Quote Originally Posted by IBK View Post
You know, given that we are basking in a NLD win this morning, I'm going with you on this - particularly their game plan. Sometimes going down to 10 men isn't as much of an issue as it seems on paper, and in a sense that twat going off with 14 minutes to go was not the issue for Spurs that it might have been if it had happened earlier. It motivated them with a sense of grievance - and produced energy that had been lacking up till then in the knowledge that they could sustain the extra effort. As you say - their game plan was probably to attack late anyway, and - again with the timing - it had a psychological effect on us that it would be easier to preserve the game state - and our performance and concentration levels dropped.

Not ideal from us - but as you say we had a trip to Greece on Thursday and lost a day's training, and Spurs played at home. We are fine tuned to look for mistakes given our recent performances, but I'm not sure that our missteps in this game were anything out of the ordinary for most teams.

Did I mention that I fucking hate Harry Kane?
Trip to Greece, a lost day of training / recovery and, let's face it, there's probably still an element of PTSD to this group of players that's taken root after years of chaotic / non-existent structure and heavy beatings. Any kind of pressure and some of these guys are straight back in the trenches!

We've made strides in this area over the last year - I no longer fear that we'll go from zero to 5-0 down in the space of 15 minutes any more - but there's clearly still some anxiety there that can see us retreat into safety mode until we get our heads straight. Don't really see that changing until the turnover fo players is complete, tbh.