Analysis of the goals conceded against Man City (22/1)

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PLEASE DON’T READ THIS! It will only make you feel worse. I wanted to avoid doing it, but my OCD wouldn’t allow me to. Ah well, here goes…

Samir Nasri’s goalSilva picks up the ball on the right, cuts in to where he is most dangerous, and releases Nasri with a superb through-ball, which is finished well.

Silva picks up the ball wide on City’s right.

He comes inside looking to create and exchanges passes to receive the ball back in a more central area.

This is the part of the pitch where he damages teams. As Modric closes him, he looks up and sees the run that Nasri is making.

Nasri has made a driving run in front of Walker and is darting in behind Kaboul.

Silva executes a straight pass absolutely perfectly, totally splitting our defence. Because Walker has not read the situation, Nasri is unchallenged when he receives the ball.

It’s a fine finish from Nasri – smashed beyond Friedel first time.

Joleon Lescott’s goalA City corner is bundled home by Lescott, who pulls away from Walker and wins a challenge with Parker.

As City take their set piece, Spurs are set out relatively unusually, with no man on either post (we usually have at least one man on a post!). Bale is beaten by Dzeko at the near post. Note Lescott making his run toward the back post with his marker, Walker, totally unaware.

Walker is nowhere near touch-tight to Lescott.

When Dzeko wins the flick on, Lescott has far too much space and is able to meet the ball. Parker attempts to challenge him.

Lescott is stronger in the challenge, with momentum on his side.

Does the ball eventually go in off Parker? When watching the video, it does look that way.

Mario Balotelli’s goalClichy hits a hopeful pass forward, and the bounce of the ball puts Spurs on the back foot. Balotelli gets the better of King, who makes a desperate lunge, missing the ball. Balotelli scores the resultant penalty.

Assou-Ekotto doesn’t allow the ball to roll out for a Spurs throw-in, instead choosing to smash the ball up-field. Defoe doesn’t make a challenge, as it is headed clear.

Clichy smashes the ball forward with the outside of his left foot.

The ball bounces beyond our midfield, as City look to find a way through.

It seems like Kaboul has covered round, but….

…Balotelli seems to get away from both King and Kaboul. He seems to be in such a wide position that he won’t trouble us, but when he delays his shot, King thinks he can nab the ball.

He gets so close to making contact, but Balotelli holds him off, and he brings him down.

The penalty is well-placed and cruelly makes it 3-2.

Spurs’s game-plan pretty much worked in the first half – van der Vaart and Modric played ahead of Parker in a 4-1-4-1 formation, and the game was tight and cagey. In the second, we were generally the better side, putting together some nice passing moves and creating chances. If it wasn’t for some poor defending and missed chances, we’d have come away with three richly deserved points.

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  1. I was wondering why you hadn't posted? I still feel ill. I didn't see the match and there seems to have been some issue with BAE not putting the ball out. I agree he should have and we should have accepted a draw. However, in his defence, given the near-miss by Defoe just previously and the way the first goal was achieved, perhaps he thought that there was still a chance of a goal. I didn't realise that Defoe didn't challenge the same player who had allowed him through for the first goal. This meant that he had more comfort in heading out, What followed was just a set of highly unusual circumstances. I think that Balotelli cutely fouled King and that was why he didn't reach the ball. Then again, why King decided to have a Dawson brainstorm is beyond me! without that last passage of play, that would have been classed as a very good game by us. I actually think it still was, despite the result!
    Sweetsman
    1. This is the first time since sunday i have read anything about the match and it has made me feel ill reading it! Thanks for that Windy! Lol.
    2. Sweetsman - didn't see the match?! :O But yes, agree - we did well and there were loads of positives!
    3. The stream was intermittent and I had to take my daughter out locally. By the time I had got down to the end of road we were one down, by the time I parked the car two down, as I got out of the car we were back by one, and then after five more minutes Bale had equalised. And then the dreaded words on the BBC site,"penalty to Man City". At this point, my three year old was looking at me and wondering why I looked suicidal. "Why are you saying, 'Oh no, we are going to lose'?"
      Sweetsman
  2. Two things Windy we have to move has a unit and but the run of Nasri offside but with King in and out it hard to get our defence in unison. Secondly Friedel starting position for the corner is wrong he should have bean more centrally when the cross came in and he worrys me at every corner. The penalty was cruel for a few reasons Ekotto could have wasted them vital seconds you need away from home also the clearance was cruel because when it bounced Aguero got in the way of Kings for a split second. This allowed the fresh Balotelli to stride away and get the penalty when time was up. The lessons to be learned was King struggles when he has missed so many games Dawson should have come on to help King who look tired instead of Pienaar.DAVSPURS
    1. I agree on Friedel actually... but had Dzeko's header flashed towards the near post we'd have been saying the opposite!
  3. I don't blame Benny for not putting the ball out in the last seconds, as we nearly saw with Defoe, the game was still winnable. Audere est Facere
    1. Can see why he did it, and he commented on Twitter that he felt happier getting it up-field and then defending the potential attack.
  4. What a cruel catalogue of disastrous events in the last five minutes.
    Defoe should have won it for us though and I cannot understand why he hesitated twice as Bale went almost to the byline.
    Perhaps he really doesn't understand the offside rule, the 'behind the ball' bit.
    Not your area of 'expertise' I know Windy.

    More positives than negatives from the overall game though.
    1. Wasn't it just, Jimmy? Totally agree on Defoe's hesitation - bizarre. He was yards onside, literally don't understand why he slowed his run and started to run into the centre, where Hart was.

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