Looks like I am going to get my wish. Proper old fashioned Spurs performance. Flatter to deceive, get in front then fold when the other team has a go.

Individually, Chadli who is generally poor wherever he plays is extra bad upfront (not really his fault I guess), Eriksen disappeared completely in the second half and Aldo looked all at sea for both goals. The only good thing is that there is still time to get rid of Lamela before the window shuts.

Looks like our defensive frailties are still there from last season. We took our foot of the gas and let Stoke back in the game, very poor. Alderweireld not looking like any type of a CB upgrade today and lets please start Trippier at RB.

Anyway, at least we now have another forward added to the team. Apparently it's pronounced 'Jye' with no 'N' according to the man himself.

Eriksen moved deeper in the second, i think having him deeper maybe a better position as he is quite quick with his feet and can pick a pass. Not all DM need to be massive, Modric one of the best in world football is a tiny chap. Cant really blame any of the players, poor bench selection, Onomah should be on every bench, and failure to get some pace/goals. i think our players are great and the manager is awfull though.

I'm totally shocked, I must say...

Lamela was atrocious. Gave away at least four fouls - one about 5 seconds after coming on, gave the ball away at least half a dozen times and made a pigs ear of the one corner he took.

I know we're only 2 games in, but his form from the latter half of last season seems to have completely deserted him.

Kane was unlucky I think. Led the line very well and we definitely suffered when he went off. At the moment, I guess we could look to play N'Jie out on the right instead of Lamela.

I think we still realistically need a third striker though.


Fibber

Only saw second half and wish I hadn't. Stoke simply played at a higher tempo than I guess they did in the first half and we couldn't cope with their pressing, again giving away possession to easily or committing fouls. It got so bad we resorted to hoofing long balls up to Chadli who either didn't jump, couldn't reach them or was out-muscled.

Interesting or obvious how Stoke targeted Walker's side for most of their attacks. From what I saw Walker was his usual self, poor positionally and relying on his pace to get him out of trouble. I know he has his fans but he really is a poor footballer. Not sure at this stage whether it's worth bringing Trippier in. His strength is getting balls into the box but with no one upfront to finish he'll just be providing heading practice for our opponent's CBs.

Trying not to be too harsh or negative but I still see Alderweild as a Dawson level player and the soft penalty he gave away today confirmed that to me. Also thought Lloris could have done better for their second, he needs to be more decisive in those circumstances and take command of the situation. Eriksen was ineffective again which seems to be the case whenever teams get in our face, Chadli I just don't rate very highly, Lamela still tries to hard and is too easily crowded out or nudged off the ball. He is good at nicking it back though when he's not diving in. Bentaleb didn't really do anything when he came on. Dembele still frustrates me, had one positive moment when he hit a shot that Butland pushed out but mostly he again dithered too much and mostly ended up passing backwards.

N'Jie is an unknown quantity for most of us, hopefully he can help make a difference and provide a bit more intelligence in our play. If not, it's going to be a long season.

Trippier must start. Please Poch.

I though Mason was one of our better players today, so of course we sub him for Bentaleb.

Dier had another stellar game as a DM. Could potentially unseat Bentaleb as first choice at this rate.

1 Goal, 2 Chances created, 2 Interceptions, 7 defensive duels won, 3 headers won and 50 accurate passes over the 90 minutes.

I just can't see what difference the manager is making to this team. At the very least, there should be an improvement defensively, but that isn't the case. We cleared out so-called deadwood, bought in replacements, and he has had the whole summer to work with them, so what further excuses can there be?

I keep citing managers like Garry Monk and Alan Pardew, and the tangible (and immediate) impact they're having on their sides. With Pochettino all I see are excuses. He needs time, he needs better players etc etc, yet others are just getting on with making a decent fist of things with the hand they've been dealt.

One thing I will give you Pee is that, while i'm still willing to keep the faith with him, I'm getting a teeny bit irritated by the constant "We need to sort this out" comments at the end of each game.

I keep thinking "Don't just say it - DO it !".

Yeah that's what is annoying me too. We can ALL see that things need to be sorted out, but one of us is getting paid to actually do the sorting out. BEFOREHAND, if possible.

I feel we have potentially a very good defense - on the basis of pre-season I would have liked to have seen Wimmer and Trippier starting.

Im not sure that Alderweireld is anything special, I obviously dont follow Southampton closely, and although they had a good defensive record last season I dont remember him being a stand out.

What I dont get with Poch is that he seems to have players who feature, and do well, in his pre-season, and then goes with a different line up once the season starts. It was the same with Holtby last year, was prominent in pre-season line ups and played pretty well and then was obviously no where near the first team once the season started. I am not saying he should have been, just that it seemed such a waste of time to give so much pre-season game time to a player who was clearly not in his plans.

For the pen, I don't know what Alderweireld was doing - it's not like he hasn't played in the premiership. So unnecessary. For the second, Walker - inevitably - lost his man enough so he got the cross in.

Schoolboy errors. Really very frustrating. The team look organised, knew their roles at any given moment, the shapes looked good, etc - so much further ahead than this time last year.

I suppose we can always hope for the 'right' result in this afternoon's kick off to lift the mood .. heh

But then thinking about Palace and Pardew, if it does end up going the same way as everyone else with Poch, should we realistically look at someone like Pardew rather than looking abroad again ?

And i'm saying this as no more than a point of conversation as i certainly don't want us to be changing managers again any time soon.

If we're looking for players who will be better suited to the premiership and the style of play, i wonder if that approach would also apply to the next manager ?

I don't think any of that is even nearly as important as is sometimes made out. As with anything in life, there always exceptions, but for the most part good managers and players are good managers and players. Whether or not they have PL experience is neither here nor there IMO.

So far we have been punished for individual errors made by a player. I can but hope they stop making these or get dropped. We will see how we fare next couple of games but defensively it is not looking to be any improvement on last season.

He wasn't that good. Are we sure he isn't an imposter? A sort of Ali Dia character? It looks like he's never been on a football pitch in his life. His only "talent" seems to be running into people with or without the ball.

Seriously, he is in his third season, there is only the tiniest expectation and not much more hope that he will be anything more than one of the biggest transfer disasters in history and THAT was the best he could do? I am far from a fan of Lennon or Townsend but I'd take either one of them over Lamela.

Time we cut our (huge) losses and got rid.

I don't know if Tripper is the answer but we won't find out if he isn't in the team. Poch must be aware of just how easily and regularly Stoke got crosses in from their left. The commentary that I heard said that they were targeting Walker as a weakness in the defence. It wasn't like Walker was especially below par. That was his normal game.

I don't know what Aldo was doing for either goal. He was naive for the first and not in position for the second.

Someone tweeted that watching him against Stoke was like watching a fan who had won a competition to play football with his team for half an hour. I thought it was harsh - but actually fairly reasonable.

It's said that Juventus are apparently sniffing around a potential transfer for him and if his performance against Stoke is any kind of indicator as to the level he's going to reach this season, I'd snap their hands off for a deal.

I see Eriksen's agent is being a bit of a dick ..


http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sport/foo...us-target.html

Eriksen is obviously one of our better players, but to me he also goes MIA far too often.

He does. I don't get why he escapes criticism and Chadli doesn't. There isn't any real difference between their respective overall contributions.

I see nothing has changed. I see the same players are getting criticised, and the same ones are escaping criticism.

On the mention of the defence, I had no issue with a Fazio and Jan pairing last season. We were solid defensively and had a great win record with them. Fazio has been made the scapegoat when he was never the problem. I'm yet to see anything from Alderweireld that makes me see why he is rated so highly. He's another Jan at the moment, who flatters to deceive. And I absolutely hate this new wide CB tactic we're employing.


Eriksen's been MIA since the end of January. Chadli, whilst not 100% perfect on Saturday, got a goal, nearly got an assist, had some good play down the left and worked hard when pushed up front. And yet I see is again getting slated for "only scoring goals." I forgot Eriksen was playing in the second half. Aside from a couple of good moments early on, he did nothing.

If you do manage to offload Lamela maybe we could interest you in Juan Cuadrado as a replacement? [/wishful thinking]

Sometimes you just know the game is up and I think that stage has been reached with Walker. Every club will target him over that 5-10m sprint for the through ball, and he cannot win against a Premiership winger. I just don't know how it took so long.