20210916 ECL Match Thread - Stade Rennais FC vs Tottenham Hotspur

[RAMBR0-1]

I screwed up with my 24-hour clock and 5 or 6 hour time difference and totally missed the first half!

Second half we didn't show much...definitely nothing to get excited about (and definitely not for Sunday).

That said I saw the Rennes are a decent team with decent players who played according to their script. The same, unfortunately could not be said of us. We can a little joy that we weren't as bad as we were last Saturday...but then again Stade Rennais were not as good as Crystal Palace were. I'll be watching the Liverpool Palace match closely to see just how much we were the makers of our own doom or just how good are Palace. I think I can safely stick my neck out and say the loss was on us, Liverpool won't play around...not at home (and yes, I know it's not apples to apples with Palace playing away not at home as they did with us).

Anyway, this game, based on the one half I saw; we need a lot of work! It's almost as if we poured a seasons worth of blood and guts into our first match of the season and now the tank is empty!

We had a very attacking line-up, but failed to attack accordingly.

I like how N'Do played the quick pass when it was there.

Gil is still settling in, but I didn't see anything to suggest he's going to be a world beater; but it is early days yet.

Another thing I liked; how Tanganga actually headed incoming long balls or high cross-field balls to a teammate and not that inane head tennis you often see from some centre-backs.

Gollini's error could have been caused by seeing the ball late or the little nick it took off of someone on its way in. I did notice he spilled a few shots in the pre-season so maybe a work in progress.

While it's easy to say that we're lacking that Erickson like creative attacking AM (and we are) I think N'Do can do the job or at least be a combination of a Dembele (Moussa) and Chris.

The rest? Well, I only saw one half so I can't give a full assessment but as a team with a few exceptions we're too easily rattled; physicality seems to knock us off our game, we need to suck it up and start laying the leather on our opponents the way we did against City...that Tottenham I liked...I like free-flowing attacking football but not at the cost of results. I'd rather see us scrap and get stuck in and win...we're just not doing that at the moment but I hope it changes soon!

 

[Matic]

I don't think it's fair to start saying Nuno is in over his head. Poch had a similar start when he joined and luckily he wasn't sacked too early.

Nuno needs to be given the same chance. He is totally different to Poch and Mourinho and I hope he finds his way. In his post match interview for Spurs TV he was unexpectedly honest and he sounds like someone who knows the issues but also has a lot of things happening that are out of his control.

The poor bloke must be sick of injury problems. His last season at Wolves was cursed by them too.

 

[stupops]

I don't think it's fair to start saying Nuno is in over his head. Poch had a similar start when he joined and luckily he wasn't sacked too early.

Nuno needs to be given the same chance. He is totally different to Poch and Mourinho and I hope he finds his way. In his post match interview for Spurs TV he was unexpectedly honest and he sounds like someone who knows the issues but also has a lot of things happening that are out of his control.

The poor bloke must be sick of injury problems. His last season at Wolves was cursed by them too.

The trouble is that he has the same culture in the dressing room.
They don't give a fuck.
Players come and take up that mantra.
An occasional gem goes on to win stuff and get lucky.
He's doomed. I will be amazed if he gets a consistent tune out of this lot.
We need Brenda. As much as I hate him.

 

[Spurs1569]

So do you agree Lamela offers more than Gil who is a downgrade currently..

At the moment he is massively.He is very easily dispossessed and as his record shows has very little end product.I do think he needs time because he is being asked to do more defensive work than forward play some parts of the match.

 

[pjones40]

Watching Doherty today makes me wonder what was going through the club's head cancelling Sergs contract. Although a liability sometimes he is better by far than Doherty. I think there is more to come from Emerson. At the moment we could really do with serg even if that is RM as he is better than Doherty at going forward.
I am worried for Sunday because Nuno is desperate and could play players to early like he did tonight with Berg. He is to much like Jose has no faith in the youth and only uses in emergency

 

[xvausch]

Watching Doherty today makes me wonder what was going through the club's head cancelling Sergs contract. Although a liability sometimes he is better by far than Doherty. I think there is more to come from Emerson. At the moment we could really do with serg even if that is RM as he is better than Doherty at going forward.
I am worried for Sunday because Nuno is desperate and could play players to early like he did tonight with Berg. He is to much like Jose has no faith in the youth and only uses in emergency

Oy, for sooooooooooo many reasons, just no.

.

 

[Gary Onedaysoon]

Rennes are surprising me, they play some very attractive football.

They didn't surprise me Smithy.

In this country (and ex-pats!) I think we just continually underestimate foreign opposition. Rennes came 3rd in the French League two years ago and played in the CL last year.

Time and again over the years we've come unstuck in the Europa League against teams we think all we have to do is step on the pitch. It's not just Spurs by the way.

 

[Gary Onedaysoon]

I thought it was a very promising cameo from Scarlett. Good enough to give him a start on Sunday.

I'm assuming Kane came off early because the thinking is Son won't be ready. There's no point discussing whether Kane should start or not because we know he will. I'd play Scarlett up top with him.

Let him make mistakes. Let him learn to play without fear and without repercussions. At least for a season. And next year he may well be ready to lead the line.

Kane may also benefit of having someone playing alongside him. At least when he drops deeper we'll have a presence in the box. Kane's ego may not like it. I know he likes to be the main striker. But we need to look beyond that now.

I honestly think we have nothing to lose.

 

[Gary Onedaysoon]

At the moment he is massively.He is very easily dispossessed and as his record shows has very little end product.I do think he needs time because he is being asked to do more defensive work than forward play some parts of the match.

I wouldn't write him off because of his lack of physicality. We have plenty of players who physically struggle in the PL. Seasoned professionals like Moura and Son still bounce off opponents.

Rather than focus on what he doesn't have, I'd rather we looked at what he does bring to the table. His dribbling skills. His ability to produce the unexpected. His innate football intelligence. We were all drooling over him a couple of weeks ago after the home leg against Pacos. And we have a paucity of those skills at the club right now.

And last night, as much as he struggled, he still produced a couple of moments of sublime skill. Only Ndombele on the pitch offered the same.

As to the physical side of the game, well over time we can beef him up if required. And he'll become hardened to the physical demands of the PL.

I remember when we signed Modric. There were real concerns he would never stand up to the physical demands of the PL, particularly in his first season here. Quite a few big clubs across Europe swerved him (including Arsenal and Wenger apparently) because of this.

The young players - the skilful ones - are part of our future. We need to encourage them and give them the time and experience to develop. If we don't we'll end up with a squad full of risk-averse players.

 

[SmithAndJones]

Entertaining game which I enjoyed. Given that both our goals came from deflections which went against Rennes we were probably fortunate to get a draw. This should however be the toughest game in this group, whereby if this tournament is of any consequence to us, it wasn't a bad result.
There were a number of negatives however concerning Paratici's collection of new foreign signings;
- Romero, holidaying in Croatia when his services were needed. So far his 'contribution' has been to collect his salary, and put his country before Club, before he's even played a game for us.
- Gollini, is he an improvement on Gazzaniga. Not if his gift for Rennes second goal is anything to go by.
- Emerson, spent more time rolling around on the ground, than on his feet. With Aurier previously, and Doherty still a regular passenger, RB has become a bit of a comedy act.
- Gil, simply useless. Occasional flashes of skill, but can't get the basics right.

Only one game I know, but against reasonable opposition our best players on the night, other than Ndombele who had a decent game, were all local signings or home grown, Hojbjerg, Rodon and Skipp. Our signings success record since the CL final has been dreadful, and whilst it may be early to say, it's difficult to see it improving. I fear that we have fallen far enough down the pecking order that the best players and their representatives are not interested in joining Spurs, which combined with the appointment of a DOF who clearly knows nothing about PL football, doesn't bode well for us seeing much progress beyond where we were last season, in the short term.

 

[Real Deal]

Entertaining game which I enjoyed. Given that both our goals came from deflections which went against Rennes we were probably fortunate to get a draw. This should however be the toughest game in this group, whereby if this tournament is of any consequence to us, it wasn't a bad result.
There were a number of negatives however concerning Paratici's collection of new foreign signings;
- Romero, holidaying in Croatia when his services were needed. So far his 'contribution' has been to collect his salary, and put his country before Club, before he's even played a game for us.
- Gollini, is he an improvement on Gazzaniga. Not if his gift for Rennes second goal is anything to go by.
- Emerson, spent more time rolling around on the ground, than on his feet. With Aurier previously, and Doherty still a regular passenger, RB has become a bit of a comedy act.
- Gil, simply useless. Occasional flashes of skill, but can't get the basics right.

Only one game I know, but against reasonable opposition our best players on the night, other than Ndombele who had a decent game, were all local signings or home grown, Hojbjerg, Rodon and Skipp. Our signings success record since the CL final has been dreadful, and whilst it may be early to say, it's difficult to see it improving. I fear that we have fallen far enough down the pecking order that the best players and their representatives are not interested in joining Spurs, which combined with the appointment of a DOF who clearly knows nothing about PL football, doesn't bode well for us seeing much progress beyond where we were last season, in the short term.

The only one I rate is Gil. He has the talent. He will need time. He is only 20.

As for the others, not impressed.

 

[Spursex]

Too many getting carried away here.

Our backline was the issue.

Docherty couldnt get past a sleeping policeman, he was utterly dreadful and I lost count the number of times he could have pushed the ball down the line only to see him stop and pass back or go inside.

He has to go.

Rondon's decision-making is appalling, he and Japhet is not a combination I want to ever see again by choice.

Davies was Davies; unadventurous.

All our issues started with them and their inability to drive forward.

Hopefully, we'll never see that back 4 configuration again, or at least for a very long time.

Could go on about the rest, but pointless, they weren't the critical issues.

And of course, two goals that probably Lloris might have done much better.

 

[RichmondSpur]

Too many getting carried away here.

Our backline was the issue.

Docherty could get past a sleeping policeman, he was utterly dreadful and I lost count the number of times he could have push the ball down the line only to see him stop and pass back or go inside.

He has to go.

Rondon's decision-making is appalling, he and Japhet is not a combination I want to ever see again by choice.

Davies was Davies; unadventurous.

All our issues started with them and their inability to drive forward.

Hopefully, we'll never see that back 4 configuration again, or at least for a very long time.

Could go on about the rest, but pointless, they weren't the critical issues.

And of course, two goals that probably Lloris might have done much better.

I disagree; about the first goal we conceded, Tait took it well and placed it where it needed to go to evade Gollini's outstretched hand. A class finish that Hugo wouldn't have smelt either.

 

[Gary Onedaysoon]

Ndombele's backheel for the first goal was exquisite but the highlight of the evening for me was the give and go with Kane that shredded the Rennes defence. The one where he found space in midfield and played PEH's pass to Kane first time and ran into the penalty area to collect the return. That's how to unlock tight defences.

 

[Spursex]

I disagree; about the first goal we conceded, Tait took it well and placed it where it needed to go to evade Gollini's outstretched hand. A class finish that Hugo wouldn't have smelt either.

He did, but his positioning was far from being what was needed.

 

[Spursex]

Ndombele's backheel for the first goal was exquisite but the highlight of the evening for me was the give and go with Kane that shredded the Rennes defence. The one where he found space in midfield and played PEH's pass to Kane first time and ran into the penalty area to collect the return. That's how to unlock tight defences.

He is class, but he needs help in that midfield from the wingbacks to stretch the opposition, without it he has little room.

 

[Gary Onedaysoon]

We've been talking about the lack of movement from our players but last night I saw numerous runs by Scarlett, Ndombele, Dele (and possibly Kane) off the shoulder of the last defender but the ball never came. We seem happy to play long balls to the overlapping FBs but not into those areas that really hurt defences.

 

[muttley]

Too many getting carried away here.

Our backline was the issue.

Docherty could get past a sleeping policeman, he was utterly dreadful and I lost count the number of times he could have push the ball down the line only to see him stop and pass back or go inside.

He has to go.

Rondon's decision-making is appalling, he and Japhet is not a combination I want to ever see again by choice.

Davies was Davies; unadventurous.

All our issues started with them and their inability to drive forward.

Hopefully, we'll never see that back 4 configuration again, or at least for a very long time.

Could go on about the rest, but pointless, they weren't the critical issues.

And of course, two goals that probably Lloris might have done much better.

Yep, the defence was a mess which is why I singled Japhet out for his performance. He was the calm in the storm. He stood up, rather than dive in on a few occasions. He was strong in the air and looks to be a very valuable squad player this season.

I couldn't be more disappointed with the Doherty signing though. Fabio needs to get him moved on ASAP. The guy is hopeless.

Most worrying is Rodon. He's strong, he's brave but he just doesn't look solid enough. He looks slow and players are getting in behind him. I'm trying to reserve judgment for a while as it is early days, but sense this season he would have benefitted from a loan.

Davies, we all know where we are with him. We are mediocre because we continue with mediocre players. He is the definition of that at the club.

 

[Nick Real Deal]

He did, but his positioning was far from being what was needed.

Exactly, he was too far to his right. Too much to do.

 

[Spesh-Spur]

I disagree; about the first goal we conceded, Tait took it well and placed it where it needed to go to evade Gollini's outstretched hand. A class finish that Hugo wouldn't have smelt either.

Agreed, it was well taken and Gollini saw it late. Don't think Hugo would have done any better for that one, but there were a couple of other flaps that Gollini got away with where Hugo would have been a safer pair of hands.