Topic: The Push Square Football (Soccer) Thread

@Kyroki Only if City drop points 'somewhere' in their next 7 fixtures and Liverpool don't. Spurs may well help out as they do have to go to the Etihad and city do have an away trip to Utd too but ANY team in EPL can cause ANY team to drop Points.

As for Yesterday, Liverpool could have been further ahead by half time, maybe even got a goal early in the 2nd half as it was a bit of attack and then defend for both teams. After that Quick Free kick goal, Spurs really did play well. They knew Liverpool would panic, knew they would go out to win - because of being at home and the pressure to keep pace with City - and so defended well, looked to pick any mistakes off and hit LFC on the break. A few times, Spurs attackers outnumbered LFC defenders because of the pressure on LFC to win. LFC had chances to score - like Spurs - until the wrong decision broke the promising situation down. Salah looks almost too desperate to score and not always picking the right choice to play someone else in. Others look desperate to help him and therefore passing to him - not necessary the 'right' decision or the best execution. The last 15mins though, LFC were on the attack with Spurs looking purely for a break-away opportunity. Not saying that they 'deserved' to win with that strategy but in fairness, LFC could have made it more difficult for Spurs to get back in the game with that 1 goal as nothing more than a consolation rather than an equaliser.

Liverpool also didn't help themselves after getting the 'winner' opting to bring on defenders to hold on to that advantage and then giving away silly free kicks to give Spurs opportunities to get the ball into the box - also get more men in front of the ball instead just the 1 or 2 that were in open play.

I will be praying for your team to beat City - not only as that result will help my team, but I would also like to see Spurs finish in the top 4 - certainly ahead of Utd. Spurs can catch LFC but only if LFC lose every match from now on and Spurs win everything. If City win one more game, then Spurs can't catch them. However, when you look at the best of the rest, Spurs, Arsenal, Chelsea and Utd, I want Spurs to finish 3rd ahead of the rest. I would love it if they finished 2nd behind LFC but that is extremely unlikely now. I think Poch, and the team in fairness, deserve to finish 3rd and get into the CL - that new stadium deserves to be hosting matches in the biggest club cup competition in the world. As for 4th, it would have to be any of the other London Clubs - I expect you may disagree - especially if its Arsenal (although you can rejoice at finishing higher). I don't know who you would pick between Chelsea and Utd but for me, and based on the 'current' league standing, U want 3rd, 4th and 5th to be filled by the 3 London clubs in the top 6 with Spurs at the top of the three...

Crazy game at the Etihad.

Absolutely mental. Not sure I've ever seen anything like it.

Well done to Spurs and Liverpool. That Man City v Spurs match sounded cray.

Yes, no more quadruple for the noisy neighbours. Still want them to win the league, though.haha

I was watching the Reds but it was mad hearing what was going on at the Etihad, especially in the first 11 minutes. I switched over at full time just in time to see Sterling's goal and all the VAR drama after it. Absolutely brilliant stuff. Love this beautiful game.

@WanderingBullet innit. glorious stuff.

Anyone.... watching CL tonight?

@Kidfried You need BT Sport to watch it in the UK, which I don't have. If they had something like NOW TV I would happily purchase a day pass or something as it is Barca v Liverpool tonight.

I think Liverpool have a good chance, especially with the return leg at Anfield and we are unbeaten in four games at the Nou Camp.

Tottenham played really badly last night, making Ajax look like World beaters. Trippier looked out of his depth, Alli is a shadow of the player he was a couple of years ago.

Trippier has been pretty poor since the World Cup really. Walker-Peters must be wondering what he has to do to get a game.

Son being back for the next game will be huge for Spurs.

The Liverpool game ought to be good fun but I still won’t see it as I also don’t have BT and I’m not one to go chasing streams etc.

I don't think Tottenham have the Depth of squad. You also have to look at how far they have dropped in the last month or two. Son has basically helped keep them there or thereabouts since Kane has gone but the loss of those has had an impact. The lack of depth is hurting them physically and it didn't look like they were up to the pace and speed that Ajax hit them with at the start of the match. The injury to Vertonghen also looked to have an impact.

Poch is saying he got his tactics wrong and the only thing I think he got wrong was thinking that, being at Home, his team would have most of the possession and be more on the front foot, that Ajax may have set up to be a bit more defensively, that they may not come out of the blocks as fast as they did.

In defence of Alli, he wasn't helped with the players around him. Without the likes of Kane and Son for Alli to pick out and hit the spaces out wide, it nullified his game. The lack of width offered by forward players prevents Alli from driving into the box - firstly because Son/Kane aren't out wide to get crosses in as he gets into the box and secondly because Llorente was occupying the areas he would normally drive into. Without the players like Kane and Son, eyes were obviously on Alli to do everything but the quality around him wasn't there either - not in this game - that would enable him to play 'his' game.

You have to remember, Ajax have knocked out 'world beaters' - they knocked out the reigning Champions in the last round...

@Kyroki You also have to consider that Spurs have been a 'young' team and also bought a new Stadium too. They timed the Stadium build well in my opinion - at a time when you have a competitive and young team so that transfers weren't desperately needed to keep competitive as players aged and pour money into getting a Stadium that will attract players in the years after.

If you look at Liverpool, whilst they didn't quite go as far as tearing down Anfield and rebuilding, they only gave it a refresh and increase capacity, until that was finished, Liverpool's transfer dealings were limited. I know they did 'some' transfer work BUT they also sold too and, actually were in 'profit'. By that I mean that the money they received for sales of players outweighed the money spent. When you consider the money spent by teams like the two Manchester Clubs and Chelsea, they are probably averaging a £100m a season. Until last summer, in the time that Klopp has been Manager, LFC had spent less on transfers than the money they had received for players sold. LFC were in 'profit' and had a 'nett' spend in the minus figures. Like Spurs though, they have developed Anfield and are also developing the training ground.

Point is, they cannot go out and spend £50m+ on a single player whilst spending Millions on building up the grounds and, especially in Spurs' case, having to 'rent' Wembley for most of the season too. Unless spurs are willing to sell their top young talent for mega bucks, they probably didn't have the funds in place to go spending money on players. A good CL run though will bring big revenue, finishing 3rd in the league will bring revenue and, now the stadium is built, they can probably start investing in the team.

I am a LFC fan but I want Spurs to finish 3rd. I always liked them, back in the day. I liked players like Ossie Ardiles, Hoddle and Waddle, Gascoigne etc. I was always a Liverpool fan but I did like watching Spurs too...

Rebuilding the stadium or not, the Spurs still has a way more expensive team than Ajax will ever have. In the last two years Spurs spent 110m on transfers, while Ajax "only" 55m. And if you go further back in time, that gap even widens as Spurs had no spendings on the stadium.

Also, I feel like Vertonghen's injury, even though it was a horrible thing, only helped the Spurs in the end. As soon as they stopped playing 5-3-2 the game improved a lot for them.

Of course, it's hard to say, because clearly Ajax also stopped playing as offensively after the goal anyway.

Can't wait for the upcoming matches.

@JohnnyShoulder I can pay per match, so that's easier.

@Kidfried I can do that with the Premier League and NOW TV with a day, week or monthly pass. Champers League you need BT Sport which is tied to having broadband with BT.

Well, that could have gone better for Liverpool

@Thrillho Tough game. Liverpool deserved a better result. Even the Mo Salah chance at the end could have been invaluable, now I think the job is too difficult. Another year without silverware beckons.

@themcnoisy Yeah, Liverpool had some good chances but didn't convert them. Also, if Dembele had scored that goal at the end I think it would've been game over for Liverpool but at 3-0 they still have a slim chance.

Liverpool needed to be more clinical with their finishing. That has been my main critiscm for this season in the games we haven't won. I did think it was a bit odd not starting with a striker. Not that any that we have are banging them in at the moment.