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Soccer

rewatching the Brighton Spurs game to double-check my contemporaneous thoughts on it. 

1st watch: Spurs were fluent in build up play and playing through the press with ease

2nd watch: Brennan Johnson and Kulu specifically had superb interplay down the right wing on a number of occasions which i conflated to the entire team

1st: spurs pressed Brighton & made them unable to play their game

2nd: some good pressing for the 1st goal, but Brighton deal well with pressure. Starving them of possession is what made Spurs look dominant, pressing Brighton prevents penetration but doesn't generate turnovers

1st: Spurs played well 1st½ then dropped off.

2nd: VDV, Udogie & Bentancur were already below average 1st½. Werner poor end product but good penetrating runs. Kulu and Johnson had excellent performances, Maddison & Porro above average. Solanke pressed well throughout.

Mitoma is unplayable throughout. His balance, dribbling, movement and chance creation is elite and impossible to contain for 90 mins without tactical fouling or doubling or even tripling up on him

Van De Ven is great at defending transitions but can get done easily when stood up against players with low center of gravity and changes of direction.

Romero has serious attention deficit brain farts where he completely loses track of players in the box.

Johnson and Kulu frequently combined to give Kulu possession in the final ⅓ on the byline but no one made near post runs for the cutback. Kulu was always forced to pass across a packed box. Solanke Porro or Maddison should be making themselves available as near post options.

2nd half starts and Solanke is pressing alone. not only are the midfielders not pressing in numbers, they're so far from the Brighton midfielders they're not even onscreen.

Dunk receives in the buildup for the goal. zero pressure on him, clear passing lane to Mitoma and no player even near Mitoma. 

suicidally loose defending, almost team wide (only Solanke gets a pass here)

Van De Ven on the ball, with zero options. no one is dropping deep to give him an option or creating separation from their marker.

in this scenario, Vicario has no options other than a long drive to Maddison through 2 Brighton players with Mitoma close to Maddison and of course he intercepts

more lazy out of possession work. Solanke is pressing alone, while midfielders stick to the center without pressing the GK's options. 
ps:
didn't even realize this was the sequence leading to the goal, the gaps were so obvious it was worth pointing out on it's own

The centerback is allowed to stride up ⅓ of the pitch without pressure and pass to the LB on the flank with a clear passing lane

The LB receives under no pressure and has clear passing lanes to Mitoma

Now there's pressure, but it's Mitoma. The closest defenders are on his weak side, one of them backtracking, so VDV gets pulled in, but doesn't commit to tackling him, just half heartedly tracking.

So Udogie also gets pulled in as well, leaving his RB free.

VDV gets sold a dummy and gets wrong footed, Udogie can't tackle without fouling.

all this comes from lack of pressure on CBs ball carrying, failure to cut passing lanes, failure to mark or pressure ball receivers before they hit full flight.

If you can't press, at least block the passing lanes, if you fail, at least pressure the receiver, if you fail, at least cover the shooting angles.

the players are obstesibly in the right positions to do the right things, but they're not doing them 

2 big flaws our CBs need to work on, Romero overcommitting on duals

3rd goal is a comedy of errors. Udogie is lackadaisical about the ball conceding a throw in.

Gets nutmegged in the next sequence of play to the byline.

Bentacur half asses a block without even stretching a sinew while Romero wonders what to put on his playlist to Argentina.

I'm a fan of Romero when he's focused and aggressive. He sometimes goes overboard but we need a player with that kind of aggression and will to win.

This is not that Romero.

Also, sick of "world cup winning" tag, as if that means anything. 

Hugo Lloris was a World Cup winning captain and that didn't stop people from wanting him to leave. 

Djimi Traoré is a Champions League winner…

Not much to analyze past the 3rd goal, in terms of game state and momentum Spurs are done.

Postecoglou talks about substitutions not changing much & I see his point, but you can't tell me Bissouma for Bentacur wouldn't have helped. 

Sarr would have also provided more energy to cover on the left as a spare man to mark Mitoma.