Spurs 2024-25

[Zapp Brannigan]

Okay, it wasn’t City’s first 11, and the finer points of the game were subsumed by the director’s avant-garde insistence on filming every event as a continuous Erling Haarland reaction shot, but you’d need to be very Ange out not to be impressed with good defending and some very nice counter-attacks, especially those starring Timo, when pressed back.

This could be our generation’s 2008!

Was a cracking game, wasn't it?

Has to be taken in context - Man City had a very good side with only a few of the youngsters and/or fringe players, but many of the first 11 players were through necessity. There's probably a slight psychological element of it being their least valued competition, self-preservation kicks in at some point above and beyond the usual will to win.

But that said, it wasn't our first 11 either, and there was a lot of character shown. Our usual style in the first half had them on the ropes, really impressive.

Best of all though was an ability to react to the game situation. As City put pressure on in the 2nd half, we weren't still going Full Ardiles in the usual slightly naive fashion; dropped deeper to deny space, kept up with the aggressive press, and the counter attack was still a massive threat. Whisper it quietly, but was that a Plan B in action?

Only real downer - van de Ven and those hamstrings. Hopefully he caught it early to avoid more damage, get well soon big fella.

 

[Silas Loom]

Was a cracking game, wasn't it?

Has to be taken in context - Man City had a very good side with only a few of the youngsters and/or fringe players, but many of the first 11 players were through necessity. There's probably a slight psychological element of it being their least valued competition, self-preservation kicks in at some point above and beyond the usual will to win.

But that said, it wasn't our first 11 either, and there was a lot of character shown. Our usual style in the first half had them on the ropes, really impressive.

Best of all though was an ability to react to the game situation. As City put pressure on in the 2nd half, we weren't still going Full Ardiles in the usual slightly naive fashion; dropped deeper to deny space, kept up with the aggressive press, and the counter attack was still a massive threat. Whisper it quietly, but was that a Plan B in action?

Only real downer - van de Ven and those hamstrings. Hopefully he caught it early to avoid more damage, get well soon big fella.

Plan B Joseball!

VdeV was walking around afterwards in the cold quite happily, hadn’t realised until today that Romero was an injury too. Dragusin did quite well though.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

Plan B Joseball!

VdeV was walking around afterwards in the cold quite happily, hadn’t realised until today that Romero was an injury too. Dragusin did quite well though.

Dragusin was excellent when doing a Romero impression - if our usual defensive partnerships are loosely characterised as a stopper and a sweeper, he's very much a stopper and he's pretty good at it. Still far more worried about playing without van de Ven.

 

[Silas Loom]

Dragusin was excellent when doing a Romero impression - if our usual defensive partnerships are loosely characterised as a stopper and a sweeper, he's very much a stopper and he's pretty good at it. Still far more worried about playing without van de Ven.

I will ask my daughter whether her old form-mate Dorrington was a stopper or a sweeper. Maybe “did he get into fights or did he just run away really fast?” would compute better.

 

[Zapp Brannigan]

I will ask my daughter whether her old form-mate Dorrington was a stopper or a sweeper. Maybe “did he get into fights or did he just run away really fast?” would compute better.

Alfie Dorrington is somewhere part between the 2. Tall lad, well built and not slow, but given a choice of MvdV style "outrun the forward and take the ball off him" or Romero style "take the ball, man in the stands" I think he's tending towards Romero.

We have two van de Vens on the way in Ashley Phillips and Luka Vuskovic, but they're at Stoke and Westerlo respectively for this season.