Now we've had a home match, many more people will have got a first hand look at the very early stages of De Zerbiball. I thought a thread for everyone to post their observations, comments on it etc might be interesting.
I think most people will dismiss the opinions of any one whose talks in absolutes after two games. So I want to acknowledge right off the bat that it is early days and there's only so much to read into what we've seen. I don't want to be all thread police, but my intent for this isn't for 'we're doomed' or 'we're heading to europe' type extremes, and maybe hope for it to act as a record for everyone to add their thoughts as we progress and the players get more comfortable and confident with it. Maybe it'll be good in future months to look back and see the progress.
With all that said, my thoughts after one live game (I didn't go to Liverpool)...
It seemed to me like we took more chances with our passing. Like under Potter there was a sense of 'look for the pass that you're almost certain to make', so there was more holding onto the ball, playing to someone in a less progressive position. I don't think that is a revelatory observation. It feels like an extension to the 'shoot-gate' comments - the desire to have attackers look for someone in a better position before shooting themselves. In this game, it felt like we were making passes that rather than 'almost certain', were more 'fairly certain'. Didn't always come off, there were more interceptions (showing the benefit of Potter's approach, so I don't want this to seem like an attack on that).
When playing at the back, that seemed to make a lot of fans a bit more nervous, which I'm sure doesn't help the players (Dunk seemed to take issue with the North Stand in that first half), so it's not just going to take belief from the players to play this football, but I think the fans are going to need to have more courage. I did feel during the game as if many of the fans still can't accept we're a premier league club - the fear whenever we tried to play football in close quarters in our own half seemed of the level that we used to feel back in the championship/league one when we had cup games against prem opponents. The gulf in quality isn't as large as it used to be and I think we as fans are going to have to be a bit more relaxed about our ball playing.
Attacking-wise it was hard to see much in the way of change. Tottenham were a very disciplined defensive unit, hard to break down. Certainly wasn't on a par with the attacking v Liverpool, but that was away v a team that are not currently doing well with the defensive discipline.
For me, as disappoonting as the result was and as frustrating as our final third play was, I am excited that we might be a mit more aggressive/daring in our passing. It will speed up our attacks, and hopefully help us breakdown stout defences when we get better and more comfortable with it.
I think most people will dismiss the opinions of any one whose talks in absolutes after two games. So I want to acknowledge right off the bat that it is early days and there's only so much to read into what we've seen. I don't want to be all thread police, but my intent for this isn't for 'we're doomed' or 'we're heading to europe' type extremes, and maybe hope for it to act as a record for everyone to add their thoughts as we progress and the players get more comfortable and confident with it. Maybe it'll be good in future months to look back and see the progress.
With all that said, my thoughts after one live game (I didn't go to Liverpool)...
It seemed to me like we took more chances with our passing. Like under Potter there was a sense of 'look for the pass that you're almost certain to make', so there was more holding onto the ball, playing to someone in a less progressive position. I don't think that is a revelatory observation. It feels like an extension to the 'shoot-gate' comments - the desire to have attackers look for someone in a better position before shooting themselves. In this game, it felt like we were making passes that rather than 'almost certain', were more 'fairly certain'. Didn't always come off, there were more interceptions (showing the benefit of Potter's approach, so I don't want this to seem like an attack on that).
When playing at the back, that seemed to make a lot of fans a bit more nervous, which I'm sure doesn't help the players (Dunk seemed to take issue with the North Stand in that first half), so it's not just going to take belief from the players to play this football, but I think the fans are going to need to have more courage. I did feel during the game as if many of the fans still can't accept we're a premier league club - the fear whenever we tried to play football in close quarters in our own half seemed of the level that we used to feel back in the championship/league one when we had cup games against prem opponents. The gulf in quality isn't as large as it used to be and I think we as fans are going to have to be a bit more relaxed about our ball playing.
Attacking-wise it was hard to see much in the way of change. Tottenham were a very disciplined defensive unit, hard to break down. Certainly wasn't on a par with the attacking v Liverpool, but that was away v a team that are not currently doing well with the defensive discipline.
For me, as disappoonting as the result was and as frustrating as our final third play was, I am excited that we might be a mit more aggressive/daring in our passing. It will speed up our attacks, and hopefully help us breakdown stout defences when we get better and more comfortable with it.
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