closed Spurs 2-0 Chelsea

[Jase 43,479]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

So, so disappointing to concede 2 identical goals created by the same two players. They drew our CB's towards the ball and isolated our two shortest defenders. You just cannot allow a player with the passing ability of Eriksen yards of space at the edge of the box. You must close him down and deny him the cross.

We got absolutely nothing from our attacking players this match but overall it was an even game. We weren't played off the park or didn't have a number out on us. We were well in the game. Got nothing from Pedro or Willian, Hazard couldn't get going, and Diego would receive the ball in positions where he couldn't be dangerous.

Fortunately, I don't think this'll be a demoralizing defeat that will cause us to drop our heads. We didn't play poorly, they just played a bit better. Sadly, though, this result means that the title race is well and truly wide open now. 

I blame it on your optimism, Pizy!

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

1 minute ago, Pizy said:

So, so disappointing to concede 2 identical goals created by the same two players. They drew our CB's towards the ball and isolated our two shortest defenders. You just cannot allow a player with the passing ability of Eriksen yards of space at the edge of the box. You must close him down and deny him the cross.

We got absolutely nothing from our attacking players this match but overall it was an even game. We weren't played off the park or didn't have a number out on us. We were well in the game. Got nothing from Pedro or Willian, Hazard couldn't get going, and Diego would receive the ball in positions where he couldn't be dangerous.

Fortunately, I don't think this'll be a demoralizing defeat that will cause us to drop our heads. We didn't play poorly, they just played a bit better. Sadly, though, this result means that the title race is well and truly wide open now. 

The biggest problem in terms of our attacking play was we lost the midfield battle. When you lose the midfield battle, you struggle to build meaningful attacks. Wanyama and Dembele utterly dominated Kante and Matic. That has to be the most lopsided margin of domination I've ever seen in a big game.

Then Tottenham went 2-0, conceded possession and were happy to play on the counter-attack. We didn't do squat for 90 mins

[Styles 9,790]

14 minutes ago, Jason said:

Mikel in disguise. Slow and ponderous with and without the ball and no words can describe how annoyed I am with him being so one-footed!

He is genuinely awful. Such an overrated, average player who has no purpose. All that height and he never wins a header. Absolutely pointless.

[Laylabelle 9,535]

Not to fussed about the record..helps in a way less pressure..annoying to come close but hey still impressive. Long as this isn't a new run! They were pretty poor and can't say spurs didn't deserve it cause they turned up job done..annoyingly 

[Pizy 18,915]

3 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

The biggest problem in terms of our attacking play was we lost the midfield battle. When you lose the midfield battle, you struggle to build meaningful attacks. Wanyama and Dembele utterly dominated Kante and Matic. That has to be the most lopsided margin of domination I've ever seen in a big game.

Then Tottenham went 2-0, conceded possession and were happy to play on the counter-attack. We didn't do squat for 90 mins

Yep, and honestly, there are maybe only a couple of sides in the league that have the caliber of player needed to win the midfield against us. That's why I'm not too bothered yet. 

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

 

2 minutes ago, Pizy said:

Yep, and honestly, there are maybe only a couple of sides in the league that have the caliber of player needed to win the midfield against us. That's why I'm not too bothered yet. 

I thought Crystal Palace won the midfield battle against us just recently. 

[Jase 43,479]

8 minutes ago, MrExcalibur100 said:

The biggest problem in terms of our attacking play was we lost the midfield battle. When you lose the midfield battle, you struggle to build meaningful attacks. Wanyama and Dembele utterly dominated Kante and Matic. That has to be the most lopsided margin of domination I've ever seen in a big game.

Then Tottenham went 2-0, conceded possession and were happy to play on the counter-attack. We didn't do squat for 90 mins

Conte has to go 3-5-2 in the big games IMO. Getting passed around and outnumbered in midfield and relying only on counters aren't going to help us at all.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

I don't understand why we're going for Bakayoko either. Bakayako next to Kante is going to produce the same results in these sort of games. Every big team plays with a midfield controller except us. 

City - Gundogan

United - Carrick (Notice how they've improved with him)

Arsenal - Xhaka

Tottenham - Dembele

Dortmund - Weigl. Sometimes Tuchel even plays Weigl and Gotze as his midfield two. Madrid - Kroos, Modric. I can go on. 

We have Fabregas on the bench doing what exactly? The mentality of some of our fans need to change too. This myth that if we don't play with two defensive midfielders, (one of them currently playing like shit), we will get destroyed vs good team is a lie. 

At least if Fabregas started today, we could have hurt them more. After the first 30 mins, I already knew we weren't going to win the game. 

[cosmicway 1,333]

We lost the midfield the first 25 minutes and they managed to create one good chance in that time - on shot inches wide.
Then they scored twice totally against the run of play and after the second there was no more football really from either.

[MrExcalibur100 7,124]

7 minutes ago, Jason said:

Conte has to go 3-5-2 in the big games IMO. Getting passed around and outnumbered in midfield and relying only on counters aren't going to help us at all.

Either 3-5-2 or just bloody play Fabregas with Kante. Let me be brutally honest here. Cahill, Alonso, Moses, Matic are 4 first team players that shouldn't be starting for us next season if we want to make any noise in the Champions League. Because they either lack quality, consistency, technique or all 3. 

Costa's lack of technique (ball control) and decision making is a problem as well. I wish Conte will have a word with him and tell him to keep it simple when he's so far away from goal.

Conte also needs to tell Luiz to cut out his silly vertical passes to the opposition keeper. He's not Fabregas and it rarely works if it's not being hit to one of our wing-backs. 

[Antonio8 736]

kante moses azpi never focused on match--

it's a pity,they score in key moments..

but hey, that's football

 

[Barbara 15,149]

Things didn't click today, we didn't play well and it made it look like they played much better than they actually did. They played much better in the first half at the Bridge. Our aerial weakness have been exposed in the last two games.

Now we move on, without the weight of the winning streak over us, losing three points here, but only one compared to second place and I'm confident Conte will work on the things that appeared in the last two games.

It must be said though that some players have been overachieving, and even playing only once a week, they are human beings and could be getting tired. Good thing January is a month we can rest a bit, especially as we are already out of LC and our FA Cup match is a nonfactor that I'm sure will figure more than half of the reserve team, if not nearly everyone.

We must look forward. Some kind of people really bother me when in face of the first bad result they see problems everywhere, complain about everything. There are areas to improve, that's for sure, but that's still the same team that went on the hot streak.

[Pizy 18,915]

Not that he'll panic or anything, but I wonder if Conte will accelerate any moves in the transfer window after seeing some of our weaknesses exposed again. 

I think a dynamic midfielder and Van Dijk especially would take us up a whole level. Van Dijk partnering Luiz would see us have a dominant back line and another threat on set pieces. 

We have the money from the Oscar sale to easily pay what it'll take to sign him.

[Barbara 15,149]

46 minutes ago, Tomo said:

We still have a bit of a soft centre in big games which we need to improve on in next two windows. Alonso has been the ultimate stop gap but going forward we need more quality in that area.

what if... and maybe that makes no sense, so help me,. What if in the future, not now, we move Zouma to defense, Azpili to midfield to play where Moses is playing (he's the one that has been showing the most signs of tiredness and I think he's been overachieving the most). We will have a taller defense, Azpili is much better than Moses defending, but it also means we depend more on our attacking trio. Of course,that would also be a stop gap.

AS I said in Conte thread a few days ago we need replacement for Oscar, backup for our wingbacks and moving Azpili to that position, we also need to replace Cahill in defense. While he hasn't failed recently, we all know he is subpar and we should have better defenders than him.

It doesn't solve the Alonso problem, that I agree, needs improvement (then again I also think Moses needs too), but at least gives you more options and a taller defense. If we take Azpili away from the defense he must play in midfield, there's no way we can remove him completely from the lineup. He's too valuable and useful for that and has given sweat and blood for us in his years here, not to mention his consistency - which is incredible.

[Henrique 9,133]

1 hour ago, Styles said:

I didn't say Spurs have a better squad. I said they have players better suited to playing the 3-4-3 (largely because of the CM and wingback options). Those are very different statements so let's get that right please.

So why they are sitting 7 points behind us in the table? 

[Fulham Broadway 17,315]

Tonight never happened -watching Shawshank Redemption now

[Henrique 9,133]

6 minutes ago, Barbara said:

what if... and maybe that makes no sense, so help me,. What if in the future, not now, we move Zouma to defense, Azpili to midfield to play where Moses is playing (he's the one that has been showing the most signs of tiredness and I think he's been overachieving the most). We will have a taller defense, Azpili is much better than Moses defending, but it also means we depend more on our attacking trio. Of course,that would also be a stop gap.

 

Azpi is better than Moses in every aspect of the game. Days ago, despite playing as a CB, Azpi crossed the ball right in Costa's head, who scored the winner. I dont remember when Moses got a cross right this season.

[Fernando 6,585]

2 minutes ago, Henrique said:

Azpi is better than Moses in every aspect of the game. Days ago, despite playing as a CB, Azpi crossed the ball right in Costa's head, who scored the winner. I dont remember when Moses got a cross right this season.

Good thing with Moses is that if we upgrade we can sell him for a good price now. 

Or he can be a good back up. 

[Barbara 15,149]

5 minutes ago, Henrique said:

Azpi is better than Moses in every aspect of the game. Days ago, despite playing as a CB, Azpi crossed the ball right in Costa's head, who scored the winner. I dont remember when Moses got a cross right this season.

he definitely has the edge on pace, but with Pedro and Hazard in the side - and actually playing each on a different side of the pitch, Moses's pace is definitely overrated. I would rather have Azpili there. The big question is, where does Zouma stand now? We have no idea how he came back from injury after such a long time.

[Henrique 9,133]

Just now, Barbara said:

he definitely has the edge on pace, but with Pedro and Hazard in the side - and actually playing each on a different side of the pitch, Moses's pace is definitely overrated. I would rather have Azpili there. The big question is, where does Zouma stand now? We have no idea how he came back from injury after such a long time.

Zouma is sitting on the bench ahead of Terry, so in training he must be doing good.