Amadaeus
Pochémon Fan Club Chairman
Dembele VERY RARELY lost the ball outside our box. Maybe a few times in his entire career at Spurs, he rarely lost the ball full stop let alone in such a dangerous position. Rose lost it twice in an area where you simply cannot give the ball away because he's simply not used to the role. Proper central midfielders know when to take risks and when to play it simple, and outside your own box is when you play simple football. Dembele used to go on his runs when he was deeper in to our own half.
Giving Rose credit because Torreira decided to steam in to him is again, a bit of a stretch. He performed the role poorly and we totally lost control of the game after we scored, partly because of giving the ball and fouls away far too cheaply which led to Arsenal being able to get on the front foot. Part of that was the football we were reduced to playing due to the presence of Llorente, and part of that was because Rose was positionally lost and playing CM like he was still a left back.
The second half was a tactical mess from Poch, of that I don't think there can be much doubt. It's no big deal and happens to all coaches (nobody gets it right all the time) and certainly doesn't undo all the fantastic work Pochettino has done at our football club, but it still was a mess. I'm almost tempted to say that moving Rose to CM was a statement from Pochettino that we badly need midfield investment.
Dembele is more established midfielder, but he has lost the ball mutiple times before. You can’t expect to believe an left back midfielder in Rose will adopt to such a role so quickly and not make mistake. As I laid out, the result was not affected by such change and the moves showed a lot of positive and with more time on the clock, it would have reaped more beneficial as his movement caused arsenal a red card. Hard to say it was a mess when he got a result from it. Fans has high expectations from Pochettino and I don’t blame them. He has done well and managed to get a result today.
Most shot, most possessions, better passing, with whoscored showing that his side were overall better than Arsenal. Once again, you can say stats don’t reveal the whole story, but at least it supports my claim more than it does yours.