alexf

Ugh... Does anyone else get unnecessarily irritated by things like this?

Just shows how important a manager can be to a players career. Jamaal, Almiron, Longstaff, Murphy, Schar...the list goes on...imagine how we would all have remembered them if our only memory was the Bruce years.

Would have also loved it if Ange did a heel turn and blamed the defeat completely on VAR ?

Sky interview with Ange seems like a real dig at Arteta. Love it ?

I mean I don't wana exert our misery on anyone else but kinda had a chuckle seeing someone else suffer bad injuries like us. First real test of spurs squad and of Ange. They completely imploded after a great start in this game. That's the old spurs I remember.

Good job he plays the game so relaxed. Gonna need his old legs to stay fresh for awhile ?

Need all the players called up for internationals to pull out and rest

and that's assuming we don't pick up anymore, but we are picking up 1-2 a game currently. A few others will be close to yellow card bans again aswell. Longstaff is on 4. Assume Big Joe is on a few.

If Spurs had equivalent injuries to us: Van de Ven/ Romero = Botman Son = Isak Not to mention our other absentees: Tonali, Murphy, Barnes etc. I don't think they would cope aswell as we have. So it all depends on them keeping their key men fit. But they could definitely replicate us last year with having less fixtures than everyone else.

Yeah depends on the criteria. Suppose it would need to be someone who spent their entire career at that level maybe.

Mentioned it in the Joelinton thread but forgot how good defensively having big Joe in one of those wide positions can be. If Willock is fit to start, i'd be tempted to go with something like this. -----------------Pope------------------- Tino-----Lascelles-----Schar------Trippier -------------------Bruno----------------- ---------Longstaff------Willock---------- Almiron/Gordon------------------Joelinton ----------------Wilson/Gordon---------- Gives us atleast one fresh player to bring on 2nd half in Wilson, Gordon or Almiron. Then Joelinton can do his rotation with Willock that we know works so well and would make us defensively sound but also a threat on the counter.

One thing noticeable 2nd half. Is now Willock is back, Howe tends to prefer to put him Left side centre midfield and then he put Big Joe back out wide. When he did that we got a glimpse of 2 things that we saw alot last season: 1) that run over the top and ball from Schar can be so dangerous. 2) He shuts down defensively anything on his side with his support for the full backs. Nothing came down their right, and then when Ritchie came on and they started getting 2 runners on Tino (because they couldn't beat him 1v1) Howe switched Joe over to the right and helped shut that down aswell . If I was Howe, I'd be very tempted for this tough away game to Dortmund to, if Willock is fit to start, get the big joe/little joe left side back together and play Gordon through the middle or from the right and rotate him, Miggy or Wilson so that one of them is fresh to come on after an hour or so.

Agreed. However I just meant, he was crucial to us winning games last year in the league. I think he even missed this fixture last year did he? and we drew it. So I was just saying as a generic example, something as simple as losing Bruno for a game or so can disrupt our momentum. I would like to think we have enough without Bruno to beat this current Bournemouth team.

The frustration with one of them being injured is there are certain games that are more suited to one or the other. I think Isak would have faired far better in the Dortmund and Arsenal games for example. Whereas there as also games where we can't get the best out of him and he needs to drop deeper or wider to get involved and having Wilson's more physical approach can be beneficial. No issues with Wilsons performance against Arsenal, it's possible it was actually Saliba who got the final touch for that offside missed chance so wasn't a shocker by any means. He occupied them well, winding up Gabriel as much as he could and tried his best to hold up and bring others into play, like the Gordon chance after Almiron broke forward. Can't wait to get Isak back though, he is one of our top bracket players who can be the difference and is our future.

It's so funny isn't it how football can make you blindly see what you want to see. Of all the media coverage I have seen, you can almost tell, if anyone has a preference for either Newcastle or Arsenal their view is skewered the other way. What's more remarkable is it makes people completely contradict themselves regarding their views on VAR etc. (giving benefit to the attacker, sticking with onfield decisions and not re-reffing etc) With all that said, I thought at the time and the more I watch it back, there is nothing wrong with the goal. The more angles we are getting of it, it seems pretty clear it didn't fully go out of play. The "push" is absolutely nothing in real time and is more of a Joelinton stopping himself from falling over Gabriel, but slowed down and freeze-framed like everything always looks far worse and removes the the movement to show how much actual force there was. The "offside is nothing aswell, it's not clear if Gordon is infront of the ball and it's not even clear if the ball touches Joelinton. This was all a distraction from Arteta and ofcourse the media have eaten it up instead of condemning his nonsense roundly. The only thing the officials got wrong is how they handled the Havertz issue. Booking all our players for being rightfully upset with that tackle just sparked it off and caused things like Bruno's head going etc. The statement from in particular is shocking and should be rightfully punished. That is unfair on the VAR officials who actually correctly applied it and for rightfully took their time to get to the correct decision.

All rides on suspensions, injuries etc. No Bruno next week, we didn't win a league game without him last year did we? We have been unlucky with injuries but most of them are mid to long term so it's not gonna turn around quickly, then you are just hoping we don't pick up anymore. But we are currently picking up a fresh injury each game at the moment. Likewise if we get bit more luck with injuries and Isak, Botman come back in and then Barnes, maybe a few signings in January, possibly out of europe and then suddenly we could go on a mad winning run like we did last year in the league.

I counted atleast four times their players went down holding their face when they had never been touched on the face. Gabriel twice, Jorginho and Viera. Pathetic.

He's gonna have to try and keep his head in the reverse fixture. Because they are definitely going to target him and try to wind him up. If we play it right and sensible we could actually use it to our advantage and get one of them potentially sent off if they push it too far and we keep our heads.

They are idiots. If anything before that Havertz tackle they had successfully dampened the atmosphere and were starting to gain control through Rice. That tackle just lit the fuse in the stadium and yes, our players lost their heads slightly with all the yellow cards we received and then Bruno almost getting himself sent off. But from that moment on, all our players were putting in that little bit extra, and the fans felt an injustice which just spurred them on to be noisier. Without that moment from their dickhead we may not have won that game. Also it's been said already but they got every fucking decision their way apart from the goal and the potential Bruno forearm, so they are just skewing the narrative. How Longstaff, Gordon and Schar all get booked for that Havertz moment is poor awareness and common sense by the ref. He lost complete control by that point.

Rooney?

Forrest look alot more solid this season, could easily finish mid table.

Feel like the Arsenal game probably took a hell of alot out of the players. So won't be expecting miracles here. But perhaps if we play similar to the 2nd half and look to Willock, Almiron and Gordon for fast counter attacks and defend solidly, you never know. Would also go Tino and Trips for this also if Burn unavailable, maybe even if he is.

Yeah I, with my very basic knowledge, was convinced it would just pop again returning so soon and low and behold it did. He is gonna be a big miss in terms of squad depth. The fact we had to turn to Ritchie as the next option says alot. Was so worried it was going to cost us the win before Joelinton got switched over.

He's like Wan-Bissaka. 1-1 he always seems to get a leg in. Really impressed. Only time he looked like he as struggling was after Ritchie came on and they were able to double up on him but thankfully Eddie saw to that and swapped big Joe over.

Sort of game that suits him but he was fantastic. Aerially was superb.