Proud of Spurs for the way they played today. I saw the match and found it very interesting to watch; proper end to end stuff which is not what I expected Spurs to do when away from home against the first team to retain the CL since Milan. Kudos to Lloris for being spectacular in front of goal. And Navas at the other end (if not for that save against Kane, I think it would make for a very nervy last 20 for RM)
Spurs officially departed tonight
- Thread starter Fortitude
- Start date
Virtuoso displays aren't the point though. The other poster said that Spurs "are far less reliant on any single player to dig us out of a hole". I'm not sure that's the case.
Kane has now scored 5 of their 7 CL goals, excluding last night's own goal. He didn't score in August and they dropped 5 points at home. They couldn't beat Swansea and struggled at the weekend too when he wasn't scoring. The games so far this season show that when he doesn't score, Spurs struggle. That's the bottom line really, and that's the point I was answering.
Also worth considering that Kane's direct replacement at Spurs, Llorente, is a good player but not near the same level as Kane. In comparison, we have Lukaku/Zlatan, City have Aguero/Jesus, even Chelsea's replacement for Morata in Batshuahyi looks like he's developing well. It's more difficult to say with Liverpool as they don't really play with a central striker, and while Arsenal don't have any striker of Kane's level their replacement for Lacazette being Giroud is of a similar level to their main striker.
All of these things point to a reliance on Kane. Not in the same way as they relied on Bale, but to a fairly similar magnitude.
Any other old farts kind of stunned that we’ve got to a point where we’re starting threads to congratulate PL rivals on drawing a fecking CL group game.
Man, this place has changed...
Man, this place has changed...
I am. I was hoping for Madrid to beat the shit out of this spurs team to put them into their place. The only English team that should be having good performances or results against the big boys should be us.
Yep. Football fans in general have changed, but this place is like a fight to be seen to be the most reasonable football fan out there. I preferred a more partisan world.
There's also the fact a result like last night fecks us since they're now high on confidence and we play them in two weeks
All hail the mighty Spurs, whatever Trevor could you be more of a noob when it comes to UCL football
Aye, the rot started when people started having favourite players independent of the club they support but I think this icky trend has progressed to having favourite managers. Bring back irrational tribalism, I say. Down with this sort of thing!
Hahaha yeah. Maybe it's because I'm not English, but I generally want all other English clubs to fail, barring us, of course. Other than last season though, I wanted Leicester to progress as far as possible for some reason.
It wont last, don't worry.
Yup. Same.
Although every time I mention hating on every other English club as the "good old days" I'm usually reminded that if you go back far enough it was normal for people to root for other clubs in the league. Even as far going along to support them. Feck that, though. I demand that everyone behaves exactly the way that was the norm when I first got into football, dammit.
Spurs are still a minnow in the grand scheme of things without the funds to have an elite set of forwards at their disposal, but the football they play now means any good forward can be slotted in to finish off what others provide. Kane so happens to be that player at the moment, but they are better equipped to muddle along without him than quite a few other sides, us being one of them, I would think.
Fair enough you can point to what happens in his absence, but what do you think we'd be like without Lukaku right now? Zlatan is a long way off being expected to deliver and we can't run a like-for-like comparison for ourselves without Lukaku because we've been fortunate to have him fit up until now. I should think with the difference in football played and quality of possession, we'd struggle more than they do without Kane as our build-up and final third play doesn't have the synergy or certainty.
Then it's up to us to meet whatever their bar is and not hope to prey on the weak to get by. It's not a very United attitude to want to get by off the back of the weak, is it?
Played really freaking well. At times they were dominating Madrid, had a few lucky breaks when Eriksen/Kane weren't able to finish chances they're usually able to. But apart from that, very good. Loved the tactics as well with Llorente, really caused Madrid a lot of issues.
I'd be interested to see this too. I'm guessing it's pretty bad.
Their record at OT under him is played 3 lost 3 goals for 0 goals against 5.
I know what you mean. It's quite a weird notion - I'd have thought football was even more tribal "in the good old day"? Or what's really changed over the years?
You seriously wouldn't prefer it if our opponents play badly?
This thread keeps getting more and more surreal...
We play Spurs on Sunday and no matter how well they played against Real Madrid they never seem to play well against Liverpool. All teams seem to have bogey teams and for Spurs it seems to be Liverpool. Whether it will change this week I don't know but feeling quietly confident that we will get something out of this game
They did well but Spurs haven't arrived and won't arrive until they win something meaningful. Getting a draw against Madrid isn't a trophy.
I'm a big fan of the PL showing international pedigree as it reflects well on the standard of it as an intra-league contest.
When it was the best league in Europe with multiple SF and finalists, it elevated us even further. Besides that, the bar raises for everybody if to match up you've got to be par with top teams in Europe.
The only English sides I don't want to see actually lifting the CL are Liverpool and City, the former because it stretches their CL haul further from ours (particularly) and the latter, primarily because it puts them on the map, before the rivalry is considered.
As for us vs. Spurs, a win by any means is great, but to beat a side who are playing well and earning plaudits all over the place will gee our side up even more as they can then say they've surpassed the bar set and can move onward and upward in their own right as a good side with no ifs or buts.
I think it's bizarre. Even more bizarre is the OP going into lengthy boring responses all to justify this thread and to vehemently defend starting it in the first place. I find the whole thread completely dramatic and this could have been discussed in the Spurs season thread.
It's political correctness gone mad.
to the CE forum!I only rooted for Spurs because I hate Madrid with the burning passion of a billion exploding stars. I think hating on rival clubs can be almost as satisfying as seeing your own club win trophies. Very poor form to admit to this kind of stuff though, so I haven't said a word.
I wouldn't worry too much about that, you have to play that away in big games in Europe. If anyone criticizes it here ignore them. Everyone is just all pissy from the Liverpool game at the weekend.
It's a fact that Spurs have been the best team in the PL for the last two-three years. They finished second last year and third the year before that and it's also known fact you can't finish higher than that - hand them the PL and CL titles now. I mean they were the first team to ever draw away from home in the CL against Madrid - Poch is a groundbreaking genius and no striker has ever been better than Harry Kane who is so good that he forced an own goal last night just by being in close proximity - suggestions that the English press have overblown how good Kane is, simply because he is English, are wide of the mark. After all this is a guy who has banged them at the highest level in the knockout stages of the World Cup, European Championships and Champions League - isn't it? It's not the case that Spurs are the new Dortmund - the choice of hipsters, actually it really isn't because Dortmund were winning league titles and trophies under Klopp.
firstly, I couldn't care less what you think of the thread. Secondly, if this is what you think is a "vehement defence" then you're a very fragile fella.This thing of trying to shut down others is hilarious.
That groupthink should shutdown anything it disagrees with.
Good grief.
It's like you've gone out of your way to prove his point with this post.
This thing of trying to shut down others is hilarious.
That groupthink should shutdown anything it disagrees with.
Good grief.
I thought it was interesting to see a team go away to a game they were expected to lose and set up so defensively, but still carry an attacking threat themselves...
I guess Jose could take note.
I guess Jose could take note.
Modern heroes.
No not really. He has form.
Ah, okay.
Never got the idea of rooting for them myself. I want every other PL side to lose/crash out of the CL myself.
However, a point earned at the Bernabeu is a commendable performance for sure, regardless of whether it was a group game or a knockout. Especially so for a team that got knocked out by fecking Gent last season. No denying it.
@Fortitude
Personally I don't appreciate results that hinders the prospect of a club that I support winning a game of football.
Setting bars etc is just white noise, armchair psychologists who naively romanticise a cut throat sport
Personally I don't appreciate results that hinders the prospect of a club that I support winning a game of football.
Setting bars etc is just white noise, armchair psychologists who naively romanticise a cut throat sport
It has merit of course but none of this "they arrived" nonsense, they've achieved feck all so far. Doing well in the group stages is meaningless to a certain level. The real business starts in February.
Rather than just tossing out childish insults, you should explain what (and why) you think is incorrect in my post, which contained 3 claims:All hail the mighty Spurs, whatever Trevor could you be more of a noob when it comes to UCL football
1) The studio analysts thought that a pen should have been awarded to Spurs (for Casemiro's tackle on Llorente).
2) That if RM weren't at their best, then neither were Spurs ... because we had maybe four first XI players missing from the starting line-up, whilst RM were much closer to full strength.
3) RM have won almost all of their home CL games going back a long way, but were stopped in their tracks by Spurs last night.
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Depends what you mean 'arrived'. I am getting tired of this constant rising of the bar whenever something slightly positive is said about players or clubs. It's as if we can't praise a player other than Messi/Ronaldo or a team except the one that wins CL.
Or course Spurs aren't the best team in the competition, but by 'arrived' I think it's meant Tottenham are here to compete and will be a match for anyone despite not being among the absolute elite clubs.
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Spurs have come leaps and bounds since hiring Pochettino. But let's put this to perspective, it's only the group stages. Arsenal beat Dortmund away a few years ago, meant nowt. Rubin Kazan even beat the all-mighty Barca.
Had they lost last night, it wouldn't have been a disaster. A point at the Bernabeu isn't to be sniffed at, and they had chances to win. But the real litmus test for this side will be in February when you can expect sides like Real, Barca, PSG to be fresher.
Much as we hated Mourinho's stifling tactics on Saturday, I could see Pochettino doing the same in a two-legged affair. He didn't need to yesterday and in fact playing Winks and Llorente worked to his advantage because nothing big was at stake.
Had they lost last night, it wouldn't have been a disaster. A point at the Bernabeu isn't to be sniffed at, and they had chances to win. But the real litmus test for this side will be in February when you can expect sides like Real, Barca, PSG to be fresher.
Much as we hated Mourinho's stifling tactics on Saturday, I could see Pochettino doing the same in a two-legged affair. He didn't need to yesterday and in fact playing Winks and Llorente worked to his advantage because nothing big was at stake.
Spurs did very well last night and that was without Alli, Wanyama, and Dembele; three of their key players. Hats off to them to go to Madrid and get a draw and almost the 3 points.
Sanchez had an excellent game I thought. First time I'd really paid attention to him and was surprised how solid he was.
Aurier on the other hand seems to have really poor decision making, is too erratic to be reliable going forwards or defensively, and seems to think he's some kind of maverick player despite not being nearly the most talented person in the team.
Spurs have gone from having a reliable right full back, to having a loose cannon who is going to repeatedly cost them goals and not really offer that much in return. I reckon after the fourth or fifth time people find themselves using arguments along the lines of "apart from that moment where he cost them the game, he played well" they might start to cotton on to this.
He isn't amazing going forwards and he certainly isn't up to it defensively. See post above.
I also wasn't sure if he'd died part of his hair or if someone had hit him in the front of the head with an axe.