Match Day Thread Tottenham Hotspur v Newcastle United

Predictable though. Does Mourinho read them bedtime stories in the dressing room?

 

They did it under Pochettino for a year too, though. There's something wrong with the mentality in the dressing room for a lot of them.

 

Amieron giving Rodon a difficult game but he's hanging on in there but definitely looking rattled

 

Let me explain to you why he was in our half: there's a difference between tracking back, which is where players drop back and look to win the ball, and aimlessly wandering around the pitch waiting for somebody to pass the ball to them. Think of the numerous times the likes of Andros Townsend, Clint Dempsey, Paulinho etc were all seen in our own half and notice how they were never challenging for the ball, and only somebody performing world class mental gymnastics would try and call that "tracking back"

Also, have you noticed that Newcastle are getting the most joy down our left flank, which is where Lucas is being significantly less effective at challenging for the ball than he has in recent weeks? On the other hand, I did notice how a couple of replies back you claimed that Hojbjerg is one "of our better players", yet now you're saying you frequently criticise him. So which is it?

Oh, and could you please tell me who got the assist for our equaliser?

 

Rodon's injured. Only Dier on the bench. Great...

 

Sissoko at RB it is!

 

So Bale was tracking back, thanks for confirming.

He’s one of our better players that was frequently criticised. It’s not rocket science to understand that, is it? Son’s been criticised of late due to his poor form too. Good players can be criticised, as shocking as that may be for you.

Here you go:

 

Our shape is ****ed. We're playing a sort of 4-3-3 with Kane on the right wing, but he's not playing there at all, so everyone's shifting around.
Very weird choice by Mourinho and it's leaving our defence exposed constantly.

 

What the hell are we doing defensively?
Bloody awful stuff ... a competent team would have had 4 or 5 by now

 

Yee gods we need a new defence urgently

 

Today's underlined the issues with our CMs for more seasons that we'd like to admit

Ndombele and Lo Celso* look to pass the ball through the middle
Hojbjerg, Winks and Sissoko (and Dembele before them) look to move the ball out to the flanks
Dier looked to prod it two yards sideways and let Dembele do the rest

Just how many games have we played in the last 2-3 seasons where we haven't had somebody looking to move the ball forwards through the middle, be it due to injury or simply not actually having somebody who does that, and by complete coincidence that coincides with us either looking toothless up front or reliant on a moment from Kane, Son, Eriksen pulling something out of nothing so we score?

 

Yet another stupid free kick given away

 

Anything Chavski can do we can do better.

 

Lo Celso for something pointless, but which didn't even earn us a foul earlier.

 

Ref brought one there , backing into Reggie

 

Been a much more open game than I initially expected, Newcastle probably know about our defensive issues though so I guess it shouldn’t be a surprise.

Happy to be going in with a lead but we need to do better to ensure they don’t get back in this.

 

2-1 HT. That was ****ing terrible. They're awful and we looked on a par with them.
The shape's ****, the formation's bizarre and a lot of individual performances have been ****e.
Mourinho needs to earn his money at half-time and sort it out. We can easily throw this one away.

 

Option B, thanks for asking, no need to keep arguing the point

And here's some quantum, physics for you: Dier is frequently criticised, Doherty is frequently criticised, Sissoko is frequently criticised - and nobody has ever said they are our better players. Good players can be criticised, but if they're frequently being criticised, that undermined the whole calling them "good players" part of the argument, since for example Reguilon isn't frequently criticised

 

In other words, form a human pyramid in goal at the start of the second half, given our irritating habit of conceding goals within the first thirty seconds of the restart against Newcastle

 

The way we're set up, it's no surprise we're more open at the back but it still should be much better. The runners are causing problems because Lo Celso is the only one in front of the defence that's doing the defensive work dilligently but at the back it's just very disorganised. Rodon seems to prefer to drop off whilst Sanchez is often trying to push out and play offside(which is what we should be doing tbf) but it's leaving gaps as Tanganga and Reguillon are following Sanchez. I dunno if it's communication or just that Rodon's newer to the side but it's disorganised and Jose needs to sort that out. That's before we even get to the number of unforced errors in our own half.