MATCH THREAD v Wolves 17th Feb 3 pm | Page 16 | Vital Football

MATCH THREAD v Wolves 17th Feb 3 pm

Matic said:
Today's game was lost by player errors - not tactics. Poor marking from a set piece and poor play by Bissouma to lose the ball in a poor position.

We didn't lay much of a glove on Wolves because of slow attacks, disjointed positioning and very compact defending by Wolves.

This is by no means the disaster some are claiming it is, but Ange really needs to tweak to get us back to early season form because our performances have gradually been getting more and more flat.
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Don't you think that there is a connection between tactics and player error on the outcome of games? Really? All players even the best make multiple errors every game but the point of tactics in a team sport is to minimise consequences and maximise opportunities. Angeball gives far too many opportunities to punish errors as players are exposed with little backup. Relying on the speed of VDV and Pedro to make last ditch covering tackles and blocks is suicide. Vic has too often been called upon to make world class saves. The question is whether or not the risks are worth taking in defence to gain attacking advantage and sadly it would appear not, if consistency is required to mount a trophy challenge.
 
This simply isn’t good enough from Ange. Every week I sit in the East Stand open mouth in disbelief at the number of times our opponents have a four v two or three v one situation normally as a result of one simple pass through our midfield. The number of times our opponents attack down one flank with two men completely unmarked at the far post is also baffling. Ange’s refusal to ever change the system is also staggering - “It’s what we do mate” is simply not good enough. We are not playing against St Mirren and St Johnstone followed by tough back to back games against Motherwell and Livingstone, we are plying week in and week out against elite Premier League players. Ange’s inability to adapt makes it so easy for opposition coaches to prepare their team knowing exactly what we are going to do. Playing Davies and Royal as inverted full backs was so dumb. It was never going to work.
When I look at Villa I see a side who are supremely well coached, every player seems to know their job, I struggle to see that at Spurs. I looked at Spurs earlier in the season and I was full of hope. Now it looks as though we don’t know what we are doing anymore.
Let’s be honest, yesterday’s result was a ling time coming. We have been outplayed in large chunks in most of our recent home games. Everton, Bournemouth, Burnley, Brentford and Brighton all came away from the games wondering how they lost. It was generally Vicario heroics that kept us in these games. I know we have had injuries but so have a lot of other teams - Man Utgd, Liverpool, Villa and Brighton have all suffered badly.
The team currently look leggy and bereft of ideas. The season is in danger of completely unraveling unless something changes soon. We have some nightmare fixtures coming up against some top teams not to mention away games in Chelsea and West Ham’s cup finals.
Something needs to change and quickly if we want to achieve anything this season. Let’s be honest, currently fifth in the league and swiftly bundled out of both cup competitions is hardly a great season.
A harsh assessment, I agree but I am only commenting on what I see with my own eyes.
 
HootersHotspur said:
This simply isn’t good enough from Ange. Every week I sit in the East Stand open mouth in disbelief at the number of times our opponents have a four v two or three v one situation normally as a result of one simple pass through our midfield. The number of times our opponents attack down one flank with two men completely unmarked at the far post is also baffling. Ange’s refusal to ever change the system is also staggering - “It’s what we do mate” is simply not good enough. We are not playing against St Mirren and St Johnstone followed by tough back to back games against Motherwell and Livingstone, we are plying week in and week out against elite Premier League players. Ange’s inability to adapt makes it so easy for opposition coaches to prepare their team knowing exactly what we are going to do. Playing Davies and Royal as inverted full backs was so dumb. It was never going to work.
When I look at Villa I see a side who are supremely well coached, every player seems to know their job, I struggle to see that at Spurs. I looked at Spurs earlier in the season and I was full of hope. Now it looks as though we don’t know what we are doing anymore.
Let’s be honest, yesterday’s result was a ling time coming. We have been outplayed in large chunks in most of our recent home games. Everton, Bournemouth, Burnley, Brentford and Brighton all came away from the games wondering how they lost. It was generally Vicario heroics that kept us in these games. I know we have had injuries but so have a lot of other teams - Man Utgd, Liverpool, Villa and Brighton have all suffered badly.
The team currently look leggy and bereft of ideas. The season is in danger of completely unraveling unless something changes soon. We have some nightmare fixtures coming up against some top teams not to mention away games in Chelsea and West Ham’s cup finals.
Something needs to change and quickly if we want to achieve anything this season. Let’s be honest, currently fifth in the league and swiftly bundled out of both cup competitions is hardly a great season.
A harsh assessment, I agree but I am only commenting on what I see with my own eyes.
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That is exactly how I see it, word -fa-word but am unable to put into the written word as concisely as u have done. Well-done Hooters!!!
 
Niall D said:
Well didn't see much of the game, only the highlights really.
For me, we're still a team trying to pull it together after a tough run of injuries and general squad upset.
However as has been said there were and are' tweaks' which could've occurred in this game to perhaps change things up.
And as has been said a few individual errors actually cost us today rather than overall tactics.
I do disagree with some posters analogies here, I think last week we clearly dominated both posession and shots on target.
Today was a different scenario, Wolves were arguably better, maybe edged it, but didn't dominate us, it wasn't a thrashing, could've been a deserved draw in reality.
As I've said many times, there's still work to do, the current squad even now need time to gel again after injuries etc..
If this, was this time next year then yup, not good enough, but I won't put the team down just yet, when we've barely played 3 game together.
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I've yet to see a team dominate us. What i have seen is a fair few do a number on us. It's becoming all too predictable now. Something has to give.
 
I was so pissed off after the game … I didn’t want to hear the reviews or read them on here , and I still haven’t .

Except for Ange’s review ….. and he said that we kept them in the game and that we weren’t good enough YET .

So after that , I felt better .

No excuses , no bollocks , no ranting .

So I go back to my earlier comments , we are seven months into his rebuilding of a team that was a disgrace last season .

We now have a two week break . For some players that will be a blessing , for others it will be just what they didn’t want .

I think Ange is learning a lot as well .
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
Updated total points prediction table.

The projected total is based on the average number of points won per game this season so far multiplied by the number of remaining games.

The table order is determined by those tracking closest to the projected score.


Tottenham's projected points total71
PosterPredicted totalTracking
totalspurs710
muttley70-1
spurs195472-1
cobhspurs69-2
Gary Onedaysoon68-3
steveperryman68-3
lijaboc74-3
SheringhamNo1067-4
Spursex66-5
Geofspurs76-5
Pompey Yid76-5
Greavswasthegreatest76-5
USAFSPURS63-8
TQ2Spurs62-9
vinniecopenhagen80-9
Walthamstow wanderer80-9
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I admitted to having a bad day at the time of making my points prediction but I'm starting to worry now, having spent the whole time at the bottom of the table I'm now starting to climb up it!
 
I'd rather finish 7/8 watching Angeball than 6/7 watching Conte game. BUT if Ange tweaked here and there and really got that every other coach, no..everybody knows how we are playing and how to play against us, we have the players this season to finish 4th. Because IMO there is no doubt we have decent players, so how we are set up has to be a consideration. I'm not after Anges head....I just want him to use it more!
 
Gary Onedaysoon said:
Updated total points prediction table.

The projected total is based on the average number of points won per game this season so far multiplied by the number of remaining games.

The table order is determined by those tracking closest to the projected score.


Tottenham's projected points total71
PosterPredicted totalTracking
totalspurs710
muttley70-1
spurs195472-1
cobhspurs69-2
Gary Onedaysoon68-3
steveperryman68-3
lijaboc74-3
SheringhamNo1067-4
Spursex66-5
Geofspurs76-5
Pompey Yid76-5
Greavswasthegreatest76-5
USAFSPURS63-8
TQ2Spurs62-9
vinniecopenhagen80-9
Walthamstow wanderer80-9
Click to expand...
Relegation form from me and Walt,what do I know. Lol
 
total spurs said:
I'd rather finish 7/8 watching Angeball than 6/7 watching Conte game. BUT if Ange tweaked here and there and really got that every other coach, no..everybody knows how we are playing and how to play against us, we have the players this season to finish 4th. Because IMO there is no doubt we have decent players, so how we are set up has to be a consideration. I'm not after Anges head....I just want him to use it more!
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I get your point, but What is the point of finishing 7/8th?

We have not seen Angeball for weeks.
 
steveperryman said:
I've yet to see a team dominate us. What i have seen is a fair few do a number on us. It's becoming all too predictable now. Something has to give.
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Gary O’Neil did a number on Ange yesterday for sure.

Tactically, if we don’t tweak things we are going to struggle a lot more between now and the end of the season.

So many things from yesterday’s game annoyed me.

Kilman was able to block Romero out (far too easily) on the corner for the 1st goal, leaving Gomes a free jump against Son (who didn’t get off the floor - no surprise there, as Son is hardly renowned for his aerial ability)

Bissouma on the 2nd goal. Jesus… losing the ball in the first place on the edge of their box (annoying but forgivable - it happens) but then after tracking back to make up for his mistake (we still manage to get 5 players back to defend 3 Wolves players) Biss decides to completely switch off and allow Gomes to run into the box unmarked???? The only real danger and he just didn’t react. It’s not as if he couldn’t see the run. School boy stuff.

Ange’s decision to play Davies as our inverted LB (effectively meaning he played the majority of the game as an attacking midfielder) We’d have been better off playing Kulusevski or Lo Celso there if we want him that high and central?

Where has our press gone? Go as a team or don’t go at all! We were so easy to play around!

After the Jose and Conte years, Ange has been a breath of fresh air. I’ve loved watching us this season (no question) I also appreciate that it’s only been a very short time and am more than willing to be patient.

My problem is, this isn’t a Mickey Mouse league. Ange has being the darling of the media this season but there are plenty of quality, tactically astute managers (Gary O Neil is one of them) who will find us out IF we fail to adapt.

Bravery or Naivety?

The bottom line is that we are giving up 4 or 5 quality chances every game. If it wasn’t for Vicario we’d be losing most weeks. Whatever else, that’s not sustainable.
 
HootersHotspur said:
This simply isn’t good enough from Ange. Every week I sit in the East Stand open mouth in disbelief at the number of times our opponents have a four v two or three v one situation normally as a result of one simple pass through our midfield. The number of times our opponents attack down one flank with two men completely unmarked at the far post is also baffling. Ange’s refusal to ever change the system is also staggering - “It’s what we do mate” is simply not good enough. We are not playing against St Mirren and St Johnstone followed by tough back to back games against Motherwell and Livingstone, we are plying week in and week out against elite Premier League players. Ange’s inability to adapt makes it so easy for opposition coaches to prepare their team knowing exactly what we are going to do. Playing Davies and Royal as inverted full backs was so dumb. It was never going to work.
When I look at Villa I see a side who are supremely well coached, every player seems to know their job, I struggle to see that at Spurs. I looked at Spurs earlier in the season and I was full of hope. Now it looks as though we don’t know what we are doing anymore.
Let’s be honest, yesterday’s result was a ling time coming. We have been outplayed in large chunks in most of our recent home games. Everton, Bournemouth, Burnley, Brentford and Brighton all came away from the games wondering how they lost. It was generally Vicario heroics that kept us in these games. I know we have had injuries but so have a lot of other teams - Man Utgd, Liverpool, Villa and Brighton have all suffered badly.
The team currently look leggy and bereft of ideas. The season is in danger of completely unraveling unless something changes soon. We have some nightmare fixtures coming up against some top teams not to mention away games in Chelsea and West Ham’s cup finals.
Something needs to change and quickly if we want to achieve anything this season. Let’s be honest, currently fifth in the league and swiftly bundled out of both cup competitions is hardly a great season.
A harsh assessment, I agree but I am only commenting on what I see with my own eyes.
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I came away simply thinking we have no plan B and opposition coaches have worked out how to stop us and counter and win.

We've discussed it enough here; we play too narrow, we don't/can't get behind a low block'or through it and sadly we have a porous poorly led defence when our starting defensive line up is changed, I love Ange ball, but unless Ange can build a plan B when we lose our normal starters, this will continue to happen.


If I could sit in front of Ange now, I'd be screaming that his tactical approach is less than useless against well-prepared teams when we can't field our 'A' team.

I did warn a while back that when Madders comes back from a lay off he struggles to get in games, and thus yesterday we saw evidence of that again.

We all came away extremely frustrated, if we can see it why can't he? We can't keep relying on late late shows to get us off the hook.
 
HootersHotspur said:
I’m not sure we have ever seen Angeball other than a few minutes here and there in some games. We seem unable to sustain any sort of control in games for more than 20 minutes or so. The drop off from Angeball to our default performances is immense. It is quite worrying really.
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It doesn't worry me that we play ange-ball in phases - if anything I expect it, the opposition if it's worth anything won't just let us play like that non-stop, and physically it's almost an impossible ask, that said, the worse of our performances all happen in the first half - they same as it did under Cunte, and it smacks of under-preparation to me and lack of leadership once again.

So frustrating.
 
Spursex said:
It doesn't worry me that we play ange-ball in phases - if anything I expect it, the opposition if it's worth anything won't just let us play like that non-stop, and physically it's almost an impossible ask, that said, the worse of our performances all happen in the first half - they same as it did under Cunte, and it smacks of under-preparation to me and lack of leadership once again.

So frustrating.
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For me it’s really about the basics.

Every game you play, regardless of opposition, you need to earn the right to play. Start with the basics, lay the foundations and build from there.

Every game is different with different challenges. You can’t play the same way all the time (even Pep adapts occasionally)
 
Spursex said:
It doesn't worry me that we play ange-ball in phases - if anything I expect it, the opposition if it's worth anything won't just let us play like that non-stop, and physically it's almost an impossible ask, that said, the worse of our performances all happen in the first half - they same as it did under Cunte, and it smacks of under-preparation to me and lack of leadership once again.

So frustrating.
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He is more like Conte than most will admit.
Too stubborn to one way, his way is the only way.
 
What i fail to understand is why he insists on trying to blow the bloody doors off when the channels down the wings are wide open. Jamie also highlighted his frustration with this. We play far too narrow. If we ping a couple in we'll still have the opportunity to retrieve it with the high press. This system is infinitely adjustable so why isn't he adjusting it accordingly?
 
What I liked about Angeball in those heady first months was the energy in the press that gained us the lion's share of possession, which in turn gave us a degree of protection of the defence. Even then we relied on Vic, but winning midfield battles gave us chances in transition. Now we are pedestrian, so fewer chances to score and less protection for the counter. Is this down to the inevitable toll of a gruelling season or the counter tactics of astute opponents?
 
Sockspurs said:
He is more like Conte than most will admit.
Too stubborn to one way, his way is the only way.
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Afraid that does seem the case, early in the season when he would adapt/change tactics, I could just about accept that it was because he was trying to imprint a system on the players - what particularly spings to mind is our suicidal approach when we played ourselves into trouble against the chav's.

My complaints about what we did, were probably rightly shouted down. I accepted the views of others.

But now after yet another poor overall display, I'm beginning to think there will be a time limit to accepting performances like this, and I'd rather he avoid even that question by just showing a bit more tactical smarts.
 
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