The numb after the storm

Article by David Levy

I’ve waited till this morning to write my thoughts on Sundays debacle. The all over, body numbing pain started at around 1:30:14 PM on Sunday and my fingers have only just thawed out enough for me to fumble around the keyboard in a despondent manner, trying to make some sense of the horror show we all had to endure.

6-0. Our ‘Goals Against’ total doubled in one fell swoop. Our ‘Goals For’ column stagnant for another week and no real positives to take away from a game in which all Spurs fans hoped to see some kind of resurgence in form after the home defeat against Newcastle 2 weeks ago. What we saw instead was the annihilation of our beloved Spurs team by a Manchester City side who were not even close to being in their top playing gear.

After finding out our starting line-up I was actually filled with a bit of my typical match day cautious optimism. With Lennon, Lamela, Sandro, Kaboul and Lloris all returning to the starting line-up I felt a twinge of excitement about us turning up at last. The loud ‘click’ of our team finally finding their groove would resonate from the North West of England, announcing to the rest of the country that this new Spurs team had finally arrived.

See, I’m a hopeless romantic. Give me a reason to be optimistic and I will grab onto it with both hands, sew it on my sleeve and brandish it for as long as I can. Today I am still wearing a sleeveless top, the scars on my arms showing from where I had just about managed to stop myself hacking off my arms so I would never have to wear sleeves again.

Of course, I have a sense of realism too and deep down I knew what a struggle Sunday was going to be - Man City having scored more goals in their last 2 home games than our total in the Premier League all season. In my mind, a home victory was always the favourite result based on all the evidence and statistics I had around me. Even with our impressive away stats I knew that City’s sparkling home form held a greater threat to us than our defensive form did to them.

Cue Alan Smith uttering the words ‘After Southampton’s result yesterday, Spurs now have the best defensive record in the league’. Hugo immediately passed the ball to Sergio Aguero with an awful clearance. Aguero’s subsequent shot was saved by Lloris but was parried into the path of Jesus Navas who sublimely chipped Lloris. 1-0 down, 14 seconds gone, arms starting to feel a little heavy with the weight of the optimism placed upon them.

4 minutes later we could have equalised. Sandro set Walker off down the right wing. Walkers cross found Lamela at the far post and he hit it first time, not really connecting with it as well as he would have liked, allowing the ball to not entirely threaten the City goal and go out for a corner. A confident Tottenham team, full of energy and belief may have built upon that, and we did try. But for all our effort we never looked dangerous, unlike City who struck fear into me every time they went forward. If it wasn’t for Sandro making a vomit inducing tackle on Nasri they would probably have been 2 up in the first 10 minutes.

A Vertonghen free kick, a Soldado surge forward and shot wide, Lamela nearly twinkle toeing through the City defence all amounting to nothing. It’s almost like we dont believe in the danger we possess, the lack of goals and fluidity a self-perpetuating brain freeze that grows stronger every minute we don’t put the ball in the back of that thing……at either the end of the pitch….. with the 3 connecting white poles and the netting inside it.

When City scored their second, so so annoyingly gifted to them though our inability to clear the ball and our mis shaped defence, i knew it was over. Despite them playing nowhere near their best you could see the confidence brimming in their offensive players and the goals just kept on coming. I can’t even bring myself to recount the rest of them. We had nothing to give. We collapsed in such embarrassing fashion that i was mockingly left alone in the office yesterday, other football fans waiting until today to corner me and remind me of what happened, prolonging the pain.

There is a video floating around the internet that was shot in Man City’s player tunnel during the game and it eventually shows players leaving the pitch at full time and head to the dressing room. Two images from the end of this recording stick firmly in my mind. Michael Dawson looking physically ill from the day’s events and Soldado looking equally distressed, talking to and looking for some sort of comfort from fellow Spaniards Negredo and Navas. That was painful to see and it is imperative that AVB sorts it out in the next 5 days.

There is a crisis of confidence within the team and each minute that goes by without a goal, each chance we miss is an extra weight for the team to carry around their shoulders. We now have 270 odd minutes and -7 goals of burden to somehow try and shake off. These players are good enough to play in any system, they are good enough to contend with any team in this league and they are good enough to win and it is now up to AVB to awake the monster lying dormant inside this pained and wounded Spurs team.

But how?

Rest Paulinho - he is struggling to find his Brazil form at the moment. He looks a little tired following a football packed Summer and could probably do with a recharge.

Sandro and Dembele in the centre of midfield – Sandro got injured last season just as this partnership was starting to blossom. With Sandro sitting deep Dembele will be able to drive the ball forward as he was doing against City. Admittedly they had no need to urgently dispossess him at 5-0 up but he works best when driving from the middle of the pitch.

Continue playing Lamela. His confidence will grow faster than most and he can be the key to the resurgence we are desperately in need of, he certainly has the talent to change this team’s fortune. Try playing him in the number 10 position with Lennon and Townsend on their correct flanks – Spurs were most dangerous in the recent past from using pacey wingers putting crossing into the box.

These are obvious things that have been called for already this season but the time to be bold about them is now. The high line and tight pressing game we play is only working (most of the time) when we don’t have the ball. We need belief to be coursing through our veins and inspiring each player with glory from within. Players need to step up and feed each other’s sense of urgency and passion and AVB needs to find a way to step out of his ‘Coach’ role for just a minute and try making this group of players a proper team. He is still young and inexperienced but time is running out for him to learn how to cope with a crisis. It is part of the job and perhaps he needs to seek some advice from somewhere to learn how to deal with this kind of situation. AVB will benefit from losing the stubbornness and could actually progress himself by coming out of his comfort zone.

We need a big haul of points from a football packed December, without which we will surely fall further and further behind the top pack of teams. If we were to continue in this vein of dropped points I can see some drastic changes being introduced in the new year.

We play Tromso (away) tonight. If this game was at home I would even be tempted to start Soldado. We haven’t really struggled to score in the Cup games and scoring a goal against anyone right now would do him the world of good. Unfortunately the game in Norway is not close and perhaps we may benefit from the team playing this weekend staying behind to work that little bit harder on the training ground and with each other to try and change the collective negativity into something more positive.

Manchester United at home on Sunday is another chance for redemption. We play a United team also suffering a little and with a potentially depleted front line. I want to see us go for the jugular early. I want to see us playing positive football and looking willing to run through brick walls for each other and more importantly, for us. It is time to get our heads up, puff out our chests and to roar like we haven’t done for a while. We are a wounded animal, backed into a corner and all it will take is a moment or two of inspiration to lift this group of players. I want to look back on last weekend as the low point that galvanized us and made us stronger as a unit rather than it become the beginning of the end of this season and possibly this new Spurs era.

I still believe.

COYS

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