Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Wolverhampton Wanderers

2nd half collapses this season can’t be blamed on Jose

who’s sucking the confidence out of them at half times now?

maybe the answer has always been ‘no one but themselves’

 

Fully deserved indeed. Loving this lad, think he’s gonna be a star. Should 100% start on Sunday.

 

Errm...

 

It's worth pointing out that Lo Celso did very well against Chelsea in the Christmas Tree position as he was hassling their players and keeping the ball active

...until Kante came on, they changed their shape, and for some reason we didn't push Harry Kane up top with Son to occupy Kante and their defenders further up the pitch

 

Something about Gollini last night has been picked up on: as soon as extra time finished he rushed over to the touchline and grabbed a tablet, which would imply that either looking at footage of various Wolves players' penalty techniques or that he was checking to see if Ndombele's attempts at defending had already made it into some Youtube cringe compilations

 

Which is why I said he should've gone off instead of Lo Celso.
Ndombele is the new Malbranque at the moment. Runs about for an hour, then totally runs out of steam.

 

I think he also had something written on his water bottle. Saw it at the start of the shootout as the 2 keepers were walking off but didn’t want to mention it at the time and apply the jinx.

 

I wonder if teams are going to start doing this with their penalty takers next?
Show each of them where they're normally hitting them, so they can make an informed choice on whether to break with their usual.

 

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Also useful for players who insist on taking stuttering runs

"Do you see how much of a berk you look right there?"

 

Club's version of the highlights:

Manager's post-match interview:

Gollini post-match interview:

 

Gollini gave his shirt and gloves to fans at pitchside after the final whistle

No, I am not going to make a joke about Aflie Whiteman considering doing likewise before kickoff...

 

Did not watch the game, but that starting XI was worrying
for the fact that so many of the squad who would be
deemed in the strongest PL starting XI were in it.

Nuno already has his PL formations under scrutiny at
this early stage of the season. Looks like squad
management is going the same way.

 

The main thing which worries me is Ndombele keeps trying to clear the ball with backheels, which always fails

he tried it for Dendoncker's header
He tried it for Neves' shot which hit the post

Just get yourself between the ball and the opponent, FFS

 

I’m not too worried about it at this stage, we’ve played our hardest game in the ECL group already so hopefully the future games in that competition will give the chance to rest players. The likes of Kane and GLC have had max 3 weeks with Nuno, given they were late back from the summer for various reasons and have had international breaks etc.

The only way Kane, Tanguy, Gio, Romero etc are going to get match fit and learn Nuno’s way of playing is actually being out there on the pitch. Nuno made what I think is a perfectly valid point in his post-match presser yesterday that there are some players who have had 4x as much time training with him and his team as others. Now there’s any number of reasons why that is, and Nuno of course has to adapt to it, but I think giving players game time is hugely important if we ever want to see them thrive under Nuno.

 

Parkeresque

 

Sonny should tell his mate to grow some , not seen a player take so many dives and fain injury for a long time

 

It's an issue but in fairness, Lo Celso also ran out of steam at roughly the same time. Did so too against Chelsea which largely explains why we were so crap in the second half - our midfield needed zimmer frames to get around.

There's little question that Lo Celso's fitness ceiling is significantly higher than Tanguy's, but there is also little question that at the minute, the latter is contributing significantly more than the former. It makes more sense to play Tanguy into fitness than it does Lo Celso, who will sadly be straight back on the bench as soon as one of Lucas or Bergwijn returns.

The lad looks totally lost in most games.

 

I had to double check I hadn't got my dates wrong and we weren't playing in Europe. Quite pathetic how much rolling around him, Podence, Whoever and that one who sounds like a sushi roll were doing throughout the game.

 

How are you assessing this, given that he was subbed off in both matches and didn't play well?
He wasn't noticeably worse in the short time that he was given in the second half of each game.
I don't think that anyone believes this is true of Ndombele.