Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Southampton

Wow! Heating must be really cheap oop north!

 

Back in the day a friend of ours had a house mate called Joanne Whalley who was a jobbing actress/ model , just on the verge of going for a part in a TV play called " The Singing Detective " we used to visit the house in Salford and we heard the next road was put up for sale at £1.00 , every house had been stripped but at the time we were living in a one bed flat that we had paid £18,750 , mortgage payments of £365 a month ,
We tried to persuade her to invest with us as the money for the part was decent but she declined, what happened to her ? Heard she married Batman but we never got an invite after all the times we treated her to a slap up meal in the local Italian

 

About to begin the 3 hour train journey back to Devon.

Long day but worth it.

First 15 was slow but from about 20 through til 80 we should’ve hit them for about 6 or 7, complete dominance in that period.

Sess had one of his best games, played really well, need more of that.
Emerson was Jekyll and Hyde, awful first half great second.
Back three decent, midfield two decent.
Kane involved in lots of play but felt like he was missing a spark, Son similar.
Kulu fantastic though, what a signing, what a player.

 

Kulu is special no doubt of that. The ball sticks to his feet and his passes are decisive and open up chances a surprising amount of the time. He's one of those players who quickens the pulse as soon as he has the ball and sometimes that is just for one second as he opens up the defence in front of him with a pass into a space that he creates with his movement.

 

Safe journey, I'm off to Bude Monday to see my bro, where are you based now

 

A (very) little town called Sidmouth. Huge contrast to Edmonton to say the least!

 

Know it well , I've cycled up that gut busting hill a few times

 

Yeah she married Kilmer, thought she would make it big in Hollywood. Thought she was good in Willow (think that's where she met him).

 

I remember an episode of Moviewatch (that, in retrospect, cringy film show with a pre-fame Johnny Vaughan) where she managed to be in every film reviewed that week

 

Alright, a bunch of 0-0 draws tomorrow and we're 1/38th of the way home...

 

I feel Spurs under Conte are going to cut out those insipid, lethargic performances where you lose 0-1 at home to a bottom six team.
If 3rd is what you’re aiming for, I’d be pretty confident of achieving it.

 

Lovely little town Sidmouth, we were frequent visitors in my youth (the 70s), as it had particular memories for my mother who was evacuated to Sidmouth from Peckham during the blitz. I don't expect it has changed that much!

 

Passmap time

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You can see it's early in the season simply looking at Bentancur & Hojbjerg, who are both sitting deeper than they were in our last half dozen fixtures of last season and, as a result, Harry Kane is practically a midfielder to bridge the gap between them and the front line - the difference being that we have Bentancur doing Bentancur things with the ball and Deki making the right flank his bitch, unlike the passmaps under Nunoball where the midfield was in that position while our front three were basically being paid to take up jogging

It certainly has to be said the interplay with Deki and Emerson is also a useful outlet on the right, as they're finding each other regularly and both are putting pressure on Southampton's left flank as a result, which is even more plain if you look at Southampton's map as you can see the Djenepo is having to play deeper than KWP

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What also sticks out is our passing combinations have been changed up, most obviously Davies finding Kane regularly which wasn't the case last season as he was sending the ball to either Reguillon/Sess or Bentancur, but you can also see the difference in how our pivot play: Hojbjerg is receiving the ball from the back three and moving it around, Bentancur is the relief ball for further up the pitch hence Deki and Hojbjerg are regularly playing the ball to him to recycle - and what's interesting is Romero actually demonstrates this, as when he plays the ball to midfield Hojbjerg is the target, yet when we're rebuilding Bentancur is playing the ball back to Cuti to send to Emerson, Dier or Hojbjerg

 

I recommend the Brendan Arms (by Bude Canal)

 

I still don't get why Hojbjerg is rated so highly....did no-one see how he was way too far off his man for the goal and effectively gave Ward-Prowse a free shot?
By my count he gives away a goal about once a month and doesn't do enough to compensate for that.

 

I think he gets an easier ride because he was relatively cheap at £15m, had he cost what Lo Celso or Ndombele cost he would be getting a lot of stick imo.

 

I’m still grappling with Højbjerg. By the eye test he’s decent if nothing else but his stats from last season show him to contribute more than I gave him credit for in an attacking sense. I think other midfielders have a job to do to displace him, especially as Bissouma is more of a 6 than an 8. Skipp may be the better technician imo but Højbjerg has a great understanding with Bentancur so that’s in his favour.

Nice problems to have though.

 

He’s definitely got flaws but he gives his all every game and fans will notice that. Especially when you’ve got the likes of Ndombele who is blessed with unbelievable talent but an awful attitude

Fwiw I think he will find game time harder to come by as the season goes on and Skipp comes back from injury and Bissouma gets used to Conte’s system