leffe186

It's genuinely one of the reasons why we're in this spot tbh.

Won't lie, my first reaction was "nah". Not because I know anything about it, just that it sounded a bit made-up.

Not ideal, but also not Arsenal. I stopped thinking about Chelsea as a proper club when Abramovich came in tbh. I mean, it's annoying they exist, but I just don't care that much about their fans any more. Wasn't a conscious decision, it just changed.

It took a while for the tweet to load so I tossed a coin - one side Liverpool, one side Arsenal.

I'm a 52-year-old Spurs fan - that wouldn't help me.

It bears repeating - the number of games really does take a toll. You can make it work if you have a huge and deep squad that stays generally uninjured as that allows people to recover from injury properly and for resting uninjured players. See Arsenal, Chelsea, Liverpool last year, often Man City. If you are in the CL and still want to compete in the cups, when you get over a certain number of injuries and/or the squad is not big and deep enough it becomes a bit of a spiral where injured players may come back in too early, uninjured players don't get rested enough and are tired and more prone to injury etc etc. (Spurs, Newcastle). If you are in the lower European Cups it can be easier to rotate players as long as you have a strong squad (Villa) but you still run the risk of injuries that will start to affect your performance in all comps (Forest, Palace). Bournemouth and Man U (and Brentford, and Fulham, and Everton...) have hardly any injuries right now. I don't think that's a coincidence, and it is making a significant difference.

Wish he'd trademark that awful haircut so nobody else gets to have it.

Somebody else has to stand up though. Hopefully it's Man City, or Chelsea, because it isn't going to be us this year.

Kolo Muani has a fractured jaw btw . What’s the fucking point. Just get enough points to stay up and then restart next year. Supposedly he had missed a total of three games through injury his entire career before coming to us. It has to be a literal curse at this point.

I think that’s because the whole thing just doesn’t work. Without going into specifics, Richarlison and Johnson aren’t good enough in general play and not having Udogie on the left nullifies a lot of the threat on that side.

Very happy with Kolo Muani - just that of course he immediately got injured and somehow managed to miss multiple weeks with a dead leg. He should be starting up front today instead of Richarlison.

Yeah we’ve still got 10 men out and a couple of guys on the bench are a bit gimpy. It’s frustrating. Man U have one injury - still Martinez. We get a couple of guys back (Romero, Udogie) then a couple of other guys get injured (Kudus, Bergvall). It’s not just that there are a ton of injuries, it’s both that there are a handful of long term ones but we can’t even get any continuity from the others because they are constantly getting injured or needing to be eased back in. It’s a combination of things. The squad is made up of injured players, a handful of not-good-enough players (Richarlison, Johnson) and a lot of newer younger players, some from abroad. Those players are fine if you’re working them gradually into an established structure but all at once with a new manager with a very different approach? That’s what we’re seeing. The big problem with today’s match is that a lot of us were hoping Frank would just start the same team as midweek to see if they could continue to develop partnerships and build confidence. That would have meant Bents and Sarr in the middle, Udogie at LB, Odobert at LW and Kolo Muani up front. Instead we’ve got Palhinha and Sarr (losing Bentancur’s ability to retain and recycle the ball), Spence at LB (losing Udogie’s width and dynamic attacking), Richarlison up front (Kolo Muani is better in almost every way) and the clever technique of Odobert on the left which was working so well with Simons and Kolo Muani. I think many people don’t expect too much with so many players missing and so much turmoil. It’s just frustrating when the changes being made seem to be counterproductive in very predictable ways. It feels like TF is still trying stuff out when it’s clear that one or two players just need to be out of the team for a bit, and one or two others need a run together.

When keepers could pick up back passes Liverpool would get ahead then just knock it around at the back for a while.

Calafiori’s been playing there I believe. I think that’s partly what Tuchel said - that Lewis-Skelly needs to be playing more. The nice thing is that it feels like he wasn’t just saying that on principle - which has happened in the past - but that it was based on how he actually played in the England matches. Spence is a funny one. When we signed him we expected him to be a marauding RB but his best performances have been as a defensive LB. It definitely feels like Spurs are better-balanced with Udogie on the left, but I thought Spence did everything he could to take the England opportunity. He was really good on the left and dovetailed well with Gordon and Rice, then transitioned really smoothly to the right and looked dangerous albeit against a bad team. I think Spence’s versatility is perfect for a tournament, and he’s unlikely to get embarrassed by even the best wingers. You do sacrifice width on the left though.

Thoughts on the squad? I kinda like it tbh. It’s refreshing to watch us play and think “we’re really good, but these players were a bit rubbish” and then they just get dropped. I thought Loftus-Cheek was terrible, Lewis-Skelly was unconvincing and Watkins wasn’t up to the level required. There might be other reasons for their omission, but it’s nice to feel the manager sees the same things we do.

That might actually be a universal feeling, but it’s certainly the feeling of my generation.

Yeah, and funnily enough I think Redcafe is generally quite reasonable and representative of a broad range of fans. Post-match comments from Redcafe are often mature and thoughtful - and authentic. There's a decent cross-section of fans and fan experiences - young & old, stupid and bright. RAWK is awful, but also possibly quite representative. Arsenal-mania likewise. I tend to bracket them together, and have more time for Redcafe, GrandOldTeam and the West Ham one - KUMB. Redcafe even had its own pet Spurs fan for years (is he still on there?) Glastonspur.

It‘s one of my bugbears, but every European week is a reminder that however bad reffing is in England, it’s worse on the continent.

Anyone watching it? Just checked, you equalized on 61, they scored on 62, they got two yellow cards on 64’ (one was a second yellow), then another yellow after a sub at 67’.

Yeah, he ends up squaring it for somebody else, like when he did it at Old Trafford, or when he did it against Everton. This time he just decided to finish it himself.

There’s a non-zero chance that the Puskás award - in theory open to pretty much any (now male) footballer, team or country on the planet - will be won by Spurs in three of the last six years

Some tribute to him was defaced too apparently. The word modern was redundant btw.

Yeah that’s his point though. Less jeopardy.

Wouldn’t mind a chuckling Tuchel emote if such a thing could possibly exist. Maybe AI could make one.

Says even more that Richarlison still gets picked.