Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Leeds United

Hopefully the starting of the new month with a win means the curse of the manager of the month award has passed - Ancelotti won it for Sept and then won a single match in Oct, Nuno won in Oct and won 1 in Nov then Jose won Nov and how many did we win Dec? Hope Ole wins it next.

 

Shame about Doherty I thought he was getting better as the game went on and probably just needs game time to be there.

 

Did Hojbjerg get his 5th booking today ? Does that count against Brentford or is he out for the Villa game

 

3rd, I think. 4th in all competitions. Got one in the Europa.

 

Cards AFAIK apply to the competition in which they are received.
So I assume the PL 5 yellow card rule applies for the first half
of the season (which has not passed) .

So he misses the Villa game if he has clocked up 5 PL yellows.

 

Brentford I think.

 

When he got booked the graphic on screen showed 5 , but it was BT ...........

 

Soccerbase and Transfermarkt both have him down as 3 in the Premier League and for the same games, too.
1 in the Europa and a couple for Denmark.

Are you sure it wasn't Phillips that you saw the graphic for, as he got his 5th a few minutes after Hojbjerg got one?
He's banned for their next league game.

 

No its BT they show the players number on the yellow card so it said Winks was 8 and Hojbjerg 5 - Sky show how many yellow cards they have had

 

It's been seventeen years since I was last able to say it, but...

Get ****ed Leeds

 

The time has come to revisit the issue of Eric Dier.

I like the guy but yesterday he was on a par with Doherty. Had the 'usual suspects' of Winks, Sanchez or Davies put in a performance like that, we wouldn't be hearing the end of it for some considerable time...and Winks would spend a month out of the team. He was shocking, giving the ball away for fun and lumbering about in a bad reprise of last season.

However, he's Jose's guy...and given endless opportunities, no matter his performance levels. I'm hoping that Rodon gets a go in the cup matches and if he performs well, he should he given some more game time, even if to give Dier a time to rest and regroup...but it won't happen.

 

You've reminded me of something I meant to say yesterday, for me, Davies was the player of the match, decisive, saved Lloris the 'brainfart' embarrassment on at least one occasion and wasn't afraid to have a crack at goal, albeit a little off target. Top game.

 

Dier has no competition for a CB slot.
Rodon is going to have to do the equivalent of big Kev in the
2015-16 season when Jan was injured (if a similar event occurs) .

 

100% agree. Said that in comment yesterday.

 

Ultimately Jose knows the defence isn’t up to scratch and probably part of the reason why he sets the team up how he does. The club need to get another 2 decent cb as soon as they can afford to. Hopefully that’s this summer because Toby is getting older and Sanchez seems to decline more and more every season as well.

 

The thing that's been annoying me more than anything recently with Dier is his passing.
He makes 3 or 4 totally unpressured crap passes a match that put us into trouble.

 

Pass map time

please log in to view this image

The obvious things which stick out here
* There's a definite immediacy to our passing out from the back, so instead of the usual thick lines between Dier and Alderweireld or the constant passes into Hojbjerg instead the ball's moved out to the FBs where it's then moved on either to Hojbjerg in the middle of Kane/Bergwijn
* The ball's being played in centrally, which has the added benefit of removing the Bermuda triangle that is our right flank
* The mobility of the front three, with Son and Bergwijn cutting inside to allow Davies and Doherty to attack down the wings (which is what our system should be doing anyway) with Kane drifting to the left to drag defenders out of the way and let Son in
* Hojbjerg directing traffic through the centre while also shielding Winks to recycle the ball
* Sadly, nobody resolved to drop the "Ndombele Alvaro" **** as a New Year's resolution

However, what's far more interesting is the Leeds map

please log in to view this image

The reason why it's interesting? Well, it tells two stories

The first story, which sticks out the most, is about their right flanks - and how there's nothing there. Now while part of this can be explained by Dallas and Raphina switching to the left flank in the second half when Harrison and Alioski went off, hence their dots are pushed towards the centre, this leads to the bigger story: we were actually doing a decent job of protecting the flanks than usual, hence Harrison and Alioski were subbed as they weren't getting the success most teams get when attacking our right flanks which is why they switched Dallas and Raphinha to the left flank to try and gain a better foothold there

So while this means teams still see our right flank as a weakness, against Leeds we were better at protecting that area than usual

 

It's not getting any better either. He's our tallest defender (Rodon excepted) and he ain't all that in the air and he's got no pace either.

I'm not screaming for him to be booted out of the club...and having given him a nice, shiny new deal, I doubt that there'd be any takers. However, there needs to be a time where we give Rodon some more time on the pitch. Yes, he'll make mistakes but Dier's doing exactly that and he needs a rest and to get his **** back together.

We have some games coming up where Rodon (and Vinicius..and Winks) should play meaningful minutes. Surely, Mourinho must see this?

 

He's used to getting fouled, going down and getting the decision, due to playing in the midfield and it being an easier decision for the ref.
Now he's in the box and they're less likely to give anything, but he still acts the same way and gets effectively bullied because of it.
Needs to lose a bit of weight and be more tenacious in aerial challenges, in my opinion.

Rodon's problem has been his ineligibility in the cups.
He's cup-tied in the Carabao and wasn't registered in time for the Europa.
Mourinho does need to start using his squad a lot better though, I agree.