Unai Emery

[Drummond]

If Watkins had shot instead of trying to square for Bailey, it would have been completely different and I believe we'd have gone on to win.

It was as cagey a first half as you're likely to see. A proper tactical, and technical, half of football.

Wasn’t that flagged offside?

Yep it was after the event. But from a confidence perspective it would have made the difference.

[LukeJames]

...

[Paul.S]

How about planning and coaching the team to try to win?

Who said he didn’t?
We were wasteful quite a few times in the first half and I could see the plan. Just because it was a poor performance it doesn’t mean he didn’t have a plan to win the game.

I disagree. We set up to keep them out, in my view. That's obviously a huge mistake because we always concede. If the long ball to Watkins was our plan to win, we didn't have a plan to win.

That definitely was one of the plans but we wasted a lot of the ball, especially Bailey when we had a few spells. Bailey had a poor game and didn’t work their fullback at all.
I’m not saying I was a fan of the line up but there’s no way he didn’t want to win this. Those massive mistakes cost us and the injuries restrict what we can do.
I watched the team warming up before hand and he had both Cash and Digne whipping balls into Watkins and Luiz. Sometimes it just doesn’t work out.

[walsall villain]

If Watkins had shot instead of trying to square for Bailey, it would have been completely different and I believe we'd have gone on to win.

It was as cagey a first half as you're likely to see. A proper tactical, and technical, half of football.

Wasn’t that flagged offside?

Yep it was after the event. But from a confidence perspective it would have made the difference.

Yes it was an odd decision as he’s been scoring freely.

[Demitri_C]

Yep, when players give the ball away needlessly you’re asking for trouble. Konsa seriously fucked up which was nothing to do with systems or management.

He's been superb this season so I’m not going to give him too much of a hard time but he’s looked rather rusty since coming back from injury.

No excuses and we haven’t used them anywhere near some teams but we’ve struggled for a while with suspensions and injuries which isn’t a surprise really.

My only complaint is I’d rather our manager went for it today rather than decide to go the conservative approach. Again, after where he’s got us, I can’t knock him too much.

I blame emery for this. Konsa did not look comfortable at rb today. Should have changed it at half time.also the constant inviting of pressure was really shite. Honestly playing for a draw at home to spurs is horrible tactics. No idea what emery was thinking today with that setup.

Everyone knows to beat spurs you have to go at their back four and put pressure on them. Yet we rarely did this.

[Grande Pablo]

If Watkins had shot instead of trying to square for Bailey, it would have been completely different and I believe we'd have gone on to win.

It was as cagey a first half as you're likely to see. A proper tactical, and technical, half of football.

Wasn’t that flagged offside?

He was quite a way offside, but I think the choice to pass was indicative of the knocks he'd taken previously.

[SoccerHQ]

How about planning and coaching the team to try to win?

I think we'd have done that if we'd had a free week.

We put a fair bit on Thursday and ended it with 10 men so Spurs weren't ideal opponents at all so I wasn't surprised we were more conservative than usual today.

Second half they just lost their best CB so that was the time to step up. Instead we gift away the game in two minutes.

Wolves at home is where we need to be on it from the first minute. Very big game now and we're well overdue a win against a team that will likely be missing their three main attackers.

[itmustbe_it is!]

If Watkins had shot instead of trying to square for Bailey, it would have been completely different and I believe we'd have gone on to win.

It was as cagey a first half as you're likely to see. A proper tactical, and technical, half of football.

Wasn’t that flagged offside?

Yep it was after the event. But from a confidence perspective it would have made the difference.

Yes it was an odd decision as he’s been scoring freely.

I think the two heavy challenges (or as I saw them, fouls !) early on affected him quite a bit. Which was , of course, the point .

[Risso]

Apparently we’ve conceded more goals than any other team in the 15 minutes after half time.  Which given we’re 4th is quite something.

[Olof's Beard]

I am genuinely interested in knowing what team folk on here would have picked today. Because with Kamara and Ramsey out, the only option other than playing Cash either in midfield or switching to fill backs were:

Tim or Rogers - a big ask given neither have started a league game under Emery
Zaniolo or Diaby - both entirely bereft of form and confidence. Both too attacking.
Chambers

Part of the problem is Unai saying he trusted Tim when he left Dendoncker leave, when that clearly isn't the case. I know people don't agree but I still think it was a big mistake to let Dendoncker leave. If he is here, he plays today for me and we don't have to change formation.

We needed to go at them like we went at Newcastle at home around this time last year. We gave this Spurs team far too much respect.

[achilles]

I am genuinely interested in knowing what team folk on here would have picked today. Because with Kamara and Ramsey out, the only option other than playing Cash either in midfield or switching to fill backs were:

Tim or Rogers - a big ask given neither have started a league game under Emery
Zaniolo or Diaby - both entirely bereft of form and confidence. Both too attacking.
Chambers

Part of the problem is Unai saying he trusted Tim when he left Dendoncker leave, when that clearly isn't the case. I know people don't agree but I still think it was a big mistake to let Dendoncker leave. If he is here, he plays today for me and we don't have to change formation.

We needed to go at them like we went at Newcastle at home around this time last year. We gave this Spurs team far too much respect.

A lot of my thoughts in this post as I am not certain (in hindsight) what alternatives Emery had in his selection. Midfield is a massive problem as currently we only have SJM & Dougie as I don't think Tielemans is a midfield player more a number 10. So to let Dendonker go out on loan seems like a massive mistake, in fact our recruitment looks decidedly ropey at the moment.

[ChicagoLion]

It was 5 at the back with Cash pushing in, He set us up to counter attack and we had better chances in the first half than Spurs despite them having most possession.
The problem was that Watkins could not control the ball and Bailey reverted to the timid half arsed player we hoped we had seen the back of.
Also Spurs did what Luton did and blitzed us with aggressive pressing at the start of the second half and we folded.

[PaulWinch again]

Apparently we’ve conceded more goals than any other team in the 15 minutes after half time.  Which given we’re 4th is quite something.

You’d also think that it’s something you could really focus in on to stop.

[Rudy Can't Fail]

I get the feeling Unai is over thinking it. Whatever conclusions he came up for today's formation were just wrong. He has to trust the players, especially when those players are Konsa and Torres. Our midfield, more than any other area has been so important to us improving, winning and superior performances. Losing Kamara shouldn't mean throwing away the blue print.

[ChicagoLion]

I get the feeling Unai is over thinking it. Whatever conclusions he came up for today's formation were just wrong. He has to trust the players, especially when those players are Konsa and Torres. Our midfield, more than any other area has been so important to us improving, winning and superior performances. Losing Kamara shouldn't mean throwing away the blue print.

He went 3 in midfield because he does not believe we have 4 that can do it.