mrfahaji

I think a back 5 that includes Van Dijk, Soares & Bertrand could still be effective, since VVD seems to be adept and pushing up into midfield, while the two full backs naturally push on. Our problem in Denmark was that the 5 comprised defenders with little attacking impetus.

That was always Le Tissier's problem, so many Saints fans hated him...

I think it's a misconception that Tottenham have lots of technically gifted players, maybe on the basis that it fits with their image. Look at their team at tell me where that talent is. Eriksen & Lamela are probably the only two - and Lamela has the problem that aside from his technical ability he has been awful for 2 years. Chadli is just an effective/productive goalscoring midfielder and Kane can't be put in that category either. Townsend doesn't get a game. I'd go as far to say that Wanyama will only marginally improve their team, which already includes Dembele, Mason & Bentaleb. It's not like they are missing a holding midfielder, just looking for an upgrade.

When he pinged that ball out to the wing I muttered, "yeah, have Wanyama you c***s"

Was just typing that I think we are putting too many crosses into the box in the air and that we need to get round the back more... Pleased for Tadic, he's shown today why he needs to be in the team.

We're playing like we're 2 or 3 up, which is great to watch from an attacking point of view but also a little worrying...!

I wish it wasn't Spurs. I know they're a big club but they're not a great team at the moment, we should have aspirations of surpassing them. However, when I look at their team, I'm surprised that a Defensive Midfielder is what they're looking for - they have Bentaleb and Dembele and are currently playing Dembele on the wing. If he goes I will try and take the pragmatic view that we've taken £20m from Spurs for them to have a minor upgrade in their team, while we have already got players to replace in Romeu and Clasie... But still hope he doesn't go and if he does, will want him to fail miserably or have a career ending injury in his first game.

Well, perhaps aside from the arrangement of the midfield, will shall see if my team selection will pay dividends...!

Doesn't that apply to every supporter of every club ahead of every match?

I think you mean 20th (bottom)?

Didn't he do something similar for us once? Maybe at White Hart Lane? Admittedly, it wasn't anywhere near as bad. Hahaha.

When have we ever done that...? I actually think that Norwich will trouble us unless we play well, because every team in the league is good enough to beat us if we drop our (usual) standards by 5-10%. I'm not sure playing Davis in front of Wanyama & Romeu makes for a great midfield, but I think opting for Mane or Juanmi in there is asking for more long balls, as there will be huge gaps between defence & attack, and we won't have enough of the ball. Has Tadic ever played centrally? I'm guessing he isn't very good there, which is a shame as he's probably the ideal player in terms of his role and creativity to play there. For example: Stek Cedric Fonte Yoshida Targett Romeu Davis JWP* Tadic Mane Pelle *Maybe Juanmi on the right - I'm not convinced by JWP but at least as a midfielder he'd be better at supporting the full back and would get chance to put some crosses in with his fabled right foot, might be able to find a bit more space & time out there too.

I don't think he's ready to start 1 game a week to be honest.

Overall am gutted not to have made it through, but had we been playing really well and looking similar to how we did in patches last season, then I would be especially down about it. Given how our team is performing at the moment, that disappointment is tinged with a "well maybe it's for the best" feeling. Europa league run and a mid-to-lower-half finish = worth it Europa league run and relegation (or even relegation scrap) = not worth it

One big plus point from last night is that we didn't concede from our own corner, although had Targett not scythed down Hassan that probably wouldn't be the case either!

Reminds me a bit of the Peter Crouch dilemma for pretty much every team he has played for. Hitting the long ball is not the best way to deploy him, but it is an option, and an easy option at that. If in doubt, boot it forward to the big man - and when players are lacking in confidence they will always go for the low risk easy option rather than being brave with the ball.

When he booked Rodriguez for trying to stop their player time wasting it was clear that we weren't going to get much and any anti-football tactics they deployed would go unnoticed or unpunished. However, the performance of the officials over the two legs should be nothing more than a footnote in the reasons why we went out.

That was an atrocious performance. Key things from my viewpoint (I did post this in another thread because the post match thread took a while to show up, surprisingly!): 1) Two full backs who can't go past people limits our gameplan. Targett seems to try and get past opponents by kicking the ball into them and hoping for a nutmeg or richochet... 2) Possession football under Pochettino did get a bit boring, so when Koeman injected a bit more directness to our play it was exciting and meant we had a variety of attacking options. It's now looking like we've taken it a step further and abandoned passing altogether. 3) I am worried that our pre-season did not focus enough on fitness. The players looked unfit against Vitesse and I thought it was due to it still being pre-season. Since then we have deteriorated. Even the commentators referred to us as looking jaded. Strachan and Pochettino both gave the side a gruelling preseason and it paid dividends. 4) We actually a couple of moments in the last five minutes where I thought "this is better", once we had a few passes on the edge of the box before Long (I think) misplaced a pass to Targett, then Tadic whipped in a nice cross which they did well to clear. Unfortunately when these two pieces of play came to nothing it was frustrating because it HAD to come to something else we were going out - really this sort of play should have been happening earlier, when "nearly" moments are ok and help build confidence and momentum, rather than being an unsuccessful last roll of the dice. 5) It's gutting to be out, but the way we are playing at the moment, it really might be for the best. We don't look anywhere capable of winning games in Europe or in the Premier League, without having to cope with them both. 6) Hope Wanyama doesn't now use "I want to play in the Europa League" as an excuse to join Tottenham...

That was an atrocious performance. Key things from my viewpoint: 1) Two full backs who can't go past people limits our gameplan. Targett seems to try and get past opponents by kicking the ball into them and hoping for a nutmeg or richochet... 2) Possession football under Pochettino did get a bit boring, so when Koeman injected a bit more directness to our play it was exciting and meant we had a variety of attacking options. It's now looking like we've taken it a step further and abandoned passing altogether. 3) I am worried that our pre-season did not focus enough on fitness. The players looked unfit against Vitesse and I thought it was due to it still being pre-season. Since then we have deteriorated. Even the commentators referred to us as looking jaded. Strachan and Pochettino both gave the side a gruelling preseason and it paid dividends. 4) We actually a couple of moments in the last five minutes where I thought "this is better", once we had a few passes on the edge of the box before Long (I think) misplaced a pass to Targett, then Tadic whipped in a nice cross which they did well to clear. Unfortunately when these two pieces of play came to nothing it was frustrating because it HAD to come to something else we were going out - really this sort of play should have been happening earlier, when "nearly" moments are ok and help build confidence and momentum, rather than being an unsuccessful last roll of the dice. 5) It's gutting to be out, but the way we are playing at the moment, it really might be for the best. We don't look anywhere capable of winning games in Europe or in the Premier League, without having to cope with them both. 6) Hope Wanyama doesn't now use "I want to play in the Europa League" as an excuse to join Tottenham...

The main thing I don't understand is that in the first leg we played Yoshida at full back because they are a team with lots of height who thrive on set pieces. Then in the second leg when we need to score, we continue to lump it forward - surely that tactic is playing to their strengths, strengths we evidently knew about even before the first leg! We are horrifically bad, think the full backs' inability to go pass people and get to the byline is one of the big differences - it creates space for everyone else, but currently they can just press or midfield and deal with the long balls, and we look dire.

I don't have a problem with Wanyama leaving per se, I would just hate to see him go to Spurs. Once again they do their business in the most underhanded unprofessional way and it seems to be perfectly acceptable. Hope we put our foot down and blankly refuse to do business with them, but worried we will just roll over because we can't justify keeping an unhappy player and passing up the cash. God THFC make me sick.

Given the OP appeared a few minutes after Stones handed in a transfer request, I am guessing this is a facetious thread.

That last 20 minutes was excruciating to watch - copious amounts of time wasting and gamesmanship from them, and either poor passing/control or unimaginative long balls when we had a chance to do something. I thought we looked threatening until then, perhaps our lack of such threat as the game went on was mainly due to their tactics. But the number of times I said "jeeesus" or "bl00dy hell" in that game shows how fragile and error prone we look defensively compared to last season. I guess it's inevitable in a team missing Schneiderlin, Clyne, Alderweireld and Bertrand, but disappointing nonetheless. Thought Romeu and Wanyama protecting the back line helped compared to previous games, but Vic's all round performance was poor, and we missed Davis' energy - as much as Ward-Prowse had a decent game, I don't recall him being everywhere in the same way that Davis was against Newcastle, for example. With Targett and Yoshida as full backs we were sorely missing width, there were times it was crying out for a ball into space wide, but there was no-one there.

Hard to tell with a pixelated stream (anyone else have one with no commentary?) but I couldn't see much of a push, not from Caulker anyway

Not had the best opening two minutes...!