Not huge on him, but he really loves the game, and it comes out in his commentary. Over all thoughts after sitting on this for the day... I think this match shows more the weakness of Man City than the strength of Spurs. Man City dominated and really should have put the match away in the first half. Yes, Spurs were lucky to get the VAR ruling, but overall it was a failure of Man City to capitalize on their domination. Also, for as solid as Winks is, I think there is something to be said that Spurs have scored 4 of their five goals this season after he was subbed out of the match. That is a bit worrying on one hand, but shows the possibilities Spurs have on the other. Again, Walker-Peters showed, to me, he deserves his spot. For quite a bit of the match he was faced with a 2 v 1 and survived fairly well. And this is not a Villa or West Ham 2 v. 1, but De Bryune and Aguero (or somebody else). I was slightly disappointed with Ndombele, though he did seem to get better/more involved as the match went on. But he seemed to have difficulty with the speed of the match. Can't wait for the Son to reappear.
Good to know, thanks! If all their chances were low percentage (I know some weren't, those in the highlights), then job well done.
I gotta agree with Pook on this one - it was unearned. Man City were just hugely inefficient in front of goal. A team like that should have done better, should have won.
That’s what I was referencing. For all their superior play, possession and shots, too many of the latter were not real threats. Hugo made two or three top quality saves, which a good goalkeeper should be expected to make. They hit the bar once and Rose cleared a goal off the line. There are those cliches about some games “they could have won by 5 goals”, “the goal keeper stood on his head”, “the ball just wouldn’t go in”, for me it just wasn’t that kind of dominance from City.
there's also that winning goal that was disallowed due to a violation that literally no one saw live. I wonder what percentage of goals scored over the last … well, ever … would be disallowed if we'd been able to go back, view them all in their buildup, and scratch them for any technical violation of any rule whether noticed live or not. There'd be rather a lot of them, I'm sure. And the notion that it would improve the game is laughable. It's a disaster. But anyway, I digress. What I was disagreeing with was the point you had made, "watching it live 2-2 wasn't an unearned scoreline". Again, it's subjective, so I'm not trying to bash you on it, but 'watching it live', I was saying "how on earth are we level?", whether at 1-1 or 2-2. Literally. Out loud. In a room by myself. They battered the piss out of us. With less than a minute left in injury time, I still expected them to get the winner. … ok, forget that last bit. I do that even when we're dominating. But they strolled through our midfield, and our defending in the final third wasn't a controlled, methodical denial of scoring opportunities. It was a desperate throwing of bodies in front of anything and everything. We created absolutely nothing. Other than having taken advantage of their two mistakes, I'm not taking anything of value from that game but the point.
I wouldn't necessarily say that Moura's goal was a mistake on their part. As he showed for the entire time he was on the pitch, he was just quicker than anybody Man City had.
It was a good goal well-taken, so full credit to Moura for that. But no one picked him up. He just strolled on to the pitch, into the box, and onto the inswinger, without a hint of defending. Pep won't have been happy about it. I'm through banging on about it now. On to the Newcastle game, where I'm thinking Bruce's boys might just get a hiding.
If we have Eriksen, Ndombele and Sissoko on the pitch, Winks to me is surplus to requirements. He doesn't have the pace or power of the 2 Frenchmen and doesn't have the ability to pick out a killer pass or score a goal that Eriksen has. And he is not defensively adept - he had no clue where to position himself on the 2nd City goal. Winks will have a tough time getting into the XI once Son and Dele return, and Lo Celso is up and running.
Fair enough. I was thinking the same thing, but from the perspective of City’s finishing being rubbish rather than Spurs’ defending being brilliant. Two sides of the same coin. After that performance Spurs certainly aren’t in the title conversation. City and Liverpool are on another level.
I agree. Winks is not bad, but having him, Sissoko and Ndombele all in at the same time is not effective because none of them are much of a scoring threat (Ndombele's screamer again Villa notwithstanding). You need more than three guys who can score on the field.
the quality of Winks, it seems to me, is almost entirely down to the movement and positioning of the players in front of him. when we're dynamic, and they're finding spaces and making defenders/defending mids react, he finds them between the lines and good things happen. when they're stagnant or too compact, he's passing sideways and backward and good stuff happens less. and at that point, we're saying the same thing ("he's ineffective") about everyone on the pitch. to his credit, he doesn't turn it over too often, so I don't see him as a weakness either way. but he's not going to be the one who can change our dynamics by changing how and where he moves. or put differently, if we're flat, he's not gonna be the one to change it.
To add to this, Spurs were pretty stagnant when he has been on the pitch in these last to matches. So, yeah, meets what you say.
A lot depends on Ndombele's eventual role; whether he's seen as a defensive ball-winner who can play a bit, or whether his relentless energy is better in a box to box role. The lineup so far has been a bit dictated by who's available (no Dele or Son, Lo Celso not there yet), but there are a multitude of options when everyone is fit. Personally, I see it as Winks or Dier holding, Ndombele or Sissoko box to box, Dele or Lo Celso in the more advanced role. Eriksen too (for the moment?) but he's more part of the front 3 than a midfielder as things stand, especially with no Son. Back to the City game, I think we deserved a point. Villa came in for some criticism for going into their shell against us, but had they managed to hang on to the win or a draw they would have deserved it despite the stats being loaded against them - if you're playing someone clearly better than you (whether that's in general or just on the day), get yourself into a position where you have something to hang on to, and be good enough to keep it. We were clinical with our 2 goals, so yeah it was backs to the wall but we had something to defend and (unlike Villa) we were good enough to keep it. Lucky with the VAR "goal" (correct decision with the rules as they are, but definitely lucky) but we got a point away at City, something that very few teams will get.
I'm looking forward to seeing more of Lo Celso. I never saw him play before, and last game was just a glimpse.