After a decent start, the worst possible International Break imaginable has quickly brought us back to reality. An abject performance at Selhurst Park was followed by an equally inept display at Rennes in Europe, which also saw 2 of our regulars, Steven Bergwijn and Lucas Moura, come off injured. Not that they ever do much in the way of scoring and creating goals, but unlike many of our players, they do put in a shift and are useful in the counter-attacking play Nuno favours. Los 3 idiotas from South America will be eligible for selection, but what shape they will be in after training in Croatia for 10 days is difficult to say. Tanganga is suspended for his bout of idiocy, while Dier is doubtful after injuring himself chasing after Hugo Lloris's hospital bowl-out. It didn't take long for things to go pear-shaped, if we get anything out of this game, it will be a minor miracle. Well, this is what rebuilds feel like.
In order to honor this Hot Chocolate reference and that great band in general, I will henceforth refer to Spurs majority owner Joe Lewis only as 'Brother Louie'.
The 3 amigos are training tomorrow, and boy do we need them, with Dier and Tanganga ruled out. Last couple of games have given me Mourinho flashbacks *shudder* .
Like Jose, Nuno sets up his teams to play on the counter, but I feel Nuno does a bit more on the training ground then run around calling the players cunts like his predecessor did. Also, if you look at our team, we have no creativity in midfield, so even if the manager wanted to play a possession game, it ain't happening with what we got.
Perfect timing by Greavsie, as usual. They say he always showed up on the right place at the right time. He's been unwell a long time so I hope this is a release for him and his family.
Line of legends for the Greaves tribute. Ossie, Mabbutt, King, Perryman, Chiv, Allen, Hazard, Dawson, Hoddle.
Good performance so far. Slightly better chances for us I would say. Lots of fouls from Jorginho, Christensen, Mount, etc to break up our moves. Some of our passing isn't quite good enough to cut through their excellent defense.
Crap. Unlucky for Dier who deflects a long shot into the post and in. Lo Celso had given the ball away cheaply.
Front three were completely isolated in the second half. Best performance since City though that’s not saying much. Spurs have been on the slide since Eriksen’s form dipped. I really haven’t seen anything about Lo Celso that suggests he’s going to fill that role. Kane looks like he’s operating at 70%. A bit unlucky on the second goal, but Chelsea were dominant and good for at least a second. Hugo MOTM. Could have been 4 or 5 without him.
Well beaten in the end, a shade unlucky. Tuchel has them humming but he's got a lot more to work with than Nuno tbf. Once Ndombele went off there was no chance of us breaking through. Agree that Kane seems to be dialing it in, I can forgive Son if he's not completely fit. Thankfully not every opponent is this strong.
What an amazing tribute to Jimmy Greaves that was. Another transitional season, but this time with a sixth-choice manager.
Was disappointing to see Nuno unable to adjust to the second half changes by Tuchel. He got the tactics right to start and TBF it’s not like we have a bench that can sub in the likes of Kante and Werner.
I think it will be a rather better season than what the last few performances indicate. What I fear is that our fans - never the best in adversity - pile too much pressure on too quickly. We need to give it time. It's a rebuild, make no mistake. It won't happen overnight.
Agreed, but it still doesn't change the fact that we are shite. This is the worst we've looked since the pre-Jol years. I already fear for Nuno, even though he has been dealt a shit hand, our chairman is not known for his patience.
We have pretty many good players. Nuno just needs to figure out how to assemble the pieces of the puzzle.