Match Thread - Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City - PL | Page 18 | Vital Football

Match Thread - Tottenham Hotspur vs Manchester City - PL

Result?

  • Win

    Votes: 10 71.4%

  • Draw

    Votes: 3 21.4%

  • Lose

    Votes: 1 7.1%
  • Total voters
    14
  • Poll closed .
Of its kind it was a stunning performance. I really didn't think we could hold out for 90 minutes giving City that amount of possession.

The team looked like they had been preparing for this match for weeks rather than the day or two they actually had. The focus and discipline for 90 minutes was excellent.

Every player played their part. There were no weak links. And every player played for the collective this time not as individuals, as a few have been wont to do in the past.

There looks to be a genuine belief in Jose's system and the players look happy - much as they did in Poch's second and third year. Kane looks re-invigorated. Maybe it's his swansong or he genuinely believes he can win things at Spurs? He looked disinterested at the end of Poch's reign and at times under Jose last season. But he definitely has his mojo back.

Toby's injury is gutting. He was forming a great partnership with Dier and I think successful teams need a stable CB partnership.

I was disappointed for Ndombele. He showed moments of true class and ran himself into the ground. There was nothing wrong with his fitness when he was hooked, so it can only have been tactical. But he ignored Jose when he patted him as he walked off.
 
Timbo1882 said:
How good do we feel, chaps? I loved every minute of it. City were definitely on their A game but we looked like we were in no trouble defensively. When have we ever been able to say that? Harry the only world class player on display. Dean the cheat has stopped being so blatant but he subtly tried to make us lose. He saw Kane fouled six times in the first half and did nothing to protect him. We were lucky that H was bullet proof tonight. How good were our back four? Toby was immense but they were all heroes. Aurier made only one missed pass, he looked immense.
In the third minute Bergy fired a header near H and he brought it down despite its height and pace whilst under immense pressure (being pushed down on). He then did a dummy movement and then fired an inch perfect pass into Reguilion. It was Messi level skill.
The excrescent bias of all commentators continues. Neville disagrees when Dean blows up for De Bruyne's clear arm in the back on Reggie. Neville says that is never a foul. It is replayed twice and he chooses to say not one word of correction. Toby does the best tackle this season and Neville salivates that this could be a penalty. On review it shows the skill of Toby's tackle. Neville can only say "He'll be ok". Like Toby got himself off of a charge rather than having made the best tackle all season. 21st minute Aurier sees off a corner whilst being assaulted in the back by Torres. Neville says a lucky escape for Aurier
as he jumped into Torres".
25th minute both commentators ignored the clear penalty we should have had a clear assault in the back of Bergy.
32nd minute a nasty stamp on Harry's ankle by Bernardo Silva - red card offence. Not for cheat Deano.
33rd minute commentator says that there has been a foul by Regie for "going in a little too zealously". It was obvious that Reg had been pushed off the ball and he was as a result prone whereas the man city thug was still on his feet. Deano even saw what had happened and despite the free kick going to us, Mr commentator did not see fit to correct his mistake.
Deano was getting desperate towards the end and kept producing free kicks for them near our box e.g Harry being booked for a great tackle. It is so sweet to send Deano and the sky commentators home with their gall sticking in their throats. Our best performance in years.
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I watched the game with the sound turned off so missed all that excitement and while I think City committed a huge number of fouls Dean actually called most of them right and was great on the disallowed goal, so I disagree that he showed bias.
 
I'm sure Tanguy was not happy with being pulled, but we have another game on Thursday and GLC wrapped it up for us. GLC offers so much when he comes on, Tanguy still looks a little lost defensively. There are times he appears to be wandering around aimlessly, but he is sheer class on the ball.
I feel I need to give Sissoko a shout out as he was outstanding against citeh, he even played some nice little triangles on the right to maintain possession.
 
Critical_Spur said:
I'd give credit to Jose AND his coaches (that obviously includes Ledley) for stabilising our defence with the personnel that he has settled with. It was clear Sanchez was the weak link due to lacking confidence and Aurier is too risky. So, had Doc been fit (a Jose signing) I think his favoured back 4 are Doc, Toby, Dier and Reg whilst Aurier and Davies are great backups. Sanchez either ups his game or may need to seek pastures new.

The team today IMO will be the core moving forward as others (Bale, Lamela, Lo, Rodon, etc) get up to speed. Berg needs to get his fitness improved. He and ND are 60 mins men. Thankfully we have depth!
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Agree except for Doherty...even with his lapses I prefer Aurier simply because he has more pace and aggression....Doherty seems slow and wimpy to me on the evidence so far.
 
Topspur1 said:
I'm sure Tanguy was not happy with being pulled, but we have another game on Thursday and GLC wrapped it up for us. GLC offers so much when he comes on, Tanguy still looks a little lost defensively. There are times he appears to be wandering around aimlessly, but he is sheer class on the ball.
I feel I need to give Sissoko a shout out as he was outstanding against citeh, he even played some nice little triangles on the right to maintain possession.
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I'd be very surprised if Ndombele played any part on Thursday. And whilst his defending has been half-hearted generally, last night I thought it was very focused and he understood his role clearly. It was a very committed and disciplined performance from him interspersed with moments of brilliance.
 
So,So annoying that the ref/var deemed Dier handballed v Newcastle and so so pissed that West Sham scored a wonder goal equalizer both events in the last minutes!!!! after we were 3-0 up else we would be on 24 points....Everton I concede we deserved to lose that....am i greedy....YES YES YES
 
We are building some momentum and have the PL top scorer in Son, the PL top assister in Kane, we are top of the league, have the joint best GD and possibly the best manager. There will be a one in the year as the season ends. The players seem to have caught the scent of the title and are responding with total performances.
I'm not getting carried away but it feels good.
I do question if we showed too much respect to City by letting them have so much ball. If we had a more attacking MF we possibly could have scored more and been more comfortable. I noticed in the first half we lumped the ball up the pitch to clear it from deep and gave away possession only to see another wave of attack.
 
I'm hoping we can eventually build a set of players that can genuinely go toe to toe with the real big boys. This team clearly can't, but we can beat them through tactics and heart. You couldn't ask for more right now.

The only place Jose slightly let himself down yesterday was when he was asked about Toby by Alisdair Gold and said "we only have 3 centre halves for the Premier League". He shouldn't be demotivating players like Sanchez by saying such things publicly. It was subtle, but I'm sure a few of us noticed it.

That aside, I think Jose's tactics were spot on. He deserves massive credit for what he's changed in one year. His utilisation of Kane just shows that there isn't many coaches out there who has his tactical ability.

When you set a new precedent on the pitch, you have to do it every game. If we can get that fired up for the next few fixtures, we'll be just fine.
 
Harry-Kari said:
Agree except for Doherty...even with his lapses I prefer Aurier simply because he has more pace and aggression....Doherty seems slow and wimpy to me on the evidence so far.
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In general I am with you. Was including Doherty for the simple fact that it was a Jose signing. As for his 'wimpy' demeanour, I never paid much attention to him when he was at Wolves, so may be that's his natural pose. I agree though that for a defender, that is not a good trait.

Hopefully Aurier can raise his game after that showing, but I did notice, he didn't make many (hardly any) forward runs and got stuck in purely defending.
 
Nick Real Deal said:
We are building some momentum and have the PL top scorer in Son, the PL top assister in Kane, we are top of the league, have the joint best GD and possibly the best manager. There will be a one in the year as the season ends. The players seem to have caught the scent of the title and are responding with total performances.
I'm not getting carried away but it feels good.
I do question if we showed too much respect to City by letting them have so much ball. If we had a more attacking MF we possibly could have scored more and been more comfortable. I noticed in the first half we lumped the ball up the pitch to clear it from deep and gave away possession only to see another wave of attack.
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What you mean is a more attacking MF (with Alli in it) accentuating our problem of giving the ball away. No thanks.
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
I was disappointed for Ndombele. He showed moments of true class and ran himself into the ground. There was nothing wrong with his fitness when he was hooked, so it can only have been tactical. But he ignored Jose when he patted him as he walked off.
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I see things slightly differently.

Firstly, his demeanour has been consistent. He always looks in pain, rarely smiles, but I have no doubts about the talent. I wouldn't rad too much in to his reaction to being subbed.

Secondly, I think the team set up puts a huge demand on him. I watched him closely and being the main creative player (until Kane drops deep), he gets little support. I also noticed whilst Kane drops deep and Sonny on his favoured left side, ND is often the most advanced player, doing his bit for 'pressing'. Considering now he is in tune with what Jose wants from him, unless he has more than a SIssoko alongside him, I don't think he will last 90 mins. I am more concerned about Bergwijn than ND at this stage, the former imo is way short of what the team requires.
 
Critical_Spur said:
I see things slightly differently.

Firstly, his demeanour has been consistent. He always looks in pain, rarely smiles, but I have no doubts about the talent. I wouldn't rad too much in to his reaction to being subbed.

Secondly, I think the team set up puts a huge demand on him. I watched him closely and being the main creative player (until Kane drops deep), he gets little support. I also noticed whilst Kane drops deep and Sonny on his favoured left side, ND is often the most advanced player, doing his bit for 'pressing'. Considering now he is in tune with what Jose wants from him, unless he has more than a SIssoko alongside him, I don't think he will last 90 mins. I am more concerned about Bergwijn than ND at this stage, the former imo is way short of what the team requires.
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Totally agree. He was pooched. But he was phenomenal while he was on, defensively as well.
 
muttley said:
I'm hoping we can eventually build a set of players that can genuinely go toe to toe with the real big boys. This team clearly can't, but we can beat them through tactics and heart. You couldn't ask for more right now.

The only place Jose slightly let himself down yesterday was when he was asked about Toby by Alisdair Gold and said "we only have 3 centre halves for the Premier League". He shouldn't be demotivating players like Sanchez by saying such things publicly. It was subtle, but I'm sure a few of us noticed it.

That aside, I think Jose's tactics were spot on. He deserves massive credit for what he's changed in one year. His utilisation of Kane just shows that there isn't many coaches out there who has his tactical ability.

When you set a new precedent on the pitch, you have to do it every game. If we can get that fired up for the next few fixtures, we'll be just fine.
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Your right of course Muttley but clearly Jose doesn’t trust Sanchez. Reference his remarks about him before the Europa League final (Utd x Ajax) He’s given him a fair crack of the whip, obviously worked with him but ultimately decided that he’s not up to it. He’ll be sold in January or the summer I think.
 
Critical_Spur said:
I see things slightly differently.

Firstly, his demeanour has been consistent. He always looks in pain, rarely smiles, but I have no doubts about the talent. I wouldn't rad too much in to his reaction to being subbed.

Secondly, I think the team set up puts a huge demand on him. I watched him closely and being the main creative player (until Kane drops deep), he gets little support. I also noticed whilst Kane drops deep and Sonny on his favoured left side, ND is often the most advanced player, doing his bit for 'pressing'. Considering now he is in tune with what Jose wants from him, unless he has more than a SIssoko alongside him, I don't think he will last 90 mins. I am more concerned about Bergwijn than ND at this stage, the former imo is way short of what the team requires.
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I didn't see any of the tell tale signs of tiredness yesterday that we've seen previously though. He was still looking strong up until that point. Still, I can hardly argue about the substitution....
 
SheringhamNo10 said:
Your right of course Muttley but clearly Jose doesn’t trust Sanchez. Reference his remarks about him before the Europa League final (Utd x Ajax) He’s given him a fair crack of the whip, obviously worked with him but ultimately decided that he’s not up to it. He’ll be sold in January or the summer I think.
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I'm OK with that actually. We've had a long look at Sanchez, and Jose knows how to construct winning back fours. I think Ex said the other day that the club are working intensely on bringing Sanchez up to the level required.

He always looks a bit awkward to me in some situations. He doesn't relax and let the world slow down and deal with the problem. He panics and gets his body into some weird contortions having not read the flight of the ball or movement of the opposition player. I'm wondering whether that can be coached out of him.

Now would also be a good time for Japhet to show his fitness for selection. These last few EL games are critical for a few players.
 
I honestly don't think he senses danger muttley, if you watch him he reacts rather than anticipate. He's also not as dominant in the air as he should be IMO, as a result we concede far too many goals from set pieces and crosses.
 
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