Tottenham 2-0 Wolves: Verdict, 16/05/21

[northfield wolf]

He was pretty crap today, and massively helped Spurs get their second.

 

[GLASGOWOLF]

He was rubbish again. All over the place for the 2nd goal.

Would not say he was all over the place.
He expected the ball was going out, then tried to see the ball out, something that will happen with young players

 

[Charlie Wolf]

They have world class forward at there fingertips.

Kane, Son, Bale, would walk into any team in world football.

On his Day Dele is also a fucking good player

And there is the difference, with Vinicius, Moura and Bergwijn on the bench Spurs have strength in depth.
We’ve taken the ‘all our eggs in one basket’ approach with Raul and Neto, a potential wonder kid and the invisible man

 

[northfield wolf]

It also annoys me that the news has suddenly come out that Podence has an operation on his Groin tomorrow, and he has been carrying this injury for weeks. This guy has been slaughtered on here for his performances. This isnt his fault, OK he may have tried to play through the pain barrier, but now we know why he was off colour.

 

[Del Woppio]

That's a fair assessment Del. Although I would say the 'effort' on show was woeful.

And to think people were comparing or recruitment to Leicester's earlier. Embarrassing stuff.

Agreed. It's pretty hard to argue with the fact that our performance levels have been regressing since the first season back (no matter what excuses or metrics are used to try), and it's not really surprising since we haven't had a good window (i.e. markedly improving our first eleven) since that first one. I know it's easier to improve on a promotion winning side than one that finished 7th, but still, we've made a hash of it. Still, at least we've learned from the damage done by over-promoting an academy coach in Thelwell, and dealt with that by, erm oh.

That's my big worry. Nuno's made mistakes, and almost everybody is backing him to turn our playing style around - but I just don't trust our recruitment

 

[AndyWolves]

Looks like Semedo played Kane onside for the first and Hoever fucked up for the second.

 

[Throbber3]

It also annoys me that the news has suddenly come out that Podence has an operation on his Groin tomorrow, and he has been carrying this injury for weeks. This guy has been slaughtered on here for his performances. This isnt his fault, OK he may have tried to play through the pain barrier, but now we know why he was off colour.

I have to say I am a Podence fan. He reminds me of Hazard at times, but this has not been his year. Next season who knows.

 

[Throbber3]

Agreed. It's pretty hard to argue with the fact that our performance levels have been regressing since the first season back (no matter what excuses or metrics are used to try), and it's not really surprising since we haven't had a good window (i.e. markedly improving our first eleven) since that first one. I know it's easier to improve on a promotion winning side than one that finished 7th, but still, we've made a hash of it. Still, at least we've learned from the damage done by over-promoting an academy coach in Thelwell, and dealt with that by, erm oh.

That's my big worry. Nuno's made mistakes, and almost everybody is backing him to turn our playing style around - but I just don't trust our recruitment

Good fair post del

 

[Wilf Wolf]

Predicted a comfortable 2-0 or 3-0 win for Spurs and that's exactly what we got. We did create a few chances but on another day they could have scored 4 despite barely breaking into a sweat. Moutinho has been absolutely fantastic but is struggling to close players down quickly which was a big part of what made him so good. Even in a slow-paced game he got caught in possession too often and I think his time as a regular starter for us is nearly over.

All the youngsters will be better for playing in these games and it will certainly stand them in good stead when called upon in the future but apart from RAN I don't think any of them are good enough to be regular starters next season, which given their age and the level of football is hardly surprising.

Get most of the injured players back and buy a CH and CM who are good enough to start from first game and things will look much better, fail to do that and 7th place, or even close to it, will soon seem like a distant memory.

 

[Del Woppio]

He reminds me of Hazard *now* that he's stopped playing.

Hazard at Chelsea scored more goals per season than Podence has in his entire career to date.

 

[northfield wolf]

Once his groin is right he will be so much better next season, and yes he has the ability. I just hope he hasnt seen this website.

 

[Paul]

He reminds me of Hazard *now* that he's stopped playing.

Hazard at Chelsea scored more goals per season than Podence has in his entire career to date.

He did say he 'reminds' him, not he is him

 

[PuntsWolf]

Vitinha is not a better no 10 than MGW now, they are similar ages - no point in persisting with it, other than (I guess) we have no one else to play IF.

Vitinha was genuinely invisible most the game. MGW went central and tried to make things happen and get involved then bizarrely went off.

 

[The Bear]

Oops. I completely forgot we were playing! Seems I picked a good game for it.

 

[Dinowolf]

TBF most people on here thought there was something wrong with Podence, but couldn't understand why he was being played if that was the case.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Got what I expected to watch - defensively it was better (mainly down to Coady blocking everything before their 1st goal whilst all others just wandered off) - offensively we don't have a striker just now for various reasons. Raul out there would have had a couple of opportunities, but he's not there now & rightly so.

Traore tried, but no one was in the box any time he got there so it was pointless.

Would agree with others that Moutinho is coming to the last full games of his career which is sad, but inevitable for all of us.

Will still be there next Sunday (if the ticket ever turns up) just to say I've been there once in the last 15 months.

 

[Bigbadwulf07]

We were so lucky to keep it down to 2, not that I care a lot. We were never going to get anything from this game, just good experience for the kids and the system. I thought Johnny Depp had a good game for them, always liked him and hope he's in the England squad

 

[Dinowolf]

I thought Saiss made a few good blocks and some good defensive headers.
He became a bit over-physical with some of the Spurs players but that was probably in response to our younger players getting 'out muscled' by Spurs and the ref doing nothing about it.
How Tanganga stayed on the pitch is puzzling.

 

[slink]

The longer this season goes on the more i get annoyed at Nuno and our fans. I'm going to firmly back up our younger players though and place the blame squarely at Nuno's feet. With our young players you're always going to get inconsistencies because not only are they young they've got very little competitive professional football minutes between them and they're currently in a team which is struggling to find it's identity, that is negative, weak, passive and lack a bit of fight or bite. The mentality when we are in possession has been miles off what is required for a while and it is now when we don't particularly if it's a 50/50 or even a 60/40 in our favour, i expect the other team to come away with it.

Going through them just today:-

Hoever - Did fine up until the second goal for which he has to take a lot of blame but it's something i can live with as he's got very little experience. He was better on the ball today but not really able to get forward.

Vitinha - Struggled to get involved but was outnumbered in the midfield as Moutinho and Donk picked up nothing positions 99% of the time and never looked to play it forward when they got it. Has shown over the last few weeks though that the ability is there and it will come.

MGW - Felt sorry for him again as he clearly can't play in those wider positions, it's too rigid for him and he struggles to make an impact. Did however make an impact when he was moved centrally and strangely was subbed just after. I really wasn't sure about him before this little spell but he's shown that he might be able to get the most out of his ability given time and being played in his correct position which is definitely centrally.

Fabio - Gone back to absolutely wank, not ready in a week because he made a few bad errors and snatched at a few shots apparently. Showed what he was all about last week when we got bodies around him and he earned the red card and set up the equaliser. He did quite well early on too and had the beating of Dier i thought but that went when we struggled to get out of our half for 15 minutes. How many other 18 year olds are playing in the Premier League? He'll come good as long as he doesn't read social media because fuck me there's some dickheads about

To reiterate these lads are going to be inconsistent, they would be that in a good side never mind the one they're in now. I've said for a few months i don't think Nuno can get a side to play positive football enough, there's still no fluidity and it's flashes of brilliance that are getting us points imo. I'm still firmly in the camp that i want him to be able to do it but i don't think he can.

 

[Parkins left foot]

Spurs have a class forward unit (even if not much else) so it was always going to be a struggle - keeping it at 2 was not that bad a result.

We don't have a front line - that match with a fully fit Raul & (to a lesser extent) Neto would have had a different complexion. Not going to overate them, but with both in for the full season then no reason to think that there's not another 12 - 15 goals coming our way. In the right games that could well be another 10 points & whilst not challenging for the Champions league (we are not that good yet) we could have been in the mix for the Europa again.