BBC highlights video: Too slow from the back again

SPURS 1 MONACO 2

Now things have died down and knee-jerk reaction is out of the way it is good to look at the game again in the light of points people are making.

I have to agree with Pochettino that were content to be passing the ball around without any urgency in the first-half. It was a pedestrian performance, something I constantly highlight with our passing, particularly across the back.

If Vertonghen is going to play the ball to Davies or Alderweireld or Walker it has to be done with speed on the ball. If a player ha to stand and wait for the ball to slowly arrive then the opposition have time to simply shuffle across and then there are limited passing options, so the ball slowly goes the other way.

These guys are professional footballers, they can control a ball hit at harder than a snails pace. That one very simple change give the player receiving the ball potentially more immediate options.We can't move an opposition around and move them into areas they don't want to go if we play slowly.

---