Hugo’s reflexes are simply amazing. Dao got caught flat-footed in no man’s land on their goal, but was otherwise rock solid. Jan is pure class, and Dier and Dele both but in great shifts. Kane still looks knocked and Eriksen was unusually gassed towards the end.
Caught the last half hour. Really happy to get the points, and I’m even happier that we kept Dembele.
Just watched the recording. Didn’t look great but will certainly take 3 points to start the year. Hopefully another week gives everyone some more recovery time from the short offseason. We can’t be starting Sissoko in midfield against quality teams.
Really hope Poch reintegrates Toby and we go to a 3 man back moving forward. Our fullbacks just aren’t going to cut it in a 4 man line against upper level PL and European competition. Sit Dier in front of them and allow our fullbacks to operate as wingers and not focus so much on defense, which suits them best.
Yes go back to the 3-4-1-2 with Dele up top with Harry and Eriksen as the CAM who can move all over. Or you could play Eriksen in the midfield and one of Sonny/Lucas/Lamela in the front three. The three CBs definitely makes the best use of our FBs, especially Trippier and Aurier. It also helps to deal with our current depth issues in the midfield. Really need to win next week to keep momentum since we’ve got a lot of road games early in the year.
Sucks the stadium is delayed but that construction timeline was ambitious from the start. Hope we start the year strong and get the first game in an actually finished new stadium.
Selling Dembele would’ve been insane. Personally my favorite player on spurs. Were the transfer rumors based more out of other clubs interest or him being unsettled?
Fully healthy Dembele takes our team to another level. We’ve just seen less and less of that the last couple years. Im glad we kept him since I don’t think we had any plans to replace him with someone of his caliber. Hopefully Winks can get healthy and they can alternate playing each week.
He’s a 60 minute player at this point in his career. He’s looking for a final payday and a less physically demanding league. Rumors were he’d be sold to whoever Inter’s Chinese team is, loaned back to Inter for this season, then go off to China to finish his career, but that obviously didn’t come to fruition for one reason or another.
Seems pretty obvious the stadium was the reason for no new additions. Would be crazy to let him go imo.
Yes and no. It certainly played a role, but we also would’ve bought if the price on certain players (Martial, Grealish, Ndombele) was right. We weren’t going to spend just for the sake of spending, and we certainly can’t match the other top 6 in funds, so a bad deal (Sissoko) is way worse for us than anyone else. It would’ve been nice to sign a cm at the very least, but I think we’re all pretty happy with the squad all things considered.
Being scared to buy because of sissoko doesn’t justify not spending. Not buying 1 player is unheard of for a prem team. Definitely was the stadium which no one can blame you for.
Spoiler: Athletic Story Spurs’ enviable young core presents challenges in avoiding the pitfalls of fatigue and complacency By Jack Lang 4h ago 7 The World Cup, by common consensus, was going to play havoc with the start of Tottenham’s season. No Premier League side was better represented at the business end of Russia 2018, and with only 26 days between the final and the start of the new season, a certain period of readjustment looked inevitable. If it wasn’t to be a scratch team taking the field against Newcastle, it wouldn’t be far off. Yet, by the time Saturday rolled around, the old gang was back together: Harry Kane, Dele Alli and Eric Dier, fresh(ish) from England’s summer of self-love; France hero Hugo Lloris; defensive warhorse Jan Vertonghen, plus Belgium teammates Mousa Dembélé and Toby Alderweireld on the bench. All present and correct. And as their hosts were ground down in gritty, unpretty fashion, all typically influential, too. This was a victory born of sacrifice: these players had only had the briefest of breaks before returning to training, and missed the whole of preseason. “All the squad have shown their commitment to the club,” said a delighted Mauricio Pochettino. “The players came back in good condition.” The pattern was replicated across opening weekend, with Paul Pogba, N’Golo Kanté, Kyle Walker, and Harry Maguire among the other World Cup stars rushed back into action. But with Spurs the gambit was more pronounced, and while it paid off handsomely in the short-term, it is tempting to wonder whether Pochettino and his charges will pay for it further down the line. Rest is an underrated commodity in football. By forgoing it, athletes who are already pushing their limits incur extra strain, both physical and mental. Even if they are itching to play (spoiler: footballers are always itching to play), it is not always in their interests to be allowed to do so. Kane in particular has paid the price for such commitment in the past, laboring badly after rushing back from injury on more than one occasion. Pochettino would no doubt view Saturday’s selection as a necessary risk. The real issue for Spurs is that he would probably be right. That is partly down to the list of absentees—Harry Winks, Erik Lamela, Kieran Trippier, and Victor Wanyama were all unavailable—but also because his squad remains perilously shallow in key areas after a summer of frustration in the transfer market. If you missed it, here’s a comprehensive list of the players signed by Tottenham in the summer: … [list ends]. New contracts for Kane, Alli and Pochettino were major victories, but with Son Heung-min heading off to the Asian Games, and both Alderweireld and Danny Rose about as popular as global warming, Spurs are weaker than they were at the end of last season. A degree of balance is due here: the squad remains excellent by most reasonable metrics and Pochettino—unlike José Mourinho, say—is in the enviable position of knowing exactly what his first-choice XI looks like. Spurs have a settled side, full of hungry youngsters who have been given time to gel, and a clear game plan: this is to be admired. Nine players were on the field for more than two thirds of the total game time in the 2017-18 Premier League campaign, more than any other top-six side, and significantly more than Arsenal and Liverpool, who had three each. This makes life tough for them in the transfer market, though. Buying a better back-up for Kane is impossible, because which world-class striker in their right mind would agree to playing three or four league games a season? Without offering knockout wages, you have to make do with the likes of Roberto Soldado, Vincent Janssen, and Fernando Llorente, and the drop-off when they do come into the side is palpable. The same applies to attacking midfield, where Alli and Christian Eriksen are untouchable, and in other positions too. In a way, Pochettino is paying for his own success. But there is also the nagging feeling that this team is being held back by the stubbornness of Daniel Levy. The Spurs chairman’s reputation as a crack negotiator has been well earned—this is a man who could convince you to buy something you already owned, then refuse to sell it to you—but sometimes, in the rarified climes of the European elite, you just have to shrug your shoulders and take out your checkbook, value be damned. Or loosen that strait-jacket wage structure a touch. This isn’t to advocate for blind spending, nor for a bonfire of the tenets of Levynomics, which have served Tottenham well up to now. But a strength can so easily congeal into a weakness, and a little judicious investment—speculate to accumulate, and all that—would be welcome. Not least because fans have seen the price of season tickets surge ahead of their White Hart Lane homecoming. (The cost of that shiny new stadium also raises the question of whether a period of austerity, similar to the one imposed on Arsène Wenger when Arsenal moved to the Emirates, might be on the cards.) The need for new additions was only rammed home by the performances of the three squad players who did play on Saturday: Lucas Moura, Serge Aurier, and Moussa Sissoko formed a bit-part battalion down Tottenham’s right, but did little to suggest that they are ready to be considered key players anytime soon. Aurier looked good going forward, teeing up Alli’s goal, but is a liability when asked to defend—Newcastle’s Mo Diamé ought to have punished him for one loss of concentration—and there are plenty who view young Kyle Walker-Peters as a more convincing deputy for Kieran Trippier at right back. Lucas barely did anything at all in his 68 minutes on the pitch, his encouraging preseason form dissolving on first contact with competitive football. Son should not be overly concerned about regaining his starting spot when he returns from Indonesia. Then there is Sissoko, who remains the arch misfit in the group. The Frenchman had a passable game back at the ground where he made his name as a one-man counterattacking unit, but has rarely impressed for Tottenham, his haywire gallop out of place. He is also, of course, a walking reminder of the pitfalls of panicking on transfer deadline day, a £30 million cautionary tale. But with their rivals either kicking on (Manchester City, Liverpool) or looking to emerge from slumps (Chelsea, Arsenal), it might be necessary to risk the odd false step in search of greater heights. An old truism applies here: if you’re not going forward, you’re going backward. Tottenham, for all the strength and sacrifice of their hardened core, cannot afford to content themselves with the status quo.
Looks like I'll be going to Wembley. Fuck my life. Having a good year thus far so maybe I'll make another trip in the spring, should we actually be in the new stadium by then.
Hey Moura, let's see Lessa that shit. Fucking up 2 great goalscoring opportunities in about 12 seconds.
Unreal that we haven’t scored yet. Fulham look completely impotent, which means they’ll catch us on the counter soon.
Lucas is a good player, but imo would be best used as a sub to run at tired defenses. Would prefer to see Lamela over him when fully fit.
I think both fit that role better but obviously one has to start right now while Sonny is gone. Lucas has done everything really well today besides finish. Looked much better then he did last week.