Spurs got out of jail on Saturday night — and pundit Danny Murphy not just talking about the disallowed goal by Gabriel Jesus. He believes City should have been out of sight by then.
Here is his opinion:
Although they played well, Tottenham’s problems were self-inflicted, partly because of the way Mauricio Pochettino set up, but largely because the players didn’t take enough responsibility to nullify City.
Spurs were lucky to be trailing only 2-1 when Lucas Moura came off the bench to score the equalising header.
Pochettino started 4-4-1-1 with Erik Lamela off Harry Kane. But Tottenham’s midfield four let their runners go and when you do that, tactics don’t matter.
Christian Eriksen and Moussa Sissoko were narrow to the point where they were letting full-backs burst past them at will, particularly Kyle Walker.
Even more damagingly, Harry Winks and Tanguy Ndombele weren’t disciplined enough or working hard enough to match City in the middle.
Kevin De Bruyne killed them with his passing and movement and Ilkay Gundogan was getting into pockets of space.
I like Winks and I’m sure he wanted to keep the midfield shape and stay close to his team-mates.
But sometimes when you’re on the pitch and you see De Bruyne breaking free, rotating positions and causing havoc, you’ve got to stay with him; nail him down.
Tottenham gave themselves a mountain to climb and it’s to their credit that they did find their way back into the game, although Moura’s great leap helped them when they probably didn’t deserve to score.
Pochettino’s system in the second half was better with Sissoko more central, to use his power, and Lamela and Moura out wider to support Harry Kane. All of a sudden, City’s players found it harder to gain space.
I don’t think the pow-wow between Sergio Aguero and Pep Guardiola will have any long lasting effects.
There should be another time and place to sort out differences but Aguero was clearly disappointed at being substituted and it was a heat-of-the-moment thing.
Pep is Pep and none of his players would really want to change him.
unclein
54
I am a Spurs fan and I agree with the assessment. Spurs need a holding midfielder in the mould of Kante of yester year. City ran all over us today. Is it me alone, but I cannot even remember a moment Kane sniffed the ball the whole 95 minutes. Spurs needs two keys players with the qualities of Kante and Yaya (at his prime) spiced with some Patrick Viera personality. Maybe then we can keep away the ball from our own half and create goal scoring opportunities, which you can't when you are defending all the time. We were totally ineffective but lucky that we took our chances when we got them. I still think we deserve a winning coach who comes with a silverware mandate and we must also get rid of all mediocre players and bring in quality.
cookie111
32
As a Spurs fan I was so annoyed with how the team played, but I am thrilled with how they managed to grind out a result when City were at their absolute best. Spurs will not play a better side playing better football all year. Poch got the tactics wrong by putting Sissoko on the right when he should've sat centrally with Ndombele and Winks to dominate the center. Plus Eriksen was useless all game and didn't do a single thing. There was no counterattacking threat carried by the formation whatsoever until Lucas came on, and he helped to relieve the pressure immediately by forcing Zinchenko to be more defensively honest. Lamela through the center was a great tactical call to be fair to Poch.