Thomas Frank quite obviously instructed his team to be very physical against us yesterday. I’ve got no problem with opponents being aggressive but Spurs crossed the line yesterday and we’ve now possibly lost a couple of players for the Wolves game.
There’s nothing I like about Thomas Frank. He whinged about our second goal being a foul but then also complained about physical contact no longer allowed in the game, in reference to the assault on Van Dijk. I don’t think he comes across well when interviewed either.
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Thought they were utter shit, Frank’s not long for this job. Maybe their actions had its intended consequences though I think mentality we shit the bed when we concede. Though the defending of the corner and the ball into the box that led to it was atrocious from several players.
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I’m pretty sure van der Ven went in with the notion to have a piece of him whether he scored or not. That for me is close enough to what Pickford did. Hiding/cushioning it with “it was a desperate lunge” is trying to legitimise it. Too many players get away with this sort of challenge in the box.
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When a team has Romero at the back and the Richarlison up front you have to exert a LOT of energy to stop the team devolving into that sort of performance. Frank is surely asking for more fight than they showed last year, but very much doubt he’s actively encouraging that shouthousery. But when you’ve asked them to show up more and you’re struggling in other areas its probably not something you go out of your way to knock on the head when you see it cross a line or start to be counter productive.
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I watched highlights on MoTD last night. I’m surprised i havent seen much comment here on Betancur taking out Kerkez in the first half - but that probably reflects how many more nasty challenges in the game there were.
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I didn’t have too much of an issue with it. It was hard and would have taken the wind of out Kirkez, but it wasn’t one that ever going to do real damage and he did it in full acceptance the yellow card he was always going to get.
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I personally don’t buy a vast majority of these theories of players going with the intention of injuring other players.
I personally don’t think Pickford wanted to injure Virgil. Ramos on Salah, Ramos on Karius, etc.
There’s a big difference from a lot of them and what for example Keane did to Haaland senior. It’s so obvious what the intention was and he also admitted he wanted to do it.
Sure, there are some super stupid and over aggressive challenges. Pickford’s was that.
And that from vdVen last night, for me it’s not in any of those categories. Intention to injure Isak with that, really?
You can get serious injuries from more subtle contacts and also “get away” with some heavy shit. It’s a fast game, many details can decide what happens.
Pickford and Ramos absolutely went in to “leave one” on Mo and Virg. It’s almost impossible to injure someone with a 100% intention. No matter how hard you hit the opponent could get away/dodge/ride it out.
However, their INTENT was 100% to leave an impression.
If that resulted in an injury, all the better.
The move that Ramos did on Mo, I’ve watched enough of my daughters’ BJJ competition to know that if you did that in a BJJ bout you’d get thrown out immediately for actively trying to hurt an opponent.
And this is a sport that regularly flirts with active limb dislocations as a method of winning via tap out.
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No problem.
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Of all the challenges Spurs put in yesterday, it was the one that I think was the most egregiously late. Absolutely zero attempt to play the ball, and I think he did want to hurt Kerkez. Something very Sunday League about the way he launched into it.
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Right but it’s professional football. Taking one for the team when your team is as exposed as they were in situation is part of the game and doesn’t mean there is any intention or even much risk of harm
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Some of the spurs apology on here is quite surprising. The fact is that Frank is responsible for his team to play in a way that has resulted in several injuries to our boys and spurs did several more challenges where they were at least reckless to injuring our players. He then moans about everything from the game and has demonstrated he’s an awful cunt who deserves to be stuck managing cloggers in a lower division.
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They literally have nothing to complain about and are lucky to not have more issues putting out a team next week.
Let’s face it, it’s quite possible due to their actions we will have more issues than them.
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I think it went a long way beyond taking one for the team. It wasn’t a shirt pull, or grab or little ankle tap, or anything else you’d expect from a profession foul. He flew into him at force, outrageously late. He knew exactly what he was doing.
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Yes that is why it is referred to as taking one for the team
Precisely
Bet they are spitting feathers.
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Not the first, and likely won’t be the last
I wonder if the leaving out the football side was deliberate?
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