| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* 20:39 - Aug 24 with 2914 views | OnlyHereForTheNiko |
Is it safe for me to show my nose yet? 
No doubt I’ll get the usual dog’s abuse from some of you, but I'm not here to gloat (that's not my style). Truth is that I probably saw more of your team last season than I did of my own, so I was interested to see how you'd do against us.
One of two things was going to happen today. Either we would have a Europa League hangover & you'd catch us sleeping. Or, we'd show up & do the business. And I have to say, I haven't seen us perform that well for a while. Eric Dier (a player I genuinely knew nothing about, before we signed him) has been a revelation, so far. Lamela is obviously happier, having a fellow Argentinian as his gaffer. Eriksen always has been a class act. Finally, it looks like some of the others have upped their game and are ready to compete.
Last season, we suffered because, having bought in so many new faces (with the money from the sale of Bale), they didn’t knit together. Great players on paper, but it just didn’t work on the field. I felt that was part of your problem today. Of our starting eleven, only one of them (Dier) wasn’t at the club, last season. In your team, there were six newbies (I’m including Remy in that). Language barriers; not knowing how or when someone will move or where they like the ball played - it makes a hell of a difference. And I guess even more so, when you're introducing a new formation too.
Personally, I’m not sure about this 3-5-2, which was made to look more like 5-3-2 today, in that your wide players were so busy defending that they had little or no opportunity to break forward. Therefore, your midfield got over-run & your forwards got next to no service. For the system to work, it needs speed — not just a few fast runners, but people with speed of thought, who can play the ball quickly and make the cross-field pass that’ll set something up. What happened to that nice lad, who played in your no. 19 shirt, last season? 
You were unfortunate to catch us on a good day. Not all of your days will be this bad. |  | | |  |
| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 20:53 - Aug 24 with 2866 views | GloryHunter |
Danny Rose was MOTM. Had a blinder, played Isla out of the game, and the fourth goal was his. We looked like a scratch team who had never played together before (which was true), but Rose made the difference, in defence as well as attack. |  | | |
| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 20:57 - Aug 24 with 2846 views | Juzzie |
Spurs defence rarely got deeper than their own penalty area. Rose took out three of our players on the left halfway line that led to the 4th.
I felt we played well last week and didn't deserve to lose. Not this week.
I think,again, we played the occasion (Harry, Jordan, hoddle etc back at WHL) rather than the game.
It felt like one of the longest games ever, seemed to take ages to finish. |  | | |
| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 21:14 - Aug 24 with 2787 views | OnlyHereForTheNiko |
| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 20:53 - Aug 24 by GloryHunter |
Danny Rose was MOTM. Had a blinder, played Isla out of the game, and the fourth goal was his. We looked like a scratch team who had never played together before (which was true), but Rose made the difference, in defence as well as attack. |
He's a player with a lot to prove, especially now that he has young Ben Davies breathing down his neck. Scored a cracker in a North London derby, a few years back, but hasn't done much since. Had a really good game today though.
Having said that, I'd have still picked Lamela for MOTM. [Post edited 24 Aug 2014 21:17]
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| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 22:03 - Aug 24 with 2626 views | eastside_r |
You were good today but didn't really need to be. If you had been 5-0 up at half-time it would have been a fair reflection.
Not sure old fatso would have been much help to us today.  |  | | |
| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 23:19 - Aug 24 with 2501 views | BasingstokeR |
DIer himself is still shocked he got away with his handball before the corner he scored from. The linesman was right on top of it looking at his hand slap the ball and still didn't give it. |  | | |
| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 00:30 - Aug 25 with 2407 views | isawqpratwcity |
| *Opens door quietly* *Peers in* on 22:03 - Aug 24 by eastside_r |
You were good today but didn't really need to be. If you had been 5-0 up at half-time it would have been a fair reflection.
Not sure old fatso would have been much help to us today. |
this. |  |
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