Torture
The Selection
In terms of Pochettino this was pretty much the side we all expected, with the exception of maybe Davies/Rose. I thought he may go for Rose’s pace to help combat United’s likely counter threat.
The Structure
Again, no surprises here, we started in the 4312/41212 diamond.
When Sissoko was replaced by Lamela, we maintained that format with Lamela going to the tip of the diamond and Alli dropped back to the left side 8 role. Then at half time we changed to a 4231, with Eriksen and Winks as the CM2.
A more subtle alteration of application was that Poch appeared to instruct Davies to be a bit more circumspect about getting forward, and he seemed to stay tucked in nearer to Vertonghen which was prudent, as post match Pogba spoke about how Solskjar had identified these channels – between/behind that gap our pushed on FB’s leave vacant as areas – that can be exploited.
The Game
They’d clearly set up to counter with Martial and Rashford occupying those inside channels and appeared to be playing a matching 4312, and it took us 10-15 minutes to truly settle, and in that early phase both teams had their moments.
The game was a bit to open, both teams showing some defensive vulnerability, with us making that old error of playing the high line and not pressing very well, and Utd looking like they weren’t entirely sure how to reign in some of that Solskjaer bounce and be efficiently pragmatic.
But gradually it was us who got to grips with the game better, and from about 20 minutes onwards we pretty much bossed it, seemed to have their counter covered and managed to play through their midfield, getting into several very good situations that we just couldn’t turn into chances.
To that ends, their goal was a bit of a sucker punch. Yes, it was a very careless ball by Trippier but they were a long way from danger when it happened.
The perfect shit storm of an outstanding pass by Pogba, Rashford showing way more composure than he usually shows, some sluggish defending by a ring rusty Vertonghen and one of those low shots that often seems to dribble past Lloris, combined to kick us firmly in the nuts.
The second half Pochettino switched things around, going 4231, with Eriksen and Winks as the CM2, with the excellent Winks, throughout much of it, holding the midfield together on his own as Eriksen marauded forwards to supplement the attack.
No coincidence for me that we vastly improved without Sissoko on the pitch. We now had “footballers” in all positions interacting. And interact they did.
The fact that we looked no more vulnerable with a midfield two of Eriksen and Winks, as opposed to the three with Sissoko there as well speaks volumes.
Winks was probably the stand out performer today, not just for some of the more incisive football he played in forward areas, but defensively he is clearly learning game by game with regular football, his positioning and tracking was good, and nobody tackled (5) or intercepted (3) more.
The second half was football’s version of water boarding, utter torture. So many times where we thought “this is it”, so many times salvation seemed inevitable, only for that fleeting optimism to be doused in cold water, with us left choking and spluttering in disbelief.
How we didn’t score in this half is anyone’s guess. I don’t think I’ve seen anything quite like it.
We took them apart, playing with real tempo and urgency, played some really good football, and despite them pretty much parking a bus, carved United open so many times, creating absolute guilt edged chances, and although you could be slightly critical of a couple of the finishes (Alli’s and Kane’s when put through right side particularly) generally it was just a case of unbelievable bad luck and decent keeping.
If we’d actually miss hit a couple they might have bobbled in, took a deflection, gone through the keepers legs etc, but we kept hitting them true and finding De Gea in outstanding form, making some great reflex saves.
You cannot criticise the effort, work rate and pure cahones of this team, they never lay down, they threw everything at it, completely and utterly dominated the game, played at a great tempo, carved Utd open many times and hit the target with most of those chances, sometimes the gods of football just give you the finger.
I actually alluded to this a couple of weeks ago after the Bournemouth game, when we seemed to bang in five goals almost by accident. This was the footballing ying to that yang.
You could also say it was payback for the Utd away game when were were abysmal, but somehow came away with a 3-0 win.
ISCO is another talent who has for ever been linked to us but nothing happens!
Spot on.
From what i remember she has been over already but that would have been to the old stadium with no cheese room,,also shows how long its been dragging on for him and us.
His mum seems very much pro-him playing. I think should would let him come to us is if played. I just fear he has attitude issues.
Can’t we take his old dear on a guided tour of the stadium / Cheese Room plus the training ground. That should clinch the deal!
Yeah would take him for sure ,Poch would improve him ,get him fitter etc,Spurs would suit him very much. Sadly his old dear is in charge of his decisions so who knows on that one..
Not sure how I feel about this. Never really liked the cup tie rule anyway, but made sense when there were no windows. Now I think it does need to go.
I am shocked your so upbeat – I am not…however, we didn’t really deserve to lose, but on the same note, they are mid table…we should be spanking them!
Two uncharacteristicaly upbeat blogs in this afternoon.
One showing how the loss yesterday isn’t much to fuss about and the other is loosely titled ‘Poch Is A Massive Coward So it will Be All Right’
Players are no longer cup-tied if they move in January.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/champions-league-cup-tied-rule-2411330
It’s a tough call,what’s more important the Brexit vote or an update on Kane’s injury.
Doucoure should be gettable.However as I’ve said all along I fear nobody will arrive this month.With Son gone for a month or so and our catalogue of injuries we are in dire straits.
We have no striker to speak of,although Llorente was winning headers mostly they were picked up by the opposition and his little lobbed pass to Kane was over cooked.He just hasn’t played enough.
It’s a depressing thought that with Dier almost back to fitness he’s likely to start because of injuries to our midfield.This month will truly show Levy’s commitment to our team.
Lloris’s attempt at saving the goal reminded me of Ian Walker.
Nuff said.
Free I think. we would never have gone for him, I think he is on £150k a week.
Deterring bidders I see Ruben Neves is valued at £100M!!
Nothing ever materialises but PSG Rabbiot is again linked to Spurs?
I dont like him,one of those faces you just want to hit ,our Pammy would be the equivalent to other supporters.
She would be a good leader in a far less turbulent time. She didn’t even come out as remain or leave until she was forced to.
I had high hopes for our Giorghiou kid but he has disappeared!
Actually I was disappointed when we offloaded Lesniak- remember him?
Watford if they were going to sell would sell to the highest bidder i dont think they are anti spurs/levy yet,we need cover as Dembele is going it seems and Wanyama has a worse knee the ledders from what ive heard.
How much did the Spammers pay for 31 yr old Nasri? (kind of astute signing we could have made) plus Anderson in their ranks
I genuinely think she is a nice friendly person but nice people dont always make great leaders. Either you have leadership qualities or you don’t wshen like Sir John Major she aint no leader who should have done the honourable thing and stepped down after the fall out of her General Election narrow victory.
Last time round they wanted £3bn +. It’s probably more now!
Cain Hoy and Mark Guttenberg were once sniffing around but quickly fizzled out!
I am the same – I would be newsnow at least hourly in a window. Now I keep forgetting we are in one. We have no fit central midfield players and still not in the market!!
The issue with May (the biggest for me at least) is she is so scared to not be on the fence that she never has any passion in anything. She is WAY too much a politician to have led us in Brexit. She just wants to be liked by everyone and its resulting in being liked by no-one. She is such a weak leader.
I doubt Watford would sell to us, but his words almost describe a team like us, not top tier, but higher than Watford. I think he would be ball park £50m at this point, but honestly would be worth it.
Unlike Tarzan put it bluntly T May is not one of the great orators of our time!
None of De Gea’s saves yesterday will be included in any montage of PL saves this season, even the full-stretch one from Dele’s soft header. The finishing was simply poor. So too was the referee, who has been a real problem for us ever since it was put about he is a spurs fan.
Its funny, even the most critical of analysts I have read on this are simply chalking this up to a bad day at the office. Personally I though we were not at the races and played a team that was no better than mid table with a 1 or 2 players that were CL quality there to make us pay. Our “finishing” was poor and down DeGea’s throat, and we were naive in the middle until Sissoko went off. That game for me was the last in the line of not enough rotation for our main 11. Skipp should have been given more chances the past few weeks. Now we face possibly the next few fixtures with no striker and an u16 midfield bench.
I think the Bald one has finally cracked me, during past transfer windows I would be checking NewsNow on an hourly basis, this window I have hardly frequented that site, the clear lack of ambition shown by the board is criminal and I for one can not wait until they are gone. We want our club back, either back the club or sell up.
Its not all doom and gloom when you know Ozil is sitting at home with his feet up on £350,000 a week.
Digressing, lest we forget there is a big BREXIT vote looming tomorrow in Parliament!!
“One of Theresa May’s weaknesses as a politician is her inability to inject urgency, newness or passion into a speech. She’s facing the biggest moment of her political career, and her speech in Stoke could scarcely have been less inspiring. It always sounds like more of the same.”
(BBC Tweeter)
[Over and out – back this eve]
Hugo Lloris must not start again let us give a chance to Gazza hee seems better than him lately it was very cheap world class goalie to let that shot pass him so easy Lloris lets me down lately he cost us so many points this season to be honest is rarely to keep a clean sheet this season that says all.
Depending on Levy and price so no then ..we should at least try at this.
DOUCOURE: I AM GOING TO LEAVE
Some strong and infortmative quotes to start the day from Watford midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure, who has been linked with a move to PSG.
Speaking to French TV station Canal Plus: “I think I am going to leave Watford. The club know my ambitions and want to help me get to the next level.
“I’m flattered by the interest of PSG but for the moment there’s nothing concrete. I will focus on my performance for my club.
“I’ve not had contact with PSG and they’ve not contacted Watford. My goal is to play well for Watford and then maybe join a Champions League team.
“The chances of me joining PSG? Probably small as they follow a number of players. I’m not the priority that’s for sure but if there is an opportunity then we will look into it….This winter we’ll study all possibilities on offer. The most important thing for me is to continue to progress and with my performances I’ll succeed in playing for a club in Europe.
“Staying in England is a possibility and the Italian league is becoming more interesting. There are clubs who have returned to show interest in me again. The first criteria for me is that the club plays in the Champions League.”
“We bossed it in the first half”. Clearly I saw a different half then.
“Winks was the stand out player”. Not for me, not by a long chalk and i suspect i’m not alone on this. Winks is not the answer to anything not now at least and i suspect not ever when it comes down to it.
(How we didn’t score is anyone’s guess and you’ve never seen anything quite like it?) We didn’t score because our finishing against a world class keeper was weak or straight at him but generally not good enough and i have seen lots quite like it, there are many many many matches in the anals of history much more deserving of the ‘how did they not score’ moniker than this one. And ‘bad luck’ had nothing to do with it.
We dominated the second half yes and the work rate increased but with respect, to say we completely and utterly dominated ‘the game’ is partisan revisionism. That work rate and effort were not on show for large parts of the first half, (where the game was won and lost), as once again too many of our lot thought it enough just to turn up and let the philosophy do the work without having to engage in anything so tawdry as tangible passion and aspirational urgency. The second half was entirely in reaction to the first, teams that operate like that don’t win stuff at the highest level. Pro-active winning teams tap into their higher abilities early doors and set the agenda rather than react to events and thus largely avoid words like, plucky, unlucky, deserved better and so on.
Sometimes the gods of football just give you the finger – yes they do but i’d argue the finger was for our performance in the first half or the second half at Wolves and we were damn lucky not to get it for last weeks entire performance against Cheatski.
“We bossed it in the first half”. Clearly I saw a different half then.
“Winks was the stand out player”. Not for me, not by a long chalk and i suspect i’m not alone on this. Winks is not the answer to anything not now at least and i suspect not ever when it comes down to it.
(How we didn’t score is anyone’s guess and you’ve never seen anything quite like it?) We didn’t score because our finishing against a world class keeper was weak or straight at him but generally not good enough and i have seen lots quite like it, there are many many many matches in the anals of history much more deserving of the ‘how did they not score’ moniker than this one. And ‘bad luck’ had nothing to do with it.
We dominated the second half yes and the work rate increased but with respect, to say we completely and utterly dominated ‘the game’ is partisan revisionism. That work rate and effort were not on show for large parts of the first half, (where the game was won and lost), as once again too many of our lot thought it enough just to turn up and let the philosophy do the work without having to engage in anything so tawdry as tangible passion and aspirational urgency. The second half was entirely in reaction to the first, teams that operate like that don’t win stuff at the highest level. Pro-active winning teams tap into their higher abilities early doors and set the agenda rather than react to events and thus largely avoid words like, plucky, unlucky, deserved better and so on.
Sometimes the gods of football just give you the finger – yes they do but i’d argue the finger was for our performance in the first half or the second half at Wolves and we were damn lucky not to get it for last weeks entire performance against Cheatski.
It’s a tough call,what’s more important the Brexit vote or an update on Kane’s injury.
Doucoure should be gettable.However as I’ve said all along I fear nobody will arrive this month.With Son gone for a month or so and our catalogue of injuries we are in dire straits.
We have no striker to speak of,although Llorente was winning headers mostly they were picked up by the opposition and his little lobbed pass to Kane was over cooked.He just hasn’t played enough.
It’s a depressing thought that with Dier almost back to fitness he’s likely to start because of injuries to our midfield.This month will truly show Levy’s commitment to our team.
Not sure how I feel about this. Never really liked the cup tie rule anyway, but made sense when there were no windows. Now I think it does need to go.
Lloris’s attempt at saving the goal reminded me of Ian Walker.
Nuff said.
Players are no longer cup-tied if they move in January.
https://www.bristolpost.co.uk/sport/football/football-news/champions-league-cup-tied-rule-2411330
I am shocked your so upbeat – I am not…however, we didn’t really deserve to lose, but on the same note, they are mid table…we should be spanking them!
Two uncharacteristicaly upbeat blogs in this afternoon.
One showing how the loss yesterday isn’t much to fuss about and the other is loosely titled ‘Poch Is A Massive Coward So it will Be All Right’
Spot on.
I had high hopes for our Giorghiou kid but he has disappeared!
Actually I was disappointed when we offloaded Lesniak- remember him?
I am the same – I would be newsnow at least hourly in a window. Now I keep forgetting we are in one. We have no fit central midfield players and still not in the market!!
She would be a good leader in a far less turbulent time. She didn’t even come out as remain or leave until she was forced to.
Last time round they wanted £3bn +. It’s probably more now!
Cain Hoy and Mark Guttenberg were once sniffing around but quickly fizzled out!
I think the Bald one has finally cracked me, during past transfer windows I would be checking NewsNow on an hourly basis, this window I have hardly frequented that site, the clear lack of ambition shown by the board is criminal and I for one can not wait until they are gone. We want our club back, either back the club or sell up.
I genuinely think she is a nice friendly person but nice people dont always make great leaders. Either you have leadership qualities or you don’t wshen like Sir John Major she aint no leader who should have done the honourable thing and stepped down after the fall out of her General Election narrow victory.
The issue with May (the biggest for me at least) is she is so scared to not be on the fence that she never has any passion in anything. She is WAY too much a politician to have led us in Brexit. She just wants to be liked by everyone and its resulting in being liked by no-one. She is such a weak leader.
Unlike Tarzan put it bluntly T May is not one of the great orators of our time!
Digressing, lest we forget there is a big BREXIT vote looming tomorrow in Parliament!!
“One of Theresa May’s weaknesses as a politician is her inability to inject urgency, newness or passion into a speech. She’s facing the biggest moment of her political career, and her speech in Stoke could scarcely have been less inspiring. It always sounds like more of the same.”
(BBC Tweeter)
[Over and out – back this eve]
Its not all doom and gloom when you know Ozil is sitting at home with his feet up on £350,000 a week.
Free I think. we would never have gone for him, I think he is on £150k a week.
ISCO is another talent who has for ever been linked to us but nothing happens!
From what i remember she has been over already but that would have been to the old stadium with no cheese room,,also shows how long its been dragging on for him and us.
His mum seems very much pro-him playing. I think should would let him come to us is if played. I just fear he has attitude issues.
Can’t we take his old dear on a guided tour of the stadium / Cheese Room plus the training ground. That should clinch the deal!
Yeah would take him for sure ,Poch would improve him ,get him fitter etc,Spurs would suit him very much. Sadly his old dear is in charge of his decisions so who knows on that one..
I dont like him,one of those faces you just want to hit ,our Pammy would be the equivalent to other supporters.
Nothing ever materialises but PSG Rabbiot is again linked to Spurs?
Watford if they were going to sell would sell to the highest bidder i dont think they are anti spurs/levy yet,we need cover as Dembele is going it seems and Wanyama has a worse knee the ledders from what ive heard.
Deterring bidders I see Ruben Neves is valued at £100M!!
How much did the Spammers pay for 31 yr old Nasri? (kind of astute signing we could have made) plus Anderson in their ranks
I doubt Watford would sell to us, but his words almost describe a team like us, not top tier, but higher than Watford. I think he would be ball park £50m at this point, but honestly would be worth it.
Depending on Levy and price so no then ..we should at least try at this.
DOUCOURE: I AM GOING TO LEAVE
Some strong and infortmative quotes to start the day from Watford midfielder Abdoulaye Doucoure, who has been linked with a move to PSG.
Speaking to French TV station Canal Plus: “I think I am going to leave Watford. The club know my ambitions and want to help me get to the next level.
“I’m flattered by the interest of PSG but for the moment there’s nothing concrete. I will focus on my performance for my club.
“I’ve not had contact with PSG and they’ve not contacted Watford. My goal is to play well for Watford and then maybe join a Champions League team.
“The chances of me joining PSG? Probably small as they follow a number of players. I’m not the priority that’s for sure but if there is an opportunity then we will look into it….This winter we’ll study all possibilities on offer. The most important thing for me is to continue to progress and with my performances I’ll succeed in playing for a club in Europe.
“Staying in England is a possibility and the Italian league is becoming more interesting. There are clubs who have returned to show interest in me again. The first criteria for me is that the club plays in the Champions League.”
Hugo Lloris must not start again let us give a chance to Gazza hee seems better than him lately it was very cheap world class goalie to let that shot pass him so easy Lloris lets me down lately he cost us so many points this season to be honest is rarely to keep a clean sheet this season that says all.
Its funny, even the most critical of analysts I have read on this are simply chalking this up to a bad day at the office. Personally I though we were not at the races and played a team that was no better than mid table with a 1 or 2 players that were CL quality there to make us pay. Our “finishing” was poor and down DeGea’s throat, and we were naive in the middle until Sissoko went off. That game for me was the last in the line of not enough rotation for our main 11. Skipp should have been given more chances the past few weeks. Now we face possibly the next few fixtures with no striker and an u16 midfield bench.
None of De Gea’s saves yesterday will be included in any montage of PL saves this season, even the full-stretch one from Dele’s soft header. The finishing was simply poor. So too was the referee, who has been a real problem for us ever since it was put about he is a spurs fan.