theforceuk said:
edd_jedi said:
Talking about the other end of the table again, what's happened to Sheffield United? They finished in the top half of the table last season, and from memory gave quite a lot of big teams a hard time. Yet this season they have one point from TWELVE games. That's got to be some kind of record for the shittest start ever?
Blades have been found out basically, lost their keeper who is sitting on the bench at Old Trafford. Last season they won a lot of games by a single goal. Injuries have also cought up with them, John Fleck for me was a big one doing his back in in October, his long range passing has been missed. They're on for the worst ever Premeir League season!
Summed up well.
edd_jedi said:
And it's confirmed, Allardyce to West Brom! Just why would anybody think he's the man for the job!?
I agree. I guess they are just hoping he will keep them up and then they can move on once they are established/safe. Not looking forward to seeing his ugly mug, or his brand of hoffball back though.
edd_jedi said:
Well as predicted it was close, and on paper losing to Liverpool 2-1 at Anfield is not a terrible result. But despite it being a good game, there were a few things that annoyed me about it.
Firstly, Spurs were SO sloppy. The possession stats flattered Liverpool somewhat because Spurs gave away the ball EVERY time they got it back. Aurier was especially bad, he was a liability tonight. but the whole team were sloppy at passing all evening.
Then there was Salah trying to 'win' a penalty by kicking the ball against the defenders arm after 10 minutes. He must have been watching re-runs of the CL final before this match. It baffles me why talented players resort to cheating. And 'his' goal was very lucky, I'm surprised he was even awarded it, should have been an Alderweirald OG due to the massive deflection IMO.
Saying that Son was a bit lucky with his goal too, because it looked very close to offside to me. Still, not going to complain if two lucky goals cancel each other out.
Spurs improved in the second half, I'd say they were even better than Liverpool for a bit early on, but I can't forgive Bergwijn for hitting the post, especially when Kane was unmarked 10 feet from him. Jose must have been fuming about that, it should have been the winner (or at least got us a point.)
No complaints about the winning goal, a decent header and Lloris had no chance.
So yeah, not a terrible result, and as I said earlier definitely not a season defining game (especially as a few other results went our way, it's not often Arsenal do Spurs a favour!) but it was so annoying to lose it like that.
Strange old game that one. The first half was a proper pasting. Spurs just could not get out or get going. Why Jose insisted they sit so deep and were so passive when Pool's back four had the ball I dunno. FFS Pool had a kid making his PL debut who was playing non league last year. Get at him! Fair play, they scored the one time they got out of their own half. It looked offside to me as well. Amazon really didn't show a decent angle of it. That split screen thing and not zooming in followed by putting one line on, then removing it and putting the other on is a bit like asking Stevie Wonder to describe it for you. Fair enough VAR gave it so it must have been on. It did look tight.
The second half was a different story. Spurs tried to play football and attack and guess what, they looked a load better!
Credit where it's due they do set up well, I think it's called "the low block". They close down the spaces are and very hard to play through. Despite all Pool's possession in the first half they didn't create many clear cut chances.
Second half Spurs probably had more 'good' chances. bergwijn's two and Kane's header. Pool had a few, Mane's shot that hit the bar and Salah's chance on his wrong foot (or was that first half?). The latter was actually very similar to Bergwijn's first chance, albeit I have no idea what foot Bergy favours.
If you looked at decent chances alone you would have to say Spurs deserved something from that game. But if you look at possession stats and shots in general you would wonder how Pool didn't win by more. As I said at the start, strange old game.
A draw would probably have been a fair enough result, albeit a better one for Spurs than Pool.
Was the Salah booting the ball at yer man's arm, inside the box? I thought it was just outside? I agree though, no idea why players do it. It is annoying.
The Dier "handball" in the first half was a non event. It looks like it hits his sleeve, it's ball to hand and not the kinda thing that you could or should give a penalty for. Not sure why it was even discussed by the commentators.
As for Salah's goal, I agree. OG all day. That's a pet pev of mine. If someone is on the goal line and a striker twats the ball at him and it deflects in off him, that is an OG. I don't care if the shot was on target etc, the last man to touch it (bar the keeper, unless it deflects back off post/bar and in off him) is the goal scorer.
Ohh obviously, that's unless he is called Christian Eriksen, in which case the goal gets given to Harry Kane lol
All in though, I still can't get my head round why Jose sits so deep. I know he has done it all season and it is his modus operandi but **** me, those tactics crippled Spurs in the first half. Amazon were showing possession stats with Pool in the 90+% bracket at various points. That's against Spurs not some bunch of non league no hopers. Second half Spurs looked so much better. I can't help but feel if they had played like that in the first 45 the result would have been very different.
Ohh and a final point, nice to see Jose doing his usual deflection BS. Gurning about Klopp on the touch line to try and detract from the fact his team lost. That man has not changed at all.
Yes, Klopp gets animated on the touch line, pretty sure I remember Jose pegging it done the touch line at OT to celebrate with his players when Porto beat Utd all those years ago. Also pretty sure I saw him nearly on the pitch shouting at one of his players midway through the second half.
The man's a hypocrite and a wanker. Have I mentioned I don't like him!?
