Jinky
Head Brownie
- Joined
- Oct 28, 2009
- Messages
- 34,441
- Reaction score
- 7,749
Very late to the party here. Thank you to Kenny once again, for allowing me to use his ticket for this one, and to Deutsch for doing the legwork. Wasn't a bad match to be at - very entertaining and a nice tribute beforehand, which I thought looked great under the floodlights. Great to meet Booz & Trips (considering we speak practically every day it was a pleasure to put faces to the names after all this time!). And great to catch up with Johnny, Banjo, Paddy etc beforehand (apologies if I've missed you out).
In terms of the match itself - football makes you want to scream sometimes. This was one of those occasions. We absolutely deserved something from that match - for large chunks we outplayed and outclassed a team that has been finishing in the top 4 of the PL for the best part of a decade.
Some concerns; maybe we're a little predictable? Don't get me wrong - I love the football we're playing and I wouldn't change it for the world compared to what we've seen in recent history. But I wonder if sometimes we're a little predictable going from side to side. This is why MGW was a revelation when he came on. He tried to do something different. He skinned Winks - he played balls between the lines - he got between the Spurs midfield and defence (rather then playing nice passes in front of them like Moutinho/Neves). It didn't all come off for him, but it doesn't matter - something *could* have happened, and lets be honest, Costa should have been finishing off his chance when he's 1 on 1 v Lloris. Moutinho and Neves are superb footballers - but they're quite similar. MGW offers something different - plus for me Neves is still playing too deep. Soon as we pushed him up the field a bit he forced Lloris in to a world class save in the bottom corner. I'm not suggesting we drop either of Neves or Moutinho, because that isn't going to happen, but I'd like to see more of MGW.
Bennett stunk the place out. After he picked up his booking he seemed very nervous both making tackles and with the ball at his feet. Time for Dendonker to come in for me.
The issue is, Nuno has picked a team all season to keep clean sheets. We haven't done that recently, but we have players in the squad (like Vinagre) who can hurt other teams and get the opposition on the back foot. I get the impression Nuno doesn't trust those players from the start - or maybe it's that the other lads haven't given him a reason to switch it up - but I would like to see Dendonker, MGW & Vinagre feature more moving forward.
Bonatini. For the first 10 minutes after he came on, I couldn't work out where he was playing or what he was doing. He seemed to be out on the left, but every time we had the ball moving forward he was behind the play. However, to his credit he did keep plugging away and I thought he made an impact in the end. I don't think he's the answer, but credit where it's due.
My final point is on the officials. When you play a top team (well, any team really), you need them to get the big decisions right. We were badly let down by the linesman and referee when they gave Doherty offside when he's about 2 x yards on. The game could have panned out in another direction if that goal is given. Very, very disappointing and it's in that scenario where I'd like the referee or officials to be hauled out in front of the television cameras to explain themselves. They are far to protected.
I could say a lot more about the match, but a lot of it has been said & this is already a long post. Overall it's very positive and a pleasure to watch this team. I hope we can get a result against Arsenal, because we don't deserve to have lost 4 on the spin.
In terms of the match itself - football makes you want to scream sometimes. This was one of those occasions. We absolutely deserved something from that match - for large chunks we outplayed and outclassed a team that has been finishing in the top 4 of the PL for the best part of a decade.
Some concerns; maybe we're a little predictable? Don't get me wrong - I love the football we're playing and I wouldn't change it for the world compared to what we've seen in recent history. But I wonder if sometimes we're a little predictable going from side to side. This is why MGW was a revelation when he came on. He tried to do something different. He skinned Winks - he played balls between the lines - he got between the Spurs midfield and defence (rather then playing nice passes in front of them like Moutinho/Neves). It didn't all come off for him, but it doesn't matter - something *could* have happened, and lets be honest, Costa should have been finishing off his chance when he's 1 on 1 v Lloris. Moutinho and Neves are superb footballers - but they're quite similar. MGW offers something different - plus for me Neves is still playing too deep. Soon as we pushed him up the field a bit he forced Lloris in to a world class save in the bottom corner. I'm not suggesting we drop either of Neves or Moutinho, because that isn't going to happen, but I'd like to see more of MGW.
Bennett stunk the place out. After he picked up his booking he seemed very nervous both making tackles and with the ball at his feet. Time for Dendonker to come in for me.
The issue is, Nuno has picked a team all season to keep clean sheets. We haven't done that recently, but we have players in the squad (like Vinagre) who can hurt other teams and get the opposition on the back foot. I get the impression Nuno doesn't trust those players from the start - or maybe it's that the other lads haven't given him a reason to switch it up - but I would like to see Dendonker, MGW & Vinagre feature more moving forward.
Bonatini. For the first 10 minutes after he came on, I couldn't work out where he was playing or what he was doing. He seemed to be out on the left, but every time we had the ball moving forward he was behind the play. However, to his credit he did keep plugging away and I thought he made an impact in the end. I don't think he's the answer, but credit where it's due.
My final point is on the officials. When you play a top team (well, any team really), you need them to get the big decisions right. We were badly let down by the linesman and referee when they gave Doherty offside when he's about 2 x yards on. The game could have panned out in another direction if that goal is given. Very, very disappointing and it's in that scenario where I'd like the referee or officials to be hauled out in front of the television cameras to explain themselves. They are far to protected.
I could say a lot more about the match, but a lot of it has been said & this is already a long post. Overall it's very positive and a pleasure to watch this team. I hope we can get a result against Arsenal, because we don't deserve to have lost 4 on the spin.
