StriderHiryu

The thing is though that in other aspects of the game he was very good. Headed clear corners, cleared off the line, helped win the ball back high to get the first goal. Overall I'd give him a 7/10 for the match. But just pointing out this is one reason why it was hard to get going in the first 45.

Here we see an example of teams targetting Ndidi as their "pressing trigger." Leicester win the ball back and Winks receive the ball. Spurs follow him but don't over commit. But as soon as Ndidi gets it, 4 men ambush him and rob the ball from him. Now to defend Ndidi here, when so many people mob you, it's very hard to get out of that trouble. However, this was the reason why Rodgers moved from a 4141 to a 4231, because opposition managers targeted Ndidi as the focal point to attack. Ricardo was better at "playing in traffic", but perhaps if he's not considered physical enough, it's a role Skipp could play. This is important because it's the difference between a move breaking down, or being able to continue the attack.

This is something I am going to pick up on in the analysis. I think we got the overall balance right. At the start of the game we went long and whilst it turned over the ball, it meant that we didn't face the propsect of being 1-0 down after five minutes from a mistake, which would have destroyed morale. Then later on in the game we did it more and more, the fantastic Vardy move was generated that way. After being very negative about Cooper in preseason, in this game he deserves a lot of praise. Overall we kept a lot of the best elements from Enzo's style, but adapted it for a team that will be the underdog in many games this season. My biggest concern is that teams will target Ndidi with their press to win the ball back, and I have examples of this to show later. Overall Ndidi had a good game, but got robbed a lot. Skipp might come in for him in that double pivot to push Ndidi up higher as he did last season, with Reid dropping out. Ndidi isn't creative per se, but you can create by winning the ball high up the field, as many of our best chances and even our goal indicate.

For me the meltdowns in preseason were entirely justified. There was nowhere near the cohesiveness, team movements or patterns of play that were shown in that second half. This was a real breath of fresh air. We may well still go down, but whereas before it felt like we would go down with a whimper, all of a sudden I am looking forward to games. Fair play to the manager and players!

Does fantastic here. Him and Ndidi are physical to win the ball back high, then sends in a dangerous cross, something he wasn't doing enough of in preseason. It also shows something we all wanted to see more of last year, being a bit more direct. Enzo wanted to score the perfect goal and when it came off it looked amazing. But we get this goal through physicality, and gambling on picking up the pieces. I had big question marks around VK's offensive contribution in preseason, but those fears have been calmed a lot by his second half performance. He doesn't need to beat a man, he needs to get up and down and be avaiable to cross high or low into the box. With 5 men attacking, we have a chance to finish right away or win the second ball. I will highlight him in the post match analysis. He played a significant part in our comeback.

We saw very little like this in preseason. To be fair to Steve Cooper, he's clearly wanted a proper attacking midfielder with creative attributes, and Facundo Buananotte looks to be that man. This move was similar to the way we played last season, so great to see we can still do it. In the second half one thing Cooper deserves praise for is that the team is more direct than under Maresca. Kristiansen is willing to cross first time and we don't have to try and score the "perfect goal", something Spurs themselves were guilty of. This move didn't result in a goal, but it shows clear patterns of play, movement and a cohesive team. In preseason, meltdowns IMo were justified, we looked absolutely shocking. Seeing moves like the above really changes my opinion and from initially dreading the season, all of a sudden I think we have a chance. Great move! I'll be making a video this evening with more of a detailed breakdown!

I'll have a full video about the match and tactics involved later, but let's enjoy that slick move one more time!

I'll have a full video about the match and tactics involved later, but let's enjoy that slick move one more time!

He speaks really well to be fair. Took full accountability for the Lens game also.

Winks

Super solid and pivotal to the way we play. No one's talking about him, which means he did his job and then some.

He was impressive. You can see what he brings to the team, multiple times his ability to recieve the ball under pressure and get out of it opened up the game ahead of him. I feel like Ndidi at times let him down here, though Wilf wasn't too bad overall. Needless to say when Jannik combines with Winks, the team looks totally different and able to play through pressure. Last season Spurs ranked 1st for high turnovers, pressures and forcing mistakes. And then they signed Solanke who was the number one player in the league in terms of those stats for a striker. And despite that, it didn't phase Vestergaard. I expect we will still get rinsed by the title challengers, but this was a very encouraging display from him and defensively from the team.

Yes to be fair, throughout the game he was pretty sound defensively. There is a strong argument to be made that when Vestergaard and Faes at the back, you need Ndidi, Kristiansen and Justin / Ricardo in the team to compensate. Not once in the game did we get caught out due to a lack of pace throughout the team.

He grew into the game. His cross into Vardy is what I want to see a lot more of. I think he was let down by Reid, as the two failed to overlap or combine well together. But Mavididi should be ahead of Reid anyway and then it might be less of an issue. I still don't like him being in the team over Ricardo. I feel like either Riccy or Justin could play on the left hand side ahead of VK and we might be better. VK isn't playing so many first time balls into the box or driving at his man for his natural left foot to be such an advantage. However, I will say that given his age, this player has a pretty high ceiling, and looked way more like a good purchase today than when he was here last and thrust into the team too quickly.

Maybe it's not such a bad season to start a You Tube channel after all! I will do a more in-depth look at the lineup and tactics involved later in the week, but here for you to listen to if you're an avid podcast listener! Overall I am way more excited for the season ahead. We can compete!

It's hard to stomach Ricardo not being in the team, but to be fair to Cooper tonight: - Justin was outstanding and pocketed Son - Ndidi defensively was strong and allowed us to compete Where we missed Ricardo for me was in our attempts to play our from the back. Spurs targeted Ndidi via their pressing trigger to stop our attacks in their tracks. But overall Ndidi was strong and probably got a 7/10 or more from me. So in this instance I can see the argument for not playing Ricardo, but I feel he should have been involved at least as a sub, and I still fear he will be frozen out.

He deserves a lot of credit for that result and overall performance. First half was timid, but think being pragmatic to stay in the game is nothing to be ashamed of against tough opposition. Will have much more to say, but all of a sudden I feel a lot more excited for the season ahead.

Going live here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JYxAwuw86Fc

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Will be going live here in a few minutes if anyone wants to join in and talk about that match! https://www.youtube.com/@ForFoxSake-TV

Soumare instead of Ricardo