Spurs - 2024/25

Theyre mediocre in forward areas, Solanke’s the sort of okay but nothing special type of talent they regularly signed in their Damien Commoli days

Yeah, I think this is one of their problems. Their forwards plus Maddison are not very effective at translating territory into actual chances. And then while Son is a world class finisher they have a bunch of other guys with poor track records in that department (Solanke and Werner have drastically underperformed their XG over the course of their careers, Richarlison and Johnson have goal totals just under XG).

In a nutshell, Ange takes huge tactical risks (throwing players aggressively forward, especially the fullbacks) and doubled-edged selection choices (picking fullbacks and midfielders that are very quick and can press like crazy but are relatively small and don't contribute much to box and set piece defending) to get his team into the final third a lot. They can move the ball through the thirds and they can win it back. But they aren't very efficient once they get to the final third because they don't have elite talent in that department any more. And then eventually those tactical risks and double-edged selection choices lead to conceded goals.

There are definitely some parallels to late Wenger era Arsenal.
 
Romero is one of the bigger frauds in the game. Watch him on the goal, running around like a headless chicken doing everything except actually marking the most dangerous man on the other side who is standing right in his area of responsibility. All action, no brains.
It was the far post. I think it was more of Porro’s fault. He wasn’t even in the picture.
 
It was the far post. I think it was more of Porro’s fault. He wasn’t even in the picture.

Porro went out wide to contest a cross, which fizzed across to the other side and then was put back into the box. He might have reacted better but he was way out of position and always going to struggle to get goal side of Vardy at the back post.

Romero was on Vardy, could see that Porro was nowhere close, and still just abandoned him in front of goal to wander toward the near post even though the attacking player in that area was already being closely marked by Sarr. It was just a brainless reading of the situation.
 
Porro went out wide to contest a cross, which fizzed across to the other side and then was put back into the box. He might have reacted better but he was way out of position and always going to struggle to get goal side of Vardy at the back post.

Romero was on Vardy, could see that Porro was nowhere close, and still just abandoned him in front of goal to wander toward the near post even though the attacking player in that area was already being closely marked by Sarr. It was just a brainless reading of the situation.

Yeah, I think it was Romero too. Can't really count on the FB to tuck that far into the middle. I think Romero did the thing too many CBs do where they leave their man a couple feet of space in order to get closer to the ball and a good delivery just over their head is a goal, rather than trying to keep a body on the striker and make it tougher.

I'm not good in the air, but crossing the ball I'd always rather have a CB give me a chance to hit a perfect cross (especially from as close as Fatawu was) over their head then just hit and hope into a box where the 9 is marked.
 
van Der Wen is so good, isn’t he? Insane amount of pace.
 
I'm starting to think we should move on Virgil from the national team and start Van de Ven. Or put him at left back or something. I don't watch Spurs at all, but this dude is insane.
 
Crazy thing is that it's not the first time he's made an assist this season by running from his own box. He did it against us too. It's an absolutely lethal weapon to have from CB.

 
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Kulusevski created 9 chances yesterday, which is the most by any away player at Old Trafford in Prem history.
 
We made a bang average Spurs look far better than they are. That's a power we have.