Carabao Cup thread - Next up, the scum.

[TeeCee]

Iwobi did make me laugh a couple of times last night, for a minute I thought he was trying to do stepovers then I realised he was twerking that huge fat ass to confuse defenders

[northbank123]

Both goals came from a long aimless punt forwards and our defenders letting the striker bring it down and turn into acres of space. The first because of a slip, the second because neither Xhaka nor Koscielny wanted to fucking head the thing.

Last time we played them Sokratis was all over Kane like a rash. Any time he turned his back to goal 40+ yards out to receive the ball, Sokratis was up his arse. Sometimes he nicked in or won the header, sometimes he fouled him but every time he made sure he smashed him. Certainly never let him bring it down unchallenged and turn so that we were back-pedalling two on two.

It’s not fucking rocket science.

[1989]

looked like quite a gulf in class last night,spurs won without breaking sweat,it seemed like they just sat tight and waited for our shambles of a defence to go to sleep which the duly did.where was the passion of a fortnight ago?? since our derby win our players have looked shattered,dicks running the into the ground,agian without ozil we create nothing or very little and any good possession is squandered,i don't care if he doesnt run about or tackle he isn't there for that!!!!

Didn't seem to miss Ozil when we put 4 past them the other week.

[Gunner Rob]

last night was very very poor.

this was us at basically full strength, and yet Spurs beat us without needing to hit top gear.
defensively we are an absolute shambles, midfield is poor (Torreira aside) and so little was created I forgot that Aubamayang was playing at first.

Ok I know there are injuries, the schedule is a joke and all that, but I think we are going to have problems over the Christmas period. I already struggle to see this team getting up for the early kick off against Burnley on Saturday. But this is a must win game, because to be honest I don't see us getting anything at Brighton and we will do well to prevent Liverpool scoring less than 3 at Anfield.

this is a big moment for Emery - hopefully he will prove me wrong.

[Henry Norris 1913]

Not really sure why BBC keep pushing this story about Alli being hit with a plastic bottle as top news. It’s their biggest front page story and they wouldn’t stop banging on about it last night. Apparently Pochettino commented that in other countries we would be playing games behind closed doors after that

in other countries it wouldn't make the news

however at least something good came from last night.

people say we missed ozil, i think we clearly had problems creating chances v huddersfield, soton and the scum and xhaka, mhiki, iwobi and guendouzi all seem to do fuck all on the ball. when auba or laca make an early darting run none of these players are capable of picking them out, iwobi especially is fucking stupid as he runs as far as he possibly can with the ball, closing down the angle and giving the defenders more time to get back

ideally ozil would start in place of iwobi and ramsey would replace guendouzi. one thing dick can do is recall nelson asap, as we clearly lack that pace and incisivness out wide, and if he's going to stick to his guns on ozil then we have little other option

[augie]

I have to say I am fast losing respect for Dick. Every game now we’re seeing poor team selection, even allowing for injuries. Iwobi, MickyT, Xhaka and Kos should never play for us again but at least three of them will play against Burnley....and we’ll see subs at half time again. Dick isn’t learning anything, as Wonga didn’t. I’m not sure where we're going Tbh, but it certainly won’t be top 4. Depressing stuff.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm losing respect for him yet but I am very worried that he might prove to be as stupidly stubborn as Wenger was. His team selections have ranged from bizarre to absolute stupidity at times.

The next two transfer windows might be the most important in a decade for us.

My feelings of contempt/anger towards lard arse iwobi and mikki are well known so I too am never pleased to see them in the match squad at all, but instead of turning on dick already, how about we recognise what he has been left to work with ? Our defensive options are so limited due to injuries, that we are playing a one paced midfielder at centre back cos the only option is a past it guy who has barely played 200 minutes in last 6 months. We are playing (what I class as) a good centre midfielder (maitland niles) in either full spot because again the only alternatives are again either injured or past it (and sometimes both).
A few weeks ago (I cant remember which game) dick played a game with laca and auba starting up front and had to change it at half time cos we were too narrow and too easily to nullify - his reaction was to bring in the aforementioned lard arse and mikki, and as best I can recall it changed up the game and we played better in the second half (as per ). Again I have been open about preferring a 4-3-1-2 formation myself, but if Dick feels that we need wide players, what alternatives does he have ? Welshite inj, nketieh not ready, nelson out on loan and the other options (ramsey, ozil and el ninny) are all central players.

Anyway the point I am making (again) is that dick has been left with a shitfest to sort out, and too many same same players to work with (something many of us complained about for years). Back in august we all said that it will take dick (and sven) a few transfer windows to get this squad up to the required level, and most of us were willing to be understanding and patient in the meantime - now cos we went on that great unbeaten run many seem to think that we should be doing better than we are, even though dick still has the same sub-standard squad to work with that he did when the season started. For years now we have complained about the massive lack of a quality centre back and quality wide players in the squad, so surely we can expect dick to sort everything out in 6 months ?? We had more holes in the squad than there is in a teabag, and to be fair to dick and sven they did a massive job improving midfield with the purchases of torreira and the dozi, and sokratis's performances have been good even if the defence as a unit has not. Hopefully our next ventures into the transfer window will see a quality centre back, quality left full, and a quality winger brought in, but in the meantime I recognise that dick is not a miracle worker and jesus christ himself couldnt raise this current squad to the required level

[OneBardGooner]

I have to say I am fast losing respect for Dick. Every game now we’re seeing poor team selection, even allowing for injuries. Iwobi, MickyT, Xhaka and Kos should never play for us again but at least three of them will play against Burnley....and we’ll see subs at half time again. Dick isn’t learning anything, as Wonga didn’t. I’m not sure where we're going Tbh, but it certainly won’t be top 4. Depressing stuff.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm losing respect for him yet but I am very worried that he might prove to be as stupidly stubborn as Wenger was. His team selections have ranged from bizarre to absolute stupidity at times.

The next two transfer windows might be the most important in a decade for us.

And for him.

[1989]

We miss Rob Holding, not Ozil.

[Gunner Rob]

We miss Rob Holding, not Ozil.

And Danny Welbeck as an impact sub.
Nketiah is not up to it unfortunately.

[1989]

We miss Rob Holding, not Ozil.

And Danny Welbeck as an impact sub.
Nketiah is not up to it unfortunately.

Yeah, him too.

Welbeck's presence would have made Emery less reluctant to start both Laca and Auba as well.

[the playing mantis]

looked like quite a gulf in class last night,spurs won without breaking sweat,it seemed like they just sat tight and waited for our shambles of a defence to go to sleep which the duly did.where was the passion of a fortnight ago?? since our derby win our players have looked shattered,dicks running the into the ground,agian without ozil we create nothing or very little and any good possession is squandered,i don't care if he doesnt run about or tackle he isn't there for that!!!!

Think that’s a bit generous on them. Granted last -4 minutes we never looked like scoring, but apart from that they created 3 chances and we created far more. They just carved out better chances because they have some creativity unlike our side last night, and unlike that useless fuck Mkhitaryan who missed the easiest of the game they took them superbly and we missed all of ours.

We were poor but any one of those chances goes in at 0-0 and that spurs side would probably have crumbled as usual. That’s not excusing the performance but the only gulf in class was that when they got in the final third, 3 times they managed to cut our shit defence apart whereas we only did that once.

yes being very generous to them. we opened them up fairly easily with the crap we had on the pitch with no end product. Had a creative player played there would have been loads of good chances for Aubaymang to miss. they looked tired and limited without Kane. they took both chances they had well, but on another they they would balls them up.

[Herd]

What an utter shower of shit we were !
I'm nursing some bruises today ,I shall be easing myself into a radox bath in a moment and will then have some codeine linctus and a nap.
My head is so sore but that was the Irish coffees !
Nice post Augie that sums it up nicely for me .

[markyp]

looked like quite a gulf in class last night,spurs won without breaking sweat,it seemed like they just sat tight and waited for our shambles of a defence to go to sleep which the duly did.where was the passion of a fortnight ago?? since our derby win our players have looked shattered,dicks running the into the ground,agian without ozil we create nothing or very little and any good possession is squandered,i don't care if he doesnt run about or tackle he isn't there for that!!!!

Didn't seem to miss Ozil when we put 4 past them the other week.

had he played that day we would have been out of sight by half time,we wasted so much good possession that day

[Skooner]

I have to say I am fast losing respect for Dick. Every game now we’re seeing poor team selection, even allowing for injuries. Iwobi, MickyT, Xhaka and Kos should never play for us again but at least three of them will play against Burnley....and we’ll see subs at half time again. Dick isn’t learning anything, as Wonga didn’t. I’m not sure where we're going Tbh, but it certainly won’t be top 4. Depressing stuff.

I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm losing respect for him yet but I am very worried that he might prove to be as stupidly stubborn as Wenger was. His team selections have ranged from bizarre to absolute stupidity at times.

The next two transfer windows might be the most important in a decade for us.

My feelings of contempt/anger towards lard arse iwobi and mikki are well known so I too am never pleased to see them in the match squad at all, but instead of turning on dick already, how about we recognise what he has been left to work with ? Our defensive options are so limited due to injuries, that we are playing a one paced midfielder at centre back cos the only option is a past it guy who has barely played 200 minutes in last 6 months. We are playing (what I class as) a good centre midfielder (maitland niles) in either full spot because again the only alternatives are again either injured or past it (and sometimes both).
A few weeks ago (I cant remember which game) dick played a game with laca and auba starting up front and had to change it at half time cos we were too narrow and too easily to nullify - his reaction was to bring in the aforementioned lard arse and mikki, and as best I can recall it changed up the game and we played better in the second half (as per ). Again I have been open about preferring a 4-3-1-2 formation myself, but if Dick feels that we need wide players, what alternatives does he have ? Welshite inj, nketieh not ready, nelson out on loan and the other options (ramsey, ozil and el ninny) are all central players.

Anyway the point I am making (again) is that dick has been left with a shitfest to sort out, and too many same same players to work with (something many of us complained about for years). Back in august we all said that it will take dick (and sven) a few transfer windows to get this squad up to the required level, and most of us were willing to be understanding and patient in the meantime - now cos we went on that great unbeaten run many seem to think that we should be doing better than we are, even though dick still has the same sub-standard squad to work with that he did when the season started. For years now we have complained about the massive lack of a quality centre back and quality wide players in the squad, so surely we can expect dick to sort everything out in 6 months ?? We had more holes in the squad than there is in a teabag, and to be fair to dick and sven they did a massive job improving midfield with the purchases of torreira and the dozi, and sokratis's performances have been good even if the defence as a unit has not. Hopefully our next ventures into the transfer window will see a quality centre back, quality left full, and a quality winger brought in, but in the meantime I recognise that dick is not a miracle worker and jesus christ himself couldnt raise this current squad to the required level

Agree with most of that. What I would say is that he is making some odd decisions like playing Xhaka at the back when it has already proved to be a disastrous situation. I find it hard to believe there isn't a single youngster at the club that could do a better job. All the other defenders, for most of them he had to give them a chance to prove if they could be coached to be better players or not and if not you assume he'll replace them, that will take at least 2 or 3 more windows.

And we simply have to sort the Ozil situ out. If Emery really doesn't want him then we need to find a buyer, even if we have to sub some of his future wages like City did with Adebarndoor. But if we are keeping him he has to be in the team and Emery has to build our attack to get the best out him as without him we struggle to break teams down that sit deep.

[clockender1]

I wouldn't go as far as to say I'm losing respect for him yet but I am very worried that he might prove to be as stupidly stubborn as Wenger was. His team selections have ranged from bizarre to absolute stupidity at times.

The next two transfer windows might be the most important in a decade for us.

i'm just confused. there must be ulterior motives for the selections - promises made in August ? maintaining sale value ? trying not to rush the kids through, IDK....

his work rate has been spot on, and the effort that many of the players put in, and the attention to set pieces, long shots etc so its not all bad by any means.

he does have to bring nelson and chambers back in Jaunary in my mind to keep our top four hopes realistic.