MY TAKE ON SPURS LAST TWO MATCHES

i watched three matches one i had already written and posted . spurs played newcastle and lost and barcelona blew away real betis in the second half blitz when they turned up the screw .
spurs played newcastle and this was one of the worst offensive performances by the spurs . newcastle were sitting back with two banks of 4 and hitting spurs on the counter . now the weaker they rely of their discipline,shape and concentration to defend and its the opposition job to find the way past it . generally in such matches the so called weaker teams can some how score a goal so the stronger team in this case spurs needed to find more than a goal . the most disappointing thing about spurs was their offense . on the defense it was very well known as to what newcastle were going to do so spurs had to put a combination together . spurs offense can be best illustrated by the tactical board where on the newcastle are waiting for spurs . newcastle are having two rows of 4's with one of the forward dropping deep to help on defense . 
in the board you can see that spurs attack started 8 to 10 yards beyond newcastle's midfield . it should be more closer . secondly the attack was lacking any creative spark . most importantly spurs were not helping not themselves . their offense can be seen from a long away by the newcastle defense . most importantly the spurs offense didnt had more than two moves . one of the midfielders or the wing backs would try to cross the ball in the box trying to find one of the players in the box . spurs needed to put more than three to four passes together so that they could create that confusion in the newcastle defense and have a real chance to score . spurs didnt a orchestrated offense which is the real problem when you are playing with such team who dont have that great quality and one who rely on their discipline ,organisation and shape and do hard work to preserve the lead when they have one .
spurs played man city and even though the score wont suggest the the lop sided contest it was . man city outplayed spurs but two mistakes and man city dropped points . man city started with their usual 4-2-3-1 formation while spurs started with the same formation .
now as  i had said in my posts that the coach can choose to play the way he feels best suits to his team . spurs were sitting back and playing to play on the counter attack while as always man city was the dominant team in possession as well as trying to control the tempo of the game . what i expect from pochttino was atleast to have some decent game plan and he has some good players in his team but the team just looked like bunch of ameteurs who had been put together and told to play most importantly their game plan both on offense was poor . 
i would like to elaborate on what tim sherwood said at half time during this game . now what tim sherwood said that winks and nNdombele who were playing in the middle were not taking half turn and were just passing the ball side ways and back . they need to take a half turn and pass the ball forward and start playing forward . now here i want to say this how can a player who is under pressure and getting pressed make a half turn and risk lossing the possession and have the chance of coceding the goal because he very near the goal will take that a risk . secondly if you had watched closely then winks wasnt that much of a great pressure but since the offense wasnt that orchestrated he had to find player to pass and that meant he spent time on the ball and slowed the game down . spurs were just not able to keep the ball not man city pressed heavily and nicely but because they lacked a cohesive team which didnt had a orchestrated offense . its always important as to what you do with the ball . when playing  from the back wasnt working they started to go direct . poch changed the shape of the team he sent issoko in the middle while kaine came deep in the no.10 position and lamela and eriksen were sent beyond him . the opposition can read the changes and they would like to stop spurs in the tracks . man city just man marked kane and denied him time and space on the ball . here i was disappointed with poch he should had read that since kane wasnt getting time and space . he should had positioned somebody near him so  that as soon as kane receives the ball he should pass the ball to him and keep the game rolling . instead kane tried to take the ball in stried and got fouled or lost possession . spurs offense was very poor they lacked cohesion most importantly there was no imagination and desire to win and just wanted to hang on .
on the defensive end too spurs were poor first off they played deep which i dont object but as the game went on they became much more compact and offered space for sterling to have a start . any player who has pace needs a start and if he is given that then he is difficult to stop . poch should had realised that . giving him space to run means he could turn any side and could cause problems for the defense because you dont know him as to where he is going . spurs committed  many mistakes in the game and they are lucky to come out of the game with a point .

MY TAKE ON THE LIVERPOOL VS ARSENAL

arsenal played liverpool at anfield . the result was as expected but at  same time i expect a fight and most importantly i expect it to be a close not a  wash out .  arsenal started the game with 4-3-1-2 formation . while liverpool started the game with their usual 4-3-3 formation . arsenal had pepe and abumeyang upfront and they choose to sit back and hit liverpool on the counter . i wont describe the whole but there are some instances in the game which i would love to point out and i think they are very important .
liverpool have their own game plan . but here arsenal sat back and made liverpool the possession team .  arsenal had 4 in the middle . they wanted to play a very compact game and they knew about liverpools passing and players qualities so on defense the game plan was correct . arsenal didnt want to give liverpool any space in the middle of the park . so they had to concede space wide on the flanks . 
first off what liverpool lacked when liverpool had the ball you could see that geundozi had to come on the right side to help out maitland -niles so that he doesnt get overload . now when geundozi would come out wide on right and at times ceballos would come out from the middle chasing the ball in trying to win the possession . klopp should had realised that arsenal would be light in the middle with only xhaka who is not a good game reader and most importantly he should be an organiser which he is not . liverpool should had tried to take advantage of that with firmino . when ball was in the middle sokratis would come out of the back to press firmino but when the ball is near the 18 yard box i dont thing sokratis would come out and press firmino and break that defensive structure . what i was appaled to see was the way henderson just swinging his boot and trying to deliver the ball near the 6 yard box without any proper target in mind . robertson and arnold didnt had a natural opposite player and they had plenty of space to run but apart from robertson arnold didnt tried to take the ball deep or even tried to go deeper . most importantly they tried crossing for which i think arsenal were prepared . most importantly liverpool only could penetrate when firmino started seeing more of the ball and his runs ,movement and passing caused all sort of probelems for liverpool .

arsenal had been disappointing but the way they play most importantly for some of its players . emery choose his tactics which he thought were there to be suitable for his team . he had abumeyang and pepe upfront trying to run behind liverpool's defense . now this is the first step of the offense and once you do this two or three times the opposition starts to expect  it and it starts to take steps to counter it . so this is when you need to change the gear and change the game plan . the threat of that long ball to abumeyang and pepe should be there  . so while keeping that threat you can pass the ball around and develop the play . arsenal just went one dimensional trying to release pepe and abumeyang just as they did in the uefa cup final against chelsea when they tried to play through lacazatte . chelsea kept tab on him and stopped arsenal's attack in the tracks .
arsenal play front two . you need these front two to get them to combine together . if you had seen the starting position of both these players then they are far too apart from each other . i dont understand this . you do this when the players have quality but then again its better to have players combine with each other than trying to do the solo act which has a very low success rate . the most important factor in terms of counter attack is maintaining tempo of the game and most importantly the selection of the pass and players decision making . the main  problem with arsenal is with the selection of personal . on what merit is xhaka commanding his position in the team . his game reading is poor . his distribution is poor most importantly he just doesnt have that game reading in him to play in the midfield . he needs to understand as to when to throw the  long ball    and when to just continue the regular offense . the big problem is with pepe and abumeyang . whenever they recive the ball they tend to just go into one gear and try to take on the entire  opposition . instead they need to taught  as to when they need to go solo and when they need to hold the ball and bring their team into play and wait for support  . i hope he plays torreira who is a very fine player .

MY TAKE ON THE GAME BETWEEN LIVERPOOL VS CHELSEA UEFA SUPER CUP .

liverpool played chelsea in the uefa super cup final . now on sunday chelsea were hammered by man utd and lost . people were questioning lampard's choice of personal . this game would erase some doubts about his approach towards the game and the understanding he has . towards the game . i think he still has some strides to make but the process is in the right direction . the tactics he employed nullified liverpool atleast in the first half and some observation and some improvisations defensively and he can become one of the top managers in the game .
liverpool started the game with their usual 4-3-3 formation while chelsea started the game with the same formation . while chelsea had started with 4-2-3-1 formation against man utd but i think he reverted to 4-3-3 formation so as tribute to sarri because of whom he was playing this game . liverpool approach to the game is very well known they like to play on the counter attack . most importantly what liverpool does better than anybody is that whenever they win the ball in any part of the field they start the counter attack then and there . they have a well oiled machine who know how to counter opposition quick and fast and catch them out of shape . the game started with chelsea sitting back and hitting liverpool on the counter . the first chance of the game came towards liverpool and this was liverpool offense theme in the first half . liverpool have salah and chamberlain out wide . salah saw most of the ball and liverpool tried to have offense starting from salah . chelsea were trying to deny salah time and space on the ball and emerson was coming out to close him down . this was freeing up the space between him and zouma which henderson was taking full advantage of . this where i think frank lampard needs to tweak and ask his midfielders to follow handerson so that he doesnt have time and space on the ball . henderson's cross produced the first real chance of the game . 
there are two good things about chelsea which are with ball and without the ball . chelsea even were playing on the counter wanted to play out of the back and they wanted liverpool to come and press them . i think this was because chelsea had the belief in their game that they can beat liverpool's press and in turn exploit that space behind the back four . while doing this playing out of the back i think kepa's passing will be the most important thing because he should be able to pass the ball from to back in a jiffy and accurately . in this game zouma did redeem himself because he was criticized for his performance in the man utd game  . his passing was superb in this game . his passing is most important because nowadays teams dont allow opposition's midfielders time and space on the ball so defenders should be able to pass the ball . most importantly he needs to make understand emerson that he should allow salah to cut on his strong foot and inside instead show him out and on his weaker foot . these are little things that change the complexity and outcome of the game .
what nobody noticed but what chelsea did very correct with liverpool in the first half is that chelsea pressed the ball as soon as they lost it but didnt over commit which would had been suicidal . now what this little press meant was that liverpool  like start offense as soon as they win the ball but what this little press meant was that liverpool had to pass the ball back to their back four and this allowed chelsea to regroup and slowed the game down . liverpool just could do what they like to do and start a quick counter . 
in the first half chelsea played the ball from side to side trying to find the space and let pulisic and pedro on the ball . i think this is ancelotti's influence on lampard but lampard's game is a bit pacy compared with ancelotti. both pulisic and pedro are good on the ball but the problem lies with giroud . giroud is very good on the ball but he has no pace and because of his team can play that high line and can take their chances on defense . emerson should be taught that  another thing is that the midfieders have to make better read of the game and both kovacic and jorginiho were failing as to read as to what is going to come next and that is very important . the most worrying thing is that of goal who needs to command the back four and right of now kepa hasnt got that . he is circumspect . most important on the set pieces he should be commanding the box and his organisation of the players is tested . lampard needs to get that sorted . i think in the coming few weeks we will see a better chelsea .
liverpool were out played in the first although they created some chances but it was their which was exploited by chelsea . liverpool have their two midfielders high up the field and there is an ample space for the opposition to explore in front of the back four which chelsea did very nicely and that is how they got the first goal in the first half . most importantly liverpool couldnt play the quick counter that they are famous for . in the second half he bought on firminiho and in the first 5 minutes he was able to score but then chelsea were able to slow the game a bit . i watched the game till 90 min and slept .