They had NO ONE in the box. They dropped Son outside of the box and basically left Kane alone (and not even all the time). The heatmaps tell a story of a broken team playing a losing strategy.
I can't believe that VAR didn't ask the ref to look at it. That seems crazy.
The fans haven't. They sing his name at games.
Yeah, I saw this story yesterday too and would absolutely prefer that we get Ralf + Julian as a package deal. They could set us up for years, and if Julian decides to leave but Ralf stays, it would be the way this is supposed to work.
No, because Conte was never going to be a long-term fix. He's had 8 jobs and only one of them lasted longer than 2 years, and that one only lasted 3. The hope was that either Conte would win something while here or at least turn things around after the Mourinho/Nuno debacles so that the club would be in a better position when Conte inevitably imploded and quit in a fit of rage in a year or two. It didn't work out, and led to some serious strategic mistakes because Spurs tied their transfer strategy to Conte when he was never likely to stick around for long.
The difference here to me is that we know Rangick was directly involved in building an effective, modern scouting and recruiting system from scratch which has outlived his involvement, while Paratici's signature accomplishment appears to have been financial crimes. They both tick the box of "A director of football" but their accomplishments are quite different in that role.
I'm pretty shocked no manager has tried Deki at RWB and Danjuma at RW. You could put Richy at RW too, my bigger issue is the fact that we have options at RW but much fewer at RWB. Porro looks like a good player, but his defense is shambolic. I'd love to put Porro at RMF in an old-school 4-4-2 in front of Emerson (or Tanganga right now). Perisic at LMF ahead of Davies is about the same as as Perisic at LWB. Our left side was actually functional when it's Davies ahead of Lenglet.
It's an underrated thread to the season how badly injuries hurt the team. They find a two that is somewhat functional in the wildly demanding Conte always outnumbered MF, Bentancur goes down for the season. They find a wingback pairing that really starts to click in Davies/Emerson, both get hurt. A top choice fully healthy and fit front 3, let alone all 4 top front guys, rarely all together.
Ah thanks for the correction. But didn't that happen a couple of seasons ago? With Spurs no less?
Spurs once got screwed (2011-12 season) when Chelsea won the CL while finishing 6th in the PL. Under the old rules, this took a CL spot away from Spurs (who had finished 4th) as you could have a max of four. They then changed the rule so that in this scenario five spots would be awarded. But this only holds for a scenario in which the CL winner finishes out of the 1-4 places domestically. If the CL winner finishes in a CL qualifying spot, nothing changes (this happened for example when Chelsea won CL in 20-21 while finishing 4th and when Liverpool won CL in 18-19 while finishing 2nd).
Yep. at the surface level it would seem tough for Spurs to catch Brighton given Brighton has two games in hand, but the Brighton schedule is brutal and it's very possible they get nothing from the game against Arsenal, Newcastle and City. Spurs do have to on the road to Leeds and Villa, but those aren't impossible games to win.
I'm still buzzing from yesterday, which is the best I've ever seen Everton play, and I don't want to detract from them. But I think Brighton are starting to come back to earth a bit, on the evidence not only of the Everton game but also their recent game against Forest and the other times I've got them. I don't think it's anything more nuanced than fatigue and injury. The length of the season is a brutal leveler. Mitoma has slowed down, Mac Allister had to run to the end of the world cup and he's not looking as fresh, gross actually pulled up lame late against Everton, grabbing his hammy.
Balance that with the fact that they outplayed and ultimately got the winner against United though. Should be a fun finish. If they grab 6 points and lose the other 3, that still puts a fair amount of onus on our slapdick Spurs.
