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Spurs 1 Saints 0 - Match and Reactions Thread


Batman

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Depends. If he works out his contract or resigns to take a break ala Strachan, no. If he lies about going to Spurs, messes the club around and unsettles the players before he goes, yes.

 

You realize Koeman is building up on an excellent foundation set up by that same guy, right?

 

Do we now blame the whole thing from the summer on one person - MoPo?

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Beaten by a dour if organised side - the silver lining is that I didn't leave as livid as I was after the last two trips to WHL.

 

We were pressed and strangled, though it did seem odd how much we attempted to play out from the back when in other games we've been happy to go direct pretty early.

 

Neither Wanyama nor Schneiderlin got going which set the tone for the rest of the day. Saying that, the goal resulted from terrible defending (though arguably there was a handball in its buildup): we got done by Eriksen last season and if that wasn't enough allowed him to try his luck on two occasions prior to the goal. Fool you once and all that.

 

Both fullbacks were decent, though we didn't use them enough. We had acres of space down the left in the second half but were ponderous shifting there out there. Manė looked a handful - showed some great touches, though obviously the miss will define his afternoon. Tadic had his worst game for us - thought Spurs physicality was too much for him. Even last week, thought QPR did a good job shackling him.

 

The sub was the right one but arguably a little late - other than sacrificing a midfielder for Long, not sure how else we can mix things up when chasing a result.

 

In all, we continue to flatter to deceive - we've put in some decent performances over the first seven games -Wham being the highlight; but feel there are still quite a few growing pains to go through which our league position masks.

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Poch had planned this match for some time. His team were not suffering from post European competition as they had been in the past because they had rested their best 10 players from the competition. This was the match that he HAD to win. And his players were up for it, galvanised even more by the moronic continuing and stupid anti-Poch chants of Saint fans.

 

So man for man, Spurs were sharper and quicker. His pressing style versus our more measured approach was prevailing and there was not much we could do about it. We were pressured into mistakes and there wasn't much that Koeman could do about that. Spurs had the edge and wanted the result more than our players on the day.

 

But we will beat them at home if we learn from our mistakes - from both players and fans.

Couldn't agree more .

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You realize Koeman is building up on an excellent foundation set up by that same guy, right?

 

Oh really?. Last season's success (I think we should use that word) was, for the most part, carried through by those " key players" ... who deserted the club in the summer.

The only inheritance we have from MP leaves a bad taste in the mouth, and the team we have now has barely 4, perhaps 5 .." survivors " from the first choice side that he used last season.

 

Pochettino inherited " a good squad" from Adkins, but improved it by a change in training methodology (hard-pressing) and the addition of only two players; Wanyama and Lovren.

Now that Koeman is holding the reigns... we have seen a totally different training technique (see interviews with JWP and others).

 

I think it's a rather broad overstatement to suggest that Koeman's starting successes are due to Pochettino influence. Most of MP's credibility disappeared when he did at the end of last season.

 

Much of this season's success is down to new players like; Pelle, Tadic, Bertrand .....and Koeman's influence...(not Pochettino's).

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I didn't think Pelle had any kind of service whatsoever, whilst Adebayor and Eriksen were being passed the ball by counterattacking Spurs players pretty much all the time. Adebayor didn't score either, so not sure how he could be described as the difference. Pelle could have made all the same runs but what's the point when the ball is 40 yards away and no-one's passing it quickly enough or they're already under pressure? Most of our attacks went through Mane, that was clearly the plan.

 

I thought the Spurs fans were a LOT better than the Liverpool fans - and they were notably completely unembarrassed to sing OWTSpurs - or at least the fans next to the away section were, they were loving it - even if it did just sound like it was us doing all the singing as a result, the idiots.

 

Personally speaking I thought the best response to Pochettino was to ignore him.

I think you're both right.

 

Adebayor got the feet delivered to his feet through a congested midfield, which can only be done through good movement off the ball. What he also done well was hold the ball up, allowing the midfield time to advance.

 

Pelle didn't get the service, due in part to our midfield, due in part to spurs congested midfield, and due in part to lack of movement at the right time.

 

Was no ones fault, it just was, what it was, and it wasn't really working.

 

What I was a bit surprised about was Pelle staying on. Having been starved of supply most of the game I would have thought Long as lone striker and getting given more space to angle his runs beyond their back two would have given our midfield the option of playing the through ball into space with more freedom and regularity than there was...

 

Not that I have a better footballing brain than Koeman.

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