badly at fault for their opener. But a small defence in his favour is that he so obviously doesn't suit this ridiculous 433 system at all and it wastes whatever minimal talent he has left.

Tanguy is so obviously crucial to our chances this season. As he faded so did our entire game, although I have to add Reguilon also ran out of steam very early on. Hojbjerg had a good game but with Dele and Lo Celso either side of him he is trying to do 3 jobs at once which is impossible.

Emerson looks like a better player defensively than Doherty but ponderous and clumsy in possession going forward. Not sure what to make of him.

As others have said, it's going to be a long season and tbh it was always going to be. However, not for the first time this year I feel that a number of our problems are of the manager's making. Both in this ludicrous insistence on playing a system that hasn't worked in 2 years and then in shoe-horning players into it when it simply doesn't suit them.

 

same for me. We’ve barely won anything in my 30+ year supporting Spurs. However, in that time there’s been plenty of entertaining football. But it’s the unwatchable boring football I can’t deal with either.
And in more recent years, the patterns and predictability that frustrate me. Whilst we may only be mere fans, we can often see what’s gonna happen, and time and time again it does. Whether it’s a performance/line up/sub, or transfer activity/lack of.

 

Thought I’d add, Steve Perryman was brilliant with his interview, at the end after Coyte said it was great to speak with him, Steve said “it was a pleasure to be interviewed by you too!” and really emphasised the ‘you’ to Coyte.

It was almost like a sly “**** you for getting rid of him” in my opinion to those above. Good on you, Steve, Coytey’s one of us.

 

He's reffed us 10 times in the league. We've won once.

 

Both played out of position and it showed.
It's hard to blame the manager for this entirely as we simply don't have a balanced squad.

 

I thought we played much better than them the whole of the first half but messed up our two good chances. So much so that they took off one of their three creative players and went full 352. But we then lost our marking at a corner to someone who was good enough to score and then Lo Celso tried a flick that ended up with Kante and my mate Hojbjerg backed off rather than close down and then turned sideways to let the ball through.
At 2-0 down we were never going to win and it wasn't a surprise to concede a third.
Nine points after five games including Man City and Chelsea is probably only one less than expectations.

 

Good first half, awful second half, useless striker and bent ref. Rubbish stuff.

 

Meanwhile, Brighton beat Leicester to quietly move into the top 4.

But we were too clever to go for Potter, weren't we? Far too clever.

 

Potter was THE standout option last summer.

Unfortunately, he already had a job and we were only really interested in unemployed managers. I've nothing against Nuno but equally, I have no faith that he will meaningfully improve the team or the club's standing.

Oh well, on to the next game...

 

Potter would have cost money to acquire, whereas Nuno was free. Vintage Levy.

 

Chelsea fans are quite happy with a manager who picks three centre backs, two defensive wing backs and CMs and just two creative players and Lukaka.
Then goes even more defensive when they get outplayed. I am not sure we can ever compete if we have to play the sort of attacking football that hasn't won the League in 60 years.

 

It's pretty easy to blame the manager when the system he uses is what causes players to be out of position in the first place. 433 is doing this, not an injury crisis on quarantine rules. We lacked Lucas and Bergwijn yet still insisted on playing the bloody formation. Same thing against Palace despite not having the latter and Son.

Even with the selection today, the most sensible approach was probably 4231 with a pivot of Hojbjerg and Lo Celso, Tanguy at 10 behind Kane with Dele and Son either side of him.

We stuck Tanguy in a midfield 3, played Lo Celso as a makeshift inverted right winger, and Dele as a left sided CM.

Which is why i say: a number of our problems are self-inflicted.

 

Potter probably wouldn’t even pick up the phone to us now either. He ain’t stupid, he’ll know a big job will become available sooner or later, whether it be in England or abroad. We’re just gonna have to suffer the B-tech Jose for at least a few more months and then likely hire Gattuso.

 

I don't disagree with that, but it's hard to see a system that would work with the players we've got.
You could risk playing Ndombele or Lo Celso in the middle with Skipp or Hojbjerg.
We've been missing both for most of the season so far, though.

Getting Kane to play as a striker again would be nice, too.
We're not playing on the counter now, so his absence up front matters a lot more.
He's just completely pointless at the moment.

 

This is a bit of a simplistic reading of Tuchel's tactical approach but yes, when Kante isn't on the pitch, he does tend to be more cautious and for obvious reason: the guy is the best in his position in world football, end of.

But what strikes me about Chelsea, apart from the £640m it cost to assemble their matchday squad, is how well drilled they are. Their back 3 are in such harmony that it allows the WBs free licence to do what they want. Alonso especially spends much of the game deep inside the opposition half.

And if you watch Jorginho and Kovakic, you'll see that they never both sit. One sits, the other goes as a late runner to join attacks. This is how Kovakic nearly (should have) scored towards the end. It is also how Kante was able to advance to a shooting position. We rarely do either of that.

So there is setting up a defensive approach and there is setting up a defensive approach with a built-in wherewithal to attack. We don't seem to have clarity in the latter and haven't for over 2 years now.

 

Honest question PS.

Do you enjoy watching the style of football we play?
I ask cos I find us boring and have done so for the best part of 2 years.

 

You don't think that the fact they paid twice as much for their squad explains why they have better players?

 

This is the thing which is baffling about Kane at the moment: in a team set up to counter his dropping deep worked, as evidenced by us last season - but teams not set up to counter, namely us this season as well as England, he effectively removes himself from the game which is exacerbated by nobody pushing up into the gap he's dropped out of

If we had one of Dele/Lo Celso/Gil/whoever push up into the gap when Kane drops deep, not only would he have an extra passing option so our play becomes more fluid, but if he plays the ball out wide that means the wide players have somebody to aim to in the middle

Of course this works more easily with us than England, given Southgate prefers a couple of holding midfielders so it's unlikely any of Henderson/Rice/Phillips will push up, so his backup plan is Jack Grealish or Raheem Sterling falling over in a convenient location

 

Then gets caught out and commits a foul, which isn't punished.
Gets away with murder, both on and off the pitch.

 

I enjoyed the first half a lot. I am quite happy to watch a Spurs team dominate Chelsea however we do it. But I hated most of the time under Mourinho. I like us to be taking the game forward not playing on the counter.
One interesting thing about today's game...we had much more creativity on the field than them especially in the second half. But teamwork, a well drilled defence, a set piece goal and a lucky deflection did for us.