Faz

Tottenham fan and passionate football analyst. Breaking down the beautiful game, one play at a time. COYS! ⚽

Sports Card Collector ⚽️🏀🏈
TCG Collector 👾🕹️

[Adroit Cadet @Adroit_Cadet]

Just not fully sold at all on Pochettino going into 2027 - which might be a little crazy to read for some of my OG followers given how many years I spent begging the club to get him like 7-8 years back

But I fear he already peaked like 10 years ago

His sides in that 2013-18 era were miles ahead of the curve in the PL; conditioned to run and press everyone off the park back then. Margins were big enough to matter back then too. Now, not so sure

Kinda similar to Mourinho in the 2000s where he came in and totally exploited the 442 with his 433. Pulled the league's trousers down

Or when Wenger modernised basic sports science/nutrition + tapped into the European talent pool

Football learns, adapts & catches up though. That's my only concern

Listen, I love Poch. He's one of the good guys - but I hope we're not hiring him on the idea of him in 2016. Which sadly, I suspect we are

...Compounded & heavily inflated by recency bias of a decent World Cup performance with host-nation advantage

[Faz @retro442]

Think we know Zion Suzuki’s weakness… Great game of Barclays

[Faz @retro442]

@EBL2017 Spot on, why are we putting specific sides for teams where Spurs’ individual quality is far superior

[EBL @EBL2017]

Pick a team centred around what the opposition do and you play the game on their terms.

Roberto De Zerbi should not be picking teams exclusively based on the threat of teams like Leeds and Nottingham Forest.

Battered today.

Could be 2 or 3-0.

4 shots, no big chances, low xG…

[Faz @retro442]

Another disappointing set-up and performance, which all stems from the line-up being put out every week. I understand the need to rest certain players due to injuries or the risk of injury, but De Zerbi could easily field much better options on the pitch. Deserved win for Leeds

[Faz @retro442]

Tonali is effortlessly sweeping up danger and winning loose balls higher up the pitch, allowing us to sustain our attacks. Still, we need more from the team around the final third. Tel’s confidence is showing

[EBL @EBL2017]

Mateus Fernandes and Sandro Tonali today.

FINALLY playing in suitable roles, and you can see how special they are, both individually and as a duo.

Fernandes ran the game whilst facing the play with his passing (instead of being cramped away in tight spaces as the #10). Also monstrous defensively.

Tonali similar - covered the most ground.

Maddison was also top until he went off. He constantly overloaded Chelsea in midfield as Lacroix was reluctant to follow him.

It was a man-to-man vs man-to-man game so it ultimately came down to technical security + winning duels. More so on the players than the coaches considering the unique nature of the game. Similar to PSG vs Bayern in the Champions League style-wise, but obviously with a lot less quality.

Ultimately, Spurs’ individuals delivered and Chelsea’s didn’t.

Wouldn’t look too much into the game-model of either Xabi Alonso or Roberto De Zerbi off the back of this game. It more so reveals the level of these players relative to one another, and you can see that Spurs have lots of top players.

Chelsea missed Enzo Fernandez massively today. Henderson a top professional but not up to par. Acheampong also struggled. Only made 5 passes. In man-to-man games it’s all about the individuals but Chelsea’s didn’t deliver (whether that be because they’re not good enough or because they simply underperformed on the day).

[Statman Dave @StatmanDave]

Mateus Fernandes vs. Chelsea:

120 touches (🥇)
98 passes attempted (🥇)
90 passes completed (🥇)
35 passes in the opponents half (🥇)
19 line-breaking passes (🥇)
5 tackles (🥇)
2 chances created (🥇)

The one that got away…

[Faz @retro442]

https://t.co/1IWVuhe0HV

[📞 @szyexcl]

worth every single penny. #thfc

[Faz @retro442]

People ask me why I’m optimistic about the season. One of the reasons is because we have an elite-level midfielder in Mateus Fernandes.

You can tell just how high his level is, even from the littlest things. It was even noticeable when he came on in that 2nd half vs Brentford

[h @htomufc]

Well overdue, to be honest. Funny ol’ game football, they’ve played better than this on multiple occasions and not got a win for it. Tonali was brilliant, I thought.

[Faz @retro442]

@EBL2017 Seems to be happening every week…

[Faz @retro442]

The defending has been comical all season, Van Hecke seems to always have some part to play.

But even moving away from individual mistakes for a second, everything from who starts and the overall shape has been awful from De Zerbi this season.

[Faz @retro442]

https://t.co/F9YPFEsOHD

[Sky Sports Football @SkyFootball]

"One chance is all he needs!"

Will Lankshear reacts quickest to score his 10th Middlesbrough goal of the season and put them in front! ⚽️

[Faz @retro442]

The fee we got for Lankshear might not actually be as “high” as people think. His potential can easily exceed that

[Alex 𝓕𝓪𝓷 @xAlexTHFC]

WILL LANKSHEAR HAS SCORED A BRACE AND A LAST MINUTE WINNER FOR MIDDLESBROUGH! https://t.co/H9wpCVzjwR

[pdb @nufcpb]

Every Tottenham game this season has been exactly the same. I’d put my head through a wall if I supported them

[Nathan @NathanAClark]

If we fail to make LWB a first team player here then we might as well go ahead and shut the academy down.

[Faz @retro442]

Harry Kane 🤝 NFL

[The Athletic | Football @TheAthleticFC]

Harry Kane has raised the possibility that he could combine becoming a specialist NFL kicker with finishing his football career in MLS playing the two sports simultaneously.

More from @JackPittBrooke ⬇️

https://t.co/NZFWerLjlf

[Faz @retro442]

People would undoubtedly expect Harry Kane to return to the Premier League at 33/34 years and try to break the PL record, but Kane will look at Brandon Aubrey and will want to push himself even further to find an avenue to get into the NFL

[Brandon Loree @Brandoniswrite]

#Cowboys kicker Brandon Aubrey has been one of the NFL’s best overall kickers through three weeks.

• Kickoff grade - 77.3 (1st)
• # of Touchbacks - 20 (1st)
• Field goal attempts - 10 of 10 (1st)
• Points scored - 36 (T-1st among K)

It looks like the front office is 2 for 2 in acquiring special teams talent from the @USFL. Oh and btw, he’s on a 3 yr deal 🤟

(Grades and stats: @PFF & @espn)

[EBL @EBL2017]

🚨 Spurs have a lot of problems under De Zerbi, and the biggest one is his consistent failure to balance the team in the correct manner with Tonali in the #6, Fernandes in the #8, and Kudus/Marmoush/Maddison in the #10 with natural wingers on the sides, but I also think the game-model could be better.

The build-up is excellent, so I will not critique that moment, but Spurs failed to break down Newcastle, Forest, Everton, and Villa who all played cautiously against them and put little pressure on the ball. They didn't score at all in the first 3 games and only scored 2 goals after they were 3-0 down against Villa (I give them slack for the Brentford game because they had so many injuries).

Spurs created half-chances in each of the games because these teams allowed them to sustain attacks by not pressing high in open play, but the lack of goalscoring threat is clear, and it comes down to the overly rigid positional play on top of the poorly balanced team.

Watch Spurs try to break any team down and you'll see the same thing over and over again: three triangles - one at the base, one on the right, and one on the left with the #9 at the tip.

That positional play is very good coaching-wise and it makes total sense on paper, but the game is evolving away from rigid attacking models. Almost every elite team attacks in a 3-1-3-3 / 3-1-6 / 2-2-6 for a reason, and that reason is because it achieves a similar occupation of key spaces except in a much more dynamic and unpredictable fashion because the players are given license to roam within it (PSG, City, Arsenal, Bayern).

The De Zerbi attacking game-model would certainly be a hell of a lot better if the balance in the team was competent because someone like Tonali constantly wants to play below the ball which leaves Marmoush inside and Robertson wide which is a predictable and boring triangle, but even at that the opposition can still predictably match up against it (see Everton/Villa below as their fullback, winger, and #6 manages the wide triangle in their zonal block).

[Faz @retro442]

Just a reminder that Tottenham Hotspur are being run by idiots

[polar @cfcldnadvocatee]

Luka Vuskovic vs Manchester United (A)

[The Spurs Watch @TheSpursWatch]

That’s one of the worst stats I’ve seen.

[Faz @retro442]

What a great team we’ve assembled. No idea how De Zerbi has somehow managed to make us look even worse than last season, I really don’t. But everything, from the off-the-ball structure to what we actually do in the final third, looks awful.