The English Football Thread

[Vesper 30,260]

omg!

Silva should have scored that!

[Jase 43,479]

 

[Milan 17,961]

Probably the best result for us.

[Vesper 30,260]

1 1

Ft,

at least spuds dropped points

[Vesper 30,260]

spuds

9 points dropped in the last 10 minutes of games

most in the EPL

[Laylabelle 9,539]

Ohhh leaves us 4 from 2nd..until tommrow no doubt when we go stupid

[Jase 43,479]

Spurs had only 1 shot in the second half.

It seems like Mourinho's football has become even worse/more boring than when he was with us?

[Vesper 30,260]

4 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Ohhhb leaves us 4 from 2nd..until tommrow no doubt when we go stupid

IF Villa beat us and Manure

then they are in 2nd (in terms of all teams at the 15 game mark), 1 point off Pool at their 15 game mark

[Vesper 30,260]

4 minutes ago, Jason said:

Spurs had only 1 shot in the second half.

It seems like Mourinho's football has become even worse/more boring than when he was with us?

their last shot on target was the goal

nothing after that (basically the whole game) lolol

[Vesper 30,260]

Arsenal fans in these stream chats are just the worst cunts on the planet

far worse (amazingly) than Manure and the dippers

they are racist, petty, vindictive, delusional in how much one game means

horrible human beings

[Laylabelle 9,539]

3 minutes ago, Vesper said:

IF Villa beat us and Manure

then they are in 2nd (in terms of all teams at the 15 game mark), 1 point off Pool at their 15 game mark

Pretty impressive from them really..they can beat Man U not us haha. And 2 games in hand to get played. Hope they don't do the mid season slide. Though dont think would slide down down down

[Jase 43,479]

Just now, Vesper said:

their last shot on target was the goal

nothing after that (basically the whole game) lolol

Saw that their last shot on target was in the 21st minute and their last shot was in the 59th. 

I mean that is fucked up football. Mourinho is really taking his park the bus approach to the extreme right now. 

[Laylabelle 9,539]

5 minutes ago, Vesper said:

their last shot on target was the goal

nothing after that (basically the whole game) lolol

Theyre as bad as us!! Yay lol. We just have our first shot near the end instead 

[Vesper 30,260]

3 minutes ago, Laylabelle said:

Theyre as bad as us!! Yay lol. We just have our first shot near the end instead 

a full strength Wolves (decimated by injuries atm) is a far better team atm than Arse

my fears of arse better players who had not been playing (for different reasons) came true

Mari, Smith-Rowe, Martinelli, Saka at his better position

just SHAMEFUL that their shit central/defensive MF of fucking dregs Xhaka and Elneny bullied us like bitches

[Vesper 30,260]

Mou live

http://hockeynews.site/events/2020/wolveotspur/

[Vesper 30,260]

10 minutes ago, Jason said:

Saw that their last shot on target was in the 21st minute and their last shot was in the 59th. 

I mean that is fucked up football. Mourinho is really taking his park the bus approach to the extreme right now. 

yes, they corrected it now

they said it was the goal (incorrectly)

[Vesper 30,260]

Mou seething

and going all bitter again, lol

[Vesper 30,260]

that draw is ALL on Mou

makes NO sense to park the bus for most of the game against a banged up opponent

4 key players missing

Willy Boly  
Jonny Otto
Leander Dendoncker 
Raúl Jiménez  

[Vesper 30,260]

8 hours ago, Fulham Broadway said:

Ginger Mourinho

All of which came to mind on reading an interview in The Athletic with Burnley assistant manager Ian Woan about his foreign trips with gaffer Sean Dyche. How impressed was Dyche when they visited the Parthenon in Athens? “We got up there and I’m thinking, ‘This is going to be amazing’,” said Woan. “Literally we were back in the minibus after five minutes.”

And the Grand Canyon? “We got to this incredible place. Sean looked over the rim for two minutes, and said, ‘Alright I’ve seen it, let’s go’. ‘I said to him, ‘You’ve got to be kidding me?’ He just looked at me and said, ‘I’ve seen it, what else have I got to see? I’m just looking at this big hole.’

[Vesper 30,260]

Tottenham fans can only stomach negativity if it brings wins – change is needed

https://theathletic.com/2286978/2020/12/28/tottenham-mourinho-negative/

Throughout the second half at Molineux on Sunday night, that famous bit of Barry Davies commentary kept playing in my head. “And the Italians are out because they will not learn,” Davies said at the 2002 World Cup after Italy’s ultra-defensive approach saw them sit on a 1-0 lead against South Korea and ultimately lose 2-1.

It was a similar scenario for Tottenham against Wolverhampton Wanderers. Ahead through Tanguy Ndombele’s first-minute goal, Spurs tried to protect their lead and, as felt increasingly inevitable in the second half, conceded a late equaliser. It was the identical pattern as against Crystal Palace earlier this month, and followed draws being snatched from the jaws of victory at home to Newcastle and West Ham in the early weeks of the campaign. Throw in Liverpool’s dramatic late winner two weeks ago and Spurs have dropped nine points with goals conceded in the final 10 minutes of games this season, more than any other Premier League team.

It doesn’t appear to be a coincidence. If you sit on narrow leads where the margins between winning and drawing are very fine, this kind of thing will happen.

It will also happen if, as was the case for Spurs at Molineux, you don’t produce a shot on target after the 21st minute, and come up with a total of one effort on goal (an Eric Dier free kick) in the subsequent 69 minutes. Broadening that out, Spurs have managed just 22 second-half shots in their last seven league games.

As with so much of Tottenham’s season, many of their issues seem to stem from the trauma of the 3-3 home collapse against West Ham. After that, Mourinho switched to a more defensive approach — and it was one that led to Spurs conceding just once in their next six Premier League matches. It was an extraordinary turnaround but one that was helped by Tottenham often effectively setting up in a back six with Pierre-Emile Hojbjerg and Moussa Sissoko dropping alongside Dier and Toby Alderweireld. It was a very effective defensive tactic but Spurs have not been the same side going forward since. They scored 15 goals in the four Premier League games prior to and including West Ham, compared to 11 in the subsequent 10. That is a significant drop-off.

In the immediate aftermath of West Ham, fans understood the need to dig in and grind out a few wins — as Tottenham did against Burnley, Brighton and West Brom. And there were no complaints from the vast majority of supporters when the approach led to seven points from the games against Manchester City, Chelsea and Arsenal. There was sympathy from many as well after the unfortunate defeat at Anfield when Spurs were more enterprising than expected.

But was the safety-first approach really necessary at Crystal Palace? Or against a Wolves team that without Raul Jimenez looked desperately short of an attacking threat? Playing reactive, largely unexciting football is generally fine with fans if it brings results. The moment it doesn’t it becomes a problem, and that’s what we’re seeing now.

Of those two matches, Palace was more acceptable given the way Roy Hodgson’s side roused themselves in the second half, roared on by a small but noisy crowd at Selhurst Park. But against Wolves, it felt like a team with Harry Kane, Son Heung-min, Tanguy Ndombele and later, Steven Bergwijn should have backed themselves to do more than sit deep and soak up pressure against the team that started the day 11th after three defeats in their previous four matches.

A key question is the extent to which Spurs played like they did by design or because they were forced to by their opponents. Mourinho claimed the latter against Palace, saying it was not his instructions for the team to sit deep. Against Wolves he appeared to be making a similar point, saying that: “We had control of the game but we had 89 minutes to score more goals and we didn’t. It was not about scoring more goals, it was about not being dangerous or ambitious.” Frustratingly, when asked whether he had instructed the players to sit in and protect the lead, technical issues cut Mourinho off after he said: “Ask the players at half-time what I told (them). I think it was obvious for you when I..”

He pointedly repeated the message in an interview for Spurs TV, adding: “I would like the players to tell you what I told (them) at half-time.”

The implication seemed to be that the players had not carried out his instructions, and that sitting deep trying to protect the lead was not his intention. Mourinho might have pointed to replacing Sergio Reguilon with Bergwijn as evidence of this, while bringing in Davinson Sanchez and Harry Winks was at least an attempt to get Spurs to defend a bit higher and have a better range of passing in midfield.

Whatever the intentions, the way Sunday played out is a big concern. Spurs are either unwilling or unable to push on and kill games at the moment. And they have picked up two points from their last four league games.

But the nature of the season so far means they are only one point off the top four, and six off first-placed Liverpool. Home wins against Fulham and Leeds this week will likely lift them from fifth into the Champions League places.

Looking beyond just the short term, however, it appears that Tottenham need a reverse of the tightening up we saw after West Ham. Doing so was necessary to stiffen up a leaky defence that had gone 10 matches without a clean sheet, and kept just seven in Mourinho’s first 44 matches in charge.

Instigating that kind of turnaround was hugely impressive, but it feels like it’s gone too far the other way. Teams no longer fear Tottenham’s attacking threat, especially when, like on Sunday, their most impressive player Ndombele is taken off after 70 minutes. It meant that when Spurs were finally woken up into trying to score after conceding that 86th-minute equaliser they were doing so without Ndombele and Son, who had also been withdrawn.

Like after West Ham, there’s no shame in accepting a bit of a reboot is needed and altering the team’s approach, even if on this occasion the fear is that doing so will leave Spurs exposed defensively.

After sitting through the inevitability of more dropped points on Sunday night, it has to be a risk worth taking.