Spurs (H) - post match

[FoxForceFive]

Your last haircut was pre season?!

As in July/August time? EIGHT MONTHS AGO?!

WTF? If I don't get my haircut for three weeks instead of fortnightly it pisses me off & I get comments from Bex about it!

 

[FoxForceFive]

But regardless of everything I just said, don't get that wig chopped lad. No way

 

[Ukrainian by marriage]

Your last haircut was pre season?!

As in July/August time? EIGHT MONTHS AGO?!

WTF? If I don't get my haircut for three weeks instead of fortnightly it pisses me off & I get comments from Bex about it!

Yeah, it's pretty odd. Grows out and around, Fellaini-like. They used to call me 'white wog' in school ...

 

[Ukrainian by marriage]

But regardless of everything I just said, don't get that wig chopped lad. No way

I wouldn't dare.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Well you're actually down with the kids at least.

Just get a North face coat, under armour trackie & a pair of 110's (all black, obv) & you'll be sorted!

 

[bluebell]

Pouch realizing he might not finish in the top 4.

 

[Ukrainian by marriage]

NB 410s (all black). 🙂

 

[Jack D Rips]

Yep you’d nearly excuse Robbo’s 100 absolutely Shite final ball for 1 like that.

Amazing ball.

Have you seen his assist stats ?

 

[Insignificance]

Yep you’d nearly excuse Robbo’s 100 absolutely Shite final ball for 1 like that.

Amazing ball.

You know that if you add up Evertons three players with most assists they will not top Robbo?

 

[FoxForceFive]

NB 410s (all black). 🙂

Ha. That reminds me. Bex came to me last week & said "Luke has asked for a pair of Nike 110's. I've looked everywhere online & gone in every shop in town that sells trainers & can't find any Nike 110's."

When I stopped laughing I explained why they're called 110's & showed her some. Fuming doesn't come close to her reaction. Heh.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Have you seen his assist stats ?

I said this the other day, but worth repeating.

We ask our full backs to play the wasteful balls. We put in way way more crosses & corners than other sides, so we ask them to play the percentages.

They almost always play the corner into the most dangerous area. That's why so many times it doesn't beat the first man, cos when that first man does miss it, where the ball ends up the place where you are much more likely to score.

The crosses we ask them to play are usually just as easy to predict, but that's ok, cos you're much more likely to score when on the odd occasion it's hit perfectly & their defender isn't good enough to cut it out.

That is why we're all constantly moaning about shite corners, & shite crosses, but meanwhile the stats show we're the best at converting corners in the league & have full backs with amazing assist records.

 

[Mamma Mia]

I said this the other day, but worth repeating.

We ask our full backs to play the wasteful balls. We put in way way more crosses & corners than other sides, so we ask them to play the percentages.

They almost always play the corner into the most dangerous area. That's why so many times it doesn't beat the first man, cos when that first man does miss it, where the ball ends up the place where you are much more likely to score.

The crosses we ask them to play are usually just as easy to predict, but that's ok, cos you're much more likely to score when on the odd occasion it's hit perfectly & their defender isn't good enough to cut it out.

That is why we're all constantly moaning about shite corners, & shite crosses, but meanwhile the stats show we're the best at converting corners in the league & have full backs with amazing assist records.

Or we're a bunch of whiny cunts

 

[FoxForceFive]

Or we're a bunch of whiny cunts

Hahaha. Just as likely to be true.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Oh, one thing I forgot to add, which is backed up by those heat maps & player radar things.

One of the reasons we get the fullbacks to play the riskier balls is because we set up to have our players in the best areas to quickly recover it when it's lost. That's one of the reasons why when you see us playing 'lesser' sides we often lose the ball only to recover it almost immediately.

We quite literally plan to lose the ball time & again knowing we can recover it & try again until we're successful.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

- Kane really impressed me ... Those two passes two set up Spurs' first goal, and what should have been Spurs' second, were fucking class.
- Besides how important the win was for us keeping the pressure on City, the other important factor of Sunday's win was it means Spurs have to keep on winning if they want to be in the CL next year ... That means they'll be coming to beat City all 3 times they face them -

 

[Brizzle]

Yep - 4 days between their QF second leg and the league game. Spurs can't let their foot off the gas at all. If the league was in between I wouldnt be surprised if they had rotated a bit but they'll either be needing to double down on that game having just been knocked out or will return back with a swagger against a withdrawn city side.

 

[Hansern]

- Kane really impressed me ... Those two passes two set up Spurs' first goal, and what should have been Spurs' second, were fucking class.
- Besides how important the win was for us keeping the pressure on City, the other important factor of Sunday's win was it means Spurs have to keep on winning if they want to be in the CL next year ... That means they'll be coming to beat City all 3 times they face them -

The only thing that impress me with Kane is that he hasnt drowned yet in the shower. The open mouth fog horn voiced massive fanny cunt.

 

[Modo]

- Kane really impressed me ... Those two passes two set up Spurs' first goal, and what should have been Spurs' second, were fucking class.
- Besides how important the win was for us keeping the pressure on City, the other important factor of Sunday's win was it means Spurs have to keep on winning if they want to be in the CL next year ... That means they'll be coming to beat City all 3 times they face them -

Kane impressed me as well, especially how he set up both our goals too.
Henderson's pass to Robbo glanced his head which made it land perfectly for Robbo before the cross.

Then his clearance that eventually led to the own goal.

 

[Brizzle]

He's clearly a fantastic #9 but in his head he wants to be a #10. Spurs showed that their team and players are actually set up better with any of the others (Eriksen, Alli, Lamela) playing in the #8/#10 positions and having dynamic attackers. They've looked poor since he came back and I think that is due to how fluid they became when he was out with an attack of Son, Moura, Alli, Eriksen, Lamela all actually playing close to the top of their ability to make up for his absence.

Obviously I now hope they do pull together three epic games in a row against City.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Kane impressed me as well, especially how he set up both our goals too.
Henderson's pass to Robbo glanced his head which made it land perfectly for Robbo before the cross.

Then his clearance that eventually led to the own goal.

Wasn't that off of Eriksen's head?

 

[Modo]

Wasn't that off of Eriksen's head?

Ah man...

 

[Judge Jules]

Or we're a bunch of whiny cunts

Or both.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Yep - 4 days between their QF second leg and the league game. Spurs can't let their foot off the gas at all. If the league was in between I wouldnt be surprised if they had rotated a bit but they'll either be needing to double down on that game having just been knocked out or will return back with a swagger against a withdrawn city side.

No matter how good citeh are they will be run ragged in three matches by this spurs side. That's the good thing here. That could mean it takes a week or so afterwards to see the knock on effect on their side physically & mentally, so even if spurs don't take points off them it could damage them afterwards.

 

[Judge Jules]

Their bench not so much maybe, but Spurs' first team is good enough to match City IF they're firing on all cylinders.

 

[FoxForceFive]

Their bench not so much maybe, but Spurs' first team is good enough to match City IF they're firing on all cylinders.

Agreed, but my point is that even if they can't/don't, then they will make them run their arses off for three games (if we're really really lucky extra time in the CL too) in a week, so even if they don't take points off them as long as we're keeping up our end I wouldn't panic, cos that exertion will tell at some point.

 

[Judge Jules]

Absolutely, and perhaps I was too sparing with my words, but I was agreeing with you by saying they are good enough to do so.

 

[Brizzle]

We taught Poch not to play 3 at the back as they get exposed out wide - hopefully they'll be taking that into account against City from the off.

 

[FoxForceFive]

We taught Poch not to play 3 at the back as they get exposed out wide - hopefully they'll be taking that into account against City from the off.

Poch really wants to play 3 at the back against us.

He tried it last year & was caught out, & so this year tried to get his players adjusted to it by playing it against dortmund first.

I can see why, tactically it should make it much harder for us to play our usual game, but his mistake is thinking that two games is enough practice to get it right, for our first goal you could see a couple of errors that we're directly caused not by the system, but players unused to playing in that system & trusted their teammates to do their jobs in it.

That 3 (more like 5 tbf) at the back should mean the have much more cover wide & force us to come inside more often, as we know, we sacrifice our midfield creativity in favour of the full backs providing that telling ball, so it should make us less effective. When your full backs don't trust that the three centre backs are in the right place though, they pull inside too much & it has the opposite effect, cos we have men over in the middle so they feel like they're outnumbered. Had they worked on it enough or played it enough it could really stifle us down the wings & at least force us to change something.

If we come up against that I'd throw Origi in upfront, drop Mane into the centre, & pull Firmino into a more traditional attacking midfielder role to provide the creativity, assuming that Shaq or Keita aren't yet trusted enough to play that role, cos it would stretch them vertically & allow Salah & Origi to pull wide almost behind their lines to create space there (half spaces as Klopp calls it) & drag their full backs out wide continually, possibly dropping gini or Hendo back cos we don't need the play switching side to side & push Fabinho up the pitch into the centre cos he is much better at pushing play vertically.

 

[LeTallecWiz]

Footy 365's 16 conclusions

 

[Insignificance]

Footy 365's 16 conclusions

Good read as a match report, but throwing a lot of numbers into it doesn't give him many conclussions.