Analysis of the goal conceded against Hull City (1/2)

Long’s goal – Shane Long deceives Jan Vertonghen in the air, and then dashes past him to get on the end of a pass from Nikica Jelavic (or an attempted clearance from Danny Rose!), and beats Hugo Lloris.

1

A long kick from goalkeeper, Steve Harper, is attacked by Jan Vertonghen and Shane Long. In committing himself to this, Vertonghen has pushed rather a long way up the pitch.

2

Long seems to outmanoeuvre Vertonghen, lets the ball bounce, and is on his toes quickly.

3

Danny Rose and Nikica Jelavic compete for the awkwardly bouncing ball, and it appears that it’s actually Rose who inadvertently hooks the ball on. Note Dawson, having pushed up to cover for Vertonghen’s charge forward. Kyle Walker has not clocked the danger, and is caught on his heels.

4

The accidental through-ball confuses everyone, and Long continues his run to burst through the centre of our defence. Walker’s delay in covering round means that he’s now got no chance of making it to the ball first.

5

Long shows enough pace to get ahead of Walker and Vertonghen…

6

…and lifts the ball over Lloris.

 

This was a very patchy performance from Spurs, where our passing was often sub-standard amidst lots of pressure from a highly motivated Hull side. Our central defenders in particular showed a lack of patience, and ended up with very low pass completion rates (Dawson 63%, Vertonghen 77%).

The first half was particularly disappointing although Spurs improved significantly after the break. However, despite dominating possession, we didn’t trouble Hull’s defence enough, especially after getting our slightly fortuitous equaliser.

Personally I felt that David Meyler should have seen red in the second – his first challenge on Bentaleb was a borderline red card in itself, but his second foul on the same player should certainly have seen him shown his second yellow rather than his first.

Sherwood’s reluctance to use his substitutes was a real frustration. Aaron Lennon was largely woeful, often failing to show for the ball or get upfield to support his teammates, yet he was left on the pitch for the whole 90 minutes. Likewise, Soldado had a very disappointing match but was not replaced.

A draw away at Hull – who beat Liverpool, and have only conceded 9 goals at home (the same number that Chelsea have conceded at Stamford Bridge) – is not the end of the world. But it did feel like the match was in our hands after we equalised, and Sherwood’s lack of action from the bench has left many questioning his ability to change a game.

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  1. You forgot to mention that both forwards were offside from the goal kick. Watch it again from the aerial angle from the Spurs end. Both offside. I'm still puzzled as to why no one has picked up on this. Long is offside and although he doesn't play the ball, he attempts to (I believe he gets called on this later in the match). Nonetheless, the ball bounces to Jelavic, who also comes from an offside position, to flick the ball on to Long to race on and finish. Two offsides.
    1. You can't be offside from a goal kick!
      1. This.
      2. Lol. I think.
    2. Im pretty sure you cant be offside from a Goal Kick! Check the rule book before making silly excuses for a woeful performance! COYS
  2. Paulinho was the worst player on the pitch. He may have scored, but the rest of the game he was anonymous.
    1. He was hit and miss - completed lots of passes and made lots of bursts forward, but didn't get on the ball as much as I'd like.
  3. Jellybitch may have been a yard offside, but again Walker fails to spot the danger as well as Dawson! Neither of these 2 are good enough for a team hoping to be champions!!!
    1. Walker's been our best player this season in my opinion, but I agree that he should have done better here.
      1. Walker is always getting caught out. He needs to learn to defend.
      2. I cant honestly think of too many times Walker has been caught out, the rooney goal possibly, but that seemed more a case of whatever part of the body you can and got unlucky. Anyway, the overall picture is that unlike last year we are not left with a lasting impression that Walker can be relied on to give up one goal a match.
  4. ...forgot to say I voted Hugo as our MOM, as he usuallyis the best player we have out there. What a shame he will be phukkin off at the end of this season!!!!
    1. Thought Hugo made a few risky decisions today as he has ever since the Lukaku incident (that's probably coincidence though!).
  5. Why did Vlad not play instead of Dawson. Lennon is useless and will never change. You cannot have more room and freedom on a pitch than the wing, yet he has managed a career of not touching the ball during a game. Besides that, even his admirers say he doesn't score and doesn't assist. Not sure why we did not try holtby at left back- many midfielders can play that role- rose is a makeshift lb after all, and you know that holtby will never give in and there will be an extra competent go to man for defence and midfielders. Walker like his name sake is like a Texas ranger - does whatever the f##ck he likes, doesn't have to think or care- he's not that much better than the other Kyle , in fact I think the latter is a smarter player -
  6. I have been saying since the start of the season, Dawson is not good enough anymore, he was ok when we were happy to have a cup run and finish in the top half, but he is not good enough for a top 4/5 side, we have three CBs who are better than him. Walker is fast and good on the wing, but he hasn't got enough brain cells to play full back, there are plenty better out there, selling to some mug team like Chelsea and buy a good one. Sherwood is starting to show his lack of experience on and off the field
  7. Interesting idea Holtby at LB but why bother- bring back Bennyfrom QPR. We lost the odd goal but never shipped 5's and 6's with him and he often started moves- and a better effective attacker than Rose.
    1. If you saw Benny's error at QPR today you might not want him back so fast...
      1. having watched benny this year dropping a league seems to have severely affected his interest in playing well
  8. Just saw the MOTD highlights, you can't possibly seriously blame Walker for that goal. If he can't expect the 3 other players to cover that ball without his help, he may as well give up with the team.
    1. I've watched it several times to, he is the only defender standing still when the ball is behind him, the first priority for any defender is to get behind the ball, walker was dreaming and not thinking, it is not the first time he has been caught ball watching, it happens nearly every match, maybe it doesn't always result in us conceding, but that doesn't make it right
  9. If Spurs players continue to play with this style against other teams, there's no way they will be even Top 6. My analysis of some of the players in the match against Hull is as follows: Walker - has no clue how to defend & is not aware at all of the situation when Spurs is under attack. Passing ability is atrocious. Ericksen - Too greedy when he had the chance to pass to other players who would have had a better chance to score. Needs to learn to play for the team than playing for individual glory, as is happening with most other Spurs players. Soldado - down right hopeless & should never be fielded again as he's totally not the right type of forward Spurs needed. Lennon - Last 2 games clearly shows that he lacks confidence at times & needs to be replaced by those who are willing to make things happen. Bentaleb - still raw & the unfinished product. Don't understand why Sherwood does not play Capoue or another proven midfielder. Dawson & Vertonghen - need to establish better communications between each other. Paulinho - apart from the goal, he did not do anything significant. Overall Spurs do not play with any set of possible plans on how to tackle different teams based on their regular style & Sherwood does not have any ideas on when to field the right players & bring in the substitutions that can change the game.
    1. I agree with some of your comments, Walker has cost us at least 6 goals this season due to his poor positional play Ericksen will come good, as will Soldado giving the right players around them It should be Chiriches and Vertonghen, Dawson is to slow in movement and thinking Paulinho will be effective if playing in front of a defensive midfielder like Sandro or Capoue. Sherwood should not try to do the exact opposite to AVB just to please the powers above, not everything he did was bad
  10. Walker cost us Champions League with THAT pass against Liverpool. I note that Windy did not comment on the City match: it looked like our midfield were imitating playground football. Walker is often lauded over Naughton, but I think the latter is the better defender. Sherwood's love of Bentaleb defies belief, especially his star is starting to wane. Sherwood's schtick is to play the best players in the correct positions and the rest will follow. However, he appears not to be following his own plan. Honestly, this season started with so much hope, but is becoming a complete Horlicks.
    1. You can definitely be offside from a goal kick, both strikers were offside and I've been frustrated that nobody (else) had picked up on it, including any of the Spurs players. Regardless; the performance was awful, especially considering our recent form against teams we should be beating and our away form all season. I just feel we lack the movement off the ball to allow our quality players such as Soldado and Eriksen to perform, these sort of players will be lethal when given space but far too often this season we've been smothered by teams packing their defence - something Hull intended to do from the off with 5 at the back and even more so at 1-0 up. Teams like City throw players forward and always look to make that space and consequently score a lot of goals, we don't seem to do that, we statistically take a lot of long shots and it's because we struggle to break teams down as there's never enough options for the player on the ball. In my opinion playing Bentaleb doesn't help. Him alongside Dembele is not the most defensive of partnerships. we need to play a sitter like Capoue or preferably Sandro to allow us to commit 5 midfielders and the full backs forward and make the space for others to stop the counter attacks we tend to concede from. A bit of tampering and tweaking and our best players back from injury and we'll be well in the running for top 4. COYS
      1. You CANNOT be offside directly from a goal kick: http://news.bbc.co.uk/sportacademy/hi/sa/football/rules/newsid_3632000/3632335.stm
      2. Greg, I don't know which rule book your reading from, but it can't be the English FA rule book, there are two dead ball situations you cannot be offside from and a goal kick is one of them, so check YOUR rule book and tell me what the other one is

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