"An off day for the manager as well."
The headline was one of the comments offered in our post-match survey for Sunday's home defeat by Liverpool. I have to agree, especially as so far in his time at Spurs, Mauricio Pochettino's use of substitutes has been excellent.
Sadly, it didn't work on Sunday, and my match report says all I have to offer regarding Andros Townsend's first touch. This impact subsitution worked well for our opponents.
Comments and assessments are naturally tinged with negativity following such a disappointing defeat, but it is interesting to note that Pochettino's team selection was graded considerably lower than the previous week, when the same team started against QPR. Perhaps that's a lesson for our head coach. Brendan Rodgers showed initiative and varierty in his selection and tactics.
No doubt the coach, and his team will learn from this experience. Here are just a couple off other comments, which I feel are worthy of mention:-
"At present, and only at present, we are back to a lack of plan B. Once Pochettino gets his head round his best team, then things will improve. Unfortunately until we start beating the likes of Liverpool it will be a barren season, but as previously said early days yet."
"Although Liverpool were superior to us man for man across the park, they did us a favour. Maybe when our team watch the video Poch can show them what a pressing game is. What to do when you have the ball, how to line up when you don't. Clearly our boys haven't understood the instructions. They maybe could see how fit a team needs to be operate the system, and up their work rate. At the moment, though, men against boys, and it could easily have been 0-5."
Looking on the bright side, we are above Arsenal, and have won more games than they have so far! We have also won the same as Man City.
As often happens in a bad team performance, goalkeeper Hugo Lloris has come out of the game with the best grades. Emmanuel Adebayor's ceaseless effort was recognised, and he got the best mark of the outfield players.
Please see my piece "A beating heart is hard to replace" for my comments on Spurs' business at the end of the transfer window.
· See the spursometer for this game in full.
Results 30-31.08.14
Burnley 0-0 Man Utd
Man City 0-1 Stoke
Newcastle 3-3 C. Palace
QPR 1-0 S'derland
Swansea 3-0 West Brom
West Ham 1-3 S'hampton
Everton 3-6 Chelsea
A. Villa 2-1 Hull
Spurs 0-3 Liverpool
Leicester 1-1 Arsenal
Barclays Premier League
P W D L F-A GD Pts
1. Chelsea 3 3 0 0 11-4 7 9
2. Swansea 3 3 0 0 6-1 5 9
3. A. Villa 3 2 1 0 3-1 2 7
4. Man City 3 2 0 1 5-2 3 6
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5. Liverpool 3 2 0 1 6-4 2 6
6. Spurs 3 2 0 1 5-3 2 6
7. Arsenal 3 1 2 0 5-4 1 5
8. S'hampton 3 1 1 1 4-3 1 4
9. Hull 3 1 1 1 3-3 0 4
10. Stoke 3 1 1 1 2-2 0 4
11. West Ham 3 1 0 2 4-5 -1 3
12. QPR 3 1 0 2 1-5 -4 3
13. S'derland 3 0 2 1 3-4 -1 2
14. Man Utd 3 0 2 1 2-3 -1 2
15. Leicester 3 0 2 1 3-5 -2 2
16. Newcastle 3 0 2 1 3-5 -2 2
17. Everton 3 0 2 1 7-10 -3 2
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18. West Brom 3 0 2 1 2-5 -3 2
19. C. Palace 3 0 1 2 5-8 -3 1
20. Burnley 3 0 1 2 1-4 -3 1
