FORMER Manager Watch: Nuno Espírito Santo

[Pekoni]

Too inexperienced squad today and not one of the more experienced players stepping up.

 

[Nick-TopSpursMan]

As good as he was tactically Sunday, he had a mare tonight.

It wasn’t ever going to be a great performance with a disjointed team full of youngsters, rusty players and new signings, but Nuno made it 10 times worse by playing 3 at the back.

3 at the back doesn’t suit us at all and I’ve got no idea why he moved away from the 433 which we’ve been looking really well drilled in.

Playing John out of position was terrible too.

 

[S17PUR]

Poor team selection and the tactics seemed off too, but let's be honest we've seen that game so many times before under countless managers. We've never been able to consistently break down organised defences without Christian Eriksen in the side. If we weren't looking at a creative midfielder before, we ought to be now. I know it's a different team to the one that faced City, but we can't always play on the counter.

 

[spursfan77]

Not going to blame him for picking the team but we should have had some more experience on the pitch in the attacking third. As usual though we can’t rely on the experienced second string. They aren’t good enough. Let down by the usual suspects.

 

[tiger666]

All first team players rested, good experience for a load of our kids, just 1 goal to overturn at our place with a much stronger team. We'll go through without a problem. I see no reason to get in a flap.

 

[Norvern Munkey]

Gollini (no issues)
Doherty (terrible)
CCV (gotta go)
Romero (Keen to see with a better squaf round him)
Davies (needs a new start but wouldnt chase him out the door)
Winks (see doherty)
Lo Celso (bad game and bad choices - didnt appear to want to be a senior player and boss it)
John (see romero)
Sess (see romero)
Gil (cannot wait to see his first PL game)
Scarlett (did all he could)

Add another 3 or 4 seniors to the team and we would have been fine.... wrong seniors on the pitch to lift the kids and bed in the new boys..

Scarlett will learn far more tonight than he would shoehorned into a fairly strong team...

Some positives despite a poor night

Add 3 or 4 decent level signings into that B team and it would be a good mix.
.

Certainly not 100 % doom and gloom from me

 

[Tucker]

Dropped a bollock tonight.

 

[Nerine]

I’ve prepared a graph of fan opinion around this.

 

[Locotoro]

I'll give Nuno credit for taking responsibility for Gil's performance. He specifically said moving him around didn't help him and we still need to find the right place for him.

 

[mil1lion]

I'd like him to stick with 433 for a while. Once everyone is happy and understands their role in the system you can start to change things a bit. At the moment under a new manager everyone needs to be set up one way. I just felt tonight it was difficult enough for players working with each other for the first time without getting used to the system. Doherty, CCV, Winks, John and Scarlett all played 433 in pre-season and I think would have helped to stick with it tonight.

 

[EQP]

It was his 2nd official game in charge and this was the 1st time these group of players have featured in a competitive match. NES is still evaluating the squad, while also trying to get certain players up to speed fitness wise. He's also still working on the tactics and shape of the team. When you take that all into consideration, it allows you to put the loss into context. We still have a 2nd leg next week and if we fail to see any improvement, then we should be a little concerned going into the rest of the season.

 

[DannyNZ]

What is the point of having the first team playing a 4-3-3 structure and the reserve team playing a totally different formation. Call me boring but I’d be wanting my reserves well drilled and familiar with the same structure the first team were playing so the reserves can seamlessly slot in when called upon. Isn’t that the whole point of squad depth and reserves. Could be a signal Nuno May be flexible with his formations but there was zero sign of that through pre season and match 1.

 

[Locotoro]

What is the point of having the first team playing a 4-3-3 structure and the reserve team playing a totally different formation. Call me boring but I’d be wanting my reserves well drilled and familiar with the same structure the first team were playing so the reserves can seamlessly slot in when called upon. Isn’t that the whole point of squad depth and reserves. Could be a signal Nuno May be flexible with his formations but there was zero sign of that through pre season and match 1.

I suspect we started with a 532 because so many of the starting players are more familiar with that. Romero and Sessegnon both played in 532 last season and we know Davies and Doherty are very suited to it. This match may have been all about getting a result with the players available

 

[DannyNZ]

I suspect we started with a 532 because so many of the starting players are more familiar with that. Romero and Sessegnon both played in 532 last season and we know Davies and Doherty are very suited to it. This match may have been all about getting a result with the players available

Bad misjudgement then

 

[Locotoro]

Bad misjudgement then

I think he expected more from the players and yes he misjudged that. But I'm not sure we can say he badly misjudged team selection in his second official match for Spurs.

He's probably only learning what we have seen from our players for a long time. Bar Davies (new players excepted) none of those senior players showed any form of leadership.

We have to take it in the context of the whole tie so let's see what happens next week.

Edited: For more clarity

 

[GutBucket]

Klopp had some shitty performances in his first season, it will take time especially since Jose didn't care about fitness which is crucial. It would be great if he could just win all games like Tuchel from the start but we need to be realistic.

 

[Aphex]

Guy will be thrown under the bus unless we bring more quality in.

I'm over criticising the managers too much (unless they specifically make bad mistakes). Even Klopp would struggle to get this squad competitive.

 

[DannyNZ]

Only if we go out in the next leg...

All good, would have thought a bit of momentum and prolonging the sugar high from beating City would be smarter than a materplan to sacrifice the away leg. Now we will need to spend more precious energy from our starters which is a wafer thin resource To salvage the tie. Much as I want Nuno to succeed I’m sticking with bad misjudgement.

 

[carpediem991]

It is not the worlds end and I kind of like the trust he put in many U23s, but I felt from the off that we could have at least mixed it up a little bit more, especially for the new players to start with a bit of safety on the pitch. Guess just bringing Dier, Bergwijn, Dele and Skipp, who all are not guarantueed starters in the league anyway, would have made a difference.

But well, as long as we do the job in the 2nd leg whatever. Would be a real damn shame if we can not even make the group stages here.

 

[Locotoro]

All good, would have thought a bit of momentum and prolonging the sugar high from beating City would be smarter than a materplan to sacrifice the away leg. Now we will need to spend more precious energy from our starters which is a wafer thin resource To salvage the tie. Much as I want Nuno to succeed I’m sticking with bad misjudgement.

I think he would have preferred that too. I'm more disappointed with Winks, Doherty and GLC than Nuno's choice to play them.