I commend to you my latest podcast 👇 which covers so much of the thinking behind the selection of this evening’s big Premier League clash against Brighton & Hove Albion. It not only hits the nail on the head, it severs the nail and shatters whatever the nail was beaten into.
Dele Alli is toast, as the following come in; Lloris (C), Doherty, Alderweireld, Dier, Reguilon, Hojbjerg, Sissoko, Ndombele, Lamela, Son, and Kane all come in.
Is Mourinho ruthless? No, he’s a professional.
More, please.
Our best passages of play was superior to their best passages of play. 🌚
Results so far its just been coincidence I think… Home advantage may be important to the odd weird player whos into superstition or similar… But most players are happy to play anywhere…. Obviously the advantage is with the fans. When home you are allocated more than the away.. Its the same for everyone though. With no fans home form has gone out the window for alot of clubs. And it affects all clubs to some extent. Not just us.
Winning ugly is fine by me. No team can be majestic every game. Considering all the players we got in we are doing fine. Only 7 games in and we are 2 points off top. And we have the best goal difference in the league. A wins a win. We got the three points which was all we needed.
He definitely touched the ball first.. Some soft refs would still have called the foul, deeming it reckless and possibly endangering the player… But for me the ref got it right.. He got the ball first and then took out Pierre. It was a reducer, but considering he got the ball first and then took pierre out with his shins there was nothing wrong with it. One of my specialities was perfecting that tackle….. As for our penalty, the ref got that wrong. Kane was backing into him, he gave him a look and knew Lallana would jump, then backed into him. It was dangerous play and a foul by kane, not on him.
😆 He did touch the ball though.. It was the feintest of touches.
Winning ugly is title winning form. Something we have always struggled to do.
Oh, no sir. That would be completely disingenuous of me.
Minutes 20 to 70 were abysmal. To arbitrarily give Spurs players all 6 and 7 across that period absolutely does not account for a period lasting longer than half the match for which several truly played poorly. If they do not grade themselves harshly over their identifiably weak moments, they do not grow.
My ratings obviously would not exactly match theirs, but without integrity, there is no objectivity in a review… theirs, mine, or anyone’s.
Oh, no sir. That would be completely disingenuous of me.
Minutes 20 to 70 were abysmal. To arbitrarily give Spurs players all 6 and 7 across that period absolutely does not account for a period lasting longer than half the match for which several truly played poorly. If they do not grade themselves harshly over their identifiably weak moments, they do not grow.
My ratings obviously would not exactly match theirs, but without integrity, there is no objectivity in a review… theirs, mine, or anyone’s.
On reflection let’s bump him up to what the teams was, at six’s and sevens🌚
I enjoyed the podcast. I could not make some of the same statements over Dele, but I certainly agree that Jose does the best service to the club by putting any sentiment aside and cutting out the parts that just do not work.
Agree. The starting 11 has a very high ceiling.
I thought about that. However, Reguilon truly was unfocused in the back. He should not be on the same rating as Doherty for the match, but in my opinion not a lot higher at all.
It truly was a hard match to assess. Much of it came down to a bit less of direction from Hojbjerg, his toughness taken into account.
Results win titles not performances
A 4 for reggi who assisted the winner is a tad harsh. Speaking of assists, my boy Marcus got another one yesterday (for the winner too🌚
Artie, big yourself bredrin. Good looking out
We’ll top the league by Christmas. “No easy games” yes. All this crap about we should be smashing teams like Brighton is nonsense. All teams in this league have something about them, wouldn’t be in it otherwise. This kinda thinking is what makes little teams beat big teams.
Excellent three points against a team who are very well coached and who make you earn everything. Self belief should grow with hard won victories when you are not at your best.
Brighton put us under some pressure but I didn’t see them create many good chances. We weren’t at our best but still kept them out (Barring a bizarre decision). I’d like to see GLC ahead of Sissoko in this sort of game to give us better ability on the ball.
Let’s face it, there really is no easy game at the moment and any win should be welcomed. Early indications are that it could be a very open league this season. We’re in the mix.
Well thought out review…I missed most of the 1st half but considering the players we have the team still isn’t settled and looks disjointed more often than not…hopefully the longer they are together the more composed we will become..
I passed it on to Tottenham’s Press Office to look in to. I’m loathed to police the internet but if it’s about one of our own then fek ‘em…
That is awful. Complaints about covering the subject is one thing, but to dog Kane’s speech impediment is inexcuseable.
Some ratings from the Brighton match. Kane and Hojbjerg will both seem harsh, but both set their normal bars quite high.
Gareth Bale carries a pitch intelligence with him that I had forgotten. When fully fit, he could weave quite a beautiful fluidity into this squad. Exciting, really.
Agree or disagree as needed.
Lloris – 7. Played well for most of the match, made a couple of very assertive snatches off of his line that quelled pressure. Likely would have preferred to have shortened the angle a bit more on the goal, but his left side fullback and winger left the man too open. Come out very much, and the goal is uncovered for anything that gets through.
Toby – 7. Handled his duties well, sometimes left covering 2 players due to a lack of focus from Doherty. Needs to fix that by communication.
Dier – 6. Handled his duties well, but was caught hanging back in space on the goal due to the absence of Hojbjerg. Should have been more forceful in directing Reguilon, should have taken Son to task.
Doherty – 4. Lack of focus, head was not in it. Effort was there, but little recognition of needed coverage. Does not have the speed and agility of Reguilon, sometimes arrives late with clumsy contact.
Reguilon – 4. All of the effort, but no focus or discipline in defense. He left his man open and unmarked for the goal, and did not do well to directly pressure the ball – which is usually a strength for him.
Hojbjerg – 5. It seems low, but Hojbjerg sets a high bar for himself. He was not as focused for much of this match, and did not direct his teammates into coverage and pressure up on the ball. Stayed on the ground during the goal waiting for a call, leaving the duties of assignment for Dier, who did not do it adequately. Result… equaliser.
Sissoko – 6. Covered his marks well. Did not do as well as usual with pressure on the ball or with linking forward.
Lamela – 7.5 . Man of the Match. Both effort and focus were there. Fierce, nasty intensity that made Brighton want to steer clear. Perhaps should have been back a hair more when the goal was threatened.
Ndombele – 6. Good match, but a bit more coverage of the pitch was needed at times – while at other times covered for others. Slight lack of focus/consistency.
Son – 4. Complete lack of focus. Also caught during the goal standing, watching as he was the same distance from Lamptey as was Reguilon. Suddenly, DING… light bulb. Too late. Completely inconsistent, sometimes with amazing ball pressure, sometimes with none. Burst, stop. Burst, stop. His game deserves a hair lower than a 4, but at times he is so energetic. This was just not his match.
Kane – 5. Less involved. Normally figures out how to impose himself on a match in these cases. Kane did some good things, but like Hojbjerg, his bar is high.
GLC – 5. He brought energy, but still did not put pressure on the ball. Laid off, gave them space. It looked like he was focused harder on properly playing a position that meshed well with Sissoko and Hojbjerg. Until Bale came on, there was a disconnect between the forwards and the midfielders. Heady player.
Bale – 7. Hmm. Did not pressure the ball particularly well, just sort of glided to areas he was needed in an … effortless manner ? Somehow magically melded the pieces between the back and the front. Seriously do not know exactly how he did it, but there is a bit of genius in his game that could bode seriously well for Spurs. GLC looked better after Bale came on, and Spurs were better ON the ball, both with and without possession. Bale also got his goal, hopefully the start of more involvement.
Davies – 7. Hard to rate 11 minutes, but Davies in that time took a very threatening ball out of the air, and blocked threatening lanes at least twice. That is worth a very good grade to have left an imprint on the match in such a short time. Allowed Spurs to close out the match well.
“I do not coach individual players. I coach teams. I instruct and place the players in a way that best will help the team.” — Jose Mourinho from several interviews, most recently from The Playbook on Netflix.
“I do not coach individual players. I coach teams. I instruct and place the players in a way that best will help the team.” — Jose Mourinho from several interviews, most recently from The Playbook on Netflix.
How rank is this $hit, sacked in the morning lets hope.
Classy ESPN, classy…. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=54k4Vz0tuq8
Needs to be better than that though…
Why are we better away than at home then? First home win against a poor team. I agree about the fans etc, although the home advantage is less noticeable I still think it’s there to some degree.
Covid May have played a part, plus Madrid are redeveloping their stadium. Need to make a few savings…
Pleased to be in the mix at the top of the table. Our first home win and it was hard work against a team we should be dominating let’s be honest.
Tonight showed just how important a signing Bale will be, that game was going away from us a bit and he saved us.
Brighton should not have been allowed the space and respect they got, they’re not a good team in context of the league.
Not convinced yet by our home form, and no reason to get carried away with the league position. We have to play better at home, if we’re making hard work of Brighton how are going to do in the bigger crunch home games?
If the home form picks up we might look serious, on this evidence it’s not good enough to mount a title challenge. Not so far anyway…
MOTD Goal of Month shortly
1. Lanzini
2. Antonio
3. Bamford
Apologies it was Toby!
I think VAR on MOTD tonight to decide that one 😜
Yes
I want him&ndom playing together.
At the expense of whom – Sissy??
I’m a massive fan of his. Yes he should. Good run in the team is all he needs
Need Bale restored to full match fitness pretty quickly!
Should Lo Celso be starting most games Tappa?
They’re getting to know each other better man. New team really. We’ll find our groove
I thought it was Doherty!
I’d like to see Lo Celso start the next one, probably with Ndombele next to him too.
Thought Lamela did ok, I was just hoping he’d hit that next level up and stake a claim to always start.
I guess for now Lamela starting and either Bale, Vinny or Moura coming on might work? At least until one of Bale or Vinny bed in and hit consistent form.
Also I might put £50 on Reggy picking up a yellow every game – his slide tackles are, err, ‘agricultural’ I think is the phrase
Late to the show, Bales lovely headed winner camouflaged what was an otherwise disjointed tepid performance lacking any flow and fluidity whatsoever!
Must have got a brown envelop at halftime
Be a man and make the call
Regardless if the Brighton player touched the play he clattered Hojbjerg!
Son let Lamptey go. Now, the full back should be aware but he’d got dragged in. Poor by Son.
For sure.. Back then though he may not have wanted to come to us. Only a year ago he nearly went to China. We couldnt have afforded him. 600k a week. I’m still in shock we got him now. We pay 220k a week and madrid pay the rest? Not a bad deal at all.
3 points scraped again, but we take them and look to more difficult games. The table is compact, 13th place is one win from top 4! VAR might be making a mockery of the game but this is going to be a nail biting season. Imagine 9 teams fighting for the 4th place on the last day of the season. It will obviously spread out, but we can’t hide that things could be better. Ball retention is my big worry. When pressed we are turned over so quickly. Brighton just looked a bit fitter and quicker too or am I imaging it? This Europa League may well be ‘another’ trophy to win (the irony of not winning much for donkey’s years is not lost on me by the way), but I could have done without it. The ref and VAR has had a mare tonight. They should have had a pen, Kane did initiate the contact and Hojbjerg was fouled. VAR should be sorting those 3 decisions out, not making it worse. As new acquisitions go, Reggie looks great. Not sure on Doherty. He has looked poor recently, lacks pace which at full back is asking for trouble and has offered little in attack. Hopefully, a blip because he has to improve and he started brightly. Onwards and upwards. We could be top or 11th next week!
Home advantage has gone without the fans.. It’s one big reason the scouse are struggling I believe…. Players don’t gain advantage or any emotional connection to the grass or pitch.. Its having those few thousand extra fans screaming C O Y S.
If…. Good job we got Bale then…. Anyone can beat anyone in the prem, it happens frequently these days. All the top teams have lost to minnows in recent years.. Their right winger who scored is a beast of a player he will cause teams problems.. Lallana can also still play. Those two were good. As a whole they were well organised as a team, I think Brighton will stay up this year if they can keep playing like that then they will scalp some bigger boys along the way…… A wins a win… Good enough.
I thought we defended better this time, Dier and Toby starting to look a partnership.
I think if he had seen the third angle he wouldn’t have given it,we should have defended it better when the ref played on.
Amazing decision by the ref
Did anyone notice the ref got two side on angles to look at the foul on Hojbjerg and he came away and explained to Kane that the Brighton player had got the smallest of touches on the ball.Then as the game was about to resume a head on angle was shown which appeared the player hadn’t touched the ball at all but this image wasn’t available when the ref was at the monitor.
After the shambles in mid week you will see a lot more of those players involved tonight,the starters deserved to be there based on the first 12 games.
We have a squad of 100 players and there are really only around 4 who are guaranteed starters. The 1st 11 is still taking shape. We closed it out well in the end and at least there was no Aurier or Sanchez to bless us with a 90th minute brain-fart.
They will probably even it up by showing Doherty & his Maguire grip,and the ball hitting Diers arm
Played poor and won. Reg to Bale for the winner. Up to 2nd. Good stuff… For all you sourpuss fans, we are a team in transition, considering there has been so many changes and the lads are still getting to know each other we are flying. Fully in the race in all competitions. Our new boys have hit the ground running really.. And we all know Bale is yet to find top gear. Dark horses.
Thanks,it was perfect,as was Reguilon to Bale on a plate.
Toby
Pressure cooker is right, was great to see them lumping it out of defence and holding it up near the corner flag for the last 10 mins though, not something we’ve been able to do so far this season.
Who made the beautiful pass to Reggi for the assist to Bales goal ?
I hope they discuss the foul that lead to the goal..shocking
2nd. Westbrom next Sunday. Its all good.
He ain’t the messiah H
He changed all the players and we still looked shit.
yep..doesn’t work, the fact we have some great players is giving us a hope but this is stressful and difficult to watch “most” of the time…
Shocking performance generally. Brighton the better side for most of the match. Why do we keep dropping deep. We play two defensive midfielders and Ndombele is left chasing shadows in the middle. This creates so much space for opponents to gain possession and creates huge gaps between our defence and attack.Opponents then flood into those area’s and start to have more possession and grow in confidence whilst we end up on the back foot. Thank goodness for Bale.Docherty needs to drastically up his game. I thought he was an overlapping attacking wing back. We need that width down both flanks.
It’s terribly unconvincing, but the manager made the right decisions and it’s won the game .
Still think the Jose game is too negative. Every time we go ahead you can see the brakes go on. Just keep doing what we do best FFS.
We dont look coached.
We won, and Bale scored. Great. But I don’t like our brand of Clown Football when we lead in the first half.
going 2nd is massive
Bale scoring a winning goal so soon after his return is massive
1st half performance after taking the lead was v poor though, that’s a worry
squad adapting to the Jose pressure cooker
going 2nd is massive
Bale scoring a winning goal so soon after his return is massive
1st half performance after taking the lead was v poor though, that’s a worry
squad adapting to the Jose pressure cooker
I suppose to win two league games when not playing well is a result.
If it weren’t for Bale we could easily have lost this the way the game was going. Holding on with the players we have is slightly embarrassing.
Pleased we’re 2nd but we have to be better at home against the better sides if this title thing is actually going to be a thing. That was our first home win this season against a minnow and we were holding on. Not good enough.
A hard watch 2nd half with a touch of magic…
Got away with one there, growing confidence amongst the best 11 and the 1st choice subs, last 2 league games have been a painful watch but I’ll take that every time if we get the result COYS!
By his neck.
Yay, bloody hard work though. Bale saved us, though should have been 2-0 by rights.
Ref should be suspended.
2nd!!!!!
Points mean praises. W’done boys.
hopefully that will come – Bale’s trickery and close control in the penalty area could yet be the final ingredient
Yesrups?
Clinging on against Brighton at home, not convinced yet… we should be murdering sides like this at home.
Told you. Not watching. Just checked beeb
With these players we should be blowing teams away ffs.
Sitting too deep again, against relegation candidates ffs!! So flipping annoying…
Anything but sit back, we don’t do that.
Nervy.
We’re sitting deep again. Let’s nick the ball on the counter and finish the game.
😁🏆✨
Bale’s best game so far.
You need players that can turn draws into wins and losses into wins, off the bench too. This is the first time we’ve had a player that good to call on off the bench, well as long as I can remember.
Fit-to-wear-the-Jursey
😄😜
‘Backthemanagery’? 😂
😁✨😂
Yesrups.