Today's results went about as badly as they could for us, so we need 3 points from this trip to keep up with the leaders. A dress rehearsal for the Carabao cup tie in November, but that game will likely feature hugely changed teams with the insanely intense schedule in October and November. For tomorrow, Romero is still out so we'll see big Dave again; Skipp, the new Darren Anderton, is also ruled out. Could well be the same 11 that started against Wolves. Although there is a midweek game following this one, so who knows if the rotation will start here. Saw some of the Forest-Everton game last week, and their defence looked a bit suspect, so hoping the front 3 get some joy. It would be nice for Son to get off the mark. 11.30am EST kickoff, USA channel. COYS!!!
My niece is in town, and her husband's family (who are lovely people) have invited my mother and myself over for their big cookout today. So I've got to start driving down to the town where they live about ten minutes after kickoff. I, therefore, am not likely to see much of it. Happy for the invite, not happy to miss this one. COYS!!
Very similar to last week, Forest are dominating. Some of our passing has been atrocious, we just keep giving the ball away. Any time we play a team with a dynamic midfield, we tend to get overrun. Would like to see Bissouma feature more.
FT 0-2, Kane with both goals AND he missed a pen! The referee Craig Pawson, who was poor, missed a blatant handball by Cook and was bailed out by the VAR, the equally inept Stuart Atwell, who did give the pen, but Cook should have got a straight red for denying a clear goal scoring opportunity. Richarlisson came on for Son in the second half and provided a superb assist for Kane's second.
Always! Watched the highlights. Looked fortunate that Forrest's finishing was poor. But the counter attacks looked good. If they finish off those counters, Spurs look might dangerous on the break.
All that was stopping our breakaways was rugby tackles. 6 yellow cards for them. Personally I'm fine with somewhat grinding out the wins, keeps the hype down. It's not exactly Mourinho ball but Conte is happy to let the weaker teams come at us and catch them on the break. Don't see how the defender escaped without a straight red for the volleyball clearance. Now it gets interesting - midweek game vs. West Ham and we'll see how the team rotates. Could be starts for Lenglet, Bissouma, Richy.
Yeah, I think it should have been a straight red. But I can understand how it was borderline and deference was given to keeping the player on the pitch.
My hosts today graciously turned their massive tv from the Bears/Browns preseason game to our match for my benefit. So I ended up seeing most of it. Happy in the end ... but not exactly happy throughout. Everyone seems to be stroking us for getting results when we don't play well, and claiming that it's somehow indicative of our resilience, and commitment, and our unwillingness to be beaten, or some such. But we have this tendency to spend much, if not most, of the time being second best in terms of effort, being beaten to 50/50s and finding second balls falling most often to the opposition - and those things seem better indicators of such characteristics to me. I mean, I'm as glad as anyone that we're getting the results despite being outhustled (particularly in midfield), and I'm not suggesting that we're not moving in the right direction. But I'm not convinced of our commitment - at least not to the extent that others seem to be. Well, actually, I guess I might be, but if so, it's based more upon Antonio appearing pleased than by what I'm seeing on the pitch. If he's good with our effort, there's no reason I shouldn't be. Apologies if that comes off whingy. I'm rather pleased with the season thus far. And there's no doubt we'll improve as the squad gels. But we're making some teams look rather better than they look against others, which is a concern. Still, I'm a happy boy tonight.
Should have scored more goals, but I'll take the 3 points. Too much sloppy passing, giving the ball away needlessly. On the penalty, the ball was not going in the goal and Kane was never going to reach it, so not an obvious goal scoring opportunity. I agree we should see Richarlison, Bissouma and Lenglet next game. Not that anyone is playing badly, but gotta rotate. Not many others to bring in, with Gil, Moura, Skipp and Romero out. Maybe Doherty. Don't want to change the lineup too much, though - look how that worked out for Nuno. Bentancur looked dazed, hope it's not a concussion.
The guy basically slapped the ball away with his hand because he knew Kane had beaten him. It was intentional. Should have been a straight red.
This is the way Conte teams play, so get used to it, there will be a lot of games like this. The difference between Jose and Nuno-Ball is we don't make the basic errors in defense that plagued us in previous seasons and we don't have players like Winks and Sissoko in central midfield. Conte and his staff have beaten the boneheadedness out of the likes of Sanchez, Dier and Davies and that has made a huge difference. My one concern with yesterday was how easy it was for Forest to bypass our holding mids with just one ball.