This side for Spurs?

comment by Clockwork Red: With or Wout You (U4892)
posted 12 minutes ago
comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 6 minutes ago
comment by Clockwork Red: With or Wout You (U4892)
posted 27 minutes ago
comment by Castor Troy (U8700)
posted 24 minutes ago
comment by merrysupersteve (relaxed about the situation) (U1132)
posted 7 minutes ago
I think we'll get hammered tbh. It reminds me of last season where we're miles off the pace early on. That won't have changed in 5 days and Spurs will rip us apart
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You guys are acting like spurs have turned into prime Barca overnight
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We should have lost comfortably to Wolves. Play anything like that this weekend and we will lose to Spurs, probably by a couple. They don't have to be prime Barca, just fit and competent.

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Last season we got exactly what we deserved from our opening two matches, and went on to beat Liverpool and Arsenal. The Wolves performance was concerning, but we should be open to the possibility that tactical tweaks and improvements in execution of the new system can result in significant upturns, week to week.
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I was expecting us to start quite slowly, in the sense of having teething problems with Onana, still not having a focal point up front while Højlund is out and still struggling to turn dominance into goals. I was a bit concerned about Mount's role. I wasn't expecting us to look so unfit and to be completely, embarrassingly overrun in midfield by a team many have tipped to go down.

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If they play like that all season, I don't see Wolves going down. There were elements of our new tactical scheme that worked: we did win the ball high up the pitch, and with better decision making/execution could have been a couple of goals up at half-time and cruising. In retrospect, I think the ease with which Wolves cut through our midfield comes down to naivety and rectifiable mistakes as much as fitness. I also think a Spurs side trying to play progressive football could be more vulnerable on the transition than Wolves.

I do have concerns, and I'm not 100% convinced by apparently going all-in on high press and transitional excellence in this summer's transfers, while so far failing to reinforce the midfield and defence with players who can improve our build-up play and ability to dominate possession. However, I also think one game isn't enough to draw conclusions from. And if you look back over the last few seasons, performance on the first match day has rarely been a good indicator of how well we'll fare in the ensuing season.

Yes, I wouldn't draw any conclusions from one game, other than that we're not fit enough yet, which is pretty bad in itself.

It'll be interesting to see how Wolves get on at home to Brighton this weekend. Was it that they played especially well, or that we were predictable and disjointed going forward and wide-open in midfield thus making them look great?

It’ll be interesting if we play terrible again and win against Spurs. As things could only get better performance-wise and we’d already be 6 points up on last seasons start.

comment by Clockwork Red: With or Wout You (U4892)
posted 26 minutes ago
comment by Diafol Coch 77 (U2462)
posted 1 minute ago
Let's hope Wolves was a wake up call and that it was a bit of complacency, as well as rustiness, that made us look bad.

I think the plan was to press high and get goals from there. We did the first part OK but our forwards were just poor in execution. We also probably thought we could get away with it v Wolves but they showed ambition themselves when they won it.

Away from home, after last year's struggles, I'd expect us to be far more compact and perhaps be the side countering.
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Like I've said, I'll wait until the international break (so after Arsenal away, I think) before being too critical. Even then, Højlund will still have to settle and Onana will still be getting acclimatised. But two home and two away games should give us a pretty decent sense of where we are (as well as a potential 12 points) in terms of readiness.

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It'd be unfair to judge after one game of course so let's hope we see improvements week on week now.

On fitness I wonder what the plan is all through the season? I'm not an expert in that field of course but could it be that we're looking to peak later on in the season and that the players haven't been flogged that hard. Last season we seemed knackered for the run in.

comment by Christoglou (U20930)
posted 2 hours, 10 minutes ago
I hope Rashford is upfront for you again. Rico Henry absolutely destroyed us down the left on Sunday, with our fullbacks moving inside there is so much space out wide in transition. Rashford on the left would be a big problem for us
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Defo first half but we stopped that supply in the second half with a very controlled, slightly more circumspect performance.

But that is the big threat to us for sure, pace on the counter. And Diamond is 100% right, we have no idea what to expect, which i suppose is a good thing as neither do the opposition.

Diafol, I'm a stranger to all things fitness (which you could tell if you saw me playing football). That said, I'm a bit sceptical about the idea that aiming to not be fit until 3-4 games into the season in order to be more fit at the end of the season would be a credible plan. I mean, either way there's a finite amount of physical output you can expect from your players in a season, and similarly a finite amount of stress you can put on their bodies before they succumb to fatigue. You probably want to max out on what you can get from them, and I'd be surprised if by starting the season badly from a fitness point of view, you get more physical output over the whole season. So at best you might have players fresher for cup finals and semi finals, but would it be worth gambling on being in those matches on the assumption that you're more likely to drop points at the start of the season?

Maybe I'm wrong. My gut feeling is that the commercial obligations over the summer (which ETH has pushed to reduce) are more likely to have set back the pre-season training regime. The other factor is that a lot of our players needed longer rest before returning to training, due to the mammoth season they had just completed and the international matches at the end.

I think James Maddison is one of the best signings Spurs have made in years. I really don’t see why Conte didn’t go for him last year.

comment by Robb Matilda (U22716)
posted 15 seconds ago
I think James Maddison is one of the best signings Spurs have made in years. I really don’t see why Conte didn’t go for him last year.
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It's a shame they got him just as Kane was leaving. That combination in an attacking team could have been lethal.

comment by Red Russian (U4715)
posted 23 minutes ago
Diafol, I'm a stranger to all things fitness (which you could tell if you saw me playing football). That said, I'm a bit sceptical about the idea that aiming to not be fit until 3-4 games into the season in order to be more fit at the end of the season would be a credible plan. I mean, either way there's a finite amount of physical output you can expect from your players in a season, and similarly a finite amount of stress you can put on their bodies before they succumb to fatigue. You probably want to max out on what you can get from them, and I'd be surprised if by starting the season badly from a fitness point of view, you get more physical output over the whole season. So at best you might have players fresher for cup finals and semi finals, but would it be worth gambling on being in those matches on the assumption that you're more likely to drop points at the start of the season?

Maybe I'm wrong. My gut feeling is that the commercial obligations over the summer (which ETH has pushed to reduce) are more likely to have set back the pre-season training regime. The other factor is that a lot of our players needed longer rest before returning to training, due to the mammoth season they had just completed and the international matches at the end.
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I really don't know to be honest hence the question. My fitness it terrible too. Dodgy ankles and knees for days after a game!

Your explanation around the commercial aspect of the tour probably explains it more now. Hopefully another week on the training ground will pay off tomorrow.

On paper it did look like we had too many warm up games but perhaps they main players didn't get enough minutes. Possibly because the physio staff didn't want to push them after that long old season last season.

Let's hope in the next few weeks we can improve the playing staff which will enable us to rotate more. Actually killing games off sooner would help as well. Means we don't have to have everyone on there for the full 90. It'd be nice having the luxury of taking Bruno, Rashford and the rest off the pitch around the hour mark. Every game last sesson it seemed had something on it right until the very end.

comment by Robb Matilda (U22716)
posted 57 minutes ago
I think James Maddison is one of the best signings Spurs have made in years. I really don’t see why Conte didn’t go for him last year.
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Coz he doesn't like to have the ball or score goals