Slaven Bilic admitted the Tottenham defeat was bitterly hard to take!
We collapsed from the brink of a magnificent victory to a hideous defeat and Slav gave his assessment of the 96 minutes to the official site.
He said: “We are extremely disappointed. We were 2-1 up with three or four minutes to go and [before that] we had three really good opportunities to score the third one.
“When you are up with three minutes to go you want to win the game. Ok, they can equalise, but to concede two goals – one of which a penalty – is hard to take.
“You have to be smart. Son did a good move, our player went down a bit too quickly – well, it turned out to be that way, but he wanted the best of course.
“We were the better side in the first half hour of the game. They started to push after that and we began to lose the ball quite quickly, but then in the second half after they equalised they had momentum.
“We scored and then it was a crucial time to hold on, or to score a third one because we had a couple of really good counter-attacks – not with one or two players, but with four.
“We should have killed the game.”
He added: “It would have been important for us to get something out of the game, because we have a tough schedule, but then again we have shown that we can put really good performances in and we have chances against whoever we play.
“The red card (to Winston Reid) is another blow for us because Winston was really good today – excellent in anticipating the ball when they played through the middle. It was a bit harsh and now we lose him for one game.”
The real reason why we lost, was the fact that Slav panicked after we went 2-1 up.
Instead of sticking to the 3-5-2 formation which worked so well for us in the first half and early part of the 2nd half, Slav decided to change the formation to a bizzare 5-4-1, ‘park the bus’ fortification. In doing so, he created a huge square space for Spurs to create, with Fernandes, Obiang, Payet, andLlanzini stuck in very wide positions with the mid-field ‘four’.
I feel he should have made a few modifications to the existing 3-5-2 formation, which would have 1)reduced the enormous surges by Spurs through the vacant square, and,2) increased the probability of scoring the 3rd goal which would have sealed a win for us.
Still shaking my head, can’t believe it. Why oh why? If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. Should’ve been 3 – 1. Next please. We’re ready. COYI!
We nearly got it right and then Bilic cocked up . He bought on two subs Zaza and Nortvield who totally and utterly useless . The reason we nearly got right was because Bilic had no choice in the matter . Did we miss Noble . Absolutely not . Hope we have seen the last of him clogging up midfield . Our midfielders were fit and quick to cover and were a revelation . Throw abuse at me if you want but Noble should not start again unless we are down to 10 fit players . He is a liability . If Bilic picks him next week he will be out of work by Xmas .
Revised heading reads “Bilic admits I wasn’t smart enough” That is the honesty we got earlier on from Bilic. My how things have changed in 12 months.
Bubbles is right. Two key moments- Zaza delay in passing to Payet for 3-1 and the penalty. Both players sadly not good enough. Agree about Noble too. Bizarre that two key players could have gone last Summer- Obiang and Sakho-does make you wonder about our recruitment strategy.