Pedro looked good when he came on, changed the flow of the game and as a team, we were a little better. Other than that, our midfield is non existent, defence is crap and there are no signs of us ever getting a clean sheet let alone grabbing any points from games. Rinse and repeat this until the end of the season. Can we just end it already.
On the stream I saw it looked like JP got a toe end on the ball just before the keeper wiped him out.
Really thought we would hang on, it's utterly soul-destroying to lose in that way. But it happens so much to us. Overall it was a much better performance that last time, at least in the scoreline, and there were periods of the second half where we looked like we might even threaten a possible win. We did get that one chance, but in the end it wasn't to be. What is it about ref's and when the "BIG SIX" are not winning they add on as much time as possible? Eight minutes was a little overkill, and you just knew it was going to happen. However, we did ourselves absolutely no favors in attempting to stop the goal - Bachamnn glued to the line with our defence AWOL where it needed to be. For the majority of the game it seemed as though it might be one of those where we do just enough. It's really, really frustrating to lose to such a late goal, but I should be used to it by now. Swansea, Crystal Palace, Man Utd the list is very long. Spurs deserved it - they were almost certainly the better side, and to only lose by one goal is a much better result than most of us feared. However, we are still on thirteen points and have lost six on the spin. Gino's faith in giving Claudio what he needs must happen this month. Shockingly bad that Ken Sema played 89mins today, he was by far the worst player on the pitch. However runner up goes to Masina and Cathcart, the latter who so nearly had an assist for Spurs in the first half with a downward header. Masina needs to look up more, and stop blasting the ball to nobody all the time. We won't play Spuds again now at least, and now we have two games coming up where we absolutely cannot lose. Two points minimum is the allowance. Incredible how we are not cut adrift at the bottom. We still have shot at survival, but we cannot continue playing games where we pack the defence and try to hold out. It didn't work at Brentford and it didn't work today. We do not have the players capable of doing that. I am not as angry as I was after West Ham, because there were glimpses of improvement and things that can be worked on. I am still thinking Claudio is the man to lead us to safety - but he cannot keep working with broken tools and broken promises. Shout box again awesome guys. Thank you to all who took part.
I was watching at home and it was a definite pen - even the commentators and summarisers said VAR had to overturn it. Ref too busy preening himself ready for his big moment when a fan was taken ill and he could be centre of attention for 15 minutes
Thinking back, Markoa's flounce really was well-timed; probably the second best timing possible given he has managed to avoid all this. The only improvement would have been if he'd done it a week or so earlier, before he posted his diatribe going aggressively spazzy/mental at anyone on here who suspected we might not be riding a glorious Xisco wave straight to European qualification as a result of a single caveated opening day surprise victory.
They're second half of the season fixtures, and they're against our most direct relegation rivals. Unfortunately, being realistic, two points is nowhere near an acceptable minimum allowance - four would be only somewhat helpful, frankly. If we don't get two wins (which I'm by no means predicting we will) I don't see where we are expecting to get the required points from over the course of the rest of the season.
Only saw the match from about half an hour in but we looked like we actually defended well , albeit in numbers and then pushed on in the second half a bit . I’m assuming Ranieri chose those tactics because of the players currently available . For all that though I never felt we weren’t going to concede that late goal and there it was ! The players must have no confidence in themselves to actually keep a clean sheet. It’s so frustrating because the impetus that point and clean sheet could have given them, Cupid have made a world of difference to the rest of the season. So the better defensive performance for 95 minutes was not much consolation really. I thought it looked like a one bit the worse decision was blowing up when Pedro had just broken through , having ignored the previous fouls. That was essentially denying a finder chance for Him. Brainless refereeing . we just desperately need points now , which puts a huge amount of pressure on the Norwich and Newcastle games .
Kucka cannot play 90+ minutes. Was tired by the end of the first half. Why is Sema starting???? JP was our best out there and should have started. Also **** that ref. It was defo a pen. And why did he stop JP?!?
There were positives to take from this, in the way we improved from Wednesday, but overall, at this stage in the game, is that enough? I mean, we've already wasted better performances at Leicester and against Chelsea and others, but we've got nothing to show for any of them. In the context of our season, I guess, if we spring on and win the next 2 games, then we will all have a completely different outlook, but anything else and you start to believe that we are just not going anywhere but down. First half we were content to play on the back foot with zero out ball and it was quite a miracle that we got to half time without conceding. Spurs must shoulder much of the blame for that, because despite plenty of space on the wings, they barely threatened. It must have been an awful 45 minutes for any neutrals. Second half, we looked better and the game opened up a little. 3 referee decisions I questioned were the Pedro pulled back FK, the tackle on Louza and the penalty shout. Both the tackle on Louza and the penalty looked better than 50/50 to me, so what is the use of VAR if they are just going to reinforce referee bias in favour of the 'big' sides? Sema did a job defensively I suppose, but he is a joke of a footballer at this level. So slow, utterly useless on the ball and just not cut out to be playing in the Premier League, but saying that, he's got that in common with Cathcart, Ekong, Massina and Kucka, however, as a unit, until the end, these inept players had actually performed well, with work rate and tackling. Bachman made a couple of decent and one outstanding save, but for the goal, he was rooted to the line as usual. That image someone shared above, showing the deep line, rooted goalkeeper and zero challenge is the reason why we are where we are. 93 minutes of playing well counts for zero when you concede in the end and lose. There are no awards handed out for effort. Overall, it's hugely frustrating to have got so close, but to see the same old, same old predictable flaws being front and centre and rendering all the effort, improvement and tactical awareness utterly worthless. Playing well and losing is still losing and that's not good enough at this stage. JP was great.
Forgot ****ing Covid passports, those sitting in the Graham Taylor stand should be made to prove that they've had an ECG in the last week. Until the latest emergency I was starting to believe we'd be spared the sight of Conte sprinting along the touchline with his syrup flapping in the breeze.... Clear penalty for the foul on JP - although Spurs should have had one in the first half when Donkey Ekong bundled into The Chin Deserved a point at least
Even had Bachmann got the ball but flew in like that it would be awarded to Kane or Son. The potential red on Louza too.
6 years of Pozzo Prem football, have we signed a single central defender who has been consistently PL quality?
Ridiculous decision by ref not to play advantage on JP. It looked at least a booking for the foul in the centre circle too.
They wouldn’t have needed to check on VAR. Had it been Kane the referee awards the penalty in the first place.
I actually disagree with this, and a lot of the other people on here claiming the defending from the FK was atrocious. Obviously when you concede a goal you have to look at what you could have done differently, but a FK from there taken in that way is very difficult to defend against. Take the criticism of Bachmann for instance, he's in the middle of his goal as the ball could either be headed in near post or go straight in at the back post as per Son's last winner vs us. Imagine the kittens our fans would have had if he'd committed more to the near post and Son scored the same way again. The main problem was Sierralta who for once maybe mistimed his leap a bit, but even then that would be harsh criticism; really it was just a fantastic ball from a dangerous position and an enormous leap. Giving the FK away there in the first place was really the biggest error. Kucka probably would have been subbed earlier had we not already needed to use Cleverley elsewhere.
I know experience doesn't make you a good player, but we've got one of the oldest teams in the division. The players are so thick they can't stop themselves making stupid fouls in the 93rd minute though.
My observations from today. We were absolutely terrible in the first half. Dennis was probably subbed at half time because he said something like “if these ****s can’t be bothered why should I”. I can understand why he would say that. We played better in the 2nd half. When JP got the free kick for getting his shirt pulled, should the Spurs player of been sent off. JP was through the defenders and 1 on 1 with the keeper? It was not a penalty, Louries player the ball first. Claudio’s master plan of playing with 10 men nearly worked. Must have been inspired by Southampton’s efforts. Kane is a most unlikeable person. He cheats and moans all of the time and acts as an intitled brat not how an England Capt should behave.
He wasn't, there was a Spurs defender directly in front of him in the box. And as for the penalty, it was - JP kicks it into Lloris then gets fouled by him, which is a penalty.
That was frustrating. Ok the 1st half we kind of rode our luck albeit Spurs didn't really create that much but after the break was more positive. Good penalty shout then let it slip with a silly foul from Kucka who actually did well generally. Another battling performance against a top side. Hope the fan in the LGT is ok.
I have not seen the replays in detail. My opinions were from looking at the screen (from an angle) over the directors box at the time. I will have to see them again to see what you have said.
So I thought there was no VAR check on the Pedro 'foul', or was there? Did our players surround the ref to push for a VAR decision when the ball finally went out of play? Or did we meekly accept the ref's first decision? Genuine questions as on the Watford commentary Mooney and Marks just kept saying that the penalty was about to be given when suddenly a re-start took place instead. I've only seen the Sky short highlights which show 2 Spurs penalty claims but no sign of Pedro's run into the box before the late whistle or this 'penalty'. Big 6 bias obviously but even us minnows deserve an occasional bit of consideration don't we? All this seems mighty baffling.
