Sunday - The day of Rest!

Article by e-Spurs Correspondent Steven Meredith

I’m sure somebody somewhere once said Sunday is the day of rest… well maybe it really should be from next season onwards. Tottenham should always be striving for Europe, after all, as great Bill said “if we’re not in Europe…. we’re nothing, we’re nothing” but it seems we can’t cope with the demands of Thursday night football followed by the Sunday afternoon fixture in which we nearly always flatter to deceive, usually in both the performance and result.

Just as the case was on Sunday when we lost against the Gooners – yes generally we were better across the 90 minutes – the possession stats don’t lie (it was the least of the ball they have had against any Premier League opposition since 2009), but to say we deserved a draw at least…to say they ever looked in real trouble…I’m not convinced. If anything, they looked considerably more dangerous on the counter – even for Spurs we looked incredibly susceptible every time they broke in numbers.

Gone in a flash are the days where we used to bombard the opposing goal until we reaped the rewards. Those days weren’t that long ago…it was only a couple of years ago that we used to possess a tremendous home record with the tenacity in which we attacked at. The Lane was a fortress! But now, we are fortunate if we get a shot on target before the half hour mark (and that goes for both home and away matches). Where we used to be relentless, we are now jaded, even appearing clueless at times – I read a very simple tweet the other day that was ‘Easiest position against Spurs = Goalkeeper’ …Bravo to that person because bar one outstanding performance against us by Tim Krul earlier this season, we’ve allowed it to be far too comfortable form them, offering very little in creating real goal-scoring chances.

Being so up against it away at Benfica - what a real shame, as there is always that feeling that this European trophy in particular could and should be within our grasp, but evidently we are just not astute enough to match up to the big teams when it matters. Now I’m definitely not saying we should forfeit the remainder of the season, but take a look at Liverpool this season. Maybe without the lower ranked European competition next season, we could benefit as they have…mind you, to do this, we’d probably need to instil a similar stability to what they have had over the past two seasons – keeping faith in the manager and holding onto the best players (we’re hardly a leading model of key player retention). If we’re lucky and I think we may be, should we secure the right boss early in the summer…we may actually convince our top performers to stay (Give it at least one more year Hugo – you’re a goalie…your career has loads of years left in it yet) so one of those sources of stability could well be achieved.

Sherwood, I was scathing of last time round but let me provide some balance to my argument…his touchline tantrums do little to inspire, however it’s clear he cares, but is it that he cares about the team not performing well or is it that he can’t quite prove his point in his early days of management – almost certainly both and who can blame him. Proving a point – that’s the trouble, it was the same for AVB…trying to establish this novel way of playing and/or trying to find their own identity that successfully filters through to the team. It’s not working for us; we’ve all but lost our identity on the pitch. Who could give us that back…that’s right I’m going to jump on the bandwagon – step up Mr Louis van Gaal. This is a gaffer who knows exactly what he wants from his team and the players historically know what he is trying to get from them too. He has nothing to prove in his style but much to prove in England…his hunger to succeed in the Premier League is clear for everybody to hear – and I for one believe in his already proven hype. I was glad Man Utd progressed last night as they would probably be our closest rivals to secure LVG’s services, though Moyes has still got a way to go before he totally shuts the door on potential replacement candidates.

I can’t see how Tim will be in charge come the summer – that for me is certain. What isn’t certain though is whether Spursday will be renamed Thursday and if Sunday will be our day of rest once more…

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